FeedBack on a Campaign Idea

[drax75]

So I have decided to start a Horror campaign for the Month of October. This however may stretch on past October as my group of players is so excited by this that I will likely make it my new campaign.

I wanted to get some feedback on an idea I had.

I am planning on setting the game on the plane of Ravenloft but changing is so much so that it basically would be a custom plane of my design and simply using the mechanics of Ravenloft.

So here is the idea; we keep the mists, we keep the dread lords (changed), and we keep the overall tone of a Ravenloft campaign "no way out"
However we re-fluff the rest of it.

So now the mist divides territories just like in Ravenloft, those Territories are still lead by Dark/Dread Lords. Each of these Dark/Dread Lords still molds the territory to their will. Instead of using the traditional Dread Lords we use modern fiction villains/dark Hero's.

For example one territory could be run by Joker or Batman, another could be run by Andrew Ryan, another could be run by Lord Vader, etc.
This would allow me to use any piece of fiction or dark fiction I want and bend it to suit my purpose for the campaign. It also gives my players a goal namely to survive and or to escape the plane.

Imagine a game where you escape Gotham City only to pass through some mists and arrive in Rapture, you run for your life and pass through a bulkhead, and through a mist and emerge in Evil and Twisted Wonderland.

Thoughts?

Keep in mind I also plan to use the Depravity, and taint rules from the "Hero's of Horror" DnD 3.5 book. As well as a modified Wound/Vitality system. I am letting my players play anything they want from any Wizards of the Coast d20 book. I have modern characters, and dnd characters.

[Andezzar]

Keep in mind I also plan to use the Depravity, and taint rules from the "Hero's of Horror" DnD 3.5 book. As well as a modified Wound/Vitality system. I am letting my players play anything they want from any Wizards of the Coast d20 book. I have modern characters, and dnd characters.Not sure how modern and medieval characters will work together. The medieval ones will always be at a disadvantage unless you fiat away most of the modern solutions. On the other hand modern characters cannot really be dependent on equipment simply because they will not have that equipment or at least will run out of resources for that equipment.

I would not copy fictional villains, but use the methodology of fictional villains as an inspiration. Instead of the Joker make another bat-excrement crazy anarchist. Instead of Konrad Curze/Night Haunter make a homicidal vigilante turned ruler etc.

[Captnq]

Been Done?

I find cross-over genre campaigns usually wind up sucking. The one exception being Shadowrun, and mostly that's because they simply refused to give up.

You're running a horror campaign. It loses it's horror when I go, "Oh, it's the Joker." So what do you want people to focus on, the horror, or the guest villian?

How about this. (And I was thinking of running this.) Take one nation from Eberron and have the rest of the planet over run by xoriat. One light in the darkness. Think England during The Blitz during WWII. The evil, insane, aberrations have over run everything outside of X. But for some reason (too insane, too much infighting, too much coffee man) they gibbering horrors can't get organized to over run X.

Then you get to have evil try to corrupt your light in the darkness. Constant fighting against evil. Hyper intolerant inquisitors, that sort of thing.

[drax75]

Those are both really awesome ideas.... I am starting to rethink my current idea on this game.

its good feedback and exactly what i expected to hear honestly. I feel the same way i feel like these cut-ins of peoples favorite games or movies, etc would lessen the over "horror" feel.

My only issue has been that this is what my characters are asking for.... I might have to give into the request for the first session and then find a way to take them to a much darker place.

Or should i scrap my current idea and maybe start from scratch with the ideas you have offered here?

I feel like with my groups relatively limited playing experience that leading them in gently with something they expect and then ripping it away might be a better way to get them into the horror feel. I have played DnD for over a decade some of my players this is their 2nd game.

Thoughts?

[Andezzar]

Talk to them beforehand about your doubts about what they think they want. Ask them, if they really want copies of known villains, or if they'd rather have NPCs inspired by fictional villains. A great part of horror is the unknown. While the PCs might not know that the Batman (just an example) is a vanilla mortal albeit a skilled and well equipped one, the players probably will and separating IC and OOC knowledge is not always easy. Having to do it almost always reduces the horror feel. It will probably become a more tactical and strategic game.

Starting with something they know and then completely twisting it sounds a lot more horrific than another guy with a hockey mask and a chainsaw.

Isn't realizing that one is nigh insignificant in a much larger and more dangerous world a large part of the Lovecraftian style of horror?