Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 tramatize Sep 25, 2009 6:46:30	Hi, I'm running a campaign with a bunch of my friends who like to goof around in D&D. Recently, for there campaign I tried to introduce a horror aspect, based on the book "house" by Frank Peretti and ted Dekker, they enjoyed it. I have since ran out of ideas, does any one here have any good storys I could use? Even if you guys come up with an introductary sentance, I could finnish it. Thanks in advance.
#2 sielasekys Sep 25, 2009 7:42:32	Hey   There is creepy events thread: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...   Good luck scaring the **** out of them;)
#3 tramatize Sep 25, 2009 8:28:32	:o I did not see that, thank you
#4 fuka Sep 25, 2009 9:33:32	www.amazon.com/Nightmares-Mine-Rolemaste...   I realize the amazon cost is high - maybe someone near you has a copy. It is absolutely amazing and must- have for scary stuff
#5 dave_the_DM Sep 26, 2009 13:42:20	Haunted houses are fun. I don't have a story, per say, but I've done this successfully many times so here are some tips that may have you actually having your characters jumping in their seats: 1) Why is the house haunted? Old families have many secrets. Are they suffering from a curse? Did a previous family member commit some heinous act? For inspiration, I highly recomment "The Picture in the House", "The Thing on the Door Step", "The Color Out of Space", "The Haunter in the Dark", "The Hound", "Pickman's model" all by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft is great just for the shear number of unusual adjectives he uses. Before you start, be sure to look up the word "Cyclopean"... lol. 2) Music! Creepy music set the mood wonderfully. Especially if you time it to correspond with encounters. LISTEN to the music as it plays in the backgroud and play into it. I frequently build tension with my descriptions to correspond to the tension created by the music. 3) Lighting: Black lights, red, blue and green "party" bulbs, and dimmed white lighting work great. Add in some candles too. Avoid flourescent lighting at all costs. 4) Pictures: with the internet, its pretty easy to find creepy pictures. One of my favorite things to do is populate the house with creepy pictures, and then show the players the actual picture when they enter the room. Do an image search on Google for "Pickman's model" for some good ones. 5) Unusual encounters: Avoid combat in favor of puzzles, tension setters, kooky scenes. In one of my haunted houses I had one of those mechanical fortune telling machines. I even googled an image search and printed a picture of a particularlly creepy one I found. During certain times of the adventure, players could find an unusual shaped gold coin in the coin return. When put in the coin slot, the machine springs to life. I would mimic the fortune teller's movement, using actual tarot cards. The machine would then spit out a slip of paper with a cryptic message about the house in it. I printed out a bunch of these slips beforehand, and would have the player randomly select one from an opec bag I had. Great fun! 6) NPCs are present in the house so they can die horrid, gruesome deaths. Have fun. Rip them up, cut 'em to shreads, and don't spare the blood! Make sure their screams echo horribly throughout the house. 7) Use the conventions of haunted houses: Attics are moldy, and filled with spiderwebs. Basements are damp, with greenish slimy stones. There are always secret passages. Unused rooms are filled with furniture covered with sheets, etc. 8)Traps over monsters. These are usually a thinking person's affair, with the PCs uncovering a series of clues that helps them solve the mystery of the house, and hopefully end the curse of the place while avoiding becoming victims themselves.
#6 Grimbus Sep 26, 2009 18:25:56	Evil insectoids lay eggs next to sleeping victims. A large maggot comes out of the pod which devours the hapless victim and becomes a doppleganger to the hive mind. The players have to rouse an army of towns people to go out and burn as many insects or eggs as they can find. The mayor and key members of the city have already been turned, so the players will have to work out a way of telling turned from not turned. They will also have to find a way of sening the insects back to the hell/dimension/earthquake zone they came from. The characters won't be able to sleep in the open for fear being turned. This will limit dailies and you might want to consider using fatigue rules as well. This should ratchet up the tension a bit.Of course this plot comes from a famous horror movie. I think the Keith O Sutherland version with all that screaming is pretty good.