Meeki said:
Hi,
I just started a horror themed campaign set in a dark age world (low tech, not many people around) and was just wondering if anyone else had any ideas for adventures, NPC's, cults, alternate rules, etc. Anything that would fit in a horror themed game.
Just to note I use taint rules from heroes of horror and a modified magic system that makes spell casting much more difficult but I changed the classes around to counter balance. I'm going for a gritty feel type game.
Also, the PC's are both non-good, undead oriented type. One is a natural necromancer obsessed with control and undeath and the other is a hunter of undead, not really a heroic type hunter but rather filled with revenge and vengence.
Throw any ideas you have out there!
In what way do you want the game to be horror themed? From the sound of it the PCs are more the cause of horror than the victims of it.
Having said that, however, if you are looking for a game that explores the tropes of classic horror w/o neccessarilly being 'horrific' you could try some of these ideas:
- A series of brutal killings suggest a werewolf pack is on the loose in the city during a brutal winter that has the city gates shut fast. But are they werewolves or something worse? Has starvation forced some of the poor into cannabalism, turning them into ghouls? As the gruesome deaths seem to spiral closer and closer to the PCs suspicions begin to fall on them. Can the PCs clear their name before they are lynched by the paranoid locals or before someone they care about becomes the next victim?
- A mad wizard is constructing a flesh golem army from parts obtained for him a band of outlaws. The outlaws attack caravans crossing a trecherous mountain pass and butcher their victims and sell the loot. The PCs can either be on one of these caravans as passangers or guards, be expecting a delivery of some valuable item or information that never arrives due to the attacks, or be hired by a rival to destroy the mad wizard's work.
-The necromancer and his partner have angered the lich priest of the gods of undeath. He begins to stir up trouble for them everywhere they go, from spreading news of false or real crimes to putting a bounty on their heads that every bounty hunter in the land is after. His real purpose, however, is to make them desperate enough to strike a deal with him, afterwhich he will command their service forever - alive or dead.
-Something has gone wrong with the necromancer's spells. Now the mindless undead he summons are all haunted by their own ghosts, who attach themselves to the necromancer and plague him wherever he goes. Only a bizzare underworld figure known as the Ghost Father can help him, and only for a price.
- The servants of the twisted god have started a cult in the kingdom and eliminating their rivals; including those that can control mindless undead which their psionic masters are powerless to stop.
- A group of good adventurers are dispatched by the church to hunt down the PCs with extreme prejudice. These are good men in the worst kind of way, willing to do anything -destroy anything or anyone- to get to the PCs.
I would also recommend picking up GURPS Horror as a primer on horror and how to use it in a game.
