Genius Loci | Psychological Action HORROR - Rescue Your Friend!
About the adventure
🌟 This scenario is great for the beginners and veterans alike! 🌟 New players will build great habits around understanding rules, role-play, pro-activity and creativity, while experienced players will be engaged due to how open and interactive the story feels. Join a session of psychological horror! You will: 🕵️♀️ Uncover secrets of Mental Asylum that will make your blood freeze. 🧟♀️ Experience the supernatural. 🎭 Build player characters with depth of personality to support your immersion and role-play. 🎲 Be a part of the story where your decisions count: plans of each group are vastly different and leading to unique endings! 🎼 Listen to music that changes with every scene to best capture emotions. 🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸 And now, that's how your story begins: Along with other players, you receive a concerning letter from a family member. You gather together to decide on the next steps: should you rush to rescue your friend, or is it all just a lunatic’s nonsense? Dear, As you know, I have recently committed myself to the State Hospital at Danvers for a little mental recuperation after my most recent foray into supernatural. I have made a terrible error in selecting Danvers. I am in great physical, mental, and spiritual peril here. There is a „wrongness” about this place. They will not let me leave. I must sneak this letter out to you as they read the mail here. Please come and recover me from this dreadful place. But please, do not come here alone, as doing so would be a mistake. Your friend, Larry Croswell* * excerpt from one of the official handouts from Genius Loci
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
1 year on StartPlaying
5 games hosted
Highly rated for: Sets the Mood, Creativity, Storytelling
About me
Hey. It's good to meet you, Wandering Soul. My name is Max, and yours? I'd like to share my dreams with you. Or shall I say, my nigtmares? I lead sessions in genre of psychological horror - I've hundreds of sessions of experience. I will envelop us in stories of Call of Cthulhu and KULT: Divinity Lost. You will be surprised at how chilling the world has become. With my guidance as your GM, you will create flesh and blood protagonist with depth of personality. You will build relationships with characters of other players that will be defined by friendship or betrayal, love or defiance, sadness, happiness and laughter. And we will play a game that will change everything. 🔪🩸🔪🩸🔪🩸 I'm Max! As you could probably tell by now. 😉 I lead horrors and comedy sessions for about 6 years now and I can't wait for our next adventure! Want to join my game? You probably: 🥸 Like to role-play!, 🕵🏼♂️ Want to have that eerie feeling and listen to some good music, 🤣 But still like a good laugh sometimes. ✍🏼 Need unique NPCs, stories and endings that respond to your actions. 👑 Are a p r o f e s s i o n a l Drama Queen! Joking here... Or am I? Anyways, you're more than welcome.
View Profile →Reviews (8)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Sets the Mood
Creativity
Storytelling
Wow. Yesterday, we concluded our short campaign. I find myself both overwhelmed and at a loss for words to describe everything that transpired. Let's start from the beginning: our session zero was absolutely fantastic. The immersion into the atmosphere, the desire to create something grander, and the sheer number of ideas we had to bring to life were nothing short of magical. The Game Master (GM) kept everything under control and provided assistance whenever we needed it. I could hardly wait for our "real" sessions to begin. Each subsequent meeting exceeded the previous one. The longer we played, the more I felt that we were inspiring each other, collectively building something truly beautiful. Unfortunately, yesterday was our final session, and the conclusion left me speechless. Max, as the Game Master, is truly exceptional. Thanks to him (and my wonderful fellow players), I had an incredibly enjoyable time. He masterfully weaves an atmosphere of horror, psychological twists, and moral dilemmas in a way I have never experienced before in any game. He doesn’t just guide the story; he shapes an experience that is deeply engaging and emotionally resonant. He made my character feel alive, and let me feel as if I wasn't just roleplaying, but existing alongside the said being we created together. His attention to detail and the ability to maintain the perfect balance between narrative freedom and structured storytelling is remarkable. He ensures that every player feels important and that their actions genuinely influence the outcome of the story. The tension he builds, the dilemmas he presents, and the world he crafts are unparalleled. I've seen multiple occurrences of him presenting spotlight to every player in their own actions, making the whole situation fulfilling. I wholeheartedly recommend this Game Master — you won’t be disappointed. Whether you’re seeking a thrilling horror experience or deep, thought-provoking roleplay, Max will deliver an unforgettable journey.
I had an amazing night playing Kult with Max! Horror is hard to nail down and during session zero I told him that I love it when the weather and nature match the pace of the story and that I would love to see it well executed. Max delivered flawlessly and scratched an itch I had! So, if you have any requests or preferences for the horror experience, I think he can get you exactly what you want! The music was perfectly matched and unique to the custom adventure we’ve played and it set the tone of the session. He also explained the use of Roll20 well and made sure that I knew what to click! Can’t recommend this GM more, honestly!
GMax is a true professional when it comes to carrying out game sessions, especially ones bound in horror. He is a master of creating a dreadful, even frightening atmosphere, especially if you are into psychological horror. You will be soaked and invested in the game before you know it. Most interesting on the sessions, though, are the relations between the players' characters in the unfavorable and adverse world. GMax allows for their interactions, sometimes even encourages it. At the same time, GMax respects the limits of the players and never forces anything unto anyone. You will feel safe as a player with him. If you look for intense, emotional sessions with a good dose of psychological horror and character interactions, pick GMax as your Game Master!
Max made a huge impression on me. As a person who isn't new to roleplaying, but is just getting started with ttrpgs. I wasn't sure if I will be a good fit for the scenario, He invited me nonetheless. And tbh? I think he handled a newbie like me pretty well! He really knew how to set up the mood for the scene, his descriptions of things were very graphic and the music was very fitting. Overall, a pretty immersive experience. Max also values the players comfort, communication is the key on his sessions. If something bothers u, u can just say it and he will take it to consideration. In summary: Give him a chance and I can assure u, u won't regret it!
Character creation
Creating your character
𓀔 Character creation: On session 0. 🫀We lay out backstories and relationships between player characters to add depth. ⚅ During character creation, we use standard rules of CoC system with additions to spice it up if desired by players. 🧛🏼 Option to give player characters dark secrets - horrible things they did or happened that may catch up with them during the playthrough. 👉🏾 Character creation is immediately followed with an around 1-hour mini-session - introductory segment of the story. I lay out the first scene/scenes and you introduce your characters.
Interested in what will happen during the playthrough? 🕵️♀️ Gameplay notes: 🕵️♀️ When playing this scenario, you will have space to build meaningful connections with other players and NPC's. You will be invited to research (in whatever ways you find suitable) the history of Mental Asylum in Danvers as represented in the scenario - a huge institution, serving thousands of patients. You will also have an opportunity to discover supernatural, scary secrets with help of sneaking, hypnotizing, disguising, and many other creative techniques you come up with. In the last segment of the story, you will make a major impact on the fate of the Mental Asylum. Depending on your tools (weapons? magic? cunning?) and moral attitude, the results of your choices will make a very unique impact, creating a memorable finale. As a Game Master, you can expect me to care about creating the right mood, and be very open to your ideas and improvisation. The world will feel interactive and interesting to make it natural for you to feel immersed and enganged. How to join? ✅ Click "Join campaign". ✅ When joined, you will receive a message with links to: our server on Discord and Roll20 room. ✅ You will receive my Discord contact details. ✅ We can get in contact and answer any questions! ✅ When final, 3rd player joins, we will discuss whether to start in the same or the following week. ✅ On session 0, we will discuss safety tools, create characters and have a 1-hour introductory mini-session.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
💻 Register on Roll20 and Discord. If you like, prepare a camera (I recommend it and I personally will be on camera). Have a steady internet connection and working microphone. 🏠 Prepare the space to your liking: perhaps you like to doodle during the session? Maybe you like to drink a tea or eat something? 💪🏼 No previous knowledge of rules is necessary. I will lay it out.
What GMax brings to the table
🩻 Genre: Psychological horror, Action horror, Investigation/thriller story, Supernatural horror 🥸 Role-play: our sessions will include lots of role-play: if you like it, you will certainly enjoy it. 💃 Emotions: Laugh, smile, be sad, afraid, interested, curious, fear. Joke with guard about the rude receptionist, and in the next minute, traverse scenes covered with darkness, overflowing with blood. 🔊 Soundtrack: Listen to music changing every scene to capture the experience. 👁 Narration: Will feel alive and reach psychological depth. The story will uncover it's secrets to reflect the feeling of psychological horror. 🃏 Ruleset: Some house rules to: simplify fighting system, allow to roll for half attribute scores instead of using low stats, or to spice up insanity/magic system. 🪓 Combat: Few rolls to establish who has the upper hand. Specific situations can require more. Smart plans can avoid fights entirely if desired by players.
Platforms used
Safety
How GMax creates a safe table
🍵 On session 0, we will spend time to talk about our preferences, get to know each other a bit, discuss all of the safety tools. Ones I have selected are usually helpful to signal that someone feels uncomfortable and would like to shorten/cut a given scene, and to provide space for feedback and discussion about how you feel during and after any session. 🕯 Mini-campaign of session 0 plus 2-3 sessions with possibility of extending into new campaign with the same or different player characters. 🧑🧒 New and experienced players friendly. 🎙Tools: Voice (optional camera) over discord, Characters and rolls over Roll20, Watch2Gether for musical background.