Recruiting- I see that town in my dreams, Silent Hill/FNAF cross

[WindVoyager]

Completely revamped.


I see that town in my dreams......SilentHill...


Welcome to Silent Hill. It's a quiet place to be. At least that's what the faded and worn sign that was barely visible through the thick grey fog stated, the hooded lights hanging on the sign flickering and giving off a sickly yellow glow that barely illuminated the cracking surface of the old sign mounted near the road leading into town. In iwas once a popular tourist destination based around Toluca Lake but now it's an abandoned and decaying town notorious for disappearances.

But something doesn't feel right. The weather was supposed to be clear so why was there a thick swirling fog covering everything?

Your instincts tell you to get back in the car, turn around and go the other way.

But you were supposed to met the others at Jacks Inn........ignore the feeling of wrongness you get back in your car and leave the observation deck and head into town.



Game Info

WARNING! This game will feature potentially disturbing content such as serious subjects such as euthanasia, suicide, rape, abuse, or torture. If these things bother you, even in the fictional sense, this is not the game for you.

For this game, each player will have one character, two may be possible with GM approval and each character will have a dark secret which on the GMs will know. This dark secret and past trauma will be used by the eldritch fog entity to torment your character. Your character can be an OC or from a horror fandom, though the character will be subject to GM approval.

There will not be any smut monsters. The monsters and hallucinations are physical manifestations of fears, guilts and nightmares.

This is going to be a small game that is largely sandbox with some GM guidenence to prevent stalling. You will have freedom to do as you wish, however actions do have consequences, and the wrong actions will have severe consequences in game.

Since this is a group game there will be a posting order. This is a casual game so the response time is one week, if you are unable to post due to real life, just let either me or the co GM know so we can skip your character.

As for how your character got to Silent, that is up to you. Maybe they have connections to the Fazbear legacy, they are amateur ghost hunters, something is drawing them to the town. Feel free to get creative.



Character Template:

Name:

Gender:

Occupation:

Personality:

History: please include any trauma they suffered growing up, or as an adult

Skills:

[Dark Secret[/b] Only you and the GM will know.

[Remiel]

Hey!

Good to see a fellow Silent Hill fan. I ran a group game myself that lasted a couple years. 

I'd certainly like to throw my hat in as a possible co-GM or even as just a player. 

[WindVoyager]

I can always use a co dm

[zombreach]

Popping in to say I am definitely interested!

[Lady Sakura]

Hey!

Good to see a fellow Silent Hill fan. I ran a group game myself that lasted a couple years. 

I'd certainly like to throw my hat in as a possible co-GM or even as just a player.

I wish you would resurrect that one. </3

As a huuuge SH fan myself, It was one the best games I've ever been apart of in terms of SH games. So you're in very good hands with Rems help.

I'm definitely in for joining. I'll have to design a fresh character for this one.

[Ashia]

Consider me interested!

[Cal1496]

Creepy horror fog, yes please!

Hope this is still a thing

[Beorning]

I might be interested :)

Will this game have a specific storyline, or will it be about the PCs poking around SH and events developing from that?

[Mellific]

Tentatively interested! Silent Hill has a way of dragging me back.

[ElayneTrakand]

Never played silent hill before, but sounds fun!

[Razor]

Posting for interest. This might be the kind of thing I signed up for in the first place.

[Esoterica]

I probably shouldn't. Very busy right now. But I'm interested.  Do you see this as a fast moving game with a high post count rate requirement, or a more casual thing?   Also I only know a bit about the video games, most of my knowledge is from the movie. Would have to ask if that would make it harder?

[WindVoyager]

I don't see it being extremely fast moving, I want to keep it casual. While the movie went off the rails and a lot isn't Canon, the Silent Hill wiki has everything you need to know. Its an easy fandom to get into since the base lore is pretty eldritch fog entity rules a alt version of the town that is fog bound and full of creatures that are physical manifestations of fears and guilts

[Esoterica]

Ok I was looking at the wiki earlier, and I started studying it.

This one right:   https://silenthill.fandom.com/wiki/Silent_Hill_Wiki

[Remiel]

Yep.  Silent Hill the 1st was predominantly about supernatural / religious themes, but Silent Hill 2 (arguably the best game of the series, story-wise) took a pivot and delved more into the realms of psychological horror.  Basically, the premise was that everyone who found themselves in Silent Hill had some kind of emotional or psychological baggage that needed to be confronted in a very physical, literal way.  Or, to put it another way, Silent Hill had a way of taking your inner demons and making them real.    As the Escapist put it: "you're trapped in a town that absolutely fucking hates you, but in a passive-aggressive way."

For example, James Sunderland's guilt over euthanizing his chronically-ill wife was made manifest in the form of Pyramid Head.  Actually, the mythos behind Pyramid Head could fill an entire book, but that's the Cliff's Notes version.  Simply put, James felt, deep down, that he was a bad person who needed to be punished, so Silent Hill provided that in the form of monsters who constantly pursued him.

Now, this didn't necessary mean that Silent Hill was the same thing as Hell, as it was possible to come to terms with/make peace with your inner demons and eventually transcend them.  Many characters accomplished it over the course of the series.  In this way, the town almost serves as an extreme form of exposure therapy, which I suspect is why it still fascinates and attracts us.  It's a super dark, disturbing ride, but it is possible to achieve catharsis on the other side.

[Lady Sakura]

Yep.  Silent Hill the 1st was predominantly about supernatural / religious themes, but Silent Hill 2 (arguably the best game of the series, story-wise) took a pivot and delved more into the realms of psychological horror.  Basically, the premise was that everyone who found themselves in Silent Hill had some kind of emotional or psychological baggage that needed to be confronted in a very physical, literal way.  Or, to put it another way, Silent Hill had a way of taking your inner demons and making them real.    As the Escapist put it: "you're trapped in a town that absolutely fucking hates you, but in a passive-aggressive way."

For example, James Sunderland's guilt over euthanizing his chronically-ill wife was made manifest in the form of Pyramid Head.  Actually, the mythos behind Pyramid Head could fill an entire book, but that's the Cliff's Notes version.  Simply put, James felt, deep down, that he was a bad person who needed to be punished, so Silent Hill provided that in the form of monsters who constantly pursued him.

Now, this didn't necessary mean that Silent Hill was the same thing as Hell, as it was possible to come to terms with/make peace with your inner demons and eventually transcend them.  Many characters accomplished it over the course of the series.  In this way, the town almost serves as an extreme form of exposure therapy, which I suspect is why it still fascinates and attracts us.  It's a super dark, disturbing ride, but it is possible to achieve catharsis on the other side.

This! 💯

[WindVoyager]

All of that.

SH 4 and beyond.....pretty much shit the bed. The games had their moments but as a whole it felt like they stepped away from the core of Silent.

[Remiel]

Eh, I actually liked them, for different reasons.  SH4 was interesting in that you got to see the synthesis of the mind of a serial killer/sociopath in Walter Sullivan.    Origins returned to the supernatural/religious mythos of the first game.  Homecoming had a story with an interesting twist, even though one could argue it was probably the most Americanized out of the bunch.  Downpour had its own unique brand of fucked-up.   I didn't play Shattered Memories.

But yeah, I would have have to say that 2 was the most well-written of the bunch, followed by 3.

[Beorning]

I have played only SH2, but wow... what a ride it was. The only game that made me press the "hard reset" on my PC out of sheer panic (it happened during the first Pyramid Head appearance).

Anyway - was this ever explained exactly why the town was so weird? Also, is there a non-fogged version of the town where normal people live, or is the whole town lost?

[Codexa]

I love Silent Hill <3 It's been SO LONG though.

*plants interest flag*

[zombreach]

I am not much of a gamer, so I haven't played any of the games, but I have seen the movies. I am more than willing to do research though..if needed.

I participated in a short-lived Silent Hill RP on another site and was really disappointed when it abruptly ended. I can't wait to see where this one leads us.

[Totoro]

I'm pretty bad at being a player in horror games but I'm a huge Silent Hill fan and depending on how things pan out would be happy to help with GM'ing / monsters or anything I can do really.

I have played only SH2, but wow... what a ride it was. The only game that made me press the "hard reset" on my PC out of sheer panic (it happened during the first Pyramid Head appearance).

Anyway - was this ever explained exactly why the town was so weird? Also, is there a non-fogged version of the town where normal people live, or is the whole town lost?

Going to try to answer! I've played/watched everything and done some separate research but none of that was super recent so there may be errors and really I think huge parts of the lore are up to interpretation and/or directly conflic with one another so this is really just my take on how it works.

Spoilers for 'why the town is so weird' ahead:

Vague spoilers for a lot of Silent Hill Content

Depends a bit on interpretation and the exact cause of the specific 'weirdness' game to game and film to film etc. varies.

The oldest history has the town being constructed on a Native American burial ground. The town itself seems to be cursed however in general it's responsive to its occupants so it really depends on who is there and what is going on as to how bad being there will actually be. In theory (At least in my mind) a totally innocent (However you might define that) person could walk through Silent Hill and end up completely unharmed.

In most of the games it's either the fault(sort of) of Alessa, the cult or Walter or it's not very well explained at all. There are definitely at least some things that don't line up quite right and a few bits of conflicting information so a lot is down to interpretation.

Spoilers for 'Is there a non-fog version:

More spoilers

Yes, there is a non-fog version but nobody lives there. It's a ghost town. Not literal ghosts but just, empty. Every now and then there are people there but they are usually either lost, lured or part of some nasty scheme or another. There's no 'ordinary people living their lives' who are just regular residents of Silent Hill. There were but I'm not sure exactly when that stopped. The last time I know for sure the town was normal was something lilke 1890 or so but it has been modernized from then at some point.

[Razor]

So, I haven't played any of the games, avoided the films (and it sounds like I'm lucky I did), was going to play the Hideo Kojima one, but... anyway.

I've heard lots about them, and I know the basic premise. As a player, though, I don't imagine I need to read the wiki for this, do I?

[Remiel]

I have played only SH2, but wow... what a ride it was. The only game that made me press the "hard reset" on my PC out of sheer panic (it happened during the first Pyramid Head appearance).

Anyway - was this ever explained exactly why the town was so weird? Also, is there a non-fogged version of the town where normal people live, or is the whole town lost?

Well, many reasons.  From the outset, it's had a shady beginning--the town was settled on a native American burial ground, witches were burned at the stake, mass executions were held, etc.   From the early 20th century, a cult began to take root whose stated mission was to resurrect their god (referred to in some instances as Samael) and thereby bring about the End Times (whereby the cult would be taken to Paradise while the rest of the world would be destroyed).  Up until this point, although arguably dripping in bad karma, Silent Hill was more or less a normal town where people could live, and, indeed, for a while, experienced a period of rapid growth, first as a coal mining town and later as a tourist resort (Toluca Lake).

When, however, Dahlia Gillespie, leader of the Order, attempted to accelerate the birth/resurrection of the cult's god by torturing and burning her own daughter, Alessa, alive in a ghastly ritual, she unknowingly imbued Alessa with Samael's powers.  Alessa fractured her own soul in order to foil the ritual, incarnating part of herself as Cheryl / Heather.  The other part, however, remained, and so the entire town of Silent Hill essentially became haunted by Alessa's tortured and vengeful spirit.  This could explain why the town takes a particular interest in tormenting sinners, while innocents such as Laura in SH2 are left more or less untouched.  This is when the alternate versions of the town ("Fog World" and "Hell World") started.  It is assumed that the residents of Silent Hill either fled the town or were drawn into the Hell World, leaving it a literal ghost town.

While there are a handful of people (such as Vincent from SH3) who still make their home in Silent Hill, it is pretty much deserted and fallen into disrepair.  In fact, decay is a running theme throughout the series, encompassing both physical decay (mold, rust, etc.) and moral/psychological decay.

[Esoterica]

Well, many reasons.  From the outset, it's had a shady beginning--the town was settled on a native American burial ground, witches were burned at the stake, mass executions were held, etc.   From the early 20th century, a cult began to take root whose stated mission was to resurrect their god (referred to in some instances as Samael) and thereby bring about the End Times (whereby the cult would be taken to Paradise while the rest of the world would be destroyed).  Up until this point, although arguably dripping in bad karma, Silent Hill was more or less a normal town where people could live, and, indeed, for a while, experienced a period of rapid growth, first as a coal mining town and later as a tourist resort (Toluca Lake).

When, however, Dahlia Gillespie, leader of the Order, attempted to accelerate the birth/resurrection of the cult's god by torturing and burning her own daughter, Alessa, alive in a ghastly ritual, she unknowingly imbued Alessa with Samael's powers.  Alessa fractured her own soul in order to foil the ritual, incarnating part of herself as Cheryl / Heather.  The other part, however, remained, and so the entire town of Silent Hill essentially became haunted by Alessa's tortured and vengeful spirit.  This could explain why the town takes a particular interest in tormenting sinners, while innocents such as Laura in SH2 are left more or less untouched.  This is when the alternate versions of the town ("Fog World" and "Hell World") started.  It is assumed that the residents of Silent Hill either fled the town or were drawn into the Hell World, leaving it a literal ghost town.

While there are a handful of people (such as Vincent from SH3) who still make their home in Silent Hill, it is pretty much deserted and fallen into disrepair.  In fact, decay is a running theme throughout the series, encompassing both physical decay (mold, rust, etc.) and moral/psychological decay.

Fascinating history.