Beach Street
On a subject to Silent Hill, I' always wanted to run a horror game with a street as the antagonist.
In my head, it' s a zombie game. Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, all that stuff. For a couple of sessions, that' s all it is. It' s just a creepy sandbox with survival elements and a little bit of combat. The game' s set in New York and, at the
beginning, the player' s actions would largely just be what players usually do: exploring the city, gathering supplies and survivors, and trying not to die. Your average session would start with the players picking a general direction, street, or area of town
to explore. Then they get the old, "you head down West 12th Street, passing the mined intersections of Hudson, Beach, and Ninth. Johnny had a girlfriend that lived on Ninth, and he remembers a drug store down there that might be worth looking into. --"
And on it goes. The only thing is, nobody remembers anything about "Beach" street. It' s completely unremarkable. No lived there, nobody ever worked at the laundromat on Beach, nothing. I give them no reason to ever tum onto Beach. It' s
a filler name between them and their destination. But Beach keeps taming up. And it keeps taming up in different parts of town. Eventually, one of them has to notice. Maybe they decide that there' s two Beach Streets. Maybe they decide to take a
closer look. That' s when I put something enticing in there- An upturned ambulance that looks like the back hasn' t been pried open, maybe. And nothing bad happens. They get the goodies and leave. Goodjob, team.
Continued:
But Beach doesn' t go away. And the next time they take a tum down it (maybe it' s further uptown this time), disaster strikes. Doesn' t matter what it is, but it' s bad. They narrowly escape (hopefully), only to notice that they' left Beach at a completely
different part of town than they entered it at. It' s like Beach moved while they were on (in?) it. But, thankfully, they eventually make it back across town, and loserthis might be a few sessions in itself.
Then, the next morning, they realize that their home base is at the intersection of whatever street they' always been on, and Beach.
At this point, they realize that Beach Street is bad news. Who knows what they' ll do with that. Maybe they try to bum it down. Maybe they run from it and try to make a new hideout far away. If I can get my players to flee from a street, I' ll
call that a win. But, of course, they can' t get away. It' s always a few intersections from wherever they camp out, and maybe now it' s not Beach that' s the problem, but the streets it' s touching, too. Maybe the architecture on Beach is very distinctive,
and the streets around it are starting to show that, too, for a block or two. But regardless, it' s made clear to the players that Beach Street isn' t going away. It' s ) maybe, is a better word. Spreading.
Eventually, they' re going to have to head back onto because they' decided to try to stop it, or because I' had them wake up and realize that the street they were camped out on is Beach now. This is harrowing. Again, doesn' t really
matter what happens here, but it has to be weird, and bad, and if they escape it' s by the narrowest of margins.
Then, after fleeing (hopefully screaming, if I' done my job right) from Beach and out onto the regular, (relatively) wholesome postapocalyptic city streets, they realize something.
Continued:
They' exited Beach Street and found themselves in London.
There are a lot of places it could go from there- Beach Street is ******* global. is Beach Street what caused the disaster? Does whatever is causing the zombies come from Beach? Where else has Beach been? Who decides where it ends up, or does it
do that itself? Perhaps most importantly, how are you supposed to ******* stop it? I don' t even have a rough draft of answers for any of these questions, but hopefully the players are asking them, and hopefully I can give them some suitably unsettling
answers.
In my head, it' s a zombie game. Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, all that stuff. For a couple of sessions, that' s all it is. It' s just a creepy sandbox with survival elements and a little bit of combat. The game' s set in New York and, at the
beginning, the player' s actions would largely just be what players usually do: exploring the city, gathering supplies and survivors, and trying not to die. Your average session would start with the players picking a general direction, street, or area of town
to explore. Then they get the old, "you head down West 12th Street, passing the mined intersections of Hudson, Beach, and Ninth. Johnny had a girlfriend that lived on Ninth, and he remembers a drug store down there that might be worth looking into. --"
And on it goes. The only thing is, nobody remembers anything about "Beach" street. It' s completely unremarkable. No lived there, nobody ever worked at the laundromat on Beach, nothing. I give them no reason to ever tum onto Beach. It' s
a filler name between them and their destination. But Beach keeps taming up. And it keeps taming up in different parts of town. Eventually, one of them has to notice. Maybe they decide that there' s two Beach Streets. Maybe they decide to take a
closer look. That' s when I put something enticing in there- An upturned ambulance that looks like the back hasn' t been pried open, maybe. And nothing bad happens. They get the goodies and leave. Goodjob, team.
Continued:
But Beach doesn' t go away. And the next time they take a tum down it (maybe it' s further uptown this time), disaster strikes. Doesn' t matter what it is, but it' s bad. They narrowly escape (hopefully), only to notice that they' left Beach at a completely
different part of town than they entered it at. It' s like Beach moved while they were on (in?) it. But, thankfully, they eventually make it back across town, and loserthis might be a few sessions in itself.
Then, the next morning, they realize that their home base is at the intersection of whatever street they' always been on, and Beach.
At this point, they realize that Beach Street is bad news. Who knows what they' ll do with that. Maybe they try to bum it down. Maybe they run from it and try to make a new hideout far away. If I can get my players to flee from a street, I' ll
call that a win. But, of course, they can' t get away. It' s always a few intersections from wherever they camp out, and maybe now it' s not Beach that' s the problem, but the streets it' s touching, too. Maybe the architecture on Beach is very distinctive,
and the streets around it are starting to show that, too, for a block or two. But regardless, it' s made clear to the players that Beach Street isn' t going away. It' s ) maybe, is a better word. Spreading.
Eventually, they' re going to have to head back onto because they' decided to try to stop it, or because I' had them wake up and realize that the street they were camped out on is Beach now. This is harrowing. Again, doesn' t really
matter what happens here, but it has to be weird, and bad, and if they escape it' s by the narrowest of margins.
Then, after fleeing (hopefully screaming, if I' done my job right) from Beach and out onto the regular, (relatively) wholesome postapocalyptic city streets, they realize something.
Continued:
They' exited Beach Street and found themselves in London.
There are a lot of places it could go from there- Beach Street is ******* global. is Beach Street what caused the disaster? Does whatever is causing the zombies come from Beach? Where else has Beach been? Who decides where it ends up, or does it
do that itself? Perhaps most importantly, how are you supposed to ******* stop it? I don' t even have a rough draft of answers for any of these questions, but hopefully the players are asking them, and hopefully I can give them some suitably unsettling
answers.
...
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