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1980s, 80s, B-movies, Eighties, Ghastly Affair, gothic game, Gothic Gaming, Gothic Horror, Gothick, Historical, Historical Gaming, Horror Movies, Late Night TV, New Wave Horror, Romantic Horror
This first draft of the Horror Host Class is intended for modern-era Ghastly Affair Sagas with a comedic edge. Humor has actually been a part of the Gothic tradition from the very beginning – besides out-and-out satires such as Thomas Love Peacock’s “Nighmare Abbey”, there are also moments of comedy in the original Gothic novel “The Castle of Otranto”. Even the “The Monk”, infamous for its gross-out horrors, contains intentionally funny situations. The 1980s, of course, were the Golden Age of Gothic Horror Comedy – including classic movies like “An American Werewolf in London”, “The Return of the Living Dead”, and “Fright Night”.
HORROR HOST (or Hostess)
You are a televangelist for the gospel of Horror cinema. Every week you lead your congregation of fans in late-night communion with the gods and goddesses of fright, who live now and forever in the movies. And as much as your fans love the movies themselves, they also love your skits and personal commentary. Sure, sometimes you treat the movies irreverently, or outright deride them. But you actually broadcast the flicks “legitimate” critics hate, and give them a life that they might otherwise never have.
Every Horror Host has a Broadcast Persona, and an Ordinary Persona. Your Broadcast Persona is the one that TV viewers see when they tune into your show, or meet when they encounter you at a Horror or Sci Fi convention. Your Ordinary Persona is the one you adopt when you must pay your bills, talk to your agent, or rent a motel room.
Which of your Personas is the real one? Are you the character your fans see on TV, who must sometimes pretend to be an ordinary person? Or are you an actor who must sometimes pretend to be a strange character? In truth, you are both a creature of the night and a denizen of the day, inhabiting the same body.
Use the Horror Host Class to create characters inspired by such real-life figures as Elvira, Joe Bob Briggs, and Son of Svengoolie, or by such fictional Horror Hosts as Peter Vincent (from “Fright Night”), Medusa (from “TerrorVision”), or Zombo (from the TV show “The Munsters”).
HORROR HOST SPECIAL ABILITIES
DEMONOLOGY (+1)
Your encyclopedic knowledge of Horror movies (and fiction) makes you able to recognize the Powers of Darkness, and know how to defeat them. You can make an Intelligence Check with a +1 Bonus to know:
- if you are facing a preternatural creature (even if disguised),
- the type of creature faced,
- if the creature is higher or lower Level than yourself,
- the creature’s name, if it is famous,
- a bit of information useful to defeating a recognized creature.
DUAL IDENTITY
Decide the names and appearances of both your Broadcast Persona, and your Ordinary Persona.
- Your two Personas are the same height, and share the same Basic Abilities, but do not need to be the same apparent gender.
- While you are in Broadcast Persona you can use your Preternatural Power – but will not be taken seriously by most people, or in most social contexts outside of a Horror / Sci Fi convention.
- You can intentionally change Personas twice a day, but you always change into your Ordinary Persona at dawn.
- Hit Point damage suffered by one Persona is completely healed when you transform into the other one.
- Likewise, any Preternatural Effects (including Curses and diseases of Preternatural origin) are ended once you change from one Persona to another.
- Your Broadcast Persona could be a zombie cheerleader, a sexy vampire, a fearless vampire hunter, a lovable ghoul, a creepy cowboy, a disco-dancing werewolf, or almost anyone else you can imagine people wanting to stay up all night to watch!
- Note that while you actually transform from your Ordinary Persona to your Broadcast Persona (and Preternaturally manifest any necessary clothing), your Broadcast Persona always looks like makeup and a silly costume. Anyone who tries to remove off your apparent makeup, however, will find that it won’t come off for them – no matter how hard they try!
- If your Broadcast Persona is monstrous, then monsters of that type will actually accept you as one of their own – so long as you don’t attack them or return to your Ordinary Persona! For example, if you are a “zombie cheerleader” in your Broadcast Persona, actual Zombies will allow you to move among them unharmed. Similarly, if your Broadcast Persona is a particular type of person (such as a biker or cowboy), people of that type will accept you as one of them, until you become your Ordinary Persona again.
LOYAL FOLLOWING (+1)
If you are in your Broadcast Persona, and in an area where your television show might be seen (or at a Horror / Sci Fi convention), you may make a Charisma Check (with a +1 Bonus) to see if someone you encounter is part of your Loyal Following.
- You may attempt the Charisma Check as many times per Affair as your Level.
- If the Check succeeds, the person recognizes you as the beloved Horror Host that makes their late nights complete. They will thereafter help you in any way they can – even if they had been previously sent by someone else to kidnap or kill you.
- It is even possible for supernatural creatures who might conceivably watch television – such as Vampyres and Werewolves – to be be part of your Loyal Following!
- Note that having a Loyal Following does not necessarily mean you are well-paid by your TV station!
PRETERNATURAL POWER
Choose a Preternatural Power from the list of Preternatural Effects in the Ghastly Affair Player’s Manual. You can even choose a Power normally reserved for Vampyres. You can use this Power only when you are in your Broadcast Persona.
- Each time you use your Preternatural Power, you suffer Hit Point damage equal to its Level.
- You should choose a Preternatural Power consistent with the concept of your Broadcast Persona. For example, if your Broadcast Persona is a “sexy vampire”, then choose a Power such as Hypnotism. If your Broadcast Persona is “fearless vampire hunter”, choose a Power such as Consecrate Object.
- Remember that all the Hit Point damage you suffer from using your Preternatural Power is healed when you assume your Ordinary Persona – but then you also lose the ability to use your Power!
PROFESSIONAL ACTOR (+1)
When you are in your Ordinary Persona (but not in your Broadcast Persona), you get a +1 Bonus on Ability Checks to do such things as:
- Give an exceptionally good acting performance.
- Tell a passable lie.
- Disguise yourself.
- Remember things.
- Seduce those who have seen your Ordinary Persona in an acting role.
HORROR HOST WEAKNESSES
BROADCAST OBLIGATION
Choose the title of your show, and a 4-hour block of time during the week when it is filmed. Your show could be broadcast live overnight on a Friday or Saturday, or actually taped anytime on a weekday. But you must always show up at the television studio up to fulfill your “Broadcast Obligation” – whether or not you also need to save the world that night.
- If you fail to fulfill your Broadcast Obligation, you lose the ability to assume your “Broadcast Persona” (and use your “Preternatural Power”), unless and until you show up to fulfill it next week.
- If your show gets unfairly canceled by some greedy corporate jerk you doesn’t understand the importance of what you do, your Broadcast Obligation is suspended. However, you must take the next available opportunity to get back on the air again in your Broadcast Persona.
FAN REQUEST
Before the start of every new Affair your Broadcast Persona will receive a Fan Request asking for your help. The person making the request is well-connected in your fandom, and ignoring it could be detrimental to your career. The request in this letter or phone call could become the beginning of the Affair to come – or a potentially dangerous distraction from it.
- If you ignore your Fan Request you lose the Special Ability “Loyal Following”, until such time as you actually contact the fan and address their concern.
- You may also get letters from fans who claim to be in love with you, but you don’t need to address those. In fact, it’s probably better that you don’t!
The contents of a Fan Request is determined with a d20:
- Please come to my school and make my bully stop harassing me.
- Please come to my school and show the girl/boy I like that I’m cool.
- Please come to my school and talk to the class during an Assembly.
- Please come to my house and convince my parents to let me watch Horror movies without sneaking around.
- Please come speak at our local Horror / Sci Fi convention.
- Please come march in a local parade.
- Please stop by my store or business.
- Please come see my movie.
- Please come by a local radio station for an on-air interview.
- Please appear in a commercial for my business (or charity).
- Please come and appear at a party.
- Please come by the local Police Station, because we need your help with a case.
- Please come help me fight a real Vampyre!
- Please come help me fight real Werewolves!
- Please help me, someone I love is possessed by a Demon!
- Please help me, I’m being targeted by Extraterrestrials!
- Please help me, my neighbor is a crazed Serial Killer!
- Please help me, my neighbors are part of a murderous Satanic Cult!
- Please help me, I’ve seen real Zombies (or Ghouls)!
- Please help me, there’s a Monster hiding in (or near) my house!
SUGGESTED ASSETS FOR HORROR HOSTS
Attractive to Fairy Folk, Beautiful / Handsome (even in Broadcast Persona), Charming, Gift for Languages, Good Driver, Good Singing Voice, Lucky at Love, Master of Disguise, Mechanical Genius, Musical, No Fear of … (something frightening), Sharp Eyes, Special Knowledge (choose field), Talent For Demonology, Well Spoken, Wily.
SUGGESTED AFFLICTIONS FOR HORROR HOSTS
Addicted to… (substance), Afraid of… (something common), Bad Driver, Bad Judge of Character, Bad Shot, Creepy Presence, Elderly, Has-Been Actor, Lame, Lost Love, No Head For.. (a common filed of knowledge), Perpetually Broke, Sensitive to Alcohol, Sleazy, Unlucky at Love.
INITIAL ABILITY ADJUSTMENT FOR HORROR HOSTS
- Charisma +1, Intelligence +1.
HORROR HOST HIT POINTS PER LEVEL
- d6 Hit Points at 1st Level.
- You gain an additional d6 Hit Points per Level
HORROR HOST DAMAGE BONUS BY CHARACTER LEVEL
- 1st Level: None
- 2nd Level: +1
- 3rd Level: +1
- 4th Level: +1
- 5th Level: +2
- 6th Level: +2
- 7th Level: +2
- 8th Level: +3
- 9th Level: +3
- 10th Level: +3
TYPICAL STARTING EQUIPMENT FOR HORROR HOSTS
- ordinary clothes.
- latest issue of “Fangoria” magazine.
- script for a B-movie, such as “Machine-Gun P.T.A. versus the Sorority Row Strangler”.
- your first fan-letter, folded up in your wallet or purse.
- SAG card.
- driver’s license under your Ordinary Persona. (Technically, your Broadcast Persona is not licensed to drive.)
- wallet picture of your family, with your ex-spouse’s face ripped away.
- pack of cigarettes.
- coffee, in a disposable cup marked “We Are Happy to Serve You”.
- flask of whiskey.
- bar napkin with a water-smeared phone number on it.
- sunglasses.
- makeup kit.
- stake & mallet.
- 1 silver bullet.
- paperback edition of a medieval Grimoire, with numerous coffee stains.
- pawn ticket for a piece of jewelry you hocked to pay some overdue bills.
- small pistol.
- ticket to an upcoming Horror or Sci Fi conventions.
- van, hearse, or “bug” car, with a bad muffler.
ADVANCING IN LEVELS AS A HORROR HOST
- 8 Experience Points to attain 2nd Level.
- 4 additional Experience Points are needed to attain each Level after 2nd.
HORROR HOSTS IN OTHER TIMES
Naturally, the Horror Host is just as much at home during the Groovy Era of the 1960s and 70s as in the Awful Eighties. This is the era of such legends as Zacherly, Chilly Billy (who also appeared in “Night of the Living Dead”), and the original Svengoolie. A Horror Host in this era might work for one of the television stations along the Uncanny Highway.