Writing a horror campaign, too many horrific challenges?

[Club Sandwich]

So I'm writing a short horror game for a group of 4 lvl 6 players. Basic premise, ignoring setup is that they and some NPCs encounter the temple of a long forgotten evil deity (I've used the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca) while fleeing from some big nasties. The door is locked, but things will be engineered so that someone, preferably an NPC, will die or be injured while on the steps to the temple, at which point the door will click and slide smoothly open.

The temple is basically a series of 9 rooms, sealed by 9 worshipers of Tezcatlipoca. The spells sealing the rooms involved the gruesome deaths of the worshipers in different manners, and to unlock each room the players must engage in progressively more gruesome self-mutilation rituals that mirror the manner of the worshipers' deaths.

At the same time, each person who self mutilates is cursed/haunted by the worshiper whose seal they broke. These curses will take various forms, for example:
• A shade that occasionally appears on the edge of vision. It will attempt to isolate the player with increasingly aggressive strategies, and then assume their identity. To begin with it might appear to walk through a doorway to entice the player into a room. If that fails it might go as extreme as grabbing the player's leg while they are sleeping and dragging them away from the party.
• A curse that causes the player to slowly transform. Their metabolism quickens beyond the realms of normalcy, requiring them to eat constantly or suffer penalties to their constitution. It also enhances the strength of the player's digestion, allowing them to consume nearly any organic object and giving them the ability to spit globs of extremely corrosive bile. However, if an ally is wounded, the cursed player must make a wisdom saving throw to restrain themselves. Failure means they will descend on said ally in a crazed feeding frenzy until restrained, or knocked unconscious.

So now that you have some context, here's my question: is having nine curses and nine self mutilation rituals just too much?

Keep in mind that unless they deal with each curse as it arises, these curses will be stacking up on the party, leading to some pretty nasty overlapping of effects. That said, having only the self-mutilation rituals or only the curses seems like it wouldn't be enough.

What are your thoughts?

[X3r4ph]

What are your thoughts?

Yes. I think 9 mandatory is too much. I would make 4 mandatory to advance and the rest optional. One for each player and one extra if they want some cost/benefit gamble.

I like the idea. Very cool setup for a dungeon crawl.

[EvilAnagram]

Yes. I think 9 mandatory is too much. I would make 4 mandatory to advance and the rest optional. One for each player and one extra if they want some cost/benefit gamble.

I like the idea. Very cool setup for a dungeon crawl.

I agree here. This is the kind of dungeon that plenty of players would just leave. There's a high cost for little reward.

[Club Sandwich]

One for each player

They'll have a few (probably 3) NPC lackeys with them to soak up some curses, so maybe 7 is a good number?


and one extra if they want some cost/benefit gamble.

I like the cost/benefit gamble idea. Maybe optional rooms with powerful loot

[Laserlight]

So now that you have some context, here's my question: is having nine curses and nine self mutilation rituals just too much?


People get bored around the fifth or sixth iteration and they don't feel two is enough, so I'd recommend three or four. If you want to play up the Aztec aspect, I'd suggest going through four gates widdershins, West/White, South/Blue, East/Red and finish with North/Black.

[Club Sandwich]

I agree here. This is the kind of dungeon that plenty of players would just leave. There's a high cost for little reward.

I should have made more clear in the question. It's kind of forced (since it's just a 2 session game), but basically the alternative to continuing through the dungeon is fighting their way through the nasties that are still outside the temple. They could theoretically do it, but the nasties are a whole lot more dangerous than any of the curses inside the temple.

[Club Sandwich]

People get bored around the fifth or sixth iteration and they don't feel two is enough

That's fair. Shorter is probably better.


If you want to play up the Aztec aspect, I'd suggest going through four gates widdershins, West/White, South/Blue, East/Red and finish with North/Black.

My idea for this is a little more crazy. Basically the way I have it at the moment, the temple doesn't really have rooms so much as it has a series of dimensions squeezed inside its walls. Each door they pass through doesn't lead them to another "room" so much as a completely different area. One might lead them to a verdant jungle, the door standing alone in the middle of it with no walls etc. etc.

[Laserlight]

My idea for this is a little more crazy. Basically the way I have it at the moment, the temple doesn't really have rooms so much as it has a series of dimensions squeezed inside its walls. Each door they pass through doesn't lead them to another "room" so much as a completely different area. One might lead them to a verdant jungle, the door standing alone in the middle of it with no walls etc. etc.

My point was that Aztecs tended to do things in fours, and associate cardinal directions and colors; if you want your players to pick up on the Aztec-ness of it, they'll expect four rooms/zones/pocket dimenions/whatever, rather than three.

The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump (Harry Turtledove) has a nicely evocative description of the place inhabited by The One Called Night, which you might crib from.

And don't forget the tzompantli. :xykon:

[EvilAnagram]

I should have made more clear in the question. It's kind of forced (since it's just a 2 session game), but basically the alternative to continuing through the dungeon is fighting their way through the nasties that are still outside the temple. They could theoretically do it, but the nasties are a whole lot more dangerous than any of the curses inside the temple.
That's a whole lot of sick without much carrot. Player fatigue trends to set in when they don't feel rewarded for their actions, and you're just offering more punishments that can't be avoided and have no obvious reward. Fighting the nasties outside would at least be possibly entertaining, and one you're self-mutilating dying gloriously seems pretty appealing.

I'm just saying you should provide positive rewards that are evident to the players to fight player fatigue.

[Club Sandwich]

My point was that Aztecs tended to do things in fours, and associate cardinal directions and colors; if you want your players to pick up on the Aztec-ness of it, they'll expect four rooms/zones/pocket dimenions/whatever, rather than three.

Ahhhhh I see! Having a thematic reason for the number of rooms appeals to me, I like it :smallsmile:.

[Danielqueue1]

different players like different things. I am currently in a campaign where we use sanity as a resource (fun times) and horrible things happen all the time. we all enjoy it. sometimes survival IS the reward. that being said these types of things generally split the players. Talk with your players about it first.

9 does sound like a bit much, but if several of them are optional it could be tonnes of fun. especially if there are puzzles and uncertainty involved. perhaps a "either one of you x or the rest of the party will have to face y" type deal.

[Avonar]

Repeated horror loses its impact extremely quickly. Having recently played a Curse of Strahd campaign, all the different things happened were all Gothic Horror but all very different, which meant that every time it was new and interesting. However making a party effectively do the same thing just with different mechanics could easily set up a situation where the players stop caring. If they get out, they get out, if not then who really cares? I've had that feeling before, nothing spoils a campaign for a player faster.

[the_brazenburn]

I agree with the 4 room angle. Both of the curses you mentioned are very fun; I may adapt them for a dungeon of my own. Some other curse options:

You must drink a humanoid's blood every night at midnight. Failure to do so results in a Constitution save with a permanent Strength decrease on a failure.

You no longer cast a shadow. Instead, a long, barbed tail sprouts from your legs, and will cast Crown of Madness upon you if you fail to make obeisance to [insert evil Aztec god] every full moon.

Your skin begins to rot away. You receive a permanent decrease to Charisma, and good-aligned creatures automatically consider you evil and may plot against you.

[Laserlight]

There's also the fact that D&D is, by its premises, not a Horror game. The point of Horror is that you're trapped by the situation and unable to do anything effective; the dramatic questions are "Will any of us survive? If so, which one? Will we find out what this unknown killer is?" In D&D, the mindset is that the players CAN do something, and if they don't overextend themselves or do stupid things, they WILL survive.

You could subvert that a bit by allowing them to survive but your imposing some major change on their character (the rotting curse, changing them into mummy lords or were jaguars). However, players generally detest that sort of unilateral change to their characters--with good reason, as it's essentially saying "I'm going to force you to play a different character and you don't get to choose it".

One of my players had her character fight wereboars, got bitten, failed the CON save, contracted lycanthropy. She's a moon druid and not particularly good; I hadn't planned for her to become a wereboar but I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd shrugged and gone along with it. Instead the party dropped everything, went to the closest source of Remove Curse, and immediately agreed without haggling to the price.

The closest I'm planning to go to Horror is to have them go into a dead temple where there are lots of (inert) skeletons all the way down to the central room, and nothing happens. No sound except water dripping off in the distance, and a subliminal hum. No movement. Traps have all been triggered already. All they have to do is walk into it, pick up the emerald, and leave. I'm betting they abandon their mission before they reach the emerald.

[Club Sandwich]

Your skin begins to rot away. You receive a permanent decrease to Charisma, and good-aligned creatures automatically consider you evil and may plot against you.
Gruesome.... And the group paranoia element could be a lot of fun to play with.