Both Needed Not just characters, GENERATIONS wanted! (Betrayal: Legacy)

[FangtasticFrau]

In the remote countryside of the New World:

The homestead sits atop a hill. The family that lived here died of a pox; father, mother, son, daughter... though the girl's body was never found. Carried off by wolves, some say.
There are also stories about the family finding a chalice while building the house. A chalice sounds valuable. Maybe there are treasures here still?
You're not the only one with this idea; other families have come exploring as well. You all claim you've come to honor the dead, but as you crowd together upstairs, the wary glances make it plain... no one is fooled.​

This is an interest-gauging post, so whether it goes forward depends a lot on how many people are excited about the concept. If there's strong interest immediately from four or more people, I might just jump right in, which should land some of play squarely in October. The best part is--even if I were (heaven forbid) in some terrible accident, someone else could carry on because the source material is easily accessible. Similarly, if someone tries a few chapters in the campaign and doesn't like it or becomes very busy, someone else could continue that family's story. The concept's pretty bulletproof.

So, there's this board game called "Betrayal at House on the Hill" which has a Legacy Edition. No no wait, I swear, this is interesting! It's a SPOOKY board game, whose story elements and physical pieces change based on the results and consequences of a campaign you play through! Imagine House of Leaves + Lovecraft + Hammer Horror movies and you've got the right idea. It'll be similar to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem to a degree, if you know that game. BL too keeps you on the edge of your seat for the characters you love, and the official campaign covers the years between 1666 and 2004.

Rather than individuals, you will create up to 14 people in a family tree; ideally one at a time, so each person can be shaped by their ancestors' experiences. They will explore an ominous mansion of dubious origin. We can have relationships between characters who survive to old age, secret family connections, tragic lost loves... there's a lot of potential for generational trauma and drama, she said cheerfully! Death traps characters as ghosts, so they could pop up in the next episode... whether for pathos and poignance, to warn their friends, or in the hopes of watching their killer face justice decades after their demise.

I will be using a virtual copy of the Legacy edition to build out a sort of Deluxe version for us, and will embellish on the original while still staying faithful to it (unless I get four people who are very supportive of infidelity to the source material). The layout of the titular House in BaHotH is unique every time you play; you discover it as you go by choosing a floor to explore and a direction to go, sort of like the old Zork text adventure games. You'll discover strange locations, encounter disturbing events, acquire powerful artifacts, and be haunted by strange omens.

One characteristic of Betrayal gives the game its name: each time you discover an Omen, you make a Haunt roll. This roll, as well as what triggered it, governs what happens next. Always, there is a Betrayal! Either the House itself betrays you, or more likely, a Traitor walks amongst you, whether known or hidden--and it's not always the person who triggered the Haunt. That is governed by the locations, and the house's mysterious Omens...

A few mechanical notes:

• There are five families. If you have a roleplaying friend, you can share; collaborate to take turns creating descendants if desired. Working with other players to establish past connections is also great. I'm going to explain how stats work, but I'll be managing logistics, so the important thing is just to have some idea of how it all works, and what your family's good at.
• You begin each chapter of the story as a probably-new character, choosing name and age, and those who survive will be told how many years passed between chapters. Sexual themes could happen as I plan to run this in the Dark Alley forum due to its horror, but of course only for adults. A cutesy kid-on-kid romance which blossoms into more some decades later is A-okay, though.
• You can flesh your character out as much as you like, but just bear in mind--none of us (including me) will know their fate in advance. Any of the characters could be cast in the role of hero, traitor, a mere survivor of the horror, or a tragic victim taken too soon who prompts the others to get revenge. If you do meet a fairly quick fate, I'll try to make the chapter still feel worthwhile for you.
• Dice rolls are important in the game. Each die has three possible results: 0, 1, or 2. Sometimes you'll take "one die" of damage. This means you may take 0, 1, or 2 points of damage to a stat. If you take mental or physical damage, you can sink it into either of your mental or physical stats. If you take "general damage," you can sink that damage into any of your stats.
• You have four stats: Knowledge and Sanity, your mental stats; and Might and Speed, your physical stats. These stats range from 2-8. They govern how many dice you can roll, and can be improved or reduced from their starting value within those 8 slots, or settle on the skull value, which means you are dead. I will warn you when your character is at critical status in a trait.
• No trait can hit the skull value until after the Haunt begins! During the exploration phase, you are protected from decreases past your traits' lowest values. You can only die during the Haunt.
• Example of trait ranges: Your Speed stat range looks like this: 4 4 4 6 7 7 8 8. The lowest value of any stat is always between 2-4, so this is a strong trait for you. Even if critical, you still roll 4 dice for Speed. You only need 4 stat increases to roll max dice. On the other hand, your Sanity range is 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6. On critical status, you roll only two dice; when maxed, you only roll 6. Your Sanity trait is weak, but unlike your Speed your Sanity is resilient, meaning it can decrease 3 times instead of the usual 2.
• Each family crest card has a separate trait list which you can consider your family's genetics. The Blue Owl family excels in Knowledge and struggles a bit with physical stats. The Purple Wave family is weak in Knowledge, resilient in Might, strong in Sanity, and alongside the Blue Owl family has the highest starting values. The Golden Sun family is more of an all-rounder, with Speed being its most resilient trait. The Green Bird family is strong in Speed and good with Knowledge. Sanity and Might max out at 6. The Red Stag family has the weakest starting values. Knowledge is its weakest stat. Physical stats are resilient and it excels in Might. So in short, Blue is smart, Purple is sane, Green is fast, Red is strong, and Gold is balanced.
• Items you find can be heirloomed. This means that it will either have a bonus when used by your family, or any penalties on its operation will be reduced.
• When someone dies, their ghost can manifest to the living in the room where they perished. This ghost can affect events and items which take place on the tile. You're welcome to roleplay any past characters if someone enters their death room. Ghosts can talk to each other as well, but shouldn't try to affect living characters' stats.

Note that even if you've seen or played this game before, like watching the colorful Smosh playthrough, the first three chapters after the prologue have 2 possible Haunts, while 8 other chapters have 3 possible Haunts. There's almost no chance you've already seen everything the game has to offer! Especially because I'll be adding so much flavor text not in the original story, attempting to tie all the elements together even more.

So, any interest? Feel free to respond right here if your questions might be helpful to others! DMs are fine as well if your thoughts are more private; like if you know a lot about the story already and you'd rather talk with someone who knows the game where no one else could be spoiled. If you're sure this game's for you, tell me which crest you'd like to choose and what ideas you have for your first character and their family. Should I get a lot more takers than expected, I might ask for writing samples or character concepts to narrow it down to those who'd be the best fit, but that seems like a longshot.

And hell, if enough people don't make it into the first round or like the concept but just won't have time anytime soon, maybe I'll run this again in fall of 2027. (Damn, I hope this doesn't become horribly ironic after I meet some ghoulish fate. Writing this out has made me paranoid.)

Well anyway, cheers! Thanks for reading, and blessings upon us all. May we not run afoul of the judging wolf. (If that sounds weird, it'll make sense later, I promise!)