The Strange Men series is a quadrilogy of Wolf RPG Editor horror games made by Uri. Each game is centered around a certain supernatural event that must be investigated by the respective protagonist. The antagonist of each game is one of the titular Strange Men.
In order, the games are:
See also Paranoiac, Mermaid Swamp, Insanity, and Pedestal, other games by Uri unrelated to The Strange Men.The Strange Men series provides examples of:
- Antagonist Title:
- The Strange Men are the antagonists of each game, although unrelated to each other.
- Averted with The Hanged Man as there is no threat called the Hanged Man.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Each game's Big Bad is very different from each other:
- The Crooked Man is a disturbing, scary entity that repeatedly tries to kill David. The Sandman looks like a cartoony villain and while he repeatedly chases Sophie, it turns out that he's an Anti-Villain and was trying to help her all along, but she couldn't understand his language (and vice-versa), thus believing him to be trying to harm her.
- Unlike the two previous antagonists, the Boogie Man isn't a supernatural creature, instead being a human Spree Killer, Brendon Dumont, disguised as the Boogie Man. He's also more sadistic than even the Crooked Man was.
- While the three first games are titled after their respective antagonists, the Hanged Man is not the Big Bad in the fourth game, being merely shown in a flashback scene and having never attacked Will (though finding him ended up scarring Will for most of his life and causing him to start seeing ghosts and hearing animals speak). The game's actual Big Bad, Edward Hayes, has similarities to the Boogie Man, with both being human murderers rather than supernatural beings; that said, the "Boogie Man" - Brendon - was a sadistic Spree Killer, while Ed is a deeply traumatized man who only killed his abusive father in a fit of rage and only wants to kill Will out of desperation due to believing that fulfilling the Happy Murder ritual will absolve him of his father's death.
- Multiple Endings: Each game has its own set of endings available. Certain choices you make throughout will impact the story of the game as well as the outcome. The only exception is The Crooked Man where you make choices at precise points and it will automatically result in a Bad Ending if you choose incorrectly.
- Previous Player-Character Cameo: Each of the sequels has the protagonist of the prior games return in some form, usually as a major character.
- Smurfette Principle: Sophie from The Sandman (2014) is the only female protagonist in the series.
- Thematic Series: Although the games take place in the same universe and have returning characters, each game's story is stand-alone, with mainly some references to past games here and there.
