The Weak & Unimagined Undead in Modern RPGs

[skydragon81]

A scary/uncommon undead? Maybe one situation just like the 'two litch in a castle' that there was in NWN1 .... maybe combined with the 'blind god' in BG2.

I try to elaborate a bit:

 

some 'people' worship a new god. No one has seen this god, statues in the temple has many many forms (some scary). Two priests claim to have seen the god. A couple of things happens, 'trivia quiz' between the heroes and these two priest, time to decide which priest to follow and..... here you are, the two priest (they didn't have memory of this) were undead, both of them were under a disguise spell and the god was a shadow, supported by a necromancer (the spell.....)

A similar situation happened at the group that I mastered..... obviously their characters  are all undead now.... guarding the temple (evil laugh). Oh yeah, they had high-level chars, but when you choose poorly, something wrong can happen.... 

 

 

 

By the way.... a good old undead? Let's talk about the Gods of Lankhmar.... 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Sentient fauna; you guys/gals must of seen evil dead 1 and 2 am I right?

Rapist trees or GTFO.

[Lephys]

How about a soul that's somehow manifested itself into a structure/some ruins? Animancy gone wrong... Almost like Alphonse Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist. But, instead of a suit of armor, a site/house/keep/etc.

 

Not a haunted house, but a house that does the haunting.

[Tuckey]

If you watch any horror movie their are some that rely on gore and there are others which try to psych you out and the later are usually the most effective. This is done by changing the audience's perspective on what is going on so the big reveal is more effective. I prefer horrors like 'the shining' and 'the evil dead' series which did gore right. What made the undead so effective in these movies was the cunning of the dead on display who knew your weaknesses and weren't shy on exploiting them. In the shining the dead knew Jack's weakness for alcohol and his unhappiness and exploited it. In the evil dead 1 the dead attempt to trick ash into believing his friends aren't possessed anymore.

 

On that note I liked the resulka in quest for glory 4 who would send you to the bottom of the lake with a kiss exploiting player tendencies. It wasn't possible to kill her in combat. Interesting undead don't always revolve around the combat mechanics, you had to investigate and resolve her problems to get rid of her. Not too many rpgs that I can think of employed a cunning undead, would be nice to see it used more.

[Luridis]

Actually, I wasn't talking about scary from a horror fantasy perspective. Hell, just reading the lauded tale The Willows will do that for me. I would consider games like Alan Wake to fit well into that subject.

 

When I say scary undead, I actually mean that, "Oh sh**, this thing is dangerous!" feeling. I believe creatures stronger than a zombie or ghoul should inspire that feeling. i.e. "Crap, that's a wraith, if we're not careful one of us is going to find himself a dead and dessicated husk on the ground."

 

Edit: BTW: If you haven't read The Willows, I highly recommend it... It's a short story passed out of copyright, so it should be easy enough to find. HP Lovecraft cited it as one of his inspirations. I'm a big fan of non-specific and unexplained powers, phenomena and monsterage. Worst thing an author can do in my mind is come up with some blood-borne symbiotic organism to explain the powers of premonition and telekinesis or use an alien virus as an explanation for vampirism.

Edited January 4, 2014 by Luridis