Monster, Location, and Event Suggestion Guidelines

[montauk_mods]

Monsters
When suggesting a monster design for the game, please keep in mind that we prefer to avoid "classic" cinematic horror in favor of Lovecraftian, Silent Hill, and scifi-style aesthetics, as the bestiary might imply. However, a design need not fall strictly within one of these groups, and we'll use anything that fits well with the setting! However, we're currently looking more for small/medium monsters than omfghueg ones - if a big one is so cool we can't pass it up, then we'll use it, but we'll probably get more mileage out of ones that characters can tackle in smaller groups and that can attack them in more constricted areas of the city. Currently, we're toying with the idea of building a plausibly functional ecosystem of horrors, and we'd also be interested in hearing whether this is an idea that appeals to you, the player.

To suggest a monster, please use this form:
<b>Name:</b> We're using a Silent Hill style - mostly one- or two-word names, descriptive of the monster in a free association kind of way. <b>Description:</b> Include not just general physical appearance, but its height, and what parts, if any, it uses to attack characters (does it have teeth? Claws? Nematocysts?) <b>Behavior:</b> Is it aggressive? Parasitic? Not dangerous unless the characters poke it with sticks?


Locations
The majority of the twisted locations the mods have created for the game are organic in nature - the subways are based on the Dionaea House, the reasons behind the Teratoma's name are obvious, the Space Needle's unusual properties stem from its gigantic colony of spiders, and Morgan Statue Garden straddles the line between a monster and a location - but this need not be the case for any twisted locations you might want to submit. Twisted locations (with the exception of the Space Needle) are the way they are as a result of rotten patches in the fabric of reality; in a sense, the ones the mods have come up with are transdimensional parasites attached to an open spacetime wound. You can design a different way for the weak points in reality to manifest, and if we feel they fit in well with the setting, then we'll use them.

To suggest a location, please use this form:
<b>Name:</b> This can be an actual name, like the Morgan Statue Garden and the Space Needle have, a monster-style name, like the Teratoma has, or just a descriptive one, like the subways. <b>Size:</b> This doesn't need to include square footage or anything like that - just things like how many stories it has, the general area it covers (e.g. one alleyway, one block, etc.) <b>Properties:</b> Does it give people mind horrors? Do the walls breathe? Does it have a stairwell that descends for miles? Include any important information about what the characters will find and what they'll encounter when they arrive here. If you'd rather keep the effects it has on the characters a surprise, you can submit this form to the mod email account instead.


Events
At present, M1A18 has five different types of events. If the idea you have in mind fits well with the setting, but not into one of these categories, then you may recommend a new one.

Attacks are the simplest type of event, and while mods will initially handle all monster attacks, we may allow players to start picking them up if anyone expresses an interest in running encounters with the monsters they designed. Also, players may recommend opportunities on which the city's seemingly more human forces may attack characters.

Physical/mental effects (discounting body/mind horrors) are, in large part, the kind of events you'd see at other games - things like viewing other characters' memories, or bodyswaps, for example (though, if the latter happens after one of the characters has returned from the dead, this will double as a mind horror for both the dead character and whoever is temporarily inhabiting their body). Again, the primary concern for us with these is whether they fit in well with the setting, so we are somewhat picky about them.

Body/mind horrors are among the mods' favorite things, but when recommending one, keep in mind that because people must volunteer their characters to be affected by them, they should be scalable - they should work just as well for one or two characters as for up to half the game.

Bleedthrough is what happens when an alternate universe intersects in a major way with the universe of the game. While these intersections are constantly happening in miniature via the characters' radios or televisions in the city picking up broadcasts from other universes, bleedthrough will involve being able to hear or see things from other universes without the aid of any external equipment. Characters will generally be at effect in these kinds of events - that is, they will only be able to interact weakly with bleedthrough phenomena, if at all. However, they will be shielded from the major effects of things such as, say, radiation bursts occurring in other universes.

Area effects or area effect failures are things that will affect large segments of the city. For example, the lack of language barrier within the city is an area effect, and it may fail in other ways than just the language barrier reasserting itself. Power nerfing, for example, is an area effect failure - so characters may, for a time, completely lose their powers (or find themselves with different ones) as the result of an area effect. This may also affect monsters, as it may amp up or inhibit crucial aspects of their biology.

To suggest an event, please use this form:
<b>Category:</b> What kind of event is this? If you're suggesting a new event category outside of the five listed, please include a short description of what typifies this category (as you see attached to the ones above). <b>Duration:</b> What kind of time scale do you envision this occurring on? A few hours, or a few days? <b>Description:</b> So what's actually going to happen? Who will be primarily affected? If this is a body/mind horror, how many volunteers would be ideal?


With any type of event, monster, or location, if you have an idea you like but aren't sure whether it fits into the setting, always feel free to ask questions. You can do it in the comments to this entry, or PM the mod account, or email us at montauk.mods (at) gmail.com