Ideas for places you DO NOT want to be as an adventurer.


Homebrew and House Rules

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Liberty's Edge

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Adventurers are a hardy lot when it comes to horror. Most will slaughter a vampire, stare down a demon, massacre a zombie, all without batting an eye. Yet I imagine that it is possible to create a sense of dread within the players through the right levels of atmosphere, or the right even the right setting and mechanics. With 'darkest dungeon' on the way, with a more realistic look at the strain of adventuring, I have decided to have look at some of the possible horror setting ideas for campaigns of fear.

1. Ghostflame prison- a prison between the plains of earth and hell, populated by 30 immortal guards, and most undead/golem guards. No one dies in the prison permanently, at least until their stone is given to one of the guards for execution duty. This lack of permanent death seems great at first, until you find out the guards are complete and utter sadists that take great delight in exploiting the impossibility of perminant death for their own amusement. Escape is possible, but is only done so the guard assigned on execution duty can draw out the kill for as long as possible. And if you are executed in the prison, your soul does not go to the afterlife. it remains trapped in the prison for all eternity, maybe as a roaming ghost, maybe as a new guard, maybe even as part of a guards soul collection. This place is not one the players will want to go to, and not one i will use very often.


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2. Reality- Magic doesn't work. Truly evil people are protected by the law. Police can murder citizens for misdemeanors and get away with it. Teenagers for no reason go on killing sprees or try to go join terrorist organizations. God turned his back on this place so long ago nobody can agree on even his name. I could go on, but I'm sick of thinking about it.


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A fancy dinner party.


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Boot camp, forced restrictions on your actions and gaining training, extreme
Dependency of skill checks

Liberty's Edge

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kikidmonkey wrote:
A fancy dinner party.

Suprisingly good, since most adventurers (players) cannot spend more than a few hours in a safe, secure setting without needing to go on an adventures. If you have a fancy dinner party with powerful, influential people, including monsters, the players must try to keep potential killing instincts under control to prevent a diplomatic incident spiralling out of this. Made even harder if things are going on in the background, like attempted thefts, kidnapping, murder, manslaughter, the peasants revolting- that kind of thing. And they need to be subtle... After all, it only takes one dead body to spoil the air of peace of a dinner party.


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A midwife's cottage

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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An office cubicle.

Cursed with a case of the Mondays.

Every.

Single.

Day.


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Rust monster HIVE.


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3. Fancy Dinner Party.
4. Boot Camp.
5. Midwife's Cottage.
6. An Office Cubicle on a perpetual Monday.
7. Rust Monster HIVE.
8. Trapped on an island turtle. The other side is populated by undead made from anybody who tried to escape the island by any means. In the middle of the island is a tower dungeon. At the top is a being who will give you some kind of answer. Other posters encouraged me to hide the topic. Any completely inescapable island or demi-plane like that causes some gamers to become enraged.


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Wide open plain with gentle, rolling hills and tall grass.


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On a train.

Adventurer's just hate being railroaded.


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My all time favorite: The boat.

The party is on a ship. It's big, and needs a larger number of people than the party to be operated, even if they were all sailors. They are at sea, surrounded by nothing but certain death in all directions. And someone, or something is on board, working against them.

Anyone could be the enemy. Everyone is suspicious. Things are going wrong, people are dying or disappearing. Rumors and paranoia are turning people against each other. The party doesn't know who to trust, and yet it has to trust someone. And if they aren't careful, the others might just suspect them.

For added fun, make sure they don't trust each other either. Note passing mixed with illusions, shapeshifters and mind control can make them rethink their assumptions.


The reason adventurers aren't afraid of horror is because it's a game. To be scared, you have to want to be scared. It's why "survival horror" means "I kill lotsa zombies."

Anyways...best option is usually the fake-out. Your average horrific terror comes from 2 sources. The first is utter, crushing certainty of defeat. H. P. Lovecraft's real HORROR was the fact that nothing you could do in that world mattered, because you'd end up getting devoured no matter what you did. Stargods and space-monsters were going to win, period, the best you could do is slow things down. Ironic that it shows up so much in games, really, when you stop and think about it.

The second source of terror is the unknown. The monster can be eminently defeatable, but since you don't know what it is, where it is, or when it will strike next all you can do is run and cower, trying to find a way to fight or survive it while it attacks from the shadows. So when trying to scare players (since it's the players, not the characters, that have no fear) you want monsters that look like other monsters. Monsters that can't exist, monsters that look like things they can't fight. Monsters that ARE things they can't fight. You want things that no amount of reading the Monster Manual will prepare them to beat.

If it has stats you can kill it, but you have to KNOW those stats...


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
kikidmonkey wrote:
A fancy dinner party.

I was going to suggest a tea party, it was the first thing that came to my mind when i saw the title of the thread.


Makeitstop wrote:

My all time favorite: The boat.

The party is on a ship. It's big, and needs a larger number of people than the party to be operated, even if they were all sailors. They are at sea, surrounded by nothing but certain death in all directions. And someone, or something is on board, working against them.

Anyone could be the enemy. Everyone is suspicious. Things are going wrong, people are dying or disappearing. Rumors and paranoia are turning people against each other. The party doesn't know who to trust, and yet it has to trust someone. And if they aren't careful, the others might just suspect them.

For added fun, make sure they don't trust each other either. Note passing mixed with illusions, shapeshifters and mind control can make them rethink their assumptions.

in the current campaign i am in, the total party is at a 50% boat survival rate. No character in the party willingly steps inside a boat now. It's a shame there are no* teleport spells in our world.

*only one family knows the secret to teleportation, and they have a poor success/survival rate, they also have a reputation for being fireball-component crazy


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Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Makeitstop wrote:

My all time favorite: The boat.

The party is on a ship. It's big, and needs a larger number of people than the party to be operated, even if they were all sailors. They are at sea, surrounded by nothing but certain death in all directions. And someone, or something is on board, working against them.

Anyone could be the enemy. Everyone is suspicious. Things are going wrong, people are dying or disappearing. Rumors and paranoia are turning people against each other. The party doesn't know who to trust, and yet it has to trust someone. And if they aren't careful, the others might just suspect them.

For added fun, make sure they don't trust each other either. Note passing mixed with illusions, shapeshifters and mind control can make them rethink their assumptions.

now i really wand to gm this.

Liberty's Edge

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Mythic Evil Lincoln wrote:
Rust monster HIVE.

Because no one likes 1 of those things, and they found over 100 of the armour/weapon eating monstrosities. Advice for entry-bring alchemist fire, and lots of it. If not, try leather and wood.

Scarab Sages

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boring7 wrote:

Anyways...best option is usually the fake-out. Your average horrific terror comes from 2 sources. The first is utter, crushing certainty of defeat. H. P. Lovecraft's real HORROR was the fact that nothing you could do in that world mattered, because you'd end up getting devoured no matter what you did. Stargods and space-monsters were going to win, period, the best you could do is slow things down. Ironic that it shows up so much in games, really, when you stop and think about it.

Read stories like "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" and other Randolph Carter vehicles, though - the big secret of Lovecraft's universe is that it's far from bleak, and can even be its own distinctive sort of uplifting...you just have to stop thinking like a human.


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ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:
Mythic Evil Lincoln wrote:
Rust monster HIVE.
Because no one likes 1 of those things, and they found over 100 of the armour/weapon eating monstrosities. Advice for entry-bring alchemist fire, and lots of it. If not, try leather and wood.

I'm a wizard with a 50' ball of twine, I can be 100% metal-free and mostly fine, I just might have to repair my belt. The fighter gets hosed, but everybody knows that martial classes are too powerful anyway and could use some nerfing.*

Don't get me wrong, I like the rust monster, but it has a specific target it hurts.

*Obvious sarcasm

Scarab Sages

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What if somebody attacks it with a pointed stick?

Liberty's Edge

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The house of a mad scientist and experimenter of multiple scientific fields. The guy has been missing for years but fortunately his daughter looks after it and all it's inhabitants in his absence. That being said, she does want to help people in need, and she is a good medical professional. Maybe too good, because the stuff she ends up doing to help the lives of other leads to some pretty horrific transformations. She lacks a regular view on morality, believing in doing every thing she can to help those in need. This can include ANYONE, from criminals to common people, and her inhuman abilities have lead to a vast number of inadvertent casualties, or psychological scarring for most regular people involved. Technically she is not evil, but the stuff she does in the name of science is beyond any good that any was involved.


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ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:
The house of a mad scientist and experimenter of multiple scientific fields. The guy has been missing for years but fortunately his daughter looks after it and all it's inhabitants in his absence. That being said, she does want to help people in need, and she is a good medical professional. Maybe too good, because the stuff she ends up doing to help the lives of other leads to some pretty horrific transformations. She lacks a regular view on morality, believing in doing every thing she can to help those in need. This can include ANYONE, from criminals to common people, and her inhuman abilities have lead to a vast number of inadvertent casualties, or psychological scarring for most regular people involved. Technically she is not evil, but the stuff she does in the name of science is beyond any good that any was involved.

... Franken Fran?

Scarab Sages

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The place we were stuck for the first few pages of this sucked pretty bad.


Nocte ex Mortis wrote:
ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:
The house of a mad scientist and experimenter of multiple scientific fields. The guy has been missing for years but fortunately his daughter looks after it and all it's inhabitants in his absence. That being said, she does want to help people in need, and she is a good medical professional. Maybe too good, because the stuff she ends up doing to help the lives of other leads to some pretty horrific transformations. She lacks a regular view on morality, believing in doing every thing she can to help those in need. This can include ANYONE, from criminals to common people, and her inhuman abilities have lead to a vast number of inadvertent casualties, or psychological scarring for most regular people involved. Technically she is not evil, but the stuff she does in the name of science is beyond any good that any was involved.
... Franken Fran?

It's so weird I even KNOW about that show, I only ever read about it on tvtropes.


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A set of conveniently awesome looking armor that turns out to be combining contructs forcing the players to act as voltron/power rangers in a megazord

Scarab Sages

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Dustyboy wrote:
A set of conveniently awesome looking armor that turns out to be combining contructs forcing the players to act as voltron/power rangers in a megazord

That's certainly not for everyone, but I guarantee you some players would adore that.

Liberty's Edge

Nocte ex Mortis wrote:
ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:
The house of a mad scientist and experimenter of multiple scientific fields. The guy has been missing for years but fortunately his daughter looks after it and all it's inhabitants in his absence. That being said, she does want to help people in need, and she is a good medical professional. Maybe too good, because the stuff she ends up doing to help the lives of other leads to some pretty horrific transformations. She lacks a regular view on morality, believing in doing every thing she can to help those in need. This can include ANYONE, from criminals to common people, and her inhuman abilities have lead to a vast number of inadvertent casualties, or psychological scarring for most regular people involved. Technically she is not evil, but the stuff she does in the name of science is beyond any good that any was involved.
... Franken Fran?

Yep.

It's one of my favourite manga series to not be put to anime.

Liberty's Edge

Speaking of franken Fran, I wonder if I should do some homebrew races for the franken Fran character as well as some of the creatures. Under the classification of 'Franken', these creatures(a mixture of abberants,undead, half constructs, constructs, monsterous humanoids and half undead) would all display a variety of bizzare qualities, ranging from uplifted cells, to 'bio-weapons', to large insect-human hybrids. Born from bizarre experimentation by mad scientists, these creature often congregate in areas with other mad scientists, learning about humanity through observation, taught behaviour, or past life as a normal being. These creatures are often very secretive, mostly because of the general 'mob' reaction to such creatures driving them to live in secluded forests and mansions. Those that are able to interact with humans often lead these congregations of beasts and take responsibility for their actions.

In addition to this, a miotic being would be a tough fight, especially if it kept replicating and would also create an ethical question for good characters. One that might need to be solved with the aid of a villain or monster. A miotic apocalypse is still an apocalypse, so the damage control will still be neccesary.

Back on the original topic, A enclave for a group of half-undead. Not the dhamphir kind, but more the 'was human, then got sort of turned into a zombie while still alive'. These creatures are the result of a premature reanimate-dead spell being used on a dying body. This prevents death, but puts the body into a half-dead state where rotting can occur, so most of these creatures supplement their rotting flesh with stitched sackcloth, prosthetics of various makes, or even other peoples limbs. Their state makes them untouchables in normal civilised society, so they generally band together against other attacks. They are also very rarely afraid of death, since most consider death a release from their state. That being said, the mobs that target them are generally in the evil camp-so being in the enclave(maybe to meet with a specific half dead or whatever) might make you a target of this mob. And torture until death is common practice in these raids.


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Any area with a reasonable and competent government, or the land of soft fuzzy bunnies. No need for adventurers in either

Daycare
Dragon daycare
The opera
The opra
Parents house
Dog house
Alien zoo
Giants dollhouse


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In my experience, a courtroom in which the party are the defendants. I've had formerly reasonable players start freaking out and threatening to murder Paladins of the God of Law in attempt to avoid showing up in court.


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I suppose that I'd have to agree with kikidmonkey and BigNorseWolf. Any situation that has to be solved solely with diplomacy, tact, or skills would terrify most adventurers as would any situation you might find in the average young children's book (which may involve quests, but does not allow people to kill one another). Animal Crossing would be a good example. I think mysteries could also cause problem, especially if divination spells won't help provide the answers.

1) The Demiplane of Peace: the weather is always pleasant, the people are always cheerful, happy, and helpful. The welcoming committee will give the characters food and drink enough for a week and will happily tell the characters how to easily get more. There are already perfectly good houses waiting for each of the characters. There are no monsters. Spells that cause damage or summon things automatically fail, as do any attempts to leave. All weapons become useless within the hour of entering. All attempts to actually harm anyone completely fail. There are people willing to buy items that are easily obtainable. Occasionally a specific villager will send a character on a "quest" for specific item(s) that said villager could easily obtain if they were actually to move, but for some reason they don't.

2) Candyland: A world made entirely of various sweets shaped into plants, and landscapes. Animals and people are made like plushies and dolls. All sentient beings want to be the characters' friend. Attempts to damage things work but ultimately anything destroyed regrows. Eventually the adventurers will start to change into plush versions of themselves, loosing their aggression and negative feelings. If they don't find a way out in a month, they become permanent residents.


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The tax office... if you want to be really mean an INFERNAL TAX OFFICE. THE PARTY IS BEING AUDITED!


Lady Fancyface's Costume Ball.

Scarab Sages

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An inflatable planet. Sure, all the bouncing around would be fun, but one arrow, bullet, or scorching ray hits the ground instead of its mark...and you've just destroyed the world.

Liberty's Edge

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A living doll house, paticularly if they get shrunk down and all their magic becomes scaled down as well. Then they are at the mercy of its owner, and the only one who can fix them. That would be fine if the owner was not...
1. A child around age 8-12
2.In a family of multiple evil individuals, with neutral children
3. Was anyway willing to help them.
Life in the big world is tough, in small scale it's a lot harder.

Scarab Sages

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Don't forget the "The Created" adventure from RAVENLOFT.

In the body of a wooden puppet, while the evil puppets are having a field day running around in your body, is certainly not a place an adventurer wants to be.


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In a Girdle of Opposite Gender.

Liberty's Edge

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VRMH wrote:
In a Girdle of Opposite Gender.

"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!, I don't want to be a girl, especially since I just got a actual girlfriend..." General response given by a 'formerly' male character in a heterosexual relationship. Made even worse if the adventurer used to wear clothes made for a woman(like a corset)

"Too....tight...can't...breath"


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VRMH wrote:
In a Girdle of Opposite Gender.

You went there. Now I'm going here...

Wearing an intelligent ring of truth.
When you try to avoid the truth it shouts it out.
No good Cleric will want to remove curse on it. The truth is good after all.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

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The demiplane of sentient tumors.
The demiplane of living diseases.

Yes, these are places that actually exist in the game. They're listed in a table on the GameMastery Guide.

Liberty's Edge

Goth Guru wrote:
VRMH wrote:
In a Girdle of Opposite Gender.

You went there. Now I'm going here...

Wearing an intelligent ring of truth.
When you try to avoid the truth it shouts it out.
No good Cleric will want to remove curse on it. The truth is good after all.

Just don't give it to the rogue. Unless you want to watch him get locked up.

Liberty's Edge

Cyrad wrote:

The demiplane of sentient tumors.

The demiplane of living diseases.

Yes, these are places that actually exist in the game. They're listed in a table on the GameMastery Guide.

And if they are really unlucky, they might just shake hands with living Black Death and die horribly.

Liberty's Edge

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A Demi plane of immortal jesters. As in the motley fools. And every person is a jester, or clown, or acrobat, or magic mime. Welcome to a world of painful comedy at the players expense. And also the ruler is an all powerful jester with divine/arcane magic named Giacomo 'king of jesters and jester of kings'.

And I will now prepare to make a jester version of a brawler for my own personal amusement.


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Inside a plane-spanning antimagic field.

Dark Archive

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Indagare wrote:
1) The Demiplane of Peace: the weather is always pleasant, the people are always cheerful, happy, and helpful. The welcoming committee will give the characters food and drink enough for a week and will happily tell the characters how to easily get more. There are already perfectly good houses waiting for each of the characters. There are no monsters. Spells that cause damage or summon things automatically fail, as do any attempts to leave. All weapons become useless within the hour of entering. All attempts to actually harm anyone completely fail. There are people willing to buy items that are easily obtainable. Occasionally a specific villager will send a character on a "quest" for specific item(s) that said villager could easily obtain if they were actually to move, but for some reason they don't.

Animal Crossing?

Scarab Sages

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The Paraelemental Plane of Iron Pyrite?

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

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Anywhere with mushrooms. My players frequently remark how mushrooms are the most terrifying things ever in D&D. Mushrooms can explode, eat you, poison you, cause horrible diseases, implant spores that turn you into a zombie, dissolve your flesh to mush, or scream to alert other creatures of your presence. The most devastating battle in my campaign was against three fungus women that brought two party members to only 3 CON.

My favorite mushroom is one I homebrewed that polymorphs you into a mushroom just like it if you step on it. If you die during this state, you explode, causing others to share a similar fate.

Sovereign Court

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The thieves guild.


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Anything involving water and the hint that something might be in said water.

I will NOPE right in the opposite direction.

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