I'm stuck home with a cold, and I've been reading an old book I found in my library, probably belonging to a friend who left me a several boxes of books about eight years ago, as he hurriedly left town to pursue a career opportunity in Denmark.*
It's a collection of M. R. James's ghost stories, which I had never read before (I know, shame on me!).
Mine is a cheap edition and probably not the best translation around (or at least I hope there's a better one!), but still decent for a few evenings' entertainment. It also gets (dubious) bonus points for being yellowed, old and stinky, like the ancient manuscripts featured in most of its stories...
I'm finding the stories quite enjoyable, and a perfect match for the early autumn weather.
I'm also finding they are very good for reaping ideas for certain types of horror RPGs!
Eldritch Tales is one of many intriguing alternatives to the obvious Call of Cthulhu...
Each story has a mystery going on, and such mystery involves a cursed object, manuscript, book, piece of furniture, architectural element, etc, and the background of the thing is discovered by the protagonists by investigating ancient libraries, diaries, letters, archives and local superstitions. In most cases, the protagonists are professors, antiquarians, scholars who discover (and occasionally re-awaken!) horrors that took place one or two centuries before. Does that sound familiar?
Several stories even include some kind of puzzle (the most famous probably is the FUR FLA FLE BIS latin gimmick on a templars' dogwhistle) ready to be stolen by GMs.
What got me thinking they could be good inspiration for horror RPGs is that the stories are simple. To the point that they occasionally are too simple to really be an interesting read.
But playing horror/investigation RPGs for years has taught me something: you don't need complex mysteries, you need simple ones. Your players aren't detectives, they are just your players!
Two pieces of advice for horror GMs I read years ago have stuck in my head (I'm sorry to say I have no idea who should be credited). EDIT: a reader pointed me to the source of the following "rule of three", this post from The Alexandrian blog.
The first is the rule of three: prepare three different ways for the players to find a clue. They are not detectives, they are probably going to miss one, and misinterpret another. Having a third one should be enough... So for example if the players should investigate the missing person's uncle, you should have his name pop up into three different ways, not just one.
The second advice is, well, good for when even the rule of three fails! If players are stuck and don't know how to proceed with their investigation, that's the time for the bad guys (or the supernatural thing) to strike... and leave a new clue behind. To continue the example: they missed uncle Bob? The next day, he's on the news as he's disappeared too, in similar circumstances!
Both these tricks seem to be at work for M. R. James's protagonists. They are not detectives themselves. They are just curious people who stumble upon some inexplicable events, and spend some time investigating documents and places and making questions... sometimes to their own demise.
I can certainly recommend James's stories to any horror fan who's never read them, and even more to GMs of horror/investigation games in need of fresh ideas.
*I just realized with amusement, rereading the post, that this incipit itself sounds quite Jamesy!
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