Every Saturday morning, in the basement of the Park Community Church, a group of unrelated individuals come together to provide one another with support to handle their one binding truth: They have each lost someone close to them. That's the only thing that binds the Beyond Loss fellowship together. Every member has had a loved one die, run away, or just... disappear. They meet to discuss their memories, their healing, and their ongoing lives, safe in the knowledge that the people at Beyond Loss truly understand their struggle.

But what if the members of Beyond Loss had something else in common? What if their missing loved ones were killed, or taken, or changed by the same malign entity. Obviously that's just the tickle of paranoia, unless... something is at work in the city. Something strange. Something difficult to believe. Something the authorities are both unwilling to, and incapable of, handling.

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I'm proposing a horror game surrounding a bereavement support group, the members of which have come to the realisation that their missing loved ones were lost at the hands of something less than mundane. I'm open to ideas, but as it stands I'm thinking it'll be an episodic game, where we explore and investigate one lost loved one at a time, slowly uncovering a greater mystery.

I think it'd work best with a small group (say 3 players), but I'm open to comments, suggestions, or questions.

I’d be interested in joining!
You got a discord or something? It’d be more convenient to chat there but I’m fine staying on site

I'd much rather keep things on site!
This message had punctuation tweaked by the user at 09:49, Mon 11 Nov.

In reply to TenFoldMore (msg # 1):

Ohh...this is good. I'll keep an eye on this.

I also vote to keep it onsite. I have too many sites to keep track of as it is :/

I would be tentatively interested, but I would probably want to know more about the kind of tone and mood we'd be playing with before I committed more formally.

The core concept seems nice and accessible with pleasing dash of Hunter: The Vigil, but I would be interested in terms of the longer term as to both:

 - Whether you had some touchstones for the horror and what sort of angle it might go down - are we thinking something like Control which exists within that SCP/New Weird framework, or something more akin to the World of Darkness games where it's more a hidden but fairly rational underbelly which has just been hidden from view, or something else entirely?

 - How much you would expect the game to focus on the plot vs. characters? I think there's a lot of interest to be had in exploring the themes of loss, isolation and the relationships which exist in a world which could be very insular, distrustful and worried, but I also do appreciate that a character built with that sort of thing in mind might struggle in a game which is more about the mysteries?

Also, more generally, it would be useful to know what rating the game might have.

All very good questions!

I actually had something closer to Unknown Armies than World of Darkness in mind, but at a smaller and less comprehensible scale.

I'm currently having thoughts inspired by  Junji Itoh comics, some of the smaller scale Cthulhu Mythos stuff, The Ring, Suicide Club, Twin Peaks, Se7en...

The supernatural is real, but it's fairly localised, and very personal. The world's problems can't be blamed on Nyarlathotep or vampires, but on people with ambitions that outweigh their empathy.


Part of why I want the plot to focus on the lost loved ones of each of the characters is to use plot to explore character. Lots of stuff to explore about loss of trust, loss of optimism, and loss of community, while still being driven to solve a deeply personal mystery.

I suspect I'd go with a Mature game, due to horrific subject matter rather than sex.

In reply to TenFoldMore (msg # 6):

Do you have anything to keep in mind while making or choosing characters for this?

I'm curious enough to give it a whirl.

I'd definitely play something like this!  I have Liminal Horror but have never gotten a chance to try it out, and the reference material you mentioned is right in my wheelhouse.

Liminal Horror is both free and super straightforward, which is why I think it's the perfect fit!

When do you think this could get started?

Now-ish! I'm planning to wait a couple of weeks to get RTJs and then progress at a relatively quick rate.

I am currently accepting RTJs!

link to another game