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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormborn" data-source="post: 3020060" data-attributes="member: 14041">As a one shot I would play it, given low level NPC Classes and a well detailed small city.  However, I think the idea could work as a minicampaign just as well with low level PC classes.  Imagine this:The city of Goldenrod was built on top of the remains of the Red Keep, once ruled by your typical evil demonic warlord type.  The city is a typical walled city with a small fortress that houses a garrison of the royal army, a temple of the standard pantheon, etc. When digging a new well the citizens of the keep discover the Red Keep's dungeon, filled with nasties of course,  and put out the call for adventurers to go in and clean it up.  Enter the PCs.  The campaign begins as the 3rd level PCs emerge victorious one night from their forays into the dungeon. Filled with a sense of accomplishment and pride they go to the nearby inn to celebrate, only to find the pretty barmaid feasting on the remains of the owner and his family.  While they were beneath the city a powerful curse spread through Goldenrod and infected nearlly everone.  The ones that were not infected are likely dead or in hiding.  The PCs are stuck in the middle of the city, its just after dark, the city gates are closed, and the pacts of ghouls and ghasts that are searching for survivors have got the sent of fresh meat.  Add into that the piles of corpses that are turning into zombies, rat swarms, and unchecked fires. Throw in some random interactions like living NPCs that beg them to help, a few death cultists that welcome the change, an "evil" monster or two that only wants out and will take the help of the PCs if possible (only to back stab them at the first chance), carrion crawlers and other scavanging critters, and few notes that there is still pleanty of wealth in the city to be looted by greed adventurers.  Most importantly keep the CR at least 2 above the party level, swelling as needed based on numbers of opponents and maybe a special templated critter or two.You could easilly go from having a band of cocky adventurers whose first instinct is "kill em all and loot the bodies" to a group of desperate people just trying to survive the night and make it a few more blocks closer to the wall. To me the mind set that a player would have when given an NPC class is "Oh, this is a weak PC that is going to die before the end."  Give them and PC class and tell them only "I am going to run a game of horror" and they will assume they can survive.  Then prove them wrong, always backing off or giving them a small respit when things look their worse before plunging them back into it.  That would, IMO, be a far more fun game to run or play in.</blockquote>

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