Horror Month returns at A Hero Twice A Month

In honor of Halloween, Lord Soth and I would like to welcome you to Horror Month here at A Hero Twice A Month.  This month will be devoted to incorporating an element of the macabre into your RPG experience.

Expect tips for incorporating different flavors of horror into your fantasy RPG gaming, looking at some classic White Wolf games, stories of horror at the table, tips for bringing out the horrific in your monsters and much, much more.

Because really, who doesn't like a good scare every once and awhile?

Five Horror Archetypes to use in your campaign

More than most genres, a good horror story requires a good villain.  With that in mind, here are five horror archetypes to use in your campaign.

The Creepy Child

There is something truly unnerving when you take the innocence of a small child an juxtapose it with a malign intelligence.  A creepy child has knowledge beyond her years and usually manipulates the adults around her with terrifying ease.  A creepy child doesn’t always have to be evil, but should never be truly good either.

A good role for a creepy child is to dispense information.  Having psychic or oracular powers is plays to the child’s role as an innocent who knows to much.  Alternatively, an immortal child, like a vampire, might know too much just because they have been around for a long time.

A creepy child can also be used as the main villain of the piece.  If used as the main villain, it is probably best wait until the climax to reveal the child as the villain.  Give the players plenty of time to interact with the child first, in order to maximize the shock and horror when they realize the child is not as innocent as they believed.

A creepy child works well alone, but they can be used effectively as minions of a “boss monster”.  Imagine a malignant gnome who lures children into the woods and removes their souls.  During the final confrontation he could call his children to defend him, leaving the heroes in the uncomfortable position of having to mow down children to get to the real threat.

Dungeons & Dragons is filled with monsters that make good creepy children.  Child vampires, doppelgangers, fey changelings, and demonic possession are only a few examples.  On the other hand, keeping the reasons for the child’s behavior a mystery can be effective as well.

The Handsome Fiend

Beautiful and charming on the outside, the handsome fiend has a soul as black as pitch. Vampires are the quintessential handsome fiends, but demons in human form, doppelgangers, and beautiful unseelie fey all can all play this part.

A handsome fiend should be a charmer, quite possibly literally capable of putting others under his spell.  Unlike many monsters, the victims of handsome fiends often give themselves over him willingly.

A handsome fiend is usually intelligent.   He is unlikely to risk his life in a pointless combat.  Conflict with a handsome fiend usually comes when the heroes run afoul with one of the handsome fiend’s plots.  Even then, they are much more likely to attack the heroes with pawns, especially in the early battles.

Sometimes handsome fiends can can be a bit too overconfident though.  They are used to getting their way and are not used to the kind of persistence seen in the average adventuring group.

To truly play up the horror factor of a handsome fiend, it is important to emphasize just how vile the handsome fiend really is.  They must perform depraved acts that are totally at odds with their beautiful exterior. 

This should not be a character that the players feel they can compromise with.  Maybe he is a vampire who feeds exclusively on young children.  Maybe he is a fey lord who enjoys seducing young women and driving them to suicide for his own amusement.  He may even be stuck in a cycle of betrayal like Strahd, where he is forced to relive his depraved crimes again and again.

The Sympathetic Monster

The sympathetic monster was not born evil, but was driven to it by unfortunate circumstances or by simple bad luck.  There should be a sense that if things had gone just a little bit differently that a great tragedy could have been averted.

Frankenstein is the quintessential sympathetic monster.  As a result, golems, warforged, and other constructs work well in this role.  Lycanthropes also are good choices, since they may be decent people who have succumbed to the beast within. 

Of course a sympathetic monster doesn’t need to be inhuman.  A great warlord who is a great hero to his people but makes dark bargains with infernal creatures to “protect” his homeland can fall into this archetype as well.

To make the sympathetic monster effective in a horror campaign, he must cross the point of no return.  While your players may empathize with the monster, at some point the monster should make a choice that puts him beyond redemption.  In Frankenstein, this point was when the monster chose to murder Victor Frankenstein’s fiancée.  In the module Ravenloft, Strahd can be seen as sympathetic until he chose to murder his brother Sergei out of his obsessive desire for Tatyana.

The Monster Within

Most monsters are an external threat.  The monster within is an internal one.  Unknown to even the character (and quite possibly the player), he is actually the villain of the piece.  This is a lot like the Sympathetic Monster, except the monster within brings the horror home.

Good candidates for the monster within include lycanthropes (if you still use the infected variety), possession (demons, ghosts, and the occasional evil wizard), or even a psychotic break (perhaps after exposure to an evil artifact or Lovecraftian horror).

The monster within works best when the clues slowly pile up until the truth becomes undeniable.  Done well, this archetype can bring the horror to a very personal level.

While all horror requires buy in from your players, make sure that you don’t pull this one on someone who would feel their character has been violated beyond redemption.  Of course you can always work with your player to spring this archetype on the other members of the group.

After all, some twisted players would enjoy playing a demon possessed Elven wizard or a Halfling lycanthrope.

The Unstoppable Killer

When you kill something, it is supposed to remain dead.  The unstoppable killer doesn’t know this.  No matter how many times you take the unstoppable killer out, he just keep coming back for more.

Undead, from lowly skeletons and zombies to hate-filled ghosts fill this role well.  Golems also make natural unstoppable killers.  Unlike most of its kind, the unstoppable killer usually has some kind of regenerative capabilities that keep them from being easily dispatched. 

Perhaps the skeletons the party is fighting continue reform until an evil artifact within the room is destroyed.  Maybe a vengeful ghost will inevitably reform until her killer is brought to justice.   Sometimes the golem will not fall dead, no matter how many hit points of damage the party inflicts, until the word Emet is changed to Meit on it’s forehead.

While they are tenacious, unstoppable killers are rarely great plotters.  The puzzle should come from figuring out how to finally put them down once and for all.

Flavors of Horror: Lovecraftian Horror

When starting a horror adventure or campaign, it helps to know what particular flavor of horror to you are attempting to evoke. One of the most common sub-genres, Gothic Horror, has a proud history in Dungeons & Dragons.  This is probably because of the influence of the classic module I6: Ravenloft and the subsequent campaign setting it inspired.

An interesting alternative is Lovecraftian Horror, which gets its name from the works of H.P. Lovecraft.  Lovecraftian Horror also has roots that reach back to the earliest days of Dungeons & Dragons as well. Mind Flayers, Sahuagin and Aboleths are some of the most obvious creatures to draw from this tradition, but all creatures we would now call “Aberrations” as well as the alien terrors of the Far Realm are all inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s work.

There are many important themes to keep in mind if you are planning on running a D&D game inspired by Lovecraftian horror.

The Irrelevance of Mankind

Humans like to think they are the center of the universe. Lovecraftian Horror makes the assumption that humans are utterly irrelevant.  Humans are subjected to the whims of alien and unknowable beings, and there is nothing they can do to change that.

When building adventures based on Lovecraftian Horror, it is important to keep this in mind.  While the player characters may be able to unravel a mystery or enact change on a small scale, that the big picture remains unchanged is essential.  Reminding the players that ancient evils continue their plots unabated and that ancient cycles continue unchanged goes a long way towards driving this theme home.

Uncaring Gods

Related to the irrelevance of mankind is the fact that the great powers, whether gods, primordials, archfey, or terrors of the Far Realm, care nothing about the fate of man.  Lower than even pawns, humans are completely inconsequential to their machinations.

If you are creating an entire campaign based on Lovecraftian Horror, this will probably have repercussions on how you present the gods and on characters with the divine power source.  The ideological battles between the deities are fought without care for how they affect mere mortals.  Even “Lawful Good” and “Good” gods should be focused on their own affairs, and unconcerned with how their actions affect the natural world.

As for their worshipers, there should be little to no communication with the gods, even by the highest levels of the clergy.  The tenants of religion are human constructs.  In fact several opposed denominations may spring up with each denouncing the others as heretics.  In such a game, the gods will not deign to make their opinion on the subject known.

Fragile Sanity

There is a reason why the old Call of Cthulhu game had a sanity mechanic.  Many of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories featured protagonists who were pushed to the brink of sanity or beyond by the sheer horror of what they encounter.

An easy way to introduce this into an adventure is to present the characters with Non-Player Characters who have been driven mad by what they have encountered.  Choosing to set portions of the adventure in insane asylums or similar locations is another common way to evoke this feeling that there are some things that simply should not be known.

If you are planning a campaign based on Lovecraftian Horror, it is probably worthwhile to add some form of sanity or madness mechanic to your game.  For inspiration you may consider looking at Call of Cthuhu (Chaosium or d20), Ravenloft (TSR or White Wolf), and Heroes of Horror.  Also, be sure to check back at A Hero Twice A Month, since you can expect updated rules for Fear, Horror, and Madness in D&D 4e during Horror Month.

The Ocean is Evil

Practice using words like cephalopod, squamous, and mucocutaneous in a sentence.  If you can use them convincingly, you may have a chance of sounding authentically like H.P. Lovecraft.

H.P. Lovecraft took great inspiration from creatures of the depths when designing the elder evils that inhabit his universe.  Tentacles, slime, scales, and giant unblinking eyes are all common elements.  Luckily, Dungeons & Dragons is filled with creatures with these attributes.

Just make sure to emphasize these elements when describing them to your players.  Saying that “You see two mind flayers” is different than “You see two inhuman creatures.  They they have gaunt unnatural frames and their heads have an unnatural octopoid shape.  Grey lidless eyes stare at you and where their mouth should be is a writhing mass of tentacles.  The creatures’ skin is a sickly mauve and glistens with a mucocutaneous substance.”

Unanswered Questions

Good horror lets your mind do the hard work, and Lovecraftian Horror takes this to an extreme.  It is best to hint at deep horrifying truths, but leave making the connections up to the players themselves.

This requires a high player involvement, but when it works it is much more effective.  Simply telling the player something lacks the same impact.

Final Thoughts

If you have the temperament for it, Lovecraftian Horror can add a unique feel to your game.  Since some elements of Lovecraftian Horror have been present in D&D since the beginning, it can be added with a minimum of fuss.

Well, except for learning how to pronounce mucocutaneous.

Horror Month returns at “A Hero Twice A Month”

In honor of Halloween, Azalin Rex and I would like to welcome you to Horror Month here at A Hero Twice A Month.  This month will be devoted to incorporating an element of the macabre into your RPG experience.

Expect tips for incorporating different flavors of horror into your fantasy RPG gaming, looking at some classic White Wolf games, mechanics for dealing with horror in D&D 4e, tips for bringing out the horrific in your monsters and much, much more.

Because really, who doesn't like a good scare every once and awhile?

Horror Hooks for the Fey

I suppose I could start this feature out with Horror Hooks for the Undead, but it seemed just a bit too pedestrian.  So instead I decided to start with another paragon of horror: the Fey!

Traditional fey actually work very well in a horror game.  Immortal and amoral, fey represent a force to be reckoned with.  They have a truly alien sense of morality, and can take mortal offense at the slightest unintentional slights.  While they will honor oaths extracted from them, they feel the need only to honor the wording and not the intent.

So without further ado, here are a couple of suggestions for using the fey to spice up your horror game:

The Miller

The party comes across a caravan with a number of enslaved townsfolk being being transported by a group of brigands (or an appropriate mix of monsters who might be interested in making money from human trafficking).  Upon further investigation they find out that the wagons contain grain and other innocuous items.  The slaves are confused and terrified, except for one insane elderly woman who cackles about "The Miller". 

The Miller is actually a Formorian Painbringer outcast who has established a stronghold for himself in an abandoned mill.  He has a group of evil fey, including Formorian Warriors and Quickling Zephyrs, who serve him.  He habitually buys humans from local slavers.  These humans are sacrificed to his dark appetites as he uses their bones for grist in his mill, their blood to spice his wines, and devours their flesh.

For a bit of added effect, the group can find out that many of the leaders of the local towns have secretly struck bargains with the miller, sacrificing the occasional local townsfolk in exchange for fairy trinkets.  Another possibility is that the Miller might also keep his own "livestock", breeding them to keep himself somewhat protected from the vagaries of supply and demand.

Child's Play:

For the last two months, a small hamlet has been terrorized by a recent spat of gruesome murders.  All of the murders were children, and the local mayor is desperate for the adventurers to get to the bottom of this tragedy.

The mystery should include several red herrings, but ultimately the party should find some convincing evidence that a local farmer is responsible.  In reality, it is the farmer's young daughter who is a changeling, left in place of his real child by a local bog hag.  The family is aware that their daughter is the killer, but has been covering it up because they are unaware of her true nature. 

The child seemed normal at first, but has been becoming increasingly depraved as she has gotten older.  If subjected to a lot of stress, such as intense questioning from the player characters or being attacked, she will transform into a full-fledged bog hag and attack.

If the DM wants to take the adventure further, the could try to find the fate of the original child.  This could lead to the discovery of the original hag (possibly with Shambling Mound or Troll allies).  A good capper for this may be the revelation that there are other changelings in the town, and that their true nature could emerge at any time.

Is 4th Edition D&D the best edition for horror so far?

Horror has always been a tough sell in D&D.  To truly bring a sense of horror, especially classic gothic horror, you need to instill a sense of helplessness in the face of the supernatural.  D&D is designed as heroic fantasy, where the player characters are expected to kick evil in the face several times before breakfast.  Obviously, this can be a problem.

4th Edition D&D is also designed as heroic fantasy, so it does require a resetting of expectations before starting a horror game.  Toning down certain aspects of 4th Edition play, such as the ability to spend unlimited healing surges between encounters, may be required.  However, there are many aspects of 4th Edition D&D that make it well-suited for the conventions of the horror "out of the box".

The lack of high-powered divinations in 4th Edition D&D is key.  Knowledge is power, and the high-powered divinations of previous editions could easily derail a good horror story.  An evil duke who could be found out by a simple Detect Evil.  The mystery of livestock being found mutilated in the night being solved by a scrying.  Don't get me started with what spells like Commune or Find the Path could do!

Granted, many of these spells exist in some form as Rituals in 4th Edition D&D.  Nevertheless, their potency is greatly diminished.  Many of these rituals now require skill checks, making them less reliable and adding an element of doubt.  All of this is useful when planning a successful horror game.

Another aspect of 4th Edition is that curing disease is a much less certain thing than in previous editions of the game.  Disease can be a potent tool in horror.  It represents a violation of self that can be played to great effect.  This is especially true in the case of a "disease" like Chaos Phage, which is used to represent a young Slaad gestating inside of the character.

In earlier editions of the game, Remove Disease was simply too effective.  It also had a bit too much certainty.  If you were capable of removing the disease, you always removed the disease without further consequence.  In 4th Edition, the cure can be as bad as the disease.  A poor roll against a potent contagion can kill the character you intend to save.  At the very least, it encourages characters to ensure they are well rested and at full HP when the cure is attempted.

Admittedly, limiting divinations or the ability to cure disease are not all you need for a good horror game.  It is up to the DM to set the proper mood.  Nevertheless, there is a reason why the old Ravenloft campaign setting limited these abilities.  Having them simply made it too easy to regain the sense of control that is anathema to a good horror game.

So I highly recommend injecting an element of horror into your 4th Edition D&D games this month.  You might be pleasantly surprised at how well it goes!

Horror Month at "A Hero Twice A Month"

In honor of Halloween, Strahd Von Zarovich and I would like to welcome you to Horror Month here at A Hero Twice A Month.  This month will be devoted to incorporating an element of the macabre into your 4th Edition D&D games. 

Because really, who doesn't like a good scare every once and awhile?