Camp Crimson Lake - 1980s style slasher game

[RedEve]

This game is meant as an homage to the 1980s slasher films. There are too many to list here, but a common trope among many of them were a bunch of young people gathering at a remote location where they are picked off one by one by an initially unseen killer.

I would like to create a game that pays homage to that genre of films. This will be heavily inspired by the "Friday the 13th" series, but we will not truly be tied to any of the canon within that game. Likewise, our killer will be neither Pamela Voorhees or her son Jason.

Basically my idea is for the game to fall apart in two sections.
The first part is the familiar setting of a scene where the youngsters arrive at the camp site, hang out together, party, perhaps some of them even hook up.
During this phase, the killer will not make an appearance, but he will be observing his soon-to-be victims from afar.
The second phase of the game will begin once he has made his first victim.
I want to take my time with the first half of the game, so that everyone has the chance to have some fun.
The killer will be controlled by the GM. All of the PCs are thus the camp counselors who are at the camp site a fortnight prior to the arrival of the campers, so they can get the camp ready to receive the kids.
Naturally, the massacre will occur before the fortnight is over.

In terms of the second half of the game, here is how it will work.
The players will be informed of the fact that this latter half kicks off, which means that from that point onward, everyone's player character can die.
Now, the order in which this happens will be decided by two things: dice rolls and IC behavior.
High risk behavior will only require a low roll to invoke an attack. So if your character say, walks back to his or her cabin late at night by themselves, I will only require a low roll for this to lead to an attack.
Conversely, if your character is safely among half a dozen other camp counselors around the fireplace in the main cabin, the required roll for an attack will be very high.
But there will be a reward for high-risk behavior that is survived: a failed roll during high risk behavior will put your character at the very end of the line for potential attacks for the next round.

So we will not exactly be following slasher movie tropes in terms of determining the order in which the player characters perish. Our final girl might not be the wholesome smart one, but the ditzy slutty one. Or our final girl might be a final guy.

I have no set amount of players for this in mind, but I would prefer 6-8 to start this game and I would probably want to cap it at 10 maximum. I also would very much like this to be even among gender lines, though I would accept a slight mismatch in that department.

In terms of character archetypes, there are too many to list, but anyone who has ever seen a slasher flick will know them:

• The final girl: usually but not always somewhat reserved, smart, occasionally the first one to notice something is awry
• The jerky jock: He is physically fit but his behavior sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. Often times meets his end due to his own arrogance.
• The ditzy slut: A fun-loving girl who is there to party. In spite of her free-spiritedness sexually, she can often be very naive in other contexts.
• The male intellectual: Sometimes the oldest member of the group, he is the annoying sensible one. Occasionally but not always the love interest of the final girl.
• The male horndog: Often times a hanger on of the jerky jock, he is a young male whose boasts of his sexual prowess stand in sharp contrast to how women actually perceive him. Occasionally his death is used as comic relief

This is not an exhaustive list, just about any character type can fit into this game.

I will compile a proper character sheet once I get some interest in this idea. So please leave a message in this topic if you feel like participating in this game!

I will leave you with a few images meant as a vision board.

Character sheet template:

Code Select Expand

[float=right][img width=400 padding=15][/img][/float]
[size=14pt][b][font=georgia]Insert character name here[/font][/b][/size]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Archetype:[/b] (You can be as descriptive as you like here but the aim is to give the other players some idea of the kind of character you'll be playing)
[b]Background:[/b] (This is a short bio in which you can include as much as you'd like but at the very least you should mention how exactly your character came to be a camp counselor at Camp Crimson Lake)

Sample character (this will be my IC character):

Alison Miller

Alison Miller
Age: 20
Archetype:  The slutty party girl
Background: Alison was always much better at having fun than at doing well academically. The only reason she even tried to keep her grades up in high school had been to avoid being kicked off the cheerleading squad for failing academically. Likewise, her college career so far has been a combination of ever declining GPA, failed courses and a schedule that is skewed more to partying than actually earning herself a degree. This stands in sharp contrast with her two siblings. Her older brother is now in law school and thriving. Her younger sister is on the honor roll in high school and shines in countless extra-curricular activities. It is thus only the middle child of the three Miller siblings that is causing her parents any real headaches. Her mother and father have chosen to put their foot down and have insisted that Alison finds a Summer job, any job, so she can actually do something other than just waste her time and money all Summer long. Wanting to avoid a McJob at all costs, Alison had found an ad that asked for camp counselors and had lied on her application that she had experience as both a former camper and a counselor. Not that she had any idea if her lack of experience would have mattered. The pay wasn’t great, but she imagined that she would be able to do the bare minimum and still spend the Summer partying and working on her tan near the lake shore.

Approved characters (apart from the one already listed above):

Reese Williams played by Darkwhysper

Reese Williams                       
Age:21
Archetype: Red Herring
Background: : Reese grew up around Crimson Lake, with his father teaching him how to handle himself in the woods at an early age, telling his son all kinds of ghost stories about the Lake and the Indians that used to live there. This gave Reese an unusual fondness for monster and slasher movies, and he eventually had quite a collection of magazines, models, and masks,which always marked him as the outsider among most of the groups where he went to school. When he was just twelve, his father put together a hunting trip to the far side of the lake. Reese had been incredibly excited for the trip, but had come down with the flu. His father went anyway, only to never return and become part of the lore of Crimson Lake. Did he run off on Reese's mother? Did he get drunk and drown in the lake? Or was there some other reason for his disappearance?

Reese loved his father, and his sudden disappearance only served to make him even more introverted, as the other townspeople would always point and whisper as he went by. As the years wore on, he began to spend more and more time alone...in the woods and with his hobbies. Finally, his mother...afraid for the poor boy's sanity, got him a job as a counselor at the camp that stands in the very location where his father disappeared...

Reese tends to be shy and awkward around people, more because he really hasn't interacted with them. He's been something of an outcast around town, and this is one of the few social settings that he's been thrown into. He will mostly tend to hand in the background of most gatherings unless someone goes out of their way to befriend him...preferring to chop wood and make general repairs on the camp most of the time.

Drew Disnik played by Swashbuckler

Drew Disnik
Age: 19

Archetype: super-nerd

Background: Reggie is at best what you would call a career nerd.  Having discovered the joys of Dungeons and Dragons, obscure comic books, video games and collectible figures early on in childhood, he has successfully avoided the joys of sports, friends and specifically girlfriends all through highschool and now through his first year of college. 

Having carried the utterly unoriginal taunt 'Dick-Lick' right into State College where unfortunately some of the jocks from high school went as well, he has been able to avoid socialization (despite any thoughts he might have to the contrary), and concentrate on his Physics major.  Unfortunately, his parents have roped him into a Counselor position at Camp Crimson Lake in an effort to get him friends, and if nothing else, fresh air.

That was his mom of course.  A housewife, she had found less and less to do with her kids life since her oldest was now in college, and her daughter was in her second year of high school and unlike her older brother Drew, quite popular.  It was another point of disconnect between Drew and Abigail.  The youngest Disnick never got made fun of, and understand very well why her nerdy brother had struggled, just as he couldn't understand why she didnt.  Of course, the way she dressed probably helped, but the one time he has mentioned that it had caused an epic family fight, and so had never come up again.

At least his Father had been on his side.  An midlevel manager at the local smelting plant, hebhad enough blue collar background to know to keep his eye on his increasingly wild going daughter, and enough smarts to know that his son was not going to find it an easier for a while.  Although Drew had seen it as a bit of a betrayal, his Father had agreed that he should give the Counselor job a try.  Drew would never meet people, especially girls, if left to his own devices.

Sheena Kennedy played by RedPhoenix

Sheena Kennedy
Age: 18
Archetype: Rebel Girl
Background: Sheena is all about disrespecting authority, dancing all night long, and living free. She has always gone against the grain, been the 'one to keep an eye on' and gotten in trouble, often when other kids wouldn't have, just because of who she is. She loves shocking people and living for the moment.

Sheena is from a fairly dull lower class family somewhere close to the tracks. Not on the right or the wrong side. Just sort of near them. Her father is a factory worker, her mother is a housewife. To say Sheena doesn't get along with her parents is an understatement. She's run away from home constantly and spent several nights in jail.

She's rather smart, not that she ever shows it, and her grades got her a scholarship to the local college. Seeing it as the only way out of her boring suburban life, she jumped on it. One of the catches though, was based on her juvenile record she has to do community service. She figured working as a camp counselor wouldn't be so bad? The school agreed, assuming that someone like her as a counselor give the kids who thought they were rebels a role model, and someone they might actually listen to. It'll be easy enough, right?

Jessica Jenkins played by Mellific

Jessica Jenkins

Age: 18

Archetype: Smarty-Pants, Goody-Two-Shoes, Awkward Wallflower, Perpetual Virgin 

Background: High school was a fairly simple endeavor for Jessica. At least, the academic portion was. Everything else was, well, a mixed bag. As far as completing homework, studying for tests and earning stellar grades were concerned, Jessica had it all figured out. With the exception of gym class, due to coordination impairment (self-diagnosed). Yet, when it came to fitting in and finding a place wherein she belonged, Jessica couldn't have felt more out of place.

Her grades were always impressive, as they should have been, considering her painfully lacking social life kept her inside most nights, while others were out excessively partying and frivolously experimenting. Throughout all four years of high school, she belonged to no social group and only maintained friendships with two girls, who happened to live on the same block as her, since childhood. She was not a prep, nor a brain, nor a skater, nor an outcast, nor a stoner and definitely not a jock.

Although cliques were exclusive and restrictive, Jessica couldn't help envying those who belonged to a specific niche group. It certainly was better than having to find a largely empty table in the cafeteria to occupy during lunch time. It would have meant getting invited to parties, which she assumed would have made her social interactions and experiences in high school, far more enjoyable rather than the lame reality she faced.

From a young age, Jessica decided that she wanted to become a teacher and work with children, taking inspiration from several teachers she interacted with during her time in school. Her father, a college professor at the local University, urged her to get involved with a program which would provide her with the opportunity to socialize, which guided her toward the decision to become a camp counselor at Camp Crimson Lake. She wanted to follow in her father's footsteps to a large degree, which helped sway her decision, despite the cumbersome endeavor that it was bound to be. Although her mother was no longer around to shed a bit of light on the situation, Jessica hoped that she was making the right choice.

Lori Mitchell played by Rachubka

Lori Mitchell
Age: 18
Archetype: Career Camper & Counselor [CCC]
Background: Lori always had a knack for the outdoors and took well to passing on that passion to others. She had always gone to summer camps when she was younger and since coming of age has been a counselor.

Outdoorsy fun is always the number one priority of a Summer camp, as a counselor or a camper, and Lori has fully embraced that methodology in the purest sense. Canoe trips over tanning, camp fire ghost stories over gossip, cheesy friendship bracelet making over latest fashion trends. Among the other counselors, Lori has developed the reputation as being a little too into the summer camp business and has since toned down her enthusiasm about it when only with the 'bigger kids'.

The blonde has a particular emotional connection with Camp Crimson Lake as it was the site of a number of firsts for her. She was taught about the intricacies of her body by the fire. The first kiss was on the pier. Her first kiss with a girl was through a dare by candlelight in a cabin. Her first was a very forgettable night in a hay pile by the range. Her firsts were by no means her onlys at Camp Crimson Lake, however, she doesn't actively seek it like some of the others. This will probably be her last year as a counselor before she heads off to bigger and brighter things like college and the big cities. Making the most of this Summer is a personal vow.

Eddy Diaz played by Rekhaiyer

Eddy Diaz
Age: 28
Archetype: Rogue/Leader
Background: Fate didn't allow Ed the luxury of innocence while growing up. Being the eldest sibling in a home that saw more men come and leave than a Vegas brothel meant that he always had to be the man of the house who looked after his two sisters' best interests. Even after staying up late at night staring emptily up at the ceiling of his trailer as men did what men do, he never complained. Although he resented and despised his crack whore of a mother without feeling even a little bit of guilt, he guided his younger siblings by protecting them as best as he could and was relieved when they got far away from the wretched place they all called home when they finished school.

Growing up in a little town called Pineford so close to the camp at Dunwater meant that there wasn’t much to do for the people in and around the area during downtime. So, most people chose to getaway to the closest city during the weekends or just stay home when things were tight. However, if you were ambitious enough and opportunistic, there was money to be made if you knew a lot about the woods close to the camp or even the hills a few miles away.

Ed knew a few ideal spots where conditions were good for mushrooms to thrive and made a significant profit selling them during his early twenties, which was enough for him to get his own cabin a few hundred meters away from the camp. Then, when he turned twenty-two, he decided to move on and put himself through college, before returning home with an useless diploma in Forestry. Since then, he has done odd jobs and has continued to sell his usual product on the side while also volunteering as a guide around the woods for tourists.

He also spoke to the people who ran the camp for a permanent position as a trekking guide and they had agreed to hire him on a trial basis.

Thad Castle played by vin26m

"Thad" Castle
Age: 20
Archetype: Jerky Jock, Horndog, Party Guy
Background:

Thad is the starting linebacker and team captain for his college football team.

Despite his status as a two-time All-American and the team record holder for most tackles in a game (a game which he was subsequently ejected from for calling referees "butt faces"), Thad often annoys his teammates due to his bullying and his high strung antics when things do not go his way. 

However, he harbors a great love for his team and understands what it takes to be a leader in desperate situations, which garners respect from his comrades despite his behavior.

Thad comes from a wealthy background and spent nearly all of his summers at summer camps, including Camp Crimson Lake until he was 16.  He had a reputation even then for being rowdy but for also leading his teams to victories.

As a camper, he had plenty of sexual firsts at the camp, including getting laid by an 18 year old camp counselor.

He attended football camps for the subsequent summers, but then became a camp counselor at Camp Crimson Lake for the summer before college, when he hooked up with other counselors as well as older campers.

Summers during college were basically a series of longer spring breaks in Mexico or Florida.

That was the plan for this particular summer.  Thad would much rather be spending his summer again in Cancun or Fort Lauderdale where he can pound beers and bang co-eds.

Instead, he's working at the camp again as part of a sentence for a few too many run-ins with the law.  His fame as an athlete and the connections of his father helped him avoid jail time, and the camp owner's status as a big booster for the football team allowed Thad to work his community service at the camp.

Aside from his hedonistic desires, Thad's main concern is staying healthy and staying out of trouble.  He hopes to enter the NFL draft.

Brad Kensington played by Twisted iN Tux

Bradford Ulysses Chadwick Kensington the Thirteenth aka Brad aka Buck
Age: 20
Archetype: A Perpetually Prickly Prepster with a Penchant for Pissing People Off and a Cardigan Covered Creep with a Combustible Cash Flow
Background: Bradford is a complete and utter douchebag, and he knows it! He actually embraces his role as the resident d-bag, that way there isn't any expectations to be had for him to be anything else but an asshole, and he's pretty much been like this from the moment he reached puberty. Oh, who am I kidding? He's always been a bit of a wanker, pretty much from the day he was born. Just ask his mother, who attempted to breastfeed him, only to have him nearly chew her nipple clean off.

Born to ridiculously wealthy, aristocratic parents, Bradford was initially raised to be the heir apparent, that is, until he decided that drinking and doing drugs, and dicking around inside whatever hole he could find, was a much better way of living. No, really, if his dick fits, he's sliding it in...deep.

Anyway. Ashamed of their son, Lady and Lord Kensington shipped their eldest overseas to live out his tempestuous college years with a distant cousin, twice removed, on his mother's side.

Hellbent on making the least of the situation, Brad did exactly that. He did nothing, absolutely nothing that could redeem himself in the eyes of his parents. It was as if he were looking to drag his family name as deep as he could through whatever mud he could get his sadistic little hands on. To make matters worse, his parents insisted on keeping him financially sound. They may have sent him far away from the posh pomp and circumstance of England, but they certainly didn't want him living like a pauper in the gutters, regardless of the fact that that may have actually taught him a lesson. He was still their son and, like it or not, he would one day lord over the family fortune and countless estates attached to such a title. Disinheriting him was just not an option, especially with the media keeping a close eye on their every move.

Knowing full well that he held most, if not all of the cards, Brad continued right along his path of self and social destruction. Not giving a flying fuck who he hurt along the way, he often sought out the best possible situation to inflict the most harm. Granted, such situations usually had to be pretty far down on the social spectrum for him to feel even remotely like a king - seeing that his talents were fairly limited - but he was willing to stoop pretty low to come out on top.

So while summers for him could've easily meant trips abroad, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous - essentially being a mediocre fish in a vast pond - he instead remained close to his newfound step-home in America and found the perfect outlet to set up shop.

Camp Crimson Lake was going to be his kingdom, er, plaything...uh, summer fling for as long as he could stand it. Securing...okay, essentially buying his way into a position as a camp counselor, Brad played up the fact that he was fully trained in first aid and CPR, just to give a bit of weight to his name. A total bullshit lie, he figured he could just talk or buy his way out of whatever trouble arose from him not being able to actually save lives. Besides, at the interview, he looked fucking brilliant in his ever-so-tight, speedo swim trunks, so who really cared that he couldn't do what he claimed. Nobody actually expected a backwater camp counselor to be a trained professional. Did they?

Tremaine Dogers played by Bekah Boo

Tremaine Dogers
Age: 18
Archetype: Basket Case/Outcast/Horror enthusiast
Background: What could be said about Tremaine that hasn't been said already? She was the odd girl, the weirdo, the type of girl who poured over volumes of gore novels without batting an eye, the sort that found almost endearing delight with anything of the macabre and stomach turning; but in a way she had always been that way so why bother changing now?

From humble beginnings it was early on that Tremaine's parents felt their darling daughter was not as cheerful or out going as other girls her age, and how could she when her father was local mortician of the town? Where as other girls played with pretty pink dressed Barbie dolls, Tremaine was wide eyed and curious of her father's work, the first time she saw a dead body quite young as it had forever changed what chance she once had in being anything socially acceptable afterwards.

She was curious of the inner workings and after effects death had as she would sneak in during the late night to see for herself the spell left upon bodies after their last breath had been taken, at how their flesh would become almost ashy in appearance with blood no longer flowing; it was utterly fascinating!

So it was no surprise that Tremaine would begin to study and work hard like her father to do the same craft he did, but while her passions came from a true interest of yearning to learn, everyone else saw it as the girl clearly twisted and out of her mind. This was only made all the more obvious as Tremaine felt all too awkward in trying to make connections with her peers, lacking any social grace or cues the 'death' girl was left to herself more times than not and in a way Tremaine found she didn't mind. The dead were easier to get along with.

Though after some time with even her patient and loving parents, they found Tremaine's obsession bordering on the edge of concern, that she needed to at least try and make an effort into making friends that were still breathing and so the camp counselor idea was thrown to her. It would be good for her they said, she couldn't spend all her time huddled in her room frozen in front of various documentaries of cold file cases they pleaded, she needed to put herself out there they demanded.

The camp was everything clearly opposite of her quiet and strange self though the only real treat she had was the urban legend running around, one that even Tremaine found herself much too curious to deny as it became one of the sole reasons she even agreed to it in the first place. Besides...how bad could it be? Most folks left her alone already, so it would bound to repeat itself, ah well.

Threads:

IC thread
OOC thread



We are still looking for at least one player, preferably someone to play a male character. It would be great if we could get someone to play the "douchey jock" archetype, since we just lost the player who was going to portray such a character.

[Gypsy]

You always have the best game ideas.

Potentially interested in playing a female character, perhaps a ROTC scholarship type who's at the point of deciding whether to enter the full program and commitment to the military or give up her scholarship and finish working her way through college. The summer job is that 'retreat' to give herself the objectivity to make up her mind, either a turning point or a last hurrah in her mind.

[RedEve]

Glad to have caught your attention, GypsyRose. The character you describe would certainly fit into this game.  :-)

[tobisquestion]

Sounds like fun, I could play a male character in this. I like to bring something different to a story (not in an obnoxious 'play the oddball character' kind of way) so I'd create a character based on whichever trope nobody else has expressed an interest in yet.

[RedEve]

Sounds like fun, I could play a male character in this. I like to bring something different to a story (not in an obnoxious 'play the oddball character' kind of way) so I'd create a character based on whichever trope nobody else has expressed an interest in yet.

That is fine. But you should realize that I listed the tropes to give the prospective players some idea of the kind of characters one might expect in such a setting. People can of course create concepts that do not fit any of those types. :)

[The Lovely Tsaritsa]

Ooh, I'm very interested, please count me in! :-)

[RedEve]

I have updated the opening post with a map.

I based myself on an online map I found of Camp Crystal Lake, if you are wondering why some of that might appear familiar.  :-)

[rekhaiyer]

I have never written a male character before and would like to attempt it here. The male intellectual role would be cool to play or at least attempt.

[RedEve]

I have never written a male character before and would like to attempt it here. The male intellectual role would be cool to play or at least attempt.

That is fine. I do not require any player to play his or her own gender.

[RedEve]

I have updated the opening post with the character sheet template as well as my own character.
Players can now send me their character sheets through a PM.
Also please understand that the fact that my archetype is the "slutty party girl" does not mean that no other player can use the same archetype.
So if you had your heart set on playing such a character, by all means do!

[Darkwhysper]

I love the idea...and I was always a big fan of the slasher movies...:) I was thinking about playing the attractive, yet shy and brooding kid with the tragic backstory regarding the lake that might cause the others to mistake him for the killer...until he gets hacked up that is...:)

[RedEve]

I love the idea...and I was always a big fan of the slasher movies...:) I was thinking about playing the attractive, yet shy and brooding kid with the tragic backstory regarding the lake that might cause the others to mistake him for the killer...until he gets hacked up that is...:)

That works for me!  :-)

[The Lovely Tsaritsa]

I forgot for asking, does this game happen in Eighties, or now?

[Darkwhysper]

I'm hoping for the 80's...since nothing kills a good isolation horror story faster then a cell phone...

[RedEve]

We could solve that by saying there is lousy/no cell reception in the area.

But I'm not opposed to a period setting, at all.

[Darkwhysper]

or maybe have all cell phones taken away and locked in one cabin...to promote the whole "nature" aspect...which would also give the characters a reason to go walking around in the dark...:)

Sorry, guess I'm just excited for the story...lol.

[The Lovely Tsaritsa]

I make the foreign exchange student character. So Eighties or now, it decides where my character comes from. ::)

[RedPhoenix]

I love this genre and I love the idea of a game with a beginning and middle and end. Count me in as a party girl. :)

[RedEve]

Okay, I am going to make this a period piece.
The year is 1986.
Which primarily solves our cell phone problem, but the rest of the technology should also be adapted to fit the time.

[Broken]

I feel the want to make a big protective brother character to one of the characters, anyone interested in a big brother?

[RedEve]

I'm sure you'll find someone interested in a sibling and if you don't, I can edit Alison's CS to add another brother.

[RedPhoenix]

I feel the want to make a big protective brother character to one of the characters, anyone interested in a big brother?

Be my slutty girl's big brother and constantly scare away the boys she's trying to seduce! :)

[RedEve]

I have added the first approved character to the opening post.
I will keep adding them as they get through the approval process.

[Gypsy]

Posting character here per RedEve.  :-)  I'm not looking to have a sibling in the game, but am open to connections and shared history.

CJ Brown
Age:21
Archetype: Athletic Female, feeling like she's missing something
Background: CJ was awarded a full scholarship for an Air Force ROTC program.  She's just completed her sophomore year of college, and is expected to go full ROTC and make the full military commitment when she goes back for the next semester.

She's done well, and thinks that she'll be a shoe in to go into the MPs, and from there, military intelligence.  It's what she's always wanted ... except for now, she's starting to wonder if it is what she's wanted, or if it's what her Dad and the rest of her family wanted for her, and she went along with it just because she wanted their approval.

She's starting to wonder if she has missed out on a lot of things ... and this summer as a camp counselor might be her last chance to find out while she decides if she wants to push forward, or break out of the mold.

She's disciplined, physically active, very touchy about people telling her what 'girls' can and can't do, and when she's hurt or emotional, she acts tougher than she is.

[RedEve]

Gypsy, Alison is also in college, so she and CJ could know each other that way. Perhaps it was even CJ who informed Alison of the camp counselor job.
No pressure though, only if you'd be interested in such a set-up.