Blood!: Black Mass

We live in ‘interesting times’, as they say. There’s a confluence of all kinds of factors along lines of race, gender and politics that haven’t been as important or as visible as they are now since the 1980s. Racism – in all directions – rears its ugly head in part because of increasing poverty, in part because people seem to want things to be bad so that they have something meaningful to fight. Relativism and postmodern thinking appears to hold sway in much academic discourse, even redefining the very meanings of terms like ‘racism’ and ‘sexism’ to excuse the hypocrisy of many who prosecute those agendas.

Horror is often a good place to explore ‘what ifs’ and to challenge dominant paradigms.

What if, for example, there were such a thing as an inferior culture? What if there were such a thing as a primitive culture? What if there was a savagery that wasn’t noble? What if there were people that didn’t give a damn about ‘white saviours’ with social justice degrees. Who did set up their own parallel societies and laws.

What if every idiotic, paranoid fantasy the xenophobic right ever had about immigrants were embodied in one terrifying instance.

This adventure for Blood! is a sort of urban ‘Green Inferno’ or ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ meets ‘The Raid’. Don’t let on to your players however…

This adventure gives you a ‘playground’ for an adventure and a cast of characters. How you play with it is, however, your own decision. A recommended path is also provided to describe how an adventure might be run, but in the end it’s up to you.

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. A horror scenario. It contains material of questionable morals and horrible nastiness. Don’t assume writing this is an endorsement of any such views. Like all good horror it’s about playing on and subverting people’s fears and expectations.

Rough as Toast

‘Rough as Toast’ is my imprint for ‘cheap and nasty’ products. Things that are a bit more experimental, silly or “hit and miss” where a lot of money can’t be spent or risked on a bit of an ‘out there’ idea. If you see that marker, you know you’re getting something a little ‘wacky’ or uncertain, but you will probably get some fun out of it.

Schlocktoberfest

The Pulps were churned out at a massive rate of knots. Strange and silly ideas thrown at the wall to see what stuck. Occasionally some of those ideas turned out to have legs – legs that are still carrying them nearly a hundred years later. My intent with Schlocktoberfest (previously just a sale some years back) is to just throw a bunch of monsters, ideas and other bits and pieces at the ‘wall’ and see what sticks. Maybe something will.