My New Horror Mechanic

[ObsidianRose]

So, I'm running this campaign, and the next artifact that my players need to take back to repay their debts to the Olympian gods is this mirror. In a labyrinth.

Now the labyrinth has been abandoned for a few hundred years, but there will still be ghosts in it. I've decided to go for a horror feel once I send them groping around in the dark, so I'd need the standard separating the party members, ambient noise, weird doors, etc.

However, I realized that there just wasn't a good enough mechanic to make the players feel helpless or claustrophobic.

So, first of all, within the entire underground complex, there's a magical darkness that can only be penetrated by two things. Light from a regular, oil burning lantern, and light from a candle placed within a glass cage. Basically, a natural light covered by glass. These will have radii reduced to only 10 feet.

Next of all, the spirits within the labyrinth. There will be no way to deal hit point damage to these spirits. They have no combat stats. When they occupy the same square as a player, they drain 3d6 hit points per round.

There is only one way to defeat these spirits, and that is to write the name of the spirit onto your lantern in your own blood. Discovering its name requires a character occupying its square to make a DC 15 Sense Motive check. Knowing the name allows anyone that can see the spirit to write its name to destroy it. The blood required for this deals 1d6 damage to the writer. In addition, the lantern's glass becomes 1d10% full. Once the lantern becomes 50% full, its radius drops to 5 feet. Once it becomes 100% full, no more names can be written and it only illuminates the bearer's square. Writing a name is a full round action.

Any comments? Balanced? Too railroady?

[Mr Pants]

I think it's kinda odd that writing something in blood could kill the average commoner with 1d6 damage. The names of these ghosts must be paragraphs long.

[ObsidianRose]

It's really an issue of the labyrinth. I'll explain why it does that on Saturday. Can't give away all the flavor twists today, can I?

[MMad]

In addition, the lantern's glass becomes 1d10% full. Once the lantern becomes 50% full, its radius drops to 5 feet. Once it becomes 100% full, no more names can be written and it only illuminates the bearer's square.

I wouldn't make this a hard rule or explain it right away, but just arbitrarily introduce this variable when it feels appropriate, i.e. when your players are starting to feel cocky. :) You should hit them with it when they think they've got the system all figured out and just decide when to weaken the light based on how they're doing compared to your estimates to maximize dramatic tension.

Fake the bookkeeping if your players prefer the DM playing by the rules - but in my experience, horror works much better if directed by dramatic imperatives instead of rules and numbers.

[ObsidianRose]

Awww, no more comments? I thought it was a pretty good mechanic. At least tell me if it's unbalanced or boring or something.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Personally, I would allow players to turn the spirits (but not destroy them). That lets them have a chance to stop and think.

[DracoDei]

Rules for scrubing the glass clean?