Horror One shot for newbies

[Leko]

Hello, I'm a newbie DM and I will be visiting my best friend for his birthday. While talking he said that him and his gf would be interested to try D&D so I figured that I'll do a one shot for them. They said they want a horror theme.

It's gonna be 2-3 players and they would all be newbies. Any ideas for any premades?

Was thinking of doing Death House and boost them to level 2 or 3 at the start, but that might take too long. Also a bit skeptical since it's just 2 players (maybe 3)


Another possibility is Dread (the jenga game).
Please help, as I wanna do a good game for my best mate :D

[Human Paragon 3]

Dread is awesome.

[Puh Laden]

Death house won’t work for two characters unless you dial back the monsters, especially the ghouls.

I’m assuming theyre new to dnd and rpgs in general. You might want something more investigatory in nature, such as a supernatural murder mystery. It also depends on what they mean by “horror.”

[Leko]

Death house won’t work for two characters unless you dial back the monsters, especially the ghouls.

I’m assuming theyre new to dnd and rpgs in general. You might want something more investigatory in nature, such as a supernatural murder mystery. It also depends on what they mean by “horror.”

I know. The reason I am not a fan of doing death house is that they are just 2, maybe 3 people and also that it will take about 5-6 hours at least. And I am not sure if we can play a game that long.

[Pex]

I've run Night of the Living Dead.

Literally.

The party is in a graveyard because it's the Death Day of one of their relatives or someone they know depending on circumstances. While the related PC gives a speech I mention to another player an old man is walking up to them. They always attempt a conversation but of course the old man says nothing and when he reaches the party member makes an attack.

When the party eventually leaves the graveyard they will come across a house which they always enter. Upstairs they find the half-eaten corpse of a wizard who has a book that gives a clue to "solve" the adventure. It's something I added as opposed to in the movie because it's not a zombie apocalypse campaign. The book mentions an ancient battle site at a nearby river.

Eventually they interact with the basement to find an uncooperative jerk of a father, his wife, and unconscious sick daughter.

Most parties leave the house early, but the last time I ran this despite giving multiple hints of zombies are approaching in the front of the house but the back is still clear they decided to stay in the house instead of head towards the river. I had to deal with a zombie siege but eventually someone left the house to go to the river.

They fight zombies along the way but when they finally reach the river they don't see anything special. They have go into the river to find a magical staff stabbed in the ground under the river. Removing the staff paralyzes the zombies. Breaking the staff kills them all. The staff is tied in to a campaign-long plot point.

One time when the party reached the river instead of examining it they just continued walking by it. I tried to give clues of less frequency of zombie-holes -where they dug themselves out of the ground, but they wouldn't get the hint. They eventually reached "Herschel's farm". After that they got back on track to search the river where they first encountered it.

[kivzirrum]

I've run Night of the Living Dead.

Literally.

The party is in a graveyard because it's the Death Day of one of their relatives or someone they know depending on circumstances. While the related PC gives a speech I mention to another player an old man is walking up to them. They always attempt a conversation but of course the old man says nothing and when he reaches the party member makes an attack.

When the party eventually leaves the graveyard they will come across a house which they always enter. Upstairs they find the half-eaten corpse of a wizard who has a book that gives a clue to "solve" the adventure. It's something I added as opposed to in the movie because it's not a zombie apocalypse campaign. The book mentions an ancient battle site at a nearby river.

Eventually they interact with the basement to find an uncooperative jerk of a father, his wife, and unconscious sick daughter.

Most parties leave the house early, but the last time I ran this despite giving multiple hints of zombies are approaching in the front of the house but the back is still clear they decided to stay in the house instead of head towards the river. I had to deal with a zombie siege but eventually someone left the house to go to the river.

They fight zombies along the way but when they finally reach the river they don't see anything special. They have go into the river to find a magical staff stabbed in the ground under the river. Removing the staff paralyzes the zombies. Breaking the staff kills them all. The staff is tied in to a campaign-long plot point.

One time when the party reached the river instead of examining it they just continued walking by it. I tried to give clues of less frequency of zombie-holes -where they dug themselves out of the ground, but they wouldn't get the hint. They eventually reached "Herschel's farm". After that they got back on track to search the river where they first encountered it.

This is a brilliant idea. May have to steal something like it--Night of the Living Dead is one of our favorite movies! :smalltongue:

[malloc]

I'd run a Cthulhu game, as it's built for horror.

The most important part of a horror-style game isn't the challenge, though, it's the aesthetic. So really paint a picture with your words.

What I would do is sketch out or imagine in vivid detail (since I can't draw) each of the scenes and write down either a brief description or a few words you'd like to include in that description. It will make the setting come to life, and if you can pick your words very well, can certainly scare the players at the big reveal.

With 2-3 players, you might have to write your own encounter for D&D.