Hello my fellow masters of the dungeons đź‘‹. I'm a fairly new dm and my game is sort of standard enough high fantasy but I was wanting to make my game a bit more of an interesting sort of grounded dark fantasy / horror thing where the world feels really dangerous since I really like that sort of thing and think if be able to do a good job at it.
Only problem is that I'm not sure how to go about changing the tone of my game and somewhat of how my game works. Should I just do it all of a sudden, retconning certain minor details to fit the tone or should I go about it differently? (BTW, I'm running lost mine of phandelver atm)
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond.
First and foremost, if you've already started playing a high fantasy themed game with a group of players, then I would highly recommend that you discuss the change to a darker / horror themed version before doing so. I don't know what your players are like (or what the likes of your players are), but it wouldn't be fair to suddenly switch themes on them without at least letting them know about the change. They might be perfectly fine with a dark fantast / horror theme, but somebody might be upset about being told one thing and then switching to another.
Second, after having a new "session zero" about the theme change, I'd say you could just start going with it moving forward. Making the world feel dangerous doesn't really require much retconing per se. Just emphasize just how dangerous things are moving forward. A lot of the horror aspect is more descriptive than anything else, so you'll start explaining how dark and sinister stuff appears after the characters start seeing more and learning the truth of things.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft gives a lot of great ideas of how to work horror into D&D campaigns, but it sounds like you have a pretty good idea yourself. Just let your players know what you're doing and then change your presentation moving forward to create the dark and omnious feel that you want.
If you want a pivot into grim or horror you could see if your players are interested in playing Curse of Strahd after Lost Mines. That might be a way to incorporate that sort of pivot in the tone of the campaign in a consistent way. However, I would definitely discuss with the players out of character what they are interested in playing and what would appeal to them. Horror isn't of interest to everyone and some of the players might not like the idea at all - depending on how well everyone knows each other some folks might not be comfortable disagreeing with the DM or group - in that case, anonymous feedback is best, if there is some way to arrange for it.
Don't retcon! The new dark scary world will feel a lot darker and scarier if the characters still remember what life was like "before the darkness". Use that frame of reference to impress upon them just how bad things have gotten!
So... how? Well, you've got two options - slow or sudden. Sudden is easier, but in my opinion has less drama behind it. Basically, something happens, or something breaks, and the world is cast into a horrible gloomy version of its prior self. What causes this sudden change could be anything - a curse by a coven of hags - an ancient artifact has been unearthed - a horde of demons is invading from the Abyss - the Shadowfell has spilled over into the prime plane - a 20th level Wild Magic sorcerer rolled a Natural 1 - the last unicorn just died - it could be anything. The characters wake up, they're sitting in the tavern enjoying a nice breakfast on a sunny spring morning, someone looks out the window and says, "Hey, what's that?" And on the horizon they see dark storm clouds racing swiftly across the sky, burying the world in shadows and dread. And it's all downhill from there.
But I would prefer the slow approach. The catalyst could be any of the same options from above, but the change is very gradual. Maybe the sun starts setting a minute earlier each day. Maybe animals are becoming more feral, like even domesticated cows and horses and such start attacking their owners. Maybe people just start getting sick, and towns start closing their gates and getting suspicious of travelers. I mean, it shouldn't be hard to imagine what it's like to live through a global plague - we just did! Maybe wounds aren't healing as quick as they normally do. Maybe a character reaches into their coin purse to grab a few silver to pay for their drinks and instead of coins they just find a dead frog. Maybe people have become short tempered and more prone to violence.
The nice thing about the slow approach is that it won't feel like Damnation to the players - at least not at first. To them it will feel like a puzzle. They'll run around looking for clues and trying to find the solution that will stop the horror. But they won't find it. They'll try to save the world - and they will fail. And when the world has been fully enveloped by the Doom, the players will (hopefully) feel partially responsible. They'll kick themselves with, "If only we had noticed this sooner!" and "If only we had found the answer!" And that self-doubt and that sense of dereliction will devour them.
Because there's a difference between "scary" and "horrifying". Anything bad can be scary. Anything painful can be scary. But true horror comes from seeing that pain and that suffering and believing that you could have prevented it - but you failed. That's horror! Horror is deeply personal. Scary dances around you and calls you names. Horror reaches into your chest, pulls out your heart, and shows you every last flaw it contains.
First and foremost, if you've already started playing a high fantasy themed game with a group of players, then I would highly recommend that you discuss the change to a darker / horror themed version before doing so. I don't know what your players are like (or what the likes of your players are), but it wouldn't be fair to suddenly switch themes on them without at least letting them know about the change. They might be perfectly fine with a dark fantast / horror theme, but somebody might be upset about being told one thing and then switching to another.
Second, after having a new "session zero" about the theme change, I'd say you could just start going with it moving forward. Making the world feel dangerous doesn't really require much retconing per se. Just emphasize just how dangerous things are moving forward. A lot of the horror aspect is more descriptive than anything else, so you'll start explaining how dark and sinister stuff appears after the characters start seeing more and learning the truth of things.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft gives a lot of great ideas of how to work horror into D&D campaigns, but it sounds like you have a pretty good idea yourself. Just let your players know what you're doing and then change your presentation moving forward to create the dark and omnious feel that you want.
If you want a pivot into grim or horror you could see if your players are interested in playing Curse of Strahd after Lost Mines. That might be a way to incorporate that sort of pivot in the tone of the campaign in a consistent way. However, I would definitely discuss with the players out of character what they are interested in playing and what would appeal to them. Horror isn't of interest to everyone and some of the players might not like the idea at all - depending on how well everyone knows each other some folks might not be comfortable disagreeing with the DM or group - in that case, anonymous feedback is best, if there is some way to arrange for it.
Don't retcon! The new dark scary world will feel a lot darker and scarier if the characters still remember what life was like "before the darkness". Use that frame of reference to impress upon them just how bad things have gotten!
So... how? Well, you've got two options - slow or sudden. Sudden is easier, but in my opinion has less drama behind it. Basically, something happens, or something breaks, and the world is cast into a horrible gloomy version of its prior self. What causes this sudden change could be anything - a curse by a coven of hags - an ancient artifact has been unearthed - a horde of demons is invading from the Abyss - the Shadowfell has spilled over into the prime plane - a 20th level Wild Magic sorcerer rolled a Natural 1 - the last unicorn just died - it could be anything. The characters wake up, they're sitting in the tavern enjoying a nice breakfast on a sunny spring morning, someone looks out the window and says, "Hey, what's that?" And on the horizon they see dark storm clouds racing swiftly across the sky, burying the world in shadows and dread. And it's all downhill from there.
But I would prefer the slow approach. The catalyst could be any of the same options from above, but the change is very gradual. Maybe the sun starts setting a minute earlier each day. Maybe animals are becoming more feral, like even domesticated cows and horses and such start attacking their owners. Maybe people just start getting sick, and towns start closing their gates and getting suspicious of travelers. I mean, it shouldn't be hard to imagine what it's like to live through a global plague - we just did! Maybe wounds aren't healing as quick as they normally do. Maybe a character reaches into their coin purse to grab a few silver to pay for their drinks and instead of coins they just find a dead frog. Maybe people have become short tempered and more prone to violence.
The nice thing about the slow approach is that it won't feel like Damnation to the players - at least not at first. To them it will feel like a puzzle. They'll run around looking for clues and trying to find the solution that will stop the horror. But they won't find it. They'll try to save the world - and they will fail. And when the world has been fully enveloped by the Doom, the players will (hopefully) feel partially responsible. They'll kick themselves with, "If only we had noticed this sooner!" and "If only we had found the answer!" And that self-doubt and that sense of dereliction will devour them.
Because there's a difference between "scary" and "horrifying". Anything bad can be scary. Anything painful can be scary. But true horror comes from seeing that pain and that suffering and believing that you could have prevented it - but you failed. That's horror! Horror is deeply personal. Scary dances around you and calls you names. Horror reaches into your chest, pulls out your heart, and shows you every last flaw it contains.
Thanks. Those are great ideas. I really like the whole before the darkness thing and think I'd be able to incorporate some lore, applicable to a future adventure I was thinking about.
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Hello my fellow masters of the dungeons đź‘‹. I'm a fairly new dm and my game is sort of standard enough high fantasy but I was wanting to make my game a bit more of an interesting sort of grounded dark fantasy / horror thing where the world feels really dangerous since I really like that sort of thing and think if be able to do a good job at it.
Only problem is that I'm not sure how to go about changing the tone of my game and somewhat of how my game works. Should I just do it all of a sudden, retconning certain minor details to fit the tone or should I go about it differently? (BTW, I'm running lost mine of phandelver atm)
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond.
First and foremost, if you've already started playing a high fantasy themed game with a group of players, then I would highly recommend that you discuss the change to a darker / horror themed version before doing so. I don't know what your players are like (or what the likes of your players are), but it wouldn't be fair to suddenly switch themes on them without at least letting them know about the change. They might be perfectly fine with a dark fantast / horror theme, but somebody might be upset about being told one thing and then switching to another.
Second, after having a new "session zero" about the theme change, I'd say you could just start going with it moving forward. Making the world feel dangerous doesn't really require much retconing per se. Just emphasize just how dangerous things are moving forward. A lot of the horror aspect is more descriptive than anything else, so you'll start explaining how dark and sinister stuff appears after the characters start seeing more and learning the truth of things.
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft gives a lot of great ideas of how to work horror into D&D campaigns, but it sounds like you have a pretty good idea yourself. Just let your players know what you're doing and then change your presentation moving forward to create the dark and omnious feel that you want.
If you want a pivot into grim or horror you could see if your players are interested in playing Curse of Strahd after Lost Mines. That might be a way to incorporate that sort of pivot in the tone of the campaign in a consistent way. However, I would definitely discuss with the players out of character what they are interested in playing and what would appeal to them. Horror isn't of interest to everyone and some of the players might not like the idea at all - depending on how well everyone knows each other some folks might not be comfortable disagreeing with the DM or group - in that case, anonymous feedback is best, if there is some way to arrange for it.
Don't retcon! The new dark scary world will feel a lot darker and scarier if the characters still remember what life was like "before the darkness". Use that frame of reference to impress upon them just how bad things have gotten!
So... how? Well, you've got two options - slow or sudden. Sudden is easier, but in my opinion has less drama behind it. Basically, something happens, or something breaks, and the world is cast into a horrible gloomy version of its prior self. What causes this sudden change could be anything - a curse by a coven of hags - an ancient artifact has been unearthed - a horde of demons is invading from the Abyss - the Shadowfell has spilled over into the prime plane - a 20th level Wild Magic sorcerer rolled a Natural 1 - the last unicorn just died - it could be anything. The characters wake up, they're sitting in the tavern enjoying a nice breakfast on a sunny spring morning, someone looks out the window and says, "Hey, what's that?" And on the horizon they see dark storm clouds racing swiftly across the sky, burying the world in shadows and dread. And it's all downhill from there.
But I would prefer the slow approach. The catalyst could be any of the same options from above, but the change is very gradual. Maybe the sun starts setting a minute earlier each day. Maybe animals are becoming more feral, like even domesticated cows and horses and such start attacking their owners. Maybe people just start getting sick, and towns start closing their gates and getting suspicious of travelers. I mean, it shouldn't be hard to imagine what it's like to live through a global plague - we just did! Maybe wounds aren't healing as quick as they normally do. Maybe a character reaches into their coin purse to grab a few silver to pay for their drinks and instead of coins they just find a dead frog. Maybe people have become short tempered and more prone to violence.
The nice thing about the slow approach is that it won't feel like Damnation to the players - at least not at first. To them it will feel like a puzzle. They'll run around looking for clues and trying to find the solution that will stop the horror. But they won't find it. They'll try to save the world - and they will fail. And when the world has been fully enveloped by the Doom, the players will (hopefully) feel partially responsible. They'll kick themselves with, "If only we had noticed this sooner!" and "If only we had found the answer!" And that self-doubt and that sense of dereliction will devour them.
Because there's a difference between "scary" and "horrifying". Anything bad can be scary. Anything painful can be scary. But true horror comes from seeing that pain and that suffering and believing that you could have prevented it - but you failed. That's horror! Horror is deeply personal. Scary dances around you and calls you names. Horror reaches into your chest, pulls out your heart, and shows you every last flaw it contains.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Thanks
Thanks. Those are great ideas. I really like the whole before the darkness thing and think I'd be able to incorporate some lore, applicable to a future adventure I was thinking about.