The Last Poster Wins [v31]

[Noblejanobii]

Hahaha I bet. It's always really entertaining from the DM's side.

[Neo Emolga]

Hahaha I bet. It's always really entertaining from the DM's side.

It does make me wonder what a Stalkers RPG campaign run by YOU would be like... >:3

[Noblejanobii]

It does make me wonder what a Stalkers RPG campaign run by YOU would be like... >:3

Oh man, I've definitely thought about it, and I can say it'd probably look fairly different. Gore, violence, etc. typically aren't my cup of tea but that doesn't mean I'm afraid to delve into the darker elements of things. I think it'd be a lot more of a fantasy-oriented setting though. So it'd probably more akin to like... the False Hydra from D&D in terms of tone and setting. The Stalkers actually remind me a lot of the False Hydra, and one of these days I'd love to have it as a villain in one of my D&D campaigns, but the players I typically play with aren't much into that so alas, it remains to the side. So perhaps if I were to ever run a Stalkers campaign, I could do something akin to the False Hydra as the main villain.

The False Hydra, for those unaware, is a homebrew D&D monster that's regarded as one of the most terrifying beasts ever conceived. There's different interpretations of it, but the general concept is as follows:
1) The False Hydra is a creature born of malice and deception. It forms as a mound of flesh deep underground below a heavily populated city where, once its fed enough off this deception, it will grow its first head. The first head will then burrow towards the surface and, upon reaching said surface, will begin to sing.
2) The False Hydra's song makes it imperceptible to any that hear it. The song literally blocks the Hydra from detection. Additionally, if you were to chance a glimpse of it while it wasn't singing, you'd instantly forget you saw it and repress any memories regarding it as soon as it resumes singing.
3) The False Hydra has to stop singing in order to eat. The heads feast on humans, and it eats pretty indiscriminately. Another side effect of the song is that it causes people who hear it to rationalize the sudden disappearance of a person who's been eaten.
4) After eating enough humans, it'll grow another head, up to seven, and once it gets large enough, it'll burst forth from the ground and sing a new song.
5) This new song puts everyone within a five mile radius into a trance. Those that successfully resist the trance are then hunted down by those in the trance and killed. Once they've been purged, the tranced then carry the False Hydra to the next town, where it can continue to devour others to quell its endless appetite.

I had a character for a D&D campaign once that was a False Hydra survivor. His town was in the process of being devoured and his sister was one of the first victims. He and his family rationalized that she had gone off to join a nearby order of clerics but when she wasn't answering any of their letters, my character got suspicious. This plus the rampant paranoia he was experiencing and seemingly random quickly scrawled notes saying "beware the singing" and "i SAW it eat her", he decided to go consult with his sister. However, once he was outside of the False Hydra's range, all the memories suddenly unrepressed themselves and he realized the truth of what happened.

Some campaigns have the False Hydra permanently wipe memories, and a neat idea I'd had was to have a deaf NPC who everyone said was just the town crazy, but who actually was the only person in-town that knew the truth of the situation because, being deaf, they can't hear the song. Stuff like that I think could make for some interesting Stalkers campaign concepts, if I were to ever run one.