🖤🩷🖤🪩 SHOWGOTHS 💀🖤🦑🖤

a TTRPG by @tiiimezombie

---

The rising darling of the deathrock scene, Shadows over Innsmouth, is finally playing at your local! Cover paid, sharply dressed and eyeliner flawless, you and your mates are a few pints into the good stuff when the crowd finally fills out. Strange thing though, the vibes are Unreal and not in the usual way.

Players, Create your Goths!

Favorite Color (pick 1): ebony, charcoal, onyx, jet black, licorice or pink

Look (pick 3): Heavy face makeup, several necklaces, choker, spiky bracelets, religious iconography, long nails, suit, corset, dress, fishnets, platform boots

Affinity (pick 1): Singing, Dancing, Drinking, Dressing (stylishly), Befriending

Pick a Number from 2 - 5. A low number means you’re better at Show (passion, bluster, distraction), while a high number means your skill is in Goth (calculation, restraint)

Finally, Name your goth.

Conflict Resolution

Start with 1D6

If you have an Affinity, add 1D

If you can use an Accessory, add 1D. Accessories are single use boons - they may be something you found on the dance floor, perhaps a favor you gained from a fellow bar hopper, or even the still-beating heart of tortured poet (metal!).

This is where your number comes in. For challenges involving Show, you’ll want to roll above your number. For challenges involving Goth, you'll aim below your number. Count how many dice match those criteria:

• 0 - you've failed and it's so, so cringe
• 1 - you succeed but a complication arises
• 2 - you succeed fully
• 3 - critical success! Your soul is on fire!

If any of the dice show your number, you've achieved ! The normal degree of success applies, but is inextricably linked to unfathomable powers-that-be. Additionally, the degree of is exponential by the number of dice show your number:

• 0 - outcome is mundane
• 1 - eyes bleed, layered speech, symbols etch
• 2 - the room shakes, eyes melt, bystander death is possible, levitation
• 3 - You hear the screams of the damned before seeing their melted faces and bloody wrists through the windows.

GM, Create the Situation

Itinerary:

1. Intro Scene: Friendly chit chat. Get drinks, make friends, get accessories. The band sets up.
2. First Song (HP Loved Kraftwerk): Dance, make friends, have fun
3. The Ritual (pick 2 of 8):
   1. The band disappears outside to kill a smoker
   2. Long prep where they write symbols and chant warm ups
   3. The band sings a song to summon a monster
   4. Several dancers prep a sacrifice on the floor
   5. Several dancers do a dance ritual
   6. A couple reads shite poetry in the stalls
   7. The bartender starts drawing symbols on the drink list
   8. The bartender adds hallucinogens to all future drinks
4. Dear God, the Beast(s)! (pick 1, but change it based on how they changed things):
   1. The band were monsters the whole time!
   2. The band collapses and a monster bursts from the ground where they stood
   3. A group of dancers merge into a monster
   4. A group of dancers become zombie-like, with symbols above/around them
   5. The bartender is a monster
   6. All alcohol coalesces into a monster
   7. A monster is summoned from the dance floor
   8. A monster comes in from down the street/through the roof
5. Return the Status Quo or Die Trying: Use violence, teamwork and possibly the power of dance.

---

This rpg is based on John Harper's Lasers & Feelings. Creepy Text generated using the Creepy Zalgo Text Generator.

© 2024. This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.