Been having so much fun with Curse of Strahd I'm going to do a "Children of The Damned" adventure to hook them into a Night Below themed campaign. If they survive Strahd.
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Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....
Maybe look at the Brian Lumley Vampires (Necroscope series etc.)
A Vampire who has the 'seed' or has been around long enough to grow one themselves. It effectively grows a parasitic slug creature inside them, they become extra strong, resilient and any psychic abilities they had are amplified, plus they tend to gain telepathy.
Very much shapechangers - stretching and pseudo-pods mainly. Not like a druid (bat like, not a bat)
Crosses? an annoyance, Garlic still works, but not as much you would think. Silver, sure. Basically the only way to kill it is decapitation and fire. the stake is there to hold it down. even then, the earth where they have been burnt can still contain their essence, and swamps and spores can grow that can infect people.
So Master, Lieutenants (aspiring to gain favour with their master for the seed to become a full, independent vampire) and thralls. Generally only one seed per vampire, although there can be the occasional queen.
I'm going to through this out there even though I haven't tested it yet. It just so happens I'm creating a horror adventure in which the PC's will run into all the classic Universal monsters (Dracula, Frankenstien's Monster, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and The Creature from the Black lagoon). It will be set in a Ravenloft type setting, but I'm hybriding it with another game. If you have never heard of a game called Dread, it is a game that you role play through a horror movie, games are always one offs so you don't get the awesome character development and advancement that makes D and D great, but instead of rolling dice to succeed you pull from a Jenga Tower, it does build a lot of Tension when you might topple the tower. So in combat in my game to hit and damage rolls will be normal, but critical junctions and saving throws success will mean pulling from the tower to be sucsessful. I'll let you know how it goes.
I like that idea! Operating on the assumption that it's not a one shot, do you plan to reset the tower every session, or somehow preserve it from one to the next?
Usually you pre pull out about 6-8 blocks so the first pulls aren't walk throughs but aren't to hard either. The question is what happens when it falls, is it just a fail or a critical fail? I'm only going to use it for horror based cause I can tell you by playing Dread (Where a fail means removal or death of the character) it adds a lot of tension. As they probe the tower for a loose block you continue as DM to talk and add to the immediate story it adds a little pressure and a lot of fun. Remember its not good to be rolling dice near the tower or have players banging on the table so take that into account if you have a rowdy group, but I wouldn't preserve the tower, unless your playing back to back nights if you gather once a week it may be difficult. Once the tower falls build it back up and pre remove some blocks, or have each player make 1 or 2 pulls without consequence of course (depending on group size)while you continue story. Its just a cool way to add a little actual skill to skill rolls and saving throws. Play with it and see what works best for your group.
I am actually working on a horror one-shot right now! I'm having a hard time making the adventure creepy enough though. It's about a man in the woods who steals women at night and takes some of there body and skin, stitching them together to make perfect dolls (flesh golems).
One is in a dimension where the planet changes daily (or however long you like). It is a world that has been burned and destroyed by a war between gods and another entity. The entity as well as the gods were killed. The planet is full of undead, vampires, werewolves and other monstrosities. The group of adventures hear of a relic that can revive the gods or the entity and it goes from there
If you have never seen the films Suspiria or Bunshinsaba (a Korean horror film also titled Witchboard), do your self a favor. I'm working on an adventure combining elements of these two films.
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Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....
I'm currently contemplating stringing a number of horror plots/adventures each based loosely on Stephen King novels. Shouldn't be too hard to develop a storyline that connects them all, maybe by using IT as inspiration. Examples include:
I'm currently running a group now where an NPC attempted to banish a cursed wand to Abyssal Plane. He died while in progress, now the eternal souls from the plane inhabit any living creature that dies. While controlling the newly obtained hosts (and accessing their memories) they search out more living creatures to kill, releasing more of their brethren. Once all creatures have been slain, the demon lord's brother will eliminate all insects/flora before setting the world ablaze.
The meat is the ever-growing number of intelligent soulless who seek to exterminate all living, without a care for their host bodies.
I'm currently running a group now where an NPC attempted to banish a cursed wand to Abyssal Plane. He died while in progress, now the eternal souls from the plane inhabit any living creature that dies. While controlling the newly obtained hosts (and accessing their memories) they search out more living creatures to kill, releasing more of their brethren. Once all creatures have been slain, the demon lord's brother will eliminate all insects/flora before setting the world ablaze.
The meat is the ever-growing number of intelligent soulless who seek to exterminate all living, without a care for their host bodies.
Thanks for this post! This has given me the idea to create a one-shot for a few of my friends based on the Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft. I've never done a horror/Halloween themed adventure before but as I have a lot of decorations around the house in the same vein I figured why not give it a shot. My plan is to use some of the content from Princes of the Apocalypse to represent the townsfolk in Innsmouth in their various states of conversion to Deep Ones.
I'm starting a campaign soon I like to call fantasy Gantz, as in the horror anime (weeaboo alert!) but with a couple of twists, first and foremost every time a player dies they have to make sanity checks as they stare into the abyss on there journey back to life. secondly due to the set up EVERYONE knows who they are and that they are immortal and of course EVERYONE want's that power for themselves (pairing NPC's murdering the players for a party trick and the players going mental as a result is beautiful) so the players go slowly mad, they know for fact that everyone is a potential enemy and then at the end of act one I drop the bomb that they where resurrected to fight a big gribbly that turns out is there original self's ascended to deamonhood.
Pair all this with describing everything in visceral detail (the sheer number of times my players have touched "slimy doorknobs" is troubling) and I think the horror should work well
also there is nothing more fun than telling your players to write a backstory in which they have been murdered horrifically
I have found my players are sympathetic to being creeped out by the possessions of young children. Use these children to take over a town as thralls to a coven of witches. Eg. Salem witch trials.
An idea i had that wasnt originally a horror story but could be adapted to be easily enough is that the players start at level 1 but not as free adventurers, instead they are all slaves in the city of Brass who are part of a slave uprising and manage to escape, however they are woefully under leveled and stuck in the plane of fire with efreet, fiends and much more. They would have to run away, hide, find allies and try to escape to the material plane. Could easily adapt it to a horror basis by having them be slaves in the hells or abyss and when they escape they have to deal with potential insanity causing sights everywhere maybe?
Been having so much fun with Curse of Strahd I'm going to do a "Children of The Damned" adventure to hook them into a Night Below themed campaign. If they survive Strahd.
Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....
Maybe look at the Brian Lumley Vampires (Necroscope series etc.)
A Vampire who has the 'seed' or has been around long enough to grow one themselves. It effectively grows a parasitic slug creature inside them, they become extra strong, resilient and any psychic abilities they had are amplified, plus they tend to gain telepathy.
Very much shapechangers - stretching and pseudo-pods mainly. Not like a druid (bat like, not a bat)
Crosses? an annoyance, Garlic still works, but not as much you would think. Silver, sure. Basically the only way to kill it is decapitation and fire. the stake is there to hold it down. even then, the earth where they have been burnt can still contain their essence, and swamps and spores can grow that can infect people.
So Master, Lieutenants (aspiring to gain favour with their master for the seed to become a full, independent vampire) and thralls. Generally only one seed per vampire, although there can be the occasional queen.
http://necroscope.org/jackets
The artwork is pretty cool too.
- Stu
#6321 on Discord.
I'm going to through this out there even though I haven't tested it yet. It just so happens I'm creating a horror adventure in which the PC's will run into all the classic Universal monsters (Dracula, Frankenstien's Monster, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and The Creature from the Black lagoon). It will be set in a Ravenloft type setting, but I'm hybriding it with another game. If you have never heard of a game called Dread, it is a game that you role play through a horror movie, games are always one offs so you don't get the awesome character development and advancement that makes D and D great, but instead of rolling dice to succeed you pull from a Jenga Tower, it does build a lot of Tension when you might topple the tower. So in combat in my game to hit and damage rolls will be normal, but critical junctions and saving throws success will mean pulling from the tower to be sucsessful. I'll let you know how it goes.
I like that idea! Operating on the assumption that it's not a one shot, do you plan to reset the tower every session, or somehow preserve it from one to the next?
Futuaris nisi irrisius ridebus.
Usually you pre pull out about 6-8 blocks so the first pulls aren't walk throughs but aren't to hard either. The question is what happens when it falls, is it just a fail or a critical fail? I'm only going to use it for horror based cause I can tell you by playing Dread (Where a fail means removal or death of the character) it adds a lot of tension. As they probe the tower for a loose block you continue as DM to talk and add to the immediate story it adds a little pressure and a lot of fun. Remember its not good to be rolling dice near the tower or have players banging on the table so take that into account if you have a rowdy group, but I wouldn't preserve the tower, unless your playing back to back nights if you gather once a week it may be difficult. Once the tower falls build it back up and pre remove some blocks, or have each player make 1 or 2 pulls without consequence of course (depending on group size)while you continue story. Its just a cool way to add a little actual skill to skill rolls and saving throws. Play with it and see what works best for your group.
Has anyone here used the optional "Sanity" rules outlined in the DMG, or "Emrakul's Madness" from Planeshift: Innistrad?
If so, how did it go? Any tips?
Futuaris nisi irrisius ridebus.
I am actually working on a horror one-shot right now! I'm having a hard time making the adventure creepy enough though. It's about a man in the woods who steals women at night and takes some of there body and skin, stitching them together to make perfect dolls (flesh golems).
Newbie GM | Mathsquad | Current Jam
I have several ideas for a horror campaign
One is in a dimension where the planet changes daily (or however long you like). It is a world that has been burned and destroyed by a war between gods and another entity. The entity as well as the gods were killed. The planet is full of undead, vampires, werewolves and other monstrosities. The group of adventures hear of a relic that can revive the gods or the entity and it goes from there
Urt
If you have never seen the films Suspiria or Bunshinsaba (a Korean horror film also titled Witchboard), do your self a favor. I'm working on an adventure combining elements of these two films.
Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....
I'm currently contemplating stringing a number of horror plots/adventures each based loosely on Stephen King novels. Shouldn't be too hard to develop a storyline that connects them all, maybe by using IT as inspiration. Examples include:
MadCar_1
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Send me a message with any questions or concerns
I'm a huge Brian Keene Fan. Been thinking about running something similar :)
Thanks for this post! This has given me the idea to create a one-shot for a few of my friends based on the Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft. I've never done a horror/Halloween themed adventure before but as I have a lot of decorations around the house in the same vein I figured why not give it a shot. My plan is to use some of the content from Princes of the Apocalypse to represent the townsfolk in Innsmouth in their various states of conversion to Deep Ones.
Volo's Guide has a couple of creatures with the "Innsmouth look" as well. I believe they're called Sea Spawn and Deep Scions.
Futuaris nisi irrisius ridebus.
I'm starting a campaign soon I like to call fantasy Gantz, as in the horror anime (weeaboo alert!) but with a couple of twists, first and foremost every time a player dies they have to make sanity checks as they stare into the abyss on there journey back to life. secondly due to the set up EVERYONE knows who they are and that they are immortal and of course EVERYONE want's that power for themselves (pairing NPC's murdering the players for a party trick and the players going mental as a result is beautiful) so the players go slowly mad, they know for fact that everyone is a potential enemy and then at the end of act one I drop the bomb that they where resurrected to fight a big gribbly that turns out is there original self's ascended to deamonhood.
Pair all this with describing everything in visceral detail (the sheer number of times my players have touched "slimy doorknobs" is troubling) and I think the horror should work well
also there is nothing more fun than telling your players to write a backstory in which they have been murdered horrifically
I have found my players are sympathetic to being creeped out by the possessions of young children. Use these children to take over a town as thralls to a coven of witches. Eg. Salem witch trials.
An idea i had that wasnt originally a horror story but could be adapted to be easily enough is that the players start at level 1 but not as free adventurers, instead they are all slaves in the city of Brass who are part of a slave uprising and manage to escape, however they are woefully under leveled and stuck in the plane of fire with efreet, fiends and much more. They would have to run away, hide, find allies and try to escape to the material plane. Could easily adapt it to a horror basis by having them be slaves in the hells or abyss and when they escape they have to deal with potential insanity causing sights everywhere maybe?
One idea for a horror campaign - only humans or only races without darkvision.