I had an idea a while ago where the players are on the run from the wild hunt. The hunt master would be really powerful and would act more like an obstacle than an enemy. They wouldn't be able to fight him, just hide and survive until dawn. In horror movies the characters are rarely able to kill the monster, just get out of the house. Trash enemies could be supplied in the form of ghouls, ghosts, banshees and undead of all varieties.
I've got an idea for one... party awakens in a ruined church in an upscaled, unbreakable cornmaze.
They need to navigate out, fighting their way past spooky, undead, devilish creatures of increasing nastiness.
Should be fairly "easy" to make it work as a one-shot - each open space/intersection in the maze can be filled with whatever beast / treasure I put in there, so if they are blasting thru too fast, BAM! Add more badguys. Just got to have a BBEG...
I've got an idea for one... party awakens in a ruined church in an upscaled, unbreakable cornmaze.
They need to navigate out, fighting their way past spooky, undead, devilish creatures of increasing nastiness.
Should be fairly "easy" to make it work as a one-shot - each open space/intersection in the maze can be filled with whatever beast / treasure I put in there, so if they are blasting thru too fast, BAM! Add more badguys. Just got to have a BBEG...
Scarecrows. LOTS of scarecrows. Some are monsters, Some are not. Some move out of the corner of their eyes. LOTS of perception checks.
At the center, a giant scarecrow eating PUMPKIN!!! (reskinned and beefed up corpse flower, the scarecrows in place of the corpses, and rather than just healing the pumpkin, the animate the scarecrows by eating them one round, and belching them back out 2 rounds later).
The Dullahan is an excellent Halloween monster, though I would give it a pumpkin head in the first stage of the fight (which comes off when headless summoning triggers) and turn the death's heads into flying pumpkins.
The Dullahan is an excellent Halloween monster, though I would give it a pumpkin head in the first stage of the fight (which comes off when headless summoning triggers) and turn the death's heads into flying pumpkins.
Thanks for the Dullahan - sounds good! Probably the BBEG who rides up to the exit from outside if/when the party finds it...
I've got an idea for one... party awakens in a ruined church in an upscaled, unbreakable cornmaze.
They need to navigate out, fighting their way past spooky, undead, devilish creatures of increasing nastiness.
Should be fairly "easy" to make it work as a one-shot - each open space/intersection in the maze can be filled with whatever beast / treasure I put in there, so if they are blasting thru too fast, BAM! Add more badguys. Just got to have a BBEG...
That right there (bolded) is a missed opportunity.
The implication is that they can't cut through or do anthing but follow the paths. Instead, allow them to push through, but with consequences. Cut the corn, and it starts growing, perceptably. 30 seconds and it's good as new - no way to know which way was back. Push through and leave the path, and you're going to have a bad time, things will snag you, grab you, try to drag you down. There will be no way out of the corn, and when you look back, there's an edge! Jump out, and you're right back where you were. Then the hands start clawing their way out as well - time to run!
I’m getting ready to run a horror sitcom one shot, kinda based on wandavision. Really you can make anything scary, if you describe it weird or make a strange atmosphere.
The Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta (Tailless Black Sow) is a Welsh monster that takes the form of a tailless black sow. It was a tradition to have the Halloween festivities late into the night as they waited for a bonfire to die down. Once the fire was out, everyone would rush home to avoid being attacked by Hwch Ddu Gwta who was often accompanied by a headless ghost woman dressed in white called Y Ladi Wen.
Maybe the players are invited to a harvest festival. They roleplay and take part in competitions late into the night. When the fire goes out, everyone flees leaving them alone to be chased by the Tailless Black Sow (Wereboar or some other pig monster) and the Ladi Wen.
Incorporate Jac-y-lantern, a willow-the-wisp type creature that also shows up around Halloween to lead people astray. Maybe they characters are trying to race back to their home in time and they think they see the lights of their house. Turns out it is a bunch of Jac-y-lanterns who are leading them in the wrong direction, either into a pit trap or to the Sow and the Headless Lady.
the players go to some random small town, plagued by a strange curse: All the crops die unnaturally quick. This only started happening recently, about two weeks ago, and the party must investigate what caused these strange occurrences…
Now, here’s the fun part: A monster is what caused the problem. It could be something traditionally Halloweeny, like a werwolf, or something sillier like some homebrew vampire sheep, you decide. I’m not going into details because I feel like it’s more interesting if you fill in the blanks, I’m not very good at making stuff up (I haven’t got the chance to play dnd, let alone be a DM) so whatever you make will be 100 times better than anything I could imagine.
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Hello, I’m The mighty Dragon bard!
Music nerd, bookworm, dragon lover and avid shoe wearer. I also like drawing and playing guitar.
I'm currently working on a big Slasher Villain one-shot for my friends.
The idea is simple... The players are all famous Slasher villains in Hell. Part of the fun is figuring out what different slashers would be, mechanically, in D&D... I have one player who has already decided to play Angela from "Night of the Demons" as an Undead Warlock, and someone else is playing Michael Meyers from "Halloween" as a Goliath Assassin Rogue... the other players haven't decided who they want to be yet, but I figured I'd mention the ones we already have figured out to give you an idea of what I'm going for.
Once everyone has their character selected, the main adventure is the group of villains being gathered by Pin-Head, who offers them the opportunity to escape Hell if they can find 3 pieces of a puzzle to turn over to him. So it's basically Slasher Villains vs. Cenobites... although the twist at the end is going to be that Pin-Head has secretly been Beetlejuice the whole time and the puzzle pieces are parts for a flute that can be used to control one of the Sandworms from Beetlejuice, and the whole thing ends with everyone basically fighting a Purple Worm.
I still need to make a Hellish maze for them to get stuck in that has some challenges other than direct combat. But also, y'know... that can be completed in a single sitting. I don't know how many "one shots" I've created that ended up being 2 or 3 sessions to complete.
Another Halloween idea is to pull from those strange cartoons from the 1930s. Stuff like the Fleischer brothers and early Disney. They had wonky cartoons that often had supernatural elements like ghosts, goblins, graveyards, and demons from Hell. You could create an adventure that has all those themes but is more light hearted and whimsical with a lot of wacky twists and turns.
Damn it! That's exactly what I'm working on. :)
Great minds think alike? :P
I've got an idea for one... party awakens in a ruined church in an upscaled, unbreakable cornmaze.
They need to navigate out, fighting their way past spooky, undead, devilish creatures of increasing nastiness.
Should be fairly "easy" to make it work as a one-shot - each open space/intersection in the maze can be filled with whatever beast / treasure I put in there, so if they are blasting thru too fast, BAM! Add more badguys. Just got to have a BBEG...
Scarecrows. LOTS of scarecrows. Some are monsters, Some are not. Some move out of the corner of their eyes. LOTS of perception checks.
At the center, a giant scarecrow eating PUMPKIN!!! (reskinned and beefed up corpse flower, the scarecrows in place of the corpses, and rather than just healing the pumpkin, the animate the scarecrows by eating them one round, and belching them back out 2 rounds later).
The Dullahan is an excellent Halloween monster, though I would give it a pumpkin head in the first stage of the fight (which comes off when headless summoning triggers) and turn the death's heads into flying pumpkins.
Thanks for the Dullahan - sounds good! Probably the BBEG who rides up to the exit from outside if/when the party finds it...
That right there (bolded) is a missed opportunity.
The implication is that they can't cut through or do anthing but follow the paths. Instead, allow them to push through, but with consequences. Cut the corn, and it starts growing, perceptably. 30 seconds and it's good as new - no way to know which way was back. Push through and leave the path, and you're going to have a bad time, things will snag you, grab you, try to drag you down. There will be no way out of the corn, and when you look back, there's an edge! Jump out, and you're right back where you were. Then the hands start clawing their way out as well - time to run!
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I’m getting ready to run a horror sitcom one shot, kinda based on wandavision. Really you can make anything scary, if you describe it weird or make a strange atmosphere.
The Yr Hwch Ddu Gwta (Tailless Black Sow) is a Welsh monster that takes the form of a tailless black sow. It was a tradition to have the Halloween festivities late into the night as they waited for a bonfire to die down. Once the fire was out, everyone would rush home to avoid being attacked by Hwch Ddu Gwta who was often accompanied by a headless ghost woman dressed in white called Y Ladi Wen.
Maybe the players are invited to a harvest festival. They roleplay and take part in competitions late into the night. When the fire goes out, everyone flees leaving them alone to be chased by the Tailless Black Sow (Wereboar or some other pig monster) and the Ladi Wen.
Incorporate Jac-y-lantern, a willow-the-wisp type creature that also shows up around Halloween to lead people astray. Maybe they characters are trying to race back to their home in time and they think they see the lights of their house. Turns out it is a bunch of Jac-y-lanterns who are leading them in the wrong direction, either into a pit trap or to the Sow and the Headless Lady.
Imagine this:
the players go to some random small town, plagued by a strange curse: All the crops die unnaturally quick. This only started happening recently, about two weeks ago, and the party must investigate what caused these strange occurrences…
Now, here’s the fun part: A monster is what caused the problem. It could be something traditionally Halloweeny, like a werwolf, or something sillier like some homebrew vampire sheep, you decide. I’m not going into details because I feel like it’s more interesting if you fill in the blanks, I’m not very good at making stuff up (I haven’t got the chance to play dnd, let alone be a DM) so whatever you make will be 100 times better than anything I could imagine.
Hello, I’m The mighty Dragon bard!
Music nerd, bookworm, dragon lover and avid shoe wearer. I also like drawing and playing guitar.
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Extended Signature
I'm currently working on a big Slasher Villain one-shot for my friends.
The idea is simple... The players are all famous Slasher villains in Hell. Part of the fun is figuring out what different slashers would be, mechanically, in D&D... I have one player who has already decided to play Angela from "Night of the Demons" as an Undead Warlock, and someone else is playing Michael Meyers from "Halloween" as a Goliath Assassin Rogue... the other players haven't decided who they want to be yet, but I figured I'd mention the ones we already have figured out to give you an idea of what I'm going for.
Once everyone has their character selected, the main adventure is the group of villains being gathered by Pin-Head, who offers them the opportunity to escape Hell if they can find 3 pieces of a puzzle to turn over to him. So it's basically Slasher Villains vs. Cenobites... although the twist at the end is going to be that Pin-Head has secretly been Beetlejuice the whole time and the puzzle pieces are parts for a flute that can be used to control one of the Sandworms from Beetlejuice, and the whole thing ends with everyone basically fighting a Purple Worm.
I still need to make a Hellish maze for them to get stuck in that has some challenges other than direct combat. But also, y'know... that can be completed in a single sitting. I don't know how many "one shots" I've created that ended up being 2 or 3 sessions to complete.
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Another Halloween idea is to pull from those strange cartoons from the 1930s. Stuff like the Fleischer brothers and early Disney. They had wonky cartoons that often had supernatural elements like ghosts, goblins, graveyards, and demons from Hell. You could create an adventure that has all those themes but is more light hearted and whimsical with a lot of wacky twists and turns.
YEAH WHAT THEY SAID
Hello, I’m The mighty Dragon bard!
Music nerd, bookworm, dragon lover and avid shoe wearer. I also like drawing and playing guitar.
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Extended Signature