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My players would like me to do something special for Haloween. Classic tropes include the players as goblins, Castle Ravenloft, or somesuch...
I've toyed with the idea of running a killer dungeon, with ample character sheets as backup, Ghostwalk by Reynolds, or even an adventure that mashes up all the fun tropes: zombies, pirates, robots etc. Witches and liches are always two popular enemies around Halloween. Perhaps even taking a page from Erik's article, "Monsters of Suck", I could make a classic killer dungeon with all the sucky monsters in it that never see gametime. Enveloper... Carbuncle... lol
It just feels like there's a great idea out there somewhere...
Any advice? I'd like it to be memorable and fun.
My players would like me to do something special for Haloween. Classic tropes include the players as goblins, Castle Ravenloft, or somesuch...
I've toyed with the idea of running a killer dungeon, with ample character sheets as backup, Ghostwalk by Reynolds, or even an adventure that mashes up all the fun tropes: zombies, pirates, robots etc. Witches and liches are always two popular enemies around Halloween. Perhaps even taking a page from Erik's article, "Monsters of Suck", I could make a classic killer dungeon with all the sucky monsters in it that never see gametime. Enveloper... Carbuncle... lolIt just feels like there's a great idea out there somewhere...
Any advice? I'd like it to be memorable and fun.
I've wanted to do a Halloween 1-shot ever since I started playing, but I suck at scary, and I want to run something that will cause chills and make my players beg me to turn the lights back on. I can't come up with anything though. My roommates have been watching a lot of horror films lately, and thus far, nothing has been scary so much as silly. Things startle us, but that's a weak substitute for fear, and it's a cheap cop-out.
I too am interested in any ideas this forum has to offer for such a game.
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My players would like me to do something special for Haloween...
It just feels like there's a great idea out there somewhere...
Any advice? I'd like it to be memorable and fun.
I could help better if you'd narrow it down a bit. Players as goblins is pretty good, for example, but players as trick-or-treating goblins would be even better.
Personally, if you want it to be really special, I'd advise sticking with the players own characters. You need an attachment to be there for it to work. Otherwise you'll need to work up a reason why the people at your table care about those goblins.
One-shots are good. And since the origin of Haloween is the last night of evil before All Saints Day, I'd go for that. Evil arisen and looming.
Anyway, narrow it just a tad, please... :)
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I've wanted to do a Halloween 1-shot ever since I started playing, but I suck at scary, and I want to run something that will cause chills and make my players beg me to turn the lights back on. I can't come up with anything though. My roommates have been watching a lot of horror films lately, and thus far, nothing has been scary so much as silly. Things startle us, but that's a weak substitute for fear, and it's a cheap cop-out.I too am interested in any ideas this forum has to offer for such a game.
For horror support, run by your local game store and grab a used copy of the 3e Ravenloft book. Should be about $10 or so. I can recap some of what's in it here, but it's a good read...
A) You need to establish a feeling of powerlessness. The enemy needs to be unstoppable and the PCs lucky to have lived to tell the tale.
B) Evil needs to be 'corrupted good'. The big bad needs a back story that matters, and preferably should reflect someone in the party as an example of what they might become.
C) Do not present combat against anything other than mooks...
There's more, but I don't have the book in front of me.
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Sky is the limit, really. Just fishing for a great haloween idea.
I've got Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, but I've also got the original Hickman module I ran when it came out in the 1980s.
The creepiest horror recently in my games, is all the aberrations in the current campaign. James Jacobs knows his stuff, and I draw upon his works both with PAIZO and previous works.
I've always like the tale of the headless horseman. And I've always thought willo-the-wisps on the moors with lots of fog and forest was inspiring imagery.
I'm thinking out loud here... but what about a classic haunted house.
I. PCs are asked to attend an important dinner party by someone already established in the campaign.
II. They arrive one dark moonlit, but overcast night as a fog rolls in, howling is heard, and strange lights can be seen in the distance.
III. Dinner is pleasant - perhaps then a murder mystery, disappearances, and intrigue?
IV. Secret passages, with some creepy creatures, and further investigation.
V. Perhaps the whole area is being swallowed up into a dark demi-plane of horrors. Perhaps the timing of this temporal incident is designed to destroy all the characters and their leige.
VII. PC get to the bottom of it all - after investigating the nearby graveyard?
VIII. Final battle with a witch or a lich, or something quite creepy.
IX. Evil is so powerful, that the PCs don't actually "win", but rather "save their friends" while the house and the surrounding area become permanently defiled with necromantic magic, thus unleashing much more undead villians into the realm. (dark ending, with glimmer of more adventure to be had?
... again, just thinking out loud. I'm open to ideas.
I ususally just throw a motif into my scheduled game.
"All the children are going from door to door...." type stuff.
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Other suggestions to draw inspiration from or use:
Rise of Runelords issue "Hook Mountain Massacre"
Any of the new Carrion Crown issues.
Pathfinder Module "Headman's Noose".
Yes James knows horror well. As a fellow big fan of Hellraiser, I can say he knows how to incorporate it well. Which was a big influence on Zon-Kuthon.
Robert
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Other suggestions to draw inspiration from or use:
Rise of Runelords issue "Hook Mountain Massacre"
Any of the new Carrion Crown issues.
Pathfinder Module "Headman's Noose".
Yes James knows horror well. As a fellow big fan of Hellraiser, I can say he knows how to incorporate it well. Which was a big influence on Zon-Kuthon.
Robert
Hmmmn. Great point, Robert. Off hand, do you know which of James' works would best suit a hearty L12 adventuring party who can handle up to APL+3?
With enough time leading up to it, you could greatly condense the first chapter of the carrion crown AP. Zombies, crazy stuff happening, and a haunted prison.