Session in a manor house

[Totally Guy]

I have just recently downloaded a card construction kit to make a manor house and I'm enjoying putting it together howeverI'm a litle concerned that using a gothic manor house as a setting for a session would be a little constrictive.

Can anyone think of a decent plot or mechanic that keeps the adventurers in the grounds of this manor house for a decent amount of time.

It might not even end up being dnd, we might find something else to play but even so, I'd still like to make good use of this set and so keep the adventure in the same place.

I thought maybe a murder mystery could be unravelled there, or the characters could be an Addams family style halloween game where tourists are visiting the house. Need ideas.

[Mr. Friendly]

Well, first invent a reason for the PCs to go there. Get the artifact, save the princess, stop the evil, whatever.

Once the PCs get to the manor house, they find that stepping through one door teleports them randomly to another room in the house. Repeat until adventure is done.

[Keld Denar]

Powerful yet not-hostile ghost shows up asking for avengement/investigation/cake to set his immortal soul to rest (goodie PC hook). If PCs help, he'll tell them where his families treasure was hidden (all other PCs hook). There are clues around the house for PCs to find that give evidence about who really dun it. Think Scoobie Doo style. Combat foes might include undead (shadows, ghouls, vampire spawn all work good depending on levels) or animated objects. PCs discover that ghosts uncle was dabbling in necromancy, or plotting to kill the ghost or the ghosts family, or threatened to steal all their cake to start a war, etc. PCs discover clues, put facts together, and present an arguement to the ghost. If they prove it well enough, they get the treasure, if not, the ghost locks them in the house or something. Spice to individual taste.

Good luck and good gaming!

[DraPrime]

Have them enter the manor for some mundane reason like delivering a message, but then when they try to leave, they simply can't. They try to walk out the door, but for some reason their bodies just won't do that. They have to figure out why the hell they're they're trapped inside, and survive while weird undead horrors attack them.

[Solo]

Have the mansion be a secret center of a necromantic cult, and when the PCs arrive in it for whatever reason, they are besieged inside the mansion by undead hoards, and must solve many cunning puzzels and overcume zombies and other monsters in order to escape alive.


In no way have I stolen the idea from Resident Evil.

[Silkenfist]

In no way have I stolen the idea from Resident Evil.

Resident Evil?

*slapped* for not recognizing the "Night of the Living Dead* pattern.

[Quietus]

I seem to remember some Magic : The Gathering magazine I used to read all the time having a 2.0 game centered around being in a house (Not stuck, so you'd have to rely on players staying there by choice), in which there was five different objects that could be collected. Collecting all five and placing them in a particular spot in the basement would open a prison that was placed down there to hold this monstrosity that used to be the (now dead) owner's son, which was thoroughly insane. Come the end of the module, you had to decide whether to A) Keep the objects, as each was a useful magical item, or B) Deal with letting this monstrosity loose.

It seems really cliche the way I described it, but it actually was a really interesting adventure, and I'd like to run it myself sometime.

[Mr. Friendly]

I think you should set the scenario up to *look* like it will be undead. Spooky old house on the hill, rumors of ghosts, the usual. Then in Scooby Doo fashion have it turn out to be old man Watkins trying to build a [strike]Uranium[/strike] Adamantium mine. The actual enemies would humans disguised as undead.

[psychoticbarber]

There's always the house from my nightmares: The one where going through a door always leads to a random place, rather than where you think it might go. This includes going back out the front door.

To keep it simple, you may wish to make every door go only 2-4 places, rather than anywhere in the house. You'd need to draw each room separately and then number all the doors and make charts, but it could be fun for the PCs when they start to figure out that they don't have total control over where they end up.

Further idea: Maybe rather than having each door lead to another random door, have it lead to a random door in a specific area, so that Door 24 goes to the northwest corner of the second floor, and pick a random door in the northwest corner of the second floor...or something like that.

Once the PCs get to the manor house, they find that stepping through one door teleports them randomly to another room in the house. Repeat until adventure is done.

Missed that somehow. My apologies to Mr. Friendly!

[Mr. Friendly]

Missed that somehow. My apologies to Mr. Friendly!

No worries, it's a tried and true method of keeping players where you want them, so I don't really take credit for it. I think Gygax was doing it before it was even called D&D.

[psychoticbarber]

No worries, it's a tried and true method of keeping players where you want them, so I don't really take credit for it. I think Gygax was doing it before it was even called D&D.

I suggested the random charts, because I like the sound dice make...

[lamguin]

Simon R Green had a cool idea with one of his Hawk and Fisher stories. The house was the setting of a small party, owned by a powerful mage. During the party, one of the guests is killed. To keep the killer from escaping, Hawk and Fisher (city guards) have the mage set up an isolation spell on the house. The spell puts the house temporarily into a pocket dimension. No entrance, no exit. As the PCs investigate the murder, more guests keep dying. *dramatic music*

[Blue Paladin]

Have the mansion be a secret center of a necromantic cult, and when the PCs arrive in it for whatever reason, they are besieged inside the mansion by undead hoards, and must solve many cunning puzzels and overcume zombies and other monsters in order to escape alive.


In no way have I stolen the idea from Resident Evil.

Definitely not. The puzzles in RE were hardly cunning at all.

Now if you had included eerie mist and an evil doppelganger town with many screwed-up puzzles... Yeah. Let's throw in a cult too! And an unkillable (yet still defeatable, or else your PCs would get mad and reset... I mean, leave) bloody murdering cleaver wielding dude with an oversized helmet. Yeah. That sounds totally original! You could call it, the Highland of No Sound.

[Crow]

The house is cursed.

Entering the house seemlessly transports the characters to an exact duplicate of the manor house, except that the duplicate is located on a vast featureless plane. The only way to get back is to discover the source of the curse, and break it.

[Mewtarthio]

The PCs accidentally trigger an ancient whatchamacallit and the entire house (along with all its contents, such as PCs) gets plane shifted to (The Astral Plane / The Plane of Shadows / The Plane of Dreams / Baator / The Abyss / A Pocket Dimension / Carceri / The Far Realms / Other). Now they have to deal with getting back and get the additional problem of whatever beings are waiting for them in their new location (including the guy who set up the trap to begin with).

[Hakola]

I used a flytrap mansion with some success when I DM:ed CoC a couple of years back.

The first night that the pc:s slept in the manor they were trapped in what was actually a dreamreflection of the building and a bit of its surroundings. Unaware that it was a dream they continued conductiong the investigation around the house.

If they walked away from the house they would eventually come back to it from another direction. After adding the feeling of having something stalking them as soon as they left the manor the pc:s refused to leave the house and actually barricaded the doors and windows.

[Runolfr]

I have just recently downloaded a card construction kit to make a manor house and I'm enjoying putting it together howeverI'm a litle concerned that using a gothic manor house as a setting for a session would be a little constrictive.

Can anyone think of a decent plot or mechanic that keeps the adventurers in the grounds of this manor house for a decent amount of time.

It might not even end up being dnd, we might find something else to play but even so, I'd still like to make good use of this set and so keep the adventure in the same place.

I thought maybe a murder mystery could be unravelled there, or the characters could be an Addams family style halloween game where tourists are visiting the house. Need ideas.

Murder mysteries certainly work in such a setting.

Well, if there's something in the manor that the PCs want or need to get, then it seems pretty simple to keep them there, especially if they want something that's well hidden. Even more so if it's multiple somethings that are all well-hidden in different parts of the house.

You could have a haunted house; getting the ghost to leave requires locating an assortment of items in the house. These could be pieces of evidence in a crime, assorted family heirlooms that need to be passed on, cursed objects that bind the spirit to the place, or mcguffins of your own devising.

Special circumstances may keep the party in the house after they arrive. Particularly severe weather, for example, might keep them there while assorted events trouble them. Or a guards and wards spell might get tripped, wizard-locking all the doors for a period of time.

They may need to talk to someone who lives there, and the resident may delay them for some reason. Perhaps he's a wizard who has to complete some project before he can speak to them. Perhaps she's a knight who was out riding the land and won't be back for a while, but trying to track her down in the field would be even more time-consuming. Perhaps the resident is a criminal who needs to hide some evidence before speaking to visitors. Perhaps the person isn't human(oid) and needs time to prepare a disguise. Delays should arouse suspicions that make inquisitive PCs want to look around; if they were sent to investigate something, all the better.

[Machete]

The mansion itself is a really big creature using humanoid-shaped plant puppets to trick those who enter. Like a big venus fly trap. Also good for taverns.

[Subotei]

Could the place be a disguised 'Mage's Magnificent Mansion' (to give the SRD name) where the caster invites them in, only to disappear for some reason? The spell description states only the caster can open the entrance, and the entrance is the only way to leave, so the party are stuck until they figure out......(add your plot).

Perhaps the Mansion's owner is magically trapped and needs the party's help to get out?

[hewhosaysfish]

The PCs accidentally trigger an ancient whatchamacallit and the entire house (along with all its contents, such as PCs) gets plane shifted to (The Astral Plane / The Plane of Shadows / The Plane of Dreams / Baator / The Abyss / A Pocket Dimension / Carceri / The Far Realms / Other). Now they have to deal with getting back and get the additional problem of whatever beings are waiting for them in their new location (including the guy who set up the trap to begin with).

Trapped in the Butt-end of Heck!

Oh, and on the subject of murder mysteries: make sure all spellcasters leave their Detect Evil/Detect Thoughts/Discern Lies back at the inn or you could have the shortest plot ever.

[Runolfr]

Trapped in the Butt-end of Heck!

Oh, and on the subject of murder mysteries: make sure all spellcasters leave their Detect Evil/Detect Thoughts/Discern Lies back at the inn or you could have the shortest plot ever.

Detect Evil is thwarted if the target is less than Level 10 and not a divine caster.

Detect Thoughts will have to be active for at least 3 rounds to get useful information, assuming the target doesn't fail a Will save and isn't thinking about something else.

Discern Lies also grants a Will save.

Nondetection will reduce the effectiveness of any of them.

[Mewtarthio]

Detect evil is also thwarted if you play a little loose with alignments: The corrupt businessman who's ruined a lot of lives in his climb to the top is innocent but reads as evil, while the time-travelling butler out to save the future killed the man out of necessity but reads as good.

[....]

What kind of D&D player are you?

Have you never heard of Baron Strahd Von Zarovitch?

The original haunted castle/house campaign!

[RTGoodman]

Well, if you're looking for a 1st-level adventure, check out "A Dark and Stormy Night" here on the Wizards website. Just change the setting from a hollowed-out hill to your Gothic manor, and you should be fine. I like that adventure a lot, and it even gives out some very minor magic items to your party, which will keep them happy (and hopefully in the house long enough to find them all).

Also, as others have said, it'd be a great place for a murder-mystery.

[hamlet]

Instead of relying on heavy handed gimicks like planeshifting the house to another realm of existance, rely on the old stereotypical fall backs. They work for a reason.

1) The characters are drivin into the house by a terrible and dangerous storm. (Yes, I realize that WOTC adventure does this too) Rain and lightening and thunder are the classics, but snow actually works better. Position the house in a narrow pass high in the mountains and drop hints about reduced visibility, trouble pushing through the accumulating snow, asses a little bit of frostbite damage, etc. This old manor will look really inviting at that point.

2) Once they get in (no matter how you do it) you might want to find a way to keep them there instead of letting them bail out in terror. The afformentioned snow storm works well for that. Let it fall thick and heavy and block up the front door and even the first story windows.

Another possibility depends upon what you put in the house. You don't need anything fantastic. A first level commoner (oh how I long for the days of the 0-level NPC's) can make life a living hell for most parties as long as he's crafty and knows the house well enough. When they move in to explore, he can emerge from hiding and nail the door shut, or secure it some other way. Perhaps the door is made of heavy steel covered over in fake wood so that it's not easy to break down? He could have secret passages running all through the walls ("hey bud? don't these doors and walls look a little funny to you?") allowing him access to many rooms in the house without being seen by the players. Don't let him into a standup fight, he'll lose. Instead, he'll probably want to try and turn the party members against each other. When they decide to make good any escape plans, he can harry them by cutting ropes that they use to descend from a second or third story window. Attacking them while they dangle helplessly from a window ledge is also good.

3) Make sure you put something interesting to do in the house. Why did the snowstorm come up so suddenly and strong to push them into the house? Is there some sort of fell magic about it? Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm pretty sure there's not supposed to be blood dripping down the walls.

What about the one guy left in the place? What's he doing?

Maybe he's the sole surviving member of a vampire hunter group and is guarding the sealed sarcofagus(sp?) of the last vampire imprisoned by the order, but were unable to destroy it when the creature's minions struck in the dead of night, slaying all but one before being driven off. Now, he's determined to destroy the vampire, and the PC's are perceived as members of the attacking band from the night before. But the real minions are still out there.

Or, better yet, the guy is member of an evil cult and is sacrificing unwary travelers to some unholy elder evil in the hopes that he will be granted power. There's really a stack of bodies four deep in a secret chamber in the basement where an alter has been set up.