The Sisters of the Seven Sins
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1 The Sisters of the Seven Sins A Giallo Crime/Mystery/Occult Drama (C) Postmortem Studios ( James Desborough) 2021 Written by: Miguel Ribeiro Editing, Layout & Design: James ‘Grim’ Desborough Photography: Iola Yolska Art: Stock, orphaned works and Brad McDevitt. Sample file
2 ntroduction hose iallo astards is scenario takes place in a e word Giallo – which means Portuguese convent with a dark history of "yellow" in Italian – is basically Italian demonic possession, black magic, and devil pulp. e term derives from a collection of worship that, in the mid-1970s, is occupied murder mystery paperback books, similar by a recently founded unusual religious to American hardboiled ction from the congregation made up of disgraced women 1930s and 1940s, which had yellow covers. who wish to atone for their past, the Still, it is mostly known for its 1960s Reprobate Sisters of the Seven Sins. cinematic iteration, a subgenre of horror, which made Giallo famous in markets Players can take the role of nuns, outside Italy. Filmmakers such as Mario Vatican authorities sent to investigate and Lamberto Bava, Ruggero Deodato, reports of demoniacal manifestations, Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento are among reporters interested in exploring the story Giallo's most eminent names. e genre behind this atypical catholic sisterhood or combines murder-mystery with elements even criminals, working on a devious plan of crime thriller, psychological horror, to restore a sinister painting to the convent sexploitation and (very rarely) supernatural where it originally belonged. horror. Having female leads, most of them beautiful young women, subjected to In this scenario, you will nd vicious attacks, some of them murdered, a summary description of Saint Mary the eroticism, the visual style and peculiar Magdalene's ctional convent, located in use of colours are some of the most the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, followed common tropes. by some information about the country during the late '70s and various detailed In the end, Giallo turns out to be characters. Most of them are supposed a very loose term that encompasses a lot to be playable, but there's enough room of di erent things, not entirely contained to add the players' own creations. Several in a speci c genre. Some of the movies, unstructured plot hooks are included, focused on crime investigation, are almost allowing the scenario to be moulded to indistinguishable from poliziotteschi, a the game masters' and player's choices and subgenre of action lms from the 1970s, preferences. which took a cue from American action lms of the time. Sisters of the Seven Sins is presented for Actual Fucking Monsters, but ough usually led by female it can easily be adapted to other horror protagonists, Giallo in role-playing games role-playing games. obviously doesn't have to be so. Having Samplefemale non-player characters file as victims of gruesome murders or violent rape is preferable.
1 Generally speaking, the player e alienation theme also characters, male or female, can be either punctuates the genre. Sometimes the investigators, witnesses to a crime, or witnesses' testimony is taken with a grain somehow connected to the victims (e.g. of salt by the authorities; in other cases, family, friends or neighbours). Indeed, not the protagonist being stalked by a criminal all of the Giallo scenarios have to be as has mental issues or is under a lot of stress stereotypical as that. e recurrent black and prone to imagining things. Self- leather gloved assassin who only kills doubt, either due to the leads' weakened alluring girls is an interesting feature, but mental state or because others instil that we can't rely solely on that for an RPG uncertainty in the character, is almost scenario. ubiquitous.
e "outsider" trope is also en there's violence and gore. quite common in Giallo, especially when e crimes are often gruesome, and the the protagonist is a male. e outsider murder scenes are usually longer and more is usually a foreigner, an American or graphic than contemporary American British citizen, staying in Italy or perhaps counterparts of the genre. Violence in another continental Europe country Giallo is also increasingly sexualised, taking for professional reasons. It could be a advantage of the social upheaval of the journalist correspondent or a writer on a time, even in traditional and conservative book promotion tour, or maybe a musician Italy. Naturally, nowadays, all of these lms playing a concert, suddenly involved would be considered misogynistic and in a criminal investigation. Someone "problematic" by social justice types. It may with a dark past, seen as unreliable and not be a disadvantage that Giallo is a niche untrustworthy by the authorities, is also genre, or it would be more likely to be a typical kind of outsider. Female leads cancelled. may be considered unreliable on account of their gender alone. Let's not forget this Notice that while there are genre started in the late 1960s. similarities to slasher movies, the Giallo genre is much more stylish. e murders Related to the outsider trope, don't need to be as graphical, but you there's the voyeuristic theme. Being should try to set the scenes with an added witness to a murder, or attempted murder, level of detail. Not merely the violence is common in Giallo lms and can be sequences, but also the aftermath, when labelled an extension to the outsider motif: the characters nd de led corpses in the voyeur is watching from afar. ere's macabre murder scenes. And don't skimp an obvious connection to classics like on colours. Vivid colours are a trademark Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). of Giallo, and, as you won't have a Hitchcock is also Brian De Palma's cinematographer at hand, you will have to primarySample in uence, and De Palma use words to describe them.file Music is also directed Dressed to Kill (1980), which vital in recreating the right atmosphere. combines in uences from the Master of Suspense himself with a stylish look, giving rise to an American Giallo.
2 If playing a soundtrack doesn't disturb your game sessions, you may want ostmortem Studios to pick something by Goblin, an Italian Postmortem Studios is the personal progressive rock band that has frequent imprint of James' Grim' Desborough. collaborations with Dario Argento. Ennio Founded in 2001 as a successor to fan- Morricone has authored several excellent imprint 'Dead Hamster Games', Postmortem Giallo scores, but most of his horror Studios creates RPGs and other tabletop soundtracks will do. games, as well as ction and other creative material. is scenario contains some plot hooks that delve into the supernatural You can keep up with Postmortem Studios territory of a Clive Barkereske nature. If in various ways: you want to stay true to the Giallo theme, you may want to tone them down until • Twitter: @Mort_Post, @Grimasaur they are at a Dario Argento movie's level • Facebook: PostmortemStudios (at least) or simply ignore them. ere • Youtube: Youtube.com/ are plenty of more mundane ideas in PostmortemVideo other story seeds or even implied in the Dramatis Personae character's descriptions. If you relegate the supernatural to the background, you will have an action- oriented crime-mystery type of Giallo.
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