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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Farquhar" data-source="post: 9341970" data-attributes="member: 6906155">One of the reasons I really don't like the 2nd edition Ravenloft Boxed set was the way it stated up all the dark lords as monsters that could be fought. I know a lot of players treated that as a hitlist and travelled round the land killing dark lord for the LOLs. Not exactly horror gaming when the monsters should be hiding from the PCs!And that is an issue with D&D mechanics is that it is designed for the PCs to be fantasy heroes. As mentioned, in the novel Dracula the heroes take advantage of the monster's weakness that it must return to a coffin to rest during the day. But in D&D how do you get the players to play like that, rather than going to confront the monster directly? Without killing them dead when they try! I have a feeling a lot of the 2nd edition Ravenloft adventures where written supposing the PCs would behave like typical gothic horror protagonists, not fantasy heroes. Aragorn isn't Jonathan Harker! Certainly the one I had, Ship of Horror, was like this.Now, solutions. Well, I wrote this trait into the statblock for a werewolf-like darklord of a very minor domain, who the PCs are expected to either kill or free from his curse:The other issue is that a lot of horror monsters are simply run of the mill and not remotely scary to hardened D&D players. E.g. ghosts. Again, Ship of Horror fails to be scary. The reason I am currently using deranged murdering clowns is these are things that exist in the the real world, and therefore can feel threatening to the players, rather than something they know does not exist and therefore cannot be a threat. The OP mentioned triggers - something that (along with female players) wasn't considered back when most of these adventures were written. You need to be wary of these especially when using less fantastical threats.The other approach is the mindscrew. Challenge the players sense of reality. The best Ravenloft adventure I know of is City of Eyes (on the DMG). Rather than trying to be realistic, it deliberately undermines the players sense of reality. For more ideas of how to do this, especially for powerful heroes, I recommend watching the 70s TV show Sapphire and Steel. It's streaming on ITVX in the UK.</blockquote>

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