Halloween ideas ? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Halloween ideas ? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Jeryg
10-21-03, 10:40 AM hi all,

i'm not a regular of this board, but still, allow me to ask you this :

i'm planning to run (as a DM) a "halloween special" one-shot adventure for the upcoming halloween night.
this will take place in the realms, for i and my players know it very well... and i would like it to be around level 12-15 (not sure yet).

i'm currently building an intrigue with a Big Bad Evil Guy and all, but i am sure there are other people out there who have sadistic and inventive ideas on such an adventure.

so, any ideas to include ? plot ? weird halloween creature to meet ? anything really?

right now, i am most concerned about the place where this will take place. i can't make my mind on this.
loki87
10-21-03, 12:40 PM I'm assuming that since your asking about it on these boards, your planning to stage this in the Realms. Also, since this is a "one-shot" adventure, it probably needs to be short on plot/setup and packed with as much action as you can squeeze into one session.

This really isn't anything particularly devious or original, but it does fit the flavor of Halloween very well. Might I suggest a night-time tour throuh the Battle of the Bones, located in the Western Heartlands. A powerful necromancer or lich or vampire is attempting a nefarious ritual this very night (maybe on Shieldmeet or the 30th day of Marpenoth), and it's up to the party to defeat him before he can complete it. I would probably setup a few large battles of various undead appropriate to the level of the party, before the final battle with the BBEG and his closest henchmen. Make sure you can fit all of this into the timeframe of your session.

As for the specific ritual, you may want to look at the Book of Vile Darkness for some particularly nasty ones, or just come up with some kind of terrible conjuration or sacrifice, maybe one that will lead the BBEG towards godhood or one that will unleash a horrible demon lord upon the Realms.

Sorry if that's too cookie cutter for you.
ENHenry
10-21-03, 02:34 PM Originally posted by Jeryg
i'm currently building an intrigue with a Big Bad Evil Guy and all, but i am sure there are other people out there who have sadistic and inventive ideas on such an adventure.

I'll second loki87's advice - unless your players are used to the format, any deep intrigues are going to get lost in a one-shot game - the goal of a deep plot is to keep the players engrossed but over multiple sessions. It's like the difference between Lord of the Rings and Friday the 13th.

For the realms, at level 12 to 15, I would suggest a few concepts:

1) They find themselves escaping slavery in Thay, beneath the catacombs of Thaymount. Their goal is to garner equipment, escape without alerting Thayans, and get to a teleport-accesible location. God only knows the horrors lurking beneath Thaymount.

2) The incarnation of Bhaal, former God of Murder, is stalking them for some reason. Every time they slay his very tough host body, he animates someone else and charges them again - kind of a "Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers meets the Realms" idea.

3) Tell them they are running in the realms, and then have the Mists dump 'em in Ravenloft. Their goal is to escape by means of a Ritual being performed by cultists, but in order to escape, they have to complete the ritual, which involves a VOLUNTARY humanoid sacrifice...

One concept I ran about FOUR years ago, back in 2nd edition AD&D, that had the players, not the characters, scared out of their wits, but it wouldn't work as well these days:

They had to storm Vecna's Castle in Ravenloft, which was PACK TO THE GILLS with Wraiths, Wights, Spectres, and other level-draining undead, who used poison and cones of cold liberally in traps in the castle. They were using their current 14th level characters at the time, so whatever happened in the demiplace, happened in the regular game. I never saw a group of characters played so craftily and subversively as that night. :D
Jeryg
10-21-03, 02:43 PM yes i think i'll have to lure them into thinking that this will be the start of a new campaign so that they are not so mindless with their new characters...

thoses ideas are quite good, keep them coming.
Lashan
10-22-03, 08:16 AM Personally, I think the best "one-shot horror" games are ones where most of the party is killed or at least maimed severly. My best friend ran a game one time that was based off of Evil Dead. Players had their limbs possesed and chopped them off themselves, only to have them run around and haunt them! In the end, I think only 2 characters were left alive.

I think character death in a one-shot is great b/c the characters aren't necessarily attached to them and you don't get much of a chance to be a killer DM besides then. Also, characters can have fun being stupid and risking their characters.

One of the best things to do is to base it off a horror movie of some kind. Perhaps not even a specific movie, but on the genre as a whole. The party moves into an isolated area and finds it deserted. Either they find the bodies, or everyone is strangely missing. As they figure out what is going on, some strange creature is stalking them. Wether it is a vampire or a large, chomping critter is up to you. The trick is to keep up the mystery and don't let the players know what kind of critter is stalking them. Suspense is everything in horror.

Don't forget that you can maime characters and have them loose body parts instead of killing them outright. Ash, from Evil Dead, did loose his hand, but end up surviving the night entirely.

Suspense is the key. Make sure there are enough signs, rumors, and ancient tales that talk about some sort of beast that stalks the area. Don't ever name what it is, but leave stories of scouting parties that left and never came back (only their grizzled corpses were found). Have strange, yet unidentifiable, tracks found all over the place. Even when the first attacks are made, don't let on what is doing it. "You see a bunch of tenticles come flying through the window. You are hit for 23 points of damage and make a grapple check as the slimy coated limbs try to pull you out into the waiting darkenss."

Hope this helps. The only other thing I can offer is to try to look at horror games and see what they do to make the flavor.
Corthan
10-27-03, 01:24 PM Maybe do something abouT a strange disturbance near Mythh Drannor (Haunted ruins in Cormanthor). Have the party trael out to this area to discorver a cult that is ran by an undead (yet highly intelligent and self-sufficient archmage) who takes bodies and reuses them to create an armmy to take over the world. As they attempt to stop the villain, have them come down with a really nasty disease that makes them blood thirsty and after a time rots their flesh off. Use hints like you skin tingles, then itches, then rash appears, blisters, gashes, falling off, etc. After a whilke they become zombies not mindless but fully functional with only one thing on the brain kill the rest of the party. The victor becomes the leading zombie in the archmages army.

If you do not use this idea that's fine. But I believe that Mythh Drannor is a very haunted area of ruins.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jeryg 10-21-03, 10:40 AM	hi all, i'm not a regular of this board, but still, allow me to ask you this : i'm planning to run (as a DM) a "halloween special" one-shot adventure for the upcoming halloween night. this will take place in the realms, for i and my players know it very well... and i would like it to be around level 12-15 (not sure yet). i'm currently building an intrigue with a Big Bad Evil Guy and all, but i am sure there are other people out there who have sadistic and inventive ideas on such an adventure. so, any ideas to include ? plot ? weird halloween creature to meet ? anything really? right now, i am most concerned about the place where this will take place. i can't make my mind on this.
loki87 10-21-03, 12:40 PM	I'm assuming that since your asking about it on these boards, your planning to stage this in the Realms. Also, since this is a "one-shot" adventure, it probably needs to be short on plot/setup and packed with as much action as you can squeeze into one session. This really isn't anything particularly devious or original, but it does fit the flavor of Halloween very well. Might I suggest a night-time tour throuh the Battle of the Bones, located in the Western Heartlands. A powerful necromancer or lich or vampire is attempting a nefarious ritual this very night (maybe on Shieldmeet or the 30th day of Marpenoth), and it's up to the party to defeat him before he can complete it. I would probably setup a few large battles of various undead appropriate to the level of the party, before the final battle with the BBEG and his closest henchmen. Make sure you can fit all of this into the timeframe of your session. As for the specific ritual, you may want to look at the Book of Vile Darkness for some particularly nasty ones, or just come up with some kind of terrible conjuration or sacrifice, maybe one that will lead the BBEG towards godhood or one that will unleash a horrible demon lord upon the Realms. Sorry if that's too cookie cutter for you.
ENHenry 10-21-03, 02:34 PM	Originally posted by Jeryg i'm currently building an intrigue with a Big Bad Evil Guy and all, but i am sure there are other people out there who have sadistic and inventive ideas on such an adventure. I'll second loki87's advice - unless your players are used to the format, any deep intrigues are going to get lost in a one-shot game - the goal of a deep plot is to keep the players engrossed but over multiple sessions. It's like the difference between Lord of the Rings and Friday the 13th. For the realms, at level 12 to 15, I would suggest a few concepts: 1) They find themselves escaping slavery in Thay, beneath the catacombs of Thaymount. Their goal is to garner equipment, escape without alerting Thayans, and get to a teleport-accesible location. God only knows the horrors lurking beneath Thaymount. 2) The incarnation of Bhaal, former God of Murder, is stalking them for some reason. Every time they slay his very tough host body, he animates someone else and charges them again - kind of a "Jason Vorhees/Michael Myers meets the Realms" idea. 3) Tell them they are running in the realms, and then have the Mists dump 'em in Ravenloft. Their goal is to escape by means of a Ritual being performed by cultists, but in order to escape, they have to complete the ritual, which involves a VOLUNTARY humanoid sacrifice... One concept I ran about FOUR years ago, back in 2nd edition AD&D, that had the players, not the characters, scared out of their wits, but it wouldn't work as well these days: They had to storm Vecna's Castle in Ravenloft, which was PACK TO THE GILLS with Wraiths, Wights, Spectres, and other level-draining undead, who used poison and cones of cold liberally in traps in the castle. They were using their current 14th level characters at the time, so whatever happened in the demiplace, happened in the regular game. I never saw a group of characters played so craftily and subversively as that night. :D
Jeryg 10-21-03, 02:43 PM	yes i think i'll have to lure them into thinking that this will be the start of a new campaign so that they are not so mindless with their new characters... thoses ideas are quite good, keep them coming.
Lashan 10-22-03, 08:16 AM	Personally, I think the best "one-shot horror" games are ones where most of the party is killed or at least maimed severly. My best friend ran a game one time that was based off of Evil Dead. Players had their limbs possesed and chopped them off themselves, only to have them run around and haunt them! In the end, I think only 2 characters were left alive. I think character death in a one-shot is great b/c the characters aren't necessarily attached to them and you don't get much of a chance to be a killer DM besides then. Also, characters can have fun being stupid and risking their characters. One of the best things to do is to base it off a horror movie of some kind. Perhaps not even a specific movie, but on the genre as a whole. The party moves into an isolated area and finds it deserted. Either they find the bodies, or everyone is strangely missing. As they figure out what is going on, some strange creature is stalking them. Wether it is a vampire or a large, chomping critter is up to you. The trick is to keep up the mystery and don't let the players know what kind of critter is stalking them. Suspense is everything in horror. Don't forget that you can maime characters and have them loose body parts instead of killing them outright. Ash, from Evil Dead, did loose his hand, but end up surviving the night entirely. Suspense is the key. Make sure there are enough signs, rumors, and ancient tales that talk about some sort of beast that stalks the area. Don't ever name what it is, but leave stories of scouting parties that left and never came back (only their grizzled corpses were found). Have strange, yet unidentifiable, tracks found all over the place. Even when the first attacks are made, don't let on what is doing it. "You see a bunch of tenticles come flying through the window. You are hit for 23 points of damage and make a grapple check as the slimy coated limbs try to pull you out into the waiting darkenss." Hope this helps. The only other thing I can offer is to try to look at horror games and see what they do to make the flavor.
Corthan 10-27-03, 01:24 PM	Maybe do something abouT a strange disturbance near Mythh Drannor (Haunted ruins in Cormanthor). Have the party trael out to this area to discorver a cult that is ran by an undead (yet highly intelligent and self-sufficient archmage) who takes bodies and reuses them to create an armmy to take over the world. As they attempt to stop the villain, have them come down with a really nasty disease that makes them blood thirsty and after a time rots their flesh off. Use hints like you skin tingles, then itches, then rash appears, blisters, gashes, falling off, etc. After a whilke they become zombies not mindless but fully functional with only one thing on the brain kill the rest of the party. The victor becomes the leading zombie in the archmages army. If you do not use this idea that's fine. But I believe that Mythh Drannor is a very haunted area of ruins.