Halloween is my favorite time of year and I've been thinking that i wanted to celebrate 5e style this year with an over-the-top tongue-in-cheek one-shot with plenty of hyphens! I'm calling this crazy halloween-fest:
One Night In Ravenloft!
The concept is as follows:
The legendary vampire lord, Strahd, has a plan to spread his dark power across the land now that he has the Necronomicon in his possession! He's summoned allies to his side in gloomy Barovia in a bid to amass power: The Wolfman, The Mummy and Frankenstein have each brought their forces to the cursed countryside around Strahd's castle to support their dark master!
But all is not lost. Wandering gypsies, the Vistani, have called out to the mists, capturing legendary heroes from other realms! Our heroes find themselves emerging from a dense fog on the road outside of the quaint village of Barovia on the eve of the Harvest Festival. The mood is festive... until zombies invade the village!
I figure that if we run things fast and loose with 5e rules, we should be able to cover a lot of content in one epic afternoon/evening of play. I want to have this mod crammed full of iconic horror and halloween monsters and imagery. My players don't visit the boards, so there's no real risk of spoilers if i put some of my ideas out there:
Background
Barovia: Chronologically, this adventure takes place many years after the classic Ravenloft mods. Strahd's castle has been long abandoned and the village of Barovia has grown to a healthy population of a few thousand. Aesthetically, it's advanced into a Victorian era town. The increase in size is necessary to make the zombie scenario with a tons of fodder more believable.
Strahd: Strahd is back due to the appearance of the Necronomicon. He's using it create undead and amass a potential army. He also uses it's power to reach into the mists and gain new allies.
Victor Frankenstein: The crazed scientist has been brought to Barovia to create alchemical monstrosities for Strahd. There is an abandoned manor in the woods to the east of the village that has become his laboritory. He is using a page from the Necronomicon to increase the strength of his creations.
The Mummy: Kharis, the ancient sorceror, has been summoned and resurrected by Strahd's followers. Aesthetically more like the classic Universal studios Mummy, Kharis's followers have buffered him with Jackal-themed monsters and mummies. He has been ressurrected by Barovia's local priest, who has been turned to Strahd's side, in the mausoleum northwest of the village. The priest's reckless use of a page from the Necronomicon has also animated the entire graveyard, however, causing the initial zombie outbreak.
The Wolfman: Bela, the son of a gypsy fortune teller (from Universal's classic Wolfman), has become a ruthless werewolf despot. He's turned a group of Vistani into his werewolf pack and they have set up camp to the west of the village. He is using a page from the necronomicon to reinforce his pack with undead wolves. This part of the adventure is an investigation since these werewolves are undercover.
In addition, i've decide to pepper the mod with some one-off monsters that don't have a whole lot of background of importance: they're pretty much fan service. Leatherface roams the town during the zombie rampage, for instance, and Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers may pop in at random times.
PC Pre-gens
To facilitate faster start-up time, i've decided to whip up some pregens. So far i've got the following, though i'm looking for some input as to who else would fit:
Ash (Evil Dead). Has a mechanical hand and Boomstick. Is looking for his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 where he left his Chainsaw.
Daryl (Walking Dead): Uses a crossbow. Mainly ranged attacks with Survival and Stealth abilities.
Michonne (Walking Dead): Uses a katana. Hard hitting Melee and ability to fool mindless undead.
Carrie White (Carrie): Complete with prom dress. Uses telekinesis with some pyrokinesis thrown in.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): Buffy the F'ing Vampire slayer. 'Nuff said.
Seth Gecko (Dusk Till Dawn): Remember George Clooney from Dusk Till Dawn?? Cha-based Rogue.
Peter Vincent (Fright Night): He was a timid phony but then stepped it up to become the real deal. His ability derives from his vampire hunting bag which grants him "Movie Magic" that replicated real cleric spells in the Ravenloft.
Van Helsing (Hammer Films): I'm going with the Peter Cushing version for a more classic feel as opposed to Hue Jackman. A cleric type with healing and turn undead. He's a sort of anit-Peter Vincent with actual "faith".
Red Riding Hood: A seasoned werewolf hunter, she has a special picnic basket that produces random baked goods...and weapons.
Ichabod Crane (Sleepy Hollow): The Johnny Depp version. Uses investigation and gadgets to reproduce Wizard effects.
Sounds like an interesting and fun idea. Let us know how it turns out! I'm also preparing to run some Ravenloft using 5E this year. 
Abraham van Helsing (Dracula): Another vampire hunter, uses a myrid of tools like wooden stake bolts, silvered weapons, and holy water. Probably uses a combination of Fighter and Rogue.
Ichabod Crane (sleepy hollow): Investigator, scientist, inventor. A good way to represent a Wizard in Ravenloft.
Jack Skellington (Nightmare Before Christmas): An excellent anti-hero that wants to retake Ravenloft from it's dark and twisted path to a more light-hearted Halloween-ville where the presence of monsters is less evil and more just "spooky" fun. Definitly a Rogue / Warlock that uses fear for fun. This one could be very creative.
Father Merrin (the Exorcist): Human Priest (cleric / exorcist) who's pulled into the Mists just after defeating one of Earth's strongest evil spirits (aka Pazuzu). His faith restored, it now manifests itself as literal divine power in this dark land. But will it be enough to overcome the dark horrors of Ravenloft? *Note: This would probably occur after Exorcist: The Beginning, a prequel to the original film. Father Damian Karris works exceptionally well too (thanks Ghoststepper)!
The Johnny Depp version of Ichabod Crane would be pretty awesome and recognizable to players. I was considering Damian Karas from the exorcist for a cleric.
Sounds pretty awesome.
I love doing holloween delves/one shots. Last few times I did it like straight up horror, almost CoC, but with more gore/R-rated vileness. Doing something lighter and more bad-ass would be fun.
GhostStepper wrote:
Diffan wrote:
I'm trying to figure out how i'm going to handle ammo for guns.
I think i'm going to do a variation on the ammo rules from the last Gamma World game. There, you either had ammo or you didn't, and you could make one gun attack per encounter without running out of ammo. If you fired more than once a fight however, you effectively overreached your resources and you ran out. What i plan on doing is allow guns to have slightly higher damage than the existing ranged weapons in the PHB but every PC that uses guns, like Sherrif Rick, starts with 3 "stock" of ammo. At the end of each fight in which a character uses a gun, they roll a d20. If the the die comes up 10 or higher, they keep their current stocks. If they get 9 or lower, they lose one stock. When they reach 0 stocks, they've run out of bullets and will need to find more somehow. A similar system could work with gas for the chainsaw.
GhostStepper wrote:
And Michael Myers, Donald said in the original film that he was pure/true evil, so The Mists would definitely grab his heiny.
Ooh! This sounds fun!
Charles Dexter Ward (Lovecraft):Has an experimental serum for bringing the dead back to life, but the corpses need to be fresh. Really fresh. Otherwise they just scream horribly. If he needs to fight someone, he tries to kill them while doing as little physical harm to the body as possible.
Igor (Various, but I'm fond of Terry Pratchette's interpretation): An excellent hunchbacked henchman. Duties include throwing the switch, organ transplant, keeping the hinges of doors loud and creaky, and saying "Yeth, Marthter" a lot. Carries a little box of spiders and a tiny whip, just in case he finds an area of the castle lacking in spiderwebs. If forced into combat, relies on alchemical bombs for offense and a self-customized anatomy for defense( it's hard to tell where his vital organs are, or how many extra ones he added in his spare time).
I'm trying to think of a cleric-type character that is very recognizable in pop culture. The priests from he Exorcist might work but i'm trying to see if there is someone with stronger recognition that players will see and think is a cool option. Kirsty Cotton from the Hellraiser is already a stretch in the "iconic" department but the cennobite summoning is too cool to pass up, IMO.
I might have to fall back on Hue Jackman's VanHelsing and make him the "cleric" type with healing. On a related note, the original D&D cleric class originally came about as a vampire hunter archetype.
Fralex wrote:
Here's a cleric-type that's very recognizable in pop culture.
JESUS!
Now that's funny (and blasphemous to some, I'd bet).
I'd give him a few levels of Monk too, as over-turning money changing tables, er, 'unarmed strikes', might be his only fitting way to deal damage w/o expending spell slots.
Leather-Face, come on, with his own personal domain (like fiends, see Van Richten's Guide to Fiends), running around, mowing people down with his chainsaw.
Love the concept. I would love to fit Azalin in their somewhere, with an uneasy shifting alliance.
arnwolf666 wrote:
Diffan wrote:
Great post, OP. I love it when game masters and players share their creations like this to the masses. And I love your idea for Halloween!
I'm looking for input on some of my design. I think i'm going to start the mod off around level 5 since things will still be dangerous but won't immediately one-shot PCs. My goal is to essentially have 4 "boss" encounters with fodder and story telling parts in between and i'm considering making a lair for each of the 4 iconic monster bosses:
The Mummy has been ressurrected by the local priest, who has turned to Strahd's side. He's using a page of the Necronomicon to do his work and a side-effect is that he's raised an army of zombies from the village's ancient and expansive graveyard. The Mummy's presence has warped mausoleum he's inhabiting and everything is slowly changing to an Egyptian aesthetic. The MM's mummy lair mostly effects casters: it nerfs turn undead and causes pain to those who cast spells. My action hero party might not have too many spellcasters, so i'm looking for alternatives. Perhaps grasping sand or undead?
The Wofman is a Vistani outcast. He is Bela, taken directly from Universal's original Wofman movie, and the son an old gypsy fortune teller. This plays into the old Ravenloft mod, which also has an old gypsy fortune teller. He is starting his own wolf pack outside of the main Vistani camp and is a bit of an outcast. The Wolfman is using a page from the Necronomicon to make monstrous wolves and I'm not use if i even need a lair for him if he's going to be fought along side a bunch allied wolf-monsters. I suppose i could have some interesting lair effects where unseen wolves in the wood howl can cause status effects or run by for attacks before disappearing.
Victor Frankenstein is inhabiting an old abandoned manor in the woods and has converted it to his laboritory. He is using a page from the Necronomicon to animate alchemical horrors. He has the classical "Monster" with him and i imagine they might be fought in tandem. The way is see this going down is that Victor retreats to a safe-room, pulling switches and controls, while his Monster wades into melee with the party. The room in filled with huge conductors that shoot out lightning as lair actions, dealing damage, pushing PCs and healing the Monster. This one seems like a fun one, in theory.
Strahd is a challenge because i want him to be beatable but not seem watered down. The main quest involves gathering the pages of the Necronomicon and i'm thinking that there will by a mechanic that the players use to weaken Strahd using this macguffin. Not sure yet how to tackle the castle in a one-shot on top of everything else in the mod.
GhostStepper wrote:
Orethalion wrote:
I added some pics of the lair maps i'm working on. The goal is to have a detailed map for each boss.
GhostStepper wrote: