I'm running a campaign where my players are going to be kidnapped, taken into a theatre in a weird subspace, and get amnesia. They'll wake up with puppet-like strings attached to them and need to escape before they're fully under a curse the theatre master puts on them.
i was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how i could make this story any more creepy for my players lol
Show what happens to those who can’t escape, do stuff like people becoming Doppelgängers that play macabre roles within the theatre. Depending on how long the campaign is, try having different segments that focus on different aspects of the theatre so that the setting remains fresh.
You should also try and see if the players want to play with amnesia, in D&D can only get scared if you agree to be scared.
Make them fight each other to the death. When a player dies they wake up from the vision and see everyone asleep in a large inn room and can’t be awoken. When the next person dies they expect to wake up there but end up in a completely different location, but similar setup. When the final player is alone, they have to self injure until they “die.”. Only then do they all wake up at the same time in a monster’s lair, who was fattening up to eat them and harvest their organs or something. They kill the monster and then find a room full of discarded shoes and clothes. They leave the lair and find themselves in an alley behind the theater. They go around front and see a figure from the nightmare passing out flyers to the next show. They leave as fast as they can.
Environmental storytelling, scatter details of the sad fates of others who faced something similar to the PCs are going through but didn't make it. It's a great way to show the stakes of failure without having to touch the PCs immediately, which gives the players anxiety about the fate rather than forcing it upon them immediately. Like for example, seeing corpses of other adventurers tied up in silk coccoon in a spider's lair, skeletons in spike pit traps or in your instance, other marionetted NPCs, dead or alive, who had suffered from the curse.
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The D&D homebrewer, consumed by their craft, meticulously crafts formidable monsters in a cluttered workspace filled with ink-stained quills and well-worn tomes. With furrowed brow, they sketch the anatomy of their creations, imbuing each stroke with vision, seeking to push the boundaries of imagination in under 512 characters.
Kartakass is a vast stage that serenades the ambitious with promises of fame. Performance is a way of life in this forested domain, with everyone from the bards of Skald to the actors of Emherst pursuing dazzling dreams. Here, the people live by a simple rule: never let an audience grow bored.
To outsiders, life feels staged and surreal in Kartakass, as every plant and beast, every peasant and performer strives to prove their greatness. Trees and flowers burst into bloom and then wither after their extended spring, while songbirds sing themselves hoarse. And every local, from the youngest child to the most venerable elder, knows that dreams, fame, and immortal adulation are theirs for the taking—if they prove worthy.
In Kartakass, individuals strive for glory. Where talent and expertise fail, obsession and duplicity reign, leading to repeating cycles of triumph, betrayal, and despair. Predators of all sorts flourish in this land of consuming passions and vicious secrets. With each full moon, the truth of Kartakass is exposed, and lycanthropes reveal their hunger for dominance and for blood.
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Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid) PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Like, for example, ask them to make a spot check (or whatever the equivalent check is in the edition you're playing). Regardless of the result, tell them they realize they had all drawn their weapons, without noticing.
Have something stalk them. It never shows up, and you can only faint footsteps/water splashes. And if the players ace their rolls and detect it anyway, it runs off. Then, a while later, it comes back. https://100001****/
Having magical puppet strings attached to them is already pretty terrifying if you use it right. Strings attached to their limbs implies that there are fingers that could pull them away at any minute. Maybe they already are. Maybe every little thing they do is orchestrated by the hands pulling their strings. They are puppets who can see the stage they are trapped on, fully aware that they are characters in a story but with no ability to change the plot. Maybe they are all given visible roles to play. It would be horribly frightening if you found yourself dressed like Humpty Dumpty atop a towering wall and below you are all the kings horses and all the kings men.
Remember all the SAW movies? The characters wake up in traps with an hourglass emptying... You could always add Tiers, escape Tier A leads to Tier C but dying leads to Tier B and like a video game, so many deaths and you die for real. All this while having to figure out the who and the why to truly escape. For a real kick in the ... you could have a Tier that seems to be an escape but the next time they sleep GOTCHA! Traps could be both personal (device around the neck) or party (like a deadly escape room). You could also make the traps where they impact each other. Character A escapes and it changes the trap on Character B. Or where multiple Characters need to work together to escape. Each Tier would be different. And sometimes what looks one way might be another. Nice thing is you can make it as long or short as you like by the number of Tiers you plan. Audience noises and comments make the characters know they are being watched by an audience they can't see
Cool idea! I have some thoughts and questions. One thing to keep in mind is that many players do not like having their agency removed. Any turn that the DM controls their character is a turn the player isn't playing.
This Theater Master is obviously very powerful, to kidnap the characters and put these strings on them. That means it could probably just kill them if it wanted to. It wants something else. Wanting direct control of the characters is usually not that fun for the players, so it should be something else. Does it just enjoy scaring people? Why did it choose the party? Is there something it needs from them that it can't do itself, for some reason? Or does it want to coerce them into doing something that it could do on its own, but it just wants them to suffer?
Also think about what the Full Curse looks like. If it means the puppet master controls them completely, then the PC is now an NPC. Here are some ideas:
1. Just Messing With You Curse: After the PCs are 'released', they have visions at inopportune times, visions of the horrible things they saw or did while in the Theatre. Maybe every time they roll a Nat 1 in combat, this happens and they take psychic damage, or have disadvantage on their next roll. Or maybe it's the opposite. Whenever they experience great success (Nat 20), the visions hit and they have disadvantage on the next d20, until they figure out how to lift the Curse. This disadvantage could easily be from the pulling of the magic strings, instead of visions.
2. Blackout Curse: Some nights, after a Long Rest, the character wakes up and there's something suspicious - blood on their hands, or they are in someone else's bed, with that someone else. Or they wake up in a barn with feathers in their teeth. This tries to thread the needle of player agency. The player is 100% in control of their character while awake. But once the PC goes to sleep...the curse takes hold and they're left to deal with the consequences. Maybe the goal here is to damage the reputation of the characters. I would make a random table of possible things and make sure the players are okay with what might happen when blacked out/sleeping.
3. The Curse Gives Power: Maybe the Theatre Master was able to kidnap the PCs because they did something or were in the right place to be vulnerable to it, but it is weak everywhere else. However, if the PCs can control others using a power it gives them, then it gains strength, which will eventually let it fully manifest in the world. So it gives a puppet-master-like power, or theater-themed power to the PCs. Put them in situations where they will be tempted to use it, but they only, over time, realize what's happening and that their use of the power is fulling the Theatre Master.
A lot of this comes down to: What is the Theatre Master's objective, and how does it involve kidnapping the PCs? How does the curse further its objectives? How can the PCs thwart or overcome the curse if it is fully applied?
Once you have that figured out, then some of the horror or creepiness might be clearer. However, one of the best ways to make anything work is to give the players choices to make, and let those choices create the creepiness or horror. I just mean this as a simple example, not necessarily what you would use - I don't know what people in your game are comfortable with.
1. The Theatre Master has a box wheeled out, and an NPC important to a character is in it. Swords appear, and it's clear the Theatre Master wants the PC to perform the magic trick of stabbing the box. The PC has to make a choice: stab or refuse? Maybe they decide this is a nightmare and so it isn't real, and they just do as they are asked. Maybe it goes okay...but the curse takes further hold of them, and they see a flash of reality, where beyond the facade they are moving through the real world and have just stabbed a chicken in a coop. Or worse. If they refuse, maybe they have to make a saving throw or take psychic damage. Dying is possible?
2. Spiders or something else creepy start to swarm the PCs. The Theatre Master wants them to be still as the creatures crawl into their mouth, ears, start to eat away at their eyes...as a crowd cheers on from the audience. Maybe they have to try to get the swarm to go after the audience, or some other objective that you telegraph to them, and if they fail they take damage, and fall deeper under the curse.
3. Give them a choice between performances: If you want to get out, you have to do one of them. Do you want to dance on bodies? If you avoid hurting anyone with your dancing, then you succeed. If you stumble, then you get swarmed by the nearly-mindless people and have to fight your way out as the curse takes deeper hold. No? Then do you want to juggle snakes? If you make a mistake, they'll bite you, and the curse takes deeper hold.
The magical strings themselves can be a source of creepiness. Maybe they are only just barely attached, they extend like little tubes just a tiny bit below the surface of the skin. But as the PCs fail, the strings wind deeper and further into the skin and flesh, reaching for the heart or the mind. That's kind of creepy. And even after the PCs get out, they can still see these strings under their skin...
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I'm running a campaign where my players are going to be kidnapped, taken into a theatre in a weird subspace, and get amnesia. They'll wake up with puppet-like strings attached to them and need to escape before they're fully under a curse the theatre master puts on them.
i was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how i could make this story any more creepy for my players lol
Show what happens to those who can’t escape, do stuff like people becoming Doppelgängers that play macabre roles within the theatre. Depending on how long the campaign is, try having different segments that focus on different aspects of the theatre so that the setting remains fresh.
You should also try and see if the players want to play with amnesia, in D&D can only get scared if you agree to be scared.
Make them fight each other to the death. When a player dies they wake up from the vision and see everyone asleep in a large inn room and can’t be awoken. When the next person dies they expect to wake up there but end up in a completely different location, but similar setup. When the final player is alone, they have to self injure until they “die.”. Only then do they all wake up at the same time in a monster’s lair, who was fattening up to eat them and harvest their organs or something. They kill the monster and then find a room full of discarded shoes and clothes. They leave the lair and find themselves in an alley behind the theater. They go around front and see a figure from the nightmare passing out flyers to the next show. They leave as fast as they can.
Something like that.
Environmental storytelling, scatter details of the sad fates of others who faced something similar to the PCs are going through but didn't make it. It's a great way to show the stakes of failure without having to touch the PCs immediately, which gives the players anxiety about the fate rather than forcing it upon them immediately. Like for example, seeing corpses of other adventurers tied up in silk coccoon in a spider's lair, skeletons in spike pit traps or in your instance, other marionetted NPCs, dead or alive, who had suffered from the curse.
You may want to check out the Dark Domain of Kartakass in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft for some ideas
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Pre-5E Ravenloft has plenty of this:
https://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Scaena
https://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Odiare
Those Domains are described in detail in 2E and 3E products.
Maybe make them question their sanity?
Like, for example, ask them to make a spot check (or whatever the equivalent check is in the edition you're playing). Regardless of the result, tell them they realize they had all drawn their weapons, without noticing.
Have something stalk them. It never shows up, and you can only faint footsteps/water splashes. And if the players ace their rolls and detect it anyway, it runs off. Then, a while later, it comes back. https://100001****/
wait this is actually so good
i couldnt really think of a cool ending that isnt 'defeat the boss and boom, youre free', i am so using this. thank you so much
Having magical puppet strings attached to them is already pretty terrifying if you use it right. Strings attached to their limbs implies that there are fingers that could pull them away at any minute. Maybe they already are. Maybe every little thing they do is orchestrated by the hands pulling their strings. They are puppets who can see the stage they are trapped on, fully aware that they are characters in a story but with no ability to change the plot. Maybe they are all given visible roles to play. It would be horribly frightening if you found yourself dressed like Humpty Dumpty atop a towering wall and below you are all the kings horses and all the kings men.
Remember all the SAW movies? The characters wake up in traps with an hourglass emptying... You could always add Tiers, escape Tier A leads to Tier C but dying leads to Tier B and like a video game, so many deaths and you die for real. All this while having to figure out the who and the why to truly escape. For a real kick in the ... you could have a Tier that seems to be an escape but the next time they sleep GOTCHA! Traps could be both personal (device around the neck) or party (like a deadly escape room). You could also make the traps where they impact each other. Character A escapes and it changes the trap on Character B. Or where multiple Characters need to work together to escape. Each Tier would be different. And sometimes what looks one way might be another. Nice thing is you can make it as long or short as you like by the number of Tiers you plan. Audience noises and comments make the characters know they are being watched by an audience they can't see
Cool idea! I have some thoughts and questions. One thing to keep in mind is that many players do not like having their agency removed. Any turn that the DM controls their character is a turn the player isn't playing.
This Theater Master is obviously very powerful, to kidnap the characters and put these strings on them. That means it could probably just kill them if it wanted to. It wants something else. Wanting direct control of the characters is usually not that fun for the players, so it should be something else. Does it just enjoy scaring people? Why did it choose the party? Is there something it needs from them that it can't do itself, for some reason? Or does it want to coerce them into doing something that it could do on its own, but it just wants them to suffer?
Also think about what the Full Curse looks like. If it means the puppet master controls them completely, then the PC is now an NPC. Here are some ideas:
1. Just Messing With You Curse: After the PCs are 'released', they have visions at inopportune times, visions of the horrible things they saw or did while in the Theatre. Maybe every time they roll a Nat 1 in combat, this happens and they take psychic damage, or have disadvantage on their next roll. Or maybe it's the opposite. Whenever they experience great success (Nat 20), the visions hit and they have disadvantage on the next d20, until they figure out how to lift the Curse. This disadvantage could easily be from the pulling of the magic strings, instead of visions.
2. Blackout Curse: Some nights, after a Long Rest, the character wakes up and there's something suspicious - blood on their hands, or they are in someone else's bed, with that someone else. Or they wake up in a barn with feathers in their teeth. This tries to thread the needle of player agency. The player is 100% in control of their character while awake. But once the PC goes to sleep...the curse takes hold and they're left to deal with the consequences. Maybe the goal here is to damage the reputation of the characters. I would make a random table of possible things and make sure the players are okay with what might happen when blacked out/sleeping.
3. The Curse Gives Power: Maybe the Theatre Master was able to kidnap the PCs because they did something or were in the right place to be vulnerable to it, but it is weak everywhere else. However, if the PCs can control others using a power it gives them, then it gains strength, which will eventually let it fully manifest in the world. So it gives a puppet-master-like power, or theater-themed power to the PCs. Put them in situations where they will be tempted to use it, but they only, over time, realize what's happening and that their use of the power is fulling the Theatre Master.
A lot of this comes down to: What is the Theatre Master's objective, and how does it involve kidnapping the PCs? How does the curse further its objectives? How can the PCs thwart or overcome the curse if it is fully applied?
Once you have that figured out, then some of the horror or creepiness might be clearer. However, one of the best ways to make anything work is to give the players choices to make, and let those choices create the creepiness or horror. I just mean this as a simple example, not necessarily what you would use - I don't know what people in your game are comfortable with.
1. The Theatre Master has a box wheeled out, and an NPC important to a character is in it. Swords appear, and it's clear the Theatre Master wants the PC to perform the magic trick of stabbing the box. The PC has to make a choice: stab or refuse? Maybe they decide this is a nightmare and so it isn't real, and they just do as they are asked. Maybe it goes okay...but the curse takes further hold of them, and they see a flash of reality, where beyond the facade they are moving through the real world and have just stabbed a chicken in a coop. Or worse. If they refuse, maybe they have to make a saving throw or take psychic damage. Dying is possible?
2. Spiders or something else creepy start to swarm the PCs. The Theatre Master wants them to be still as the creatures crawl into their mouth, ears, start to eat away at their eyes...as a crowd cheers on from the audience. Maybe they have to try to get the swarm to go after the audience, or some other objective that you telegraph to them, and if they fail they take damage, and fall deeper under the curse.
3. Give them a choice between performances: If you want to get out, you have to do one of them. Do you want to dance on bodies? If you avoid hurting anyone with your dancing, then you succeed. If you stumble, then you get swarmed by the nearly-mindless people and have to fight your way out as the curse takes deeper hold. No? Then do you want to juggle snakes? If you make a mistake, they'll bite you, and the curse takes deeper hold.
The magical strings themselves can be a source of creepiness. Maybe they are only just barely attached, they extend like little tubes just a tiny bit below the surface of the skin. But as the PCs fail, the strings wind deeper and further into the skin and flesh, reaching for the heart or the mind. That's kind of creepy. And even after the PCs get out, they can still see these strings under their skin...