Anyone run a horror / mystery adventure?

[czarofprussia]

Hey all,
So I am launching a new campaign next Friday the 13th. Since it is Friday the 13th I thought it would be fun to do a spoof off the horror movie. Set at a remote camp, maybe an orc with mask that runs around killing people. Or maybe a creature in the water. I could even incorporate elements from other horror movies to.

So, that being said, anyone ever run anything like that? How did it go? What went wrong etc? Or even a mystery scenario? (I want to do a Clue spoof sometime too.)

Thanks!

[Necromancer]

As far as the Voorhees scenario goes, I've never tried to include pop horror icons into a campaign. Sometimes bizarre connections were made, but I've never intended that to be the case. If you go this route, use something besides an orc. Maybe a dæmonic cult was recently blessed with a surprise piscodæmon visit and decided to placate their guest with offerings. They grab said offerings by hiding out in a nearby bog and kidnap lone travelers. The cultists (seen as respectable citizens during the day) wear pieces of bleached giant crustacean chitin as masks. Just an idea.

I use "horror" themes on a regular basis, so I might be little too jaded to notice when it ends and when it begins.

Unrelated:
I've run Hangman's Noose in an abandoned coastal town and on a space station with few differences (ignoring plasma weaponry, Extranet connectivity, and spray-on LCD displays), so setting shouldn't be a problem. A good module--offers mystery, horror, and kicks off at level one.

I tried running Carrion Hill as a one-shot and it mutated into its own short-lived campaign.

[magikot]

I have run multiple horror campaigns (none like what you are talking about though).

The key to a successful horror campaign, IMO, is to make players play around in the grey areas of morality. They should ask themselves how far they are willing to go and then find themselves in a situation where that line may need to be crossed to save the lives of thousands. Let the atmosphere convey a sense of dread and remove or alter the alignment detection spells. For example, the Lawful Evil sociopath wouldn't register to the Paladin's detect evil spell when serving food to the homeless, but he would while pouring poison into the soup kettle. Often the villains in a horror campaign begin as trusted allies.

In a normal campaign a group of adventurer's storm the devil's stronghold, free the captured villagers, and return them home for rewards and glory. In a horror campaign the villagers are in various states of pregnancy or nursing newborns; the devil was using them to breed a fiendish army and increase his influence in Hell. Now the PCs need to make a choice: Slay everyone to stop the corrupting influence of the Devil, abort the pregnancies and slay the half-fiendish infants, or allow all to go free and hope that the goodness of the villagers is enough to counter the influence of Hell coursing through the veins and souls of the children.

If you want to run a slasher flick campaign (or one shot) I would suggest you use cut-scenes. Imagine the players come upon a ransacked cabin in the woods, they search it and find a couple clues, you cut away to describing Mr. Slasher Orc dragging a screaming and bruised woman through the woods by her hair. Now there is a sense of urgency to the action. The PCs need to find her in a set number of rounds or they will only find her corpse while the masked orc is looking for his next victim at the lake-side summer camp.

Keep your player's comfort levels in mind for a horror campaign. You want to make them slightly uncomfortable, but not to a point where they no longer want to play. If you notice your gory details are making people fidget in their seats, you are going too far and need to tone it down.

Hope this helps.

[-Anvil-]

czarofprussia wrote:

Hey all,

So, that being said, anyone ever run anything like that? How did it go? What went wrong etc? Or even a mystery scenario? (I want to do a Clue spoof sometime too.)
Thanks!

I have run many horror campaigns, never anything taken directly from pop culture though. 3.5 has a nice book I think it's called Heroes of Horror and while you may not want to use any old 3.5 mechanics the book has a lot of nice advice on just what is horror, the different kinds of horror and how to run a successful horror campaign.

Two of the keys to a good horror campaign are the following-

1. PC's should always have a lack of knowledge about what is going on around them. The fear of not knowing is the worst possible fear and your players will work hard to try and piece together what is happening. Give them information only in little spurts, enough to keep them on edge and moving towards the next little piece of the gruesome puzzle. It also helps to make it seem like the villain is always one step ahead of them and increases their sense of helplessness in the face of overwhelming horror.

2. Details, details, details. To highten the sense of horror describe the scenes in horrific detail. Include little things like 'a small black shadow scurries across the top of the stairs and as your torchlight falls on it you see a rat tail dissapearing around the corner'. This sentence has nothing to do with the overall story but everything to do with setting the mood.

Hope that helps.

[Wildonion]

It is also important to have a clear idea of what is going on and what you intend to have happen to your players. Unlike other games, where it is pretty easy to just wing it when players get off the beaten track, a horror game works better when you know everything about the story and how the players should react. You will have greater control over how they are feeling and, to increase their confusion, can hand out information that is not yet relevant and will only serve to intrigue and baffle them for several sessions.

[meatrace]

magikot wrote:

Keep your player's comfort levels in mind for a horror campaign. You want to make them slightly uncomfortable, but not to a point where they no longer want to play....

That you even think of this tells me your group is radically different than mine. :)

[czarofprussia]

meatrace wrote:

magikot wrote:

Keep your player's comfort levels in mind for a horror campaign. You want to make them slightly uncomfortable, but not to a point where they no longer want to play....

That you even think of this tells me your group is radically different than mine. :)

Cool all great advice! Thanks guys (and gals?) I'll brainstorm and think about it. I really like the idea of having a set amount of rounds, and maybe having a cult that is in on it.

[Nicos]

dotting

and

Is realatively easy to cause fear in the players but is very hard to maintain it.

[Brambleman]

Check out the Hook Mountain Massacre. Its got a good horror vibe to it.

[Paladin of Baha-who?]

My players tend to be terrified that any chest I put out for them is a mimic. One of these days, hopefully after they've gotten used to the idea that not every chest is a mimic, one will turn out to be!