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I've had this problem with haunts which I think I've solved satisfactorily for me. I'm sure this was the initial intention with haunts but I find/found it hard to conjure up flavor stories around haunts. Not that I've used it yet, but for instance:
or
I was dealing, personally, with a mix of "oh come on" and "how do I relate this to the players in such a way as to get them to do it".
Enter, the haunt cards! These are cards which are intended to be printed out and handed to your players when they roll appropriate Knowledge rolls about the haunts. I have taken some of the rulings from the Haunts thread where there are 2 rolls - (1) to find out it's a haunt and what it's going to do, how do defend against it and (2) a lore-centric roll (local or history) related to how to actually destroy the haunt.
Each haunt presented in the Haunting of Harrowstone (though I intend to add the other adventures in if they have haunts - I haven't checked yet, still DMing Haunting) has 2 cards - one for each of the rolls.
I have added a fair amount of flavorful text around the legends to actually construct legends that I can hand to players. I suspect the players will read the card and then ad lib the legend themselves. If you glance at the first few and don't find them particularly flavorful, scroll down. I think it gets better.
Take a look, see if you like. If you find any grammar or spelling errors, let me know. Also if you have some better ideas, let me know too (reply here) and I might add in the changes if I like. If you want your own copy (you can just print it in the link) you can copy it yourself and edit it to your heart's content.
Hope you guys enjoy. There are currently 18 pages of cards.
And a final warning, PLAYERS STAY OUT! Haunt destruction conditions are extremely detailed and are not for players to know about!
Note that I largely punt on the Harrowstone-specific haunts as I find it a huge leap of logic to believe anyone would know what the effect of
would do.
Enjoy.
This looks really cool - thanks for the contribution.
I have had some issues wrapping my head around the haunt mechanics and I think this will help.
You just cleared up one worry for me in preparation to running this, thank you for these!
Awesome stuff Ullapool :). I will definitively be using this. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful stuff mate. I'll definitely use this in my next session which will probably feature the first haunt(s) of the campaign.
Like.
However I have to say that my players didnt need that, but thats because they realized that using the Proffesors Libary they can research stuff about haunts. They had a BAD 1st encounter with the Headmen's Syce on the Western side of Harrowstone and then went back to UP there knowhow.
And I have to say I like the idea that they start to use more of their skills then there weapons and realize that research goes a long way. This will be especially important in the next Module (Trial of the Beast).
As for the Headmens Syce...I let them defeat ot in th end by pouring lots of holy Water onto the Behead-stone) that broungt down the hardeness from 10 to 5.
Brilliant!!!!
Thanks for the kind words, all.
As my group is nearing the end of Haunting, I must say I got use out of many of these cards but not all. As you'd expect, some of the haunts are not intended to be run in this module (like the CR20 or something haunted house!). However, when I did hand them out my players role played wonderfully.
It would usually go something like this:
me: Hmmm. Roll K:Religion.
<a few players w/ that knowledge roll, tell me results, I pick the highest one greater than the DC on the cards>
me: So, you know this. <I hand that player the religion-based card>
<usually the player would read it aloud, sometimes they'd read it to themselves and paraphrase / adlib in character>
PC: <describes basically that this is a haunt and what it does>
me: Roll K:Local (or sometimes history)
<I pick the highest roll, greater than the DC and hand that player (often, our archivist bard)>
archivist bard: <role plays telling the tale I relate on the legend card for the haunt>
All in all, it works great and gets around the problem I personally had with haunts in that I found them hard, at the table, to explain.
Cheers.
I somehow missed this the first time you introduced them, but wanted to let you know, Ullapool, that your implementation of the Knowledge skill check suggestions is spot on with these aids. Exceptionally well done and finely executed! Kudos!
Fabulous work, Ulla! I do believe these will help me run better haunts. Thanks for making these cards available to us!
dot
Thank you Ull!! Well done and much appreciated.
Just about to begin HoH and I love these. Kudos from me, too!
I'm running Carrion Crown now as basically a first time GM, this was a nice find to add to the mix! Thanks Ullapool!
Unless someone still has them saved, you may be SOL. But what are you having difficulties with re: haunts? They're definitely weird and confusing.
Remember that in initiative order (and they should be dealt with in initiative) they go on 10 and if a player beats the Perception check to notice it they get a "surprise round" on it. After that it does get really chaotic though...
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Unless someone still has them saved, you may be SOL. But what are you having difficulties with re: haunts? They're definitely weird and confusing.
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I don’t think Antankya was having difficulties per se, as I remember the Haunt cards were very descriptive and useful tools in game.
The DM would privately give the player the Haunt card with a vivid description and the player would roleplay the encounter for the rest of the party. They were quite helpful for the atmosphere of the game.
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Hey folks! I've been getting requests on a daily basis the last few days for these cards and I imagine people are lurking on this thread. Back when I posted these in 2011 I didn't understand how Google docs worked. So the link I shared above required permission to view it (sigh) so everyone who clicks on it sends me a request. I'm so sorry!
Here is a link - do with these what you will, make a copy, edit them up yourself, do something great! Carrion Crown was such a great campaign for my players.
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE HAUNT CARDS THAT SHOULD WORK.
I don't think it is possible to edit my post from 2011 to fix the earlier link, sadly, or else I would replace the link there. Hopefully people will find this post deep in the thread.
I have tested this using different browsers that are not logged into my Google account and it seems to work and let me right into the document.
Happy haunting!
Oh wow, thanks for reposting this! It really is a shame so much of the older community content is inaccessible. Stupid digital decay. I can verify they work on my computer, not logged in to a google account.
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Hey folks! I've been getting requests on a daily basis the last few days for these cards and I imagine people are lurking on this thread. Back when I posted these in 2011 I didn't understand how Google docs worked. So the link I shared above required permission to view it (sigh) so everyone who clicks on it sends me a request. I'm so sorry!
Here is a link - do with these what you will, make a copy, edit them up yourself, do something great! Carrion Crown was such a great campaign for my players.
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE HAUNT CARDS THAT SHOULD WORK.
I don't think it is possible to edit my post from 2011 to fix the earlier link, sadly, or else I would replace the link there. Hopefully people will find this post deep in the thread.
I have tested this using different browsers that are not logged into my Google account and it seems to work and let me right into the document.
Happy haunting!
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Cheers and thanks Ullapool! I put these Haunt Cards to great use when we played though this excellent AP, which was brought to horrific life by all the work the community put in.
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HERE IS THE LINK TO THE HAUNT CARDS THAT SHOULD WORK.
Happy haunting!
Does anyone know how to save this on iBooks on the iPhone X?