Chapter Concept: The Face
THE FACE
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Name: Kregor Harvard M.D.
Alias: The Doctor
Gender: Male
Height: 6’8ft
Nationality: German American
Hunting Grounds: The Suburbs
Weapon(s): Large Kitchen Knife
Movement Speed: Moderate
Terror Radius: Moderate
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Power: Shapeshifting
"The mask that Kregor wears twists and contorts his appearance just as it has his psyche, allowing him to take the form of one's closest friends."
The Face can Shapeshift into the most recent survivor they have Stalked (M2), assuming their cosmetics, Movement Speed, Health State, Auras, etc. They may even feign actions such as working on generators without actually affecting the Progression Meter. At any point, The Face may remove the Shapeshift disguise. However, much like the Wraith's invisibility, there is a delay when removing the disguise... Unless the Survivor they Shapeshifted into is within their Terror Radius, where the delay becomes almost completely negligible.
This promotes a high tension playstyle that preys on Player gullibility and breaks apart teamwork. What's more, there will always be momentary panic when seeing two of the same Survivor (especially in teams stacking multiple of the same Survivor) as not only is one of said Survivors The Face, but The Face will be actively rewarded for Players clumping up in the same area.
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Perks:
HEX: WHITE NOISE: While Suvivors repair generators, they hear the Killer's Chase Music. The Music grows in volume the more the generator is repaired. In addition, generator sounds become more audible to the Killer.
OBSESSION: THE BOND: The Killer becomes obsessed with a single Survivor. So long as the Survivor is in an Injured state, Stun Duration from Pallets and Blind Duration from Flashlights are significantly reduced.
CURIOSITY KILLS: The Killer's Movement Speed is slightly to moderately increased whenever a Survivor is searching Chests or destroying a Totem.
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Mori: The Face stabs the Survivor in the calve, dragging them back. The Face then rolls the Survivor over, grabbing them by the shoulders and bringing the Survivor face to "face" with himself. There is a moment of unease before The Face's mask ripples, abruptly expanding outward and connecting with the survivor's own face. The Survivor can be seen in a state of visual panic as they're both suffocated and their face is implied to be devoured by Kregor's mask; their jerking and scrabbling eventually stopping entirely and their body going limp. Upon finishing it's "meal", the mask retracts and The Face stands back up, dusting off his coat before retrieving his knife. If you have ever seen John Carpenter's The Thing or the 2011 Prequel, you may have a good idea of what this will look like.
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Strengths: Element of surprise, well rounded stats, sabotages teamwork
Weaknesses: Actively becomes weaker as more Survivors die, requires good acting
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Inspiration & Lore:
Kregor Harvard is a long time Dungeons and Dragons character I have used to terrorize my Players as the Dungeon Master. Because I've always used online sources such as Roll 20, I've been able to manipulate my Player's awareness of the situation and slip this bastard into situations without their notice, only to practically leave them shitting their pants once they realize they're in the room with a serial killer, not a small child or another Player or whatever have you. He was always modeled after a large array of horror properties: taking the appearance of Doctor Decker from Clive Barker's Nightbreed, the trust issues and shapeshifting of John Carpenter's The Thing, the terrifying strength of Jason Voorhees and subtle stalker elements of Micheal Myers, and there is even a bit of Maniac Cop and Freddy Krueger in there just in how expressive he can be when the mask comes off (figuratively speaking). While shapeshifted, he faithfully assumes the personality quirks and mannerisms of whoever he's pretending to be. He plays the role; he acts. But it's a means to an end. Once he no longer requires the disguise, he's no stranger to verbally mocking his victims with condescension.
And this is interesting (to me, at least), because despite my active usage of the term "he", The Face isn't the man behind the mask. The Face IS the mask. The Mask itself is a living, breathing organism that latches onto emotionally vulnerable people and slowly gains control of them as it progressively destroys their inhibitions; awakening their inner monster. It is a parasite, one unable to relate but nonetheless intrigued by the human emotional spectrum and explores this curiosity by inflicting suffering and pain.
The man behind the mask, Kregor Harvard, becomes a puppet just like all victims before him. Originally, Harvard was just a doctor upset over his wife's death in a car accident; depressed and frustrated at the courts for letting the driver responsible for her death off with nothing but a slap on the wrist. The mask just found itself on his doorstep during this period and is implied to have sought out his strong negative emotion; silently encouraging the idea of using it as a means of getting revenge on those who had done him wrong. Ultimately, it boils down to commentary about how human vices can turn people into something they're not as Kregor progressively loses more and more of his humanity to the mask and starts taking it off less and less. Eventually, there's nothing left but the mask itself and a lobotomized man it's using as a vessel. It's meant to be pitiable, but horrifying in that there comes a moment when the only thing left staring you in the face is this almost cosmic-horror like entity that can't empathize with humanity at all, but is uniquely invested in what faces you'll make as it hunts and kills you.
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Final Notes: The Art does not belong to me. I've used it for years and it's been reused on Pinterest countless times, but I could never find the original Artist. Due to it being Dr. Decker in appearance throughout though, there would no doubt need to be some cosmetic changes.
Comments
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They said they would never do a disguise killer, but of all of them I've read this is good. He's a base stabby guy normally, but can make sure people don't work together in case of it being a foe, although too many perks allow you to gain distance from a killer in a chase so maybe after being disguised for so long you can expose them. But yeah, that's powerful, make his undisguised self weaker, like Nurse maybe to make it a bit more balanced so he has to get the sneaky to win. Also I love White Noise.
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I appreciate the feedback.
I'll be doing more of these in the future, but it's definitely just a concept pitch if anything; totally up in the air for changes. The theme for The Face was absolutely meant to revolve around screwing with Survivor's sense of security and making them fearful of normally advantageous positions, their own teammates in particular.
EDIT: In retrospect, I swapped out the Perks "Focused Apathy" and "Malicious Thrill" for ones I found more fitting for The Face and a little bit more unique in function.
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