Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Using D&D for fantasy horror
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 4822866" data-attributes="member: 2205"><p>Well, it wasn't exactly hard. I thought about it for somewhere between five and ten minutes maybe before typing up that little treatise that I call the first post, for example.</p><p></p><p>While I don't disagree, it's not entirely inconsequential. A few well-placed houserules can really help remind the players constantly that they're not in Kansas anymore, so to speak. I certainly am not interesting in a radical teardown of the rules, just a quick and dirty twist on them that says, "this isn't D&D like you normally play it."</p><p></p><p>I've had a fair amount of experience with it. Actually, that's a big part of the reason I want to use D&D; the rules "disappear" because they're familiar. The house rule on advancement is just enough to remind them that they're doing something different. I actually find that something like that is important. Some kind of crunch twist helps the players remember that this is a joint effort, and they have to be in the mood for, and buy into the idea that this is a horror game. You already inferred as much yourself, but the point is, you need a few cues to keep the players on track. A few unobtrusive houserules that nonetheless have a significant impact on the campaign over time can really go a long way towards accomplishing this. The Cthulhu Sanity mechanic, for example, accomplishes exactly this goal.</p><p></p><p>A trick I've used successfully in the past (and will probably do again) is to give the players some quick pregens to run, and the pregens will die nastily. Kinda like in an episode of The X-files or Supernatural where you see a teaser of how nasty the monster of the week is going to be before the real stars of the show turn up.</p><p></p><p>Of course, once that backfired on me; all the characters died quickly except one who had infernally good luck on his dice and kept running around for a good four or five more rounds beating the odds before he finally got killed.</p><p></p><p>It's a genre we cycle through periodically in my group at home. That said, it's not going to be my turn to run for some time yet, because I just did the last campaign, we're only about halfway (or maybe less, I dunno) into our current campaign and we've got at least one, possibly two others on deck who've been patiently waiting their turn to run something. So I'll probably do this via Ppb first. Which has its own unique set of challenges, but that isn't one of them. The players tend to self-select and gravitate towards games that are of the type they enjoy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Desdichado, post: 4822866, member: 2205"] Well, it wasn't exactly hard. I thought about it for somewhere between five and ten minutes maybe before typing up that little treatise that I call the first post, for example. While I don't disagree, it's not entirely inconsequential. A few well-placed houserules can really help remind the players constantly that they're not in Kansas anymore, so to speak. I certainly am not interesting in a radical teardown of the rules, just a quick and dirty twist on them that says, "this isn't D&D like you normally play it." I've had a fair amount of experience with it. Actually, that's a big part of the reason I want to use D&D; the rules "disappear" because they're familiar. The house rule on advancement is just enough to remind them that they're doing something different. I actually find that something like that is important. Some kind of crunch twist helps the players remember that this is a joint effort, and they have to be in the mood for, and buy into the idea that this is a horror game. You already inferred as much yourself, but the point is, you need a few cues to keep the players on track. A few unobtrusive houserules that nonetheless have a significant impact on the campaign over time can really go a long way towards accomplishing this. The Cthulhu Sanity mechanic, for example, accomplishes exactly this goal. A trick I've used successfully in the past (and will probably do again) is to give the players some quick pregens to run, and the pregens will die nastily. Kinda like in an episode of The X-files or Supernatural where you see a teaser of how nasty the monster of the week is going to be before the real stars of the show turn up. Of course, once that backfired on me; all the characters died quickly except one who had infernally good luck on his dice and kept running around for a good four or five more rounds beating the odds before he finally got killed. It's a genre we cycle through periodically in my group at home. That said, it's not going to be my turn to run for some time yet, because I just did the last campaign, we're only about halfway (or maybe less, I dunno) into our current campaign and we've got at least one, possibly two others on deck who've been patiently waiting their turn to run something. So I'll probably do this via Ppb first. Which has its own unique set of challenges, but that isn't one of them. The players tend to self-select and gravitate towards games that are of the type they enjoy. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Using D&D for fantasy horror
Top