Exploration in a modern horror setting

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Jan Paparazzi

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Hi, I was thinking it's a bit easier to come up with certain tasks or goals that lead to exploration in a fantasy, space opera, post-apocalyptic or pirate setting than in a city-based modern horror setting. In a fantasy or space opera setting I could easily say "What if you are merchants and you have to transport a shipment of medication to the frontier worlds?" and that could serve as main campaign idea. Player can have their individual goals and motivations, but the group goal is to bring stuff from point A to point B and the location is the frontier worlds. So I got my 'what' and my 'where' and the 'why' is probably different for all players. While they are doing that, they probably run into all kinds of other adventures and all those adventures together form the campaign. Same thing could be said for a mercenary or explorers campaign. As long as you get them on the road you are fine. The traveling is the framework of the campaign.

But that needs a setting where there is a lot to explore and I don't really see that in a modern day city-based horror setting. The lay of the land is well known to everyone. How do people run exploration in these kind of settings? Or do GM's rely on a different framework to base their campaign's on like a more spy oriented or conspiracy vibe? You know with a lot of secret handshakes, hidden signs and signals, meetings with contactpersons, people in raincoats in dark alleys saying "Psssst. Over here." etc. etc. etc.
 
Jan Paparazzi said:
How do people run exploration in these kind of settings? Or do GM's rely on a different framework to base their campaign's on like a more spy oriented or conspiracy vibe?
Different framework, yes. I think you answered your own question. In my experience, modern urban games tend to be more about the exploration of politics and intrigue beween factions than geographic exploration of the land (though that could also happen here and there). Kult, Vampire, Shadowrun, etc. all work like this.

I'm prepping for a Delta Green campaign based on some Arizona small town, and I'll probably use a mix of the two - factional intrigue in town, and eventual incursions to weird sites on the desert outside. The Americans inside, Bone Tomahawk outside. Or somthing like that.
 
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Well, one thing you might do is adjust the scope of the exploration. The lay of the land, as you say, may be known to everyone in a general sense, but there's undoubtedly unofficial constructions, abandoned buildings, and other odd corners that may be known by few or none. Urban Exploration is a thing even in our world, after all, and in an urban horror universe there's probably twice as much of that sort of thing.

Horn Self-tooting: Here's a bit from my blog about a news article that inspired some similar musings a few years back.
 
Exploration in a more modern context is often more about human geography, about who is where and why, than what is there. Certainly you can explore the corners of the urban jungle, but that's not going to fill the same niche as exploration does in other games.
 
The map is not the territory.

As Simon Hogwood Simon Hogwood notes, a street map or a simple gazetteer like a tourist guide offers broad brush expectations at best. I can bring up my street on Google Map and I can tell you something about our next-door neighbors, and their next-door neighbors, but three doors down in either direction is for all intents and purposes Terra Incognita - I can't tell you any more about who lives there than you could learn from Google Street View. Even more technical maps, like a topographic map, require interpretation; as a park ranger I routinely encountered people with topo maps and a GPS receiver who were hopelessly lost - they couldn't interpret the map to understand how to identify a peak from its contours, or they expected clear flat ground and discovered a glacial boulder-field or a marshy meadow instead.

As Fenris-77 Fenris-77 notes, urban exploration can also be more social than physical - I analogize this kind of exploration as a social dungeon or social megadungeon.

Again, the map is not the territory, and the unknown is everywhere.
 
Shopping Quest

The party are in the shopping district of a major city they during the post-Christmas sales (Black Friday or Summer Sale also possible). Explore each block to discover which shops are there to investigate! Roll on the Treasure table in each shop to find bargains, bargains, bargain! Roll on the random encounter table and find out what your rival bargain hunters are up to! For 30% more dungeon feel, set this in a mega-mall.
 
More to the point, I'd say "other framework". Most of my games don't involve exploration. Players decide what to do based their goals. If that involves going to the police precinct or meeting a contact at the aquarium, the next scene starts and the precinct or aquarium. No one cares where in the city these sites are located, whether we got there by taxi, bus or subway, Nor do you really need to establish in advance whether there is an acquarium or not in this city.

I've heard people describe interacting with different NPCs to progress events as a form of exploration. I never found that analogy that useful, though I can see how it might work for some.
 
Very simple. I reject the premise. :thumbsup:

Having traveled enough to different cities, pre- and post- GPS (and other satellite systems), everyone does not know where everything is in a city even if they say they do. Further people tend to know their slice of an area best and less well others. Further still *every building* is a hidden dungeon, often comprising many floors, with many interconnections (often underground, sometimes surreptitiously) to others.

My partying days pre- and post- GPS and ubiquitous smart phones has shown me there is so much more to find if you really pay attention. :wink::music: A city is a megadungeon with unexpected Faraday Shields, baby!

(edit: scooped by Black Vulmea and more succinctly!)
 
I think you could easily do exploration of a haunted house, or even a dungeon crawl like in the Descent. For exploration, zombie apocalypse works well (walking dead almost feels like a D&D campaign because the world is so changed). I think horror movies set in the wilderness can work too for exploration (something like Anaconda for example). You can also cheat by opening up other world Hellraiser style. Also I think you can explore a modern city, it might just be easier if it is one the characters haven't been too. But if you've ever been lost in a big city, there is tons to explore (and if you have groups and organizations with shops as fronts and stuff, it can work). An investigation in a modern city can feel pretty exploratory. But cities are filled with all kinds of mystery, threats, and events you can amplify for game purposes. Next time you are in a city, just look down a sketchy street or two and imagine what could be beyond some of those bright neon signs. I think where cities get tricky is less about the exploration, and more about the movement of characters (we tend to talk about cities not in terms of hexes but in terms of taking the T to Government Center. Like other posters have said, people may be able to look at a map and get broad strokes of the area, and locals may have a general idea of what's there, but living 20 minutes north of Boston myself, whenever I go into the city, even places I have been to regularly, there is quite a sense of exploration because there is always something new, and I am usually only really familiar with one or two streets, and venturing beyond them on foot would be discovering new places for me. Maybe someone who lives and breathes the city every day would have a different experience. I think where you might also have difficulty is the horror aspect. Some horror adventures don't lend themselves well to exploration and others do. The descent mentioned above, works great. Friday the 13th, might be harder, because you are mostly running away (and any exploration is just a byproduct of trying to avoid being killed). Horror thrillers, mysteries, etc can work. A monster hunt can work too for exploration. Ghost Busters had a lot of moments that felt like exploration to me.
 
Hi, I was thinking it's a bit easier to come up with certain tasks or goals that lead to exploration in a fantasy, space opera, post-apocalyptic or pirate setting than in a city-based modern horror setting.

Modern Horror is more difficult, but I'm not sure you are fairly comparing like with like. Even if you take 'modern' out of the equation, comparing an 'Any Era' city based horror setting to a fantasy or space opera setting is problematic. In most settings, you are exploring or traveling through swathes of unexplored territory - wilderness, ruined cities, oceans, space etc. In those style of setting, there often is no one around to get in the way of many of the crazy things adventurers might typically want to do.

In a city the park ranger is going to be upset if you fell some trees to bridge the river, or the police are going to get upset when you set up a camp on a traffic island. Of course, if you are in a city, you probably don't want or need to do that.

Maybe you should look at any city as a dungeon where the streets are passages, the buildings the dungeon rooms. Unfortunately the dungeon is heavily populated with people with vigilant tech and the monsters are hiding among them or close by where they can hunt but otherwise stay out of sight. As is often the case, the people themselves often turn out to be real monsters.

One of the reasons I find modern horror more difficult to write is because I live in the modern age and my brain wants escapism from it. Give me a few hours and I can come up with a dozen concepts for a fantasy setting. Modern and Horror are also often two different things, which maybe doesn't help when coming up with coherent ideas.

Having said that, I have done a bit on modern horror settings and once you get into the right frame of mind it surprising the amount of cool locations in and around cities or even further afield that can be used for modern horror.
 
So, for my Call of Cthulhu ongoing sandbox, situated in Britain in the early 20th century, this book has been a huge boon and inspiration:

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Compiled by Reader's Digest in the 70s, it covers every square inch of the British Isles with every folk legend, ghost, apparation, faerie, monster, and supernatural occurance, as a sort of occult travel guide/gazeteer. Additionally it has longer encyclopedia-like articles on various specific subjects

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So basically there's no end to mysteries the players have to engage with or solve, at their discretion.
 
So, for my Call of Cthulhu ongoing sandbox, situated in Britain in the early 20th century, this book has been a huge boon and inspiration:

View attachment 25267

Compiled by Reader's Digest in the 70s, it covers every square inch of the British Isles with every folk legend, ghost, apparation, faerie, monster, and supernatural occurance, as a sort of occult travel guide/gazeteer. Additionally it has longer encyclopedia-like articles on various specific subjects

View attachment 25268

View attachment 25269

View attachment 25270

View attachment 25271

View attachment 25272

So basically there's no end to mysteries the players have to engage with or solve, at their discretion.

That's an absolutely beautiful book!
 
I am currently running a modern urban horror campaign that hinges on exploration. The key idea is that beneath the familiar city streets is an entire "undercity" with its own geography, cultures, and ecosystem. The undercity is a somewhat secret world, steeped in madness and dark magic. Players have to explore the undercity in order to accomplish their objectives. This exploration includes literally walking through miles of dark tunnel complexes as well as the more abstract exploration of the culture and politics of the undercity's inhabitants. The rule set I'm using is Esoteric Enterprises, but I'm sure other systems could be adapted to the same concept.
 
I am currently running a modern urban horror campaign that hinges on exploration. The key idea is that beneath the familiar city streets is an entire "undercity" with its own geography, cultures, and ecosystem. The undercity is a somewhat secret world, steeped in madness and dark magic. Players have to explore the undercity in order to accomplish their objectives. This exploration includes literally walking through miles of dark tunnel complexes as well as the more abstract exploration of the culture and politics of the undercity's inhabitants. The rule set I'm using is Esoteric Enterprises, but I'm sure other systems could be adapted to the same concept.

How have you found Esoteric Enterprises? I'd love to play it but not sure how much my group would be interested.
 
Having recently been to a hospital and gotten lost quite easily, I think it's an illuminating example of exploration in urban areas.

Sure it was just a campus with a few main public buildings, security at every entrance (especially vigilant to provide masks and ask where you are going in this age of Covid-19), restricted locations throughout, and good signage everywhere... And yet the parking garage was the most simple thing about the place! :crossed: Anywhere between 8 to 11 floors of orderly laid out square footage in the interconnected two main buildings became a dungeon. There some hallways would be cordoned off due to Covid-19 restrictions, detours everywhere due to adjusting for needed space, basement levels and certain areas inaccessible to my mobile data... and constant random encounters! (If you smile enough most of them go away. :wink:)

:cry: It was confusing and scary and not once did I find a magic item! :weep:

(And it's even scarier when the parking garage is full and you have to drive around like reef sharks to find a space! :beat:)
 
My favorite trope for Urban Horror is when reality starts to break down. You take 4 right turns and end up somewhere other than where you started. The alleys and back streets begin to shift and become mazes. The abandoned building is a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside. I feel Kult does a great job of giving examples of this, especially with the section on the Underworld, twisitng mazes of ever shifiting sewers and utility tunnels.
 
How have you found Esoteric Enterprises? I'd love to play it but not sure how much my group would be interested.
I like it a lot. The most recent review on Drivethru is mine. My group is enjoying it but they do struggle with the abstracted economy. At low levels it can be difficult to buy anything at all. Characters tend to be destitute and desperate for quite a while, despite the valuable treasures they often find.

As for whether your group would be interested, it depends on how they feel about the two things that set EE apart from other urban horror games: (1) EE is heavily focused on dungeon crawling. You could do all sorts of other things with it, but the game only gives you tools to support the dungeon crawl experience. Anything else would depend on your time and creativity. (2) While most horror games position the player characters to be investigators fighting against evil, EE does not. The setting assumes your characters are mercenaries, operating in their own self-interest, even if it means delivering dangerously evil knowledge and relics into the wrong hands for a profit.
 
My favorite trope for Urban Horror is when reality starts to break down. You take 4 right turns and end up somewhere other than where you started. The alleys and back streets begin to shift and become mazes. The abandoned building is a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside. I feel Kult does a great job of giving examples of this, especially with the section on the Underworld, twisitng mazes of ever shifiting sewers and utility tunnels.

Their god/spirit/demon of the City is crazy evocative.
 
My favorite trope for Urban Horror is when reality starts to break down. You take 4 right turns and end up somewhere other than where you started. The alleys and back streets begin to shift and become mazes. The abandoned building is a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside. I feel Kult does a great job of giving examples of this, especially with the section on the Underworld, twisitng mazes of ever shifiting sewers and utility tunnels.
Any game that uses this effectively? Like say, if your mental stability score drops under a certain threshold the GM can say you're facing 6 enemies but only half are real and you don't know which ones, or something?
 
Different framework, yes. I think you answered your own question. In my experience, modern urban games tend to be more about the exploration of politics and intrigue beween factions than geographic exploration of the land (though that could also happen here and there). Kult, Vampire, Shadowrun, etc. all work like this.
Those, were exactly the type of games I am referring to.
I am going to let it all sink in, because there are so many helpful reactions in this topic. I see suggestions about exploring human networks/politics, exploring buildings, exploring myths, exploring the underground and exploring when reality breaks down.
 
As Fenris-77 Fenris-77 notes, urban exploration can also be more social than physical - I analogize this kind of exploration as a social dungeon or social megadungeon.
Rereading this thread again and I read the articles on the social dungeon and megadungeon, but this is all very familiar to me. It's just like WoD settings. Funny, because I wouldn't expect that from a swashbuckler setting.
 
Modern Horror is more difficult, but I'm not sure you are fairly comparing like with like. Even if you take 'modern' out of the equation, comparing an 'Any Era' city based horror setting to a fantasy or space opera setting is problematic. In most settings, you are exploring or traveling through swathes of unexplored territory - wilderness, ruined cities, oceans, space etc. In those style of setting, there often is no one around to get in the way of many of the crazy things adventurers might typically want to do.

In a city the park ranger is going to be upset if you fell some trees to bridge the river, or the police are going to get upset when you set up a camp on a traffic island. Of course, if you are in a city, you probably don't want or need to do that.

Maybe you should look at any city as a dungeon where the streets are passages, the buildings the dungeon rooms. Unfortunately the dungeon is heavily populated with people with vigilant tech and the monsters are hiding among them or close by where they can hunt but otherwise stay out of sight. As is often the case, the people themselves often turn out to be real monsters.
I think this is the biggest problem I have. It's not that it's modern. It's not that it's horror. I could probably do well with a modern day adventure type of rpg and I would probably do well with a zombie apocalypse horror setting. It's the 'any era' city based setting that is giving me troubles. You don't have swathes of unexplored territory and you don't have hordes of hostile npc's, but most of them are regular people with the monsters hiding among them.

I think I will have to solve this with focusing mostly on exploring the myths and legends and conspiracies in the setting and exploring the weird reality breaking geography.
 
Rereading this thread again and I read the articles on the social dungeon and megadungeon, but this is all very familiar to me. It's just like WoD settings.
I never played a World of Darkness game, so I suppose we're even.

Funny, because I wouldn't expect that from a swashbuckler setting.
Given my unfamiliarity, what is it about the WoD approach which seems like an odd fit for cape-and-sword games?
 
You can, in a way, completely swap a social group with a dungeon or wilderness setting and 'explore' them in much the same way. Let say that the PCs hear a rumour about Vampires active in the theatre district, amongst the actors and roustabouts, who are preying on patrons. Instead of a mountain range, or a sewer system, you now have the group 'actors and stagehands'. So the PCs can set about 'exploring' - figuring out what theaters there are, collecting rumours about Vampire attacks, getting to know some of the NPCs. This will involve going to theatres, of course, going to the bars they frequent, etc etc, but also a lot of NPC interaction and information collection. The PCs are now knocking about the Vampire's wheelhouse, so the idea of 'random encounters' is still very much in play. If you poke around long enough they are going to notice, at which point drama will ensue.

The PCs 'explore' by building a web of people they know and information they find out. Think of these like stands in a web, the more strands they pluck, the more likely they are to figure out where the spider is because the spider will react. One option is that direct action is taken against the PCs. However, the web of NPCs also means that should another attack take place, the PCs might very well know that person, and who that person knows, so they now have some hand holds to start a more focused investigation. Once they manage to whittle down possible locations and whatnot you can switch back to actual physical exploration when the PCs decide to explore the ruined opera house looking for the Vampire nest (or whatever).
 
So, for my Call of Cthulhu ongoing sandbox, situated in Britain in the early 20th century, this book has been a huge boon and inspiration:

View attachment 25267

Compiled by Reader's Digest in the 70s, it covers every square inch of the British Isles with every folk legend, ghost, apparation, faerie, monster, and supernatural occurance, as a sort of occult travel guide/gazeteer. Additionally it has longer encyclopedia-like articles on various specific subjects

View attachment 25268

View attachment 25269

View attachment 25270

View attachment 25271

View attachment 25272

So basically there's no end to mysteries the players have to engage with or solve, at their discretion.
As ana aside, I wish copies of this book didn't go for insane prices on the internet. It would be an amazing resource for a LotFP game.
 
As ana aside, I wish copies of this book didn't go for insane prices on the internet. It would be an amazing resource for a LotFP game.


Do they? I piced it up for $10 at as a used bookstore.

Sometimes with these sorts of things, after Amazon and Ebay, I check Abebooks and Powells and find them at reasonable prices.
 
Do they? I piced it up for $10 at as a used bookstore.

Sometimes with these sorts of things, after Amazon and Ebay, I check Abebooks and Powells and find them at reasonable prices.
The best price I've seen it for is around $70 (a bit cheaper in the UK, but that doesn't do me any good). Beyond that it apparently goes from $140 to $180 here in the states.
 
The best price I've seen it for is around $70 (a bit cheaper in the UK, but that doesn't do me any good). Beyond that it apparently goes from $140 to $180 here in the states.


I mean, it's almost worth it at that price, if you compare it to a set of encyclopedias, but it makes me sad at the same time
 
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Why not a wainscott world to explore?

A world of paranormal associated people and beings hidden in the cracks. You could do it sort of like Dracula Dossier - hand out a notebook the players find with a series of addresses collected by a prior investigator and some hand scrawled notes.

32/5 Ashbury Lane. Ronald Smith, Believed to be a necromancer - police records show arrested twice for despoiling graveyards. Known associate of X,Y and Z (names from other entries).

72-84 Smith Street. The Hoodoo Voodoo bar. Several informants have reported that the back room of this establishment in a meeting place for various occult individuals.

100-160 Wharf road. Warehouse district. Rumours of occult activity in this area - possibly one of the warehouses. A police informant reported tracking Heston Myers (See entry) to this district before losing him down an alley. The informant himself subsequently disappeared.
 
One of my most successful D&D campaigns was set in the Dresdenverse (the worlds laid out in Jim Butchers Harry Dresden books). It made for a good mixture of investigation, horror and fantasy kicking of bottoms. I found a detective type structure of roleplaying with contacts to find the big bad, and then confronting it worked well.

Modern horror/fantasy is one of my favourite genres - I like the Dresdenverse because it has a fairly kitchen sink approach, and an official 'masquerade'.
 
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