Is It Possible To Play A Hospital Campaign?

[Bartmanhomer]

Hey everybody. I have an interesting question to ask, Is it possible to play a hospital Campaign in D&D 3.5?

[Hellpyre]

Possible? Sure. But you need to better describe what you mean by 'hospital campaign' if you want any really specific help.

[Bartmanhomer]

Possible? Sure. But you need to better describe what you mean by 'hospital campaign' if you want any really specific help.

I thinking that a adventure party might investigate a murder by a seriously mentally ill patient and try to capture the perpetrator dead or alive (whichever is better) And the setting would take place in a hospital.

[Heliomance]

I think you're walking a very dodgy path and you'd need to handle that "seriously mentally ill patient" extremely carefully to avoid coming off as offensive OOC.

[Red Fel]

I think you're walking a very dodgy path and you'd need to handle that "seriously mentally ill patient" extremely carefully to avoid coming off as offensive OOC.

One, there's this. Mental illness (1) really isn't reflected well in D&D-style rules, and (2) really isn't a great subject for a game, generally.

Two, D&D doesn't always do "investigation" well. It can, mind you. But it's tricky. Now, if all you're doing is following the trail of bodies and finding the killer, that's easy enough, but if you're trying to find out who the killer is, it's either really hard, because it's a series of skill checks and figuring out the right clues and what they mean, or really easy, because magic exists and literally solves every problem.

And three, there's the challenge of an extremely localized setting. Some campaigns can take place in a single area, sure, if the area is large enough. For example, the City of Waterdeep is not only significant enough that lots of things happen there, it's massive enough that there are lots of places to explore. For a campaign, a location like that can work.

When you get small enough, though, campaigning becomes harder. Even a massive hospital complex is essentially a very small area, one which could be completely explored within a few days game-time, tops. That's less of a "campaign" and more of a "one-shot" (or two-shot, depending).

By way of comparison, I was once in a World of Darkness campaign that involved a shopping mall. That was a two-shot, because part of the set-up and part of the denouement took place elsewhere, but the rest of the story took place in the mall. You can do that with a short concept.

But yeah. Can you have a campaign consisting of a murder investigation in a small space? Sure. But it won't be a whole campaign - it will be a one- or two-session quickie. Basically, you're looking at the equivalent of an Agatha Christie movie - Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot investigating a murder in the theater, or on a train, or at the resort or something. And again, you bring magic into the equation and what was once a suspenseful thriller becames an open-and-shut case.

[Mike Miller]

D&D probably isn't the best TTRPG for this concept, but you could still do it.

[Bartmanhomer]

D&D probably isn't the best TTRPG for this concept, but you could still do it.

How? Could you explain a bit more please. :smile:

[Hellpyre]

How? Could you explain a bit more please. :smile:

Basically, D&D isn't set up to engagingly simulate investigation. There are some systems that are, but in D&D the backbone of non-magical investigation is a single skill - Gather Information. A skilled DM can make it work, but the ruleset isn't going to aid them there.

[weckar]

How? Could you explain a bit more please. :smile:

Believe it or not, there are other TTRPGs! I know! It surprised me too!

[Pleh]

Actually, this is very doable. As people have warned, there is very little mechanical support in D&D for this kind of game, but there's nothing essentially preventing you from crafting this sort of game in D&D. Yes, gamifying psychological disorders can be insensitive if not handled with care. But recent Video Game releases have done quite well with some of this content. Batman Arkham Asylum did a great job using the madhouse as a place for fantasy adventure and mystery without demeaning the plight of actual individuals who need help. Doki Doki Literature Club was able to explore the concepts of psychological disorders without using an asylum, but really subverted the expectations of the Dating Simulation Virtual Novel genre to highlight the very real societal problems of objectifying people in relationships and the problems that arise from a cultural negligence of these increasingly common maladies.

Read up on the Heroes of Horror and Lords of Madness Splatbooks and you'll be well on your way, though the Call of Cthulhu System might just serve you better overall. Divination magic and high skill checks tend to trivialize murder mysteries, so you're probably best keeping the adventure tightly limited to low level heroes, at the very least I'd recommend E6 restrictions and possibly go all the way into making Pregenerated characters for this adventure so you can really control what tools the players have at their disposal for solving your mystery.

In games about Murder Mystery, it's really just a puzzle scenario and you have to make sure the players have all the tools they need to solve the puzzle, but not too many more or it becomes too easy and feels a little underwhelming.

In choosing to use D&D, you're choosing to emphasize combats and traps, so you need to write a few ACTUAL monsters into the story, which limits the amount of psychological games you can plug into the atmosphere. At some point, the players are interacting with a real, tangible threat, even if that threat is a real, tangible Illusion Spell.

You have to find some balance between the two rather disparate concepts being mixed together:
Asylum horror mysteries are about heroes bravely exploring their own weaknesses and inner demons, because hospitals are places that everyone needs to go to due to the frailty of all people and mental illness is among the most horrifying and debilitating kind of medical need.
D&D is about power fantasy telling stories about exceptional individuals. Paladins are literally immune to fear. Clerics can heal every mundane ailment with a touch and an hour to prepare the right spell. There is no need to worry about inner demons when characters can literally live as a paragon of their belief structure, nearly infallible in their pursuit of morality.

Name Brand D&D will set you up that Divine Casters will trivialize your scenario, but that not having them will ratchet the difficulty up to 11, because the monsters playing in this ballpark are designed to be defeated by Divine Spellcasters. You need to be able to use the mechanics as a startup point and then massage the rules so that they don't get in the way of the themes you want to explore. Because that is exactly what they will do.

[Bartmanhomer]

Actually, this is very doable. As people have warned, there is very little mechanical support in D&D for this kind of game, but there's nothing essentially preventing you from crafting this sort of game in D&D. Yes, gamifying psychological disorders can be insensitive if not handled with care. But recent Video Game releases have done quite well with some of this content. Batman Arkham Asylum did a great job using the madhouse as a place for fantasy adventure and mystery without demeaning the plight of actual individuals who need help. Doki Doki Literature Club was able to explore the concepts of psychological disorders without using an asylum, but really subverted the expectations of the Dating Simulation Virtual Novel genre to highlight the very real societal problems of objectifying people in relationships and the problems that arise from a cultural negligence of these increasingly common maladies.

Read up on the Heroes of Horror and Lords of Madness Splatbooks and you'll be well on your way, though the Call of Cthulhu System might just serve you better overall. Divination magic and high skill checks tend to trivialize murder mysteries, so you're probably best keeping the adventure tightly limited to low level heroes, at the very least I'd recommend E6 restrictions and possibly go all the way into making Pregenerated characters for this adventure so you can really control what tools the players have at their disposal for solving your mystery.

In games about Murder Mystery, it's really just a puzzle scenario and you have to make sure the players have all the tools they need to solve the puzzle, but not too many more or it becomes too easy and feels a little underwhelming.

In choosing to use D&D, you're choosing to emphasize combats and traps, so you need to write a few ACTUAL monsters into the story, which limits the amount of psychological games you can plug into the atmosphere. At some point, the players are interacting with a real, tangible threat, even if that threat is a real, tangible Illusion Spell.

You have to find some balance between the two rather disparate concepts being mixed together:
Asylum horror mysteries are about heroes bravely exploring their own weaknesses and inner demons, because hospitals are places that everyone needs to go to due to the frailty of all people and mental illness is among the most horrifying and debilitating kind of medical need.
D&D is about power fantasy telling stories about exceptional individuals. Paladins are literally immune to fear. Clerics can heal every mundane ailment with a touch and an hour to prepare the right spell. There is no need to worry about inner demons when characters can literally live as a paragon of their belief structure, nearly infallible in their pursuit of morality.

Name Brand D&D will set you up that Divine Casters will trivialize your scenario, but that not having them will ratchet the difficulty up to 11, because the monsters playing in this ballpark are designed to be defeated by Divine Spellcasters. You need to be able to use the mechanics as a startup point and then massage the rules so that they don't get in the way of the themes you want to explore. Because that is exactly what they will do.
So D&D isn't the type of game to use that content? Ok I guess I could play a different game other than D&D? Thanks everyone. :smile:

[Elricaltovilla]

You could try World of Darkness. It's a modern day horror rpg. The base version of WoD should give you everything you want.

[Ryuuk]

I remember reading a 3.5 Eberron adventure that took place in an asylum. Looking around, it looks like it was called Hell's Heart. Try giving it a look, it ended up being a Batman's Arkham Asylum-like affair.