D&D General Best D&D Haunted House Adventure?

[payn]

I ran this when it came out. I liked the adventure path and the supporting sourcebook. Ustalav was pretty much Pathfinders Barovia/Ravenloft. We only ran the first adventure as the players got stuck at some point, iirc there was some type of mystery element involved in the adventure. Its been 10 years so my recollection is vague. I do remember there were 'specters" or "apparitions" and the mechanics for beating them were pretty odd. That's where the players got frustrated. Overall I remember the adventure path being pretty well written otherwise.

Paizo invented a new encounter called Haunts. They were like something between super natural traps and ghostly enemies. You could use magic and some particular items to suspend the haunt for a short period of time. Then, you had to use a ouiji board to decipher what happened in the space and how to finally lay the haunt to rest.

Most players hated them because it was a simple HP bag they could just beat to death. They were tricky, and annoying, but also incredibly interesting narratively. A shame they didnt get much love after Carrion Crown. I had a fantasy that someday Paizo would release an AP about the PCs being Ghost busters going around putting haunts to rest. Never gonna happen

 

[R_J_K75]

Paizo invented a new encounter called Haunts. They were like something between super natural traps and ghostly enemies. You could use magic and some particular items to suspend the haunt for a short period of time. Then, you had to use a ouiji board to decipher what happened in the space and how to finally lay the haunt to rest.

Most players hated them because it was a simple HP bag they could just beat to death. They were tricky, and annoying, but also incredibly interesting narratively. A shame they didnt get much love after Carrion Crown. I had a fantasy that someday Paizo would release an AP about the PCs being Ghost busters going around putting haunts to rest. Never gonna happen

You are 100% correct that it was haunts. I don't remember the Ouija board part, and as I recall the rules were in their DMG for the encounter so they may have added that rule down the line or I just missed it. It was a cool concept but in practice was hard to adjudicate as a DM without giving the answer away, at least for me, and the players really didn't know what to do without having a certain class in the party. As you said I think they could've been fine tuned after the Carrion Crown AP. The rules in the DMG left something to be desired as I remember, i.e. how to resolve things if the player took path B instead of path A, or even Path C. It was a long time ago so to reiterate my memory may be a little lacking. Reminded me of earlier D&D edition though where there would be adventure/encounter specific rules written just for that specific adventure. Something you don't see anymore,

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Has anyone run The Hell House Beckons? I've always been curious about it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Find it surprising that Death House isn't on the list, even though it's not one of my favourites, it must be the best known 5e haunted house. Some of those that are on the list are so obscure I've never heard of them in 40 years of D&D playing.

Chalet Brantifax from Book of the Raven in Candlekeep Mysteries also warrants a place on the list.

Best one? None of the above, one I wrote myself was the best I've played!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Paizo invented a new encounter called Haunts.

Yeah, Haunts where genius, one of the best original ideas in Pathfinder.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

The Haunt from DM's Guild is supposed to be quite good, though I haven't read it.
The Foxglove Manor part of the Runelords adventure The Skinsaw Murders is excellent, and IIRC where Haunts debuted back in 3.5.
Also seconding Haunting of Harrowstone and Death House.