Ideas for a modern-times horror campaign

[Silus]

Ok, so there's a chance I may be running a D20 Modern/Future game for some first time gamers. However, I've never run a Modern game and am a bit strapped for ideas. I do know that I want to make it a horror game without ripping off TOO MUCH from movies or tv shows like Supernatural.

I'm cool with using monsters from the 3.5 Bestiaries and the Pathfinder Bestiaries, along with the Book of Unremitting Horror, though converting the stats may take a bit of effort on my part.

Assistance and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[The Fury]

For a start I'd say starting the party off in an isolated sort of environment like a derelict warehouse or deserted small town church or something. Generally, when characters are put in a situation where they reasonably feel alone they have a lot more to be afraid of.
As for what monsters to use, since you said that you wouldn't mind using stuff from Pathfinder Bestiaries I'd suggest an Attic Whisperer. Admittedly not a very powerful monster, but really creepy.
All that said, if these are first time players you should probably make sure that everyone's on board with the whole horror game angle. 'Cause hey, horror games aren't fun for everyone.

[Silus]

For a start I'd say starting the party off in an isolated sort of environment like a derelict warehouse or deserted small town church or something. Generally, when characters are put in a situation where they reasonably feel alone they have a lot more to be afraid of.
As for what monsters to use, since you said that you wouldn't mind using stuff from Pathfinder Bestiaries I'd suggest an Attic Whisperer. Admittedly not a very powerful monster, but really creepy.
All that said, if these are first time players you should probably make sure that everyone's on board with the whole horror game angle. 'Cause hey, horror games aren't fun for everyone.

Think I ought to let them start with weapons or have them scavange them from whatever location they're in? Like an Attic Whisperer in an old farmhouse and the PCs can get ahold of a shotgun and a single box of shells?

Oh, also, would limiting resources at hand (medical supplies, ammo, weapons, etc.) be an acceptable thing to do in a horror game? Only one I've run thus far was a 3.5 one and the PCs were armed to the teeth.

[TinyHippo]

Assuming the players are bought into a horror campaign, I'd start entirely mundane. No magic, no monsters, no craziness. At first. They're investigating a series of ritualistic murders, on the trail of the crazy cultists. After several sessions hey catch up just as the evil dudes are sacrificing a victim. Then BAM! Summoned demon, oh crap that wasn't what I was expecting etc.

[Arbane]

I do know that I want to make it a horror game without ripping off TOO MUCH from movies or tv shows like Supernatural.
(SNIP)
Assistance and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Are you familiar with the SCP Foundation? Plenty of potential ideas there, from Infernal Machines to cursed items to bizarre creatures.
(Warning: Contains Nightmare Fuel. Warning: Will use up hours of your life. Warning: Players may have also read.)

Think I ought to let them start with weapons or have them scavange them from whatever location they're in? Like an Attic Whisperer in an old farmhouse and the PCs can get ahold of a shotgun and a single box of shells?

Oh, also, would limiting resources at hand (medical supplies, ammo, weapons, etc.) be an acceptable thing to do in a horror game?

Totally acceptable. In a horror scenario, the heroes are almost always unarmed in any way that matters. If they have guns, the guns won't save them. (There's a saying among Call of Cthulhu players: "Having bigger guns just means you get eaten by bigger monsters.")

Keeping them low on medicine, shelter, light and general safety is also a good idea. Remember, you want to _scare_ the characters, and keep the players off-balance.

What sort of scenario were you thinking? A haunted house? Make sure there's a good reason the PCs can't just run away and/or burn the place down. (At least, not right at the start.)

Good luck!

Edit to add: Are you expecting a campaign, or a one-shot?

[Silus]

Are you familiar with the SCP Foundation? Plenty of potential ideas there, from Infernal Machines to cursed items to bizarre creatures.
(Warning: Contains Nightmare Fuel. Warning: Will use up hours of your life. Warning: Players may have also read.)



Totally acceptable. In a horror scenario, the heroes are almost always unarmed in any way that matters. If they have guns, the guns won't save them. (There's a saying among Call of Cthulhu players: "Having bigger guns just means you get eaten by bigger monsters.")

Keeping them low on medicine, shelter, light and general safety is also a good idea. Remember, you want to _scare_ the characters, and keep the players off-balance.

What sort of scenario were you thinking? A haunted house? Make sure there's a good reason the PCs can't just run away and/or burn the place down. (At least, not right at the start.)

Good luck!

Edit to add: Are you expecting a campaign, or a one-shot?

Ah yes, the SCP Foundation. Suppose I could dip imto that for some inspiration.

As for scenario, I was thinking of starting with a haunted house of sorts, maybe taking some inspiration from the Family Remains episode of Supernatural. No ghosts, but rather feral cannibal children or something that scurry through the walls. Maybe they're survivors of some supernatural incident that either killed or drove their parents mad. One think I know for sure is that I want to use the Torture Dogs from the Book of Unremitting Horror.

As for length, I think I'll try for a one-shot with a sort of sequal hook in case the players want to keep going.

[Rhynn]

As for scenario, I was thinking of starting with a haunted house of sorts, maybe taking some inspiration from the Family Remains episode of Supernatural. No ghosts, but rather feral cannibal children or something that scurry through the walls. Maybe they're survivors of some supernatural incident that either killed or drove their parents mad. One think I know for sure is that I want to use the Torture Dogs from the Book of Unremitting Horror.

The Lurking Fear, you mean? It's a pretty decent set-up.

[Ashtagon]

I'd avoid taking too much inspiration from TV pop culture "modern horror" shows, because they aren't horror shows. They are action shows with a supernatural theme. Fine if that's what you want. but horror it isn't.

If you want horror, go Cthulhu on them. No, that doesn't mean bring out the big monsters. It means stuff that makes them question the foundations of their being, or reaches into body horror territory.

Dr Who's cybermen are a good example of body horror, when done right. And the stone angels from the same show also have strong horror themes.

There was an old D&D setting in which the heroes slowly realised that Earth was a battleground between two ancient spacefaring civilisations, and humanity was only alive because the two had virtually wiped each other out. But they were recovering.

Also, bear in mind with modern stories, the PCs really should not be well-armed hobos. They should have jobs and families. Family members make really good kidnap victims for when the cultists need a sacrifice. Or maybe one family member is slowly over time recruited by a cult. Or maybe they find out that their company is a cult front when they receive a promotion. Or maybe that "promotion" was because their boss discovered that the hero's out of hours activities were creating a conflict of interest with the cult. Doesn't have to be a promotion of course. Could be a transfer to a new town.

Lots of possibilities that don't involve things that go bump in the night. Daylight horror is a TV trope of its own for a reason.

[Silus]

Well here's a brief list of ideas I've got bouncing around in my head for this game:

-No pictures to help describe monsters
-Dim lights and scary music
-Possible use of the D20 mutation tables
-A slow decline in normality, from feral children and cultists to things best left unspoken of
-Low supplies for players and enforcement of encumbrance rules

[The Fury]

Yeah, that's a great start! If I could offer some further suggestions maybe the car that the PCs arrived in is broken, stuck, wrecked or otherwise disabled. A bit overused, maybe but it makes escape a much less viable option.
Also if you do have the PCs discover a shotgun in an abandoned farmhouse, one of the PCs might reasonably wonder why it's in working condition while the rest of the house is falling apart. So there should be a reason why the shotgun's there, not a reason stated outright but maybe strongly implied. Like maybe closer inspection reveals that the shotgun's been fired recently and there are spent shell casings strewn about, or perhaps it looks like it might have been dropped in haste.

[Big Fau]

Borrow some ideas from the Slender Man Mythos.

[Man on Fire]

Some suggestions/ideas if it would turn into campaign:
Every time NPC dies, players see an ugly, freaky black cat, he appears a moment before the death. Never explain what it is, or why it appears, it just is in the picture. After some times players should be a bit freaked out.

In one adventure pc wakes up in body of completely different person and only he realizes that happened. When he meets the rest of the group, his character is there, is just fine as if nothing happened and very suprised by some guy yelling he is the real [insert name here].

[Rhynn]

Every time NPC dies, players see an ugly, freaky black cat, he appears a moment before the death. Never explain what it is, or why it appears, it just is in the picture. After some times players should be a bit freaked out.

I did sort of this in a mostly-improvisational horror campaign that was, largely, scary stuff happening for no reason (but the players didn't know). The campaign eventually imploded, but it had awesome tension and horror during sessions.

One PC started seeing a black cat around. (I forget if this was as a result of suffering some sanity loss the player didn't know about.) No one ever else saw it. The PC eventually went a bit crazy over it - he caught and killed the cat and flushed it down a toilet.

... later, the same PC and another blew up an apartment with homemade explosives (from common household chemicals) because they had become convinced it was haunted, just because of weird noises (over a period of weeks living opposite it) and handprints appearing on a window.

That entire campaign was a wonderful exercise in how completely I can freak out normally stolid players by 1. playing at night, 2. using no light other than two candles, and 3. describing things creepily. The times when I actually used monsters to good effect were always after the players had become completely creeped out by something "innocuous" - noises, a man standing under a tree in a park at night, etc. - and I needed to unwind the tension by letting them act.

[Silus]

Some suggestions/ideas if it would turn into campaign:
Every time NPC dies, players see an ugly, freaky black cat, he appears a moment before the death. Never explain what it is, or why it appears, it just is in the picture. After some times players should be a bit freaked out.

In one adventure pc wakes up in body of completely different person and only he realizes that happened. When he meets the rest of the group, his character is there, is just fine as if nothing happened and very suprised by some guy yelling he is the real [insert name here].

I think I'm gonna use crows and ravens almost to excess. Always gonna be at least five black birds watching the PCs, with more as they go into the woods or wherever. And then suddenly, no birds as they get to that one area where the birds refuse to go.

Also, children. Spooky, spooky children.

[Zahhak]

I may be running a... game for some first time gamers... I want to make it a horror game

I suspect this will end badly.

[Winter_Wolf]

The Dark Matter supplement is a great resource. Originally it was for the Alternity RPG, but I think they redid it for D20 Modern. Alternatively, there's a program called Dark Matters: Twisted but True on Science Channel (US) that dramatizes historical (well in theory, I'm not 100% sure of authenticity) events which are a bit twisted.

Before it goes into slash/gore, House of 1000 Corpses has promise and suspenseful buildup. Sadly my DVD bought it hard and I haven't wanted to bother replacing it.

Are the characters going to be investigating horror (X-Files type) or is it going to be sprung on them (A lot of horror movies which start promisingly and drop the ball terribly)?

[Man on Fire]

I suspect this will end badly.

I played horror game in savage worlds with people I never knew before, it worked pretty well. It was about strange plague that leaves people emotionless, jsut starring blankly into the walls, not reacting on anything. I made them suspect either local preist or girl who plays violing every night are involved, because he was acting a little suspicious and she was getting progresively more sick.

Spoiler

Show

Preist was completely innocent and got himself drained by soul-eating wraith that was behind whole thing. Girl was getting sick, because she played violing every sunset, at the time wraith was going out to start hunting and her music, as expression of human creativity, wounded him. Every night he would try to assault the town, only to be driven away, but it impacted on girl's health badly.

It was pretty fun game.

[LibraryOgre]

Personally, I'd ask myself "What kind of weirdness do I want"? Is your horror going to be werewolves? Zombies? Aliens? Aliens who look like zombies?

[Rhynn]

Personally, I'd ask myself "What kind of weirdness do I want"? Is your horror going to be werewolves? Zombies? Aliens? Aliens who look like zombies?

Yeah, starting with a core concept is a good idea, because it informs what kind of horror you're going to do. Ghosts/hauntings, gothic, zombies, werewolves, vampires, cosmic/Lovecraftian, sci-fi horror, human horror (serial killers etc.), demons, childhood terrors come real (Little Fears!)... they can all be done in several ways, but they usually have core themes (werewolves = dark sexuality, at least in every single 1980s werewolf movie; vampires too ).

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

The only time I ever had an actual proper RPG session was Little Fears, it was great. My character fainted. Not because of a roll or anything, because I as a player couldn't figure out what other reaction my character would have. It was fun.

Backstories and lives and families are important. Give the players something to be afraid FOR. Players tend to be fairly blase about their CHARACTER'S lives, so try and give them something important to their character that they have to protect: in my Little Fears game, it was my little sister.

[Silus]

Personally, I'd ask myself "What kind of weirdness do I want"? Is your horror going to be werewolves? Zombies? Aliens? Aliens who look like zombies?

Well story-wise, I kinda wanna try to blend the "feel" of:

H.P. Lovecraft: cultists and monsters best left unspoken of
Supernatural: the "surprise, monsters are real" kinda thing
Paranorman: Where the thing/person the cultists try to raise isn't really what they thought it would be, but is nowhere near as dangerous or as powerful as they thought.

I'd normally run a variation of my Mad House game, which pulls heavily from the movie 1408 and internet creepypasta, but that's more of a proper D&D game.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Oh, though not modern-times, SilverClawShift's horror campaign log can be a great read anyways, and is full of tips as to how to run a good horror campaign, though more focused on the action side than the investigation and survival side, being DnD 3.5.

[Zahhak]

I played horror game in savage worlds with people I never knew before, it worked pretty well.

OK, that's one thing, but new players in a horror setting, I doubt this will end well

[Silus]

OK, that's one thing, but new players in a horror setting, I doubt this will end well

Well I'll get the ok from the players beforehand to run said horror game. If it's a no-go then I'll just go with a D20 Future space game.

[Zahhak]

We must have very different ideas of horror. I tend to traumatize people.

[Silus]

We must have very different ideas of horror. I tend to traumatize people.

First horror game I ran, all I threw at the players in the first session were evil animated stuffed animals. Near the end of said session, they didn't want to make any more Spot or Listen checks.

Edit: I think I may be leaning now towards a D20 Future/Apocalypse game, like Fallout meets Firefly.

So yeah. Kythons. In space.

[JAMCZXS2123]

Ok, so there's a chance I may be running a D20 Modern/Future game for some first time gamers. However, I've never run a Modern game and am a bit strapped for ideas. I do know that I want to make it a horror game without ripping off TOO MUCH from movies or tv shows like Supernatural.

I'm cool with using monsters from the 3.5 Bestiaries and the Pathfinder Bestiaries, along with the Book of Unremitting Horror, though converting the stats may take a bit of effort on my part.

Assistance and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

If you're looking to add some extra horror elements to your D20 Modern/Future game, you might consider incorporating some inspiration from horror movie action figures. Larger Than Life Toys has a great collection of horror action figures that could spark some ideas for monsters or villains in your game.

Using monsters from Bestiaries and the Book of Unremitting Horror is a great starting point, but don't be afraid to add your own unique twists and flavor to make them truly terrifying. For example, you could take inspiration from classic horror movies like The Thing or The Fly and create your own monstrous creations that players will never forget.

Ultimately, the key to a successful horror game is to keep your players on edge and constantly feeling uneasy. Use atmosphere, tension, and suspense to your advantage, and don't be afraid to throw in some unexpected twists and turns. With a little creativity and some inspiration from horror movie action figures, you can create a truly terrifying game that will leave your players begging for more. Check out the collection of horror action figures at Larger Than Life Toys for some inspiration

[Thrawn4]

Ok, so there's a chance I may be running a D20 Modern/Future game for some first time gamers. However, I've never run a Modern game and am a bit strapped for ideas. I do know that I want to make it a horror game without ripping off TOO MUCH from movies or tv shows like Supernatural.

I'm cool with using monsters from the 3.5 Bestiaries and the Pathfinder Bestiaries, along with the Book of Unremitting Horror, though converting the stats may take a bit of effort on my part.

Assistance and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Well keep in mind that if it has stats, players will assume they are suppossed to kill it. Doubly so if you give them spells and weapons. And if they can fight back, it is less scary.


For some quick ideas I recommend two-sentence horror stories

[Easy e]

I have run a few horror games in my time and here are a few things you need to understand about horror, as it is unlike other types of games. Some of these are counter to what some feel makes a good game, so keep that in mind. What you have traditional done does not always work out.

So, here are some key elements in horror:

1. Helplessness
2. Degradation
3. Escalating tension
4. Sacrifice and loss
5. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere
6. The normal becoming monsterous

Those are elements that are not typically associated with a good game in "normal" RPG circumstances. However, Horror is not a "normal" game experience.

Helplessness-
Normal and conventional means should not be sufficient to stop a threat, it requires something beyond that. Sure, an individual zombie can be dealt with by hitting it hard enough in the head. How about a world of zombies? Not so easy, and the horror is dealing with a world that is now hostile. Ghosts are another example, you can't really "stop" a ghost with traditional methods like hitting it with a stick, you need to go out and find out how to stop a ghost, while being haunted and harangued by the ghost!

Degradation-
In most RPGs (and games) players get better as they go on. Not so in Horror. They should be stagnating or getting worse as psychological and physical trauma slowly builds up. No gains should be made that are not off set by trauma and weakness. So, you might get better at picking a lock but in return you are now afraid of open doorways thanks to what happened to the character before. Advancement is a trade-off and characters should degrade instead of improve over time. See 1- Helplessness

Escalating Tension-
This really does not need much explanation and applies to a lot of different games. However, Horror games work better than most with a death clock or race against time aspects to them.

Sacrifice and Loss-
In the same vein as Degradation, all "victories" should require a horrible trade-off. That maybe a character's life, an NPCs getting maimed, a subset of a community being ostracized, doing terrible things as a character, etc. There should be no easy choices in a horror game, they are all bad. Even in victory, characters or the setting will lose. See point 2- Degradation only applied on a larger scale than just the characters.

Atmosphere, Atmosphere, Atmosphere-
A good horror game lives and dies by atmosphere. As a GM, you have to layer on the right tone of the game and keep layering it on. The players should be on edge and feel like their characters are either in danger, confused about the mystery, unsure what to do next, and generally on edge.

Foreshadowing, metaphor, and properly invoking the 5 senses is critical. Don't tell them they find a dead body, make them sense or imagine what finding a dead body is like, the smells, the touch, the sounds, etc. Horror needs a higher level of "show, don't tell".

The Normal is Monsterous-
Finally, the things that they run across should be unnatural and unsettling in nature. Taboo topics should be the norm and players should be confronted with them either head-on, or strongly implied. Everyday objects, situations, and relationships must be twisted and squeezed for the unsettling.

A final note on this topic. It is a good idea to set-up some sort of safety tools before playing a strong, Horror themed game. Since you will be twisting the normal into the monstrous and exploring taboo and unsettling topics; there are chances of triggering actual traumatic experiences for players. This can quickly change a game from Good fun into Triggering. Be aware of your audience and set the tools in place for limits.



You can see how Horror is very different. In a game like most d20 systems that lean heavily on D&D as a core, things that are truly horrifying can be dealt with. Zombies, Vampires, Giant Spiders, are just threats to be eliminated in combat. The horror is intentionally sidelined so players can "be the Heroes" and advance. That is why IF you decide to use a d20 system for horror, you will want to be sure to set the proper tone, tweak the rules as needed, and work just a bit harder to make it work right.

Good luck. I look forward to a campaign journal!

[Berenger]

For d20 Modern horror, I'd recommend to make the player characters Ordinaries instead of Heroes:

http://dmreference.com/MRD/Creatures/Ordinaries.htm