One-shot: To Kill, or Not To Kill?

[Speaker]

What a great Halloween night.

Anyway, my group is doing a Halloween one-shot today, the day after Halloween. I have nearly everything planned out, hand-outs, lights, music, the whole works.

What I appeal to ENWorld is an answer to the age old question of PK. Do I need to kill PCs to inspire terror in their hearts? Can I get away with letting them all live? Killing a few special ones off?

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Here's a quick synopsis of the plot, the reading of which is entirely optional:

I'm playing a heavily modified Midnight campaign, set before the first war between darkness and light. It's the day--in this version of the world-that The Fell, the undead, begin to rise and the evil one's army sweeps across the northern expanses of the world.

The PCs are sent to a small village to find one of the last divine artifacts in the world, a wooden chalice. Along the way they'll have a few twisted encounters heralding what is to come.

When they reach the village, the will initially be shunned by the populace, until the village comes under attack. Then they will seize the holy chalice. However....

One of the players is on the side of the dark god behind this assault. He will steal the chalice, and retreat to the one place it can be unmade - the holy grove in the city, once a powerful nexus of divine magic. He will be met there by several other NPCs I've set up.

The PCs must fight through the Fell that are now abundant (thanks to one of the initial plot points on the way to the village... shh!), reach the the grove, only to face a weakened avater of the evil god as he possesses his servant... and destroys the holy artifact.

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Thoughts on player death?

 

[Gothmog]

Are you kidding? One-shot adventure, Midnight AND Halloween? Definite kill. However, I would recommend not killing them in some massive battle, but have them hunted through the grove after the artifact is destroyed. Or alternately, have them realize they can't stop the destruction of the artifact, and decide to warn the forces of good that Izrador is up to something. Then they have a strong motivating force to make it back to a safe place and give warning. Nothing puts players quite on edge like being hunted by powerful supernatural foes, and if done well- they will enjoy the paranoia, suspense, and you delivering the death blow. I would recommend picking them off one by one- then letting the players who were killed earlier help play the baddies- I did that once and its a fun experience.

 

[Speaker]

A chase in the night. I like it.

Any ideas about how to hold the suspense of the players during a chase? Should I play it out in turns or throw away the minatures? How do I seperate the player's during the chase?

I have some ideas, but any contributions would be more then helpful.

 

[Gothmog]

Hmm, well I guess it depends how much of the adventure you want to involve the chase. Keep in mind suspense and fear work best when it comes in waves, with occasional breaks. I'd recommend an initial chase after discovering the Izrador avatar, and kill one of the characters off during the chase- show them you mean business. Let the player(s) of the dead PCs either play baddies, or maybe Izrador's forces bring one of the dead PCs back as a wight, and send it in to mess with the surviving PCs. Let the PCs think they have found a safe spot during their pursuit, let them start to rest, then hit them again! Keep them guessing- don't hit them every rest period, but every time you do hit them, make it count. Interject episodes where the PCs think they are being followed in and set up an ambush, only to get the spring on a deer or something. These less tense or humorous moments stand in stark relief to the more horrific moments. Make the baddies scary- not just orcs, but undead, legates, and other horrors. Don't let the PCs get a good idea of numbers of the enemy- the unknown is what is scary.