The Cabin in the Woods RPG

Whew, this blog started out pretty well, then I suddenly stopped posting! I know I know, shame on me. But I have been working A LOT. But in between all this working I did manage to make some time for fun. How did I spend this recreation time you ask? well I went to the cinema to see The Cabin in the Woods, and oh boy did I enjoy it. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I decided to adapt its awesomeness into RPG form. My goal is a simple game that doesn't require too much prep time. I will be using the Unbelievably Simple Role-playing (or USR for short) system made by Scott Malthouse of Trollish Delver which can be downloaded for free here!


First of all I will say that if you haven't seen The Cabin in the Woods (well, for shame..) then get the hell out of your house and go watch it. Right now. Its awesome.


For those of you who didn't listen to my command and still plan on seeing the movie then I implore you to wait until after you do before you read this post  - it will still be here, promise - as it will ruin the greatness of the movie, as it contains lots and lots and lots of spoilers. Right, now that we have that out of the way, lets dive right in.

The Setup

You need  a GM (referred to as The Puppeteer), plus 3-5 players (ideally). The players play one of five characters, or sacrifices. These are, The Warrior, The Whore, The Scholar, The Fool and the The Virgin. In a game with five players all the sacrifices can be played but if you don't have that many then just make sure at least one person plays as The Virgin (she is important). 

Whats gonna happen

Its simple, a group of teenagers decides to go to a cabin in the woods for a holiday (you could always substitute cabin in the woods with anywhere else), once there, they are subtlety (or not) convinced to go into the basement (or where ever else...you get the idea) and in there they find certain items that will decide what horror is inflicted upon them. The teenagers try to escape while their friends are savagely ripped to pieces. Unbeknownst to them there is a whole team of people working in the background, manipulating their every move, all in order to appease ancient gods with sacrifices in their name. See what I meant about the spoilers. 

The Puppeteer

The role of the Puppeteer is slightly nontraditional in that their job is to kill The Sacrifices in gruesome and hilarious ways. So they are very much against The Sacrifices. That being the case, unlike GM's in most games, The Puppeteer is restricted by more rules, making them more like a player themselves. 

As The Puppeteer you take on the role of a team of mysterious agents working to avoid the rise of The Ancient Ones, gods that lived on the earth long ago and must be sated with sacrifices or they will get off their lazy asses and destroy, well....everything. So you know, its a pretty important job. 

Using super high-tech, impossible stuff you can see everything that The Sacrifices do from any angle and have control over almost every aspect of the environment. Yes you are awesome. Though this doesn't mean you have supreme power and anything you say goes, there must be a chance for The Sacrifices to succeed, a chance for you to fail. To achieve this, whenever you do anything that will influence what The Sacrifices will do, have them make a uncontested attribute test on the appropriate attribute and difficulty. Here are some examples: 

• Alter Mood: You have the character inhale some kind of impossible gas that causes their mood to change. You could make a Sacrifice more aggressive, calmer  or even horny. The impact of these changes should be decided during play by the player and GM but a test must be done to see if the attempt to change The Sacrifices mood works. To do this have the player make a Hard Uncontested Attribute Test on Wits. If they succeed they aren't effected by the gas and are instead left wondering what they just smelt.
• Manipulate Environment: You can manipulate much of the environment, what exactly will depend on your location but keep it simple. You can make lights flicker, open doors, make spooky sounds, stuff like that. These manipulations could have various effects on The Sacrifices, these are things you will have to decide for yourself, but here is an example: You make a spooky sound from the basement, some people would never go near it but some peoples interest would be peaked. So by making the sound you would have The Sacrifices make a Wits test to see if they become curious and feel compelled to investigate the noise.

Just figure out the outcomes of what you do amongst yourselves. Think what would be the appropriate reaction be for that player, each have fairly distinct personalities so it shouldn't be too difficult. 

And of course as The Puppeteer you have control over what ever horror The Sacrifices bring upon themselves. The monster(s) of choice to massacre The Sacrifices could literally be anything you want, but here are a few examples:

Cannibal Redneck Zombies 

Caleb-Zombie

Action: d10

Wits: d6

Ego: d8

Specialisms

Action - Chain-Hook (+2), Durable (+2)

Patience-Zombie

Action:  d6

Wits: d8

Ego: d10

Specialisms

Wits - Silent Shamble (+2)

Werewolf

Action: d10

Wits: d8

Ego: d6

Specialisms

Action - Super Fast (+2)

Terrifying Howl - The Sacrifices make a medium difficulty uncontested attribute test, if they fail they are paralyzed by fear for one round. 

As you can see monsters (and characters) in USR are very simple, but its also easy to come up with awesome and imaginative ways to use the rules. The examples above are very simple ones just to give you an idea of what you should be doing.  

The final thing The Puppeteer has to control is the items which The Sacrifices will find and determine what monstrous thing will butcher them. These items could be anything at all. The Sacrifices might discover and mess around with these items by themselves but if they need a bit of a push you can always say tell the player that their Sacrifice is compelled to look at a specific object because of their personality, they could always make a Wits test to see if they decide against their natural curiosity.

The Sacrifices 

The Warrior
This Sacrifice is the typical jock, he's tall, he's charming, he's strong and athletic. He plays sports and is far too confident for his own good. He's also not too bright. He is most likely to face danger head on, rushing in rather than thinking.

Action: d10
Wits: d6
Ego: d8
Specialisms:
Action - Throwing (+2), Endurance (+2) 
Ego - Leadership (+2)

The Whore
This Sacrifice is the typical cheerleader, she is attractive, charismatic, and a bitch. She thinks she is better than any one who isn't trying to be her. She values looks over anything else. When in danger she will look to anyone else to protect her.

Action: d6
Wits: d8
Ego: d10
Specialisms:
Action - Gymnastics (+2)
Ego - Manipulative (+2), Seduction (+2)


The Scholar 
This Sacrifice is the nerd of the group. He is a nice guy willing to help others. He is smart and fast thinking but isn't very strong. When in danger he will try to think of a plan rather than fight right away.

Action: d6
Wits: d10
Ego: d8
Specialisms:
Wits - Observation (+2), Foreign Language (+2)
Ego - Empathetic (+2)


The Fool
This Sacrifice is the simpleton of the group, he is neither fast acting or cowardly. He is most likely to follow the lead of others. His lack of thought on what is happening can often lead to a certain clarity that others don't see. When faced with danger he will fight with little thought of his own or others safety.

Action: d10
Wits: d6
Ego: d8
Specialisms:
Action -  Endurance (+2)
Wits - Sneaky (+2)
Ego - Endearing (+2)


The Virgin
This Sacrifice is the innocent. She is very trusting and naive to how the world works. She is likely to panic when in danger making her fairly unpredictable. In this game, The Virgin is the only Sacrifice which doesn't have to die, as long as her death or lack thereof happens last.

Action: d6
Wits: d10
Ego: d8  
Specialisms:
Action - Running (+2)
Ego - Trustworthy (+2), Musician (+2)


Each player should come up with a name for their Sacrifice and add any more details they would like (more the better). You could always make your own Sacrifices with your own spin on each of the roles.

Playing the game

It is The Puppeteer's aim to kill The Sacrifices but The Virgin must either be the last to die or survive, or the ritual fails and the world ends. But don't worry too much about that part if it is ruining the fun. 

The way I see this playing out is using a map of the cabin with miniatures so that everyone can know exactly where everything is. Though keeping the monsters off the map when The Sacrifices don't know where they are may be a good idea to prevent meta gaming and put a bit more surprise and horror into the game. 

There will be a need for a lot of role-playing, requiring the players to really get into character and have a real need to survive. 

This is just a quick idea I threw together and it certainly isn't anything close to perfect but I still think it could be a lot of fun. I will hopefully get a chance to play this some time soon and when I do I will put up a write up of how it went. 

Anyway, what do you think? like the idea? plan on playing it yourself? whatever your opinion I would love to know.