I'm a little late to the party. But I wish to share a story anyways. While DMing a high fantasy home brew, I put my players in a place outside of their comfort zone. They were in these mines deep beneath a dwarven city, these mines were sealed away with explosives and the surviving miners were all driven mad. In there, my players found themselves clinging to a torch for dear life while they move from one lit spot to another while they hear the shambling horrors all around them in the dark. These things feared the light, but with the light ever so slowly dying, for the first time since I started DMing, I was so happy to see my players hold their breath. They found a safe spot where they managed to salvage a lantern but barely enough oil for it, and that's when they thought they found a survivor, this dwarven miner was on his belly on the floor and the moment their healer pat him to see if he is asleep or dead, her hand was latched to its skin, and the "dwarf" laid motionless while from its belly emerged tentacled and insect-like limbs which slowly dragged her towards the darkness. My group disbanded not long after that due to real life circumstances, but I still remember that session.

@brandonkelbe

Жыл бұрын

Damn dude, tell us more?

I rewatch this EVERY time I have to run horror, especially the example at the end to get myself in the right mindset. This is such a GREAT video.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks. This video was a slow burn. When it came out, almost no one watched it--and I thought it was one of my better ones. I'm glad it had replay value. Cheers!

I've realized that something a lot of people overlook in regards to vampires is the tale of the original Bram Stoker's Dracula. Sunlight didn't kill him, it simply rendered him mortal so he could be killed. Just imagine the look on your players' faces when they bring in some sort of daylight spell... only to realize that this vampire is not burning up in the daylight and is just as deadly during the day.

@commandercaptain4664

4 жыл бұрын

Vampires have had to be revamped (heh) time and again in order to sustain their mystery and threat, which is why they have endured in our collective myth.

@EmeraldVideosNL

Жыл бұрын

Yes! Finally someone who has read it. It's this forgotten detail that irks me to no end.

@jamesmilton6529

Жыл бұрын

Traditional vampires tales were very different from even Bram Stroker. Look onto them if you want to surprise your group.

@jeremymullens7167

10 ай бұрын

My favorite thing to tell people about Dracula is that he was killed by a Texan with a Bowie knife.

@elgatochurro

10 ай бұрын

That's so cool!

I wrote my own 1 shot last year that is a much more simplified blend of DnD and Call of Cthulhu. Great for new roleplayers. The game was mostly narrative based. It went incredibly well and was extremely creepy and engaging. These were the key takeaways I had. 1. Make sure the characters are contained in the setting. Make sure each character has some motivation to see the whole scenerio through. Also physically keeping the characters in the setting (Horrible storms, locked building, disabled vehicle) creates the uncomfortable feeling of being trapped. It also prevents the characters from just running away. 2. Limited resources is key. If your group has access to weapons, keep it at a minimum. Also try to figure out how to prevent the group from just calling in backup/police to solve the problem. You want them to feel alone. 3. Creepy ambiance noises and music is key to setting the mood. It really does wonders.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

11 ай бұрын

Good tips!

@jeremymullens7167

10 ай бұрын

1. Characters can be compelled to fight by attacking family members or friends. Many horror movies has a child be a victim and a mother or father now has to fight otherworldly foes that they would otherwise ignore. The thing can cause a ‘sickness’ that just progresses till death. You can ignore it but there are consequences for that. You can eventually make the PC’s ‘sick’ now even the most selfish are motivated. There is no escape the horror follows you. 2. Two ways to keep help away. The first is seclusion. They’re deep in the woods. Travel into and out of the area takes a long time. Even if help is called it will be too late. You can even have no phones in the wilderness. In ‘Scream’ the murder just cut the phone lines and taunted the victim. The danger was near and the police were far. This was in a suburb. The second way is to use the super natural. The police aren’t equipped to help and they don’t believe you anyway. In horror movies characters might contact a priest but then they don’t have the knowledge necessary either. You need your expert that society shuns. Your van Helsing if they exist. Slasher movies often like to take place in the woods. Demon or ghost infestations can be any but no one can help.

Many years ago, I ran a Shadowrun game where the characters had to travel through a sewer. I turned off the lights and gave the players flashlights to see their sheets. It was spooky. They found a little girl and their lights passed through her translucent form. After running away, they found the target facility and broke in. The laboratory was deserted and the only lightning was red. I switched on a lamp with a red bulb for light. As they explored, I described the carnage around them of the biohazard experiment gone wrong...

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 жыл бұрын

THAT is a pretty cool handout idea!

@krispalermo8133

3 жыл бұрын

My game shop owner 15 years ago ran a Star Wars game where everyone had to draw an index card to see which character they will play, one lucky guy got to play Darth Vader. It was a bioweapon lab, with a weaponize cyborg animal to be a horrify animal animal like " Wolverine." One player asked what animal was in the test tube tank, the DM/ owner quickly reach for a stuff animal on the floor without looking, picked up and dropped a pink stuff rabbit on the table before everyone to see. He had such a happy grinning face. It was his Monty Python moment. Random player Strom Trooper, " Oh no, it is the Pink Vorpal Bunny, why did it had to be the P.V.B. ?!" Imperial scientist, " How would you know about the P.V.B. project trooper ?" Imperial Lt.," Cause it things like this which troopers make up to entertain themselves with." Vader raises his right hand and flex it into a fist, everyone grows silent expecting to see some just choked, " Why did they have to recreate the P.V.B. , .. again ?" Trooper, " Again, .. My'Lord ?" Vader, " It was but, a flesh wound." Later on in the game,.. Leia, " What type of monster would turn such a cute creature into such a murderous beast of a monster.?!" Han, " It is .. cute .. that is why it is horrorfying . That is the Empire for you." Group of mauled troopers, " OMG, it will not stop attacking, nothing stops it. The little beast took offf both of Vader's legs at the knees. ! " End of the adventure Leia makes a subconscious untrained force skill: Friendship with spending a Force Point on a charisma check. And has a loving pet P.V.B.

Is it safe to come out from underneath my +1 security blanket???

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Lol. I'm glad you found this video. This and the "How to Run Mysteries" are among my favorites.

4 yrs ago but still relevant! I'm about to start my zero level adventure in Shadow of the Demon Lord with my veteran D&D group. Watching all the horror tips I can as I'm trying to get a Lovecraft/Howard vibe mixed with original Brothers Grimm.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

9 ай бұрын

Thanks. This is one my favorite videos. It's got replay value.

The hardest part for me in my game with close friends is that one of them has a tendency to always crack a joke. He doesn't mean harm, he just can't help himself sometimes. Usually not a big deal, but when you're trying to build tension or dread, man can it undermine the atmosphere. Great video with awesome tips! Thanks

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 ай бұрын

Big time. Personally, that really vexes me. Thanks for watching!

@raggarex

4 ай бұрын

I'm not going to lie; it's pretty irritating. But a chat with them about it is coming up.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 ай бұрын

@@raggarex Good luck!

A good example of the ideas you are discussing.. raising tension, never seen the monster until the end is the black and white movie called "the Curse of the Demon". In the original version, the director didn't include the end scene, which apparently was insisted upon by the producers and shows sort of a stop motion monster, but even then, this is the very last scene!

The cell phone observation in spot on!

@truffeltroll6668

3 жыл бұрын

Killed my CoC round

One of the horror focused thoughts I had was to get a high level monster that roamed the level 1 to 4 areas. You pick one that’s immune to normal attacks and maybe most spells. It always approaches with a distinct sound or smell. All the other creatures are on edge as well. There are signs of it in rooms and along corridors. The concept is for the magic to defeat it becomes the quest. Maybe they travel for information on it. Maybe no one knows and you face the monster with a new ability and die. Then a devil or demon cuts a deal with a PC with the power to kill it. And it works to corrupt the PC for ever after. Either they die and add to the rumors of the dungeon or they become heroes for defeating it. It goes against the normal DnD advice because they should only run away from this creature. It is not an encounter they can win to see it means death. My thought is to use a golem or golem like creature. Something immune to mundane weapons and magic.

Using Aquelarre (a spanish game with system similar to Call of Cthulhu with a historical but folklorish medieval setting. translates on "Coven") i can assure you a vampire or a werewolf can be made amazingly scary. the point wasn't try to confuse your players, but make very very clear what were the steaks and how helpless they were in comparison.

@jeremymullens7167

10 ай бұрын

I agree. The werewolf you describe horrendous murder scenes. Werewolf clues can be sparse maybe it looks like animal attacks. The trick is for the first encounter they must be unprepared. When the wolf doesn’t die to normal attacks they know something is wrong. Someone should lose a life when they find the monster. Only after that first engagement should they be able to plan and be prepared for a werewolf but all that time the werewolf is hunting them. Vampires can be the known culprit or you just describe a wasting disease. The victim has strange dreams then disappears. Violent attacks happen at night and people say they have seen the deceased walking around at night. I think it’s important to have someone connected to the party to be a victim of the wasting disease. Maybe have it happen after they see someone die of it so they know the consequences. If you want to steal the Dracula story. The heroes are on a clock. They need to find and kill Dracula before the wasting disease kills their friend. And the clock doesn’t stop because a new victim is chosen after the first. The vampire is practically invulnerable during the night. The hero’s best bet is to locate the vampire during the day. They have research where the vampire rests at night and enter those places during the day. Vampire lairs can be as creepy as you want filled with human blood cultists or strange animals or ghouls and zombies. The trick is to set the atmosphere. The vampire can set up dummy locations just to trap the party so the PC’s have a list of five areas but only one is right.(I think this is the plot of Dracula. A real estate agent is one of the heroes and they investigate all the properties Dracula has bought.) In Dracula the vampire escapes and the heroes chase him back to mainland Europe. You could have the heroes find ‘a’ vampire but not THE vampire. Or the vampire can turn to mist and escape. It’s very difficult to kill a vampire. They can be plenty scary with the right set up. Even if the party already knows it’s a vampire because of the puncture marks on the neck. It’s still is a race against time. Also, you can put the puncture marks on any artery. A vampire should be smart enough to hide their activity. The victim could also cover their neck and react violently when you try to investigate and the NPC’s shoo you away for disturbing the sick patient. Just don’t make your vampires good and sparkle in the daylight

Found your video purely by accident but oh how we have enjoyed it. Watched it twice and bookmarked it as a precursor to our next horror game. Thank you. Stay well, stay safe. Helen with Kat and Terri with Robyn (Eastern UK Fenlands)

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

7 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching!

There's a KZread channel, Horror Babble, where the narrator, Ian Gordon, reads aloud literature in that lowered octave you mentioned while speaking at a slower pace than is generally conversational, as he eerily conveys that sense of remoteness and dire consequences looming just out of sight. In any case, great video, and I am once more going to borrow your descriptive dialog as the heroes descended into the crypt. Like, word for word! Cheers on 50, and I await the next anxiously!

@beeezlebub

5 жыл бұрын

I love HorrorBabble

@munderpool

5 жыл бұрын

@@beeezlebub My train comes in at about 10:45pm and I have to drive about 20 minutes to my house. Many nights I listen to readings in the car, which can be eerie with all the fog we get out here on the forested roads at night.

@beeezlebub

5 жыл бұрын

I love it while driving or commuting! Ian's voice gives me the creeps all the time!!

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

I'll be checking it out.

@terrybeal2252

5 жыл бұрын

Horror Babble is awesome! 💀☠🐙

I used to watch Mattew Colville's channel for RPG insight and ideas. Ever since he was mentioned on Critical Role and picked up 200k viewers overnight, the community there has gotten very "Critical Role". I now come here for RPG ideas and advice. You're doing a fantastic job, I have watched every video and subscribed from the beginning. Thank you for your time.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

I still watch Matt Coleville, but I'm glad you watch DungeonCraft. He and Critical Role produce high-quality content and it's very flattering to be put on the same level with them. It certainly makes us want to keep going. Thanks for watching our tiny fetus of channel and spread the word, SL!

@andrewjacobyii2853

4 жыл бұрын

Agreed. Your content is awesome Professor we will be trying your ideas about the d20 rolls for magic use as this is a new idea to get used to it. Later we'll try your idea of abolishing initiative and reworking hp. Baby steps. Lol. I love Ravenloft and Cthulu, and I feel like your ideas of handling magic use, hp, and initiative that too can really bring back the feel of horror.

@alanthomasgramont

2 жыл бұрын

Coville is definitely a high fantasy, miniatures and maps kind of DM. He's great with the generic PC adventuring in the generic world going from adventure to adventure. That's not a slam. That is definitely a game a lot of people like. Its just good to have variety.

We are starting our first Call of Cthulhu campaign today and this really helped to smooth the edges a little. Thanks :D

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I love that game and this video didn't get many views--although I thought it was useful. Check out the "Running Mysteries" one.

I follow and have followed a quite a few RPG KZread channels over the years. Dungeon Craft is for me the best and most professional. (Not surprising from a Dungeon Master Professor 🤓) I have learnt more in the last few weeks from this channel about running a game than I have in years of watching other channels. (Don’t get me wrong, I love and respect the amazing RPG community we have now and there are a lot of great RPG channels out there, but as Professor Dungeon Master unleashes his years of gaming knowledge on us, I know I am becoming a better DM.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad you said "professional" because we work hard to make it that way. I wish I could make videos faster, but to make them high-quality, it takes time. It can be frustrating, because if I just ranted about SJWs infiltrating Star Wars for fifteen minutes, I'd probably have 100,000 views overnight. So thanks again for watching, and please share so we can grow.

@PaulLucas1029

5 жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 any chance of getting that list of Lovecraftian words that you use?

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

I'm really glad you found this video. I think it's one of my best. Try here: arkhamarchivist.com/wordcount-lovecraft-favorite-words/

This is why I love running low-level D&D, preferably with players who haven't memorized the monster manual. I gave a new player a real fright yesterday with just a ghoul and a dark night, some atmosphere and creepy descriptions. I never said "its a ghoul"... just described it. They had to take a break afterward to calm down, muwhahah.

@commandercaptain4664

4 жыл бұрын

I've never understood why the Monster Manual is meant to be adhered OR meant to be read by players. Personally, it's the corebook that I avoid getting, relying on designed, intelligent adversaries instead.

@Goshin65

4 жыл бұрын

@@commandercaptain4664 Gygax said players were not supposed to have or read it... but of course they did.

Werewolf gag. Years ago someone at my game store made a card board duck tape dog head that could fit over a person's head and cover it with cheap stuff animal fur and spray painted it ugly. Then they sneaked up on the play group during a werewolf fight. Well, .. it did get a good jump out of everyone. After wards it was kept in a bag and pulled out when people get bored and don't " feel " the horror of the game. Watching a movie on a tv screen is one thing, the person is in control and in a safe place. But when you see a really big dog head in your face out of the blue. Fight or flight sets in, there is the horror or shock value. As for White World/ World of Darkness: Vampire, Larping, new players get prank with someone walking into the playing group cover in a sheet/ blanket, or ski mask wearing a name tag saying " Wraith." And all the old players pretend that person " Is Not " in the room with them. Then the Wraiths/ ghost turn their featureless faces at the new player and stare at them with low groans & moans, with deep quite throat growls for creep effect. Then they surround the sitting player, throw a bunch of dice on the table follow by lifting the chair off the ground/ or just shaking it. New guy is usually nervous as hell at this point. Or old time players new to the shop is " loving " every moment of their .. initiation. A couple of guys bought a few cheap fake long hair fur coats/ throw rugs and made a two person/ two headed werewolf custom. One night at the game shop with a dozen people playing VtM. Guy runs into the room disrupting the game, " Listen up everyone, the werewolves are in the city ! " Random person yells, " .. Why the H*LL do you F**King bring here with you !" A few players just sat in their chairs in stun silence, oddly enough only one woman peed herself. Two guys had a " jump scare " wetting their pants leaving one guy just sitting in wet pants. The shop's owner wife put a " house " rule into effect after that, any player that has a character Failing their Will/ willpower save versus Fear/ horror/ terror/ shock is left " Stun " standing or sitting in place for 3d10 rounds. Cause some of the people were unable to respond for close to three minutes. Others were cool as ice, funny a couple of them just missed it all together. Did they fail their Spot/Alertness rolls or did their brains just refuse to aknowledge what they just saw ? Please take into effect of anyone with heart conditions.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas. May all your rolls be 20s!

@krispalermo8133

3 жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Honestly, some of the best " role " playing my groups had is when we didn't get " 20's." Climbing skill roll: miss by 4 or more and the character slips, apply that to Diplomacy roll also. 1.) Mini-Maxing power gamers D&D3.5e style multi-classing I wanted three classes, my DM said go for four classes and take NPC Aristocrat. a.) Character arch type: Diplomate. Classes: Aristocrat 1/ Rogue 1/ Bard 1/ Cleric 1. CR:3.1/5; BAB:+0. Sv: Fort+0/Ref+4/Will+6; Skill: Diplomacy: 16 ranks. Average d20 roll in five games playing this character, " 2-5." As soon as the PC got 20 ranks in Diplomacy he started to roll way too many "1s" when it matter, PC retired as a court jester. Did roll a natural 20 once, it was to say " .. Hello .." to the local baron's mother. And she carried my PC off on her hip, the DM said she showed you things you never though possible in your short 17 years of life. b.) Character arch type: Raging Intimidator Classes: Barbarian1/ Fighter 1/ Ranger 1/ Rogue 1/ bard 1.CR:5, BAB+3, Skills: Intimidate: 12 ranks+, Perform( weapon kata dance): 8ranks, { Intimidate +14 modifier.} Player was known for rolling " 1s" and falling down in muddy roads. Added flavor, to get added results a PC makes a number of skill checks equal to their ability modifier and total the results into a higher social/ attribute score. b.) PC has Cha of 16 so makes three Skill checks to impress/ intimidate his rivals. PC gets a high roll and a natural 20 which the two roll impress the heck out of everyone, then on their third Roll, rolls a " 1," and slips & belly flops in their finishing act. Thus know as laughing stock that goes flop.

Probably my favorite video to date, though I appreciate many. Thank you! I am running a 2-session Strahd for Halloween. The sense of hopelessness and easy death discussion is really great and timely.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it. I'll be discussing Strahd and the importance of Ravenloft in an upcoming video.

Horror works when you have tension build to the breaking point and then have a release. Comical release a NPC says something along the lines of " well....that's something you don't see everyday." when the giant tentacle bursts from the grave yards moldy unkempt soil. Constant tension becomes numbing after a while. Build it...break it...build it again.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

True.

Awesome video Professor. I love injecting horror into my D&D game (and my in-laws love playing Dread). Looking forward to implementing your advice.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Let me know how it works out.

Well, guess I'm running a horror game now. You've convinced me to finally do it.

Wow. That narration was incredible. He should do trailers

This is a really interesting topic, and you're absolutely right--Stephen King said it is very difficult to inspire terror, even though this is usually his first goal, and if he can't achieve that he will horrify you, and if that's a fail too---he's not proud. He'll go for the gross out. One of the things King does so effectively is combining mundane horror and supernatural horror. You want to see monsters? turn on the 6:00 evening news--you're bound to see monsters a-plenty right there. His super natural villains pray on the character weaknesses of the communities he creates, turning them into monsters--whether it's the local barber surgeon suddenly turning serial killer, or a group of boys who are goaded and bullied into exploring the joys of tying lit tapers to a stray cat's tail. Let's say you're running a vampire---always a crowd favorite. How many of the towns folk are going to be under the Vampire's charm when the characters first arrive? How many more will just be on his payroll? Don't overlook payroll henchmen. They are actually really good because detect evil and detect charm won't be terribly revealing. Your wizards won't pick up anything beyond greed and other attendant petty vices from these NPC's at first. Think of Larry Crockett from Salem's lot. What would detect evil have picked up from him other than he's a greedy, lustful real estate salesman? Yet, think about how much harm he cause his town by not only selling the Marston House and local wash tub to Barlow through his man Straker, but also by covering up the murder and sacrifice of Ralphie Glick so Barlow could come take up residence in the Lot. It doesn't take Barlow long at all to turn the reality for the whole town of Salem's Lot inside out. This is where the horror lives---the terror lives the players fearing for their character's lives. Also when things happen for no reason at all. Say they are in a village--they know something here is corrupting the land, but they've only just arrived and seen some evidence of what is happening--pumpkins filled with maggots instead of seeds--milk goats succumbing to disease and instead of giving milk, it's blackened blood that comes out when a teat is pulled and the goat shrieks in agony from both having overfull udders and from the act of draining them. When nature starts going wrong, little by little always getting worse until it's way wrong--you've effectively undermined their reality. And when they realize this isn't something they can just swing a sword at, you will have unsettled them.

It can't be easy to put out a quality video every week, so thank you. The only bad part of watching them is knowing, I will never get to play in one of your games.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

It isn't easy at all. I don't know if I can do it every week. I shoot for every two, but sometimes I have a lot of content. As for playing in my games, who says you can't? I'll be at GenCon next year and the year after, Lord willing.

Congrats on 50 good sir. You nailed down something here that I never could really put my finger on, that being the horror aspect of d&d is missing (at least for high level characters). It’s still the best rpg on the market. That go too ol hat that just fits every occasion but it certainly has its faults. I think chalking up those faults rests primarily on that lack of scary, worrying aspect of what makes players clutch those dice and pray to whatever god their players worship. You mentioned distractions and things that deviate from the experience. It’s a good point, my favourite sessions have been an all in approach from the players, jumping into survival mode, thinking of ways to beat their surroundings and keeping the dm’ing fast and loose. Anytime dice get in the way, players asking to search every nook and cranny or ask to sense motive every single interaction with npcs it all just Boggs the experience down. What are the skills you allow your players to ask for and what are the ones you typically do not, if any? I know from my experience most of the social skills are rolled behind screen, by the dm. It seems you also do a lot of rolling (perhaps fake rolling) for these Horror sessions and keep the story going more than giving players too many choices at bogging down the flow of painting the scenes. Would you say the goal of a horror campaign is to make it as close to a choose your own adventure book as possible but still give the illusion the players are making choices? As always, thoroughly enjoy your channel, many great insights into making D&D better. Cheers! PS. I know I’m pushing it here but what’s your take on core d&d vs supplements? I myself remove all supplements and stick to core, as I see them as means to allow for more munchkin characters, with spells, feats and tactics to best every occasion, removing more of that horror aspect that d&d is missing.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

I love the core concept of D&D. I don't use any supplements, and I only use the core of the core: 6 stats, roll high. I'll talk more about this when I review Tracy Hickman's Extreme Dungeon Mastery. That book addresses the idea of skills, and in a nutshell, it's this: if you are playing an archeologist, you have all the skills an archeologist would have. If your character wants to read hieroglyphics, I say, "Okay--roll a 10." That's it. Does an archeologist know how to read ancient languages? Yes. Does he have a high sub-machine gun skill? Mmmmmm....I'm going to say no. Can a circus acrobat walk a tightrope? Yeah. Is she an expert at water-skiing? Nah. That's it.

@jacobvanveit3437

5 жыл бұрын

DUNGEON CRAFT appreciate the reply. Yeah, I basically do a similar thing. All players get maximum skills that their class allows at first level and I give them bonus skills equal to their int. Plus what their class gets per level up. If they don’t have the skill after that, then they just don’t have it. I do this because their hero’s, they are above the average person, they bring skills to the table and i hate the idea of limiting a player if they Truely want a fighter that can use magical device. Of course this kinda blows up as soon as people go beyond core. Look forward to the review of extreme dungeon mastery. Cheers!

These are amazing tipps. I can't believe I learned so much from a single video *_* I'd have never thought of using a smaller table than usual. And the way your voice and the music work together is seriously amazing, I hope I can pull that off half as good when the time comes.

Agreed with all of this....the unknown is the scariest part of any horror game and the fact that your character could be snuffed out easily. Another thing to play up on the relatable terrifying experiences....like being confined in a tight space, the darkness, or just terrifying nature of humans in some regards.

Really nice work. Been DMing for 38 years (on and off) and learning a lot from this channel.

You officially creeped me out reading that scene. Awesome work

I love horror. All of our games eventually devolve into some type of Lovecraftian horror. Thanks Professor!

@asaskald

5 жыл бұрын

I really enjoy tremulus. It uses the Apocalypse Engine and there are no statistics for monsters. Because no monster should be accessible to player knowledge. You should check it out! I guess I should mention that it's Lovecraftian horror.

@Entropy3ko

4 жыл бұрын

I have the opposite experience, started with call of Cthulhu and turned it into non-lovecratian horror.

Great Work, Professor! I'm currently playing a game of Cthulhu 7th Edition as DM with my friends and your video really helped alot in further thinking all of this through. Creating effective horror is a walk on a razors edge. So easy to mess up.

@samchafin4623

4 жыл бұрын

If you're running CoC 7th ed, make sure you check out Seth Skorokowski's videos; he reviews a lot of adventure modules for the game. Might be a big help to you.

Have played many RPGs over the years including horror RPGs. GURPS Horror was one of my favorites, because it could be ANY monster/creature. I LOVE the "small table" idea. I am going to try that this year in October when I run a horror game. Thanks for the great video!

Looked this up for pointers since I'm running a horror game soon. Horror is a very challenging genre because you have to get your players to surrender their sense of agency or being in control. One of my favorite horror GMs gives a talk before he starts letting his players know that his game isn't fair and it's not meant to be. I love what you said about the players not being heros bit victims... Best way I've heard that said. Of course the key to RPGs is the sense of your choices mattering but the consequences need to be different in horror. It shouldn't be "do I win or face a setback" it should be "do I face a setback or die?" My game I'm planning now will have empowered characters but the powers won't help them and are likely make the situation worse a kind of twist I borrowed from Stephen King and Lovecraft... You might be psychic...but that just means your mind is so much tastier....

Congratulations on 50 videos!! I've watched every episode, can't wait to follow the next 50! Again, great delivery and great information. Also, my Frostbitten and Mutilated hardback just came in the mail today! It's packed full of so much!!;

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you think it was worth it. I'm really cheap, so I really need to be impressed.

@beeezlebub

5 жыл бұрын

I have that same streak in me lol

I love horror games, and this really had some great tips. I'd probably have a hard time convincing my players to do it, but it's still something I'd like to do.

Crowd Control The best way to add fear to a 5e game is to add crowd control elements such as pits, nets, blinding dust, running water, nauseating smells, anything that means the character is at a disadvantage and not just fighting some creature in front of them, but now needing to desperately climb out of this pit before it fills with water or get out of the net before more goblins grab the ends and pull the helpless adventurer to the ground and tangled up. All traps should be survivable regardless of rolls. Good game play should get them out of the situation especially when the characters give up something valuable like weapons and shiny gold as a distraction in order to run away, an element that most players never experience. Running away with little more than their lives should be something nearly all adventurers experience at some point. Coming back to try and rescue whoever was captured adds to the story. Being captured adds to the story. Using NPC's as fodder is a good way to show your players how dangerous a place is. Cocky ones that run off on their own should die not because they have low HP (They should be just as tanky as the fighter) but because they made bad choices and are getting ganged up on, knocked down, disarmed and well, disarmed. Players earn points for keeping NPC's alive one way or another. Even in online games like League of Legends, the characters that are terrifying to go against are ones with effective crowd control. It's one thing to get obliterated quickly, sigh and look for counter items against that character. It's another to watch a circling champion with crowd control options move around and prepare their horrifying abilities such as grabbing you and pulling you to their team, knocking you up, slowing you down, blinding you or in any other way robbing you of your usual toolkit of abilities. Throw in a goblin that does 1d4 damage but has a blowgun who's toxin causes a weakening effect, forcing all rolls to be made at a disadvantage for a few hours, and they'll fear the moment you tell them they hear a *Fwoop* and a dart from the darkness fly right past one of them or they see one or two goblins with a blowgun. Crowd control means reducing their toolkit and options, and they should know when to run away.

I really enjoyed this. I needed to get into the right mentality before running curse of Strahd - I enjoy your perspective on heroes v victims

I run a weird west game based on Stephen King's Dark Tower, which is more like Horrific Fantasy than pure horror, but this actually helped a lot!

Great call to incorporate smells in the first couple sentences of the scene! I have a line in all my game notes to remember sounds and smells ever since Kenneth Hite mentioned it in a video somewhere.

GD it, as soon as he said "you enter your ancestor's tomb", my brain went "Darkest Dungeon!!!!" Spot on, good sir!

@Keyce0013

5 жыл бұрын

I got it at "antediluvian."

Thanks for this. I'm gearing up to run a horror game soon after a long break and this advice is very helpful.

i agree with the part where you say that the party should not be able to damage the monster. I'm currently playing fatal frame 2 and in the start of the game you have nothing, you start to see visions and ghosts and you can't do anything to stop them, but as soon as you put your hand in that camera you feel like the hunter, because now you have a weapon, as soon as a ghost appear you will want to kill it, so the tension ends.

Amazing video with great info. Thank you for your wisdom

I appreciate your work here and the insights you provide. As I was watching, I was reminded of an older movie called "The Curse of the Demon" wherein some supposed demon is haunting certain people throughout the movie, but it is never shown, though several very creepy scenes have other strange and portentous events transpire to lend building tension. The corpses of the supposed victims are always found in locations that suggest that the massive amount of damage could easily have been the result of regular, mundane causes. Eventually, in the American version of the movie, they finally were forced by the studios to add a final scene wherein a terrible demon-like monster attacks the villain on a train track, though the original script called for nothing of the sort. Either way, even in that version, the monster only shows up to confirm its existence at the very end of the movie. Thanks again.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

I do not remember seeing that movie. What year did it come out?

@norsewykgrimnir4716

5 жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 ... 1957.. it was released in Britain under the name "Night of the Demon" and in America as "Curse of the Demon". I understand, though have not watched the British version to confirm, that they released it without the bad special effect cut-in at the end. I believe you can watch it on KZread for free. A good resource for a horror game.

I really enjoy this channel

It's like Martin Sheen is teaching me about DMing. Great video :)

Honestly this sounds like Mothership, great TTRPG

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

Жыл бұрын

One of the best around.

I have a few criticisms of this. Death: Death shouldn't be common in a horror RPG, death is by far and away the least interesting thing a party can face in horror, simply losing a character is not that big a deal compared to instilling the *dread* at the thought of *potentially* losing a character. It's a bit like the old bandaid analogy only reversed, you want to slowly peel it off, without ever reaching the point that you actually remove it. The players, however, should always think you're just on the verge of removing it. Weakness: While the players should feel weak, and definitely be often powerless, you shouldn't assume that they should *always* be ineffectual. Giving them a gun but making it worthless can oftentimes shatter player immersion. If you have tools available to them, those tools should do what is expected, otherwise the players can lose interest as it may feel as if you're just putting them in a bad spot, and "railroading" them by giving them tools, but not letting them use said tools. Besides, giving players hope is the best way to take it away later. D&D: Yeah, don't run horror in d&d, this I wholeheartedly agree with, but I have an additional point. Any game system that has initiative-based combat is terrible for horror. The second you have people rolling initiative and going into tactical combat mode, immersion is broken. The monster manual comment is also pretty valid. Horror Monsters: Vampires and Werewolves can be scary despite being common, you don't need raw mystery to scare people. The unknown can be VERY scary, but don't assume that a vampire or werewolf can't be used in horror correctly, don't assume that you have to be trying to be completely novel in all of your creatures. Familiarity can be used to enforce horror, since the players can "expect" the bad things that are going to happen. It feels like you're trying to put horror *movie* logic into horror *games*. Many of the tropes don't transfer well as you don't have the ability to "force" characters to do a thing in the way a director or writer does.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this thoughtful post!

@ppppppqqqppp

5 жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I wanna say, good video my criticism seemed a little negative on the whole but I really enjoyed it

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

@@ppppppqqqppp No problem. I appreciate all comments. They drive the algorithm!

@davidmorgan6896

4 жыл бұрын

I agree with a lot of this. PC death should be avoided, but not impossible. This means we must find other ways of instilling fear. The SAN mechanism in CoC is great for this as it gives us a second kind of death and one that is largely under player control - nobody made you read the book with the human face on it.

@JedediahCyrus

Жыл бұрын

A lot of this is exactly what I was thinking while watching the video. To me, the analogy that came to mind was that of using a knife. A knife is used every single day. It's used in chopping vegetables or opening boxes, but it could also be used in separating intestines from a person's body or flaying somebody alive. It's how you use the item in question that can drive a horror aspect, not just the item itself. All it takes is some dark imagination.

I see a DUNGEON CRAFT video, i give a like. Great video! looking forward to campaign part 3

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Nick!

@jacobvanveit3437

5 жыл бұрын

Yes, I’m still holding my breath here.... ... @.@

Great advice! I always thought that my Call of Cthulhu games kind of dragged. Now I see why :-)

Coming to this quite late, but really enjoyed it. Funny you describing Alien. I re-watchex it recently, with my partner watching it for the first time. Having grown up in Iran, she knew nothing about it. Sad to say, she didn't find it scary, and I realised that for a modern audience there is actually too much of the alien in it. For the time, it must have been scary, but now we're used to such fast and complex special effects, it seems like when we see it, it just stands there doing nothing for a while. I'd love to see an edit where for every 20 second shot of the alien it was cut down to 2 seconds.

Excellent advice.

I have a couple of problems running a horror game. First, all of my players have seen movies like Young Frankenstein and The Addams Family. A standard joke is: "You see a trail of blood leading down to the dungeon. You are armed with a nightgown and a candelabra. What do you do?" Second While it's all great fun to have the heroes all die in a story, the people are playing a *game* and would like to win. While death should come more often than in a standard D&D game, you can't serve it up every week. Finally the setting, sure blue lights, candles, fog machines and eerie music might be possible at home, a lot of games are played in school cafeterias. Most security people and janitors take a dim view of that sort of thing. I actually *do* run Call of Cthulu, but we play for fun (mostly)

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 жыл бұрын

I concur, Tim. Thanks for writing!

@commandercaptain4664

4 жыл бұрын

Silly wabbit, RPGs aren't for winning. 😁

Thank you professor, picking up a lot!

@emveeay

5 жыл бұрын

Have to add that Jaws worked because they didn't have the budget for the shark to be seen all the time. Added exponentially to the tension

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

You are welcome. I'm making the next episode right now.

@emveeay

5 жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Happy New year from Manila, Philippines!

Ruin has come to that family. Also, as far as music goes, the label CryoChamber (on Bandcamp) releases absolutely outstanding dark ambient music. To borrow your phrase: I don't get a kick-back; I just think they're great.

Best channel ever.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks, man. Keep sharing. The best channel ever needs more than 304 views.

Really good video

Great advice! I got a lot from this.

Speaking of Warhammer, I know you play/played the RPG but did you ever get an army? I’m a big High Elf fan in the classic Warhammer Fantasy game, and (big surprise) Eldar in 40k. I also like Lizard Men in Fantasy and Necrons in 40k. Oh and on the topic of horror I think that yes D&D horror games will always be different from Call of Cthulhu... but you can still get a very different, more horror like game by adapting in certain horror tropes and creatures, similar to what the Ravenloft setting did. Sure it will always be more of a cross between high fantasy and horror than pure horror, but it can still be a fun alternative. And there is nothing to stop you from adopting unknown, Lovecroftian horror creatures into your D&D games.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

3 жыл бұрын

I played Mordheim. Fun game--the forerunner of Frostgrave. I think CoC monsters don't work in D&D because character's have too many hit points. If the mists of Ravenloft had reduced characters to 1st level hp, THAT would have been horrific!

For other music i also recommenced Nox Arcana, one of my favorite albums is Blood of the Dragon. Very fighting for spooky and Dark Fantasy themed stuff.

The PCs of my party are very powerful and my brother is very good at convincing villains, so I decided that the villain will be a kind of mold that plays with their minds. Their flashy powers won't help and ya can't argue with mold. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic we will play by call. I think it kills the mood, but there's no way we'll break quarentine.

If you like horror RPGs like Dread, you'll like Ten Candles.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 жыл бұрын

Have to check it out.

@theminimecha5920

4 жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I have the PDF if you'll like to look it over

I love you in so many levels

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Great advice, back in the 90's TSR released 2 modules 1 for Planescape And the other Ravenloft , both can with a cool CD that helped DM's run the module, give backstory, and provide sound effects/ music it. It was an awesome idea I wish they would have explored in greater detail , the plainscape one was actually set up to be a Minor that answered questions about Sigil. Im not sure 100% but I think drive through RPG had the sound files available for download. I agree with what you said about not revealing the monster until the last moment, that's what always made Lovecraft so effective ( and sadly why making a movie based on his work in horror so hard to do correctly). However there is no reason why the classic monsters can't inspire dread ! My favorite D&D supplements have always been the Vanrichten monster guides, I picked up his guide to the created when it came out the year I was 14 I think and was blown away. Each one described how to make custom monsters that seemed real , and just as important a real threat! I don't know why but I have yet to find anyone talking about them on KZread when it was extremely well received and the IP loved!

@jeremymullens7167

10 ай бұрын

The issue with making a love craft movie is you can’t know it’s a love craft movie when you choose to watch it. So you can’t market it. Most successful ‘love craft’ movies have been an adaptation of an actual story just show a mystery.

I’m running Curse of Strahd right now and I realize that the sessions where everyone truly feels the horror vibe is when I spend a lot of time before hand working on descriptions, weird visions, shadows and false sightings. However, the players are now level 5 and their power level is pretty significant - it’s getting harder to scare them.

@krispalermo8133

3 жыл бұрын

How to add Dread & Horror in to Curse of Strahd, .. 1.) rescue a crying child that turns out being a vampire. 2.) Have rats swam out of the walls or from a clothing cabnet. 3.) Have a monster tackle one of the PC down one of the tower's stair cases, divide & conquer leaving the tumbling PC with leg/ arm penalities from bruising or risk broken bones leaving them with movement problems. 4.) instead of kobolts or goblins, set a pack of a dozen ghoul grade school age children on one player. They are bound to lose/ fail a saving throw at that point. 5.) After they slip & tumble down a stair case have a child ask them if they seen her marbles anywhere around here. 6.) Have an/ or a group of invisible imps follow them around given mix advice along with blowing out their light sources. 7.) For the Ravenloft setting it Is " common " to cripple or kill off characters. 8.) Understand there is a " no touch " rule in RPG, but and yet when you are telling the PC that mice and rats are running over their character's boots, drag the bottom of your foot across the top of the person's foot or along their ankle when they are sitting at the table. 9.) Get one of the other players to play along with " come on man, .. What'S .. IN .. the BoX ?!" .. - seen the move " Se7en," .. ? type in( youtube- movie Seven " whats in the box.") 10.) Fight a " zombie " that looks like them ? 11.) Fake Out, " Let them get and easy WIN, " start a new adventure only to wake up later being still in Castle Ravenloft, that is if they fail their Will saving throws being under the effect of the Dream spell. 12.) I have been read up on Ravenloft since the 1990's and there are a few web site dedicated to Ravenloft. In the earlier printings. If people came in through the backdoor, their was a door man that ask for the characters to " sign in " on the ledger to notify their next of kin. Also so the castle residents can place their bets on how long the party will last, be it their lives or sanity lasting for a day or night. So in that way there are two time clocks that the imps chime each hour. One how long they still been alive and a 24 hour count down till they die. Also the imps talk about the number of ways the characters are going to die, insane or other wise. 13.) Back in the day with AD&D, when a PC was hit by a vampire they lost Two Energy/Class Levels without any saving throws. So you can have a 15th-level party ending up as 2nd-level rookies. Vampires were hide & seek, hit & fade till the PC party was too weak to challenge them. You had to out smart them, or have a lot of magic/ cleric to keep them at bay. ( Strahd show up, speaks politely and goes to shake hands with one of the PCs. The follows through with a slap on the back or sucker punch. Then the PC loss two energy levels. Follow by Teleporting away or Dimension Door. )

Refreshing to see other people around the world play ttrpg's, horror is my go to as well.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Refreshing to see someone watched this video. I thought was really good but didn't get many views. Check out the one on running mysteries too. I think it's even better.

I do think goblins and known monsters can be scary. The issue is a lot of things have made them cute. Even the minis you use have a cuteness. If you have them skittering around in the shadows and attacking unseen they become scary. Your description of them can be scary. The environment they live in can be disturbing. You make them more primitive and if you do that you connect them to some primordial evil force. Maybe keeping the grub theme they connect to swarming insects and plagues of infestation. I like to pull my goblins back into a magical creature. A mystical fog rolls in and they cross over to the mortal realm. They can enter from any point in the fog so it blows passed the party and they attack from behind. They can teleport at will and turn invisible. They are part of the unseelie court. They have connections with death and winter. Their goal is to bound you to service of their queen. You can also make goblins of the seelie court. They are life and summer. But particularly life run rampant. Swarms of insects, diseases plagues. Swealtering heat and anything horrible in hot places or summer. One’s touch my dehydrate you. You fix the problems by making things more mundane and turn them into humans. Which is kinda the love craft angle in a way where the abomination you’ve been hunting is your relative. My strategy is often to make things less grounded. The benefit of making them more mundane is you don’t have to change as much. Mystical creatures needs powers and you might accidentally make them too tough but that could be ok.

Excellent advice. I love a good horror RPG. 😎

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching! This video has few views, but I think it's one of my best. Ditto for the one on running mysteries.

I am currently running a fantasy/horror game in the Dreamlands outlined in Lovecrafts “Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath.” Dnd is a more practical game in this context where the two genres are more balanced. I’m also assisted by Andy Sandersons “Cthulhu Mythos” supplement for dnd 5E. Lots of fantastical and horrific things take place beyond the wall of sleep.

8:31 "... even if you just wound it ..." -- The Professor "If it can bleed, then it can die." -- Dutch, /Predator/

I’ve personally found horror to be more atmosphere and giving players a goal that isn’t “kill the monster”. The best horror session I’ve done was when my players were in a dungeon doing a trial for a god of the heavens and cosmos. The last stretch of the trial that they’d picked was pretty simple “walk down the hallway”. I basically ripped the gibbering mouthers’ confusion effect and slowly turned up a looping gibbering the further they got down the hall while having said hall melt and warp into it’s true form. By the end the players understood that too many fails and they’d be swallowed up, one even nearly was and if it wasn’t for their fellow players bravely running back and nearly dieing, they’d have been swallowed up and lost to the mass. Horror works best at low levels, but at higher levels, it’s a matter of reminding players that no matter how powerful they are, they are but ants in a tube compared to the vastness they float in. Sometimes mechanics get in the way of that, so just play it fast and loose with powerful monsters. Make a theme and the. Make up mechanics to fit that them on the spot, after figuring out ac and hp of course.

i discovered this channel shortly after starting to play rpgs. I've found all kinds of great ways to run games for my wife and kid. Actually, I find i'm now not very good as a 5e player, because I only have a sketchy grasp of the actual rules

@jeremymullens7167

10 ай бұрын

The real secret to DnD is the player really doesn’t need to know the rules. They just need to describe what actions they want to take. The DM needs to know the rules but in reality they are the rules. I feel tempted to perform all the rolls because I feel like rolling dice take players from their head space and draws their attention. But then players like rolling dice so I don’t. A good DM can adjudicate just fine even for someone who hasn’t read a rule book. You can also pre gen characters so they don’t have to build their own.

if you want to run horror in dnd, make the party level 1, have them traveling with a caravan, and have a werewolf attack and kill the horses on a full moon night. every night it comes back to pick off an npc or player.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

7 ай бұрын

Good idea.

The vocabulary never scrolled😨

One thing that CoC players don't ever seem to note is that Lovecraft and Co. NEVER actually used the same monsters more than once. Most of the references weren't for actual USE, they were for off-hand references to be made to create a sense of connection and context.

Every time I come back and review this video, the plaster incident is one of the biggest signs of whether or not the players trust the dungeon master. The reason why that's so important is that the players need to be able to trust the dungeon master when they say there's nothing here or nothing else of significance and nothing special going on with the plaster. But it's important for the dungeon master to say that the character with the highest perception or knowledge about buildings should be able to foretell that the floor above them is compromised. There was another video a while back regarding traps in dungeons where if the players don't check for traps and you spring a trap on them then they will then slow the game to a halt by checking everything for traps. My opinion as a dungeon master is that the character that is most knowledgeable and skilled in that category should automatically detect it. What that does is it makes that player characters importance in the group critical when dealing with situations or trying to investigate. Otherwise they might be victims to traps.

YES! my pcs are nearing the end monster and it’s all about the slow simmer through the whole campaign... If every encounter is supposed to be horrifying then by the end it’ll be boring and pcs will be numb to it. Slow but surely build up the weird just like an orchestra building up to a tense moment. I can’t wait to unleash it on them

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for posting. Let me know how it goes!

DnD 5e. Five players. Level 12. Two fighters, a monk, a halfling wizard, and a drow warlock/bard. We were promised a sauna episode at a hot springs inn. Our DM scared the everloving shit out of us. We saw some shit that night.

My friends run DnD and I’m the horror friend. It’s always fun watching the shock after we have come off of a DnD campaign and they forget what it’s all about

Lustmord is perfect for horror mood music. Dark and ambient.

I always think horror movies with no-name actors who are not widely known always work better. If they are not famous actors, they seem like real people. On another note, I ran a game over the weekend for my homebrewed horror system (They Came from the B-Movie) where all the player characters were elderly people in a retirement home called Shady Grove. They were part of a trial testing a new Alzheimer’s drug. Turns out the drug unlocked heightened dimensional senses in the human mind allowing the PCs to see creatures that exist all around us, but that our normal senses cannot perceive. There was a monster that fed on the minds of humans, draining their memories and mental energy (and elderly have a life time of memories) and making them seem like they are suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia. So the elderly residents were the prey, but only the PCs could see the creature preying upon them. I ran it like Cocoon meets Call of Cthulhu and made the creature ("The Mind Sucker") really alien and nasty. In addition, all the PCs had physical caps for their stats because they were 65+ years of age. They also had to have a flaw, like "This damn hip" or "my arthritis" or "grumpy", because you do not get old without some flaws. The players had a really good time. They had to deal with not only the monster, but the staff, which was a real challenge. And even if the monster drained their minds (which happened to a few) no one would still believe them because it was seen as rapid, onset dementia.

11:43 damn, dude!

Great tips in this video! Near the end, Prof DM mentioned a vocab list of Lovecraftian terms to borrow. That would be neat, but I didn't see it on screen, or in the vid description either. Was that something we could look at?

In my D&D tyle games, the horror monsters do Charisma damage, not hit point damage. And they can do 2-3 points a hit. Your fighter's 85 hit points don't mean sh*t. That's horror. And its kind of cool, because the bards and sorcerers are suddenly the strongest ones.

Great video - I've watched it several times to help me with conveying the right atmosphere for the more scary scenes in my standard D&D game. Quick question - at the end of the video, you mention scrawling through a list of commonly-used terms from HP Lovecraft (eldritch, blasphemous, etc.) but I didn't see the list. Can someone help me find it?

That voice is friggin creepy and convincing!

Keeping the monster unseen or merely glimpsed at the edge of the fading yellow light of the torch... Not showing is why the film "Cat People" (1942) works as well as it does. Fortunately, none of my players are plugged into the horror fiction of HP Lovecraft or Clarke Ashton Smith as I am. Even if I described an Elder Thing or a Flying Polyp, they'd have no idea what it was. Moreover, if there were Ghouls, they might have an idea of its abilities, but its stats would be a complete mystery.

*Please cover more Call of Cthulhu & Warhammer stuff .*

But none of the words scrolled on the screen when you said they would

@SirKaibel

4 жыл бұрын

I see what he did there. He created the expectation of words scrolling on the screen, only to have us realize in horror that the video was almost at an end. We timidly believed he would surely show us those words before that, but with each second that passed without a word appearing on the monitor we slowly lost focus of what he was saying. We strained our eyes and racked our brains trying to comprehend why nothing was coming on screen. And then, all too suddenly, the video had ended... Well played Profesor, well played (Slow clap)

Having Tom Cruise be the guy who sacrifices himself to fix the god machine would be so unexpected it could be the horror movie of the century. However Hollywood would never let that happen and it would be a piece of crap😢

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

11 ай бұрын

I agree. But Cruise would never let that happen. His characters always win. Except in Valkyrie. But he goes out like a hero. Guilermo Del Toro needs to do Mountains.

@crapphone7744

11 ай бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I'm sure you're right about Tom. Best horror game I ever played was from this story. After some of us got possessed by aliens, one-character went crazy. When confronted by another character, the GM leaned over and whispered in the crazy guy's ear " it looks like Smith but is it Smith? It might be one of them, you've got a gun, use it". We all realize that was his internal voice, and the player reacted perfectly screaming out YES! YES! BLAM, BLAM. Best character death ever and some of the best roleplay ever.

HP Lovecraft's writing is all public domain, and was such in 1978 when ALIEN was being shot. No "royalties" needed to be paid on that property, ever.

Hi! I recently discovered your channel and started watching your videos, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. About the topic at hand, I've always loved the Ravenloft D&D setting, but find it difficult to successfully run it because of many of the reasons you point out (heroes with superpowers are hard to scare), even though the product line has loads of advice on the subject from the 2e to the 3.5 days. Are you familiar with the extended campaign setting besides the original adventure for Ad&d 1e? What are your thoughts about it?

@jeremymullens7167

10 ай бұрын

I think 1e is able to instill horror. It’s just a different game. You can run monster that you’d need to have magic weapons to damage. 5e has softened those immunities. All you need is to use any random demon and they are immune to weapons under +4 and the world might not have +4 weapons. The goal becomes finding weaknesses or a true name and the monster hunts the players trying to stop them. The trick is the players should start not knowing what the monster is. They aren’t prepare and ignorant of the true horrors. Their first encounter should break them. Someone dies. The creature is too strong. They should want to give up. This set up is much different than your average DnD game. You can do horror in DnD but the outcome is different than normal. It might be difficult in 5e though with our changing lots of things. I don’t even think it’s hard to scare people with super powers. Just make a monster where those super powers aren’t effective. Maybe the monster has a wasting curse that flips healing. So short rests don’t heal and make you more tired.

I would like to know your thoughts regarding the new D&D's adventure, Ice Wind Dale. Not sure if its been released yet. It is supposed to be more horror related.

Thanks to some of your advice, I have a better idea on what to do when I do inject a bit of horror into D&D. My plan is to go more atmospheric with the horror rather than victimizing the characters. What I plan to do is have someone that the players care about taken by the local Annis Hag (Basically the D&D version of Baba yaga) and all the way up to her home I plan on describing how the landscape starts getting more gloomy and eerie. Fetishes and signs made of flayed child skin marking the territory and an unnatural silence is meant to mean that she knows they're coming long before they ever arrive at her home. I also randomly generated some of her minions, I forget off the top of my head what her muscle creatures are but she has Quicklings for servants. The cool thing about Quicklings is that they are practically The Flash but the size of a small elf child because they are special fey that have to move as fast as possible all the time. I plan to use them to make the characters paranoid about being watched.

@jeremymullens7167

10 ай бұрын

I think the trick to horror is the enemy needs to feel vastly stronger than the heroes. You need to motivate the heroes to fight it. And there is only one esoteric way to defeat the monster but the monster knows it and is actively hunting the party. The other thing that helps is no one has seen the monster because everyone who sees it dies. If the players find the monster 1 or more PC’s must die. The first encounter should be before the party is prepared and include 1 player death at least and a party wipe if they choose not to run.

I know this is super late, but I'll be stealing this for when I play Ten Candles.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

4 жыл бұрын

It's never too late. This video is one of my favorites, even though it failed to connect with a wide audience. Check out my video on how to run mysteries. I think it's my favorite.

@-septimus

4 жыл бұрын

@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I'll check that out too. Thanks Professor!

@szymonsokolinski9907

4 жыл бұрын

Talking about being late...

Hey Professor, great video as always, I have a question. I like to keep dice rolls to a minimum, only rolling when a failure will have consequences, but how do I balance that with your Idea of not rolling search / observe at all. I don't want to just give my players all the information as a free gimmie. Usually if a search roll is failed, it takes longer to solve the puzzle / find the clue, often this leads to some poor npc (usually a close friend of a player character) becoming a next victim.

@DUNGEONCRAFT1

5 жыл бұрын

So my thought on this is (and it's fine to disagree) the DM should always give the players the clue if they say "I search the bookcase carefully." Especially if two players are searching the thing. It's not a "gimme" because they still have to tell me they're searching for it. Having been a player in mystery games, it frustrates me to know I don't have all the clues, purely because of bad luck, and I don't know where to find them.

I love those two books - what are they?❤

From Oe through 1e Dungeons & Dragons, the game by design works for horror as one plays the non-heroic game, 0-level normal men, 1st level veterans and as high as 3rd level - if anyone survives that long.