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bugsysservant
2007-07-11, 05:56 PM
I'm thinking of running a horror campaign and want to know: how feasible is this with d&d? I have looked through Heroes of Horror, but that seems more up to providing brief adventures, or spicing up undead encounters. The only long running mechanical change it made would be taint, which, frankly, is a bit ridiculous, and I wouldn't use it anyway. ("You failed a fort. save after wandering into some dark woods. You're now gross looking")
My instinct would be to look into CoC, but I have never played, nor do I know much about it, and would prefer to not have to buy another game. Are there any major tweaks that can be made to D&D that would make it less "high fantasy"-ish? Are they even needed?

Edit: Yeah, my intention was more along the lines of "the darkness of human souls" than "you hit the vampire. It dies" Also, one of he best rule variants (IMO) in Heroes of Horror was that for ressurection to work you need someone of the same alignment to sacrifice themselves, to bring back the dead character, and I thought that was most appropriate. I think removing clerics would be a bit exteme though.

Ceres
2007-07-11, 06:17 PM
Hmm, I seldom recommend D&D for anything other than what I believe it was built for: Dungeon crawling, the joy of increasing in power and balance (somewhat). A horror campaign designed to strike actual fear into your players should involve uncertainty (where not having the rules set in stone is beneficial), and have them fleeing in fear more than fighting. For this I would suggest a system that you can tweak to fit your demands, such as the generic rpgs GURPS and FUDGE (free download here (http://www.fudgerpg.com/fudge.html)).

Although, if you want more of a D&D-style campaign based around combat, and your intention is not to scare your players, but to have fun playing D&D in a horror-setting you probably just need to do some homebrewing.

So which is it? What kind of horror-campaign are you intending to build?

Knight_Of_Twilight
2007-07-11, 06:40 PM
Horror Campaigns can work in D&D, you just need some tweaking.

Low or No Magic, no ways to bring characters back to life. In fact, I think its best to eliminate clerics and other healers outright. Describe the monsters instead of saying what they are. DR is suddenly really frightening without ways around it.

Every encounter becomes more dangerous, descisions are more important, etc. Oh, and don't let up on them. You don't need to murderize your players, but don't let them rest too long, no fudging rolls for them.

Justyn
2007-07-11, 07:03 PM
The Call of Cthulhu and Heroes of horror have great information for a horror campaign. I think that the sanity point system is really good for horror: "You just saw somthing that defies all logic: you go catatonic and need to change your pants."

But, like it says on the first page of Erfworld: It's the little things which make a difference sometimes. Make sure that the room that you are playing in is dimly lit; enough to read the books, but not enough for every feature in the room to be seen clearly: candles can do this pretty well. Make sure that you don't go into obscene detail on the monsters, and make sure that the monsters stay out of sight for as long as possible, remeber, what is not seen can sometimes be more frightening than what is blatently obvious.

Krimm_Blackleaf
2007-07-11, 07:05 PM
I like using this thread for ideas. (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=166882)

SpikeFightwicky
2007-07-11, 07:08 PM
d20 isn't the best choice for a horror game, but as the others said, it's possible.

I definitely agree that healing, rezzing and high magic can sometimes spoil the feeling of terror (An unspeakable thing appears before you! Ok, I cast time stop and then force cage, then etc....).

IMO, one of the biggest obstacles is the fact that EVERYTHING in D&D has a rule for it. Horror games work well 'rules lite' because it gives more power to the GM to do things that don't mesh well with the rules.

mikeejimbo
2007-07-11, 07:10 PM
Depending on your players, I would suggest somehow getting them into a situation where it makes perfect sense, in character, for them to perform an extremely evil act. My theory here is that the most horrific experience would be to see just how far you're willing to go.

It wouldn't work with my group. We're infinitely selfish and evil.

Winterwind
2007-07-11, 07:12 PM
I once stumbled (don't even know how) onto this page (http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html) here, which contains all works of Lovecraft plus a lot more of the classic horror stories, like Shelley's Frankenstein or Stoker's Dracula.

Awesome for inspiration.

Also, good to get into Call of Cthulhu (which I can wholeheartedly recommend, at least the 6th edition, d%-based (don't know about the other variants of that game).

Oh, right, and about horror generally: always remember that the players' imagination can create images far worse than what you could ever hope to describe. Therefore, always try to make them know something other is around, but delay them seeing it, or prevent it altogether. Horror is about the things you don't tell.

bugsysservant
2007-07-11, 07:55 PM
I once stumbled (don't even know how) onto this page (http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html) here, which contains all works of Lovecraft plus a lot more of the classic horror stories, like Shelley's Frankenstein or Stoker's Dracula.

Awesome for inspiration.

Thanks for the link, but I already had it bookmarked :). I hope others can enjoy them though, as the works of Lovecraft are sometimes harder to find than other older authors (although I think manybooks has a large portion)
But I probably should look into CoC, for nothing more than the fact that I love Lovecraft's stories. (I love printing them out, and reading them in that innocuous format in classes. I also read all of the discworld books that way.)

Winterwind
2007-07-11, 08:06 PM
Thanks for the link, but I already had it bookmarked :). I hope others can enjoy them though, as the works of Lovecraft are sometimes harder to find than other older authors (although I think manybooks has a large portion)Really? That's strange - they are not that difficult to find here.

But I probably should look into CoC, for nothing more than the fact that I love Lovecraft's stories. (I love printing them out, and reading them in that innocuous format in classes. I also read all of the discworld books that way.)Doesn't that spoil the mood, though? But it might be safer than reading them in the depths of the night. :smallbiggrin:
CoC is quite easy to learn - it's a system comparably light on rules.
And if you know Lovecraft's stories, well, then you know pretty much all there is to know anyway. :smallwink:

bugsysservant
2007-07-11, 08:45 PM
Doesn't that spoil the mood, though? But it might be safer than reading them in the depths of the night. :smallbiggrin:
CoC is quite easy to learn - it's a system comparably light on rules.
And if you know Lovecraft's stories, well, then you know pretty much all there is to know anyway. :smallwink:

Nonsense, nothing more eerie than a high school chemistry class :smalltongue:. Especially when the teacher doesn't know what she is talking about. Not that she doesn't grade off for perceived faults. She took 10 points off a major lab because I didn't cross a t in my notes. Take make matters worse, she didn't even teach us much. In the only chemistry class offered by the school, the word "entropy" wasn't once spoken throughout the course of the year.

Anyway, I will consider looking into CoC, but if its just a rules-lite game patterned strongly on the Lovecraft Mythos, could I get away with modding other bare bones systems. I am cheap, and both d20 and another mentioned here (was it FUDGE? I'm too lazy to check) are free. And I really was hoping for some D&D variant since I have access to a considerable number of their supplements, and could use many different elements.

Edit: Note-I really do like science, and chemistry is almost as good as physics ("all science is either physics or stamp collecting" -Rutherford), what I object to is the blatant incompetence of my teacher.

horseboy
2007-07-11, 08:53 PM
Anyway, I will consider looking into CoC, but if its just a rules-lite game patterned strongly on the Lovecraft Mythos, could I get away with modding other bare bones systems. I am cheap, and both d20 and another mentioned here (was it FUDGE? I'm too lazy to check) are free. And I really was hoping for some D&D variant since I have access to a considerable number of their supplements, and could use many different elements.


d20 CoC or Chaosim's CoC? Cause Chaosism's was freakin' awesome. D20, much less so. And since it's out of print, there's probably a used copy floating around at the gaming store on the cheap.

bugsysservant
2007-07-11, 08:55 PM
d20 CoC or Chaosim's CoC? Cause Chaosism's was freakin' awesome. D20, much less so. And since it's out of print, there's probably a used copy floating around at the gaming store on the cheap.

Damn, I meant to write "true20", a rules light game that is essentially D&D stripped down to bones and muscle-much fewer options, but much less cheese.

horseboy
2007-07-11, 09:08 PM
Damn, I meant to write "true20", a rules light game that is essentially D&D stripped down to bones and muscle-much fewer options, but much less cheese.

Non dary is important if you're trying to scare your players. After all, how scared are you going to be of something when you've got a rocket launcher?

Ceres
2007-07-11, 09:18 PM
Non dary is important if you're trying to scare your players. After all, how scared are you going to be of something when you've got a rocket launcher?

"After all, who needs courage when you have... a gun?!"

"Peow peow! Now world, you put your hands up!"

Xuincherguixe
2007-07-11, 09:21 PM
Non dary is important if you're trying to scare your players. After all, how scared are you going to be of something when you've got a rocket launcher?

What about if the rocket launcher you use was held by a cult of cannibals who took out their eyes because they were useless to them, living in the dark. With the intent of killing those ignorant surface dwellers who are slaves to that accursed sun.

And also, when they hit the thing it takes out five people thanks to the blast radius and the thing appears to be completely fine.

Driderman
2007-07-11, 09:32 PM
You don't really need a rules system for horror. Although some rules systems are pretty horrible, but thats another matter :smallbiggrin:
D&D isn't really cut out for it, but it's possible.
I'd suggest going for World Of Darkness or Basic Roleplaying Call of Cthulhu. True 20 might also work pretty well.
But the main part about horror is atmosphere, story and the imagination of the players. I once played a 12-hour detective horror scenario which had all of us players seriously scared. We had this statue, supposedly of Lucifer, which supposedly had killed all its previous owners. All manner of non-hilarity ensued, people died and in the end we finally figure it out. The statue has a mechanism that if triggered makes the arms and claws rake whoever is in front of it.
Of course, we had all sorts of terrible ideas and speculations on how this thing came alive and such, especially since some bastard moved it around at times. An especially horrible scene I remember was when my character was alone in the mansion, trying to sleep with his trusty hunting rifle nearby ( the statue might come alive and kill me, best to be prepared ). I had placed coins on the eyes of the statue and the house is silent as I lay in my room, until in the middle of the night I hear the clinking of coins falling across the floor...
Nothing more happened, I think it was the cat who triggered them actually, but I can tell you my mind was racing with all sorts of horrors at the time

bugsysservant
2007-07-11, 09:37 PM
:smallconfused: *Bewildered Expression*:smallconfused: You say con queso like its a bad thing.

But really, I was looking for a more medieval feel, if at all possible. The Lovecraft level of technology is about as high as I would accept, as there is no reason to be able to level R'lyeh with an h-bomb. There just always seemed something about technology that strips away the horror of any given situation.

Xuincherguixe
2007-07-11, 09:48 PM
Who's to say the H-Bomb does anything even if it hits? Maybe the technology for some reason just keeps failing for some strange reason.

horseboy
2007-07-11, 09:59 PM
What about if the rocket launcher you use was held by a cult of cannibals who took out their eyes because they were useless to them, living in the dark. With the intent of killing those ignorant surface dwellers who are slaves to that accursed sun.

And also, when they hit the thing it takes out five people thanks to the blast radius and the thing appears to be completely fine.

Nah, compare Resident Evil (with Rocket launchers) vs oh, Fatal Frame (with a camera, wtf?) Which one is more scary?

bugsysservant
2007-07-11, 10:11 PM
There always seems to be something about high powered technology that reassures people. Even if it does no good against an opponent, holding a rocket launcher will generally serve to allay the fears of the players. Thats why I want to limit the time frame to Lovecraft, or even before, or just to go for strait up modded middle ages.

Edit:I looked at FUDGE, and that may be feasible. There is virtually nothing there. While my inspection was cursory, it seemed as a means for providing a rough system for interactive story telling, rather than the modus operandi for the story itself, like D&D. While this will be a big shift, it might work. Does anyone with experience with FUDGE have input on this?

Xuincherguixe
2007-07-11, 10:15 PM
There always seems to be something about high powered technology that reassures people. Even if it does no good against an opponent, holding a rocket launcher will generally serve to allay the fears of the players. Thats why I want to limit the time frame to Lovecraft, or even before, or just to go for strait up modded middle ages.

You may be right, but there's still something that appeals to me about showing that that technology is but a false hope.

TomTheRat
2007-07-11, 10:17 PM
I ran the full Hyskosa's Hexad sextuplet of modules for the 2nd ed Ravenloft campaign setting. It took almost 7 years to get through. Each adventure is set in a different domain in Ravenloft, and it details the PCs more or less accidentally triggering the destruction of Raventloft, the Gods informing them that they have made an error of cosmic proportions, and that they must trick Strahd and Azalin into recreating the demiplane. Serious Business.

Here's a few things I learned:

1. Mood is 50% in game, and 50% out. All it takes is one player feeling a little goofy and making a fart joke to murder hours worth of spooky buildup. Either dock xp for tabletalk, or just make it unacceptable behavior.

2. The unknown is scary. The only thing scarier than a 10 foot tall monster is a 20 foot tall monster. And the only thing scarier than a 20 foot tall monster is a 50 foot tall monster. Nothing is scarier than a monster who's height cannot be determined. Have monsters do things that the PCs cannot explain, describe mundane abilities and effects in terms that the PCs are unfamiliar with.

3. The devil is in the details. Scary scenes don't happen because there is A BIG SPOOKY MANSION. You gotta get small when you describe scenes. Talk about the scuff marks of unknown origin on the table legs. Talk about the russet stains on the manacles. The minutae of a room, the sounds, the smells, everything needs to build towards something that intimidates or repulses the PCs.

4. Make them make horrible choices. Its been mentioned before so I won't dwell. The lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.

I have more I guess, but I'm rambling. The players at the end of the campaign were between 12 and 14. Things were still scary. It has nothing to do with level.

horseboy
2007-07-11, 10:19 PM
There always seems to be something about high powered technology that reassures people. Even if it does no good against an opponent, holding a rocket launcher will generally serve to allay the fears of the players. Thats why I want to limit the time frame to Lovecraft, or even before, or just to go for strait up modded middle ages.

Heh, did you ever see the old Torg series? That was interesting look at horror. It also kept players from just jumping straight to the villain. Basically you made the villain stupidly powerful. The players then had to "unravel" his power to make him be something they could handle.

bugsysservant
2007-07-11, 10:28 PM
Heh, did you ever see the old Torg series? That was interesting look at horror. It also kept players from just jumping straight to the villain. Basically you made the villain stupidly powerful. The players then had to "unravel" his power to make him be something they could handle.

No, I haven't seen, or even heard of the Torg series, but that is an interesting idea. That was one of the better ones in Heroes of Horror, invincible villains with but a single weak point.

TomTheRat
2007-07-11, 10:34 PM
No, I haven't seen, or even heard of the Torg series, but that is an interesting idea. That was one of the better ones in Heroes of Horror, invincible villains with but a single weak point.

Superman is invincible with a single weak point. Thats scary, not horror.

Prometheus
2007-07-11, 10:58 PM
One example I like from Krimm_Blackleaf's thread, posted under it by thebigb:

When he opened the large walk-in closet, he deeper in the closet a flickering candle on a little girl's tea table. A very old doll sat there, with no hair & its face full of cracks. After seeing the creepy sight, the player was very freaked when it opened its eyes. His character then proceeded to smash that doll into bits against the wall, then grab the little chair it was sitting on & smash all the other dolls. The dolls bled as they died, and another Listen roll heard the sound of babies crying as he smashed them.
It not only presents the creepy and unknown, but the overreaction/self-assurance of the player causes him to do what might be percieved as a horribly evil act. If the dolls were evil, having them be immortal or undefeatable would lead to rational fear, but horror is irrational fear. From evil's perspective, leaving the player with uncertaintity and dread is far more valuable anyhow. If the dolls were innocent, their tortured state that should bring the highest level of empathy is what brings them to more otherworldly torment: we could only hope he was putting them out of their misery, sadly this is unlikely.

bugsysservant
2007-07-11, 11:31 PM
Superman is invincible with a single weak point. Thats scary, not horror.

I don't know about that. I find the idea of an invincible vampire that can't be killed in the normal fashion a lot more horrific than the standard BBEG. And to extrapolate-forcing the players to choose between killing a thousand innocent people, or letting a mad god live, is pretty horrific if the God can only be killed in that fashion. Allowing for few options in dealing with evil is one of the hallmarks of horror, and giving the BBEG only one or two weaknesses is one way to achieve this.

Jarlax
2007-07-11, 11:57 PM
my tip for making D&D more scary, challenge players expectations:

my first campaign i ran with my current group was just after another person finished his game, in that one i had observed players laugh and recite powers or stat blocks on monsters with each encounter or naming obscure creatures and their monster manual source based on a short description.

so i ran my first night of gaming. no monster appeared as it did in the MM, war-crocodiles, extra hit dice on jellies and finally a young white dragon with the spell warped template, which completely threw the players who were expecting no SR on the dragon. from that point forward the Players were afraid of my encounters because they expected whatever it was to be completely different to what was in the book.

and i kept it up, something as simple as changing the description for the monster would do it for some encounters, glammered heavy armor on ogres to give them an AC that seemed impossible for ogres wearing torn shirts.

make up something that produces a magic purple rash and does nothing else. a remove poison or disease spell doesn't work, it actually has to be dispelled. but players will be freaking out over it until they find out.

TSGames
2007-07-12, 12:00 AM
I'm thinking of running a horror campaign and want to know: how feasible is this with d&d?
Very feasible. I have not had more success running a campaign then when I ran a horror campaign. However, it affects the players more than the DM so it's usually a good idea to make sure that they are OK with running such a campaign.

Winterwind
2007-07-12, 06:07 AM
There always seems to be something about high powered technology that reassures people. Even if it does no good against an opponent, holding a rocket launcher will generally serve to allay the fears of the players. Thats why I want to limit the time frame to Lovecraft, or even before, or just to go for strait up modded middle ages.Personally, I think Lovecraft's late 19th/early 20th century is pretty much perfect for horror. The reason? I find a very important aspect of horror is that the characters are absolutely ordinary people, who find themselves confronted with absolutely non-ordinary circumstances. I also agree that high powered technology can easily be perceived as reassuring. For later reason it's useful to play in the past; but go too far into the past and you end up in a much different culture. If you go medieval, for instance, it's all too easy for the players to think, hey, I'm a knight, the slaying of monsters is my everyday job. Not so if they are playing a veterinarian.

Niasen
2007-07-12, 06:29 AM
You may be right, but there's still something that appeals to me about showing that that technology is but a false hope.

He has a good point, they might feel all high and mighty with said rocket launcher, but nothing makes a player go "oh $%$#" and start having his character freak out like having the BBEG's MINIONS getting back up and looking VERY PISSED OFF at them with only superficial damage.

Thats also when players learn the value of always planning multiple escape routes (always be sure to cut one or two off if possible), and researching one's enemies by sending in hired 'fodder' A.K.A. torchbearers and porters first armed with what you think MIGHT hurt the beast.

But in all honesty, you can make almost ANY campaign a horror campaign, you just have to get the proper description and mood setting, heck...you can make an ogre's den feel eerie and nasty if you know how! Here's a small (and slightly pathetic) example:

"As you enter the Cave, the stench of rotting flesh and something far worse assaults your nose, and you see from the light of your flickering torch that the cave walls have dried blood and excrement on them. At your feet seems to be hay haphazardly thrown about, however while walking on it it seems to crunch and snap loudly in your ears, and you think you hear the sounds of tearing and a hearty wet thump, as of a bloody piece of meat hitting the ground, farther down in the cave. Moving even deeper in, your foot uncovers some bones from under the straw mat, some human, some elf, and some of creatures you've never seen before. As you examine the skull of a creature that looks to have been at least twice your size and strength, you realize with a start and suddenly pounding heart that the tearing sound had stopped for a while and you can almost feel a warm hot breath on the back of your neck..."

With the right attitude, you can make KOBOLDS scary (Easier said then done...but I've pulled it off once). In all honesty, you want a Horror campaign, all you got to do is set out in advance a generalized way of how you want to respond to certain actions and get yourself in proper mindset in case of improv from the players part.

SpikeFightwicky
2007-07-12, 12:16 PM
He has a good point, they might feel all high and mighty with said rocket launcher, but nothing makes a player go "oh $%$#" and start having his character freak out like having the BBEG's MINIONS getting back up and looking VERY PISSED OFF at them with only superficial damage.

Thats also when players learn the value of always planning multiple escape routes (always be sure to cut one or two off if possible), and researching one's enemies by sending in hired 'fodder' A.K.A. torchbearers and porters first armed with what you think MIGHT hurt the beast.

But in all honesty, you can make almost ANY campaign a horror campaign, you just have to get the proper description and mood setting, heck...you can make an ogre's den feel eerie and nasty if you know how! Here's a small (and slightly pathetic) example:

"As you enter the Cave, the stench of rotting flesh and something far worse assaults your nose, and you see from the light of your flickering torch that the cave walls have dried blood and excrement on them. At your feet seems to be hay haphazardly thrown about, however while walking on it it seems to crunch and snap loudly in your ears, and you think you hear the sounds of tearing and a hearty wet thump, as of a bloody piece of meat hitting the ground, farther down in the cave. Moving even deeper in, your foot uncovers some bones from under the straw mat, some human, some elf, and some of creatures you've never seen before. As you examine the skull of a creature that looks to have been at least twice your size and strength, you realize with a start and suddenly pounding heart that the tearing sound had stopped for a while and you can almost feel a warm hot breath on the back of your neck..."

With the right attitude, you can make KOBOLDS scary (Easier said then done...but I've pulled it off once). In all honesty, you want a Horror campaign, all you got to do is set out in advance a generalized way of how you want to respond to certain actions and get yourself in proper mindset in case of improv from the players part.

I was in a party that got TPK'd by kobolds before... You want scary? In 3.0, they used d8 crossbows. In my defense, we were a party of 3, were ambushed while sleeping, and there were 8 of them, and the first 2 shots were crits.

That aside, I definately agree that the GM and the PCs need to be in the right mindset, and a certain level of immersion is required (having just one player who isn't into it is often enough to break it for the rest of the party).

About the the technology level, isn't it even more horrifying to find out that your vaunted 1920s pistol didn't even make that alien thing flinch?

Zim
2007-07-12, 02:57 PM
I'm currently running Age of Worms adventure path. We're about 1/3 through the third module and the characters just crested 6th level. I'm running this as a horror campaign with normal D&D rules. The trick of running a horror campaign is not the rules or selection of monsters, but in setting the mood. Take the time to describe the environment and make it spooky. True horror lies not in what confronts the characters in a story, but their perception of it. Build that sense of dread and impending doom, so that when they finally face off with the horde of shambling zombies, they're already jumpy and freaked out.

There is a difference between:
"You turn the corner and there are three zombies in front of you. Roll for initiative."
and
"The musty smell of the cemetary above you permeates the air. The oppressive, low ceiling pressing down on you with a million tonnes of grave earth. Your lone torch gutters and pops in the stale air as you inch your way down the dank corridor. You smell them before you see them. The charnal stench of dead bodies assaults your nostrils as you round a corner, only to be confronted by the rotten, shambling remains YOUR BELOVED LATE AUNT JESSE AND HER HUSBAND JED, who died horribly a few months ago of a strange and wracking illness! Dun dun daaahhh! Roll for initiative."

Like I said, mood makes terror, not monsters or rules.

Winterwind
2007-07-13, 09:22 AM
I would largely abstain from combat in a horror campaign. Or, rather, I would include pretty much only combat against insane people, who lost their mind to the horrors they saw, or cultists. But never the evil itself.
Because, as soon as you fight it, there are pretty much only three possibilities - either the good guys kill it without losses, or they kill it with severe losses, or die all. The first possibility would kill all horror that might have been built up up to that point, the last will put an end to the campaign, so only the second possibility would remain - and a planned-in character death (or crippling, or whatever the severe losses might be) is not exactly what I consider fair DMing. My group would never forgive me that.

Besides, combat is dice-heavy, and I would try to keep rolling as much down as possible. Comparing dice-rolls and numbers is not very... terrifying. :smallwink:

TomTheRat
2007-07-13, 09:00 PM
I don't know about that. I find the idea of an invincible vampire that can't be killed in the normal fashion a lot more horrific than the standard BBEG. And to extrapolate-forcing the players to choose between killing a thousand innocent people, or letting a mad god live, is pretty horrific if the God can only be killed in that fashion. Allowing for few options in dealing with evil is one of the hallmarks of horror, and giving the BBEG only one or two weaknesses is one way to achieve this.

I guess what I was trying to get at was that there is nothing intrinsically horrific about abilities that monsters posess. It's just another systemic obstacle standing between the PCs and victory. Is a great wyrm red dragon more "horrific" than a young adult? Not at all. Its just bigger and badder.

Horror is about mood, and setting, and being mortally afraid of what might lie just beyond the torchlight. Allowing for fewer options is generally awesome for horror campaigns, but it'll be the backstory, the descriptions, the mood that makes the fight with the vampire horrific, not extra hit dice or whatever.

Hell Puppi
2007-07-13, 09:08 PM
I think there's a horror campaign book out for d&d, I'm pretty sure.
I remember it because I made up an entire horror campaign out of bits and pieces of other books, then that book came out and I cursed it.
Horror campaigns are tough. What will you char's find frightening? If you don't like much combat and prefer lovecraftian, the answer is easy: a great, unspeakable evil that can't be stopped by traditional means. There's nothing worse for a d&D player than to realize he potentially can't beat something.
Just try not to make it frustrating for the players, or they'll lose interest =P.
Or maybe mind loss? Have hallucinations that might be signs, or just something to drive the chars insane? Dreams? Again it's tough to find a balance in between what will put them on edge and what will just anger them after a while. I like tiny, unsettling things. It seems to work on a large scale. You build up with these small scares until eventually the larger enemy/purpose is discovered.

Kami2awa
2007-07-14, 05:48 AM
:smallconfused: *Bewildered Expression*:smallconfused: You say con queso like its a bad thing.

But really, I was looking for a more medieval feel, if at all possible. The Lovecraft level of technology is about as high as I would accept, as there is no reason to be able to level R'lyeh with an h-bomb. There just always seemed something about technology that strips away the horror of any given situation.

There's an old joke in Cthulhu:

What happens if you hit Cthulhu with an atomic bomb?

You go from an evil, angry, ravenous, world-devouring Great Old One to an evil, angrier, ravenous, world-devouring Great Old One who is now RADIOACTIVE.

You can run Horror games using D&D, either with 2nd or 3rd ed. It is desireable to be low level in the latter case to reduce the character's power. There are even lots of published scenarios in this vein; for example on the Wizards site:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/vv/20031017a

However there are quite a few systems for horror games, of which Call of Cthulhu is the best known though there are also Chill, Kult, GURPS etc. Indeed, a horror game can work with NO SYSTEM AT ALL, just roleplaying and storytelling. I GM (or act as Keeper) for CoC a lot, and its actually quite rare that we roll dice, much less refer to the rulebook.

bugsysservant
2007-07-14, 10:11 AM
I guess what I was trying to get at was that there is nothing intrinsically horrific about abilities that monsters posess. It's just another systemic obstacle standing between the PCs and victory. Is a great wyrm red dragon more "horrific" than a young adult? Not at all. Its just bigger and badder.

I think I see what you're saying, but would your group really look at the death of a thousand innocent people as the removal of an obstacle:smalleek: ? While setting would seem to count for the majority of a horror campaign, ordinary villains just aren't scary to your average player, and while it is *possible* to make kobolds or goblins seem scary, making a creature who isn't just beyond their power, but beyond any (to their knowledge) has a much greater capability for fright (IMHO).

Matthew
2007-07-14, 07:15 PM
I was in a party that got TPK'd by kobolds before... You want scary? In 3.0, they used d8 crossbows. In my defense, we were a party of 3, were ambushed while sleeping, and there were 8 of them, and the first 2 shots were crits.

Yup, I virtually wiped out a party of six during The Burning Plague Free Adventure, almost wholly as a result of Kobolds with Cross Bows.