One-shot Halloween Campaign

[Chicken-nugget]

Hey- first time DM here. This Saturday I'll be DMing for a group of 4 PCs, all level 1 for a Halloween based one-shot campaign. I wanted to make my own campaign at first because I had some general ideas I wanted to try- the mayor inviting them to a festival, npcs getting kidnapped at said festival while the PCs chase the captors through a portal, PCs going through a corn maze making checks to advance and to see if they run into scarecrows, and finally coming to a haunted mansion where they have to solve puzzles which "unlocks" the boss lair after they discover all the clues. I was thinking of using a werewolf boss. This is where my ideas ended and my creativity was dry as I tried to write out the general story- now I don't even know if I want to stick to those ideas, and I'm considering giving up and turning to a pre made Halloween based campaign. Any advice or suggestions would be a huge help as Saturday is coming up soon and I have no idea what to do.

If it helps, the party is made up of a drow warlock, a tiefling fighter, an orc barbarian, and a high elf cleric. I was trying to go with a more light hearted horror feel because the players all wanted to have a funny campaign.

[NecroDancer]

Death house is pretty fun.

[Sigreid]

My two suggestions are:

The kindly young school marm or healer is the werewolf and doesn't know it.

Or watch some Scooby Doo episodes for inspiration.

[lordarkness]

Village plagued every year by "ghosts and goblins" which are all undead goblins, koblolds, etc. looking to wreak havoc. They seem to come from a haunted house. Turns out they are summoned by a pumpkin headed undead necromancer Samhain. He has no direct powers except to summon and control undead and the traps of the house (suitable for 1st level characters). In a book or from one of his undead they can discover his weakness (an amulet somewhere in the house from a long dead lover, sunlight, etc.).

[lordarkness]

For traps I would suggest "possessed" items like books and mirrors and carpets which are functionally just animated objects. Either that or just make the house alive.

[SillyPopeNachos]

I'm going to have an NPC show my group a vision of one possible future where they all have different types of lycanthropy.

[Herobizkit]

Four people.

Hallowe'en.

Dealing with the supernatural?

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPiZptATdGc
Quick and Dirty mechanics:

'Proton Packs' work like a ranged Grapple check out to, I dunno, 120'.
If two people manage to snag the same Ghost, breaking the Grapple is at Disadvantage.
If three people Grapple it, it is also Stunned.

'Ghost Trap' counts as a person for maintaining a Grapple but can't start a Grapple on its own (Ghosts will fly away if they're not caught in at least one Proton beam). Ghost must make a [Str/Dex? Wis?] save to avoid being sucked into trap. A Stunned Ghost automatically fails this check (even if it's a Wis check, for sake of simplicity).

Bonus points if your Warlock goes Pact of the Chain - refluff the Familiar as a spook of your choice which gains Incorporeal Movement (see Ghost MM template) and Float as a movement type.

The 'trick' is to identify the Ghost and convince it to manifest. That's when the players get their 'treat' for capturing it. :smallredface: