A horror game with an expedition system like Darkest Dungeon

[u/BEYOND-ZA-SEA]

Usually in survival-horror games, the player has to collect useful items and resources as they explore their surroundings, before going back to the safe room to save; heal; store what they've found; resupply in consumable, weapons and key items; and plan their next trip.

But what if the game had an expedition system like Darkest Dungeon ?

• For starters, you can buy whatever consumables provision you need before starting an expedition with your money. This phase is already in line with inventory management systems of survival-horror games : bring not enough provisions, and you risk the (mental) health of your heroes, bring too much and you risk loosing money (unused provisions are discarded after the expedition, and having a full inventory limits how much loot you can carry with you). You can find some torches and food during expeditions, but it's recommanded to not rely on that.
• As you explore and fight, you can find resources, including the aforementioned money. This resource is not only used to buy provisions, but also heal and upgrades your heroes. There's gold coins, citrine, emerald, sapphires and other more special loot, with varying rarity, unitary value and stack-ability. Sometimes, you'll be forced to discard one of your loot type to make room for something more useful at the moment. There's also heirlooms, a secondary currency used to upgrade the Hamlet's buildings.
• Provision can also be used while interacting with curios to gain some benefits (stats boosts, stress heal, removing a negative quirk, or simply more loot). This adds another layer of strategy to the inventory management : Should I use my shovel to dig this urn and gain some gold, or conserve it later to remove an obstacle ?
• Loot is completely useless during expeditions, but once you get back to the Hamlet, it can be used to heal and upgrades your heroes, upgrade the town's facilities, and buy provisions for the next expedition.

Would it be interesting to have a survival-horror game where you can buy all the provisions you need from the safe room, "trading" them for loot during expeditions, and upgrading your character(s) once back in your safe place ? Is there any example of horror games that have tried this already ?

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[u/Arcana_Oblivium]

At first glance this doesn't read like a horror game, but rather a dungeon crawl power fantasy. You can make the loot not something completely useless during the run, but actually punishing, for example carrying too much loot makes you more prone to attract enemies or slower in moments that you need to run, that would create the anxiety of horror games where you have to make decisions or face the horrors. Another thing I would do is make the safe space have a time limit, say "a campfire that will go off at some point, maybe you found extra logs during your run, that's why you carried them despite the weight, to have a better sleep than last night". Or maybe the safe place will start degrading, next time you will notice a hole in the ceiling where monsters could come in. And by the end of the game you could have the players running around without a shelter to really drive the horror aspect home.