Who Goes There? A Slightly More Origional Game

[Reverend Joe]

I am currently in the process of writing a backstory for this game, based heavily upon the novella "Who Goes There?" and some elements from the 1981 "Thing" movie.

This will be a game in which people are not killed, but infected- but! the infected cannot spread the contagion, except for the origional infector (the target thing), and the in-game infected will not know who the others are, including who infected them. This is to simulate the fact that, despite the fact that the Things are telepathic (as in the novella), they take on the precise mannerisms of those they infect- and, just like men, they will work against one another to survive.

I will post the exact rules once the backstory is finished. Please note that I do not have the time to host this game (frankly, I have other things to do, such as study and experiment with mildly psychotropic substances- they're legal, don't worry!), so I must throw it to the mercy of whoever wants to host a new game. Good writers are recommended. The "mood" of the game will also be established in the intro. (Be warned, it might be rather long.)

[Reverend Joe]

As a shameless ploy to stir up some interest in this game, I have decdied to post the rules:

-There are a certain nimber of players, as per usual.

-One player will be randomly be chosen to be the "thing."

-The Thing will infect one person per turn until:
1. All people are infected.
2. The Thing is destroyed.

-When people are infected, they are not killed- but they cannot infect others. Instead, they become Thing clones. This is a result of the abnormal nature of the Thing; since the Thing was the only member of the crew to be directly infected by the origional organism (this will be explained in the backstory) it is the only one that can infect others. In order to allow it to produce true Things, it will have to spend around 48 hours to adopt its cells to the different coding system of Earth genes, which are different from its own. Because it would be easily discovered in this state, it has to either kill everyone else in the Crew (which would look very suspicious to any rescue team) or it must infect the rest of the crew.

-The infected Thing clones, as stated previously, cannot infect each other, but that's not all- despite continuing to participate as normal, THEY DO NOT KNOW WHO THE OTHER THINGS ARE, NOR DO THEY KNOW WHO THE THING IS. This is to reflect the nature of the things, which, as stated in the Novella, is to protect themelves, sometimes to the detriment of other things; also, the Things adopt the exact mental characteristics of those they imitate, so do not let on if you are infected. Continue as normal.

-Since the original Thing is the only potential infector and the only one who can adopt to Earth DNA, the game is over when it is killed.

The point of soem of the odder rules (keeping all players in the game) is that if one of the Thing clones is tested, it will respond in the same way as the true Thing. The test itself will be described in the Prologue- which is taking forever, sorry- so that the players will not know if they have killed the real thing at first. This will add some tension to the game, as they wait to hear if the menace is over. The best way to do this- though it would be up to the game Admin- would be to have someone announce that all the pure blood samples have been destroyed; and then have someone else figure out the blood-needle test.

Let me know what you all think.

[GoreBag]

It definitely sounds interesting, but I've never seen the film, so a lot of it is lost on me.

[Reverend Joe]

It definitely sounds interesting, but I've never seen the film, so a lot of it is lost on me.

Ah! Good point. I will post a link to the Novella:

Who Goes There?

It's a good red, albeit wierd, and it will explain the setting well.

Besides, if I ever finish the damn backstory, that will explain it as well.

[Reenk Roink]

Sign me up!

[discovery1]

I'm in.

[Myrddraal]

Read the novella. Interesting (though sometimes hard to follow the details of where people are for example)

Sounds cool.

Something that confuses me about the game is: What do people do once they're infected. If they can't infect more people, then what is their objective? To make sure the real thing doesn't get found? But then how can they do that if they don't know who that is...

[Reverend Joe]

It's a rather hard idea to really explain, but this is supposed to maximize the psychological aspect of the "Mafia" genre.

Basically, it is an attempt at recreating the atmosphere of "The Thing"; it is very experimental as well, and I don't know if it will work. It is really more of a roleplaying style than that of the traditional "Mafia."

In essence, if you are infected, you have a very serious paradox on your hands, because if the true Thing is killed, you will be rooted out at the end, during the hot needle test, and killed; thus, you "lose." On the other hand, there is the urge to save humanity, even though it means dying yourself. It forces the infected player to choose sides, which should have some interesting psychological repercussions.


By the way, I know I already stated this, but I want to make it as clear as possible:

I don't have the time to host a game like this! I have too much work on my hands at the moment. One of you will have to host the game.