Liminal Survival Horror (Or Putting Resident Evil Anywhere I Can LH Edition) Part 1
It will be no secret to anyone who’s played in my games or spared the slightest glance at my musings here that I’m a big fan of Survival Horror as a genre. So inevitably regardless of what system I’m currently playing we tend to inject some Resident Evil flavor at some point. Inspired by a blog post I saw a while ago (That I cannot find) I decided to take the old school Prima Strategy Guide for the original Resident Evil and use it as a framework to run it as an adventure using Liminal Horror. Now, I love Liminal Horror, its simple but extremely receptive to modification somehow able to hold strong regardless of how many layers of absurdity I add from whatever I’m reading that week. But, if I want to go full Resident Evil, and I do, I had need of a few extra widgets that the baseline lacks.
Keep in mind this will be using the Investigator Edition of Liminal Horror you can find here and making liberal use of Luck, Item Tags, Wounds, and Time Procedures. I’ll be getting more in depth with what exactly my Time Procedures will be in the next post but suffice it to say I’ll be making use of my Underclock modification and a version of Liminal Horrors DOOM clock that will represent the Spencer Mansion as one explores further before all hell breaks loose in the lab. Playing through Under Ashen Skies has also heavily influenced where I’d like to take the Time Procedures hence the need for its own section.
In addition, my player (My very patient partner), cleaves more towards the action oriented Resident Evil games after 4 so I’ve added a few things to facilitate some of her survival horror touchstones rather than trying to protect my own sacred cows.
SAFE ROOMS
Well-lit and easily secured areas of the which offer a brief reprieve from the horrors outside. When entering a Safe Room you regain 1d6 points of Luck. A Safe Room can only provide this restoration once every Cycle of the Underclock.
Additionally, every Safe Room comes equipped with a Storage Box, an Oil Barrel, and a Workbench.
STORAGE CHEST
The Storage Chest can hold up to 50 Slots worth of items and is connected to every other Storage Chest in the area by way of some strange mechanism.
OIL BARREL
Lantern Oil can be found here allowing you to replenish your supply. However, every time you restock your Oil Flask you must make a Luck Save to determine if the barrel has been fully depleted.
WORKBENCH
Basic tools and other odds and ends can be found here allowing you to fix broken equipment, mix herbs, and swap out attachments for your gear.
CHARGES
While within the confines of the labyrinthine Spencer Mansion supplies are limited and must be used judiciously if you are going to survive. To illustrate this equipment which requires expendable resources to function such as bullets or batteries have what are called Charges. Every time the equipment is used it expends a Charge. When all Charges are used the equipment no longer functions until it has been replenished. This can be as simple as finding another box of ammo for a gun or performing repairs on a broken knife with scavenged materials.
EXAMPLE EQUIPMENT
RANGED WEAPONS
MELEE WEAPONS
Item Tags
Burst: When attacking you can spend an additional Charge and re-roll your damage taking the higher result.
Impale: When you are grabbed by a foe you can expend a Charge to impale the attacking enemy dealing damage and ending the grab. The knife must be retrieved before it can be used this way again.
Shock: Can expend a Charge when grabbed or when you attack in melee to Stun the foe. When Charges are depleted can still be used like a club.
ITEMS
Bullets (Handgun, Shotgun, Rifle, etc bullets each take 1 Slot and can be used to regain all expended Charges for their respective weapon.)
Lighter
Oil Flask (1d3 Charges. Max: 3. Highly flammable.)
Green Herb (Heals 1d6 HP)
Red Herb (Gain +3 Armor until the next time you take damage)
Yellow Herb (Restores 1d6 Luck)
Blue Herb (Cures Toxins)
First Aid Spray (Heals an Injury)
G+R+Y+B Mix (Heals all injuries, restores 1d12 HP and Luck, cures toxins, take no damage the next time you are hit.)
EXAMPLE BACKGROUNDS
As a newly assigned STARS officer you come from…
1 - The Raccoon City Major Crimes Unit
- Flashlight Attachment for Handgun.
- Stun Baton
- Forensics Kit (Contains blood sampling materials, plastics bags, gloves, blacklight, magnifying glass, and other investigative tools.)
- Handcuffs. (Restrains a target. Attempting to restrain a target who is actively resisting requires a check.)
2 - The Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Unit
- Hair Trigger Attachment for Handgun (Grants Quick tag.)
- Survival Knife
- Umbrella Identification Badge (Might come in handy should you ever run into your old handlers.)
- Gas Mask (Filters aerosol contaminants. +3 Armor against GAS attacks from enemies. )
3 - An Unnamed Intelligence Agency
- Silencer Attachment for Handgun (Attacks made are quiet and do not alert nearby enemies. Attacks are Enhanced (D12) against unaware enemies. )
- Lockpicking Set (Can be used to unlock simple locks.)
- Surveillance Bug /w PDA (Can be stuck to walls or ceilings in order to record or play back sounds remotely.)
- Digital Map of the Mansion B1/1F/2F
4 - Military Special Forces
- Laser Sight for Handgun (Attacks always land even in darkness, fog, or on fast moving foes.)
- Fighting Knife
- First Aid Spray
- Combat Rigging (+1 Armor / +2 Slots )
All STARS officers also carry a handgun, handheld flashlight, a notebook and pencil, their badge, and a portable radio.
Zombies
For the zombies themselves I'll be using "They're Coming To Get You Barbara" with some tweaks and omitting the rules for Infection unless I really feel like being cruel. Maybe for a funnel? As for the other beasties I'll have a follow-up here at some point or else lump them in the with all the procedure talk to follow.
Conclusion
I’ll be developing these ideas further and honing in well before I actually run this thing but I thought it would be useful to show my interpretation of what Resident Evil could look like in Liminal Horror. Other than more refinements I’ll be taking a closer look at the actual procedure and probably talk about playing Under Ashen Skies which was a profoundly interesting experience as a big Silent Hill fan. Thanks for reading.
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