slender the arrival is a weird game. the atmosphere is good while the gameplay is godawful. there's a part in the game (the mines or whatever with the proxy chasing you) i literally CANNOT play because it makes my hands shake so bad. it is one of the creepiest games i've ever played but the plot is hanging by the skinniest thread imaginable. i had no idea what the ending meant and i still don't after at least 3 playthroughs and internet searches. slender is the best aspect of the game yet the lore ruins the mystery. the mc being in love with her friend is probably the only thing that makes sense.
slender the arrival is a weird game. the atmosphere is good while the gameplay is godawful. there's a part in the game (the mines or whatever with the proxy chasing you) i literally CANNOT play because it makes my hands shake so bad. it is one of the creepiest games i've ever played but the plot is hanging by the skinniest thread imaginable. i had no idea what the ending meant and i still don't after at least 3 playthroughs and internet searches. slender is the best aspect of the game yet the lore ruins the mystery. the mc being in love with her friend is probably the only thing that makes sense.
Axis and Rhyme have been wanting to film this video for many years and FINALLY got around to doing it. We had such a blast. Hope you guys enjoy our Homestuck...
Cupofsquirrel’s new video! Axis and Rhyme finally got to filming this video-- a short playthrough of SLENDER: The Eight Pages. Hope you guys enjoy this as much as we did!
It scared the crap out of me back in 2012 and now here I am playing it once more... oh boy! Will I be able to finally conquer my fear of one of the most menacing characters in video game history and retrieve all 8 pages? Or will Slenderman catch up to me and steal my soul? Only one way to find out, watch the video! (And ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’ too please because I desperately need your validation in order to sleep at night. Thank you!)
So, the other day @call-girls-and-confectionaries @zeraanan and I ran a live action Slender game for the college gaming group. We used a system we made ourselves and I want to share the experience!
The mechanics are actually fairly simple, however we did run into a few hiccups that we’ll revise upon when we decide to run it again. But for the time being, here is what we had:
Location: It was between using the quad or a building, and we ended up using a college building that had 4 floors and a basement. Really, it depends on the number of players and what is available, a larger number will probably need a bigger range.
Mechanics: “Chopping” - rock, paper, scissors. Chopping happened against Slenderman and when groups encountered each other. Ties would go again until someone won/lost. “Sanity” - each player started at a level of sanity between 4 - 8, known only to the player and ST, once Sanity ran out the player turned into a “Proxy”. There were 8 unique pages each group must find and collect, double in the same spot (one page per group, made 16 pages total). No pages were hid inside bathrooms.
Players: We had 11 players join, so to make things not as clustered we divided into two groups of 5 and 6. We decided this via line-up and counting off 1-2-1-2. The players’ objective is to collective all 8 unique pages. They need to stay as a cohesive group - that means that they need to enter a room as a whole (no leaving someone as a lookout), be in the same hallway (no separating or sending scouts), and when encounters happen they experience it together. They were not allowed inside bathrooms, in closed rooms, or to turn on lights (though they were allowed flashlights). When groups encountered each other each chose a representative to “chop” and did so until there was a winner. The winning group got to have a page from the losers (loser’s choice). After the encounter the losers “cool off” in a nearby area/room for 5 minutes (to avoid tailing) before being able to wander again. During this time they may encounter a Proxy or Slender. When encountering Slender they chop against the ST as a group.
StoryTellers: We kept track of our players, one ST per group. To keep everything together and help our Slender out, we had a live-time skype chat on our phones. We kept note on where the pages were and what floor we were on so Slender could anticipate where to stand. As STs we also acted as the group’s ‘impulse’, which means if we saw Slender so did they (to avoid cheating). We chopped for Slender, so when he was spotted they would turn to the ST (to give him time to go away) and together threw down a chop against the ST (for this, it’s really nice to have a RPS die to avoid chops being read by the players). After the Slender encounter the ST kept track of who lost Sanity.
Slenderman: We had @zeraanan get a morphsuit and jacket and was awesome enough to run around and stand creepily in doorways and stairwells. There is no set time he showed up, but he decided which group to target (via skype info). There was also no cool down period when encountering him, for either the players or him. He could show up while the group was cooling down or when they’re chopping against each other or even when a Proxy showed up. Slender causes players to lose Sanity.
Primary Proxy: The first player from each group to lose all their Sanity became a Primary Proxy. The players were only vaguely aware before this happened that they would encounter other things besides Slender, so the only ones who knew PP mechanics were the Proxys themselves and STs. Once all Sanity was lost they were set aside, given a mask, and told that they were now a Proxy and working against both groups. They chased after a group and once the group (and ST) saw the Proxy within the area (hallway or room), the players were not allowed to leave that area until after the encounter (they could still run around that area). The Proxy was able to chase them and tag one person, that person lost a Sanity. After the encounter the Proxy was not allowed another for 7 minutes, though they could still follow, terrorize, and generally creep about.
Secondary Proxy: After the Primary Proxy left, if any other player lost all their Sanity they became Secondary Proxys. Again, this mechanic of the game was not explained at the start. SP’s objective was to sabotage the group from within. They would be with the group, chop as normal (except nothing would happen), but they would tell the ST which player they chose that would lose on ties in Slender encounters. After the encounter happened, the SP would choose a new player.
Problems we had:
-Players found a lot of the pages very quickly, and spent a good hour trying to find the last page. This stretched the game out to the point that Sts gave players hints. This also brought on other problems
-Players lost Sanity quickly. We did not expect players to lose Sanity before finding the pages and so we had a problem of all players losing all their Sanity before the end. For this, the STs improvised that every 10-15 minutes we did a mass chop with the group, winners regained a point of Sanity and lost Proxy status. But this still posed a problem because then Primary Proxy and Slender became near obsolete.
-Players found out the S.Proxys fairly quickly since they were taken aside by STs to talk and when someone lost on ties they deduced shenanigans. We may just explain all mechanics at the start to avoid this next time
-Group encounters happened a lot more near the end, escalating the situation of stolen pages. For us, one group just continuously lost their chops and nearly lost all their pages to the other group. When all the pages were found, but they did not have all of them on hand, they sought out encounters. With lost Sanity and all pages found, the game devolved into PlayerVPlayer - each group more focused on each other than Slender.
-After one group found all the pages, they were given the objective to kinda terrorize the other group with their stolen pages. This was also improvised and used merely as a tactic to stretch the game longer. This did not last long as we called it quits since everyone was tired and we had a winning team.
Despite some short comings, the game was overall a success with its first run through! Total run time was about 2.5 hours, and the players had fun! There was not a lot we had to mediate on as STs as the players stuck to the rules well. Their anticipation and worry for encounters really gave a nice tense atmosphere. The PProxys did their roles well and were into the concept of creeping out the other players. And while there was a lot more running and flights of stairs than previous thought, it was still a good time had by all!
(The others may add their own tidbits and info if they want)
