Description
Shady Acres is a rest home, the sort of place where families deposit their embarrassing or infirm relatives and never visit, salving their conscience by believing that their grandmother or grandfather will be well cared for and looked after by the professional staff.
All too often what they abandon them to is to live out the last of their days to degradation, humiliation, trite entertainments, being patronised and the constant depression of seeing the people around them die off one by one.
Shady Acres is such an establishment, but it also has some other, less conventional problems. Someone or something is preying upon the elderly and vulnerable residents for some sinister purpose or other ...
Twist
Old Mr Winthrop in the west wing of the home has clung onto life persistently for over 100 years as best people can guess. His records aren't the most complete in existence. He just sits smiling to himself most of the time which everyone agrees is a tragedy as he once had a very keen mind. Once a con artist, once a salesman, always an inventor and tinkerer Winthrop still has one of his own inventions, a device that drains the life energy from one person into another and, at night, he shuffles out of his room and creeps around the home with surprising vitality as he seeks another person's life to prolong his own.
59
Twist
One of the medical staff is a frustrated medical
technician who is sure he is on the cusp of some sort of medical breakthrough. What he feels he needs is to be able to conduct human trials of the drugs, treatments and processes he devises. Many of these experiments would seem 'sadistic' to the uninitiated and not being fully qualified he has been unable to proceed until now. These elderly people die all the time and are rarely autopsied. Almost perfect test beds for his strange treatments.
Twist
One of the patients suffers from a type of intermittent Alzheimer's disease, in his lifetime though he was a travelling and fairly prolific serial killer. A secret he has managed to keep for his entire lifetime and that he barely remembers even now. When rationality comes to him in limited bouts he remembers who he is and what he did and the need to kill comes back to him. Still relatively hearty in body if not in mind the other residents can do little to resist his murderous attentions.
Epilogue
After the initial problems at the home are dealt with the place can become a locus for local urban legends and for peculiar activities of all sorts. Other strange predators and exploiters can tum up at the same home making for a subtly humorous turn to the adventures and turning them into a 'series'. Yam pi res, demons, zombies and other supernatural threats can all be given a little bit of an interesting spin by being put into the old folk's home atmosphere.
Idea
The film Bubba-Ho-Tep, while in large part a comedy, gives a good feel for this type of setting.
Idea
In the same way that playing children can present a challenge so would playing residents of the home.
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Adventure 54
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Description
Concern over the plump, unhealthy and monitor tanned state of teenagers in modern times has risen and risen and along with other specialised summer camps we now find ourselves gifted with the latest innovation 'Geek Camp'. This camp aims to take today's computer and console oriented youth and show them the joys of the outdoors with kayaking, long walks in the counuyside and a near complete deprivation of technology, not so much a cell phone.
The characters are amongst some of the first residents and staff to be assigned to the camp which one
particularly witty teen on the coach has already labelled 'Lake Phear'. However, this being a coach load of teenagers that are getting dumped in the wilderness, things are not going to go according to plan. Whatever you do, don't go anywhere alone and don't have sex.
Twist
The mystery killer is the caretaker of the old camp from before the renovation. Living alone in the wilderness for so long he has become territorial and unhinged. He did not dare to attack the construction workers who renovated the buildings but a few youth counsellors and some teenagers are another matter entirely. His clothes are old and weather-beaten, his appearance unkempt and he has an unhealthy obsession with taxidermy ...
Twist
The killer is one of the instructors. A paedophile who was outed by 'hackers' he has faked and engineered his records and situation so that he can be assigned to this camp where he will have the opportunity to live out every sordid revenge fantasy he has ever had. First the other counsellors need to be dealt with though, then the teenagers will be all his and subject to his tender mercies.
Twist
One of the other kids, or even one of the characters, is more than a little unhinged. He's every book burner, D&D hater and computer game busybody's wet dream, the kid who can't differentiate between fantasy and reality. He takes everything he reads or plays literally and dreams about acting out what he has done on the screen with gun and knife. He associates with his characters more than himself and smells more than a little of cat piss. Unfortunately for everyone else he also has an amount of manic strength and a vicious will to harm that is about to make itself noticed in a bloodbath somewhat akin to his favourite game Fetish Kill 2.
Epilogue
The thing about the villains in slasher movies is that they always, always come back, even if they have been killed. Your killer can come back thanks to a voodoo priest, to not actually being dead, becoming a ghost or a whole host of other ways to return. As with most 'sequels' they should be better, stronger but retain their signature look and preferred weapon or style either facing a new batch of fresh-faced teenagers or the survivors of their previous rampage in a new setting, like the city.
Idea
Psychology and the way serial killers really operate has absolutely nothing to do with slashers. They are a law unto themselves and the genre has its own rules which your game will be improved by following.
Idea
Spend a good part of your time building your psycho, the more memorable they are the better.