What've you done that's made your player's skin crawl? What morbid and creepifying items, spells, monsters and anything else have you come up with? What paragons of terror have haunted your PCs?
The most creepy adventure I've run so far ever has been my upscaled version of Meenlock Prison. One of the best I've ever seen in Dungeon btw in my opinion for one shots. It was months ago and yet I can still make my players shudder slightly by whispering, "What you are now, we once were. What we are now, you shall become."
the worst I think though was simply imagining the plight of the trapped prisoners, not knowing what was going on as meenlocks shuffled and scampered with soft little feet through the dark prison.
The most creepy adventure I've run so far ever has been my upscaled version of Meenlock Prison. One of the best I've ever seen in Dungeon btw in my opinion for one shots. It was months ago and yet I can still make my players shudder slightly by whispering, "What you are now, we once were. What we are now, you shall become."
the worst I think though was simply imagining the plight of the trapped prisoners, not knowing what was going on as meenlocks shuffled and scampered with soft little feet through the dark prison.
Wow! I think I'll steal that idea! Thanks!
Ew on earwigs. I like it though!
So far the thing that seems to have creeped the most people out was a "door alarm" made from a prisoner's intestines. He was tied live to the wall on the far side next to the door, and his guts were around the handle, to make him scream when anyone came through.
Of course, since the meenlock thing is published i cant really steal it, but i can use it for inspiration. Anyways, what issue of DUNGEON was it in? I'd like to play in it!
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Hmm, Ravenloft game...
Party is holed up in a house in Kartarkass, and they are dealing with a ghost. They also have an intelligent dagger of lifestealing that's growing stronger.
The rouge assassin scouts out ahead and a shadow detaches from the wall it starts following him, hands raised to strike.
The swashbuckler, Heatseeker's owner, raises her to throw at the shadow, stops, looks at his hand (the player had raised his arm as if he was going to throw something). He then looks at me and growls at the imaginary dagger. "Stop it, now."
The shadow (an illusion generated by heartseaker) turns, smiles and disappears.
Everyone at the table became that much more terrified.
Hmm, Ravenloft game...
Party is holed up in a house in Kartarkass, and they are dealing with a ghost. They also have an intelligent dagger of lifestealing that's growing stronger.
The rouge assassin scouts out ahead and a shadow detaches from the wall it starts following him, hands raised to strike.
The swashbuckler, Heatseeker's owner, raises her to throw at the shadow, stops, looks at his hand (the player had raised his arm as if he was going to throw something). He then looks at me and growls at the imaginary dagger. "Stop it, now."
The shadow (an illusion generated by heartseaker) turns, smiles and disappears.
Everyone at the table became that much more terrified.
Nice game! I'll steal that too!
I'm also happy I'm not the only one who loves Ravenloft!|
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Well with Heartseaker, she started out as a NE dagger of lifestealing +2. When they started making power checks I thought "Wow, the dagger's intelligent, so why doesn't -she- get the powers."
Stage 1
She gainted the ability to speak telepathically, but her ego was reduced by 5
Stage 2
She gained that illusion casting ability, but failed ego checks against Tybalt (her weilder, who she hated)
Stage 3 She could manifest as a shadow, but she was bound to follow the commands of whomever held the blade. (so she learned to go out when he was asleep)
Stage 4 people slain by her blade became shadows under her control but if she's left unattended, she ends up back in Tybalt's hand.
Never got past this because they escaped Ravenloft
Dungeon 146 is the one you want. And I suggest for full impact to try to fit it into your own campaign somehow, make it seem almost ordinary or part of some other investigation.
thanks! I'll try to get ahold of it!
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What've you done that's made your player's skin crawl? What morbid and creepifying items, spells, monsters and anything else have you come up with? What paragons of terror have haunted your PCs?
I ran a Scarred Lands campaign that had a fair amount of creepy stuff (the party was based out of Hollowfaust, a city run by a council of necromancers, with undead as the 'town guards').
A popular item with the group was a Flense Pack, which looked like an empty backpack, and when unfolded, released a swarm of fresh-stripping carrion beetles (Summon Swarm item). It couldn't leave the square in which it was deployed, but was excellent to use to 'get rid of evidence,' or, in one memorable occasion, as a trap. Due to the nature of their home base, any magic items they sought to purchase were crafted by necromancers, and had a macabre feel to them. (Animated Rope? A length of knotted sinew. Armor? Alchemically-strengthened plates of bone. Dust of Disappearance? Ash from the pyre of an unknown man.)
An encounter that made them sweat a bit was one involving some creatures I cobbled together called Blood Naga. They appeared like human-headed vaguely-skeletal Naga, but used the stats of Vargouille (with a dash of constrictor snake), including the ability to spread their infection. Each Blood Naga was created from a Humanoid slain by another Blood Naga, with their head tearing free and their spinal column ripping out of the corpse to become the basis for the new 'Naga.' Several party members were bitten, and got an infection, and ended up marching all the way back to the city to get Remove Disease spells cast, even though the *bite* wasn't how the infection spread (like the Vargouille 'kiss,' the curse / infection required a special attack to spread, and the monsters never got the chance). If I'd just used Vargouille straight out of the book, and skipped the gruesome flavor text, someone would have twigged to it right away, but since these appeared to be all-new creatures, the players had no idea what to expect, or if their heads were going to rip free of their bodies and crawl away in the night...
What've you done that's made your player's skin crawl? What morbid and creepifying items, spells, monsters and anything else have you come up with? What paragons of terror have haunted your PCs?I ran a Scarred Lands campaign that had a fair amount of creepy stuff (the party was based out of Hollowfaust, a city run by a council of necromancers, with undead as the 'town guards').
A popular item with the group was a Flense Pack, which looked like an empty backpack, and when unfolded, released a swarm of fresh-stripping carrion beetles (Summon Swarm item). It couldn't leave the square in which it was deployed, but was excellent to use to 'get rid of evidence,' or, in one memorable occasion, as a trap. Due to the nature of their home base, any magic items they sought to purchase were crafted by necromancers, and had a macabre feel to them. (Animated Rope? A length of knotted sinew. Armor? Alchemically-strengthened plates of bone. Dust of Disappearance? Ash from the pyre of an unknown man.)
An encounter that made them sweat a bit was one involving some creatures I cobbled together called Blood Naga. They appeared like human-headed vaguely-skeletal Naga, but used the stats of Vargouille (with a dash of constrictor snake), including the ability to spread their infection. Each Blood Naga was created from a Humanoid slain by another Blood Naga, with their head tearing free and their spinal column ripping out of the corpse to become the basis for the new 'Naga.' Several party members were bitten, and got an infection, and ended up marching all the way back to the city to get Remove Disease spells cast, even though the *bite* wasn't how the infection spread (like the Vargouille 'kiss,' the curse / infection required a special attack to spread, and the monsters never got the chance). If I'd just used Vargouille straight out of the book, and skipped the gruesome flavor text, someone would have twigged to it right away, but since these appeared to be all-new creatures, the...
Creepy, morbid and nice! I've got a monster I'm working on that incubates in the spinal columns of its victims. It'll be fun!
I like the Heartseeker dagger a lot.I think I need to acquire that issue of Dungeon. that adventure sounds perfect.
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In my Age of Worms campaign, I had the Faceless One kidnap a dozen or so children from Diamond Lake and brainwash them.
I had the kids follow the party around town. Everytime they turned around, one of them was staring at them with blank eyes and an evil grin.
The party was completely wigged-out and they refused to sleep, especially when they would see one of the little buggers peaking in the window at them...
BTW, fatigue rules are tough on low-level characters.
In my Age of Worms campaign, I had the Faceless One kidnap a dozen or so children from Diamond Lake and brainwash them.
I had the kids follow the party around town. Everytime they turned around, one of them was staring at them with blank eyes and an evil grin.
The party was completely wigged-out and they refused to sleep, especially when they would see one of the little buggers peaking in the window at them...
BTW, fatigue rules are tough on low-level characters.
Lol, thats great!
Changing the discription is a great way to add "creep" to a game.
Make a giant's undead hand attack the party but use the stats and abilites of a giant rat.
Make the old woman in the woods have the same stats and abilites as a giant frog.
Make a pile of intestines have the stats and abilites of an assasin vine.
Enjoy that look on their faces.
Taken from my post here the "We... We Have to Fight a WHAT??" thread. Just though it kind of belonged here to.
The most morbid and creepifying game I ever ran was actually a Marvel Super Heroes game where I combined a hunt through Victorian London for Jack the Ripper with The Talons of Weng-Chiang (a Tom baker Dr. Who episode). Apparently crawling through the sewers through a carpet of rats while random bits of...stuff...bobbed gently in the water and occasionally brushed the unsuspecting leg really freaked the players out...and of course, one of the players was terrified of rats--I found out about that later. But it taught me that atmosphere is everything.
The most horrifying thing I ever included in a D&D campaign I've run was a delicate little wire.
But to understand, you'll need some backstory.
Goblins invaded the PCs home village, and began setting up various traps and pitfalls in the conquered homes and buildings. The most twisted (and I feel dirty to this day for having conceived it) revolved around them staking a (still alive) little girl up to a wall. After she had passed out from shock and blood loss, the goblins had gnawed out the unconscious girl's tongue so that if she woke up she wouldn't be able to warn anyone about what they had done.
I decided to have her wake up as they were trying to pull her down, and had her struggle mutely against them to keep them from dislodging the stake.
Of course they pulled her down anyway.
I will never forget the horror of the players when I described the delicate wire leading from the stake and into a rough hole cut in the wall behind the bloody, impaled, and frantic little girl.
My players ate children while staying in the home of a kindly old druid herbalist who lived in the forest and had gone quite insane. With multiple personalities, detecting evil was a one in three.
The day after the meal was over the ranger found the tracks of children who, he quickly learned, had obviously been caught by the madman, and followed them to the shack where he had slaughtered them. A little quick math (no pigs in the yard, just goats) and he realized that the pork he ate the night before wasn't pork.
My friend pulled this DM trick a good ten years ago, and I changed it from an old woman to an old man because I feared that when my players meet an old woman in the forest they might think "witch" and never trust her (although strangely a decade ago I did trust her). Now, a kindly old druid? No problem.
I ran a short side quest for my AoW campaign using James Jacobs' Dragon article on hauntings and a scoop or two from Heroes of Horror.
The creepiest encounters from their perspective:
A "mirror mimic" that made the players mistrust each other.
A mohrg that was dressing herself up with flesh removed from recently sacrified people. (What the hell, Casey?!?)
And a completely harmless book.
It was a fun night.
All the games i run tend to be Morbid &/or Creepifying, but here are some of my favorites.
One of the PCs was knocked out and taken away, to awake bond in a dark wet sack. The PC used his Strength check to break free and ended up ripping through a random NPC (with an Extreme description and guttural sounds).
"Inky Blackness" is a living portal (kinda like The BLOB, but more of a midnight black in color) that usually leads to a dark twisted mirror version of the world. It chases, grapples (like living intestines) ,and "devours"...
PCs hear a baby crying in the distance then they hear a sickening wet crunch... all is dead silent (that one got a couple of horrified faces)
A pregnant woman gave birth to a fully grown (& old) deformed man with dead eyes and an insane "joker" smile (he ran and jumped out of the 3rd story window at the inn they were at). Who later would only show up in mirrors... sometimes breaking the mirror or sneak up and "kill" a PC (they were fine, but would lose their shadow & reflection for 24 hours).
Mmmm... maybe i do have some issues, but oh well my PCs seem to enjoy it.
I DM'd a game recently where my group of players found themselves in an evil version of the nightclub from Temple of Doom. They were being served by elegant Grimlocks in butler suits and the meals arrived in the animated bodies of large creatures- their bodies had been hollowed out and filled with giant brains. I did have one PC who refused to eat the brains, he explained that it was against his religion. The Grimlock waiter apologised profusely for offending the character and took the meal 'out the back' to the chef, before returning with the 'chef's special for the night- steak, served on a bed of forest salad. Unicorn steak. And he ate it.
They really did deserve it when the grimlocks tried to have the PCs for dessert...
Ooh, and my best one of all. I was playing a d20 Modern/Shadow Chasers game about 5 years ago, and we had a weekend marathon session which was truly awesome (though the sleep deprivation may have helped).
People from the PCs' high school were being found, dead, with particular organs missing. It turned out that a creature was killing these people and taking a token from them to empower his host- so the debating team captain's tongue was cut out, and this guy started being popular and charming. A basketballer's hands were torn off, and the kid could play basketball really well.
Then one of the characters couldn't find her boyfriend after he had walked home the night before. Eventually, they followed the clues and found a terrifying old shack in the woods. As the lone player went down the steps into the darkness, she fumbled around the wooden cellar for some kind of light, and she felt a table in front of her. She felt around and managed to find something on the table, bringing it up to a shaft of light from above... it was a rusty old skinning knife, sticky with congealed blood. The player (now my wife) completely freaked out, and when we walked home with the other players that night (all living in the same town) they all stuck together in a tiny circle so that nothing could get to them... they were IRL terrified. It was a great on-shot game, we've tried to get back to it a few times, but ti's never been quite the same.
I DM'd a game recently where my group of players found themselves in an evil version of the nightclub from Temple of Doom. They were being served by elegant Grimlocks in butler suits and the meals arrived in the animated bodies of large creatures- their bodies had been hollowed out and filled with giant brains. I did have one PC who refused to eat the brains, he explained that it was against his religion. The Grimlock waiter apologised profusely for offending the character and took the meal 'out the back' to the chef, before returning with the 'chef's special for the night- steak, served on a bed of forest salad. Unicorn steak. And he ate it.
They really did deserve it when the grimlocks tried to have the PCs for dessert...
Ooh, and my best one of all. I was playing a d20 Modern/Shadow Chasers game about 5 years ago, and we had a weekend marathon session which was truly awesome (though the sleep deprivation may have helped).
People from the PCs' high school were being found, dead, with particular organs missing. It turned out that a creature was killing these people and taking a token from them to empower his host- so the debating team captain's tongue was cut out, and this guy started being popular and charming. A basketballer's hands were torn off, and the kid could play basketball really well.
Then one of the characters couldn't find her boyfriend after he had walked home the night before. Eventually, they followed the clues and found a terrifying old shack in the woods. As the lone player went down the steps into the darkness, she fumbled around the wooden cellar for some kind of light, and she felt a table in front of her. She felt around and managed to find something on the table, bringing it up to a shaft of light from above... it was a rusty old skinning knife, sticky with congealed blood. The player (now my wife) completely freaked out, and when we walked home with the other players that night (all living in the same town) they all stuck together in a tiny circle so that nothing could get to...
...Wow. That is just too creepy. Nice campaign.
*Runs home to kobold mommy*
That story with the knife is really creepy.
The one about the little girl and the one about the children in the woods are more morbid to me than anything.
On the other hand the whole town of posessed people IS creepy, very much so. It would sure freak me out as a player.
I DM'd a game recently where my group of players found themselves in an evil version of the nightclub from Temple of Doom. They were being served by elegant Grimlocks in butler suits and the meals arrived in the animated bodies of large creatures- their bodies had been hollowed out and filled with giant brains. I did have one PC who refused to eat the brains, he explained that it was against his religion. The Grimlock waiter apologised profusely for offending the character and took the meal 'out the back' to the chef, before returning with the 'chef's special for the night- steak, served on a bed of forest salad. Unicorn steak. And he ate it.
They really did deserve it when the grimlocks tried to have the PCs for dessert...
Ooh, and my best one of all. I was playing a d20 Modern/Shadow Chasers game about 5 years ago, and we had a weekend marathon session which was truly awesome (though the sleep deprivation may have helped).
People from the PCs' high school were being found, dead, with particular organs missing. It turned out that a creature was killing these people and taking a token from them to empower his host- so the debating team captain's tongue was cut out, and this guy started being popular and charming. A basketballer's hands were torn off, and the kid could play basketball really well.
Then one of the characters couldn't find her boyfriend after he had walked home the night before. Eventually, they followed the clues and found a terrifying old shack in the woods. As the lone player went down the steps into the darkness, she fumbled around the wooden cellar for some kind of light, and she felt a table in front of her. She felt around and managed to find something on the table, bringing it up to a shaft of light from above... it was a rusty old skinning knife, sticky with congealed blood. The player (now my wife) completely freaked out, and when we walked home with the other players that night (all living in the same town) they all stuck together in a tiny circle so that nothing could get to...
...
Wow. That's pretty impressive. It sounds kind of like an X-files plot, except more creepifying.