Post/Author/DateTime	Post
dragonfire8974 09-28-06, 01:02 PM	i need ideas for a good horror one shot. i don't want to just do one type of creature because i want it to stay completely unpredictable. i'm thinking the city is going to have a zombiegeddon at some point that's a plague. but i don't want cliche, and that's a little too cliche for me. i'm guessing zombies are going to be deadly in that way, skeletons are going to have regeneration/bludgeoning or good, werewolves are going to have GIANT boosts to their stats, but only when they transform and go nuts. i'm guessing i'll have a bbeg who is spreading lycanthropy on the populace which is sowing the seeds of chaos (cause noone knows what they did when they wake up, and it's usually in a pile of blood and bodies, and they get arrested protesting innocense. just to give the players a curveball if they choose to go that way). the evil guys is going to live in a haunted house (i've got that scary place down pact). but i need to know what he should be, and where he should be, and what he should be doing. i'd like some good ideas. i think i'm going to have him summon something when confronted, which kills him, then turns to the players. any advice for running a horror game
Andron 09-28-06, 01:23 PM	Read Heroes of Horror. It's great for running horror in a D&D setting. Paranoia, dread, and fear are the greatest weapons of the DM in this setting. I'm currently setting my players up for a Cthulhu mythos adventure with lots of cultists, unimaginable horrors, and the rise of the dread island of R'Leyh. When running a horror camapign I like to start out normally, gradually introduce the twist which shows that all is not as it appears, and then slide down the spiral towards the point of origin of the horror. Atmosphere and setting are other great weapons for the DM in running horror. Heck, have them travelling through the mountains, or whatever, and in a hidden vale have them come across a city that is run by necromancers, or powerful undead. With a serious storm setting in, this would be their only option for cover. Not everyone in the city would be undead, evil, or whatever, but let the pc's figure out which ones to trust or not to trust. (This is something I am currently working on for a future session.)
KurenaiYami 09-28-06, 01:37 PM	I second the Heroes of Horror idea. That book is wonderful. I read it while planning campaigns, sometimes late at night. Lord it gets creepy. *Random noise.* "What was that?!" <_< >_> "The wind..."
vader_rocks 09-28-06, 01:38 PM	First of all, with the horror part itself, set the mood. You ever been told ghost stories around a campfire? Scared the hell out of you, didn't it? That's because that setting is inherently creepy. So here's what you do: 1. Turn the lights down low and set a few dim lamps or candles on the playing table (Not too many; keep it dark. Think smoldering campfire) 2. Speak softly and slowly, with just a hint of either Vincent Price, Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi in your voice. (I personally like Bela Lugosi. "I vant to sahk your blahd.") 3. Don't skimp on the details. (The torch in the wooden stand before you burns with an unholy hellfire. All around you, you hear the deep moaning sounds of souls in eternal anguish and can barely make out the slightly humanoid figures darting through the shadows. One of the figures seems to stop. It turns to look toward you with eyes that glow as red as the torch.) Second of all, with regards to the terrifying plague that's infesting the town, what about vampires? Reports have been coming in from all over town that people seem to be disappearing from their beds at night. No one knows anything about the disappearances, but every night someone reports hearing what sounds like screaming coming from the mountains to the north. The vampire is massing an army.
RobbyPants 09-28-06, 01:54 PM	I've read some similar things from other people. One big thing that I've seen in common with several posts is trying to keep the players tense. One DM did this by putting the PCs into a sort of "out of the frying pan and into the fire" situation. They had a choice to make, but with limited knowledge of the impact, and they knew either choice was inherently dangerous. The situation was something like avoiding a burning building by going through flooded tunnels. They had no idea how far the tunnels strechtec, and when they'd find air. Another great tension builder is to physically split up the players when their PCs split up (you may already do this). The DM in the above situation did this when one PC when into the water with a rope, leaving the other behind holding the rope. He took the swimmer out of the room, ran the game for a few minutes, and then came back to the first player telling him "you feel a frantic tug on the rope!". Also, I know you said you weren't looking for a single monster to use against them, but one that can be very creepy in its own right (the 2 scariest encounters I ran use this) is a raksasha. The combination of them being powerful, malevolent, and having the ESP/shapeshifting abilities is quite nice. It can be very unsettling to run into a "stranded innocent" in some creepy, desolate place... Good luck! :)
ccerose 09-28-06, 01:55 PM	Check out this thread: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=710438
dragonfire8974 09-28-06, 02:40 PM	thanks for the replies y'all. i might throw some vampires in there, but my player already know what they are and what to fear. i need a way to tweak them so they are much more dangerous, but still plenty easy to kill robbypants i read that story you wrote on another post. i laughed really hard my players don't have too big of a connection with their characters, so for all the scary crap, i really have to do it to npcs. although that scares the living daylights outta them, the out of the fire-into the frying pan things makes them just go "meh, i had to choose something" vader-great idea, i got creeped out just reading it. i guess i'll just have to go through heroes of horror more and more and more. it's going to happen like this: the players come to the city by various means, or are lured there by the promise of gold, booze, adventure, whatever floats their boat. once in the city, night falls much too early, then day comes way too quickly in rapid successtion for near to 24hrs (each our it goes to night, then the next it goes to day). people are getting kinda creeped out, then they realize that a forest grew all the way up to every single wall during that time. strange, but not scary in it's own right. all of a sudden a forest overgrew some plains..... okay..... then the characters are finally set to meet their benefactor in the same place at the same time (i know it's terrible but i want them all to see this). the guy is late, but promised enough to keep them there. while they wait, a guy busts in the door with tattered clothes screaming "you gotta help me!" before three more men in armor come in (some watchmen). after about 30 seconds gametime passes, the guy transforms into one of my augmented werewolves and starts to slaughter everything around. when subdued, he turns back. later when he wakes up, he has no memory, and is so thankful for his rescue (again, it doesn't take long because his fast healing continues after death. to kill he needs to have his heart taken out, his head taken off, or other internal organs removed) and he starts to walk out when the benefactor arrives. i don't know what he's going to do though, but it's going to end with him saying "i want you witness the end of the world" or something more creeepy but along those lines. then he dissappears and leaves some monsters in his place. the forest is haunted and is hard as hell go get through, not to mention it just loops the characters back in circles. don't know how it's going to do that, but there will be legitamit game mechanics behind it, or a couple of ways to overcome it. also, i'll be doing all the rolls for the players so they don't know if they failed or succeeded.
CharlieRock 09-28-06, 02:49 PM	this is a good time of the year to pick up a "sounds of halloween" CD for background music ,too.
RobbyPants 09-28-06, 03:03 PM	Good luck with it :) robbypants i read that story you wrote on another post. i laughed really hard Thanks! Which story/post are you talking about? Check out this thread: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=710438 BTW, ccerose, I love how you have a link in each thread going back to the other! ;)
atog_eater 09-28-06, 03:07 PM	may i suggest playing the characters off against eachother? make them paranoid about other characters being infected but without them finding out for sure. then make the infected characters try and infect other characters. you can give the infected ones bonuses for infecting others (say stat pumps or something), and you can communicate with the players using notes. have a load of pre written ones for things that you know will happen (being infected, default note etc.). just remember that when you give one person a note to give everybody a note, sometimes just give everybody the dufault note to spook them out. sanity points cannot be underestimated in horror games and niether can the dementions that come with them - the look on a players face when you tell them they are sexually attracted to a corpse is one i will never forget, so is the thought of a player dancing round the table throwing cards in the air. ah, the good old days.
dragonfire8974 09-28-06, 04:06 PM	robbypants: there was a story posted about two characters who had to escape (i think a burning building) and the only way out was through some aqueducts that the chars didn't know where they lead. so one char tied a rope around his waist and dived in, while the other was waiting for pulling on the rope to pull him back if he needed it. it ended up that the char lost the rope when he went up to get some air, and was running out of air when he finally found it again the dm posted the story i think. he came back in the room telling the char who was waiting that he feels a frantic tugging on the rope and the char freaked then started pulling. it was a funny story atog: i want my chars to be united, but the suspicious thing will be fun. i think i'll use it. just not get it to the point where the players are actively hostile towards eachother. so the zombies will be what appears in the place that the bbeg meets the chars, that's where they will be introduced to the infectious bite. then it will spread cause he's evil, and he'll do it other places. i'll create a chart for how many zombies are created each day and the like. i still don't know what would make the vampires more deadly. i think i'll have them permanently hasted, and have ridiculous amounts of attacks (not terrifying damage, but lost and lost of attacks as well as being extremely fast). skeletons cannot be killed unless they are beaten with bludgeoning or holy weapons. i'm thinking their regen will be high, and i've already told y'all about the werewolves. that's my pride and joy there. could use some ideas for the haunted mansion that they have to go through to get to bbeg hideout. i was thinking it'd be like the resident evil mansion, but with lots of variety, and soooo many unexplained and cinematic things that the chars won't know what's real and what's not. that happened once. everytime my players got involved in an illusion, they got screwed, and there were alot of illusions. so they finally got to the place where the evil guys hung out and were about to kill of my (the dmpc who was waaaaayyyyy too strong), and they just watched. they thought it was an illusion. they were angry to find out it was real. it was priceless
ccerose 09-28-06, 04:24 PM	BTW, ccerose, I love how you have a link in each thread going back to the other! ;) Actually, I only linked the other wizard thread to this one. The link I have on the other horror topic was one to a horror article at treasuretables.com. This one: http://www.treasuretables.org/2006/09/make-the-bugs-scary-little-touches-for-horror-rpgs%23more-467
RobbyPants 09-28-06, 05:53 PM	robbypants: there was a story posted about two characters who had to escape (i think a burning building) and the only way out was through some aqueducts that the chars didn't know where they lead. so one char tied a rope around his waist and dived in, while the other was waiting for pulling on the rope to pull him back if he needed it. it ended up that the char lost the rope when he went up to get some air, and was running out of air when he finally found it again Okay... At first I thought you were refering to a post I had written. Yeah, I included that one, because I thought it was pertanent and fairly good.
dragonfire8974 09-28-06, 11:33 PM	so i figured out something else creepy to do. after they meetup with an npc (my npcs in this adventure are going to be like everyone not a protagonist in darkness falls, just fodder to be killed), he's going lead them into his house that some "boogyman" (there was a really scary steven king short that inspired this) has taken residence. the doors are all closed, but someone will crack a closet every so often, or light a candle. once they even tracked in a large amount of muck to a closet, and nothing was in there. the npc is convinced that the thing has killed his children and wife who others say died of natural causes (crib death, falling out of bed and breaking a neck for another infant, a bag over the head for another. they actually think he killed his wife because she didn't believe him. she was beaten to death, but nothing could link him to the crime). basicly what's going to happen is they're going to go through the house and as he opens a door to a room, a tentecle shoots out and closes the door after grabbing him. it's a mimic, but an evil one. it moves against the door and starts to tear him apart. the pcs can only hear the screams and ripping as they (i suppose) try to bash down the door. after 15-20 seconds the noise stops, and they knock downt he door to find gore all over everything, but no monster. the mimic has hidden itself and won't reveal itself to anyone unless attacked. sound neat?
dragonfire8974 09-30-06, 03:36 AM	:bump:
atog_eater 09-30-06, 06:03 AM	Let me rewrite a bit of that post; after 15-20 seconds the noise stops, and they knock downt he door to find gore all over everything (sanity checks for all), but no monster. the mimic has hidden itself and won't reveal itself to anyone unless attacked. sound neat? You might not want to use sanity but I really do recomend it for one off horror games, it also gives everybody someing extra to roleplay. The idea sounds quite cool, I like it. There is nothing like a room coverd in blood to get a horror game started.
Orbb_was_railed_by_God 09-30-06, 06:08 AM	You could go the Dawn of the Dead route with a zombie-horror campaign and use Ghouls/Ghasts and then advance them as they go. So when the PC's are being chased by hundreds of zombies, it's not an easy escape. Don't describe them as ghouls or ghasts though; describe what it is: "You tenatively push the door open, and the cracking sounds continue as the torchlight floods the room. You see a hunched figure, dressed in rags, with its back to you. It has long hair, and a fairly small physique. It turns its head slightly and catches sight of you. In one hand it is holding a bone, and in its dessicated mouth strands of chewed flesh hang down over the blood-coated chin. It appears to be a savage, human woman. Her eyes stare murderously in your direction, but appear absent as she growls deep in her throat and lunges at you...roll initiative."
dragonfire8974 09-30-06, 07:23 PM	my problem is getting the chars into the rut of fighting one foe. yeah, it's going to be a one-shot, so i don't know exactly how much is going to happen, but i do know that if they're prepared for zombies, i want them to kill zombies, but not be invincible against my monsters. i like the groupings (though zombies don't get along with anything very well, and, i know it's a bit underworldish, but a vampire werewolf. giant stat boosts for being a wolf, and extreme speed for being a vamp..... he he he). i want to pitch only curve balls. i want this to be a horrifying adventure without getting too much into cliched horror themes (like zombies). don't get me wrong, silent hill and dawn of the dead scared the pants off of me, but in dnd, when my players know what's coming, they get to hack'n'slashing. and i want to keep them wetting their pants. by the way, i thought about it, and the room full of gore is better than one empty of it
jagraham 09-30-06, 11:44 PM	For my Halloween game I putting together a "creature feature" with iconic horror monsters: Frankenstein (Flesh Golem) The Werewolf The Mummy Vampire And various undead to boot.
Roivas 10-01-06, 03:38 AM	I would also advise to limit to some extent how often your players dirrectly confront the monsters. If the players don't see the creature it is a lot more terrifying. People will always imagine something a hundred times worse than what they are about to fight. I like the mimic idea, but I'd also advise looking into the book of vile darkness for the corrupted creature template. It's how I went about creating a Resident Evil style dungeon, where every creature had the template applied to it. For most of the dungeon they thought they were fighting undead, and that misdirection made them waste many a turning attempt on abberations. I'd also advise to seperate the party at times to highten the tension. Players are far more on edge without backup, you don't need to make a tough monster for them either. I also once used a trap to seperate the monk from the party and he wound up fighting in total darkness against a carrion crawler, at 12th level. The thing almost killed him before the party broke down the door, and the monk made sure he was never without a light source again.
dragonfire8974 10-01-06, 07:55 PM	ah.... darkness... that's a good tool. i should also add lots of ghost sound traps to confuse and split the party. by the way, they are only going to worry about rolling damage, all the rest i'm going to roll (i'm going to roll a page solid of d20 rolls so the party won't know success, failure, crit failure, or even what ballpark) before the game. i think it'll help keep the mood going. i love the ideas. i think i need to find a way to incorporate flesh golems in (probably servants in the haunted mansion). they're powerup will be massive str and dex boosts, but they won't be hostile untill programmed to be. then they break into stealthy golems and beserker golems. stealthy ones wait in an out of the way place (looking like dead people, but not zombies if they catch one hiding) and pop out for suprise attacks. the beserkers go all-out-attack whenever a person comes within thirty feet of them. until then, they are mindless slaves with lots of hp. do you think that's not fun enough? should it be different then stealthy and beserkers, something more along the lines of incorporeal flesh-golem servants? i dunno, but the mansion is going to be creepy
CryoSilver 10-01-06, 08:01 PM	This premise sounds more like "brutal horror;" horror based less on suspense and creepiness than by constant overwhelming mayhem and unholy carnage. I suggest you throw huge numbers of monsters at them in escapable situations to make them feel helpless. Kill at least one of them, or someone important to them. For mood, I suggest you turn the lights down just a bit, get everyone really hyped on caffiene and play death metal (the really fast stuff, like Napalm Death). That's a good "zombiegeddon" game, IMO.
dragonfire8974 10-01-06, 11:34 PM	aw man.... that's the only kind of horror i think they'll respond to. but if you guys have ideas for intrigue horror, i'd like them alot. i'm a better hacknslash creator than a mysteries guy. i would love help with the mysteries part
dragonfire8974 10-17-06, 03:29 PM	:bump: besides, i think i need some help with the reason the bbeg wants the pcs, and i also need some advice on creating a one shot, like what the levels should be and how to not make a terrifyingly long adventure. seriously, i need help with that. i might have it all happen over one night, and make it sort of an everlasting night (except spellcasters and healing is accellerated to decrease downtime). i need help with this stuff
Auburn 10-17-06, 03:41 PM	Have one group/type of monsters be good guys or at least working for the good guys. Maybe they have some kind of item that summons an army of ghosts/zombies/what have you. Anything as long as the players will instinctively attack it at first chance. Now that they're off on the wrong foot with the good guys they've got two sets of enemies. Somewhere towards the end of them beating the good guys reveal what's happened. They'll want to make peace but the good guys won't have anythign to do with it. The good guys have something the bad guy wants and for some reason he can't get it on his own. He needs the PCs to beat the good guys and take it thereby giving him the chance to take it from them. The PCs will likely unwittingly do just that even after learnign they've been killing the folks trying to fight the BBEG.
dragonfire8974 10-17-06, 11:33 PM	problem is, it's a one-shot, so i want it to be short (sortof), sweet and to the point. so far i'm going with an introduction in a clue sense where everyone is gathered in some irresistable way, and somehting creepy happens (the werewolf incident), then the person shows up and tell them all that he hates them, and wants to see them all suffer (or something like that), and dissappears, leaving a couple zombies. after that, there is eternal night, and some werewolves pop up, then a contact pops up to help the chars find the evil guy and vanquish him to end this damn'dable eternal night (apparently this has been going on for a long time, and i'll have to mention to the players that the sun seems to have set too early when they were traveling there, and get harried by some things in the forest before making it to the gate, scared and running. the gatekeepers will know who's supposed to be let in, and don't let anyone else in but the chars themselves, then business goes back to usual, and no one leaves at night, or enters. no guards have recollection of the characters, and their information has been lost (to keep them in, the bbeg is clever) after that, the contact will tell them where he's hiding, and will them be assaulted by vamps and killed, and the players will seek to hunt him down through the haunted mansion resident evil style
dragonfire8974 10-19-06, 07:32 PM	i guess that means no one has advice for a dm who has yet to run a one-shot adventure.....
Dowjin 10-19-06, 08:58 PM	Having a one-shot adventure with a full scope of horrible foes, means you need to house good multiples of encounters. They need some room to play around in. It also needs to fit the bill of being one-shot in theme. Something memorable and gripping, but at the end of the day (if they survived) it should be something the PCs can wash their hands of. Make the town bigger, into a small city, more developed perhaps, if it can fit your world theme. For advice on horror, look at bestselling games to that effect, books and other modules. --- So its a town like any other town. Maybe its on the way between here-and-there. Perhaps its a more remote tradestop at the base of mountains, at the fringes of forestry, or slightly more out of the way. With the first, the PCs are hit harder, because its perhaps a town they've passed through time-and-time again. Perhaps with people they know. With the latter, you sacrifice the importance of the location for the creep-factor. You can build up the atmosphere, as it seems like passing through days of consistently thicker fog, colder nights, and dimmer days; that they're actual entering another realm. (whether thats your adventure or not, its the atmosphere your looking for) Autumn is an excellent time for these adventures, or at least humor the location appearing like its stuck in autumn. You need to evolve the adventure so it relates to the PCs, or gets the PCs involved past "Something wierd is with town x" or "No ones come from town x for a while now?"... Perhaps a local wants to pay the PCs to fetch/check up on a relative out there? Perhaps a service they need is out because the resources from it still haven't come in. --- If you want unique or constantly different spooks; Use a set of undead that create or evolve into different forms. (I.E. Vampire, vampire spawn, and have subsequent gouls) Or you can make some up. Heres my idea; A tiny rip in the fabric of the planes has spawned at the bottom of the town's well. At that point, slightly underground and amidst thier drinking waters, the negative energy plane (abysse, a hell, etc, pick what you like) overlaps into the Prime. This can be for a plot reason, history reason, or "just because" in regards to planar physics. One day later, everyone is sort of sick. No one knows why. The local priest or healer tries to "remove disease" or cure it, but its not a disease at work. Perhaps they send for a more accomplished (read:higher level) cleric. The next day, people start freaking out. People get violent, and theres a handfull of grisly murders. Something is seriously wrong. On the end of the third day, people begin dying and animating (promptly transforming; within minutes) into undead. The few people that are constitute and are fighting this extraplanar affliction, get eaten/maimed/killed. Any time after this, the heroes should arrive at the town. (It should take a few days traveling, anyway) I'm thinking: a new monster, take your average zombie at base. Then individualize each one. The negative energy coursing through their veins warps their physical form into a dark and twisted representation of their deepest fears, or how they see themselves in their minds. Perhaps rolls random limbs or features for each one, or perhaps pre-write each individual and give it character. Take any body part or ability you'd like, taint it with negative energy, flavor it undead, stick it to the zombie (which is just a stat block, it can look move and operate like whatever you need; level it up a little if you need to); and you can give them a steady stream of unique but theme-fitting monsters. Maybe some evolve further into undead chaos-beasts, or something completely inhuman. --- So, the townsfolk need to be resurrected and cured. Or, at least, put to rest and the town abandoned. There might be a BBEG involved; say a demon, whom was responsible. Perhaps dimensional anchor can mend the rip, the waters can be cleansed, and the well used again (if anyone trusts it, if its found out to be the source). Perhaps the portal must be destroyed, and the well. Perhaps the entire town is now polluted with negative energy. --- Perhaps the rip would widen, the well would black over and age before one's very eyes, and then more powerful hellbeasts, or darker ghasts, would climb out. The monsters would idle in dark places, dormant untill life passes near them and they hunger for it. Companions that die, would reanimate within a few minutes like the rest, under direct exposure (I.E. bitten/mauled/clawed to death, worse of all falling into the well) Twitching and morphing into their fears or a twisted self-image... --- Take hints from Silent Hill.
dragonfire8974 10-20-06, 12:42 AM	oooh.. silent hill... good one. seriously, that scared the living **** out of me. i'm going resident evil mansion crawl, but would like it to be silent hill scary. def gonna look that up
GenghisUber 10-20-06, 10:52 AM	Horror is in the details and horror is in undermining PC assumptions. You can still use one type of monster, as long as it's a good type. I'm going to take mind flayers as an example because most DMs tend to use them very poorly. Mind flayers are scary monsters because of their stats. Mind flayers with class levels are scarier because now PCs can no longer predict exactly what they're up against when they fight a mind flayer. Mind flayers that are played as smart as they actually are are the scariest because it makes the PCs realize that they're outclassed. Going back to mind flayers for example, play up their completely alien way of thought. They communicate via telepathy so they can literally inject thoughts into the PCs head ... kind of like that whispering of the One Ring in Peter Jackson's LotR movies. Take a look at those tentacles. Mind flayer tentacles tend to move about almost constantly. A PC near one of them might hear a sickly squishing noise as those things writhe around. A mind flayer library would be a room with parrallel groves etched into the walls broken by occasional diagrams and strange glyphs all made up of four seperate lines (mind flayers have 4 tentacles and read by running the through the grooves the way a record player works, except they're taking in 4 things simultaneously). Psionic characters should be almost constantly distracted by the hum of the Elder Brain. Maybe after a while, they stop being distracted and it starts sounding soothing to them and the psion starts to lose touch with the other PCs. Think about the sound of some of the scenes in Saving Private Ryan where one of the characters was stunned by an artillery shell. I imagine that's what it would be like to be hit by a mind blast. Everything just seems really far away and the PCs can see what's going on but can't do anything. Bring the rules to life. That's the essence of good horror gaming.
Borne Of Hate 10-20-06, 12:15 PM	Listen to the Oct Podcast. They talk about Castle Ravenloft and Horror tactics! Its a really good episode
Necropolitan 10-20-06, 12:17 PM	Advice? I've got two words for you that'll give you all the advice you'll ever need. Silent. Hill. The games, not the Film. Your PCs will be scarred for life.
Dowjin 10-20-06, 05:35 PM	Yes, to clarify, I meant the Silent Hill games... The movie had its moments, but the games really -get- to you.
dragonfire8974 10-21-06, 03:52 AM	yeah... i played for about 10 min and almost ****** my pants wayyyy too many times to feel like a man
dragonfire8974 10-22-06, 10:14 PM	railroading taken out. information based off of gather information checks. every so often they can run into bad things (random encounters), and other places characters can find some neat things to kill the bbeg (not required), and riddles to solve and such. characters are starting out at level 9, anyone have any suggestions for keeping play going and ending an adventure and give it around 4-6hrs of play