Hello all
I am looking a running a horror game over 2 nights during Halloween, I have been semi-regularly running a Carrion Crown game but due to exam and assignments I might not have my normal player this weekend so I am looking at running a sci-fi-ish horror game set in Numeria. I am somewhat of an old hat at Pathfinder but I have never run/played much in Glorarion before (aside from the aforementioned Carrion Crown) and I am using the 3.5 Campaign setting as I don't have the Inner Sea World Guide yet.
These have been the ideas I have had so far:
- I was going to have the players as bodyguards to a group of Technic League wizards as they investigate a newly discovered starship.
- I wanted to include some automations as extra body guards so they can rogue part way in.
- The villain was going to be an oracle of the Dark Tapestry (NPC healer of the party) that worships "The Master in the Silver Mountain" and turns on them almost straight way after killing the Techic League wizards.
- I am still torn as to what "The Master in the Silver Mountain" should be. I was thinking either evil consciousness (something like Event Horizon) or something more Eldritch-horror-ish that the owners of the Starships had captured but it drove them all insane and they crashed.
- Either way the story line goes I was going to have the ship they are in as the containment ship for the creatures they captured while traveling. So weird looking aliens and what not.
- Finally I want this to end badly for the players. Even if they survive I don't want them to have the clean happy ending.
I would greatly appreciate any advice as to what I might able to do to make it run better and any options you guys might have. I might be a bit slow in replying as won't be near an internet connection very frequently over the next few days.
Thanks
Hey, Narrac Sarra. Some general thoughts…
Haunts. They are just awesome in general and really add to a horror theme.
Illusions are nice too. If someone is controlling them, they can be quite realistic – reacting to what is going on as you’d expect. With a little luck you can get the PCs to expend some valuable resources before they see through the trick. Then see if they don’t get paranoid about everything being an illusion.
Skill checks. For a lot of characters a simple climb check can be scary in the right situation, like over a pit full of radiated goo. Skills you want to try and incorporate: acrobatics, climb, escape artist, ride, stealth and swim. I doubt a party exists that doesn’t have PCs weak in at least one of these. Also linguistics, the complicated machine they have to shut down has written instructions… in a poorly written bastardized version of infernal and the bit after, “Caution! Whatever you do, don’t…” might be important. Not only are skill checks humbling, but the precautions necessary to mitigate their dangers/make them unnecessary either take time or resources or both. That is also why having a variety of skill challenges is important. For example fly is awesome but it doesn’t help you swim underwater, squeeze through awkward portals, or wriggle out of a cage.
Keep the "The Master in the Silver Mountain" as vague and unknowable as possible. No need to have any idea of what it actually is beyond its powerful, Evil, and drives everything it comes into contact with insane.
And if you can fit it in, cute-cuddly stuff. Big-eyed dolls, whimpering puppies, giggling toddlers, a little girl singing nursery rhymes… Really anything that is out of place on the evil ship o’ insanity and death – lusty beautiful women/men or bountiful feast tables can work just as well.
Something that in my experience guarantees the PCs have a rough go of it, in three parts:
1. An object that continually ‘summons’ creatures to attack PCs, say every 1d4 rounds or so. They must fight their way to the object and destroy it or the creatures won’t stop coming. Bonus points if it also grants a debuff, confusion or blindness are good ones. Double bonus points if it is hard to figure out what object is doing the summoning, say a particular mirror in a mirror-maze room.
2. Difficult ‘terrain’. Sheer ledges, entangling mech-vines, razor wire, poisoning gases, underwater areas, narrow hallways, low ceilings, alarms that draw unwanted attention, you get the idea.
3. Make it hard to rest or escape. High chance of random encounters while resting. Really small creatures and incorporeals can get into pretty much anywhere. Maybe the starship flys into the air trapping them on it or every exit is behind multiple self-sealing trapped doors or other serious hazard. Yes, spells can get them around a lot of this, but every spell used is a resource expended.
Well, without knowing the level of the party, it's hard to recommend things exactly. But I generally use aberrations and oozes when I do Sci Fi stuff.
For the King of the Silver Mountain, I might recommend a captured Shoggoth, whose powers are limited while it remains caged at the center of the ship (for a high-level party). If it's a low level party, I might recommend something like a gibbering mouther, whose powers are amplified through the ship's technology while it remains caged. Either way allows you to adjust the nasty to the level of the party, and explains why the previous crew went crazy (all that gibbering), and the technology explains how the creature communicates telepathically with its disciple (whose goal should be to coerce the party into helping to free it).
Other creatures in the interstellar menagerie might include things like gricks, and probably your automatons could be gimped clockwork golems or some such.
If they free the King, it will go on a rampage, which gives you your dirty ending. Otherwise, people might end up insane from the whole thing, which might work, too.
A lot of useful stuff
Thanks for that GoldenOpal, I will keep all of that in mind. I really like the idea of illusions and skill checks being deadlier. I will definitely keep "The Master in the Silver Mountain" vague I think.
I have also been thinking for having an NPC Psion member of the research team survive to help with some of the more tech based stuff but have him slowly sabotage the party, I'm hoping this will build up an atmosphere of mistrust and confusion.(if I have learned one thing it is that a Psion hidden among a crowd is really unnerving).
Well, without knowing the level of the party, it's hard to recommend things exactly. But I generally use aberrations and oozes when I do Sci Fi stuff.
For the King of the Silver Mountain, I might recommend a captured Shoggoth, whose powers are limited while it remains caged at the center of the ship (for a high-level party). If it's a low level party, I might recommend something like a gibbering mouther, whose powers are amplified through the ship's technology while it remains caged. Either way allows you to adjust the nasty to the level of the party, and explains why the previous crew went crazy (all that gibbering), and the technology explains how the creature communicates telepathically with its disciple (whose goal should be to coerce the party into helping to free it).
Other creatures in the interstellar menagerie might include things like gricks, and probably your automatons could be gimped clockwork golems or some such.
If they free the King, it will go on a rampage, which gives you your dirty ending. Otherwise, people might end up insane from the whole thing, which might work, too.
Thanks for that.
It is looking like it will be about 7th level but even then a Shoggoth or even a Star-Spawn of Chuthlu could work as they would only be interacting with it indirectly and if they do meet it face to face it isn't hard to have it weakened and them escape (or die).
I was thinking along the lines of aberrations and oozes as well plus possibly using the new race creations rules or templates to bring in the a previous research team as twisted, insane creatures. Either way I will most likely steal some stuff from Wake of the Watcher.
Thanks again for the ideas, I will defiantly use them.
