Theme Zine 1 for Fear of the Unknown

Welcome to the first collection of themebooks for Fear of the Unknown. This collection includes Deadly Dreams, Found Footage, Halloween Party, Curious Things, Day of the Mall, and The Return.

You'll need the core rules to play.

    A theme is a pattern that you want to use to give structure to your story. A themebook is a collection of tools to help you tell stories about that theme.

    Deadly Dreams is about something killing people in their sleep. Whether it’s the ghost of a serial killer, an alien from another dimension, or a creature straight from mythology, this antagonist can stalk their victims in ways far beyond that of a normal, or even most super-powered, killers.The theme is the fickle nature of reality, especially in fiction.
    Found Footage features characters watching a movie they found, as well as the actions of the characters in the movie. The theme is the effect of fiction on reality.
    Halloween Party is a story that, instead of taking place over the course of several days in a small town, takes place in a single night at a Halloween party. The theme is companionship.
    Curious Things is about living in a world where certain people have strange, mysterious, nigh uncanny abilities beyond those of ordinary people. The theme is outsiders.
    Day of the Mall takes place entirely in a mall, rather than in the broader town containing the mall. It has tools to help you create a distinctive identity for the mall, fill it with shops, subcultures, and amenities, then generate a unique antagonist and figure out what they’re trying to do in this suburban Mecca. The theme is the social interactions that come from people being stuck together in a small space.    
    The Return takes place over decades. It has tools to help you play a pair of games, with the same protagonists as children and adults, and explore how the town and your characters have changed in the intervening years. The theme is the passage of time.