Horror Campaign Ideas

[carrdrivesyou]

So I'm throwing together a new horror campaign, and I have most of it down. I've run it in 3.5, but I've had to convert it to 5e for this particular group.
I would like to spice it up a bit aside from freaky monsters and hordes of undead.

Any ideas Playgrounders?

[S@tanicoaldo]

How weird are you comfortable or planning to get?

[Unoriginal]

So I'm throwing together a new horror campaign, and I have most of it down. I've run it in 3.5, but I've had to convert it to 5e for this particular group.
I would like to spice it up a bit aside from freaky monsters and hordes of undead.

Any ideas Playgrounders?

Have you read Curse of Strahd? It could give you inspiration.

Otherwise, hard to help if you don't tell us more about the kind of horror and events the PCs will encounter.

[smcmike]

What is the general theme of the campaign?

One horror theme that always gets me is inevitability. Think The Ring, or It Follows - the sense that something is always coming, and that you might be able to prolong your life by running, but not by much. This is a hard theme to incorporate with heroic fantasy though.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

I second inevitability. A cousin to inevitability is making the players unwilling accomplices, forcing them into decisions that further the outcome they're trying to prevent. This is a delicate dance as you don't want to railroad; you just want to lead them into logically making the decisions you (and your BBEG) want them to.

If you really have time I'd recommend Danse Macabre by Steven King. The piece I'm starting to think about for my own game is King's classification of scary works of fiction into terror, horror and revulsion. Revulsion is the easiest to create - it's gross and creepy to think about. The published adventure Out of the Abyss does a good job invoking revulsion. Horror is the next easiest - it's the feeling of being scared when the reveal occurs. Being afraid of the monster in the basement is horror. Terror is the most effective but also hardest to create - it's the feeling of anticipatory fright. Being afraid when you're in the hallway and the door to the basement creaks open behind you is terror.

It matters that the mechanics of the world reflect the reality you're trying to create. Depending on the theme of your world or your game, I'd take a pass through the spell lists to alter the effects of particular classes of spells. For instance, I might rule that any spell that creates light has a random duration, which the DM will roll and not reveal to the player. Summoning spells have a chance to pull a creature of the intended type irrevocably corrupted by the Far Realm. Whatever is appropriate to the campaign in question. Mechanics for madness or difficult resting might be appropriate as well.

In a horror encounter, I also think it's important to maintain a more rigid control over what is and what is not in character. A key element in building suspense is controlling the flow of time, and DMs should caution their players about spending too much time out of character. Time spent out of character lets the players break the flow of events, which bleeds some of the suspense away. Additionally, there need to be motivations for pushing the players inexorably forward, especially if it's already been made clear that they're acting contrary to their interests.

[strangebloke]

Have something they can't kill. Convey that the thing can't be killed. Don't ever give them information about the thing, except that it will kill them and is invulnerable. And can show up out of nowhere.

Make it kinda bad at perception, though, and make it so the PCs can run from it.

Use angry GM's time pool rules to make sure that exploration is tense.

[Vogie]

You can also raise the stakes mechanically.

For example, hoards of undead or monsters in most campaigns would be in place to require Area of effect and multi-target fighting... perhaps in yours, it's more like all individual monsters are strong enough that it'd take the entire party to take down, say, 2 at max. This way there is less hack & slash, more sneak and assassinate... almost a Dark Souls style of fighting

The Cthulhu and Friends podcast has a mechanic where natural 1s rolled are tracked and may accrue into the characters losing their sanity, or potentially their lives.

You could have certain areas or monsters that impact the environment in various ways.
You could have a zones that:

have creatures that are underground and stalking things just walking around, a la the sandwurms from the Dune series or the graboids from Tremours
are really dried out woodland areas, where lightning & fire spells/abilities could start a wildfire
are similar to the movie "A Quiet Place" where sound is important, so thunder spells, music or shouting can summon more enemies to the area
have a thick mist that could protect the party... or hold something terrifying.
time starts to work differently - Maybe there extra night, or the days just stretch on & on so there aren't obvious times to take a rest

[carrdrivesyou]

These are all great ideas! Thanks for that!

I already have the immortal, reincarnating threat that is following them.
I also have terrible baddies and environmental factors in play. (Think below freezing with mist everywhere).
There is also the sense of impending doom and creepy things obviously watching them.
I've got horror/revulsion at the things they will see.
I even have a murder mystery.

So I guess I'm in need of more sudden frights than anything. Like a sudden situation that they can't plan for at all.
I guess something like opening a door and something horrible lurches out at them sort of thing.

I've got a month to plan, so there's time for a bit of reading.

[Armored Walrus]

So I guess I'm in need of more sudden frights than anything. Like a sudden situation that they can't plan for at all.
I guess something like opening a door and something horrible lurches out at them sort of thing.

That's the hardest one to pull off in a TTRPG though. One thing that might help it work, though, is pre-rolling initiative. That way when your boogeyperson jumps out of the closet at them, you don't immediately stop the action for a roll. Honestly, though, unless you have really invested, or naturally nervous, players, jump scares are probably not worth trying to implement.

[strangebloke]

You can also raise the stakes mechanically.

For example, hoards of undead or monsters in most campaigns would be in place to require Area of effect and multi-target fighting... perhaps in yours, it's more like all individual monsters are strong enough that it'd take the entire party to take down, say, 2 at max. This way there is less hack & slash, more sneak and assassinate... almost a Dark Souls style of fighting

The Cthulhu and Friends podcast has a mechanic where natural 1s rolled are tracked and may accrue into the characters losing their sanity, or potentially their lives.

You could have certain areas or monsters that impact the environment in various ways.
You could have a zones that:

have creatures that are underground and stalking things just walking around, a la the sandwurms from the Dune series or the graboids from Tremours
are really dried out woodland areas, where lightning & fire spells/abilities could start a wildfire
are similar to the movie "A Quiet Place" where sound is important, so thunder spells, music or shouting can summon more enemies to the area
have a thick mist that could protect the party... or hold something terrifying.
time starts to work differently - Maybe there extra night, or the days just stretch on & on so there aren't obvious times to take a rest


I agree with all of this. Ultimately, horror is built off of a feeling of helplessness. DND gives your players a lot of tools, so you have to make things really hard on them if you want to maintain the feel. Nobody kills the horror vibe like a bunch of PCs steamrolling an encounter.

One way to build to this is just through severe attrition. Implement gritty rest rules, send more hard or deadly encounters between long rests than the party than they can reliably fight, gimp Resurrection mechanics, and be generous with exhaustion levels. (be generous with removing them as well. Getting rid of a level of exhaustion on a short rest, and all levels on a long rest, is a very fair rule to implement.) You'll need to nerf or remove powerful anti-attrition spells like healing spirit, since those options are completely overpowered in an attrition-focused game. I'd also highly recommend something kind of lingering injury system, so that by the end of an adventuring day, the party is just completely worn out.

I don't love the DMG's injury system, so I wrote up my own:
Lingering Injuries/Exhaustion
-When a character takes damage from a single source equal to or greater than half his his point maximum, he must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. If he fails, he is stunned until the end of his next turn. If he fails by 5 or more, he drops to zero hit points.
-When a character is hit by a critical hit, the DM rolls on the injury table with advantage.
-When a character drops to 0 hit points but isn’t killed outright, the DM rolls on the injury table (if he was reduced to 0 hit points by a blow that took have his maximum hitpoints, roll with disadvantage) and the character gains a level of exhaustion.


Injury Table
roll a d20 to determine the nature of the injury sustatined.
Injury
1
Irreparable Damage: You lose an eye, hand, or foot. (player's choice) If an eye, you have disadvantage on Wisdom(Perception) checks. If you lose two eyes, you go blind. If a leg or arm, you gain the Broken Arm or Broken Leg condition. Regardless, the condition gained can only be removed by Regeneration, a magical prosthesis, or a similar effect.
2
Broken Arm: You cannot use one of your hands. Healing magic of 5th level or higher can remove this injury. If you spend a long rest in complete bedrest, someone can make a DC 15 Wisdom(medicine) check to attempt to remove this injury.
3
Broken Leg: Your base land speed is reduced by 10 feet. If you take this injury twice or you don’t have a crutch or prosthesis, you cannot stand. Healing magic of 5th level or higher can remove this injury. If you spend a long rest in complete bedrest, someone can make a DC 15 Wisdom(medicine) check to attempt to remove this injury.
4
Internal Injury: Whenever you attempt an action in combat, you must make a DC 10 Constitution Saving Throw. On a failed save you lose your action and can’t use reactions until the start of your next turn. This condition can be removed if you spend a long rest in complete bedrest, or if healing magic of greater than 5th level is used on you.
5-7
Broken Ribs: Same as internal injury, but the DC is 5, and the required healing magic level is 4.
8-10
Limp:Your movement speed is reduced by 5. If you take the dash action, make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. Magical healing can remove the limp
11-13
Festering Wound:Your HP maximum is reduced by 1 per character level you have. If you are magically healed, you can forgo some of the healing effect to recover a number of maximum hit points equal to the amount of healing that you gave up. Otherwise, over the course of a short or long rest, a character can make a medicine check with a DC equal to the number of maximum hit points lost + 5 to restore the lost hit points.
14-16
Horrible Scar: You have disadvantage on Charisma(Persuasion) checks and advantage on Charisma(Intimidation) checks that reference the scar. Magical healing can remove this effect.
17-20
Minor Scar:No adverse effect. Can be removed by magical healing (if desired)


Also, use jump scares. Sometimes the party is circling the camp of kua-toa, only to find that they shrub they're hiding behind is a shambling mound! Roll initiative, puppets, how do you them surprise rules now?

Also, use the time pool rooms. Any time the players do anything that takes time, like breaking down a door or checking for traps, add a d6, d8, or d4 (smaller die means more dangerous environment) to the 'time pool.' When they do something to attract attention, like casting Knock or destroying a door with eldritch blast, roll the dice pool. Depending on how many ones are rolled, give them an encounter. I just ran a one-shot with horror elements, and while the worst encounter (the invincible thing) was pretty unusual, every round of combat had a 1/6 chance to be interrupted by him as he prowled around the dungeon.

Also! Screw with their heads and make them distrust their own 'senses.' Traps are the usual method but I would actually recommend against overusing that one. (Make the trap locations guessable based off of your narration. "This hallway is filled with skeletons and arrows.") What I mean more is 'keep them guessing.' One villain I ran a while back had a troop of little girls with her. Some of the girls were Hags in disguise. Some of them were normal girls under a domination effect, with magic bombs inside them that went off if they died.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

A very quick, very effective, very free read is Chambers's The King In Yellow, particularly the short stories "The Court of the Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign".

From the first I'm taking the idea of a series of encounters that take place as either out-of-body experiences or within time skips, such that after the party fails, they come back to themselves in the moments before the encounters begin. From the second I'm taking the idea of introducing elements that are clearly malign that are only visible to the characters, then gradually introducing unreliable narrators who see the same malign forces at work.

[Vogie]

Actually, initiative at seemingly random points could add some tension by itself.

I would also have an on-edge style of encounter declaration. The party hears a thump upstairs, everyone rolls initiative... but then it turns out to be a cat. They're walking along the path, hear a rustle in the bushes, roll initiative... but there's nothing there. Then when they enter a room, roll initiative, it's rote and expected... and then something bursts out of the closet and yanks the Halfling inside.

Alternatively, you could have faux-initiative using perception checks, and failing to notice the thing creates a surprise round, which does things prior to initiative being rolled.

You can also involve the Skill challenge mechanic from 4e, which requires an initiative roll before the players perform the challenge.

[Ventruenox]

When I want to instill a feeling of helplessness, I start with a commonplace detail or habit. It could be the adornments on every taxi carriage, or the genuflects of the predominant faith. The point is, it has to be widespread and accepted as normal/benign. The PCs uncover clues leading to a malignant threat that they actually are able to deal with, but learn that the threat was only a small part of a larger doom. Allow them to learn the origins of the detail or habit, and then tie that to something sinister.

[smcmike]

True jump scares seem hard to accomplish - everyone is expecting you to say “a monster appears,” so it just isn’t going to be that surprising.

Maybe try to surprise them with other sorts of sudden shifts in the environment. The first rule of surviving in D&D is “don’t split the party,” so splitting the party by some surprising environmental circumstance might be scary. Sudden and unexpected skill challenges with unknown doom as a potential consequence are less concrete/routine and perhaps scarier than normal combat - trying to break down a door as you hear something come down the stairs, hacking through webs as the sound of skuttling legs comes from all directions, swimming for shore as hands pull at your ankles...

[Demonslayer666]

I second the Sanity rules. Use Call of Cthulhu as a baseline.

It's fun to have quirky characters that can have episodes.

[TerakasTaranath]

So I'm throwing together a new horror campaign, and I have most of it down. I've run it in 3.5, but I've had to convert it to 5e for this particular group.
I would like to spice it up a bit aside from freaky monsters and hordes of undead.

Any ideas Playgrounders?

Fear of the unknown is the worst IMO. I explored a necromancers dungeon and it was spook city let me tell you. The monsters and all yea scary, but the worst was when I opened the door and there was a bed with something under the covers. Scared the living daylights out of me, only to find out it was just a small skeleton just in a fetal position.

When the DM described it to me my eye went wide open and I repeated "nope nope nope" until I finally decided to go in. I've charged horrible monstrosities, but I felt the most fear when I had no idea what was under those covers.

[Armored Walrus]

the worst was when I opened the door and there was a bed with something under the covers. Scared the living daylights out of me...

Stealing this technique for sure.

[Joe dirt]

the baron of the town has been acting strangely and people have been coming up missing. and sadly a disease has started to sweep over the area, worse yet the dead have started to rise.

make a creature that possesses people and has taken over the town as the "baron".

[Sigreid]

The barmaid they chatted up last month shows up with child /shudder

[carrdrivesyou]

I agree with all of this. Ultimately, horror is built off of a feeling of helplessness. DND gives your players a lot of tools, so you have to make things really hard on them if you want to maintain the feel. Nobody kills the horror vibe like a bunch of PCs steamrolling an encounter.

One way to build to this is just through severe attrition. Implement gritty rest rules, send more hard or deadly encounters between long rests than the party than they can reliably fight, gimp Resurrection mechanics, and be generous with exhaustion levels. (be generous with removing them as well. Getting rid of a level of exhaustion on a short rest, and all levels on a long rest, is a very fair rule to implement.) You'll need to nerf or remove powerful anti-attrition spells like healing spirit, since those options are completely overpowered in an attrition-focused game. I'd also highly recommend something kind of lingering injury system, so that by the end of an adventuring day, the party is just completely worn out.

I don't love the DMG's injury system, so I wrote up my own:
Lingering Injuries/Exhaustion
-When a character takes damage from a single source equal to or greater than half his his point maximum, he must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. If he fails, he is stunned until the end of his next turn. If he fails by 5 or more, he drops to zero hit points.
-When a character is hit by a critical hit, the DM rolls on the injury table with advantage.
-When a character drops to 0 hit points but isn’t killed outright, the DM rolls on the injury table (if he was reduced to 0 hit points by a blow that took have his maximum hitpoints, roll with disadvantage) and the character gains a level of exhaustion.


Injury Table
roll a d20 to determine the nature of the injury sustatined.
Injury
1
Irreparable Damage: You lose an eye, hand, or foot. (player's choice) If an eye, you have disadvantage on Wisdom(Perception) checks. If you lose two eyes, you go blind. If a leg or arm, you gain the Broken Arm or Broken Leg condition. Regardless, the condition gained can only be removed by Regeneration, a magical prosthesis, or a similar effect.
2
Broken Arm: You cannot use one of your hands. Healing magic of 5th level or higher can remove this injury. If you spend a long rest in complete bedrest, someone can make a DC 15 Wisdom(medicine) check to attempt to remove this injury.
3
Broken Leg: Your base land speed is reduced by 10 feet. If you take this injury twice or you don’t have a crutch or prosthesis, you cannot stand. Healing magic of 5th level or higher can remove this injury. If you spend a long rest in complete bedrest, someone can make a DC 15 Wisdom(medicine) check to attempt to remove this injury.
4
Internal Injury: Whenever you attempt an action in combat, you must make a DC 10 Constitution Saving Throw. On a failed save you lose your action and can’t use reactions until the start of your next turn. This condition can be removed if you spend a long rest in complete bedrest, or if healing magic of greater than 5th level is used on you.
5-7
Broken Ribs: Same as internal injury, but the DC is 5, and the required healing magic level is 4.
8-10
Limp:Your movement speed is reduced by 5. If you take the dash action, make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. Magical healing can remove the limp
11-13
Festering Wound:Your HP maximum is reduced by 1 per character level you have. If you are magically healed, you can forgo some of the healing effect to recover a number of maximum hit points equal to the amount of healing that you gave up. Otherwise, over the course of a short or long rest, a character can make a medicine check with a DC equal to the number of maximum hit points lost + 5 to restore the lost hit points.
14-16
Horrible Scar: You have disadvantage on Charisma(Persuasion) checks and advantage on Charisma(Intimidation) checks that reference the scar. Magical healing can remove this effect.
17-20
Minor Scar:No adverse effect. Can be removed by magical healing (if desired)


Also, use jump scares. Sometimes the party is circling the camp of kua-toa, only to find that they shrub they're hiding behind is a shambling mound! Roll initiative, puppets, how do you them surprise rules now?

Also, use the time pool rooms. Any time the players do anything that takes time, like breaking down a door or checking for traps, add a d6, d8, or d4 (smaller die means more dangerous environment) to the 'time pool.' When they do something to attract attention, like casting Knock or destroying a door with eldritch blast, roll the dice pool. Depending on how many ones are rolled, give them an encounter. I just ran a one-shot with horror elements, and while the worst encounter (the invincible thing) was pretty unusual, every round of combat had a 1/6 chance to be interrupted by him as he prowled around the dungeon.

Also! Screw with their heads and make them distrust their own 'senses.' Traps are the usual method but I would actually recommend against overusing that one. (Make the trap locations guessable based off of your narration. "This hallway is filled with skeletons and arrows.") What I mean more is 'keep them guessing.' One villain I ran a while back had a troop of little girls with her. Some of the girls were Hags in disguise. Some of them were normal girls under a domination effect, with magic bombs inside them that went off if they died.


Oh I LOVE that injury system of yours! I am definitely using it! And I think I have the whole messing with senses down with the Murder Mystery! I'll add it in some other places also!


True jump scares seem hard to accomplish - everyone is expecting you to say “a monster appears,” so it just isn’t going to be that surprising.

Maybe try to surprise them with other sorts of sudden shifts in the environment. The first rule of surviving in D&D is “don’t split the party,” so splitting the party by some surprising environmental circumstance might be scary. Sudden and unexpected skill challenges with unknown doom as a potential consequence are less concrete/routine and perhaps scarier than normal combat - trying to break down a door as you hear something come down the stairs, hacking through webs as the sound of skuttling legs comes from all directions, swimming for shore as hands pull at your ankles...

This is solid! I'll be adding this also!

[Platypusbill]

One idea, however restrictive, is that darkvision through races/class features/spells is limited or even completely inaccessible.

Perhaps the range of PC darkvision is just 30ft, so monsters can often spot them before they can spot the monsters. It creates tension because the players either have to use a light source and thus make stealth in dark areas impossible, or risk being attacked by something they couldn't see coming.

Monsters might still be possible to detect in darkness if they make growling noises even when they are idle, but their exact nature and whether or not they have seen the PCs is only found out when they attack.

[Specter]

This should give you all you need.

http://theangrygm.com/running-your-most-horrible-dd-adventure-ever/

[Dr. Cliché]

There was a recent thread discussing werewolves, and one particularly fun idea was that of a child infected with Lycanthropy, who chose to embrace the curse.

Could make for some really hard decisions for the party - especially if they've met the kid previously (before they found out he was a werewolf) and he seemed perfectly nice.

Bonus points if you have several of the kids in the village or whatever be affected. Imagine the players trying to work out how to tell the parents that the band of monsters attacking people in the surrounding area each night are their own children.


On a somewhat related note, I'd personally consider messing around with the Lycanthrope rules. I'd consider giving them something like:
- Regeneration (since it's a horror campaign, you could make the pack leader specially hard to kill, perhaps appearing dead but then rising the next night unless his heart was pierced with silver).
- Cunning Action (to make them appropriately mobile in combat).
- Resistance to damage from non-silvered weapons (so that the players can't ignore their protection simply by having magic weapons).

[Wampyr]

Sometimes the physical environment can help set up the imaginary one.

For example: I ran a horror campaign in a basement lit by one single lightbulb hanging from a wire in the ceiling that flickered whenever somebody upstairs walked over it.

[Goblin Slayer]

Zombees

Regular zombie stat block with an extra attack of vomitting bees out of its mouth as an action and if the zombies dies a swarm of bees spawn from it with stat block of swarm of bettles but with actions of venemous sting?

Also both creture have the ability melissophobia that gives disadvantage if the target fails a wisdom saving throw of a dc 12?