For those old enough to remember The Night Stalker, featuring the debut of Darren McGavin as paranormal reporter Carl Kolchak, premiered fifty years ago as an ABC TV movie on January 11, 1972. Based on an (at the time) unpublished novel by Jeff Rice named The Kolchak Papers, this movie featured a screenplay by the legendary Richard Matheson, as did its sequel, The Night Strangler. The ratings for these TV movies were high enough to green light the 1974/1975 The Night Stalker/Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV series. Focusing on Kolchak, a reporter who uncovers and stops unknown supernatural evils, only to have his articles on the subject killed before he can make the public aware. A half century later, Moonstone Books is observing the character’s anniversary with a Kickstarter funding the KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER 50TH ANNIVERSARY Graphic Novel. To mark the occasion, I want to play a Kolchak tabletop roleplaying game. Unfortunately, there isn’t an official RPG. That struck me as odd so I reached out to KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER editor, James Aquilone, to inquire if there’s been any discussion around making a Kolchak RPG?
“There’s actually quite a lot of posts about a potential Kolchak RPG and people have statted up Kolchak for several systems. So it looks like people are playing Kolchak RPGs, but there’s nothing official out there, unfortunately.”
Not having a Kolchak RPG is an oversight, an unexpected gap considering the subject matter and the copyright owner’s likely openness towards licensing (see Moonstone’s near twenty year long comic and prose license for Kolchak). The lack of an RPG prompted this article. What would an officially licensed adaptation of Kolchak’s world and adventures play like? If there was one, what RPG system would it use? What would its contents be? What would the book look like? How would the movies, episodes, novels, and books be incorporated into this? In this three-part series, I’ll talk about Kolchak, both the television installments and the later prose and comics, as well as what a Kolchak tabletop roleplaying game would involve creatively, mechanically, and financially.
Why Kolchak?
Why am I speculating on a Kolchak RPG? Obviously, the anniversary speaks to catalyst, but the why is deeper. The why of it is the same as to why Kolchak: The Night Stalker has a cult fanbase at all: It’s because of Darren McGavin’s take on a well-written premise and character in Carl Kolchak. The setting and concept play a central role, but without Mr. McGavin’s portrayal of Kolchak as a quick witted underdog doing what’s right, I don’t know that the series would have endured. Featuring writers like Richard Matheson, Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, and David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, this TV series stood on a foundation of writer’s room talent. These authors plus Darren McGavin, who did rewrites throughout the series, created an engaging, dangerous world, one where a lone journalist fought to expose mystical facts. As a journalist for the Independent News Service and paranormal investigator, Kolchak lives in a world much like ours, but one with non-human creatures that go bump in the night. Despite the power of Carl’s prose, few of his articles are supported by enough evidence to satisfy his peers in the fourth estate. Only Kolchak acknowledge these terrors whileother journalists are happy to ignore them and go in favor of the official narrative. Kolchak uncovers these hidden horrors and debunks the official party line used to cover up supernatural slaughters as mere mundane murders. Kolchak probes each creature’s lore to save the night and writes the story; only to see the article squashed at the end of every adventure.
Despite the obstacles, Carl Kolchak believes in freedom of the press and its duty to inform the citizenry. He’s an idealist and crusader, and no amount of failure daunts him. Attired in a seersucker suit, straw porkpie hat, and sneakers, Carl Kolchak learns of strange murders or disappearances and tracks them down to earn his pay. In the process, he uncovers hidden supernatural or extraterrestrial entities. In the end, his efforts rescue some, but the public never learns of the mystical forces moving just beneath the surface.
All of those elements scream out to be converted into a tabletop roleplaying game. The adventures, the supernatural, the job as a newsperson, and combating official cover ups tempts gamers with its layered gaming experience. It’s not just about saving the day, it’s about exposing the truth when you’re fighting city hall.
If Kolchak sounds familiar, it’s because the character’s legacy can be seen in The X-Files, the shorter lived 2005 reboot of the Kolchak series, and every supernatural sleuth that followed. It was a milestone and, closer to the RPG side of geekdom, the series had some influence on Gary Gygax and Dungeons & Dragons (Gary’s quote about the origins of the Rakshasha can be read here).
After ABC and the initial novels, Kolchak survived and, arguably, forged its legendary status at Moonstone Books, a comic book and prose novel publisher. Having published new Kolchak comics and prose novels, as well as republished existing ones since 2003, their efforts kept Kolchak alive and kicking for going on two decades. Kolchak would be less well-known today had Moonstone not carried the torch. Under their stewardship, unfilmed episodes were realized as comic books. At Moonstone, Kolchak encountered great characters like Sherlock Holmes, The Green Hornet, Doctor Moreau, Frankenstein, Dark Shadows’ Barnabas Collins (Dark Shadows and the Kolchak TV movies were both produced by Dan Curtis), Kevin J Anderson’s zombie PI character, Dan Shamble, and even HP Lovecraft’s Mythos. The publisher has taken Kolchak through many original stories and teamed him with some of the coolest characters Kolchak fans could hope for. To that end, Moonstone’s anniversary anthology on Kickstarter continues to expand the world of the newshound offeringtales of Kolchak from across his lifetime with stories from each decade he lived. Written by Rodney Barnes, R.C. Matheson, Kim Newman, Nancy Collins, Jonathan Maberry, David Avallone, Peter David, and many more, their graphic novel offers comics and prose short stories to celebrate Kolchak’s storied career.
In terms of established canon, Kolchak has volumes and volumes of existing content to mine. An RPG may be able to tap into hours of footage and thousands of pages of printed material (depending on the details of the license). Pulling from those resources offers a variety of characters, locations, monsters, and more to stat up and play in an RPG.
Next Article
With the character and fiction established in this article, it’s time to look ahead. What system would a Kolchak RPG use? What additional rules would it need? Is making a game based on a cult license like Kolchak economically viable for a publisher? In the next part of this three-part series, I’ll dive into what a hypothetical Kolchak RPG might entail and share some thoughts on how it could come together.
KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER 50TH ANNIVERSARY Graphic Novel from Moonstone Books
End Date: Fri, February 11 2022 12:00 AM EST.
“Comic book anthology with stories by Rodney Barnes, R.C. Matheson, Kim Newman, Nancy Collins, Jonathan Maberry, David Avallone + More”
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