Games Design: [Dead of Night 2] Monstrous Archetypes

What with Malcolm's thread about monsters in Hot War, we must have monsters on the brain here at the Collective Endeavour. I'm working on the second edition of Dead of Night at the moment, my game of b-movie horror. Amongst the many refinements, one of the things I want to do is to streamline the way monsters are handled. Rather than have a vague system of creating a monster and a grab-bag of samples, some more handy than others, I've worked up a list of monstrous archetypes that each encompass a different type of monster.

I''ve managed to narrow the list to nine archetypes, and I'm fairly sure that you can fit most monsters into one of the archetypes. So, with that in mind, can you think of any monsters that I haven't accounted for? Any archetypes that seem redundant or superfluous?

The Unstoppable Killer – a relentless foe that can neither be reasoned with nor killed. Eg. Friday 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Jaws.

The Ghost – an entity that returned from the grave to haunt the living. Eg. Poltergeist, the Haunting.

The Hunter – a monster that might pass as normal, but feeds upon humans. Eg. Dracula, the Faculty.

The Beast Within – a creature with two faces that cannot help the monster it becomes. Eg. Dog Solders, Ginger Snaps.

The Witch – the seemingly harmless person who wields malevolent power. Eg. The Omen, the Blair Witch Project.

The Impostor – a monster that masquerades as somebody else. Eg. Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, the Exorcist.

The Horde – an implacable, endless tide of monsters. Eg. Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later.

The Formless Horror – the environment itself is the monstrous horror. Eg. the Mist.

The Thing from Beyond – an unknowable alien entity with an unfathomable motive. Eg. Alien, the Thing.

Monsters on the brain indeed. And, I may pinch some of your thoughts too boot!

Regarding the list, where would the Giant Monster (Gojira, Cloverfield, etc) fit on this list? I can see it being The Thing from Beyond or perhaps the Unstoppable Killer, but perhaps it needs something a little more specific. DoN can easily do monster movies, so it might be worth thinking about. As a qualification to this, though, is that a direction you want to go in?

Cheers
Malcolm

In my mind I've always lumped the giant-sized monster in with the Unstoppable Killer - implacable with a relentless desire to kill and destroy. Whilst I've never ran DoN as a monster movie, I don't see why it can't be done! The closest I've come is Grendel, Alaska, which owed as much to the Host as it did Beowulf, and my write up of the Hostitself.

There's definitely an overlap between our thinking - one of the key aspects of monsters in DoN2 is that they all have some manner of motivation, something that drives them to action even when the players aren't necessarily doing anything.

I wonder if a better way of phrasing the Witch would be "otherwise normal" or "seemingly mundane" rather than harmless - outwardly they look human. The malevolence is a key though, as are the supernatural powers. Is that how you'd define them, or am I missing a more obvious summation?

The Corrupter is an interesting one. I'm seeing a lot of overlaps with the Witch, although I like the name far more.

I'm not convinced that appearing normal is an essential part of The Witch archetype. It's certainly the most common aspect, but sometimes there is no doubt what The Witch is.

Another example: in Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy (Suspiria, Inferno and Mother of Tears) there is no doubt that each of the Mothers is a witch, and that she wields power; they never appear to be anything other than what they are.

Another random thought: where would that other great staple of horror movies, the Mad Scientist, fit in?

Ooh, I like those three questions James - I'm going to steal those right away! And good idea Joe - I also like starting with the building blocks, one of which will be the archetype, which in turn will suggest suitable specialisations and the like.

Thanks for the nitpicks Joe! I'm perfectly open to the addition of more things to the list - evil people/mad scientists have cropped up in a couple of suggestions now. What manner of archetype would they be? They could fit into witch, if they're changing the world around the characters. They could be unstoppable killers, if they're hell bent on murder and mayhem. Or they could be hunters - Hannibal Lecter looks like a human, but he's preying on them too (although in Silence of the Lambs he's not the monster at all - that's Buffalo Bill, who is probably a hunter too).

Is there the need for an additional archetype there?

Just thought I'd come back to this topic, as I'm trying to finish off the monster chapter next.

Joe's right, when he says some of the archetypes are what they are, whereas others are what they do. I think the latter is what I'm aiming for as, with the exception of the Ghost, I think they fit into that box nicely.

A quick rename to Vengeful Dead and I think that'll sort that problem out. A monster returned from the grave to exact its revenge. Could be a ghost or a poltergeist, could also be some sort of murderous undead Hell's Angel on a revenge kick. Or maybe that's a different game...

I think there's definitely call for some sort of creator archetype, to cover the necromancer at the head of the zombie horde, the mad scientist who has unleashed his creations on the world or even just the cult leader with a horde of cultists. Some sort of boss monster, whose power stems from his creations rather than his own innate power. Does Creator cut it as a name? Or perhaps the Master?

That has a nice ring to it - thanks!

Liking the corrupter a classic foe!

Easy to strip out the supernatural element too as the corrupter/tempter is a literary staple. Gives you a lot of scope for exploring various genres.