Whats up with this game?

[CS John]

Hey all. I just got Nightbane under the mistaken impression that it was a subtle horror game.....

I'm just curious as to how you GMs out there run your games, and what you do to tone down the outlandishness (if you do at least) to make it a little less comic-book like.

Also, I got the first printing that says Nightspawn....is that the only difference between the newer edition labeled Nightbane?


Thanks!

John

[Mike Taylor]

Welcome to the forum, CS John. I'll answer your last question first. The only difference between Nightspawn and Nightbane is the title, nothing else.

Now, as to your other concerns. I did something very simple with my games, I and my players did things with an eye towards how THEY would react in real life towards this. One player quickly learned that trying to act like a four-color superhero could be twisted into painting him as a monster. I also used the optional combat rules from the Compendium of Contemporary Weapons to cut down on the unnecessary gunplay-- and I made it equally applicable to Nightbanes. I also gave my players the impression that showing off supernatural abilities in front of mortals, even ones they were trying to protect, could end up working against them, even family members. One of my players' characters actively worked to hide his monstrous nature from his little daughter.

[drewkitty ~..~]

yes NB is NS.....they just changed the name due to a sue happy bizybody that just happened to have a comic with a name close to nightSPAWN.


And yes it is suposs to be a horry genra game.

The GM I played with was a munc.....PowerGamer and had the most "interesting" NPCs. Sort of droped out of his games when they became 'not fun anymore' (& the work secduale had a part to).

[Swift-13]

I've done it both ways. I mostly let my players decide how they want to go at it. My games have had their fair share of combat monsters and I've even done a campaign with only "normal" humans.

Of course, on that last one, it didn't hurt that there were a couple of decent psychics, a mage, and one Sword Bearer...

[sinestus]

the last couple i've run have been horror,
which later turned into "war in the shadows"...

basically, when the players start out, they generally have little knowledge of what's going on, and basically survival depends on how well they can run away... or keep from drawing attention to themselves...

but later in the games, once they've gotten over the initial shock of living in a world of demons, they tend to decide to take matters into their own hands (the last group to make it this far, forged their own 'bane faction by allying with a covert military group...) and eventually they try to take the war to the nightlords... (last group that made it this far, didn't do enough recon to realize that revealing themselves as 'bane in a nightlands city is a bad idea, reguardless of how many troops you've brought...)
then it's back to the run and hide stuff...

[Vidynn]

no Palladium game is subtle...

but all can be fun!!

[Neo]

One way to make anything scary is to have it parallel real life. Take head lines from the paper and work them in to a campain.

[Prettz]

I completely take out vampires and magic (since those are too typical in games nowadays and really cut down on the edge Nightbane potentially has), and several of the supernatural horrors. I use a lot of night time suspense with situations where the characters have to act quickly or suffer. I really go all out with the concept of Evil when using things like Hounds and Ashmedai (sp?) and the Night Princes and such. I get graphic and disturbing for mood and effect. One good way to run a horrific game is to watch some of the scariest horror flicks you can and steal some ideas on the direction of that movie. (The way things happen, not necissarily what does happen).