I am a bit bummed out. While I would love to run RotRL with my group, I can't. The problem...the haunted house encounter.I have one player who is completely irrational about haunted houses.
Since I have no desire to cause her weeks worth of nightmares nor her husband the misery of dealing with her having weeks worth of nightmares, it looks like this is a "no go" unless I can come up with a way to do this adventure "off screen" and just have them all jump in after it is completed.
Any suggestions?
Yeah. Don't run the haunted house part.
Seriously. If that's the only problem you have with running this series then just eliminate the haunted stuff. Does she have a problem with dungeon crawls? If not, just turn it in to a dungeon crawl in a ruined house. Just leave the hauntings out. Replace them with hazards, like ruined floorboards and steps, mold infested walls, lots of ghouls running around the place, etc., etc.
Problem solved.
If it's the house itself, well just change it in to a ruined Thassilonian outpost or something that the PCs have to nose around (facing the undead crows and ghouls while they're at it) until they find a secret entrance down to where the meaty part of that section is. A tumbled stone ruin should be very unhaunted house like.
Good luck!
What's the age/maturity of this group? Could you give them a choice? Maybe she'd sit out the session and let everyone else play the haunted house.
There are lots of reasons why that might be inappropriate, of course, but it's a great bit and the rest of them might enjoy it.
Plot-wise,
No! What you do is pump it up. Set the lighting in the room down low, have speakers in the darken corners making whispering sounds of children playing, have blood drip on the battle mat during suspenseful parts right before you let our a dreaded scream of panic. Now that the frightened player is dead you can play the remaining four hours of gaming without worries.
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Change it up a little. Don’t use words like “ghosts,” "cursed," or “haunted” and just flip in terms like “out of phase.” Maybe the whole place is the result of some botched research into another plane.
I think Slimy Steve has a good take on it, just play it as a dungeon and have the manor burnt or fallen into the sea, it seems such a shame for you to miss out on later adventures.
If this doesn't work for you, come back to me and I'll think about a quick twist myself, I don't want anyone missing out on comparing skinsaw to the erm, other thing that trails after it (in more senses than one).
Mnaaaaaaaaaaaaar.
Rich
How about relocating Aldern and some allies to a lair underneath Sandpoint cemetery?
Dispense with the illusions and add minions (undead, deluded mortal followers) to take the place of the various haunted traps.
I've got a similar situation, except with Cages of Delirium. What I told my player was that she could read the module beforehand and tell me if she'd be okay with running it. If she wasn't okay with it, then I wouldn't run it. If we did run it, I'd ask that she not tell the other players and to role play character knowledge, not player knowledge.
It helps to manage their fears, which are real and not to be underestimated.
Yeah, just take out the haunts and fill it with undead. Let them hack their way through the thing.
Also, be warned: Later in the AP, there will be another series of haunts. But as with Skinsaw, you can easily change those - they play an even lesser part there as in Skinsaw.
I'm curious, though: Why does she fear haunted houses? Some history with spooky houses or something?
I think Slimy Steve has a good take on it, just play it as a dungeon and have the manor burnt or fallen into the sea, it seems such a shame for you to miss out on later adventures.
If this doesn't work for you, come back to me and I'll think about a quick twist myself, I don't want anyone missing out on comparing skinsaw to the erm, other thing that trails after it (in more senses than one).
Mnaaaaaaaaaaaaar.
Rich
The love you guys feel for each other is truly heart-warming!