Reaper Madness

8/6/2019 Reaper Madness

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REAPER MADNESSA 24-Hour Game About Dead People

By Steve Johnson

2005, Fuqit Games


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Youre Dead. Now What? Hey now, sparky, you dont wanna go over there. It aint

pretty, and seein your ownmangled corpse sure as heck aint gonna improve your dayone bit. Good thing old Sam

plucked you when he did; that woulda hurt like the dickens.

Hi, Im Jimbo, and Im your new boss? Whats that? No, youdont really have that jobanymore, or at least you wont when your boss finds out about

your unfortunate accident. Incase the whole mangled corpse thing didnt give it away, youre dead. Well, not really dead, but youre not aliveanymore. Some folks call it being undead, but that kindatalk gives me the heebie-geebies. Anyway, since Sams

moved on to bigger and better things, youre his replacement.Some people try to candy coat what we do and call themselvesterminal episode guidancespecialists or some suchnonsense, but thats just abunch of two-dollar words.Youre a Grim Reaper now,kiddo. Welcome aboard!

In Reaper Madness , players takeon the roles of Grim Reapers. Its

their job to help the dead moveon to whatever awaits them in theafterlife. Most of the time, this is apretty simple thingyou just walk up to the soon-to-be deceased,snatch their soul, and then try notto stare too much or hurl whenthey get corpsified. Sometimes,though, the dead dont want to

move on, and its up to you topersuade them that their time onearth is through. Even simple jobscan become difficult if the Reapergets too involved with the clientbefore he or she dies; somepeople you just wish you could letlive.

Aside from the whole being an(un)living incarnation of deaththing, Reapers have other prob-lems to contend with. First off,

theres the whole dying thing todeal with; some people haveexistential crises about that sort of thing. Even Reapers who canaccept death often have problemsadjusting. Dying is a lot likemoving to a new city. Suddenlyyoure all alone in a strange newsituation without any of your oldfriends and safety nets to help youout. To top it off, Reapers have

the same drives and desires as thelivingthey get hungry, thirsty,and horny just like the rest of us.Since Reaping isnt a paying gig,that means a new Reaper has tofind some way to make money if they dont want to be miserable.


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The CampaignSince whats left of your car haslocal plates, Im gonna guess

youre from around here, sothatll save me from having togive you a tour of our fair city.You wont be corporeal againuntil your bodys either burned or in the ground, so you get tostart the job by taking a vaca-tion. If you want to hangaround with me, thats just fineby me. I can tell you a little bit about what we do. You can go

to your own funeral if you want to, but I wouldnt recommend itbest not cry over spilled milk, or more accurately spilled blood. You ever been to Pedros

House of Pancakes, junior? Imheaded that way right now. Youcant really eat since youre allghostly, but dont worry. Youllget to sample the whole menuonce youre up and breathing

again.

While its perfectly acceptable forthe Game Master (GM) to comeup with the campaign backgroundand then let the players createtheir characters, its usually bestto do these things as a group.When the players and GM work together to create the campaign,everybody involved feels moreinvolved in the game. Also, havingthe entire group make charactersat the same time increases thechances that the Player Charac-ters (PCs) will fit together into acoherent group. It also helpsencourage the players to establishexisting relationships between thePCs, which is a big improvement

on the you meet in a bar sce-nario common in RPGs. There-fore, its recommended that most(if not all) of the first game sessionbe reserved for campaign andcharacter creation. This chapterdescribes some of the things thatthe GM and players shoulddiscuss when creating the cam-paign.

ToneThe intended tone for Reaper

Madness is dark comedy, buttheres a lot of range there. Whilethe best games will go fromhorrifying to zany and back again,its a good idea to decidewhether, in general, your groupwants to focus more on thedark or the comedy. Knowingthe preferred baseline tone will bevery useful in coming up withcampaign details and characters.

SettingThe default setting for Reaper

Madness is real-lifemodern-day planet earth with nothingweird (or at least weirder thanusual) going on as far as mostpeople know. The informationhere assumes this kind of setting,but others are possible. If youd

like to play a game about Reapersin 17 th Century France, 24 th

Century Mars, or your favoritesuperhero universe, feel free to doso. It might take a little extrawork on your part, but it could bea lot of fun.

Assuming youre using the default

setting, there are still a few thingsto figure out. First off, where doesthe game take place? Most

Reaper Madness games will beset in a particular city. That meansthat youll need to come up with aname for the place, as well as ageneral idea of its size, character,and location in the world. A fewtips:

Stock CitiesSome cities (L.A., New York,

Las Vegas) are so common inpop culture that even people whohavent been there feel like theyknow what the place is like. If thegame is set in New Orleans, allthe players will know to expectMardi Gras, Bourbon Street, andmaybe some weird voodoo stuff.If youre using a stock city, itsbest to pick one that most of theplayers have never been to, or

have only visited briefly. Other-wise, the game could get side-tracked whenever the localexpert/former resident noticessomething thats out of place.

Familiar CitiesUsing a city that the players andGM are familiar with (yourhometown or the city where youall went to college, for example),has its advantages. For one thing,everybody knows what the cityand its inhabitants are like, wherethings are, and what bars to hangout in. Also, the juxtaposition of the familiar and the weird can helpcreate the sense of quirkiness thatworks well in this kind of game.Of course, if your group has


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already played My Neighbor-hood By Night, this option mightnot be the best. As with Stockcities that players have visited,sometimes reality can get in theway here, so make sure every-body understands that this is the

fictional version of your city,especially where minor details areconcerned.

Unfamiliar CitiesTired of stock cities and RageAcross My Backyard? Justdecide what size youd like yourcity to be, and what part of theworld youd like it to be in, then

look at a map. The advantagehere is that you can use real-world facts and news for flavor(city government and chamber of commerce websites are great)without worrying too much aboutthe details.Fictional CitiesIf the there options above dontwork for you, you can always setyour game in a fictional city. Justdetermine the basic flavor of theplace (Anytown, USA, Subur-ban Hell, The City), come upwith a few interesting details, andmake up the rest as you go along.

Globe-Spanning AdventureWhile most Reapers will operatein a specific city, theres no reasonthe team cant travel all over theworld. Maybe theyre responsiblefor reaping soldiers who are killedin action, or specialize in planecrashes, earthquakes, or similardisasters. This kind of campaignleads to exotic locales and newplaces, but running a gamewithout permanent locations andcharacters can sometimes bedifficult.

The CrewOnce youve figured out thebasics of the city your characterswill be living in, its time to decidea few things about the PC group.Start off by deciding what kindsof relationships the charactershave with one another. Are theyone big happy family? Do theysee one another as strictly co-workers? Are there love trianglesor blood feuds? As the crewtakes shape, players will get abetter idea of what sorts of characters they want to play, andhow those characters fit into thegroup. In addition to the basicgroup dynamics, youll want to

think about a few other details:

The BossEvery crew has a boss. Hes theguy who hands out assignments,handles problems, and makes therules. For the time being, youllneed to have a general idea of hisleadership style and personality. Ishe everybodys pal? A pointy-haired moron? A pompous ass?Youll also need to decidewhether the boss will be a PC ora Game Master Character(GMC). While the boss role iswell suited for GMC status,making a PC the boss also has its

advantages. Its up to the groupas a whole to decide which optionwill work best for them.

The OfficeMost crews will have a base of operations, where they meet toget their assignments for the dayand discuss business. They mightmeet at the same bus stop at theappointed time, or conductbusiness over a pool game atZekes bar. Some crews evenoperate a real business (perhaps aprivate detective agency orconsulting firm), which provides


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Your Character Lookin good there, Skippy!Course, the last time I saw

you, you had that sucking chest wound, so I guess someimprovements to be expected. I bet youre hungry after all that wandering around without abody. Here, have some pan-cakes. Theyre so delicious they

just gotta be bad for ya, but I guess that dont really matter;what with us bein dead and all.Once youve got some food

down your throat, you can tellme a little about yourself. It might stir up some memoriesabout your old life, but thatsultimately a good thing. Nowthat youre one of us, that life isover. Its best for you to accept that right now. Otherwise

youre gonna run into problems.

Bring Your Character to Life

Its best to start out by creatingyour character on the day of herdeath. Dont worry, well bekilling her off soon. For now,dont bother with figuring outcharacter stats, just focus on whothe character is, what her life islike, where she comes from, andwhat her personality is like. If youre having trouble, try answer-ing the following questions:

What does she do for a living? Where does she live Who are her friends? How does she dress? Where does she come from? What does she want out of life?(not that shell get it, since shesabout to die)

What does she do in her sparetime? Is she outgoing, shy, or some-where in between? What do other people think of her when they first meet her? What makes her happy? What ticks her off?

Add Some Word and NumbersCharacters in Reaper Madnesshave the following Words (alsoknown as stats):

Body describes the charactersgeneral physical health. Brain describes the charactersmental abilities, including innateintelligence and education.

Nerve rates the characters self-confidence, courage, and will-power.

Job describes what thecharacters does. In some cases,Job is an actual occupation that

the character uses to earn a living(investment banker, for ex-ample), but it can also describethe characters lifestyle (hobo),role in society (housewife), oreven dream career (aspiringactress).Gimmick is a special talent thatgenerally cannot be learned. Youeither have it or you dont.Gimmicks can range from dumbhuman tricks (can open beerbottles with her teeth) to phe-nomenal cosmic powers (om-nipotent). Unless your game isset in a world very different fromour own (for example, a fantasyworld) or the GM gives youspecial permission to have somefreaky psychic power or magical

ability, youll want to stick closerto the dumb human tricks sideof things.Weakness is the characters fatalflaw. While the charactersWeakness doesnt have to be thecause of her tragic downfall, itshould at least be a major incon-venience. Think Shakespeareantragedy and Greek mythologyhere. Avoid annoying personalitytraits (spits when she talks),minor inconveniences (afraid of

gum), and one-shot Weak-nesses (dark secret). While itsfine (and, in fact, encouraged) forcharacters to have all of thesetraits, they dont really work asWeaknesses.Skills are talents, abilities, andknowledge that arent necessarilyrelated to the characters job.Skills primarily reflect thecharacters hobbies and interests.

Your characters Skills dont needto reflect her entire knowledgeand life experience, just things sheknows a lot about or doesregularly. All the other stuff iscovered by Body, Brain, andNerve. Each character starts thegame with three skills.

Health Points are used to track the amount of physical punishmentthe character can take. SinceReapers cant die, Health Points(or, more precisely, lack of HealthPoints) are primarily used todetermine how much pain thecharacter is in at any givenmoment.


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Yum Yums are tasty pieces of candy, but dont start eating them

just yet. They can be used to docool things in the game, which willbe described later, quite possiblyon page XX or in Appendix YZ.Tag Line is a witty phrase thattells others something about yourcharacter. You dont have to use itfrequently or often. In fact, doingso can become very annoyingvery quickly.WWPHITM?(Who Would Play

Him/Her In The Movie?) If youwere making a movie about thegame, who would you cast toplay your character? Note: If

your Tag Line and WWPHTMmatch (for example Come GetSome and Bruce Campbell),you should probably work onyour character a little more.Dumb Fact: Some random tidbitabout your character: favoriteband, brush with greatness, secretperversion, etc.

Understand what all the Wordsmean? Great! Now its time toassign numbers to (some of)them. To determine your Num-bers, roll d10+6. Now do itagain. Continue until youve gotfive Numbers between 7 and 16.Assign these Numbers to thefollowing Words (in any orderyou like): Body, Brain, Nerve,Job, and Gimmick. Your

characters Weakness Number isthe same as her Gimmick Num-ber, and her Health Points areequal to her Body Number. Nowroll a d20 and divide by 5; thatshow many Yum Yums you have atthe beginning of the game. Skillshave Bonuses rather than Num-bers: assign a +3 Skill Bonus to

one skill, +2 to another, and +1 towhatevers left. Tag Line,WWPHTIM?, and Dumb Factdont need Numbers.

SAMPLE WORDSYour characters Job, Gimmick, Weakness, and Skills can bewhatever you want them to be, as long as the GM agrees (or youcan convince him) that theyre appropriate for the campaign.Since this sort of open-endedness intimidated some people, Iveprovided a list of Words that should work well in a Reaper

Madness game. Its up to you and the GM to determine thespecific game effects for your characters Words.

Jobs: Aspiring Musician, Bartender, Career Temp, Computer

Nerd, Con Artist, Dead Celebrity, Door-to-Door Salesperson,Drag Queen, Drug Dealer, Exotic Dancer, Funeral Director, Goth,Hippie, Meter Maid, Outdoorsman, Petty Criminal, Preacher,Real-Estate Novelist, Reporter, Short Order Cook, Slacker,Teacher, Used Car Salesman, Veteran, Waiter/Waitress

Gimmicks: Always Find A Parking Space, Citizen of the World,Clue Magnet, Empathy, Everybodys Buddy, Green Thumb, HardBoiled, Ive Seen Worse, King of The Road, Lifetime of Experi-ence, Prepared For Anything, Well-Read, Wisdom of Solomon

Weaknesses: Addict, Coward, Dames, Emotional Scars,Flashbacks, Gullible, Low Pain Threshold, Old, Phobia, PunchingBag, Really Creepy, Uneducated, Unlucky, Weak Stomach

Skills: Acting, Breaking & Entering, Eavesdropping, Chess,Cooking, Drug Lore, Freeloading, History, Internet Junkie, LipReading, Reaper Lore, Register Jockey, Seduction, Self-Defense,Snappy Dresser, Stealth, Useless Trivia, Video Games, Violinist,Wilderness Survival

Your Untimely DemiseNow that you know what thecharacter was like when she wasalive, its time to kill her off. Sincedeath is a significant event in apersons (un)life, youll want tocome up with some juicy (andpossibly graphic) details here.While its perfectly acceptable tokill your character through nor-mal means (car crash, terminal

illness, bad oysters), coming upwith something unusual and quirkyis recommended. A cool oramusing death might earn yousome extra street cred with otherReapers (When her decapitatedhead went flying across the room,it scared Colin Quinn so bad he

jumped out the window to hisdeath! It was AWESOME!), orat least give you a dumb nick-name (Mr. Auto-Erotic Asphyxi-ation).

In addition to deciding how yourcharacter died, youll need tothink about how death has


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changed her. While a few peopleare shallow, stupid, or just plainmean enough to survive deathunchanged, most will have emo-tional scars. Even those who canaccept their death may havetrouble letting go of their old life.Decide how death changed yourcharacters life.

Livin La Vida MuertaSince youre dead, showing up atyour old house or day job mightcause a wee little problem. Even if you could somehow hide yourdeath from the people you onceknew, theres another problem:you no longer looks the same.While other Reapers and a fewfolks with special powers see youas you were in life, most peoplesee your differently, or ratherdont really see you. To regularpeople, Reapers look plain andunremarkable. Reapers who wereextremely good-looking in life canstill manage to turn heads, but ittakes a lot of work. The appear-ance change serves two purposes:It keeps people that Reapersknew in life from recognizingthem, which could be awkward;and their new, average appear-ance helps Reapers blend in,which makes their job easier.

Reapers cant die, so beinghungry and homeless wont kill

you. But that doesnt mean itsnot miserable. Unless you want tostand out in the cold all daylistening to the increasinglydisgusting noises your stomach ismaking, youll need to come upwith some way to earn a living.Here are a few tried-and-truemethods of post-death survival:

SquattingSince you cant take it with you,most dead people wont mind if you take their wallet and crash attheir old place for a while. Thebiggest drawback to this livingarrangement (aside from theoccasional brain matter in thecarpet) is that its temporary.Sooner or later, the moneysgoing to run out or the apartmentwill be rented out to somebodynew.

CrimeTheres no record of your new

fingerprints, face, and nameanywhere in the system, so itspossible to make crime pay. Untilyou get caught, that is. Theres nodiplomatic immunity for Reapers,and once you get busted youregoing into the system. To makematters worse, theres a chancethat those nice fellows from theIRS will show up at your doorwanting to know why you haventpaid taxes since, well, ever.

Cash MoneySome employers are more thanwilling to pay you in cash withoutever asking for any form of identification. With this option,you can explore such excitingcareers as drug mule, migrantworker, and crack whore!

Buried TreasureGood luck!

Get A Real JobNot as glamorous as some of theother options, but it is morereliable and generally less danger-ous. Youll have to find a way to

create a new identity for yourself (complete with documents andreferences. Since medical de-grees, bar admissions, and otherdocumentation for glamorous jobsare tough to forge, being a highlyskilled professional wont neces-sarily get you into a higher taxbracket. But assuming youve gotsome marginally marketable skills,you can probably find work.Youll just have to juggle thedemands of Reaping with thebone-numbing tedium of wageslavery.

Your Life With TheThrill Kill KultIn addition to determining thedetails of your characters newlifestyle, youll have to figure outwhat shes like as a Reaper. Isshe kind and caring to her clients,or distant and emotionless? Arethere certain kinds of jobs thatshe refuses to take, or certainsorts of clients that she prefers?

How does she feel about being awalking minion of death? Youllalso need to figure out how shefits in with the crew of Reapersshes working with.

And Now For SomeMore Crunchy BitsNow that youre dead, you get acouple more words to add toyour character sheet. The first is abrand-new Job: Reaper. ThisJob is used for Reaping souls, andusing the special abilities thatcome with being a Reaper: hidingin plain site, healing really fast,spotting bogies, and the like.These are described on pagesection QZ, which you can find


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on page XX. The Reaper Job canalso be used for things likerecalling bits of Reaper lore andchecking to see if you knowanyone in the Reaper communitythat can help with a particularproblem. Your Reaper JobNumber is something that you andthe GM will need to negotiatebased on your characters con-cept (and the number of YumYums youve got lying around),but here are some guidelines:

Body Still Cold: 6Newbie: 8Knows What Shes Doing: 11Old Hand: 14Should I Call You Grim orMr. Reaper?: 18

The other word youll need toadd is WWPDHITM? (WhoWould Play Dead Him/Her InThe Movie?) . Since most peoplesee Reapers as completelyaverage folks, youll probably

want to avoid A-list (and possiblyeven B, C, and D-list) actorshere. If you dont know theactors name, dont worry. Mostpeople will know who youretalking about when you say thatguy who played Nancys dad in

Nightmare on Elm Street . (JohnSaxon, in case youre wonder-ing).


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ANATOMY OF A REAPWe meet here at Pedros everymorning at 8 a.m. sharp, rainor shine. Anybody whos lateowes me breakfast. Unless

youve got a good memory,bring a pen and something towrite on. Ill give you thedetails about your reap:nameat least as much of it as

I know, address, time of death,and final thought. The addressis where the death takes place,not where the client lives, but

you probably already figured that out, right kiddo? For your first Reap or two, therell besomebody along to help out and show you the ropes. After that,

youre on your own. Dont eventhink about trying to get out of

Reaping. Interfering with Managements plan only causes problems. Youre stuck here Reaping until Management

decides to move you up, so itsbest not to rock the boat.

The Boss Gets the ListAll bosses have an indirect line of communication with someone orsomething working for Manage-ment (the generic term for theentity or entities responsible fordeath). While no face-to-face

contact with middle manage-ment is permitted, each boss hassome control over how assign-ments, transfer requests, and thelike are communicated. The mostcommon method of communica-tion, especially when olderbosses, is to arrange a safe dropbox where the two parties can

exchange information. More tech-savvy send and receive informa-tion using email, text messaging,and faxes. In any case, at somepre-appointed time each day, theboss receives a list of the peoplehis crew is responsible for Reap-ing. The clients full name is neveron the list (nobody really knowswhy). Usually, each entry willinclude a first initial and last name,but occasionally the Reaperdoesnt even get that much.

Clients Are AssignedEach boss has his own methodfor determining how clients areassigned. Some try to match theReap to the Reaper, others let theReapers pick and choose, orassign clients randomly. There areprobably also a few particularlysadistic bosses who assign clientsto the Reaper most likely to havedifficulty accomplishing the job.Reapers are given the clients(partial) name, final thought, andtime of death, as well as thelocation where the death will takeplace.

The Job SiteIts a good idea to arrive at yourclients place of death a little early,

because youll need to figure outa number of things if you want todo your job successfully. The firstorder of business is figuring outwho your client is. Since for somereason Management doesnt liketo give out clients full names,youll probably have to ask somequestions and do some snooping

to determine who youre sup-posed to Reap (family reunionscan be particularly tough). Youllalso need to try to guess how theclient is going to die: sometimesits obvious, but this is unfortu-nately rare. Look around forpotentially deadly situations, andkeep an eye out for bogiesthedemons who cause death [de-scribed on that magical, mysticalpage XX]. If you seem them, itsa safe bet that the death will be

suicide, homicide, or accident.The bogies that cause disease andnatural death are long gone bythe time the client actually kicksthe bucket.

The ReapOnce youve figured out whoyoure supposed to Reap, youllneed to yank their soul. You cando this at any time, but its best todo before the time or death,especially if you think the deathwill be messy. All you need to doto pluck a soul is touch the client.Once the souls out, the rest of the spirit will join it as soon as thebody dies. If for some reason theclient doesnt show up for theReap, that means Managementhas for some reason changed hisplan and the person gets to hangaround a little longer.

Helping the Client DealOnce the bodys dead, the mind,spirit, personality and other non-fleshy parts will join the soul,resulting in what most people calla ghost (for more detail, see


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ancient and honorable page XX).Its your job to explain whathappened to them and help themaccept the fact that theyre dead.Most people accept their faterelatively quickly, but some willhang around for a while. Sinceyouve got to deal with them untilthey move on, its best to do whatyou can to help them deal withtheir deceased status.

Sending Them OnOnce the client has accepted thattheyre dead, the gates of what-ever comes next will open up tothem. The gates look different todifferent people: some see thetraditional bright tunnel of light ordeity of their choice, while otherssee vast libraries or lush paradisesfull of virgins. Essentially, they seewhatever they think Heavenshould look like. Who knowswhether this is actually what theyget in the afterlife. Since mostpeople probably wouldnt enter ahellish wasteland full of demons,theres a good chance this is just afancy light show.

Tough ReapsSooner or later, every Reaperruns into problems. Sometimesthe complication is because theclient doesnt want to move on,sometimes its because theReaper screws up or has a

sudden existential crisis. A fewcomplications that the Reaper canrun into are described below,along with what happens when areap goes south.

If the Reaper fails to pluck theclients soul before death, the soulis trapped in the body until

somebody plucks it. Being in thebody at the time of death is verytraumatic, especially if the deathisnt exactly peaceful. Beingtrapped in a lifeless corpse is evenworse. Just to put icing on thecake, any scars or disfigurementthat the body suffers at the time of death are carried on with the soulinto the afterlife. So if you fail toReap a person before they getblown up, theyll have to spendeternity as tiny chunks o soul.Even if youre not too concernedabout the effect your screw-upwill have on the clients immortalsoul, its useful to realize that

traumatized ghosts sometimeshave a hard time moving on towhatever comes next.

If the Reaper gets stupid andsaves a person from dying whenits their time, the soul wastesaway. Think of it like keeping milk around past the expiration date. If the soul stays in the body longerthan Management decides itshould, it spoils. People withrotten souls inevitably turn intoeither ambitionless, lifeless au-tomatons or mean-spiritedsociopaths.

Clients who miss their appoint-ments are given a stay of execu-tion, and their souls dont rotaway by those who are unexpect-

edly saved from death. But itsnot a good idea for Reapers toarrange for a client to miss hisappointment. For one thing,Management doesnt like this,and will send bogies to tormentthe Reaper for seven days andseven nights. If youve never beentormented by sadistic minions of

death, youll just have to trust thatits unpleasant. Causing a personto miss an appointment thatManagement expected them tomake can also cause a chainreaction, with additional peopledying as a result of the clientscontinued existence. That canmean extra-long workdays forReapers until Management getshis plan back on track. Like manyrules, this one has an exception: if a D-Vu [described on mostwonderful page XX] gets in-volved, youre allowed to helpthem make sure the client misseshis appointment.

Refusal to Reap is the one thingthat can kill you. Even if theclients are handled by otherReapers, Reapers who consis-tently shirk their duties cease toexist. No light show, no whatevercomes next, just oblivion.

Some ghosts wont want tomove on as quickly as youd likethem to; they want to accomplishone final task, or send a messageto a loved one, or just dont wantto leave. When this happens, youhave to act as their bail bonds-man, keeping a constant eye onthem until theyre ready to moveon. If you let a ghost give you theslip, youre responsible forhunting him down and convincing

him to move on. If you fail to doso in a reasonable time period,Management will let the bogieshave their way with you until thesoul moves on.


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Were not the only things that go bump in the night, ace.Youve already heard a little bit about ghosts and bogies. Thereare also the sixers, who can seedead people. Sometimes theycan actually help us out when it comes to making ghosts moveon, but sometimes they stick their noses where they dont belong and become real painsin the butt. Then there are the

D-Vus, who cause people to

miss their appointments. If youever feel like youve donealready done everything youredoing, theres probably a D-Vuaround somewhere. There arealso zombies, but not therotting walking corpses your thinkin of, and maybe even a

few things I dont even knowabout.

BogiesBogies are the demonic creaturesresponsible for causing death.When clients experience unex-pected deaths (a death thatnobody saw coming), bogies areusually on the scene at or shortlybefore the time of death. Theyrethe ones who weaken the ropethats hauling up that safe, dropbanana peels are in particularlydangerous places, blow out pilotlights, and cause mechanicalmalfunctions of all types. Bogiesare rarely around for deaths thateverybody knows are inevitable(natural causes, terminal illness).Their work was done when theyhelped the client smoke that firstcigarette or get his cushy job atAsbestos, Inc.

Bogies are very good at not beingseen (usually you see somethingindistinct out of the corner of youreye, if anything), which is a goodthing, because theyre ugly as hell.Imagine a gremlin (from themovie) crossed with a hairless ratand youll have a good idea of what they look like. Most livingpeople cant see Bogies at all.The only exceptions are crazypeople and people with specialpowers (D-Vus, Sixers, and the

like).

When theyre not coming up withnew and unique ways to off people, Bogies spend their timetormenting Reapers who haveannoyed Management (usually byscrewing up The Plan). AnReaper who has been unfortunateenough to receive their specialattention will attest that Bogies aresadistic little buggers.

D-VusD-Vus (as in dj vu) areotherwise normal humans whohelp out dead people who are latefor dinner (trapped in their bodiesat or after the time of death).When a D-Vu encounters such anunfortunate, the soul inevitablyasks for help, often in a verycreepy Return of the Living

Dead sort of way. When thishappens, time suddenly rewindsitself to earlier this morning andthe D-Vus job is to help makethe client miss their appointment.The D-Vu is the only personwhos fully aware that the day isrepeating itself, but occasionally

the Reaper who was supposed topluck the client will notice thateverything seems awfully familiar.

Whenever time is rewound, boththe client and the Reaper get asecond chance: the client maymiss his appointment and live alittle longer; the Reaper gets achance to fix a Reap that wentbad. D-Vu intervention is the onlytime a Reaper is allowed to helpthe client miss his appointmentwithout getting special attentionfrom Bogies.

GhostsAs mentioned previously, as ghostis whatevers left of a person(soul, intelligence, personality)once his body stops working.Everyone who dies becomes aghost, at least for a little while.Reapers remain ghosts until theirbodies are disposed of, at which

point they assume their newcorporeal form. Regular deadpeople remain ghosts until theyreready to accept their death andmove on. Most people do this ina reasonable timeframe, but somewant to hang around. When thishappens, its up to the Reaper tokeep tabs on the ghost and help itwork out its issues. A few ghostsjump bail and give their Reaperthe slip. When this happens, theReaper has to find the ghostbefore Management gets mad andsends in the bogies.

Ghosts are completely incorpo-real and are normally invisible toregular people. Even though theyhave no physical bodies, all

Other Death-Related Career Opportunities


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ghosts have latent telekineticpowers which they can use toaffect the material world. Theymay also make themselves visibleto regular people for short peri-ods of time. Using these abilitiestends to scare the crap out of people, but it can sometimes betherapeutic for the ghost.

SixersSixers are living humans who seedead people. In addition to beingable to interact with ghosts of allvarieties, Sixers see zombies,Reapers, and other specialpeople for what they really are, or

at least as something thats notnormal. Most people who pub-licly claim that they can see orspeak with the dead are notSixers (theyre just frauds).

SnitchesSnitches are regular people whohave been given some specialinsight into The Plan. Whentheres an unexpected change inthe plan, snitches can sometimesprovide a few tips on how to setthings right. Snitches are usuallyreally damn creepy.

Special AgentsRemember how we said thatsome people who live past theirexpiration date become socio-paths? When those sociopaths

inevitably go on their killingsprees, theyre known as specialagents. It should be noted that notall mass murders, genocidalmaniacs, and madmen are specialagents. Many terrorists, hit-men,and government officials haveperfectly functional souls, they justdont know how to use them.

ZombiesWhen most people here the wordzombie they think of the walkingcorpses in all those great GeorgeRomero movies. In the world of

Reaper Madness , however, azombie is a person whose soulhas been removed from its bodythrough unnatural means, usuallyby an evil magician of somestripe. Since Reapers are skilledin the care and feeding of souls,they can sometimes help makethings right again.


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Game RulesSince Reaper Madness is a verycharacter-driven game, itspossible to go entire sessionswithout ever resorting to rollingdice and doing math. Still, therewill be times when you need toknow whether a character canactually do whatever it is shewants to do. When this happens,youll need to roll a d20. This rollis compared to the charactersNumber for whatever Wordgoverns the action (as determined

by the GM). If the character hasskills that are appropriate to theaction, or if the GM decides thatoutside factors will positively ornegatively influence her chance of success, these modifiers areadded to the Number. If thecharacter rolls less than or equalto his Number (including modifi-ers), the action is a success.Higher rolls are better. Think of it

like The Price Is Right youwant to get as close as you can tothe Number without going over.

While a simply rolling under theappropriate Number can oftendetermine an actions success,there are some cases where theroll must be higher than a particu-lar Difficulty Number (DN) inorder for the action to succeed.The most common instances aredescribed below.

Competing with an-other PC or GMC: If twocharacters are actively challengingone another, they each make theappropriate roll; if both rollssucceed, the higher roll wins thecontest; if one fails and one

succeeds, the character who wassuccessful wins; and if both failtheir rolls, neither gains an advan-tage. Essentially, the charactersDN is his opponents roll.

Character is doingsomething extremely difficult:Even if nobodys trying to impedethe characters progress, sometasks are too difficult to settle with

just a simple roll. Therefore, theGM may at any time rule that thecharacter must beat a set Diffi-

culty Number for an action tosucceed. Simple tasks shouldhave relatively low DNs (5), whiletruly Herculean tasks will involveDNs in the 15-20 range. If theDN is higher than the charactersNumber, the task is impossible(since all successful rolls will belower than the DN).

Its Mostly Luck:Whenever an action mostly

involves blind luck, rather thanskill or superior ability, the GMrolls a d20. The result is thecharacters Difficulty Number.

Most actions can be handledusing the rules described above,but there are a few commontypes of actions that require someadditional rules. These are de-scribed in the following sections.

Weakness RollsWeakness rolls work just likeregular rolls, but in this case afailed roll is preferred. Basically,the Weakness Number representsthe power the Weakness has overthe character. If the roll succeeds,the character suffers the negative

effects of his Weakness.

ReapingIn most cases, no roll is requiredto pluck a soul, since all thecharacter needs to do is touch theclient. If for some reason the GMfeels that this isnt as easy as itsounds (the client is surroundedby bodyguards, afraid of thereaper, etc.), he may require thatthe Reaper make a Job roll inorder to pluck the soul. If the

client is actively avoiding theReaper, the roll is resisted by theclients Body roll. If the difficultyis due to other factors (body-guards, crowds, etc.), the GMshould set a DN based on thesituation.

Blending InBecause most Reapers look likemovie extras to the living, they

have an innate ability to blend inwith a crowd. As long as thereare other people around, theReaper is not doing anything todraw attention to herself, and theobserver is not specificallylooking for the Reaper, she canuse this ability to avoid noticefrom people who are looking foranything unusual. The observermakes a Brain roll, which isresisted by the Reapers Job roll.

Spotting a BogieUnless bogies are actively tor-menting someone, they tend tohide themselves pretty well. Theliving cant see them at all, andeven Reapers have a hard timenoticing that theyre around.


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Running the GameAs the GM, youve got a toughJob. While everybody else justhas to worry about role-playing a

single character, youve got torole-play every single GMC thatthe characters meet, often withlittle or no preparation. Not onlythat, youve got to come up withinteresting plots, create or re-search background information,set the mood, decide how toapply the rules to situations in thegame, settle arguments anddisputes between players, and(most of all) make sure every-body has fun. This may sound alittle intimidating at first, but onceyou get the hang of things, youlldo just fine. While time and spaceconsiderations make it impossibleto explore the fine art of GameMastering in depth here, thissection does provide a few tried-and-true tips, as well as someinformation that seems particularlyuseful for a game like Reaper

Madness.

Let the Players HelpJust because youre the GMdoesnt mean youve got to doeverything yourself. Most playersprefer games where they feel theyhave inputit makes them feelthat they have ownership in the

world. Use this to your advan-tage. For starters, encourage theplayers to come up with detailsabout the settingGMCs,locations, plot ideas, whatever.Whenever they contribute some-thing to the game, reward themwith praise and Yum Yums. Thiswill not only encourage them to

help out even more, it mightconvince other players to comeup with a few ideas. Just make

sure that the players understandthat you have veto power oversome setting information.

When actually running the game,let the players do some of your

job for you. If a players characterisnt in a particular scene, havehim take on the role of a GMC orhelp you run combat. Not onlydoes this keep you from having todo everything, it keeps everyoneinvolved in the game.

Plan Just EnoughAt the very least, you need arough idea about whats going tohappen in the next game session.Who are the clients? How dothey die? Whats the tone of thissession? What impact will it have

on the ongoing story? For somepeople, these vague ideas willwork just finethe rest can beimprovised. Others will want togo into a bit more detail, andmaybe even write some stuff down. Thats perfectly ok, but becareful; too much planning can be

just as bad as too little. Too muchscripting can make the charactersfeel railroaded, and too much timespent working on the game canlead to burnout. The key is todiscover the right amount of planning for your groups gamingstyle and the game youre playing.This takes a little experimentation.

CommunicateIf youre not sure how the players

feel about the game, ask them.Find out what they like about thecampaign, what they dont

particularly care for, and wheretheyd like the story to take theircharacters. It could be that whatyou thought was a lovable GMCannoys the player to know end,or your players were expectingsomething a little less dark. Listento their concerns about the game,and do what you can to fixproblems and increase everyonesenjoyment of the game.

Setting the MoodSome sessions will only work (orwill work a lot better) if you cancreate the right atmosphere. Thisis especially true of games that areespecially dark. There are lots of tricks you can use to help set themood: music, special lighting,props, and a lot more. Figuring

out how to make those sorts of things work will go a long way.Unfortunately, no matter howhard you work to set the mood, itwont work if the players arentinto it. A single out-of-charactercomment can completely ruin themood youve so carefully estab-lished. The best way to keepplayers in the right frame of mindis to reward those who get intothe spirit of the game, whileminimizing the distractions fromthe less considerate.

The Mini-Solo AdventureProblemSince most Reaps are single-character affairs, some scenes willfocus on a single character. With a


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little luck, the players who arentinvolved in the scene will be sointerested in the ongoing story thattheyll happily sit back and watchthe action when their character isoff screen (as long as you makesure every character gets his fairshare of game time). If someonestarts fidgeting too much, you canalways give them a GMC to play.More likely, characters whoarent involved in the scene willstart talking amongst themselves,playing video games or CCGs,and generally distracting you andthe player currently involved in theaction. There are few ways to

handle this problem: Set Up A Waiting

Room: Depending onwhere youre playing, youmight be able to just sendthe players who re boredto another room, prefer-ably one where they canfind something to occupyby their time while theyrewaiting their turn. The keyto making this solutionwork is to make it clearthat the players whoarent currently involvedare free to stick aroundand watch the scene, butare expected to keepdistractions to a minimum.Players who arentinterested in the scene are

welcome to go play videogame or throw darts orwhatever in the otherroomgoing to thewaiting room is a wayto keep from beingbored, not a punishmentfor disrupting the game.

Actual Solo Adven-

tures: If you expect aparticular solo scene tobe particularly timeconsuming or uninterest-ing to the other players,have the player comeover before the game oron a different night torole-play the scene. Aslong as everybody cankeep the timeline straight,this will allow in-depthcharacter developmentwithout losing players toboredom.

Play By Post/Email:Since many scenes in a

Reaper Madness focuson a single character, thesetting is especiallysuitable as a play-by-postor email game. If youdont want to do theentire game online, youcan always do the solostuff via email or post,and save the game timefor interaction betweenthe characters.

Death ScenesBefore you start the regularcampaign, you might want toconsider running solo death andearly Reaper life adventures foreach player. This will give bothyou and the player a chance tobetter understand what the

characters life was like, how hedied, and how he dealt withmaking the transition from livinghuman being to Grim Reaper.Death Scenes can be anythingfrom short, ten-minute summariesto complete solo adventures. Itsup to you, the player, and thegods of spare time.

Deep Dark Secrets of the Reaper MadnessSettingAfter reading through the informa-tion about Reapers and all that

good stuff in the earlier part of thisbook (you know, page XX),youve probably got somequestions about how everythingfits together. For example, who orwhat is Management? Hoe doeshe decide when a Reaper gets tomove on to whatever comesnext? What exactly is whatevercomes next?

Those are some great questions,but Im not going to answer them.Death is the great big mystery,and in the world of Reaper

Madness , dying doesnt neces-sarily solve anything. In fact, it canmake death even more incompre-hensible. I feel that keeping thetruth about death ambiguous isimportant to making the game

work. Too many details takes outall the mystery and makes thesetting a lot less interesting. If youdont agree with my thinking andwant more details, thats yourprerogative as a GM. But youllhave to come up with them onyour own, because Im not telling.

Plot IdeasThe plots and stories in yourgame will ultimately depend onyour setting, tone, and (especially)characters. Still, some of the basicconcepts of the setting suggest afew general types of plots thatyou can use in your game. A feware detailed here.


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Bail JumperA ghost escapes from one of theReapers, and its up to the crewto track him down and bring himto justice (or maybe his eternalreward).

Busy DayFor some reason, an unusuallyhigh volume of people are slatedto die today, and its up to thecrew to make sure they all getwhere they need to go.

Death Takes a HolidayEvery seven years, Reapers andbogies get a day off and nobody

dies. How will the crew spendtheir well-earned vacation?

Fresh MeatA new Reaper joins the crew, andits up to the PCs to show her theropes.

Funeral for a FriendA well-liked friend of the crewwill die today. How do youknow? The boss got the informa-tion this morning, and one of youhas to Reap him.

Group ReapThe crew are assigned to handlean accident or catastrophe with aparticularly high fatality rate.

Happy Death Day to You

Its the anniversary of a Reapersdeath. Celebrating death seemskind of weird, and its hard tomourn someone whos standingright next to you. So how doesthe crew mark the occasion?

Past LivesOne of the Reapers runs into

someone or something thatreminds her of her ante-mortemlife. This could make her re-examine her outlook on being aReaper, and might require her todecide whether or not to interferewith the life of a friend or relativefrom her previous life.

The Real WorldThe characters encounter prob-lems with the non-Reaper aspectof unlife: personal relationships,

jobs, money, and all the otherproblems that normal people faceeveryday are fair game for thisplot.

RewindOne of the Reapers wakes upwith a strange recurring feeling of dj vu. Thats because shesalready lived through today oncebefore. She botched a reapyesterday, and a D-vu has set theclock back in order to save theclient.

Those Meddling SixersA Sixer interferes with a Reap,and the crew has to fix theproblem.

Upright CitizenOne of the living (perhaps apolice officer or tabloid reporter)notices that one or more of theReapers has a bad habit of

showing up wherever people turnup dead. In addition to theirnormal Reaping duties, the crewmay have to deal with uncomfort-able questions, unwanted public-ity, or a police investigation.

Sample Characters

Jimbo (Reaper Boss)Body: 12Brain: 11Nerve: 13Job: Cowboy (11); Reaper (15)Gimmick: Everybodys Buddy

(12)Weakness: Not As Young As IUsed To Be (12)Skills: The Great State of Texas+3; Fishing +2; History +1Tag Line: You understand whatIm sayin, Sparky?WWPHITM? Tommy Lee JonesWWPHDITM? An extra from

Blazing SaddlesDumb Fact: Never wears a hat.

Jimbo was born in the 1923 on acattle ranch in East Texas. Afterserving in World War II, he joinedthe rodeo, where he won a fewbuckles for bull riding. When hestarted to get to old for that sortof thing, he took a job tending tothe animals. In 1977, Jimbo wastrampled to death by a broncowhen the bolt broke on theanimals stall. Hes been a Reaperever since. Jimbo is likable,honest, and hard-working. If hewore six-shooters and a ten-gallon hat, he could easily bemistaken as an aging Texas goodol boy right out of central casting.

Wayne Foster (Sixer)Body: 10

Brain: 13Nerve: 12Job: Funeral Director (14)Gimmick: Sees Dead People(12)Weakness: Addict (12)Skills: Drug connection +3; Pick Up Hookers +2; Scrabble +1Tag Line: Leave me alone!


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WWPHITM? Oliver Platt (think Huff )Dumb Fact: Cocaines a hell of adrug.

When five-year-old WayneFoster told his parents that hetalked to dead people, theychalked it up to combination of overactive imagination and life in afamily-run funeral home. ButWayne knew what he saw, andhas got older the spirits becomemore demanding and frightening.By the time he was 12, Waynesparents had sent him to therapy, amental hospital, and even church

hoping that someone could makehim stop imaging that he could seethe dead. Eventually, Waynefigured out that it was best topretend he couldnt see theghosts. They were still there, butat least staying quiet kept theshrinks at bay.

Given his gift for seeing ghosts,the last thing Wayne ever wantedwas to become a mortician, butFoster & Sons is four-generationold family business, and the oldman wouldnt even entertain theidea that Wayne would be any-thing but a funeral director whenhe grew up. When his parentsdied, Wayne inherited the busi-ness and all the ghosts that hangaround the place. At least the

booze and drugs help ease thepain.

Elizabeth Warren (D-Vu)Body: 12Brain: 12Nerve: 12Job: Crime Scene Investigator(11)

Gimmick: D-Vu (10)Weakness: Short Fuse (10)Skills: Trivial Pursuit +3; Skiing+2; Drinking Games +1Tag Line: Shut the hell up!WWPHITM? Liv TylerDumb Fact: Favorite movie:Gone With the Wind

Up until a few years ago, LizWarren was a typical crime sceneanalyst. She believed that every-thing could be explained byscience, and that ghosts and otherparanormal phenomena were justold wives tales. When the victimwhose murder she was investigat-

ing grabbed her arm and askedfor help, she was more than a littlesurprised, but a few minutes latershe woke up safe and warm inher bed. The next day wasamazing similar to her previousnights dream, up to and includ-ing the suddenly animated corpse.When she woke again andsubbed her toe for the third timein a row, she realized that some-thing was very wrong with theworld. Deciding to honor thecorpses request, she took whatshe knew about the case andtracked down the victim beforehis death and slashed his tires.That night, she didnt get the call,and the next day time had re-turned to normal. A few similarincidents have happened since.

Liz doesnt have the faintest ideaof whats going on, but is confi-dent that sooner or later shell finda way to explain her strange timeslips.

Jimmy Douglas (Snitch)Body: 15Brain: 11

Nerve: 9Job: Cemetery Man (12)Gimmick: Knows When YoullDie (13)Weakness: Batshit Crazy (13)Skills: Knows A Lot AboutDeath +3; Horror Movies +2;Soap Operas +1Tag Line: Jimmy knows secretthings. Do you want Jimmy to tellyou about them?WWPHITM? Tony ToddDumb Fact: Favorite movie:Faces of Death IV

Jimmy Douglas has always beenfascinated with death, and not in a

particularly healthy way. Through-out his life, Jimmy has studieddeath in all its forms, from horrormovies to ancient mythology.Eventually his research paid off,allowing Jimmy to get a glimpse of what Death has in store for aperson just by looking at them.Given his favorite topic, its notsurprising that Jimmy took a jobas a grave digger when he was15, eventually working his way upto Cemetery groundskeeper. Thiswork suits him well, mainlybecause it involves almost nocontact with the general public.His morbidity, lack of communi-cation skills, and borderlineschizophrenia tend to creeppeople out.

Michael WilliamThrogmorten (SpecialAgent)Body: 12Brain: 12Nerve: 10Job: Serial Killer (13)Gimmick: Nice, Quiet Boy WhoKeeps To Himself (14)


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Weakness: Sociopath (14)Skills: Torture +3; Stealth +2;Cooking +1Tag Line: Would you like toplay?WWPHITM? Christian Slater

When Mike was 12 years old, henearly drowned, but was saved atthe last minute by a kindly oldman. Shortly after the accident,Mike became increasingly with-drawn, but parents and teachers

just chalked it up to puberty.Though he was an above-averagestudent, Mike skipped collegeand has spent most of his adult life

working dead-end jobs. Michaelis a polite, well-groomed youngman, but otherwise he doesntleave much of an impression.

What most people dont know isthat Mike is a sick, twistedcannibal. For years after his near-death experience, Mike felt thathe was missing something in hislife. When he was 16, he found it.A beautiful little girl named Suzie.Her screams were like music tohis ears, and her spleen tasted likeprime rib. Mike has killed plentyof children since that day, buttheres just something specialabout your first time.

Creature StatsBogiesBody: 9Brain: 12Nerve: 15Job: Minion of Death (14)Gimmick: Semi-Invisible (17)Weakness: Sadistic (17)Skills: Break Things +3; Wreak Havoc +2; Bite +1

GhostsGhosts have the same stats thatthe person had in life, but theirinvisible, incorporeal form makesit difficult for them to use most of their abilities. A ghost can appear

to the living by making a success-ful Nerve roll, resisted by thevictims Brain roll. In addition, allghosts have latent telekineticability. If they want to use thisability to affect the material world,they make a Nerve roll against aDN determined by the GM basedon the task theyre trying toperform.

ZombiesBody: 17Brain: 0Nerve: 0Job: Mindless Slave (18)Gimmick: Hard to Kill (19)Weakness: No Free Will (19)

Reaper JargonAppointment: The time and

place of a persons death.Big Day: A day with a particu-larly high volume of Reaps, oftenthe result of a chain reaction.Bogies: The creatures that setthings in motion for a death tooccur.Boss: The leader of a Reapercrew.Chain Reaction: A series of unplanned deaths that result froman unauthorized change of plan.Also known as a hiccup.Change of Plan: When a personfails to die because of a missedappointment.Client: A person whose soul thereaper takes.Crew: The term I decided to usefor PC group, largely because

the only flavory option I couldcome up with was Murder, (asin crows) which sounds dumb.Day Off: Every seventh year,theres a single day during whichnobody dies. Its a day off forboth bogies and Reapers.Death Day: The anniversary of aReapers death. Some crewstreat it sort of like a birthday.D-Vu: A person with the ability torewind time in order to preventa person from dying.Expiration Date: The time atwhich a person is fated to die.Ghost: Whats left of a personafter the body dies.

Group Reap: A job that requiresmultiple reapers, usually a majortraffic pile-up, explosion, firefight,or other event with a high casualtyrate.Hot Bogie Lovin: Beingtormented by Bogies as punish-ment for screwing up The Plan.Late for Dinner: Term used todescribe a soul that is still in thebody at (or after) death.Management: Culturally neutralterm for the entity or entities thatReapers work for. Other popularnames for this person (or people)include Death, God, Hades,Allah, The Grim Reaper, Yahweh,The Powers That Be, The God-dess, The Grim Reaper, Osirus,The Man Upstairs, The Angel of Death, and Lemmy.

Middle Management: Peopleor creatures that act as messen-gers between Management andbosses. Even the bosses are notallowed direct contact with them.Reap: When used as a noun, asingle soul-taking assignment; a

job or assignment. When used asa verb, to remove a persons soul.


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Reaper: One who reaps; A GrimReaperRotten Soul: The soul of aperson who has been allowed tolive beyond his allotted time onearth.Pluck: To remove the soul of aperson who is about to die. Alsoknown as reaping or popping.Some call it yanking or jerking,but these terms are rare becausethey sound dirty.Sixer: A person who can sensethe dead.Snitch: A normal human withsupernatural knowledge aboutManagements plan.

Soul: A persons essence.Special Agents: People withrotten souls who engage in massmurder, serial killing and otherexciting pastimes.The Plan: Managements cosmicschedule of life and (especially)death.Whatever Comes Next: Theafterlife.Zombie: A person who has hadhis or her soul removed.

Sources & InspirationalMaterialsRecommended Viewing

Dead Like MeSix Feet Under Tru CallingTwin PeaksThe Sixth Sense

Final Destination (1 & 2)Cemetery ManSoul SurvivorsThe Serpent and the RainbowVery Bad Things

Heathers American BeautyThe Addams Family

Recommended Reading

Reaper Madness

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