Welcome back. Are you ready? I hope
so...
Last time, I talked about the things I
enjoyed about Silent Hill, the games and etc. Let's talk a little
more about that. Beware spoilers for the first three games, if you
haven't played them... You've had, like, 20 years...
As I mentioned, I really enjoyed the
first three games. And a major part of that was the characters...
Well, except for one, but we'll get to him in a minute. In the first
game, you were playing a man named Harry Mason, just trying to find
his child. Of course, it wasn't that simple. Playing as Harry, you
were drawn into a series of disturbing events, nightmarish locations,
and interacted with a few unusual people. All of this kept me
engaged. Of course, I didn't get the best ending the first time
through, but I went back for more. Several times.
In the second game, you played a man
named James Sunderland. Now, since I'd played the first one, I knew I
was getting into something weird. And the game did not disappoint.
Silent Hill 2 was a worthy successor to the first game, with a major
twist. If you don't want a spoiler, just skip to the next paragraph.
Unlike the first game, you weren't playing some noble man. No, you
were playing a man who murdered his wife, and then came to a town
because he received a letter from her, and thought he could make it
better? Who knows. He was going a bit crazy, so what we thought was
going on might not have been the truth. Either way, the first time
through, I almost didn't finish the game after the big reveal.
In the third game, you were playing a
girl named Heather. A young teen just living life, until ghosts of
her past came for her. Well, perhaps ghosts from her past lives would
be a better phrase. She has to deal with monsters and the madness of
the Order of Silent Hill, and then the God within her. Because it
turned out she was the girl from the first game. While short, I think
it's one of the best of the series. I've played it a few times and
gotten all the endings (all three).
In the comics, the original ones, they
introduced several new characters. They made Christabella, who was
something between Cheryl and Sadako from the Ring series. I didn't
find her all that original, but I liked the series as a whole. The
character I really liked was Dr. Troy. A psychologist who tries to
prove to his patient that the horrors of Silent Hill weren't real, he
ends up trading his soul for the patient's safety. From there, he
becomes part human, part eldritch monster. When he appears from that
part on, he's oddly calm (usually), while inflicted all sorts of
terrible tortures upon innocent people.
There's several other characters I
really liked. The artist was one of the best, in my opinion. The
soldier was good, but very much an archetype, rather than a real
person. Of course, the interplay between him and the singer was what
made that story so good. I thought about including Lauryn, but I'd
have to include Christablla, too. And, while Lauryn is interesting,
she's a lot like a darker version of Heather. As a brief aside, a
Witchcraft campaign centered around the Mad Gods, using Silent Hill
from the comics and story of Lauryn and Christabella as a basis,
would be great. I might work on it later. Might.
After thinking about all of the games
and the comics, looking at the characters, I started making a list of
the characters that I thought were important to the world I was
working with and I had enjoyed. Since I'd already decided on using
The Order, I knew that Heather and the people related to her story
were going to be involved. That means Heather, Dahlia, Claudia, and
Cybil would be a big part of the adventure. Since I loved the second
game (as many people do), I wanted to include James, but you can't
have James without Maria or Mary (or both). I also wanted to include
some characters from the comics, but I had to make sure they meshed
well with the Order plot I'm going for. The two that I felt could
really add something to the plot, or be useful, were Dr. Troy and
Mordecai.
Now that I've got a list of characters
from the game, I had to figure out how to work them all into the
plot. While I did develop some new characters for the game (more on
that in another entry), I wanted to start looking at what these
characters I picked represented and what roles they would play.
For the Order, we have Dahlia and
Claudia. Of course, they're both dead in “canon” such as it is.
But, as Silent Hill 2 shows us, death isn't always the end of things.
Even in Silent Hill 1, we saw Lisa up and walking around, and she was
probably dead. So, yeah, I can do what I want. From there, I thought
that Dr. Troy and Mordecai could be added to the Order's side of
things as well. Their motivations and origin would have to be a bit
different, but they do fit rather easily. I think by having these
characters, each working towards different goals, can add some depth
to the game and throw the players for a loop. Because you do need to
have some twists and turns in Silent Hill. I also decided that if I
was going to include The Order, I'd need to include Heather. My idea
was that it would be good to have a character the party could
interact with that wasn't completely insane or out to kill them.
Outside the Order, I had to work in the
characters from Silent Hill 2. These characters had a completely
different history and story, not really connected to the Order and
the mythology of Silent Hill. In many ways, Silent Hill 2 is a true
stand alone entry in the series. Which meant that I was going to have
to think a bit more about them. As the Order was shaping up to be my
main focus, I made the decision to make the Silent Hill 2 characters
just cameo characters. I know, some people might not like it, but it
thought it was a good idea. And it would throw some red herrings to
the players. And, when you have James, you get Pyramid Head...
After I've figured out which characters
I'm going to include I needed to look at what kind of characters they
would be and what powers they would have. In the core book, they
introduced the concept of Miracles, but those might not wok for a
group of evil cultists. In All Tomorrow's Zombies, they did include a
much more streamlined system for psychic powers. I decided to use a
mix of both for the Order's powerful people, meaning that the more
powerful members would be Inspired characters. For most of the other
characters, I made them Norms. That works as many if the characters
are normal people. Dahlia is definitely a Norm. For the main
characters of the past games, I thought Survivors would work, as they
had to survive some terrible things.
For making the characters, I used the
core book and One of the Living for most characters, and then (if
they had special powers), I would use the powers from All Tomorrow's
Zombies. When it came to making Dr. Troy, I added in some zombie
aspects, to give him the things I needed. And to make him a little
more horrifying.
I made a mix of Norms, Survivors, and
Inspired characters. Some will be allies and others will be enemies.
I've been trying to make sure that they don't outside the players and
their characters, because that's not fun for anyone. While the
players' characters can't have powers, I've made sure that those
enemies who do don't overpower them.
I've also designed some new characters,
ones just for this game. It's all part of the story I've been putting
together, and I'll be discussing that in another entry, but I've
designed these characters as almost mirrors of the ones from the
game. Think of it as a cycle, doomed to repeat itself. At least,
until the Order is destroyed completely. Or perhaps the town must be
destroyed? It's suggested that Silent Hill suffered some sort of
catastrophic event between Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. But, I
don't like that idea too much. Feels too much like the movie, you
know?
I've also tried to give each NPC
different motivations, adding some complexity to the encounters. Some
serve the Order, some combat it. Others are unaware of it, and a few
want to take control of the town. I was trying to do something
similar to the first game, where you came across different people,
but didn't know how they fit into the plot for some time. I wanted to
enhance the surreal feeling by having people just kind of wandering
around and you wouldn't know if they were important, and if they
were, why they were important. I've put some “fan service”
characters in a red herrings. If you played Silent Hill 2, you should
remember Eddie. I remember when I first played it, I kind of related
to Eddie. And then he went nuts and you had to take him down. Since
the players are aware of the history of the games, they'll know who
Eddie is when they run across him. But, will they be able to trust
him? I'm hoping they'll be suspicious of him from the start, unsure
about what he's going to do. And I'll be keeping exactly what I'm
planning for him under my hat until it happens. He could be a boss
fight, like in his appearance in the game. Or he could be an
illusion, used by the town or the Order to lull them into a false
sense of security. Or it could be something totally different,
something far more terrible. And that's what I like about using these
known characters. You think you know them, but you don't.
You know, I almost thought about not
including any NPCs and just had the town be empty, like in Silent
Hill 3. But, I knew it would just be a dungeon crawl, and my idea was
becoming close to that already, so I knew that having the players
interact with others would keep them from devolving into muderhobos.
You rarely come across NPCs in dungeons, so I hope the tonal shift
keeps that at bay.
So, I've selected and built my NPCs.
I've got a rough idea for a story. But, what's next? That's right,
the monsters...
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