Slashed To Ribbons
This is a hack of Ribbon Drive for telling the kind of stories you find in slasher movies.
Before I begin, I want to give a quick overview of how the typical slasher movie works:
- A group of self-preoccupied, sexy teenagers are being followed by a deranged killer.
- This killer seems almost superhuman, always outwitting and outrunning his prey, without breaking stride.
- They’re prevented from reaching out for help, because: they’re geographically isolated (Friday the 13th), no one will believe them (Nightmare on Elm Street), the phone line’s been cut (Scream), or they’re hiding a dark secret themselves (I Know What You Did Last Summer).
- One of them is a troubled but pure-hearted virgin. The movie constantly demonstrates her chastity and pure-heartedness.
- The teenagers die, one by one, in a horrific morality tale. The most egregious offenders of social trespasses (ex. sluts, addicts, narcissists) and the most marginalized (ex. foreigners, loners who wander off) die first.
- That chaste virgin? She emerges, shattered but alive, kept safe by her virtuous nature. The survivor girl.
In Slashed to Ribbons, it isn’t always the pure-hearted virginal girl who survives. It’s the person who abandons their sense of self, emerging shattered and changed, focused only on survival. And on that note, I introduce:
Preparing For Play
Everyone makes a mix CD, choosing music appropriate to a slasher story. Metal, industrial, goth rock, hard rock and Darkwave are all obvious choices. Baroque and raspy crooner music (Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen) are also going to do really well. Finally, anything with a cello (think Apocalyptica).
Shuffle the mixes, draw one at random. Song one tells you where the story takes place, song two tells you who the killer is. You don’t need to know much about the killer, but have at least two details fixed.
Characters
In Slashed to Ribbons, you don’t write your character based on a song, per se. Instead, write the killer based on a song (the second song, see above). Then, as a group brainstorm what kind of group the killer would be after. Feel no shame in choosing the sexiest, most privileged group imaginable (like, say, pretty white girls with lots of money and a private cabin).
Once you’ve decided on your group, create a character that’s part of that group. There’s two ways to go about this. First, don’t worry about character overlap, because lots of slasher movies star three blonde cheerleaders. Or, adhere to the Breakfast Club rule, and have the group as diverse as possible while staying coherent.
Characters have 3 Traits (just like in Ribbon Drive), but they don’t have Futures. Instead, they have 2 Prides. These are simultaneously statements of identity and power. In order to be the survivor, a character needs to forfeit both of their Prides over the game. They follow an “I’m…” format.
Example Prides: I’m so smart, I’m beautiful, I’m a sex object, I’m really strong, I’m considerate, I’m meek, I’m frail, I’m chill, I’m cool, I’m a total badass.
Obstacles & Deaths
The killer is a shared character – no one person controls him (or her). Every time an Obstacle is introduced, that’s the killer making a move that endangers people.
There are no Detours. Instead: On the first CD, you get isolated; on the second CD, you get captured or trapped; on the third CD, you get killed.
In all cases, that would end the CD, just like a Detour would. If someone gets isolated or captured, they’re still in the game, but require follow-up scenes to return to the group.
Who takes the fall? Whoever has the most “And I’ll die that way” Prides (see below). If no one has any, whoever has the most Prides. All ties are resolved by fiat decision, by whoever initiated the Obstacle.
Pride & Punishment
In the end, the Survivor is the one who lets go of all their Prides. To let go of a Pride is to go to a dark place where you sacrifice your identity for your survival. What does that imply about Slashed to Ribbons? It implies that you will emerge a shattered wreck if you emerge at all. This is the correct way to do a slasher game.
If your Prides were polite and mousy, as a Survivor you are spiteful and aggressive (see Drag Me To Hell). If they were sexy and empowered, you become a damaged victim.
Or, maybe you decide that you are going down proud and arrogant! Add “and I’ll die that way” to the end of any Pride, at any point, to signal a few things: you’re definitely not the protagonist, you are ready to die, and you want to be badass when it happens. “And I’ll die that way” is the parallel to succeeding at a Future in Ribbon Drive.
If your character gets killed and you’ve got an “and I’ll die that way” Pride, you get to narrate how you go down – this could include wounding the killer, buying others time, nearly escaping, etc. If your character gets killed and you have only regular Pride, the killer narrates how you go down (and should lend your character no trace of agency, capability or heroism).
If the Survivor is established (in other words, both Prides are crossed off) and there are still other characters alive, keep playing until they are dead. Aggressively introduce Obstacles into every single scene until everyone but the Survivor is dead.
Appendix A:
Two example characters, from slasher movies, with examples of how the fiction interacts with the mechanics.
Taylor Gentry, from Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Traits: Grad student; Journalist; Troubled by the ethical implications.
Prides: I’m a spectator, I’m insignificant.
Trait activations: Journalist (first scene, with her taped monologue); Troubled by the ethical implications (every time she challenges the justifications of Leslie’s plan).
Trait uses: Journalist (when she puts away the cameras and tries to save the teenagers from imminent death).
Prides abandoned: I’m a spectator (when she puts away the cameras and tries to save the teenagers), I’m insignificant (in the barn, when she realizes that she’s supposed to be the survivor girl).
Sidney Prescott, from Scream
Traits: My dad’s out of town; I want my mother’s death avenged; I can defend myself.
Prides: I’m a virgin, I’m afraid.
Trait activations: My dad’s out of town (when he father leaves town); I want my mother’s death avenged (when she talks with Tatum about testifying against Cotton Weary); I can defend myself (when she refuses to have sex with Billy).
Trait uses: I can defend myself (when she fights off Ghostface); I want my mother’s death avenged (when she kills Stu and Billy).
Prides abandoned: I’m a virgin (when she has sex with Billy); I’m afraid (when she takes decisive action, killing Stu and Billy).