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Techsmart
2010-08-25, 07:01 PM
I am starting a horror campaign (using heroes of horror as supplement to my long list of house rules). Early in the game, I have a couple missions set up involving a cult of Rallaster, however, I am having some dilemmas.
1) How do I bring the characters in? I can think of some, such as the murder of a family member, or existing work in a law-enforcement guild, but knowing my luck, I will have a chaotic neutral orphan with no personal ties. If someone has suggestions, I would appreciate them.
2) Hunting cultists is nice, but what are some side-quests I could do to support the main story? Having them go on the main quest advances the plot, but it would be a relief to everyone if I sent them on a random quest from time to time.
3) I will end up having the cultists place a curse on the PCs, that will haunt them, and add to their taint score from time to time. Some things I will include are the occasional nightmare involving Player A decapitating player B and drinking his blood, unusual phobias (sheep? WOOLY DEATH!), unusual sounds, etc. I would appreciate unusual suggestions that would add to the whole mental torture type of thing.
4) is there anywhere else I could go for info on handling horror campaigns other than the heroes of horror supplement?
5) What can I do to help people stay in roleplay mode. I think I got a good group of players, so I think they will be okay, but I don't want to be the reason that they lose that roleplay benefit from the game (especially since roleplay has a major component in this particular game, and is a strong source of XP).

Thanks for any help.

Lord Loss
2010-08-25, 07:19 PM
I am starting a horror campaign (using heroes of horror as supplement to my long list of house rules). Early in the game, I have a couple missions set up involving a cult of Rallaster, however, I am having some dilemmas.
1) How do I bring the characters in? I can think of some, such as the murder of a family member, or existing work in a law-enforcement guild, but knowing my luck, I will have a chaotic neutral orphan with no personal ties. If someone has suggestions, I would appreciate them.
2) Hunting cultists is nice, but what are some side-quests I could do to support the main story? Having them go on the main quest advances the plot, but it would be a relief to everyone if I sent them on a random quest from time to time.
3) I will end up having the cultists place a curse on the PCs, that will haunt them, and add to their taint score from time to time. Some things I will include are the occasional nightmare involving Player A decapitating player B and drinking his blood, unusual phobias (sheep? WOOLY DEATH!), unusual sounds, etc. I would appreciate unusual suggestions that would add to the whole mental torture type of thing.
4) is there anywhere else I could go for info on handling horror campaigns other than the heroes of horror supplement?
5) What can I do to help people stay in roleplay mode. I think I got a good group of players, so I think they will be okay, but I don't want to be the reason that they lose that roleplay benefit from the game (especially since roleplay has a major component in this particular game, and is a strong source of XP).

Thanks for any help.

I'm running call of cthulhu at the moment, and my second session just ended (I ran a HoH campaign a small while back)

I'd really appreciate some background on the setting before I delve into awsering those questions, they vary from campaign to campaign.

Kudaku
2010-08-25, 08:32 PM
Hi there! Good luck with your horror campaign, hope you have fun with it :smallsmile:. I'll see if I can help you with some of your questions.


2) Hunting cultists is nice, but what are some side-quests I could do to support the main story? Having them go on the main quest advances the plot, but it would be a relief to everyone if I sent them on a random quest from time to time.
My experience is mostly with Call of Cthulhu, but I find that mixing in "mundane" assignments with other tasks for the players actually helps to keep them on their toes since they're constantly expecting the worst - use whatever you'd normally feel comfortable in an adventure setting but feel free to throw in the occasional scary/worrying/mysterious/just downright weird element to keep them guessing.


3) I will end up having the cultists place a curse on the PCs, that will haunt them, and add to their taint score from time to time. Some things I will include are the occasional nightmare involving Player A decapitating player B and drinking his blood, unusual phobias (sheep? WOOLY DEATH!), unusual sounds, etc. I would appreciate unusual suggestions that would add to the whole mental torture type of thing
Sounds interesting, just be careful not to take it too far - building the right atmosphere for a horror campaign can be hard, you really don't want to push it over to "absurd" and kill the mood - Black Sheep aside, a "heroic" character with a sheep phobia would definitely classify as a mood-killer for my group :smallbiggrin:. As for unusual suggestions... The Creepy Thread (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19878982/The_new_creepy_events_thread!!!!) has some interesting twists, though you have to dig through quite alot of cliches. Makes for fun reading though!


4) is there anywhere else I could go for info on handling horror campaigns other than the heroes of horror supplement?
There are a variety of horror RPGs out there, but I'm sure we have people on this forum more familiar with those than me so I'll leave those to them. However, as mentioned earlier - call of cthulhu is a popular variant. Yog-Sothoth Forums (http://www.yog-sothoth.com/forum.php) might be worth a spin.


5) What can I do to help people stay in roleplay mode. I think I got a good group of players, so I think they will be okay, but I don't want to be the reason that they lose that roleplay benefit from the game (especially since roleplay has a major component in this particular game, and is a strong source of XP).

The thing to remember about horror games is that they rely heavily on the players working with the game master to make the right atmosphere for the game. There are some tools (lighting, music, props etc) you can use to help make that "feel" come alive, but if your players are determined to make Monthy Python jokes the whole night it's just not gonna happen. It sounds like you have a good bunch of players, so hopefully this shouldn't be too big a problem :smallsmile:.

If I were you I'd talk to my players and tell them what kind of campaign I have in mind, and find out if they actually want to play that (if you haven't already - horror campaigns aren't necessarily for everyone. Provided they agree, just outline some general things you want them to help you with. Limiting ooc chatter at the table is a boon, for instance. Nothing kills the creepy mood like having two of the players discuss the flatulence last week's shrimp & pineapple pizza gave them - especially if you just ordered the same pizza for this week's session.

Lord Vampyre
2010-08-25, 08:47 PM
1) How do I bring the characters in? I can think of some, such as the murder of a family member, or existing work in a law-enforcement guild, but knowing my luck, I will have a chaotic neutral orphan with no personal ties. If someone has suggestions, I would appreciate them.


The best thing to do here is to make sure the players all have an acceptable background. Their background should tie them to the setting, giving them the motivation to want to explore any mysterious circumstance. A horror game more than any other type of game requires you to draw them in and make them care about what's happening.

Now, I would prohibit CN and evil characters in the beginning and make them write a background that had some sort of personal attachments in it. Then start off with a kidnapping rather than a murder, and allow it to escalate from there.

If you have good set of roleplayers, they should understand, especially if they know what kind of game you're going to be running.

Have fun.