'The Kolchak Option' For The Red Room's Wretched Darkness Second Edition

 Today has been beyond busy & so after taking a coffee with another DM. We started talking about 'Kolchak The Nightsalker' season one episode four 'The Vampire" 'Sent to L.A. to interview a controversial guru, Kolchak's more interested in tracking down and stopping an extremely vicious female vampire." And this episode follows up on the events of the 'Nightstalker'movie. And get's into one of the the least understood adventure plot points in OSR horror adventures. 

 
What does any of this have to do with OSR horror gaming & Rpg's? Well a bit of everything really. With 'The Red Room's Wretched Darkness Second edition hitting the shelves later this week. Now seemed like the right time to talk about 'Kolchak The Nightsalker' season one episode four 'The Vampire". This episode follows the trail of corpses that is provided by the spawn of vampire Janos Skorzeny after a stake had been put through him. The spawn in question is Catherine Rawlins who was a prostitute killed by the 'master' vampire Skorzeny. She takes up her murderous ways and begins a trail of bodies to Los Angeles. The point?! The fact is that the DM can take full advantage of 'loose ends' for horror adventures. And this is something that we see time and again. And this is especially useful for an OSR game such as Wretched Darkness. 

We know how Kolchak ends with Carl Kolchak saving the United State's bacon from being up it's eyeballs in vampires. One thing about Kolchak is that the series episodes often left a bit hanging in the wind for the writers to pull from had there been a second season. Wretched Darkness doesn't have this conceit to it at all. Instead Wretched Darkness beings the following question, 'What if the PC's were the bad guys doing good things to ensure that the world doesn't end'. The vampire prostitute would be the latest horror to crawl from the tarmack to ravage Las Vegas. And then onto Los Angeles. Vampires & werewolves leave behind corruption & Chaos in thier wake. These horrors are not tragic heroes these are devestation & destruction on two legs. 
The question isn't if such an undead horror show is  out there in Wretched Darkness but 'when' will the monster be coming to ravage the PC's city, county, or country. I've played in numerous Wretched Darkness mini campaigns and adventures over the course of the first edition's release. Vampires & Werewolves are apex predators of the first order these are monster's monsters. And this becomes evident within Wretched Verses Issue 11 – Vampires, Werewolves and Wretched Hunters. And there's more evidence of this in Wretched Darkness second edition: 

1. Wretched Darkness can take place within any era and not just modern so it's rife for the monsters to come to call within your campaign. 
2. Vampires & Werewolves are apex horror predators because they are dark distortions of us. 
3. OSR horror adventuring isn't Pulp adventure it's horror plain & simple. The stakes are high because of the nature of the gaming. 
4. PC's are monsters and monsterous but the antagonists are so much worse.
5. Horror gaming does not have the same 'adventure goals' as other TTRPG's. 
6. The 'treasure' of horror gaming is survival and & experience. The PC's grow stronger but also more twisted with each adventure.