Dark D&D (but not with rules)

[BookTenTiger]

Just turn off the lights!

(Wocka wocka)

One thing I've found useful in my Strahd-adjacent game is to reinforce the dark overtones through Random Encounters and Random Weather.

I created a Random Weather table with the following descriptors:

• Clouds (white, gray, or black / high, low, or oppressive)
• Wind (still and unsettling, swirling fog, hard wind, etc)
• Temperature (frigid and morose, wet and muggy, etc)

For my random encounters, I always try to have something there to remind the players of the darkness of the setting. So if I roll up a few zombies, I'll have another random table with things like:

• freshly dug graves of young children
• a house recently raided
• a body hanging from a tree
• a river bank clogged with the drowned corpses of cows
• a broken-down cart peppered with arrows
• a hand-painted sign posted to a tree, reading "All Is Lost"

And so on. I'll even roll those when there isn't an encounter.

 

[DemoMonkey]

A world cursed with a crippling omnipresent campaign-wide disease that kills indiscriminately, doesn't respond to conventional disease cure measures, turns disease fearers and disease doubters violently against each other, becomes more dangerous if you attempt to do anything more adventurous than sheltering in place, and has no end in sight?


...

Nah. That's too dark. No one would believe it.

 

[Eltab]

Heroes of Horror, D&D 3.x and PF1 versions.
Both have more essays on creating atmosphere than new rules to introduce.

 

[Bohandas]

I have to recommend the Marquis de Sade's (highly NSFW) magnum opus "120 Days of Sodom (the School of Libertinage)". It's the story of four wealthy serial killers who are looking for a crime that they haven't committed yet. You could easily borrow the extensive character bio from any of the four villain protagonists. Plus, by the end the story just degrades into a laundry list of bizarre and heinous crimes, including 150 unusual ways of murdering people

EDIT:
Other possible sources of inspiration are the full discographies of the bands GWAR, Insane Clown Posse, and Cannibal Corpse, as well as the song "Stay Wide Awake" by Eminem. The novel "Whargoul" by former GWAR frontman Dave Brockie is also a possible source of inspiration.

EDIT:
Also familiarize yourself with the biographies of Albert Fish, Jeffrey Dahmer, Walter Freeman, Josef Mengele, Shiro Ishii, Fred and Rose West, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Dennis Rader, Herbert Mullin, Laurie Dann, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and HH Holmes. As well as with the general policies of the tyrants Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Tiberius, Caligula, and Francois Duvalier (as well as the Axis powers and the communists (up to and including the modern ones) but that should go without saying)

 

[TwiceBorn2]

EDIT:
Also familiarize yourself with the biographies of the Axis powers and the communists (up to and including the modern ones) but that should go without saying)

Western democratic powers also commit horrendous acts.

Why not add General Custer, or the US military at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and the bombing of Iraq on the pretext that they had weapons of mass destruction (which they didn't) to the inspirational reading list, while we're at it?

 

[Morrus]

Drop the real world politics discussion please, folks.

 

[Bohandas]

Ok, back to fantasy...

A certain region is trapped in a cycle of staged sham revolutions, similar to the Empire of Blood from Order of the Stick. Unlike Order of the Stick however, this isn;t merely for the enrichmemt of a mortal schemer, but rather a scheme by the baatezu to damn souls to hell. The cruelty of each regime inspires each generation to overthrow it and to be fanatically loyal to the cruelty of the next regime. And the constant warring ensures quick turnover and forces the beleaguered population into a state where they are often forced to compromise their morality to survive.

The clearest "hope" of ending this cycle is the 'Terminationary Front', a cult of demon-led fanatics who have vowed to end the cycle by destroying the nation outright

EDIT:
Also, each iteration of the nation's flag should be some variation of a circular arrow. That way it's almost right there in front of you. It's only a "revolution" in the sense that it takes you right back to exactly the place where you started.

 

[S'mon]

I thought Curse of Strahd was very heavily misery tourism in tone.

 

[GMMichael]

Nice save vs. forum flag, @DemoMonkey !

@der_kluge , you might try a gedanken experiment or two, instead of making everything DARK from the get-go. What chain of events would occur if the river ran dry? Would the lord roll in barrels of water? Would the crops die? Would the villagers move away, and who would accept them?

The follow-up questions get a bit darker: does the lord roll in clean water, or something toxic? Do the villagers have to eat their pets or beasts once the crops die? How are the refugees treated in other settlements - especially if they're not wanted?

Then go darker...

 

[Bohandas]

Nice save vs. forum flag, @DemoMonkey !

@der_kluge , you might try a gedanken experiment or two, instead of making everything DARK from the get-go. What chain of events would occur if the river ran dry? Would the lord roll in barrels of water? Would the crops die? Would the villagers move away, and who would accept them?

The follow-up questions get a bit darker: does the lord roll in clean water, or something toxic? Do the villagers have to eat their pets or beasts once the crops die? How are the refugees treated in other settlements - especially if they're not wanted?

Then go darker...

I think they would resort to cannibalism