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View Full Version : Cursed toys on the playground



Calanon
2011-10-23, 02:42 PM
Hello everybody, I am hosting a horror game with some of my players and I wanted it to give a sense of mystery and surprise so i thought what is the least frightening thing that anyone could see as to where i thought instantly "a random toy" so I need your help (or just inspire the idea) These toys can be based off of any toy you've ever seen it just needs to do something that would make someone question everything that is going on.

The Game is going to be based in a standard house with the players being family members (standard Mom, Dad, Little Timmy and Sarah) all of them being commoners lvl 5 so don't go to crazy, i wanna scare the crap out of my players not kill them... but killing them is indeed an option :smalltongue:

TheCountAlucard
2011-10-23, 02:48 PM
Like what, a single skate, sized for a child, that has a way of appearing on or at the top of a set of stairs someone is about to traverse? :smallamused:

Shinizak
2011-10-23, 02:58 PM
Not really a toy, but a table that when placed any where in the house casts a shadow, no matter from what light source is present or in what intensity. when not observed it creates a dent in the floor which after a while grows into a deep pit. the table cannot be broken and won't be able to fit through any door or window after it's entered. as the pit grows it will begin to make noises along with weird paranormal activity regarding the hole.

The Glyphstone
2011-10-23, 02:58 PM
"My name is Talky Tina and I love you very much.":smallbiggrin:

Calanon
2011-10-23, 03:04 PM
Like what, a single skate, sized for a child, that has a way of appearing on or at the top of a set of stairs someone is about to traverse? :smallamused:

Now, you see that can PROBABLY kill someone from just the fall damage so its highly unlikely that I'll use that >_> appreciate the enthusiasm however :smallsmile:



"My name is Talky Tina and I love you very much.":smallbiggrin:

NO! NO SCARY DOLLS! however I have no problem of using a slaymate to scare the crap out them :smallamused: again, love the enthusiasm

The Glyphstone
2011-10-23, 03:07 PM
No scary doll? How about a Creepy Doll? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTSkWnKs9rM)

Aergoth
2011-10-23, 03:09 PM
A set of ladderback chairs that slide under doorknobs?

Kol Korran
2011-10-23, 03:12 PM
kind of obligatory, frightened the hell out of me as a kid. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-EIAtSX3VM&feature=related)

other stuff:

- a fluffy animal (turtle? sheep? doggy?) who has real teeth now.

- a music box that plays a happy little song that may cause various effects: animating objects to attack the family (knives, closet, and the like) or perhaps affecting the family itself- making them slow, or perhaps sick, or vomit blood, or go blind and the like. the music box could be hid somewhere it the house, but it's muci echoes through out the entire house, sort of "spell at a distance". the family may need to find it to stop it.

bonus points if you look for songs and play them at battles and such.

- a kite, that starts flying on it's own, it's string grabbing and trying to suffocate the family. it flies out of reach of melee, but ti's cords may be torn apart (a frail "monster toy" mostly for creepy affect)

- sheets with holes for eyes, used to dress up as ghosts. time to have "real" ghosts. (fear affects, can smother the PC, and flies about)

- chess pieces (carved ones looking like real men and women): they attack in unison, far tougher to destroy then appear, they keep on attacking (but for small damage), moving a bit like their regular chess piece. the queen may cast simple spells (magic missile? or command?) they don't stop till the king is destroyed (the only one that has HP, but that doesn't pose a threat)

-decks of cards: like 1 square swarms, razor sharp, flying and cutting all around you but with very little actual damage. a bugger to get rid of though.

hope this helps
Kol.

Calanon
2011-10-23, 03:13 PM
No scary doll? How about a Creepy Doll? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTSkWnKs9rM)

Cmon, you guys better pick it up! Glyphstone is already scarying the crap out of me :smalleek: (Alright so how would a creepy doll work?)

Merging the creepy doll with the fanged stuff animal to give it a bite attack (Every night the players go to sleep they awaken with bite marks)

The music box is a phenomenal idea :smallbiggrin: but alas there will be 0 fighting as they are only commoners and if i were to make them fight anything it would probably be something that could easily slaughter them (or possess them...)

Cespenar
2011-10-23, 03:16 PM
A wooden toy horse, rocking on and off ever so slightly on its own accord?

Xanmyral
2011-10-23, 03:19 PM
Have a teddy bear. Perfectly normal, clean, pressed, dried, perfect in any way. Normal sized as well. Anytime something creepy, weird, or scary happens roll a spot check in secret for the players. If it wins, they see the bear. The bear is always around when bad things happen, even if no one has messed with it at all. If they destroy it, the next time something bad happens the chance to spot it is less, and it is in disrepair. Like say, they burn it, it shows up with some of it's fur singed and slightly smelling of soot but little more. If they cut it in pieces, it has faint stitches where they first cut it.

Don't explain anything about the bear, at all, other than it is an ordinary bear. When it is damaged enough, have it show up every now and then but only describe it in passing. If the players ask to interact with it, looked at them in surprise and ask them what they mean, you never said anything about a bear. Make sure to keep proper time distance between false leads though, or they will just ignore it. Have random objects turn into the bear, like say the Mcguffin. But when examined again, it is the object again, completely normal as if nothing happened.

The piece of perfection though, during one of your games buy a bear, damage it in the way it was in the game, hide it in your gaming room somewhere where it won't be immediately spotted. Like, say, somewhere up high where a lot of people don't look at. Bonus points if you hide a message inside of the bear that pertains to the campaign.

Calanon
2011-10-23, 03:26 PM
Have a teddy bear. Perfectly normal, clean, pressed, dried, perfect in any way. Normal sized as well. Anytime something creepy, weird, or scary happens roll a spot check in secret for the players. If it wins, they see the bear. The bear is always around when bad things happen, even if no one has messed with it at all. If they destroy it, the next time something bad happens the chance to spot it is less, and it is in disrepair. Like say, they burn it, it shows up with some of it's fur singed and slightly smelling of soot but little more. If they cut it in pieces, it has faint stitches where they first cut it.

Don't explain anything about the bear, at all, other than it is an ordinary bear. When it is damaged enough, have it show up every now and then but only describe it in passing. If the players ask to interact with it, looked at them in surprise and ask them what they mean, you never said anything about a bear. Make sure to keep proper time distance between false leads though, or they will just ignore it. Have random objects turn into the bear, like say the Mcguffin. But when examined again, it is the object again, completely normal as if nothing happened.

The piece of perfection though, during one of your games buy a bear, damage it in the way it was in the game, hide it in your gaming room somewhere where it won't be immediately spotted. Like, say, somewhere up high where a lot of people don't look at. Bonus points if you hide a message inside of the bear that pertains to the campaign.

You sir, are a mad genius :smallsmile:

Xanmyral
2011-10-23, 03:31 PM
Another tip, never let them keep the bear. If they take it, when they look away have it vanish. Mess with it's perspective, like say have it be far away but look like it is close in relation to size. So far away it looks huge, but as you get closer the size stays the same but the distance changes. I would only do this once however.

EDIT: Clarification because I worded that oddly.

If you were looking at a basketball right next to you, imagine if it was twenty feet away from you but look the same size. As you get closer though, it looks like it is shrinking because distance isn't affecting it's size for some reason.

AslanCross
2011-10-26, 06:04 AM
No scary doll? How about a Creepy Doll? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTSkWnKs9rM)

To build on this:
http://static.starcitygames.com/sales/cardscans/MAG_ISD/CreepyDoll.jpg

A child's porcelain doll went missing one night, along with a pair of kitchen shears and the town magistrate.

Hyudra
2011-10-26, 07:02 AM
A top that, when set to spin, doesn't stop. Anyone who tries to force it to stop experiences what feels like a bite before the top skitters off into the darkness too fast for the eye to follow.

It could show up later. Still spinning, in a room. Abruptly, it falls over, and the players get just a few moments to comment before a nasty thing attacks them from behind.

Morghen
2011-10-26, 07:42 AM
A jack-in-the-box that operates as standard until the jack pops out.

Instead of the jack popping out, the box stays closed but the entire house goes pitch black. After a few moments they can hear a giant spring flexing somewhere in the house.

If they don't open the box in time, they get attacked by the jack, maybe?
Or maybe the lights just come back on before whatever-it-is gets to them.

The Succubus
2011-10-26, 08:44 AM
A snowglobe could work well.

It contains a house that's almost-but-not-quite the same as the one the players live in. At night, it emits a soft glow and the snow falls even when no-one has touched it. When the player looks closer, they start to make out more details - slight flickers of shadow that could be mistaken for lights in the house and perhaps something moving from room to room, making the lights go out, getting closer and then the real lights go out and the glow stops, plunging the real room into darkness....

:smallamused:

Further thought - if you *really* wanted to turn the screw, so to speak, when the lights come back on, the person watching the snowglobe has vanished, although there is the quietest of noises coming from somewhere that, if your imagination turned that way, sounds almost like a very small person screaming for help....

Anxe
2011-10-26, 08:55 AM
Monkeys in a Barrel that always form nooses when taken out of the barrel.

Unseenmal
2011-10-29, 08:17 AM
I got this from the Stephen King story Battleground...

Story summary
Renshaw is a professional hit-man who returns from his assassination of a toy-maker to find a package delivered to his penthouse apartment. The package contains a G.I. Joe Vietnam Footlocker, sent to him by the mother of the toy-maker he had recently killed. When he opens the package he finds that the toy soldiers are alive with working copies (albeit miniature) of weapons, jeeps, and helicopters. To Renshaw's surprise the tiny soldiers begin to attack him. At one point, the toy soldiers even offer him the chance to surrender on a small sheet of paper passed under a door, Renshaw does not and is then attacked with more force. Renshaw plots to attack the soldiers with a Molotov cocktail constructed from a bottle of lighter fluid, but before the cocktail detonates the entire apartment explodes, and kills him. At the very end of the story, a couple finds Renshaw's bloody t-shirt, and the other contents of the footlocker are revealed, including one made-to-scale thermonuclear weapon, which was what ultimately killed Renshaw.

For a quicker idea instead of reading the story, they made a tv movie about it...
"Battleground" was converted to a teleplay for the television series Nightmares & Dreamscapes. It starred William Hurt as Renshaw the assassin. There is no dialogue in the entire episode.

The episode featured a longer ending than the short story, in which Renshaw is attacked again and makes it out of the penthouse for a final showdown in the elevator shaft with an angry plastic commando. Renshaw defeats the final commando, only to find it had armed a thermonuclear weapon that then explodes and kills him.


So instead of being a hitman, maybe the little girl or boy in the house finds a doll or action figure and the toy soldiers go to war to reclaim it. The damage they do doesn't need to be lethal but it could make for an interesting encounter or series of encounters

QuidEst
2011-10-29, 12:59 PM
Creepy teddy bears are the best. For a while, I considered making a character who had a teddy bear she'd slit open and sewn back together… inside out, with all the seams showing.

If you want a little more menace to the already brilliant bear idea, have the needle and thread go missing. Nobody will notice, of course- don't expect them to. But then start having clothing go missing. Find pillows slit and unstuffed, perhaps other stuffed animals as well. Then have another teddy bear show up. One who's fabric doesn't all match, but is familiar…

Ravens_cry
2011-10-29, 01:02 PM
For the men in the audience: A Nutcracker.
The implications should be obvious judging by the winces I am seen.

enderlord99
2011-10-29, 06:20 PM
A snowglobe could work well.

It contains a house that's almost-but-not-quite the same as the one the players live in. At night, it emits a soft glow and the snow falls even when no-one has touched it. When the player looks closer, they start to make out more details - slight flickers of shadow that could be mistaken for lights in the house and perhaps something moving from room to room, making the lights go out, getting closer and then the real lights go out and the glow stops, plunging the real room into darkness....

:smallamused:

Further thought - if you *really* wanted to turn the screw, so to speak, when the lights come back on, the person watching the snowglobe has vanished, although there is the quietest of noises coming from somewhere that, if your imagination turned that way, sounds almost like a very small person screaming for help....


A dollhouse that is an almost-perfect replica of the house it's in. It is slightly off, and creepier than the real house, however. It contains a miniature version of itself, with the same properties (those properties are: slightly creepier than the one it's in, almost identical to the house it's in, contains a miniature version of itself with the same properties...). After they stare at it a long time -which they can't avoid doing (magical compulsion)- they notice the innermost house is horribly scary, and the next layer is, instead of a house, a pile of ash. The first dollhouse then turns to ash, and they notice that the main house is now exactly like the innermost layer of the former dollhouse... Except, something's off...

Reluctance
2011-10-29, 08:41 PM
D&D is hardly the best system for both modern gaming and horror. You might be better off either finding some rules-lite engine, or freeforming entirely.

Speaking of gaming, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned miniatures that seem to move when nobody is looking. Some of those things can be ookier than your average doll.

Magic 8 ball. Especially if you can think of innocuous phrases that sound/look like especially dark ones. Ditto for fortune cookies, or anything that's supposed to have a random positive message.

And never underestimate electronics. Having the TV/radio turn on in the middle of a suitable story is a classic. Finding a good hiding place only to have your phone start ringing helps undercut the players' sense of relief.