Clive Barker inspired Horror Game?

I've thought a long time about running a Horror game using some of Clive Barker's extraordinarily frightening beings (think the Cenobites from Hellraiser, etc). Playing either Detectives or some type of Exorcists, etc... Perhaps some Cthulhu rules...maybe Savage Worlds would work here.

Would anyone on this forum be interested in a game, even closely related to this type of genre/theme?

I love horror games so I would be interested for sure.
I watched Hellraiser many years ago and barely remember it beyond the basic premise but if you'll have me, I'm in

Awesome. I'll keep that in mind. Just pitching it around in my head a bit.

I'm a big Call of Cthulhu fan. Lovecraft was one of the first authors I ever read some 60 plus years ago. My father's library was large and varied but it included authors like William Hope Hodgson, Lord Dunsany, Frank Belknap Long and Abraham Merritt in addition to Lovecraft. Although I've heard of Clive Barker I've never paid much attention to any of his works. That may prove to be fortunate as I would have no preknowledge of what my character may be facing. Please share with me any details you have of the game going forward.

Very cool. I've only just this year picked up Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulhu"...I'm late to that literary party for sure. Clive Barker is quite imaginative, especially with regards to his outlandish dark fantasy and horror. If there is one book to read by him I would suggest "The Hellbound Heart" which was made into the cult-classic film Hellraiser. Although the movie took several liberties, like most do, it is close to the novel. Another one, beyond that, and one suited for a great horror adventure game...at least IMO would be one of his more recent works entitled The Scarlet Gospels. This is essentially the true literary sequel to The Hellbound Heart.

I'll keep you posted if anything comes of it. It would be a great and welcome challenge to me as a GM and a unique experience...I think...for the players.

If you have ever seen the Mutant & Masterminds guidelines those might prove to be very helpful as they would allow for quite a bit of flexibility on this -- I once used a sort-of version of this where I had the players make lower-powered supers -- then I ran detective missions, super-hero missions, super-horror missions (werewolves and such) and cthulhu missions -- they never new what they were going to be facing and sometimes I would mix more than one story into a single adventure so that they coincidentally overlapped which then added even more fuel to that fire so to speak --- just thought I would share that with you

M&M is one of my favorite game systems but I rarely see it on this site. I once built a character for an M&M game (a couple years ago) based on a real life magician. This game looking to be more horror-centric would probably preclude that type of character but I can conceive of a number of others. If you wanted to set the game in the 30's where much of CoC is set, I have several ideas for such a setting primarily journalist or private detective based.

You could do Weaveworld. That has a lot of possibilities.

Yeah. Weaveworld was actually the first book of his I read. I made my mind explode. :) Well...so I thought, then I read Imajica!

I've read a lot of Lovecraft (never been able to play CoC though) as well as Cabal and the Hellbound Heart, seen all the Hellraiser films as well as Candyman and Lord of Illusions, played Clive Barkers Undying (which was brilliant), all perfect inspiration for a gritty World of Darkness (hidden world within a world) type game.
I would definitely be up for up that.

True! I didn't think of that, but WoD might run it well. I haven't played a WoD game, but it seems like a good fit.

It's a good system, simple and story driven, and there is so much material for it you can create something useful for a lot of different genres, or at least tweak it in flavour terms. I'm thinking of using it for a Terminator based game as well as writing an explicitly fantasy or maybe sword and sorcery game based on it.

I'd prefer a simpler system. Last time I made a VtM character, it was a whole lot of work to try to figure everything out and (after not ever really palying it, just reading it) it seemed to me like there is a bunch of complexity and interlocking systems there.
Rules heavy games aren't the most amazing for PBP in my experience and while I don't have enough WoD experience to tell how complex it is stacked against something like D&D, I still feel it's more complex than necessary for a PBP game.

New WoD is much simpler, it's less complicated than D&D.
Vampire the Masquerade and Mage (which I've always disliked as a world of darkness thing) were often needlessly complicated.

I think what I (barely) played was OWoD. NWoD might be lighter

Cool! I'll check out the materials.

@Mr_Winter ... and YES to a Terminator game!! I had a thought about that as well using Savage Worlds. I'm running a one-shot savage worlds taking place in an alternative Wild West setting (Wired West) where robots basically took over the western US. Think Tesla Science meets Tombstone meets Jules Verne. Something like that.

So - the issue here...at least for me... Is indeed the System. Perhaps Savage Worlds or something generic has enough to provide that truly horrifying element. Without being overly complex... Especially with Savage Worlds, for instance, it is all about stripping away what wouldn't be needed or wouldn't fit. Similar to something like GURPS.

I would be up for Savage Worlds

Me too. I’m deeply looking into it. I’ve got some old notes from horror inspired ideas. I’ll put something together soon. Looking closer I just feel SW would be a good fit, at least for me. Working some of the options you can make it far more narrative than traditional combat oriented, but still be able to handle that well when it occurs. And we know it kinda does horror anyway given its several settings in that very genre.

I've never played SW and I don't have any of the materials for it. Unless there is some open content for it I would have to pass on it.

Me, too -- really enjoyed that book.

Maybe one way to approach a game like this... would be almost X-Files in a sense. Say you had a Clive Barker world that is realized... Essentially the real world with some very dark things going on. And, the players play detectives, psychologists, theologians, archaeologists, etc... the whole Cthuhlu type deal. But, gameplay would be broken down into "one-shots" or episodes around the country/world..?

Getting in late, but I'm a fan of this idea. I've read Great and Secret Show, Everville, and Imajica. I've also watched several of the Hellraiser films.

What if each episode was a different set of characters exploring a different part of the dark world? So one scenario the players are detectives, the next one rare booksellers, then archaeologists? Like a campaignless campaign.

I could go for that. All connected in a woven tapestry of Barker’s imagination or entirely separate..?

Personally I think it would be cool if they were separate stories but with small things that show that the stories take place in the same world.

That sounds really cool to me

I have run continuing Cthulhu-like adventures and within it I would weave the various stories -- along with things taking place that the players may not even encounter -- this seemed to be the fairly good format as things happen on the current adventure that could alter other events -- and/or maybe some things happen on adventure 1 that directly tie into adventure 2 or 3 or later

So what are we supposed to do with this weird rock.... a few months down the road... hey I think that weird rock we found a few months back works with this thing.

Yes. I love this type of connecting-the-pieces.

So what setting? I've always been drawn to the Noir setting...but, maybe that's been overdone. Maybe like a 1980s vibe... Very "Stranger Things-ish"

I like either of those settings, to be honest. Or even a modern day setting, but made just a bit more noir-ish?

I like modern day the most but those are also fine with me