Sometime in the future I want to run a game with the premise being night is deadly to the common folk...

Sometime in the future I want to run a game with the premise being night is deadly to the common folk. There's no evil necromancer or demon causing this, that's just the way it's always been. Night monsters (they need a proper name, ghasts maybe?) cannot pass boundaries defined by sentient beings - walls, fences etc. - but are free to pass through any portal such a door, gate or even window (if it opens) unless marked by a simple sigil drawn out in blessed chalk. Chalk is not expensive and even a low ranking priest can bless it, but if someone were to wipe off the mark or a window is left open the household may well be doomed.

This has been the way for generations now and people have learned to live with it, extra care is taken and some families have learned to grow small crops indoors. However, there are rumours that northern towns are suffering a fog descending during the day which allows the night monsters to roam free. No-one can work for fear of being attacked and escape is even more difficult. While vision is limited at night, the swift or lucky may evade the danger, particularly if they can find or make a place to hide. In the fog, you can't see the danger until it's right in front of you.

As you can see, there's a premise there but there is also a lot missing so I was wondering if anyone could help me with this, even asking questions about it would help as things you may ask might have slipped my mind.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Painted_Man
minecraft.gamepedia.com/Torch
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Why do they grow food indoors?

A number of reasons really.

It's a lot easier to secure a house with solid walls than a fenced field which is much more exposed to the elements so while outdoors crops are still maintained, because doing otherwise would be silly, it can be prudent to keep a small stockpile growing somewhere safer in case a field is compromised and ruined.

Obviously these are limited to things like mushrooms and small tubers but even a small amount of food can help when stocks are low. Communities with links to underground-dwelling folk can flourish in this regard, having access to higher quality crops and farming methods. They may even be able to trade for some section of underground space dedicated to such a purpose, but this comes with its own set of problems.

Nice imagery, very evocative.
Your next challenge is to define what the players will do in your campaign.
Is there any way to face the monsters outside of hiding? If not, then your game is going to stagnate really quickly. If so, define it.
Is there a way to alter this seemingly immutable balance? A monster king to bargain with? A hive queen to slay? Define it.
What is the player group supposed to look like? WFRP peasants? Nobles and novice priests? Technomancers? Space Marines?

How does travel work between settlements more than 12 hours apart? Can you seal a covered wagon with chalk, and if so, do you still find all your draft animals dead the next morning?

For things for the players to fight, this could be as simple as making it so the only things they have to worry about during the day are other dangerous humanoids like bandits and wild animals.

Night is when all the monstrosities and abominations that are much higher difficulty come out.

Try to draw inspiration from Halloween and other old timey superstitions that you can find.

>Imagine if every single superstition you knew of, actually did spawn some sort of demon or evil

>What is the player group supposed to look like?
The setting is a typical western fantasy style with the players either being mercenaries, hunters and the like called from other lands after the rumours of the fog or veterans of the realm who have some experience dealing with these creatures. In short, the player characters will be mildly experienced fantasy types.

>Is there any way to face the monsters outside of hiding?
With that in mind, the players will be able to defend themselves against the creatures and will be called upon to do as certain things will require them to venture out at night. They are also free to wander outside if they wish, however the sheer volume of creatures makes staying outside all night extremely dangerous. I'll do a short write-up of vague monster categories after this post. Like I said in the OP though, night monsters are too much for common folk but the PCs are not common.

(1/2)

Trying to make big posts and I'm getting connection error, hang on thread.

Wouldn't towns and cities quickly set up perimeter walls and be relatively safe as long as they were well maintained?

Surprisingly simple, carry a temporary fence for when you pack up in the night. It's more of a symbolic thing than any proper fortification, so it can be made of posts and twine and you should be alright so long as there's no gaps in it.

That being said, you might want to put a brave soul on watch just in case of nocturnal predator animals. Or if some nutter wants to let them in...

Would artificial light be enough to hold them at bay and have you considered carnivorous shadows as a threat?

(2/2)
>Is there a way to alter this seemingly immutable balance?
The main threat is this daytime fog which, on top of allowing night monsters to roam, brings the appearance of more fearsome beasts. Exactly what is causing this, I haven't figured out yet but it is a thing that can be stopped.

Maybe not necessarily? It could be that these creatures spawn or grow from shadows sufficiently large enough, so they might still be able to be inside city walls. Or maybe they can leap or fly over walls, so either make a completely enclosed dome, or why bother? Or maybe large walls work well for larger cities, but not for smaller farming communities that are more spread out relative to population? Not OP, just throwing out ideas. I really like it and think i might steal.

As for the regular night monsters, them being restricted by barriers and blessed chalk was devised as part of a ritual after they first appeared. With no immediate way to stop these creatures - even by a powerful mage - there was the solution to ward them in a similar way to vampires having to be invited to enter a building. This wide-ranging charm is enough to keep people relatively safe, though the effort of it sent the caster into a deep slumber and, having no-one to care for them in their remote location, they simply withered away. The PCs will be tasked with entreating a more powerful entity to perfect the incantation and...

Here I don't know whether to have it banish the monsters or restrict them to outside of civilisation. Both allow people to roam free at night in relative safety but the former feels a bit too perfect of a solution. Having them unable to come near civilised areas is less of a victory as travel is still dangerous but it seems more fitting as the monsters are a big part of the setting and having them just *poof* into nothing feels a bit cheap.

Damn, this has actually stumped me. I like 's ideas but they are very much restricted by even the simplest boundary.

I can't believed I overlooked something this fundamental, I'll have to figure something out.

Bump for an excellent idea.

I'm have a setting right now that's basically a gigantic, quasi-sentient forest that rearranges itself at night.

This rearranging has typically been limited to the deepest parts of itself and it stays away from roads and civilization. Those who venture into it with respect and restraint tend to be missed as well. However, in the lore, one attempted settlement in the center was completely engulfed by the forest as it rearranged itself on top of it.

In my own lorebible, there are several different explanations given for the forest's mysterious ability, and different characters may ascribe to different theories about it, informed by their own way of life and personal histories. These theories include being grown over a mystical and ancient dragon graveyard, being grown from a single Seed of All Magic and the trees exhale magical energy like oxygen, and being the playground of the nature gods.

OP, questions you'll need to answer for this setting are
1) Why do these monsters only come out at night? Are they hurt by sunlight, do they enjoy the darkness, or does the cover of night actually lend them some kind of extra power?
2) Where do these monsters come from at night, and where do they go in the daytime? Do they live underground? In caves? In a forest? Or do they literally not exist during the day? Are they extradimensional, or tangible extensions of the night itself?
3) Are these monsters intelligent? Are their attacks militant and orchestrated in nature? Do they have some kind of society or ranking system, and what is that society like? Languages? Customs? Traditions? Gods? Or are they completely mindless and feral beasts that simply hunt during the night like any other animal, but with people as their prey?

Whatever your answers to these questions are will inform the origin and nature of this mysterious fog as well.

>being chased by night monsters outside because I got lost
>I have a plan, but I need some distance first
>Hop over low stone walls set up between some fields, slows them down because they have to go around
>I pick a spot and grab a short stick I always keep on me out of my pocket
>Draw a 5ft circle in the dirt with stick, me defining a boundary as a man
>sit in my anti-night monster circle till dawn

Just make sure you draw a circle, not an oval.

The inability to cross boundaries is based on symbolism, barriers rather than simple traces (old timey fey pacts and that). A line scraped in the dirt won't do, but if you could construct a fence out of sticks that would do.

Imagine if you were wandering in the woods and you saw a thin line in the dirt. It might interest you but I doubt you'd think twice about crossing it. A fence, however flimsy, would stop you even momentarily in thought. That's the difference.

This has the interesting implication of being able to tell when a caravan has passed by as per because of the holes in the ground where the posts would have been hammered in.

I'm getting a serious Minecraft-y vibe from this, and that's not a bad thing. I'll be monitoring this thread.

>meanwhile, in /k/'s latrines.jpg

To partially answer The monsters only exist at night, forming up from shadow when the sun sets and melting back down as it rises, even when inside or underground. During the night, light doesn't seem to reach as far and naked flames are liable sputter out, making containment extremely difficult. It's rumoured that they come from another world entirely and the two worlds (ours and theirs) overlap at night, with the fog acting as a permanent gateway between the two while also shielding them from the sun, as light is anathema to them.

Their individual intelligence varies wildly, with some as dull as common beasts yet others able to outwit a human. The main problem comes from their shared knowledge. When one finds you, they all do. You may hide from a creature the size of a bear as it loses track of you, only for another, smaller creature to jump out from around a corner. It may be no trouble to deal with, but now that monster from before knows exactly where you are, and it's coming.

They may well have a society on their home plane but we only see them when they're on the hunt. Do the deer and rabbits ponder on our customs while evading our bows? Of course not.

You should check out Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brandon Sanderson for inspiration OP. It's a short story with a similar vibe and concept.

I recommend including a type of monster that's vaguely humanoid in shape, but VERY good at mimicking voices.

"Let me in, mama! Please, don't leave me out here!"

Well, you could have glass roofs or possibly caged roofs, which could still allow sunlight and rain through, but protect your crop.
>this is basically what I do to stop chickens tearing up my vegetable garden
You could (would) still run irrigation into these areas - Archimedes screw and an irrigation channel. With the whole "sigil protects indoor areas" thing, you could easily build flimsy walls around your fields (or leave it at fences) and mark them with your sigil. Or just do what they used to do and grow thorny hedges to keep wild animals out, just mark your gate with the sigil

Just have large torches/braziers anywhere that there should be deep shadows. Honestly, any civilisation that emerged from a world like this would quickly develop ways of stopping these creatures.

Recently read The Warded Man, did we?

There may be some subconscious inspiration but it mostly sprang up from that spooky/comfy CYOA

Will do, thanks

>During the night, light doesn't seem to reach as far and naked flames are liable sputter out, making containment extremely difficult.
It's like you didn't even read the thread user

no, but now I suppose I'll have to

How do they not spawn indoors after dark? A large hall might be enough space. Also:
>It's like you didn't even read the thread
The idea came to me before I got to the required ten or so posts in before the lights sputtering and dying was mentioned. How about if you built a huge bonfire, guarded and constantly fed, and used mirrors to deflect the light into those shadowy areas. Keep the flame indoors, shining through a window.

That was rather condescending of me, sorry.
As with being unable to enter bounded areas, they can't appear within them. Magic, yo.
But the bonfire thing, that's essentially a landlocked lighthouse, right? That's an interesting idea, though it wouldn't be practical in a normal town or village, there's an idea of a city built so such a construction could spread the light across the entire city. That leaves possibility for shit to go wrong, broken windows, if the fire goes out everything's fucked.

Thanks user

I'm not sure you would need indoor farms. Even if the things can enter unmarked gates, you just need a simple sturdy fence around your farmland. Dosnt even need to be that high, since you could just jump over it.

Easier that building your entire farm inside or something.

I make a circle. I designate everything that is not in the circle as Inside and everything in the the circle as Outside.
What happens next? This presumably doesn't break the setting, but it's good to work out the reasoning ahead of time.

There has to be something causing it though, otherwise people wouldn't have survived long enough to devise the wards that protect them.
Although.. you could have it as the default state of the world and humanity arise in a blade that was insulated from it. Some homeland protected by someone or something and it's only inside that protected land that the night is not deadly.

How exactly do the monsters attack physically? What do they look like? What are they made of?
As far as the collective intelligence thing goes, do they operate sort of like the Tyranids?
Do larger groups of people attract more of them? I feel like it would be possible for a few people to live far out in the wilderness unmolested, since the fog monsters would be focused on hunting in populated areas
Speaking of hunting, how do they gather for the hunt? Do they all appear in the same area, or
do they deploy randomly and coalesce into an area before moving out?

If you haven't already, check out some of the lore behind Grim Dawn. Monsters reevaluate around, but at night immaterial spirits can get around the place and even try to possess people.

You could also borrow some if the things it already borrowed from mythology. Salt circles, iron wards etc. That kind of thing can help lead to it being more esoteric, and may also help with your "why not just build walls?" problem. A village that held out for decades with a low stone wall is suddenly found massacred, despite no fog and with the barrier intact. How'd they get in? We don't know, but maybe the mysterious hermit who lives in the forest alone does. Since the barriers are symbolic it could be that there are certain conditions that allow them to enter. For example a villager took an item that was considered "rightfully theirs". A certain type of rare herb perhaps. Maybe a household is vulnerable if someone who was responsible for a kinslaying that day sleeps there, or any portal crossed by a black cat must be salted. Perhaps they avoid the smell of burning lavender, but any cock that crows between midnight and dawn enrages them and they'll try to tear down barriers to attack the culprit.

That kind of hoodoo voodoo stuff that gets villagers all superstitious and can add a lot of weight to otherwise simple things. Like a black cat scratching at the window. Its also the kind of knowledge that may not spread readily or even be actually known if the village has just kind of been accidentally doing it.

This setting sounds interesting.
Quick question, what about chimneys? Would these night monsters be able to enter a house via the chimney? Would it matter if a fire was lit in the fireplace or not? It sort of seems that the creatures could make the fire go out anyway, given what you said earlier.

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell would be an excellent read for you. It's by Brandon s
Sanderson

"The Shade (singular and plural) are Mankind's punishment. Wherever the darkness touches the earth, there the Shade may tread. They do not speak and hardly seem to move. They may not pass through walls or fences, but should you step foot on earthen ground, they will take you. "
-Folk Lore on the Shade

They can spawn inside walls if the night sky can be seen from the ground, and the ground is made of natural earth, stone, clay, or anything made thereof.

Travel is either done by camping on raised wooden platforms with fences, or by laying up hammocks or tents in a tree or from a cliff.

An entire city can't be protected unless the entire floor is wood, and even then, sometimes a knothole will appear, and you can hear the Shade quietly scratching the wood underneath.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Painted_Man

minecraft.gamepedia.com/Torch

Why would anyone write the sigils in blessed chalk outside of temporary usage? Wouldn't they just affix permanent carved chalk sigils?

I was just thinking of the first Mistborn novel myself. Sanderson loves making the night "deadly" for normal folk.

Perhaps the digits deteriorate over time regardless, since they expend a portion of their power every night
Perhaps a standard chalk sigil has one night worth in it, while something really elaborate could last months

Sigils, not digits. Fuck's sake.

What about powdered chalk in a binder? Powdered chalk mixed with just enough clay to be shapeable, then formed into the sigils and fired?

That could make for a decent background element of the setting. Since chalk is a very difficult stone to carve the chalk carver guild's insanely lucrative trade in the fragile, long-lasting carved sigils is threatened by sturdier chalk composites.

Perhaps there are priests who keep towns under their thumb by revoking the blessing or refusing to bless the chalk of people who go against his regime

My main issue with setting like these is this:

Things habe ALWAYS been like this? Have they always had magic chalk? Have they always known the blessing for the chalk?
How would a society have gotten to the point where they built a town if anyone outside every night is eaten? How long have the towns existed?

Just by the nature of towns existing things clearly haven't always been like this.

I would agree with your sentiment had OP not included "just the way things have always been" in his description

"Have always been" as in, nobody who was alive before it happened is still around

Have it be that even a simple boundary is effective, but that effectiveness weakens the larger the area it contains.

So a building is protected by its walls very well. A farm is protected by its fences readonably well, but its not unheard of for a shade to make it inside even a well maintained fence sometimes. Even if it is rare, it still keeps people indoors.

A city has some small amount of protection frim its walls, but its still a real danger that shades will walk the streets at night.

A country technically has a boundary too, but the area is so big it offers no real effect, beyond folk tales of travellers escaping a chasing shade by crossing the line into another kingdom, briefly confusing the shade as it loses their scent.

Scholars theorise that doing and creating reverse-circles enough times might create enough near-zero amounts of protection they overlap to confine the Shades to their "outsides".

It's just a thought experiment, and when someone goes about trying to actually go about it they're usually just mocked by academic society. Still, the theory holds, it's just a matter of creating impossible numbers of boundaries. In the same way that moving the planet just needs a long enough lever.

Of course, the counter arguement is that the "inverted circle trap" cant work for even an infinite number of circles, because as seperate boundaries they act again each other rather than together.

If both circles claim to be inverting inside/outside normality, one of them has to be wrong.

Still others posit that the definitions of inside and outside are, themselves, completely irrellevant. The boundary line as a divider itself is what matters, not what either side of the line is called. So the thought experiment matters only as much as the colir you paint your walls.

Not necessarily. Outside and Inside is not absolute.

I can be Inside a country, Outside of town yet Inside my house.
I might even have a house that has an interior courtyard that is Outside. But maybe that's pushing it.
Still, I like the idea that occultists and academics have "shade traps", Outside places surrounded by boundaries. Using the Minecraft analogy, they're mob spawners. Except you're not getting any drops from it, and it's only there for spooky purposes.

So out of curiosity what level of magic are you going to allow players(and general populace) to have?

Maybe it could be revealed that it wasn't always like this, and the grand objective would be to do something to fix the problem?

More simple answer, the notion of "boundaries" is relative to the person setting them. It's why walls will protect a city but a house without a roof offers nothing.

Yeah, bro. Peter Brett already wrote a series based on this premise. Although since you're just talking about running a game and we're all plagiarists anyway you might read it for some ideas. Sounds interesting and different enough to be cool on its own.