Horror Adventures

[Skade]

This coming Halloween I will be running a one shot horror game for two groups of people who have never played together before. They are all pretty good players, so I'm not worried about their interactiction, but I am worried that I will nut be up to ad ibbing a game like I used to. I have had too long a time without a game. So I'd like some suggestions for horror adventures that I could use. They don't necessarily have tgo be d20, but should be convertable, since one of teh players has never played anything but. They should hopefully be able to be wrapped up in about 12-16 hours too, that would be nice.

 

[Wraith Form]

Sorry--what character levels are we talking here?

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, first, clarify your goals. Do you want a survival horror, where the characters are ill-equipped to fight the strangeness that confronts them, with a dark side? Do you want a slasher flick, where the goal is simply to survive, often with a much more campy feel? Do you want psychological terror, where you rely on pacing and mystery rather than conflict to create tension and drama?

Do you want to scare the players? Or just scare their characters and give them the chance to play scared? Are you open to any genre and time period (if so, then modern is usually easiest, since it tends to carry the assumption that characters are just normal people, not heroes), or are you doing this for an ongoing campaign?

 

[frankthedm]

Ignore CR's and make sure the players know that. Once they suspect anyting might kill them in battle they may let go of "the DM won't kill us" metality that pervades the 3e / D&D cartoon system. start having encounters be forshadowed with a window of opportunity for the 2 pc's to flee. The playes may not be so keen to stand and fight when they can FEEL the monste's footfalls.

 

[Skade]

Well, first, clarify your goals.

I'm pretty open about this. I had considered running a modern horror game, derivative of a movie, or even a video game. The trailer to the next Resident Evil movie got me thinking about doing the original game as an adventure somehow.

The only limitation I have is the one player whose experience is slim, she would prefer not to make a new character, instead returning to her 9th level ng wizard character from the Iron Kingdoms. This is not a necessity, she will make a new character if I tell her too. Now, one of the benefits of that setting in this case is that I have some freedom with the type of story I tell. It is modern enough that my players have usually kept a good fear of the unkown about them, but I can still do traditional fantasy if I need.

One of the reasosn I was so broad in my request was I was looking for good suggestions to pick from, and at that point tell them what sort of characters to make.

Ignore CR's and make sure the players know that. Once they suspect anyting might kill them in battle they may let go of "the DM won't kill us" metality that pervades the 3e / D&D cartoon system. start having encounters be forshadowed with a window of opportunity for the 2 pc's to flee. The playes may not be so keen to stand and fight when they can FEEL the monste's footfalls.

This is a good suggestion. Like RangerWickett says, this is really easy to do in Modern. In fact, with the two of these players the last Modern game I ran, it was difficult for them to do anything but run, call the police, hide in warehouses, and call the police again. That was their definition of "smart hero".

 

[wrabbit37]

I ran a horror campaign several years back on Halloween. What I found most effective, and most fitting with the feel of the day, was taking an old horror story, be it Sleepy Hollow (the one I ended up choosing), Frankenstein, etc. and putting a bit of a twist on it. I had to come up with a whole background story for the Headless Horseman. It was received very well from my players, especially since it was a horror they all knew from childhood, but understood was in some way different. The mystery of the character was still there since they had to figure out how to dispel the Headless Horseman and unravel the mystery behind him, but his presence was not lost since the players all knew who the dark-cloaked rider really was.

The tension really built when I told the players they were entering Sleepy Hollow and described the dark forest as they rode through to the village. The players knew from the first description that the Headless Horseman would make an appearance, but I didn't even show him until about half-way through the campaign. The anticipation scared them near as much as the Horseman did.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

"Delta Green", if you can find it, has a really neat horror adventure about FBI agents who have to face an alien parasite on the loose in a desert region, as well another one featuring UFOs. "Delta Green: Countdown" has a neat adventure about the Mothman.

Many Call of Cthulhu adventures (like "Escape from Innsmouth") have short scenarios that are lots of fun. Use d20 Modern, Call of Cthulhu d20, or original CoC.

If you'd really prefer something set in a fantasy world, there is lots of material in "Delta Green: Countdown" that you can steal for fantasy campaigns, despite the fact that the book is "intended" for a modern-day setting. I know I have used it - and to great effect, too. The highlights:

- The Hastur Mythos: Reality just isn't what it used to be. When the perceptions of the PCs go awry, they might put it down to enemy spells or simple fatigue. But when the King in Yellow comes calling and the investigators find themselves walking the dread realm of Carcose, it is too late...

- The Skoptski: An evil cult devoted to a twisted fertility goddess whose initiation rites are sure to terrify your male players...

- The Shan: A cult is on the loose! Most of its members are fairly deranged, and devoted to their leader. They attempt to kidnap the city's rich and powerful - and then drill holes into their heads!

The PCs are hired to stop these people. But will they discover that these "cultists" are actually the good guys before it is too late?

 

[Jhamin]

I ran a Horror game for about 4 years with great success. In my experience there are a few fundamentals to Horror gaming.

- Your real goal should be to unnerve the players, not the characters.

- Horror games are almost never about finding out if your heroes are strong enough to overpower the bad guy. Their strength in combat should either be irrelievent or woefully inadequate. This ties in with the "ignore CR" advice given previously.

- Most heroic fantasty exists in a world where the forces of fate/the law of averages/the GM gives the heros an even break. You will win or lose based on how well you do. This is a mentality you have to break for horror gaming. The players should feel that they have a chance, but that the momentum favors their enemies.

- Resources make people confident. Things like allies, police help, character equipment, and so on are crutches that are leaned on in times of crisis. Horror gaming requires that these sorts of things are unavalible, unreliable, or not on the characters side.
For example: If you call the police up to the haunted mansion, when they show up they either need to all die before they can help, not believe the charaters and leave without helping, or be possesed or inhuman already and make the players situation worse. The feeling that you are on your own in a dangerous situation is vital to horror gaming.