I'm interested in running a horror campaign, but I'm still deciding on what creatures to include and side adventures to do. Post any ideas you have please.
Any ideas on things you definitely do or don't want? Body horror, Cosmic horror, ghost story, etc.? Are you planning on running an altered adventure from a book or pure homebrew?
Sorry, to clarify, is there anything you definitely do or don't want that would rule out ideas. For example, you don't want any demons or demonic possession, or you do want something around witchcraft or summoning, etc.
Big fan of the "person you saw die is back as a monster" thing. Dybbuk, revenant, or even Spawn of Kyuss can do it, depending on how you prefer to have it work.
It's hard to maintain a horror tone in D&D for sure. Even the spookiest adventures often devolve into jokes. That's not a problem, you just need to be able to bring the horror back when it's needed. Monsters that don't stay dead are the key here -- generally speaking PCs win every fight they're in, so if the monsters explode into chunks every time then it's hard to take them seriously after a while.
I would lean towards monsters who behave in predictable ways, like zombies, rather than masterminds with lots of flexibility like liches. That way any individual shakeup, like an unexpected betrayal or getting lost during travel or something, can have rippling consequences that the players can envision in their heads before they happen. Horror is often about the dread, the inevitable, and the tension of knowing what will happen but not knowing when.
Finally, don't ignore the basics like wolves and bandits. They're useful for a few reasons. One, familiarity is important when you're using a lot of unknown, shadowy stuff. Players feeling too unmoored, too confused or uninformed, can't make interesting decisions and won't have fun. Giving them things to interact with that make sense is good. Two, they're great for contextualizing threats: if players come to the conclusion that they'd rather risk getting attacked by wolves than go into that house, that's great stuff. Maybe a bandit gets eaten by a monster, cool.
Here's a thought I often have when I'm playing scary games. The best scary quests and scary encounters are the ones where you know from the very beginning that you don't want to do what you're about to have to do. You need to make two things crystal clear, beyond any doubt: 1) This is bad news. 2) This is the way forward. Some examples: In one of the Dead Space games, it becomes dreadfully clear that you're going to have to use some weird medical equipment to gouge out your eyeball. They let you realize it and then marinate on that knowledge a bit before you actually have to do it. In Elden Ring, NPCs will tell you to make sure you avoid places and things, especially the ones you have to visit. There will also be huge monsters that stomp around in the distance, that you know you're not prepared to fight, but you have to get past them. (This is also basically the backbone of Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is a detailed illustration of just how bad an idea it is for you to be here, and the overarching plot follows suit by making it clear that you're on a path that leads to something awful.) In something like Frostpunk or This War of Mine (I haven't played them, apologies if I'm mistaken), you can see pretty well in advance that you're going to have to sacrifice people's lives. And so on.
I would add to ChoirOfFire's point about maintaining horror that, like horror films, slow building tension, twists and things not being what they seem to be are a huge boon to keeping mood and theme going. As a DM, I would probably take some amount of liberty with what characters perceive they experience, being careful not to take away their agency.
An admittedly goofy example: there is a disturbing murder in the local village several days before your players arrive, but once they arrive the entire village sincerely believes that the characters were there. Your players' characters had to have seen something. The villagers desperately want to know what they saw, perhaps believing that this information is the only thing that can save them from some growing horror. Any level of insight check shows that even the most upstanding, trustworthy members of the village really truly believe with strong conviction that the party was absolutely there. Then see if you can convince your players that perhaps they've counted the days incorrectly or something has happened to them and they really were there.
In horror movies, people die and they die often. So have extras ready. Have people roll up multiple characters at the beginning and roll another before each session. Be sure that someone dies EVERY session. No death = not horror. TPK is a good session, not a bad in this game. Make this clear to the players why they are rolling up multiple characters so they will not be surprised. Consider having 'experience' carry over to new characters - they have been surviving and fighting the same horrors, even if we did not watch it happen.
Most horror movies either rely on a super-powerful villain far beyond what the players can really fight that is 'driven off', a horde of villains that die easy, or a combo of these. Pick what you are doing and keep it in mind.
In the pure 'horde' type, i.e. no mastermind behind it all, typically it also requires on the victims being really really stupid. Scientists that 'lock up' a monster but some how the smart scientists are outsmarted by the dumb monster and it escapes. People that ignore obvious threats and try to save the 'wounded' zombie. The young woman that thinks dating a vampire is not insane. That kind of thing. If you want horde, make sure most of the non-pcs are explicitly stupid or low wisdom. Or have the horde drive NPCS insane.
Sanity systems are a lot of work, I have not really found one I like. No advice, just a warning about driving PC's crazy
Simultaneous disasters make horrors more realistic. I.e. It's not just an invasion of the Blob from outer space, there are also meteor strikes everywhere so the authorities are pre-occupied. Or the Monster from the Black Lagoon is attacking during a major flood. The creatures from the elemental planes are attacking during a huge forest fire. (Hint, make friends with the water elemental). Or simply do it in an 'extreme' environment, aka the arctic, mountain tops, deserts.
1) Talk to your players. HORROR is one of those themes that requires they participate. It's also one where Consent and Comfort levels need to be clearly defined at the start. 2) Track EVERYTHING. PCs typically get to handwave encumbrance, supplies, exhaustion, etc. That's because in High Fantasy dealing with "whoops, forgot to pack enough water" breaks mood and kills engagement. But with HORROR "the wolf just ate our last ration" becomes and important point. 3) Talk to your players. 4) Plan for the other senses. Most of what we describe have to deal with see. We are, at heart, visual creatures. When going horror, make sure to spend more time considering how things are going to smell, taste, and feel. No matter how good you are at visuals, saying "as the monster rises out of the muck, you can't help but notice the the bitter taste of rotted plant as it begins coating the back of your tongue." is going to have WAY better WIGGINS value. 5) Talk to your players. 6) Keep secrets. Roll dice for no reason. Ask leading questions, and if you ever get asked why, just say "we'll get back to that." This also goes back to "Track EVERYTHING" when you're hiding stuff from PCs you're losing them as a "memory aid". Keeping extremely detailed notes will prevent you breaking the mood to figure out why you X three sessions ago. 7) Talk to your players. -- Yeah, I'm getting crazy on this, but seriously do it.
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I'm interested in running a horror campaign, but I'm still deciding on what creatures to include and side adventures to do. Post any ideas you have please.
Any ideas on things you definitely do or don't want? Body horror, Cosmic horror, ghost story, etc.? Are you planning on running an altered adventure from a book or pure homebrew?
Ideas on things that I do want. This campaign is pure homebrew.
Sorry, to clarify, is there anything you definitely do or don't want that would rule out ideas. For example, you don't want any demons or demonic possession, or you do want something around witchcraft or summoning, etc.
Big fan of the "person you saw die is back as a monster" thing. Dybbuk, revenant, or even Spawn of Kyuss can do it, depending on how you prefer to have it work.
It's hard to maintain a horror tone in D&D for sure. Even the spookiest adventures often devolve into jokes. That's not a problem, you just need to be able to bring the horror back when it's needed. Monsters that don't stay dead are the key here -- generally speaking PCs win every fight they're in, so if the monsters explode into chunks every time then it's hard to take them seriously after a while.
I would lean towards monsters who behave in predictable ways, like zombies, rather than masterminds with lots of flexibility like liches. That way any individual shakeup, like an unexpected betrayal or getting lost during travel or something, can have rippling consequences that the players can envision in their heads before they happen. Horror is often about the dread, the inevitable, and the tension of knowing what will happen but not knowing when.
Finally, don't ignore the basics like wolves and bandits. They're useful for a few reasons. One, familiarity is important when you're using a lot of unknown, shadowy stuff. Players feeling too unmoored, too confused or uninformed, can't make interesting decisions and won't have fun. Giving them things to interact with that make sense is good. Two, they're great for contextualizing threats: if players come to the conclusion that they'd rather risk getting attacked by wolves than go into that house, that's great stuff. Maybe a bandit gets eaten by a monster, cool.
Here's a thought I often have when I'm playing scary games. The best scary quests and scary encounters are the ones where you know from the very beginning that you don't want to do what you're about to have to do. You need to make two things crystal clear, beyond any doubt: 1) This is bad news. 2) This is the way forward. Some examples: In one of the Dead Space games, it becomes dreadfully clear that you're going to have to use some weird medical equipment to gouge out your eyeball. They let you realize it and then marinate on that knowledge a bit before you actually have to do it. In Elden Ring, NPCs will tell you to make sure you avoid places and things, especially the ones you have to visit. There will also be huge monsters that stomp around in the distance, that you know you're not prepared to fight, but you have to get past them. (This is also basically the backbone of Shadow of the Colossus. Every fight is a detailed illustration of just how bad an idea it is for you to be here, and the overarching plot follows suit by making it clear that you're on a path that leads to something awful.) In something like Frostpunk or This War of Mine (I haven't played them, apologies if I'm mistaken), you can see pretty well in advance that you're going to have to sacrifice people's lives. And so on.
I didn't think I had so much to say about this!
I would add to ChoirOfFire's point about maintaining horror that, like horror films, slow building tension, twists and things not being what they seem to be are a huge boon to keeping mood and theme going. As a DM, I would probably take some amount of liberty with what characters perceive they experience, being careful not to take away their agency.
An admittedly goofy example: there is a disturbing murder in the local village several days before your players arrive, but once they arrive the entire village sincerely believes that the characters were there. Your players' characters had to have seen something. The villagers desperately want to know what they saw, perhaps believing that this information is the only thing that can save them from some growing horror. Any level of insight check shows that even the most upstanding, trustworthy members of the village really truly believe with strong conviction that the party was absolutely there. Then see if you can convince your players that perhaps they've counted the days incorrectly or something has happened to them and they really were there.
My suggestions for Horror campaigns.
1) Talk to your players. HORROR is one of those themes that requires they participate. It's also one where Consent and Comfort levels need to be clearly defined at the start.
2) Track EVERYTHING. PCs typically get to handwave encumbrance, supplies, exhaustion, etc. That's because in High Fantasy dealing with "whoops, forgot to pack enough water" breaks mood and kills engagement. But with HORROR "the wolf just ate our last ration" becomes and important point.
3) Talk to your players.
4) Plan for the other senses. Most of what we describe have to deal with see. We are, at heart, visual creatures. When going horror, make sure to spend more time considering how things are going to smell, taste, and feel. No matter how good you are at visuals, saying "as the monster rises out of the muck, you can't help but notice the the bitter taste of rotted plant as it begins coating the back of your tongue." is going to have WAY better WIGGINS value.
5) Talk to your players.
6) Keep secrets. Roll dice for no reason. Ask leading questions, and if you ever get asked why, just say "we'll get back to that." This also goes back to "Track EVERYTHING" when you're hiding stuff from PCs you're losing them as a "memory aid". Keeping extremely detailed notes will prevent you breaking the mood to figure out why you X three sessions ago.
7) Talk to your players. -- Yeah, I'm getting crazy on this, but seriously do it.