Horrifically Great Inspiration

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures
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Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Any creator will tell you that inspiration comes from everywhere, but for a book like Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures, those inspirations are very specific—and we made a list for you!

Horrific Inspirations, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures

All kinds of horror media are represented: Uzumaki (body horror), Alien (cosmic horror), Brotherhood of the Wolf (dark fantasy), The Shining (ghost story), Dracula (gothic horror), The Babadook (psychological horror), and Halloween (slasher horror) just to name a few. This is a great way to be inspired for your next spooky adventure—and speaking of inspiration, here's a few of my favorite pieces of art from Horror Adventures!

Martyr Paladin archetype, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures, Mark Molnar Gingerbread Witch archetype, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures, Mark Molnar Fleshcrafted Antennae, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures, Chris Casciano
Illustrations by Mark Molnar and Chris Casciano
Elder Sign artifact, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures, Bryan Syme Moonlight Lantern wondrous item, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures, Bryan Syme
Illustrations by Bryan Syme

See you next week in Indianapolis for Gen Con 2016!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

P.S. I apologize in advance for any villagers I may eat.

P.P.S. I am not sorry.

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Tags: Bryan Syme Chris Casciano Mark Molnar Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Wallpapers

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Liz, if you do eat villager, make sure to wash it down with some good wine. It will cut back on the calories. ;)


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

'Scuse me, I need to go track down the relatively few things on that inspiration list I haven't seen or read yet... 'cause it's a really, really good list based upon the stuff I'm familiar with.

Any list that includes Lake Mungo, Pontypool, Yellowbrickroad, Bone Tomahawk, Phantasm, The Wicker Man, The Witch and The Changeling is clearly doing something right.

EDIT:Thale! The Innkeepers! I love you guys, never change...


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I'm really surprised Triangle is on the list, never even met anyone in meatspace who had heard of it.


That's a fantastic list. I'm especially happy to see Kam Hurley and Lauren Beukes, two of my favorite contemporary authors.

Community Manager

Thomas Seitz wrote:
Liz, if you do eat villager, make sure to wash it down with some good wine. It will cut back on the calories. ;)

Beer or bourbon, thanks. Villagers can be a little gamey. :P


Awww...all those horror movies I'll never force myself to see...LOL.


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Liz Courts wrote:
Thomas Seitz wrote:
Liz, if you do eat villager, make sure to wash it down with some good wine. It will cut back on the calories. ;)
Beer or bourbon, thanks. Villagers can be a little gamey. :P

Fair enough Liz! :)

Dark Archive

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Cole Deschain wrote:
Any list that includes Lake Mungo, Pontypool, Yellowbrickroad, Bone Tomahawk, Phantasm, The Wicker Man, The Witch and The Changeling is clearly doing something right.

I'm the horror guy in my group, and I agree this is an awesome list. I'm looking to reverse engineer Pontypool with some of the tools in this book. It'd be interested to have a party in a situation where they couldn't rely on Common to communicate.


The old Keleshite man has to be a follower of Vildeis he has all the signs. This has interesting implications as it shows you can be good and still horrific.

Vildeis is one of my favorite deities. Is there any Vildeis specific feats or corruptions etc?

Excited for this book. :)

Designer

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Lemartes wrote:

The old Keleshite man has to be a follower of Vildeis he has all the signs. This has interesting implications as it shows you can be good and still horrific.

Vildeis is one of my favorite deities. Is there any Vildeis specific feats or corruptions etc?

Excited for this book. :)

Well-sleuthed!

There aren't setting-specific rules in the book (you can see just who he is in the book by cliking on the picture and checking the name). That said, Vildeis seemed a perfect fit when I was working on the order for that spread, so I requested her holy symbol.


Mark Seifter wrote:
Lemartes wrote:

The old Keleshite man has to be a follower of Vildeis he has all the signs. This has interesting implications as it shows you can be good and still horrific.

Vildeis is one of my favorite deities. Is there any Vildeis specific feats or corruptions etc?

Excited for this book. :)

Well-sleuthed!

There aren't setting-specific rules in the book (you can see just who he is in the book by cliking on the picture and checking the name). That said, Vildeis seemed a perfect fit when I was working on the order for that spread, so I requested her holy symbol.

Thanks.

Yeah I saw the picture name. :)

Oddly enough a few years ago I played a Keleshite Paladin of Sarenrae in Jade Regent...who got his arms and legs cut off. I played him like that for 3 or so levels before I got regenerate cast on him. He was strapped to another character's back. That sucked.

However, this paladin looks like his wounds are self inflicted.

Oh yeah just remembered I played a four armed paladin(with 2 levels of alchemist) of Vildeis before. He was creepy. ;)

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4

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I just caught Bone Tomahawk last week! Oh-sooooooo-good!


I respectfully disagree with Jaws being labeled a "Slasher Horror Movie." It's definitely a thriller (without Michael Jackson and the Zombies which fit in the body horror setting).

I'm honestly not sure what category it would fit in. Perhaps "Greatest Film of All Time." That's where I put it, followed closely by Alien.

Despite my minor disagreement, thanks for an awesome list. There's a lot of films and books here that I want to check out!

Silver Crusade

Ooo Babadook (rhymes with "book"), nice.

... It Follows is under Body Horror? Eh, not quite sure I agree with that.


Itchy wrote:

I respectfully disagree with Jaws being labeled a "Slasher Horror Movie." It's definitely a thriller (without Michael Jackson and the Zombies which fit in the body horror setting).

I'm honestly not sure what category it would fit in. Perhaps "Greatest Film of All Time." That's where I put it, followed closely by Alien.

Despite my minor disagreement, thanks for an awesome list. There's a lot of films and books here that I want to check out!

Not as good as Jaws 4 though.

Scarab Sages

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Ah Night of the Hunter, a true and oft overlooked classic.


I was delighted to see Night of the Demon on that list, for some reason it's usually forgotten when people describe the great horror films.

I do kind of wonder why The Great God Pan is listed as body horror. I would swear that it's a definite Cosmic Horror tale myself.

And talking Body Horror, would anyone disagree that Island of Lost Souls with Charles Laughton would fit perfectly there?


Now that I look up the definition of Body Horror, I think that the second greatest film of all time: Alien is both Body Horror and Cosmic Horror. Ack! Lines are blurring. *cough* It's *cough* a little of both.

Argh! Why does my chest hurt so much? *cough cough* What's that bump stretching just beneath my ribcage?

Oh, gods, not again!


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Itchy wrote:

Now that I look up the definition of Body Horror, I think that the second greatest film of all time: Alien is both Body Horror and Cosmic Horror. Ack! Lines are blurring. *cough* It's *cough* a little of both.

Argh! Why does my chest hurt so much? *cough cough* What's that bump stretching just beneath my ribcage?

Oh, gods, not again!

I'd agree that Alien has body horror aplenty, but I wouldn't call it a cosmic horror myself. I'd say it's a pretty archetypal slasher flick. Consider:

-Halloween: A nigh-invincible [masked killer] stalks [Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends] in a [suburban neighborhood], picking them off in gruesome fashion one by one until she's the only one left. Miraculously, she manages to defeat [Michael Myers] and make it out alive.
-Alien: A nigh-invincible [alien] stalks [Sigourney Weaver and her crew] in a [space ship], picking them off in gruesome fashion one by one until she's the only one left. Miraculously, she manages to defeat [the alien] and make it out alive.

I would say the Alien-prequel, Prometheus, is much more cosmic horror, except that its septic tank of a plot borders on incomprehensible. Anyway it's all semantics. Everyone "gets" something different from these movies.

Liberty's Edge

Body horror often goes hand in hand with cosmic horror, I think. At the Mountains of Madness is almost entirely cosmic but has grotesque descriptions of the elder things' victims and of the shoggoths; Prometheus has a f!@$ ton of parasites and people dying horribly, but is still very much about ancient unknowable aliens.

Also Prometheus is a kickass film :0


Gark the Goblin wrote:


Also Prometheus is a kickass film :0

Don't want to derail too much, but this is a blog post about movies. Still, will spoiler b/c of slight off-topicness.

Slight off-topicness:
My problem with Prometheus is, it didn't make sense. My bigger problem is that all the gaping plot holes
didn't exist in the original script. They were added when Damon Lindelof joined the crew. He convinced Ridley Scott that Prometheus didn't need to be a straight Alien prequel, and screw continuity. You might recognize Lindelof as the guy who wrote Lost. Yeah.

I actually liked Prometheus in spite of that. Just a shame it could have been so much better.

*EDIT: It looks like that linked article lost all its pictures etc.? Don't know why, but it was much better before. Maybe copyright stuff?


Nice to see Paul F. Wilson getting some love. In a roundabout way he's the person who got me into fantasy, and he doesn't get enough shout-outs

Dark Archive

It really gets my Goat that you list the tv show Game of Thrones, and not the original material. Aside from that, I'll be sure to look through this list for interesting works I haven't yet read and/or watched.


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Craig Tierney wrote:
It really gets my Goat that you list the tv show Game of Thrones, and not the original material. Aside from that, I'll be sure to look through this list for interesting works I haven't yet read and/or watched.

They didn't? I thought Game of Thrones was based on The Song of Ice and Fire series. Have I been wrong all this time?


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It's based on Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, which is sorely lacking from this list.


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Well, it really gets my Goat that they listed the 1973 Wicker Man, and not the superior, much more terrifying 2006 version.


Actually pretty happy they added at least 1 token guromanga to the list.

Sczarni

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Craig Tierney wrote:
It really gets my Goat that you list the tv show Game of Thrones, and not the original material. Aside from that, I'll be sure to look through this list for interesting works I haven't yet read and/or watched.

They did, it's right underneath it under "Print."

Paizo Employee Developer

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Kobold Cleaver wrote:
Well, it really gets my Goat that they listed the 1973 Wicker Man, and not the superior, much more terrifying 2006 version.

This is one of those cases of sarcasm not coming through on the Internet, right?


I think he's being honest, you've just got to get into the mindset of Lily Sobviesky's agent.


:D I already sent out an order for my copy of the book, super excited for it.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

For steering me toward The Red Tree alone this list has proven its mettle.

Seriously. Paizo. You must be saving something AWFUL to hit me with at a future date,'cause of late, you've basically been making me caper with undignified glee...


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Mark Moreland wrote:
Kobold Cleaver wrote:
Well, it really gets my Goat that they listed the 1973 Wicker Man, and not the superior, much more terrifying 2006 version.
This is one of those cases of sarcasm not coming through on the Internet, right?

Well, I know some people who told me with a straight face that Christopher Lee wished he was half the actor that Nicolas Cage is. Yeah. I really couldn't think of anything to say to that.

Then again I know some ladies who told me Lee's Dracula couldn't be worth anything because it's not like he was asked to appear in Twilight, now, was he?

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