Relatively new DM here, wondering how I can create a campaign that takes place within a single building (or train, as in the case of Murder on the Orient Express).
I've been asked to prep a gothic/horror campaign for my party (I enjoyed some decent success last Halloween with a spooky one-shot), and I've been toying with the idea of having the whole thing take place within rather confined quarters. I think that would help develop an aura of claustrophobia and fear, but I know that it will also limit my options. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can create an interesting, tight space without making the plot too intrigue-heavy (my players love combat)?
I am in the very early planning process (the campaign won't happen for several months), so there's plenty of room for modification. I'd appreciate any ideas/suggestions/experiences that you have to toss my way.
A boat might be a good choice, combines a confined area with the ability to encounter new things. For a Halloween game, calm seas without wind, mysterious fog rolls in, a ghost ship appears, etc.
I like the boat idea lunali mentions. Ghosts of Saltmarsh just came out and there are maps for boats as well as random sea encounters and rules for ship-to-ship combat.
Maybe your PCs can be passengers on a cruise when pirates attack and board. Your PCs can help repel the pirates (help is the operative word here depending on PC levels), but in the process several crew members die including the captain and several officers. Now PCs are in charge and have to get to destination safely.
The boat idea is a really good one. We often don't think about the fact that sea travels could take months in the past. There are plenty of dangers on the sea (and under it) including ones that I would definitely put in the gothic/horror category. Plus, if you want to give them a break, you can always give them a small island to stretch their legs on, maybe find new supplies, and new enemies on the way...
If you want to go in a slightly different direction, you could make them travel the astral sea on a ship (or any other weird plan of your choosing). I won't give you too many details so as not to spoil you, but check out Matt Colville's The Chain if you'd like to go in this direction. His campaign diaries could prove useful if you look into these kind of ships.
Otherwise, there's always the classic "murder manor". A big mansion, with traps everywhere, including magical ones that summon ennemies for your players to battle against. The goal of the campaign could be to simply get out, or find the treasure that the builder of the murder manor tried to protect this way. It could pretty much be Waterdeep : Dungeon of the Mad Mage on smaller scale in a way.
Perhaps the captain has turned his crew into cultists for a great old one (the captain himself being a warlock) and they intend to use the souls trapped on board this boat to free his trapped patron, or a powerful ally of his trapped patron. You could map out the ship and once they are far enough out to sea a gruesome murder is discovered. Then another and another etc. Each one in a room that when you join the dots maps out a certain symbol.
You can throw clues there way, like someone asking a crew member if they have seen 'Mrs Owlbear, she was meant to meet me for dinner', or someone else (a particularly jumpy passenger) who claims to have seen something spooky and no one believes. Then someone the PC's themselves have met vanishes...
For clues, each murder is ritualistic so you can insert 'x' gruesome detail like a star painted under the bed of the deceased from their own blood, runes on the walls etc. If the PC's investigate someone they arranged to have a meal with not showing up they find the body....The captain will ask for the PC's to 'help' but so as not to raise alarm on the boat to keep it quiet...turns out this is the third or fourth death and the captain is beside himself and doesn't know what to do. He will string along the PC's long enough to set off the ritual that will free the thing.
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Relatively new DM here, wondering how I can create a campaign that takes place within a single building (or train, as in the case of Murder on the Orient Express).
I've been asked to prep a gothic/horror campaign for my party (I enjoyed some decent success last Halloween with a spooky one-shot), and I've been toying with the idea of having the whole thing take place within rather confined quarters. I think that would help develop an aura of claustrophobia and fear, but I know that it will also limit my options. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can create an interesting, tight space without making the plot too intrigue-heavy (my players love combat)?
I am in the very early planning process (the campaign won't happen for several months), so there's plenty of room for modification. I'd appreciate any ideas/suggestions/experiences that you have to toss my way.
A boat might be a good choice, combines a confined area with the ability to encounter new things. For a Halloween game, calm seas without wind, mysterious fog rolls in, a ghost ship appears, etc.
I like the boat idea lunali mentions. Ghosts of Saltmarsh just came out and there are maps for boats as well as random sea encounters and rules for ship-to-ship combat.
Maybe your PCs can be passengers on a cruise when pirates attack and board. Your PCs can help repel the pirates (help is the operative word here depending on PC levels), but in the process several crew members die including the captain and several officers. Now PCs are in charge and have to get to destination safely.
The boat idea is a really good one. We often don't think about the fact that sea travels could take months in the past. There are plenty of dangers on the sea (and under it) including ones that I would definitely put in the gothic/horror category. Plus, if you want to give them a break, you can always give them a small island to stretch their legs on, maybe find new supplies, and new enemies on the way...
If you want to go in a slightly different direction, you could make them travel the astral sea on a ship (or any other weird plan of your choosing). I won't give you too many details so as not to spoil you, but check out Matt Colville's The Chain if you'd like to go in this direction. His campaign diaries could prove useful if you look into these kind of ships.
Otherwise, there's always the classic "murder manor". A big mansion, with traps everywhere, including magical ones that summon ennemies for your players to battle against. The goal of the campaign could be to simply get out, or find the treasure that the builder of the murder manor tried to protect this way. It could pretty much be Waterdeep : Dungeon of the Mad Mage on smaller scale in a way.
A ship at sea is a great location and includes a built in reason why the characters can't just leave and walk away.
A ship at sea gets my vote too.
Perhaps the captain has turned his crew into cultists for a great old one (the captain himself being a warlock) and they intend to use the souls trapped on board this boat to free his trapped patron, or a powerful ally of his trapped patron. You could map out the ship and once they are far enough out to sea a gruesome murder is discovered. Then another and another etc. Each one in a room that when you join the dots maps out a certain symbol.
You can throw clues there way, like someone asking a crew member if they have seen 'Mrs Owlbear, she was meant to meet me for dinner', or someone else (a particularly jumpy passenger) who claims to have seen something spooky and no one believes. Then someone the PC's themselves have met vanishes...
For clues, each murder is ritualistic so you can insert 'x' gruesome detail like a star painted under the bed of the deceased from their own blood, runes on the walls etc. If the PC's investigate someone they arranged to have a meal with not showing up they find the body....The captain will ask for the PC's to 'help' but so as not to raise alarm on the boat to keep it quiet...turns out this is the third or fourth death and the captain is beside himself and doesn't know what to do. He will string along the PC's long enough to set off the ritual that will free the thing.