Undead Anonymous Week Concludes: The Hive Mind

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile." Star Trek: First Contact

When dealing with large groups of people, there is always going to be at least one person whose views vary from the rest of the herd. Some may be the weaker members that are mistreated by the others. Others may have joined with certain ideals, only to see the group shift away from those precepts over time. Some may be in the group solely due to peer pressure. Regardless of the circumstance, no group is truly monolithic in it's views. This allows for some drama as the heroes, or villains, attempt to exploit the one outsider in the group to help them achieve their goals. A mistreated villain may show sympathy to the heroes and give them the means to escape a deadly situation. On the other hand, an overlooked hero may be tempted by the villains to join up with them where he would be "appreciated". In games, the presence of these characters allow for the players to come up with non-combat means of achieving their goals. If they can just find that one sympathetic ear in the crowd, they may be able to talk their way out of this one.

But what if a group was truly monolithic in it's views. Where there was total uniformity in belief and action? Where the concept of the individual is an anomaly, there is only the group. Suddenly you are truly faced with a truly frightening situation, confrontation with a group that cannot be negotiated with, cannot be reasoned with and cannot be be dealt with without conflict or surrender. This uniformity is the hive mind, named for the behavior of certain insects. The hive mind is frighteningly efficient, due to the fact that there are no individuals in the group who may have ulterior motives to hinder the group effort. The most famous example in fiction is the Borg Collective from Star Trek: The Next Generation, a group that seeks perfection by forcibly assimilating other species and their technology into the hive mind. Unsurprisingly, it was only with the introduction of the Borg Queen, an individual within the group, that the Borg went from frightening menace to cannon fodder for the cast of Voyager.

As a villain, the hive mind provides a disturbing picture. As previously mentioned, there are no individuals for the heroes to find a sympathetic ear. Killing a few members will only send the rest of the group after them in full force. Adaptation to a threat is swift, there is no discussion within to delay things. And perhaps the scariest part of it all, is that no matter what the heroes do, the enemy's numbers continue to grow as new members are born into, or assimilated by, the group as a whole.

Undead Anonymous the Fourth: Ambush Predators

Old-school horror movies used the sudden shock of the killer jumping out of the bushes to put a fright into the audience. The terror of Jaws came from having what appeared to be a peaceful day at the beach turn into a nightmare as the shark pulled its victims underwater. These killers are called ambush predators, due to the fact that they lie in wait for their prey to come into range before lashing out with quick and deadly aggression. Many exist in real life such as sharks, alligators, spiders and many birds of prey.

The key element of ambush predators is that they strike only once, intending to either kill their prey outright or to drag them away to a safe place to finish them off. They simply do not continue their assault if the first strike is unsuccessful, choosing instead to retreat and wait for an easier target. This kind of enemy usually has good camouflage abilities or lives in an area where there are plenty of hiding places. Monsters such as piercers, lurkers above, and landsharks can be used as fantasy ambush predators. Mundane creatures such as octopi, alligators and large birds can also fit the bill as well. As long as the players don't see it coming, you can have them on edge.

Undead Anonymous Week Part III: Summoners

I say "a wizard that uses powerful magic to raise an army of minions", and you say...

Sorry folks, this week "necromancer" is the wrong answer.

Undead Anonymous Week Continues: Vermin

There's something about vermin that makes a person's skin crawl. By definition, vermin are animals regarded as a pest or nuisance in a given geographical area. They are usually able to thrive at the expense of other animals and are associated with filth and disease. It's not unusual to see spider decorations during Halloween, and rats are commonly seen in the dungeons of many castles. Considering the word has it's roots in the Latin word for worm, it is no wonder these things give us the creeps.

Fantasy games has vermin of all sizes. Rats the size of dogs in dungeons, man-sized spiders in the forests catching halflings in their webs, and of course the lowly rot grub. However, these creatures are rarely used to full effect in role-playing. Here are a few thoughts on a few dirty tricks to use when these "monsters" come up.

1. Death from Above- Insects and arachnids are known for climbing up walls. Rats have also been seen crawling along pipes and beams up near the ceiling. If one of these things wanted to attack, the best way to do so would be to drop down on an unsuspecting party. The surprise mechanic is a GMs friend.
2. Getting into Tight Spaces- So that fist-sized spider dropped down and scored a hit on your plate mail-clad fighter. How would the player react when, on the next round, it crawled underneath the breastplate and down the character's chest. Think about how people react when a normal bug is crawling on them, and take it up to 11.
3. Remember the Filth Factor- Disease doesn't get played up in RPGs very much. Possibly because there isn't as much drama in combating the plague as there is trying to find the antidote to a rare poison. But it should be a possibility nonetheless. You don't even have to use it on the PCs right away. For example, their torchbearer could get bitten by a rat and succumb to a disease. The PCs then get to see the effects of the disease first hand without being taken out of the game right away. Then, on the next rat encounter, they may take the fight a bit more seriously.

Again, just another alternative to the living dead. The real world has enough stuff to unnerve us without having to resort to magic. But tomorrow, we look at a spell-slinging class that can fill the role of the Creepy Big Bad that can raise an army in an instant, only without the need to raid of graveyard.

Tomorrow: Summoners!

Undead Anonymous Week Begins: Golems and Other Automatons

Hi, my name is David. I am a GM, and I have overused the undead as adversaries in role-playing games.

I'm sick of zombies.

I'm sick of vampires.

I'm sick of ghouls, which everyone else calls zombies but we know what they really are.

Popular culture has developed an Undead Bubble. The glut of zombie films and vampire romance novels have diluted the concept of the walking dead as a threat. We've seen it all before: get the priest, aim for the head, kill it with fire, yadda yadda yadda. It is amazing how something that by definition is unnatural has become so... mundane. For an RPG, the use of undead in an adventure just doesn't have the same level of menace that it used to. We need something new to put our players on edge. Or at the very least, to use what else is already available to scare the crap out of them.

Undead Anonymous Week Next Week.

Back in April, I mentioned that I thought we needed to give the undead a rest. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a zombified cat chasing a vampire mouse these days. Personally, I think there are other ways to scare your PCs. So next week I will be throwing out my ideas for creeping out people without resorting to the living dead. Basically, I need an excuse to blog. So in lieu of another blog challenge or better yet actually getting an active game going, I have made up another topics a la Hitting the Bottle Week. Here goes nothin'.