Pathfinder 1E Designing a Horror Campaign

[Hypername]

As the most experienced player of my group and the only one willing to, I decided to be the GM of the new campaign. I prefer not running a published campaign and instead designing my own. I started coming up with ideas on what the campaign or AP (whatever you want to call it) should revolve around. I decided to run a horror-esque campaign featuring some lovecraftian elements. The PCs would have to face things like hauntings and demons but they would discover that something far more dreadful and alien hides behind everything.
So in my mind I had a town where strange events kept happening, but I am stuck. I need some ideas on how to introduce the players to the town, what motive should I give them to stay there even though mysterious thing keep happening etc. Another big problem I can't solve is how to to make them understand that something big is going on, meaning should it show through an encounter or through rumors/books they hear/find? How should I best showcase that ,at least in the start of the campaign, their efforts are futile and they are way too small in the grand scheme of things? Should I even do that?
Overall, I have difficulties in finding ways to deliver the sense of fear and dread. I considered concepts from other RPGs such as a "sanity meter" but I don't know how well it can be implemented. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you, a fellow RPer and GM.

 

[Herobizkit]

First of all, welcome to the boards!

Writing horror games requires that first you must understand how to write horror stories. You've got your concept down (Lovecraft) and there are metric tons of Cthulu et al references online.

One piece of advice is 'steal liberally'. There are several PF Horror-themed supplements already in play - Rule of Fear, for example, deals specfically horror-themed area already in the PF universe. There's also a PF Horror supplement coming in Aug 2016... but I dunno how that helps you now.

That said, if you're comfortable going 'off-book' into other sources of info, D&D 3e has the Heroes of Horror supplement and the link will take you an excerpt to give you an idea of what's inside.

* To introduce the players to the town, you need but ask for your players' input. Tell them they need to come up with a reason as to why they'd even want to come to the town and work with them to integrate their ideas into your game. One character might have a deed to an old mansion or library there; another could be there to investigate his relative's missing corpse; a third might be seeking the Necronomicon. ^_^

* The whole Lovecraft idea (from games like Call of Cthulhu and Paranoia) is that people keep stumbling into more and more unfathomable events until they go crazy and/or die; in D&D, heroes want to win against evil by any means necessary.

The idea of a conspiracy story is to make the PLAYERS figure out that something big is going on, so you need to find ways of tying seemingly random events together without being too heavy-handed. If your players are the 'lead by the nose' type who just want to ride the rails, intrigue and mystery might not be their jam as these players will likely prefer to just 'hit the things until they win.

... I had more but out of time atm. ^_^

 

[Hypername]

Well I already feel welcome, thank you ^_^

I might integrate stuff from previous and later editions into my campaign and I believe I am also rather comfortable homebrewing the things I might not find. For example I have been thinking of introducing ritual spells, just to feed the exorcism/possession part of the campaign and to address the occult theme.

For starters, I think about starting it as the PCs believing that the village/town is a place where strange things happen (gruesome murders, disappearances, general mystery stuff) and I might misdirect them into believing that only some spirits and spectral entities living in the town are responsible.

Later on, I have in mind alien/aberrant beings being behind that (of course not the great old ones themselves, but rather beings strongly influenced by them). Those beings would be powerful beyond the PCs imagination and they will have to uncover a lot of things to feel less powerless against them.

The guys I will be playing with are not powergamers/min-maxers in my humble opinion and really like roleplaying, mystery and horror. I believe they will not resort to the simple hack n' slash way of dealing with things.
Finally I believe that the theme of the campaign will strongly favour divine casters or agents of divine beings (inquisitors/paladins etc). I should disclose this to the group right?

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6802639]Hypername[/MENTION]

I'm going to throw out six thoughts based on my own experience GMing with horror-esque lovecraftians games...

1. Make sure the players are on board with that sort of campaign.

2. Even if you prefer making your own adventure, there are good resources out there for this sort of game from Chaosium's Call of Cthulu to TSR's Night Below.

3. Don't rely on mechanics (e.g. sanity/dread/whatever) to evoke fear and dread. Instead, rely on descriptive detail and clever foreshadowing. I ran a giant spider which could speak Goblin/Deep Speech and animate a cocooned zombie to speak for itself while the PCs were negotiating in the spider's lair...it was called the Mother of the Hollow. Mechanically, just a giant spider. But its personality and the evocative description I used and tense negotiations absolutely freaked the players out.

4. Players will naturally break the mood of horror/suspense now and then. The degree they do this depends on your group, but ALL players do it. It's natural. They will be zany, crack jokes to break tension, and so forth. Don't fight this. Horror has a rhythm, moments of lull to decompress which then allow for tension to build again. Unremitting horror rarely works in storytelling, and that's triply true in RPGs.

5.

I need some ideas on how to introduce the players to the town, what motive should I give them to stay there even though mysterious thing keep happening etc.

When it comes to motive, I've found that asking the players is the best course of action. Less work for you, less chance your GM ideas don't stick, and it draws the players into the game more. That said, here's an idea to get your juices running...

The PCs fates are bound to a deck of fortune-telling cards which they must find and burn / exorcise before they can leave.

6.

Another big problem I can't solve is how to to make them understand that something big is going on, meaning should it show through an encounter or through rumors/books they hear/find?

You need to sit down and do the work that any novelist, mystery, or horror writer would need to do. You need to create your chain of clues. For example, if aboleths are the masterminds, you can work backward from their masterplan, establishing steps along the way for the PCs to discover. They don't need to discover the aboleths are the masterminds after discovering clue #1 or even clue #10, but the point is that each clue helps move them forward to that awful realization. I highly recommend googling the Three Clue Rule on the Alexandrian blog - basic premise is that when you want the players to reach a conclusion, you need to provide 3 clues that can lead to that conclusion, because the players will miss the first clue, and misinterpret the second clue, but the third clue they will finally grasp. Yes, that's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I've found it to be true.

How should I best showcase that ,at least in the start of the campaign, their efforts are futile and they are way too small in the grand scheme of things? Should I even do that?

Do NOT do that. Horror is about emotion, not about hopelessness, not about the players despairing at the futility of their PC's pitiful existence to the point they shrug when the "call to adventure" goes forth.

 

[Hypername]

Thanky you for your answer!
1) They are on board with this, I discussed it with them today. They liked the idea, and to be honest it's a nice break from the campaigns we used to run.

2) I am currently searching for material, to help me get ideas on how to proceed with the story, design appropriate encounters etc

3) Mechanics-wise the only new thing I am willing to introduce is a new spell type, rituals. Everything else is going to be the good old rules with a lot more fluff.

4) I am fully aware of this. Most of the players were in my old group and we used to either take breaks for discussion or just crack some jokes to lighten the mood and release tension from the suspense. It is kind of needed since our sessions could last 8+ hours at some times

5) On that, should we all sit together and design the characters or should I just tell them to make their characters and tell me on the spot about them? I like the idea, and I might do something of the same effect eg their fates bound to the fate of the town

6) So I basically need to have them make some Sherlock Holmes-y deductive reasoning while leaving sufficient clues for them to notice. For that I will have to see how they work with the clues I give them in the first sessions. I am fairly confident they won't miss them. They are puzzle solvers and they like solving mysteries and are keen on following clues to a greater or lesser grade.

So you are saying I should give them hope, like a light in the dark? That could work well...
Thanks for your answer again! ^_^

 

[Angrydad]

Quickleaf's description of the giant spider that manipulated cocooned/webbed zombies is perfect. Make things inexplicable based on the rules. Break, bend, fold, and mutilate the rules in the service of building tension and horror. However, don't forget to let the players stand a chance at solving the riddle, escaping the monster, etc. I've used some Cthulhu monsters from the Bestiaries, such as Elder Things and Colour out of Space, in a campaign and left their motivations and such completely mysterious to the party. Fear of the unknown is one of the DM's best friends, and giving standard monsters weird abilities or characteristics with no obvious game mechanic change can certainly create that fear.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think one of the most effective ways to generate fear and horror in an RPG is to use uncertainty as a prime weapon. As much as possible, obfuscate what the monsters are, so that the PCs can't just say "oh look, a goblin." Another trick is to use metagaming against them. So that you can hint that they're facing off against a Lich at 1st level (when maybe it's not actually a Lich). Give low-level monsters unexpected abilities. Keep the PCs on their toes and guessing.

 

[Starfox]

A thing I've always found important in horror stories it to always keep the players connected to the "real world" of their setting. In Call of Cthulhu, we never managed to get much sense of horror exploring the Amazon or even the Bayous, it was always close to home. By extension, the later parts of Rise of the Runelords failed completely as horror with my group, because they happened on other planes entire.

 

[UrbanSniper69]

I'm actually working on doing something like this myself for my group as a bit of a mini-campaign in the spirit of the Halloween season (though its likely to run a bit beyond that). My concept was "A Shadow Over Sandpoint", a Lovecraftian sort of game set in the town of Sandpoint a few years after the events of Rise of the Runelords. The town has been on a down turn the last couple of years, and reports of strange things have been seeping out with growing frequency.

In this case, I figure they will be privy to some of the common information about the town, and some of the details of what happened during the Runelords events, but once they arrive in Sandpoint, they quickly get the sense that there is something "wrong" with the town; maybe just a bit of an uneasy feeling at first, strange looks from some of the locals, odd smells here and there, that sort of thing. Their first clue would be the little mirror placed at the entrance to town, with the sign that they can look at themselves as the town sees them; the mirror itself would either be horribly tarnished or even cracked. Once they start digging deeper, they start uncovering signs of something evil lurking within the Sandpoint region, and begin to encounter strange events and creatures themselves.

I chose Sandpoint simply because of all the existing material for it, as time is hard to find these days, and the region is perfectly suited for some great terror from beyond. Basing it after the Runelords events also serves to open up a few good places to send the party, namely the dungeons below town, Thistletop, and the Foxglove Manor (which, after being cleared in Runelords, I'm turning into an asylum), which can have completely different challenges of a more terrifying nature.

I would personally recommend taking a look at the Ravenloft setting from the 3.5 era for some mechanical suggestions, particularly the Fear/Horror/Madness rules, which I'm going to use, as well as the way the setting handles detecting evil alignments and fear immunity and such. For the actual feel of the setting, definitely don't let on what the monsters might be too soon, throw in a few red herrings, and even then, use re-skinning and cosmetic touches to add even more uncertainty to throw the players off as to the true nature of the creatures. Big thing that I'm going to try to push, though, is mistrust and paranoia among the party members. Get them doubting one another or get them to squabbling while the critters move in or the cultists move their plot forward, that kind of thing. Don't hesitate to throw in plenty of description about their surroundings, and roll their perception checks for them, and then pass notes to the players that actually hear or see something, or just pass notes that have no bearing on anything ("You're fine, nothing at all is wrong") just to make the other players' paranoia rise.

 

[Starfox]

My concept was "A Shadow Over Sandpoint".

This is brilliant, especially if your players have been in Sandpoint in other campaigns, such as Rise of the Runelords. The comfortable, familiar, and reliable suddenly turning out to be horrendous is brilliant!