I was wondering if anyone out there had any interesting/fun Horror ideas for a DnD session. I've held my fair share of horror movie-sque sessions and wanted to share some ideas on the forum. Any takers?

My latest idea for a horror session was with a Chain Devil (Is it just me, or was Kyton just a cooler sounding name for it, Chain Devil sounds too PC) that has grown too powerful for his own good. He has been traveling around the Underdark (Read:Hollow Earth) in a mile wide floating bubble of chain. He comes across a town and uses the chains to take control of the beings, turning them into puppets. The chains enter the body and cord around the extremities while the being is conscious and then controls them. My players have stumble across such a town and are currently trying to figure out how to kill the Devil while saving the enslaved people.

Thoughts?

FYI
Chain puppets have same stats as ghouls with 10 ft chain attack.

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.

That's fun

I like your chain puppet idea!  Mind if I borrow it?

Quote from Darksabre812 >>

I was wondering if anyone out there had any interesting/fun Horror ideas for a DnD session. I've held my fair share of horror movie-sque sessions and wanted to share some ideas on the forum. Any takers?

My latest idea for a horror session was with a Chain Devil (Is it just me, or was Kyton just a cooler sounding name for it, Chain Devil sounds too PC) that has grown too powerful for his own good. He has been traveling around the Underdark (Read:Hollow Earth) in a mile wide floating bubble of chain. He comes across a town and uses the chains to take control of the beings, turning them into puppets. The chains enter the body and cord around the extremities while the being is conscious and then controls them. My players have stumble across such a town and are currently trying to figure out how to kill the Devil while saving the enslaved people.

Thoughts?

FYI
Chain puppets have same stats as ghouls with 10 ft chain attack.

So ive had this idea around my head for a bit now and i honestly would love to put a lot more into it. Although currently im running another long term session with my group and if i add this idea to it ... it might just be way too long and out of the way, but still i would love to see if it does catch on.

The whole story line takes place on an uncharted island surrounded by ever constant fog (cliche ik). The group awakes to find them self trapped on the island with 12 unique monsters with fullback story, special abilities unique only to them and stopping grounds area. The goal is to kill every monster by learning their lore and how they came to be in the area that they dwell in and of course escape the island.  All in the meanwhile figuring out why are 12 monsters with nothing related to each other are on this islands, who or what brought them here and for what reason is the group's purpose here too.

I had other ideas too like there is a spokesman of the island claiming to be the collector of the monsters that seemingly were "kidnapped" from around the world and brought to this island.

i guess this would be a Horror/mystery campaign, but I'm open to any thoughts  

Wow, that's a really cool awesome for an adventure! It would be interesting seeing how the PCs would have to come up with ideas to defeat the chain devil without harming the citizens.

That is interesting. How would they be learning the lore? Could they get the monsters to fight each other or are their boundaries between the stomping ground?

Quote from Ashcloud >>

Wow, that's a really cool awesome for an adventure! It would be interesting seeing how the PCs would have to come up with ideas to defeat the chain devil without harming the citizens.

Quote from Towers76 >>

I like your chain puppet idea!  Mind if I borrow it?

There would be alot of clues in the details around the area of each entites like maybe hand written notes pinned on the inside of a chest, old artifacts of a profession when they were human, analyzing there behavior and how they react to different things that happen to the entities. Maybe even lore from one entity even resides in some other area confusing the players, all in the meantime avoiding the entities intill the time is right.

As for the boundary thing im thinking entities would acknowledge each other's presence but would not attack, assist or even communicate with one another and im guessing it would deepen the mystery why that works in the first place or even the thought why are 12 monsters that were kidnapped fron around the world brought here with all there backstory scattered around the area that they dewll in looking like they been here for years even through the time it took for all of them to be kidnapped and the players sudden arrival was little to none 

Every Halloween I run a One shot 6 hours D&D adventure that has a waiting list to get in LOL!

This last year I wanted to capture horror and slasher movie type of setting.  

The players started in the Bates Inn located just out of Holdenfield.  The town came complete with an Elm Street and beside the Town there was of course Crystal Lake Camp ground.   Through out the night different events where trigger such as a sudden attack of birds to Telekinetic villagers names Carrie.  It was a complete success and having the players explore the village was super fun for all.

The best part was you could die as many times as you wanted.  I had  a stack of level 1 characters (like 100) so when you died you started back at the inn and your corpse stayed in place to come back back in one of the final events the zombie horde.

Certain place had references to all kinds of fiction.  The beating heart under the floor boards to the cemetery having an attack undead cat Named Church.  

All this to save the village from the old one that is about to be summoned.

If you got even half of the references your awesome.

Next year the "My Mummy is Hungry" Homebrew adventure is already in the works.  

Here is an old twisted adventure I recall someone putting us through back in the 90s.

We got to a town on the east coast of the Duchy of Karemeikos and there was a cursed lighthouse or tower with a beacon crystal atop it. And on the journey through the hills and woods towards we face a pack of charred up wights or revenants.

Then another pack of them comes when we are almost there and warns us to stay away from the tower, and we fight another hard fought battle.

Regroup and then ascend the tower and guess MF what, we fight another pack of charred wights, who again, threaten us to leave the cursed tower and we thrash them.

Then we get up to the top of the tower and the giant crystal has a tormented presence or whatever within it and BOOM, burns us all to death. TPK.

Then we all arise as wights, but a day before our deaths, and we are off to convince our murder hobo selves to stay away from the cursed tower.

Quote from Xaeromancer >>

That's the original basis of Ravenloft.  First there was Strahd, then Azalin, then, before you know it, there are were-badgers.

The second and third edition Ravenloft books would be really helpful, if you can find them.  Maybe even stretch your island into an archipelago...

But never explain.  The spokesman for the island would demystify everything (excuse the pun) too much.

I always think horror is hard to do right in tabletops, because you really have to commit to the theatre of the mind to make it scary.

I'd love to host it at a house and make heavy use of props or background. Ability to switch out the lights and stuff.

In the right atmosphere, I'd really want to do a Spec Ops: The Line-style horror where the goosebumps part is a reveal that what they thought they were doing wasn't what they were actually doing - or like seeing someone across a river call for you to lower the bridge, only for you to cross over and find the person is just a mannequin. Mannequins are always freaky.

I know what you mean, you really need to set the scene correctly. Allusions to darkness, unknown sounds, whispering voices, and vivid descriptions of horror scenes are a must. It helps if you read some horror stories to get your mind set right.
4 years ago I wanted to do a Halloween special session, taking a break from my normal campaign, and having the players roll up new characters for this one off. I had just seen Event Horizon and loved the idea of the characters finding a derelict ship in the middle of the ocean, one that had gone missing a decade earlier. 
I had also just finished reading Lovecraft's The Color out of Space, which in my opinion has the scariest moment in his stories (When the neighbor walks up the stairs) It lasts just two paragraphs, but the amount of tension and detail laid out makes them horrifying. So I implemented that in my campaign storytelling. Needless to say, the PCs were terrified.

So I recommend reading scary books and watching scary movies to get the flavor talk right.

With the help of a close friend and my own DM, I have been creating a "7 Days to Live" zombie apoc game for our players in the summer seasons. Pretty much a more strategic survival type campaign where every action really counts. We did a test run last week and my players managed to make it to the first boss fight...not before losing all of their NPC help and bringing the zombies straight to their safe zone. 

Cool thread! Like all the ideas. Inspired my twisted mind to concoct the following: An adventure set in the cliche bucolic town. Villagers having trouble with missing children. Goblins raiding. Heroes investigate, find goblin lair, save kids, have celebration feast in village. Where's the horror? Villagers are disguised illithids. Have cast illusion spells to make children look like goblins. PC'S have just been fooled into killing kids, bringing back their brains, and eating them with the illithids, which paralyzes them. Illithids were using PC's to basically get them an appetizer and then eat the PC's as main dish. 

Think 'the Village' mixed w 'Texas Chainsaw' with a kind of Creepshow flavor....

I've been mining Lovecraft and Poe for adventure seeds. Their horror is rooted in implication and suspense more than gore and jump scares, and as such translates better to the tabletop than a lot of slasher flicks.

I'm currently working on a horror adventure using the Innistrad planeshift guide, and I'll likely blatantly rip off a bunch of stories by the authors above for side quests. Maybe I'll sprinkle in some Dark Souls / Bloodborn.