How to make D&D ACTUALLY Scary
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- D&D is not really scary, so here's how to make it so!
Check out the Fablemaker's Animated Tarot Deck HERE! hitpointpress....
Check out The Restless HERE!
docs.google.co...
Video Editing by the amazing Bia: / bnazf
Writing, Illustration, and Narration by me: / antodemico
![MISSING: SLIM SHADY [Expanded Mourner’s Edition Trailer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xh8qgHrOO1g/mqdefault.jpg)
Oogly Boogly! (
Oh shoot r we getting two pointy hat vids .... what did we do to deserve this
yo a second vid this week! I feel spoiled aha
Awesome vid hatty ! But where is the link for the monster stat block ?
Hi there antonio.
Love your work to start with, was wondering If I may inspire you a little. I'm very new to dnd and the ttrpg hobby, only been dming for about 5 months.
Got a happy group who are loving things atm.
Did some homework on things and find a very neglected part of dnd history in the regards of Kara-Tur. And been wondering with how big anime and more, and the fact Kara-Tur has tie-ins with spelljammers, in terms of dragon ships and ki helms.
Care to share some ideas on yokai and such? Could be fun.
@@steliosf.9602 That's what I mean when I say it'll be there this weekend!
I brought a colour changing lightbulb and didn’t tell my playgroup until I changed it red the moment they entered hell. Their reaction was absolutely priceless.
Genius
That is awesome.
What a brilliant idea!!! If I were playing, I would've screamed 🤣🤣🤣🤣
You my friend, are a creative genius, and I will definitely be taking that idea
The most terrifying creature for DnD is scheduling. Every time the party makes plans an unseen force disrupts them in order to feed off of the chaos and negative emotions.
this made me laugh so hard i fell out of my chair, congrats you
ok this is actually terrifying lol
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo
That is a chestweasle feeding from your frustration
A time themed villain as the party is split and experience time in different order and rates
A star walks into a black hole but doesn't seen phased. The black hole then turns to the star and says, "I don't think you understand the gravity of this situation."
Neil deGrasse Tyson would be proud of you. Lol.
YOU NEED TO LEAVE!
I like your funny words funnyman.
Jajaja
AHHHHHHH
*AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
The restless is great, gives me goosebumps, but one small tweak I might make is to have it be incredibly stealthy - maybe have invisibility - and need to physically sleep within close proximity of its victim. It's more personal and immediate than feeding from a different plane of existence. Maybe they have to actually cuddle close to their victim, spoon them in an offputtingly loving manner. You wake up to something cold and fleshy nuzzling against your lower back, only for you to turn over and find there's nothing there.
Plus, it also plays into the "monster under the bed trope" :D
I hate that so much, that’s an excellent addition!
Maybe like a ‘near ethereal’ creature that exists on both planes but is only visible to exhausted individuals when on the material. What if it could only be hurt by characters with levels of exhaustion?
Ah yes, terrifying
@@relint12reminds me of a darkest dungeon mod, there was a boss who could only be damaged by those on ‘death’s door’
This would be extra scary for people who are in a relationship, expecting someone to be there they know and love, and then it's just... nothing
My all-time favorite monster/scenario I ever made was a False-Hydra that my party was forced to parlay with. Due to their ability to influence memory. I made it a BIT more selective than normal. And it acted as an info broker for the party, sticking one of it's many heads out of a gutter or a doorway whenever they got stuck. Referencing events they didn't recall.
The first time they ever met, it told them that it was "Glad to see them again" and "Glad we worked out a trade that was beneficial to us all. 'Shame' about the 'rogue' though~" referencing some mysterious party member that no longer existed.
All of its trades were things that seemed out of place. Like taking an old shoe to someone's house. Only for the person to get scared by the appearance of the shoe before diving out of a window and out of the party's memory completely. Of course, at lower levels, they had (effectively) no chance to resist the effects of the memory alteration, so while THEY would remember that this monster is lurking in the city and using adventurers to further its own wicked goals, the player characters didn't.
Eventually it became an increasingly paranoid and claustrophobic setting, as the party started to wonder what "blocks" they found were real obstacles, and which ones were put there specifically, so the False Hydra could insert itself back into the situation.
Unfortunately, that game ended due to the real monster. Scheduling Conflicts. So we never got to see the party resolve that issue, but it remains one of my favorite set-ups I've ever worked with. Though really it's the only thing you can do once or twice with the same group in short order.
This is such a brilliant concept for an adventure. I'm definitely stealing it. Only problem is that it might be difficult not to make it feel like you are railroading the players if so much of the adventure revolves around things their characters supposedly did when they didn't actually get to be a part of making those choices.
I'm stealing this
Dahm the monster eat your campaign
The False Hydra. It's way more Dark then that, you have no idea.
@@wapankiller1219 Than*
I'm fully aware. The magic secret of TTRPGs is that I can play my monsters however I want to.
Sometimes. I use false hydras to make Lovecraftian level threats that swallow up towns with their gluttony.
Sometimes they're creepy info brokers for a Junji Ito-esque escapade.
This reminds me of when I ran Strahd. In the windmill I described them entering as "You hear deep crunches as you step into the old mill. As you look down at your feet, you pray to any deity that can hear you in this realm that what you're standing on are only halfling bones."
I could feel the chills from my players.
Oh hell no
What is it meant to be?
@@user-KNP13 children bones
@@user-KNP13 i think children
@@daveyjohnson2033 okay?
The real challenge is to somehow convince your party they can't just try to seduce the monster
One of my friend joked about taking all the weird seduction monsters (hags, vampires, mermaids etc) and stocking a dungeon entirely with them. Just different monsters using seduced pawns as proxies against eachother.
My creative solution to that is to have the monster bite off the reproductive organs of the seducee in graphic detail.
@SusCalvin that's actually a decent idea
My last session, the dm was so good at describing the monster we were being stalked by, and he lives with two huge dogs right. So like in the midst of the scenario the dog barks and I nearly jump out of my seat, it was such excellent world building and I’m so glad that the dm exists
The restless is like "the Ginosaji" the horribly slow murderer with an extremely unefective weapon (a spoon).
Both unstoppable, mysterious and depriving their victims of their precious resting time. Slowly turning the insane. I really like it :D
Now that's a name i haven't heard in years
@@denodagor they still haven't made the movie... I helped in then kickstarter but it seems like the health of the autor's mother is still bad (they claim it was because of that i don't know if its true or not, but i am to lazy to look it up)
Oh wow, now that’s a throwback
@@Gaston-Melchiori in the meantime the TV Tropes page is actually worth a read.
@@denodagor yeah, a true internet classic for sure. Along with Salad Fingers and BEN.
I remember I made this one encounter my players experienced early into the campaign. It was based off a creepypasta I think was called the fake town. But it was the party and their carriage driver, I think his name was Tom. They were stopping at a small village off the side of the road for supplies they recently lost in a mysterious storm that suddenly rolled in.
They arrive at a small town known as Fauxholf. It started with the creepy encounter in the general store where the owner had a very creepy smile on his face and acted strangely, often staring at the players and just having a very wide smile and speaking awkwardly as though they didn't know how to construct sentences. Then there was the raven outpost (mail office basically). Where there was a line of people standing in front of the office with its doors closed. Then there was the farmer who was raking leaves, but there were no leaves at all and all the farmland seemed barren and untended for ages. And last was the two kids on a seesaw, however they were not playing but rather sitting at level with each other starring into each other. It was a very strange town indeed.
One of the players tried to talk with the farm, but all he did was stop raking leaves and just continued to stare at the party member and with a smile. One of the other characters saw a woman standing at the road in front of their parked carriage, just staring off into nowhere. The player asks the woman if she was alright. To which she simply turns her head and repeats "Oh yes...we are happy..here." and returns to her staring. Another player tries to enter the raven outpost and finds the backdoor, upon going inside he finds it completely empty say for one person standing dead in the center of the building staring into the front door.
Some more investigation happens, but one phrase keeps popping up "Oh yes, we are happy here." Later one of the players realize that some of the villagers were bringing construction equipment. Following them they found that they were trying to barricade one of the two entrances to the town. Rushing back they try looking for the carriage driver, when they could be found one of the players (the ranger iirc) went looking for them. The others began to back up things as another band of villagers started walking over with more building supplies. Eventually the ranger finds the carriage driver, crucified to a wall of a house with his entrails splayed across the ground being stared at by the two kids, now bloodied. The kids turn to see the ranger and he books it. They all get on the carriage and race out of the town, during the frenzy they passed the sign that lead them there. One of the more observant players notices that the signpost for Fauxholf, was no longer there.
This encounter alone creeped out my players harder than any undead or monstrosity and scared them more than any large boss monster.
This is perfect. I was thinking about something similar for my next session, but was unable to find reason for this kind of town to exist that wasn't clichee. But the idea of it not 'existing' sound thrilling
Oooh, love this! Was there an in-wold explaination for that town, or did it just happen and was never explained?
well now *i’m* invested!
Mind explaining?
@@kylee6051 depends, which part in specific? or just in general?
Misophonia is one that really seems to get to my players, we were playing call of Cthulhu and I described one of the rooms as having "Loud chewing noises that seem to be chewing something wet and soft." and I literally heard them all shiver.
Go arguably too far, record those noises and play them under the music when playing
@@agustinvenegas5238 i can't stand them either so I can't XD
@@agustinvenegas5238 evil.
You're a monster
Honestly what level of hell are you from
I keep coming back and rewatching these videos, paying attention each time. Trust me, you’re not the NPC who’s dialogue we skip!
My favorite horror element is short, meaningful ominous phrases. "Keep your hand at the level of your eyes!" "There's a dog loose in the wood!" "In space, no one can hear you scream," things like that. Those give me the shivers!
HEHEHEHEHE
"You've meant with a terrible fate haven't you"
The walls are listening
You are never alone if there are trees.
Only they decide if this a warning or an encouragement
Don't blink
Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see…
I just wrote a Circle of Dreams Druid whose Circle protects villages from things that would steal their dreams or mess with them while they sleep. I have a sleep disorder and so I wanted to create a character that would protect people while they slept and make sure they rested sweetly and safely. Her druid focus is a dreamcatcher and I took weaver's tools reflavored as Dreamweaver's Loom.
I created a Circle of Dreams Druid, who helps party members relax and have therapy time, because there was an almost TPK, where only 3/8 characters lived (mine died). And the characters that lived are haunted with nightmares and visions of their dead friends, so my character helps them have better rest. My character specifically helps by playing a melody on the harp that allows calmness to fall upon those who hear it, and my DM allowed those players to get temporary hp from their rest (which I think was cool).
I've always been a little scared of silence. Not the "natural" silence, but the kind of silence that sends the entire world around you quiet. No sound of living creatures around, the wind seems to stop in fear of it, your heartbeat and breathing suddenly seem too loud and you want them to stop as your ears strain trying to find any other source of sound. It always puts me a little bit on edge for what could be lurking that makes the whole world around avoid it's attention. What will break this perfectly soundless moment and what will happen when it does so.
Maybe creating something like "The Radius", a fracture in reality where all sound falls completely deaf, players cannot communicate with each other, they can only communicate their actions through writing.
Or maybe, less obnoxious, it casts the Silence spell, all spells fail, stealth based on sound automatically succeeds... And you need loud atmospherics that then get turned off the moment you venture into the Radius
@@Cibershadow2 I kind of like the idea of giving Kobold Scale sorcerers this spell in their spell list, and then having Kobolds set up an ambush for the players while they are trying to rest... Just imagine, you're sleeping in an Inn, and you wake up in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke, THE INN IS ON FIRE! You jump out of bed only for you to feel a snare tighten around your leg causing you to fall pone, you call out to your party to wake up, but your voice is swallowed by silence as small hands begin to try to drag you under the bed to where Kobolds wait to stab you.... You manage to kill two before freeing yourself and making for the door hoping to get out of the zone of silence so you can call for help.... Locked? No, you unlocked it when you were trying to get out.... Wait are those nails.... How, did you not hea- the zone of silence..... You head for the window, it's not more than ten feet up, jumping out should be fine.... You jump.... Good news, you're out of the zone of silence. bad news, the Kobolds layed out a simple spike trap for you to leap into if you jumped out the window, and well you landed prone right in the middle of it.... oh look more Kobolds.... Yay.... Welcome to the Tuckers Kobold road show. They have siege weapons and air support now..... And Calvary too thanks to their draconic masters....
(The way I figure it with some inteligent tactics, seige weapons, and enough numbers Kobolds could be presented as a legitimate threat.... Emphasis on tactics and numbers.... I think it would be legitimately terrifying to see Kobolds storming a city as they'd basically be comeing out of the freaking walls, they wouldn't march into the city in formations, they'd slip in through tunnels, vents, caves, catacombs.... All sneaky like, and by the time you realize you have a problem they're already turning your city into Keven's Playground as the Kobolds improvise traps from anything and everything that isn't nailed down....
I like to use PANic in the woods as a aspect, it scares me.If you don’t know what it is you should look it up it’s cool
Instant deafness would be terrifying
You're out on a warm summer night, lying in a field, taking in the twinkling stars above you. The steady comforting hum of crickets and peepers mixes with a gentle breeze that rustles the tall grass.
You feel so relaxed, it takes you an eternity to notice the chorus of insects has gone silent. That's odd. Come to think of it, the breeze has died and the air is strangely still too. All you can hear is your own movement stirring the grass. Feeling weirdly self-conscious, you hold still, but the oppressive silence only gets louder. Your own pulse, faint yet growing quicker as you fixate on it, now thunders in your ears. The warm summer air feels cloying, no longer a friend's embrace but a sweating straitjacket.
Above you, too, the stars have ceased their merriment. Now they stare unblinking and alien; you feel they must be watching for something. Your eyes fall from heavens to horizon, and there on the edge of your isolated, silent, grassy clearing, you see a shape that wasn't there before…
Dude the advice about setting up your scene is so accurate. I DM online for my players and I had a scene planned where they were investigating a farm for disappearing exsaguinated animals. They came to the conclusion that it would probably attack at nighttime and they were sure it was a vampire spawn so what I did was put them in a nighttime setting with a thunderstorm. I played a track for a thunderstorm and a track for extremely spooky music at the same time and had the player who was keeping watch on the barn make a perception check. He passed and saw something crawling on the rood of the barn in a brief flash of lightning, and he alerted the party. When they went outside they found a goatr was missing and a smearing blood trial going up the wall and out of the window. They followed it into a nearby cornfield where they found the dead goat, but the creature was nowhere to be found. In another brief flash of lightning one player noticed a long, gangly, paly white had with claws reaching out from the cornstalks and saw the face of a nosferatu. Stretched white skin and needle like teeth and blind eyes. Before the p[layer could say anything the Nosferatu snatched one of the unsuspecting players and I queued up an intense chase sequence for the party to rescue the captured player. It was intense and my party said it was super spooky and that I did a good job to make them really scared. Putting in the extra effort as a DM to immerse your players really does go a long way for them to roleplay and feel invested in your game.
I’d love to add that you can use The Restless’s story to surprise your players as well! If you want to add a little bit more mystery to your story, have the Lord be constantly fleeing from what he says is his wife. The party will go into the story thinking its a stereotypical ghost story, but then reveal that the wife turned into a Restless, who was attracted to her husband’s trauma and grief of her “passing”! Very fun monster!
The Lord could say "My wife is a monster." in a joking manner, but a pc with high enough passive insight could see the severe pain and grief in his eyes.
I had an idea of a npc following the party looking more and more exhausted to then dissapair in a rest and in the next rest in party member doesnt get to rest and giving them limited time to deal with the restless
I had a similar thought, using an Inn as a safe place and basically made it into that old lady/icecream shop/anglerfish from that spongebob movie, using an oblex
The innkeeper was the oblex's first victim and hides in the basement, slipping it's tethers through holes in the floor, which are everywhere to hint to the party that something is weird
It acts normally and simply asks the party to never go into the cellar, the door being obviously padlocked, and leaving the player's cat-like curiosity make them walk into the trap
"I am a 3-foot goblin that can cast spells throught the power of personality because I made a deal with a mistical sugar daddy." killed me.
I live near the Appalachian mountains in the US and I love going hiking and camping. One of the fears I plan on making into a monster is the that constant feeling of being watched while out in the woods at night. All by yourself or with a friend with your only safety being a flashlight or a fire. Never helps when you hear leaves crunch or a stick crack either.
One of my professors also taught a camping course & would take students out. One trip they were sleeping & something woke him up & he heard sounds out from camp & noticed someone was out there & just sat down & watched them. He said he obviously couldn’t go back to sleep but was worried about waking everyone up & causing a ruckus. He just laid there & watched & the person just sat there. A little before dawn they got up, walked off & that was it. Creeped him out & they made sure they expedite their trip but said nothing else happened.
Owlshead Mountain for Delta Green takes place in the Vermont mountains. The feds are told to run an open-ended investigation of a couple mountaintops. The place is huge, it's winter and a lot of pits and stones are disguised by the snowfall. Two demolitions engineers have gone missing, the official search is over and your job is to look for whatever lives in the mountain.
I let the feds have a stack of wildlife cameras. Every night they decided which points of the mountain they wanted to survey. One morning they pick up the cameras and find that one has caught a naked man sprinting across a dirt road in the snow. One night they decided to camp out and watch the hills, and they see some "treetops" on the opposite hill start to move towards them.
The weel of fears is so relatable
"Someome poking my eye"
"Talking too much"
"I will never be good enough"
Bro same!
Y... yeah. Lol.
"i will never be good enough" and "failure" are the ones hitting the closest to home
Dude, The Restless is such a good creepy monster! It’s kinda like if “It Follows”, “Nightmare on Elm Street” and the “Russian Sleep Experiment” were all chucked in a blender together lol
It Follows is probably my favorite horror movie! It's so terrifying. The scene where the tall man walks into the room from behind the girl and she has to climb out the window shakes me to my core. One of the best "jump scares" (sorta, it's not as sudden as other jump scares) of all time.
Would love to go even closer to the it follows monster for a DND monster
Another that I really love is Under The Skin. Should check it out. Basically an alien seductress that gets men and brings them to this strange place where all they can see and think about is the sex, and they walk into this black goo without even realizing. Then once they're submerged in the goo it starts sucking their meat out for processing by her alien overlords or something (this part isn't really explained at all, you just see the meat traveling down a conveyor belt type thing)
It Follows is about HIV
An interesting addition would be that the Restless will switch targets to the most injured. So a town noble picks up a Restless somehow, learns of this loophole he can use to get out of it then makes up a story about his manor being haunted and he needs to hire some adventures to spend the night there as a sort of guard. He then uses wolves or goblins or something to attack/injure the party enough that when they rest near him the Restless will move to the party member.
As the party learns of the new affliction they can learn of this loophole to get rid of it and either try to fight it or try to pawn it off on somebody else like the noble did.
Better yet, it does not work as the it has become too attached to the noble and the guy goes to the party the day after asking for help again increasing the difficulty of the challenge appearing more and more restless and panicking more and more. The noble eventually dies and if the party investigates their death they discover of this creature and they have to pick to risk it getting attached to them and try to solve the issue, sacrifice someone to lure the monster out somehow or flee the town.
As the party continues on their path, they notice it getting dark, but the sun shouldn't set for another three hours. Did they lose track of time? They decide to walk further ahead, only for it to become darker and darker as the air becomes thicker, making breathing difficult. They try to decide if continuing or going back would be wiser, but their voices appear muffled. One of them starts to feel something move around him, but says nothing touched him. A haunting singing heralds the appearance of a small light, shining through the dark.
My fear? Thalassophobia
Ow man this is great! I'm going to use this. I have thalasophobia but I've also got a desert setting. And this could work very well.
watching this made me realize yet again how good the dm of the party I play with actually is, our last few sessions were about a town where people mysteriously died in their sleep and it had to do with a really spooky fog and just the way they set the whole scene and described everything was so good! They almost exactly did the things pointed out in this video which is so cool
Plot Twist, your DM actually is PointyHat
When you said "rest," my jaw literally dropped! I'm very new to D&D and haven't had a turn at being DM yet so these aspect of storytelling and game mechanics are still quite new to me. Yes! Rest! This video is so cool and I think you're doing a spectacular job, Pointy Hat! I tip my own less pointy hat to you ^^
This is a great idea. Our DM is doing the things that you suggested. Even gave my character a small amount of ptsd due to the Hags (Curse of Strahd) nightmare attack. We are actually scared of what could come next and so are our characters. My cleric of life chants a little bit more each morning when communicating with Bahamut about his spells for the day.
Curse of Strahd has many points where it can scare players. One thing my group’s DM used a lot was mirroring. Say you have a PC or NPC do something subtle to a PC (i.e. caress their cheek, tap them on the shoulder etc.); the PC turns around to find something familiar to them but make it a bit off. For this to work you want to do something that the PC expects from someone they are familiar with. For example, my group’s DM had us encounter Strahd in an abandoned house. During this encounter Strahd teleported behind Evelyn and started whispering into her ear and caressing her cheek. What scared me about this seemingly subtle interaction is this was the same action that another vampire, Alexander (Strahds youngest brother) did to my character (Zelda) shortly before this encounter. The encounter served to establish how similar Alexander was to Strahd. This is terrifying because of the love hate relationship Zelda has with the brothers. She knows Alexander loves her while Strahd hates her. The duality of the two emotions indicates how Alexander and Strahd are two sides of the same coin. If Strahd reflected on and harnessed his goals and desires, he could become like Alexander. Likewise if Alexander lets his emotions and ego get to his head, he could become like Strahd. The interaction made me ask questions like where is the line between love and hate? Why does Strahd hate Zelda so much? Has Strahd been spying on the couple? How long? These are just some of many questions my DM had me asking but there are many more. In short the fear and horror came in the execution of the mirroring between something wholesome and sweet with something creepy and unnerving.
Last time I played Curse of Strahd, I was a paladin of Lathander. Something about that very first appearance of Strahd triggered a fear so immense it took the whole campaign for it to be replaced by bitterness and sadness in her
@@SaiyanPanda96 What happened during that encounter that scared you so much? In my case, the reason the scenes I described above have been scary for me is because of my character’s relationship with the kings or counts of Barovia. In my group’s campaign my backstory was that I was a political pawn in an arranged marriage to somebody in Strahds court. (Think Game of Thrones type of senecio) By the time I found out who my fiancé was my party had killed Strahd and a new king had taken over Barovia. This new king turned out to be the man in Strahds court I was supposed to marry. The arrangement fell through and the new king Tomithia Van Richten (known as king Tom) was out to kill the party. I was able to persuade him not to kill us but what gave me chills was how much like Strahd he was. Likewise, when the party met Alexander, Zelda was skeptical because of how much like Strahd he was. Over time, Alexander grew fond of Zelda and has made his interest known. Like Tomithia, Zelda has the option of marrying Alexander, though this would be a union of love rather than necessity. Like the original module Alexander mirrors Strahd just as much as Sergei did with the only differences being their goals and life outlook. In a weird way my characters story mirrors that of Tatyana’s story which is scary in its own right, but what is terrifying to me is the relationship Zelda has with each count: Strahd hates her with a passion. Tomithia is indifferent to her. Alexander loves her deeply. Likewise the relationship each count has to each other is terrifying especially when Alexander is the brother of Strahd and Sergei. As far as I know Strahd wanted to kill Tomithia in order to settle a score or something. Sometimes I wonder if Strahd sees something in Zelda because psychologically speaking you only hate what you either love or are threatened by. My DM has made it clear that Strahd fears me but still some things just don’t seem to add up.
@jillianh7565 Our DM had Strahd swing by first session. We were all level 1. We didn't do Death House.
My paladin's divine sense was screaming at her rather than pinging because there was a highly powerful undead right there. She's never had that happen before. Since that brief encounter, she was absolutely terrified.
@@SaiyanPanda96 I can imagine! Right now, my character is surrounded by undead both in the party and in the environment. My group often makes the joke that Strahd hates me because I was able to influence 2 eminent vampires and one mature vampire. Essentially I have a lot of charisma on top of being a cleric and a princess. Keep in mind Zelda is a mortal woman.
A tip for making monsters extra scary when you have monster Manuel lovers: *show, don’t tell* describe your monster,
Let’s say you’re fighting a werewolf: describe some horrible humanoid canine entity that exhibits characteristics similar to a werewolf
Show them a monster, don’t just tell them one.
And if you really want to be mean, make it a homebrew creature that is somewhat similar to an official one. Watch them scramble to figure out what it is when there is no answer
Yeah, this works great. I've had my party fight a troll without realizing it was a troll, despite being well versed in D&D monsters, so they literally were unable to metagame its weakness.
I would probably try to make a monster based on gaslighting. A monster with an ability to reduce your charisma score by being near you and reducing your chances of success with every ability too? I would probably make him able to edit memories and to do so I would forbid my players from taking notes.
Or, instead have the players still take notes, but then have the creature have the ability to slightly change reality. Like they change the name of an NPC they met eariler in the game, so the players get the idea that something is wrong. Maybe?
@@donkyoofficial Oh I like that! If you have players that take meticulous notes that would work so well!
"Wait, wasn't the Tavern owner named John? And didn't he have a son, not a daughter?"
"This is how its always been."
So kinda like the False Hydra?
the spiral entity from tma
Like Previous Leon
I had my players search for a cave in a misty forest. The mist was created by wisps in the shape of grey animals. Every time at night they could hear singing, we use music and I used tili tili bom, a russian lullaby. Eventually, they found the cave, where the singing came out of. They started descending deeper, and then I put on the same song, but sung with an insanely deep voice. Inside, they found a half dead chained up oni in an island in an underground pond. It was really fun when the ghouls came out of the water and they fought. They got the amulet that they wanted, which is quite strong. Not knowing, that when the wearer dies, the soul trapped/hidden in the amulet will slowly revive and take over the body. If this is interrupted by the player being revived. Both souls will be stuck together, as the invading soul slowly takes over. Said soul will first be hostile, but eventually grow a liking to the wearer and become willing to sacrifice himself for her.
Christmas season is perfect to be spooky. Just search some Yulle folklore... or any other cultures for that matter. It's full of scary spooky stuff. I once ran a christmas special session where my players had to help Santa Klaus who was attacked by Krampus and had lost all his stuff, and part of his memory. The journey to find Krampus was really scary and Krampus himself was very frightening. It all went well at the end and they got a gift for their character in the "official" campaign we were playing. I asked them to write a letter to Santa as their characters and found a fitting item or thingy. It was pretty nice. You all can steal it. Might do it again next year.
i did this last year, it ended up being one of my most memorable sessions
I always love the feeling of dread that comes from DnD. One of my DMs is insane when it come to bringing terror to the rest of us players even without setting and music. The actions he pulls in the game has brought my character close to death multiple times in a single session.
I find that players do not respond well to being told how afraid they are or adding notches on some sort of fear check. They are scared when they fear something scary. Like the threat of something or coming to a realization.
Silent Legions makes you roll up your own dark pantheon, so no player can use pre-game knowledge and go "Ohoh, that is obviously a mi-go".
I unknowingly used all of these tips in a Wild West cosmic horror campaign I ran a few years ago.
Basically: a deer-like, human-eating creature that disguises itself as trees with its long spindly legs, and it is worshipped by a cannibal cult that steals and eats people to gain immortality using boons from this monster.
I had this thing stalk one of the players during the session where it first appeared, saying that the player could see the forest moving, and could feel something breathing down his neck. It scared him so bad he didn’t want to show up to the next session.
NGL, that sounds like the Pathfinder version of the Wendigo, and I love it so goddamn much.
This is basically the concept of The Ritual. Which is a good movie, so good job!
Congratulations, siren head wendigo.
Run for your life.
Sandy Peterson's Cthulhu Mythos for 5e has the elder god for you! I have him as the hidden last boss in Rime of the Frostmaiden with all its themes are darkness, starvation and canibalism. Ithiqua, whose servants are wendigos. The cannibal pirate background comes with the wendigo soul disease. I love the Elder God encounter mechanics on that book too
The Ritual was indeed a great concept for a dnd boss
I feel like the fear of being forgotten/never existing would create an interesting monster
This, combined with fear of identity theft (in a mystical way, not the way can happen IRL) is what sprang into my mind. An uneasy combination of a doppelganger and a false hydra. What happens when you are forgotten. When the people you talk to aren't actually the ones you know, who know you, but they're so close that you mistake them even when you talk to them.
You return to your familiar town to resupply, but the innkeeper... isn't them. They look almost the same, but not quite. Slightly the wrong face, a slightly different name, and worst of all they don't know you. But the townsfolk know them, insist that this is the innkeeper who's always owned this place. You must have always dealt with the barmaid or the keeper's wife (who IS the same) before, that's why they don't know you. The innkeeper certainly believes they're the original and only.
Then it happens again, to the blacksmith. Not quite the right name, not quite the right face, and they don't know you.
It doesn't seem to happen again for a while... unless a player looks on purpose, and finds that some random civilian the party wouldn't have needed to talk to has the wrong hair and eye color, the wrong shape of face, but his parents and neighbors haven't noticed any difference.
Then one day immediately after setting out, one of the players needs to make a Charisma save. Let's say it was the Rogue. No explanation why, it just suddenly happens and the only thing the party has to go off of is the shiver that ran up the Rogue's spine.
When next they return to town, though, the npcs are a little confused. "Where is [name the party doesn't know]? And who's this? [Gesturing at Rogue]"
Whatever has been happening to the townsfolk has happened to one of you. Except that this time, the impostor isn't here (yet) and you still are.
The False Hydra is great for this concept. But it requires near constant gaslighting and psychological warfare as a DM to run one. Preferably should be the focal point of a shorter campaign, only being really noticed towards the end of the first act. And actually revealed midway through the 2nd act.
I recently ran a horror one-shot for fun. Having spooky ambient sounds like rain, wind, creaking floorboards actually make a huge difference. Combined with describing the unsettling environment your players will freak themselves out honestly. If your players roll a high perception or investigation roll then give them a description where they feel an acute disturbance due to that revelation. For example: "As you read the book the handwriting gets less organized and the content less scholarly talking about some creature's name over and over. Eventually the writing becomes illegible and resembles some black frantic script you have never seen. As you look at the strange script you feel like there are tentacles squirming out of your eyes and the script flashes a glowing green."
This gives me the vibe of that diety from skyrim
It would be even scarier (for me) if you didn't transform into a restless when you die due to exhaustion, but when you slowly turn into one with every level of exhaustion you get.
Man just wanna say how much I love your content and that you put so much hard work into these stat blocks and make them available free. Keep up the awesome work!
Something I love the idea of for horror is not telling the players their health. Basically they know they’re injured, but they don’t know how many more hits they can take before death.
Great ideas here!
I'd suggest one more pillar to really flesh out a horror antagonist: its weakness. Most 'creature feature' monsters cannot be (definitely) beaten by mundane means (which, in D&D context, includes fireballs and stuff). To completely destroy such creature, the players would need to learn a ritual, find an item, or do something genuinely dangerous outside of the monster itself. This avoids all the build-up to just leading to a "mundane" fight.just
I get so much delight seeing the Tip of the Hat intro, you're gonna go far on here!
Yes, a video from you about how to "set the mood" would be very helpful. I'm kinda bad at remembering to set up the surroundings to feel more like actual D&D.
Oh I needed this. Running an eldritch horror campaign for my players so this is gonna be really useful. Thanks!
Are you using Call of Cthulhu or DnD?
@@destinpatterson1644 D&D
@@potentpotassium5776 what's the campaign setting about? Lovecraftian horror is a love of mine so you got me curious
Also! And like this too!
I was literally thinking about the exact fear you described without knowing it was named phrogging, you learn something new everyday. The idea of being watched/not fully alone or safe in a place that should be sanctuary is horifying, if I run a campaign I'm definitely using it, sick video
Hands down one of the best sponsorship intros ever. Seamless. Amazing.
honestly, i take inspiration from the magnus archives -- I turn those mundane things like a childhood blanket into something that never was protecting you from that very real monster that delights in your fear, preying on you and soon enough it's too late
Love that you make Fridays better
I’ve always been terrified of being hunted. By an animal or whatever really. I think it’d be a fun thing to play around with. Maybe they hear a twig snap when walking through the woods but then see a deer moments later. Play with the idea of it not actually happening. However I don’t think I’d be able to pull it off.
Might go pick out some Doctor Who monsters that terrified me.
Think yeth dogs or shadow mastiffs have a howl that forces those failing a saving throw to run away from them, could be good for a chase like that
Deer will sometimes eat meat and bones for nutrients they're missing, so it might not always be a good thing to see it "was just a deer."
Dude. Playlist that makes you feel like a villain? Deck of Many Animated Things? We are on a wavelength, my guy! Already use both. Definitely subbed.
I’m gonna use this video as help to explore my biggest fear in D&D. That fear being Body Dysmorphia. The monster in question (working name) likes to stalk and nest in packs, going from town to town and giving the people weird body features until they become so disgusted at their own appearance they off themselves.
If you want to explore that more, I highly recommend checking out the Magnus Archives if you haven’t - that’s one of the themes explored in the podcast.
Sybriex?
One of my proudest moments as a DM, was when I was describing how the party rolled into a town that was seemingly abandoned.
At first they thought the villagers had just fled the village, but as they investigated it seemed more like they had just vanished into thin air. Food was still on tables, doors were locked, no blood or bodies or anything.
The monk decided to climb up onto the second floor of a tavern. He enters one of the rooms from the window and investigates it. He find that the rucksack was still packed and tidy, the shoes were still by the door, and creepily enough the deadbolt was still locked. I guess I had my descriptions locked in and the music was perfect, because the monk asked if he could look under the bed. I made made my description super suspenseful and my players actually looked scared. Nothing was under the bed of course, but I was still so proud to see my players actually scared in a VTT.
I would be scared that I'm not alone in the dark. That feeling that something is watching you, there's something breathing down your neck, it's right there, but as soon as you look it disappears. The idea that there's shadows in my room that weren't there before, like something is haunting me. That's the fear I would use for the creature feature method. Maybe the creature would be as black as night, with little to no discernible facial features or even dignified fingers, just mittens. A blurred and vague thing that you can sense is there, but can never prove it. Thinking about it too much would cause you to go insane, letting every little noise get you on edge. Once you've been driven past the point of no return, you are no longer yourself. Thinking it for the best that you go off alone, leaving the party even, you wander for days on end with no sleep. Until you collapse of exhaustion, only to find that you yourself have become what you have feared. The monster.
This is right, the audio plays a big part. When my player group I was DMing delved into the catacombs, the deeper they went, the more sinister the ambience sound, it works in movie, in theaters, its a really good combo with any horrifying element. Subtle foreshadowing too, or even the classic cliche horror aspects like; "You feel like you're not alone", or "You no longer hear the water dropping", or "the door strangely closes behind you".
I loved this episode! One of my close friends suffers with insomnia and being stuck being unable to rest really does terrify me! I think if i was going to use this i’d probably try to use my fear of being lost to try and make some kind of moving maze monster that slowly separates the party. Trapping them individually in looping corridors.
I've always loved to give descriptions of the creatures, and sometimes hints of what they're facing. For example, the group is investigating the disappearances of inhabitants of a prison city who have been going missing after they forage in the caverns under the head warden's palace. At first, it's the standard business - finding abandoned baskets and harvesting tools and the like. Then after one of them makes a nature check, they notice that the floors and walls are devoid of the biomass that normally accumulates in exposed caverns - no mold, no bugs, no guano. And they also find strange tooth marks in the stone, and somebody's severed leg embedded in solid rock as though it were mud.
Only after our rogue made an Arcane check did they hear the scream of a luum lizard, followed by the manifold shrieks, curses, animal noises, and babbles of a group of gibbering mouthers.
the quick clip of Ephemeral Rift in a pickle costume was completely unexpected and got a good chuckle out of me
Me too! I had to do a double take on that ER pickle rick clip lmao
I didn't see that video, but I was like "Is that Ephermal Rift?!"
edit: I even looked up "Ephermal Rift cucumber" just to make sure it was them lmao
I ended up watching this right before bed. I love sleep.... Now I'm a tiny bit anxious 😩 Great vid as always! This is definitely something I struggle with as a beginner DM so it's awesome to have something discussing it. Really have to take this lesson to heart if I ever get to run my favorite TTRPG, After Sundown (a horror themed game)!
A great Pointy Hat video on horror?! Can’t wait to use it with the undead stuff you added
Love the concept. Sad it's not in the description though
OK, here goes one on my biggest personal fears: Alzheimer and other types of senile dementia. Not because I had to deal with them personally, but just the idea of slowly losing your memories, being unable to remember even your own self, it's freaking horrifying to me!
If I were to introduce a monster in D&D that uses this trait, I think I would rather give vague and incohesive information to really emphasize the mystery and the paranoia. Like, maybe there're rumors about an ancient and vanishing pyramid in the middle of the desert, but those adventurers who march into the desert end up becoming lost among the sandstorms, both physically and mentally. Those who are able to return have their identities stolen, with only mere fragments of their psyche intact. Or maybe, every new moon in an isolated island is accompanied by a mysterious mist that covers the entirety of the terrain, which slowy deletes the memories of their inhabitants, who became trapped in their own perception of time, Groundhog Day sorta style, while the mist slowly rottens their brains away.
No matter the setting, though, I'm much more interesting in trying to come up with small tricks and details which are meant to create an unsettling atmosfere, in which their brains are slowly but surely getting a bit smashed. For example, I'd love to begin some part of this adventure in medias res (wow look at me I use fancy words :D), and twisting the narrative to really alter their perception of the reality (just to some extend, though, I only want to cause a bit headache, not to drive them crazy).
I don't know if I want to admit this xD, but one of my biggest inspirations on this adventure would be the Jail House Lock arc in Stone Ocean. I really like how, with such a really simple and direct idea, you can create such an oppressive tone that genuinely makes you feel sick. I remember seeing it and immediately thinking: OMG this is genuinely fucking creepy, would be cool to play in D&D though :)
So yeah, that's basically it! I'd also love seeing my players trying to come up with ways to defeat the effect of the creature, before they also start to forget what they're even dealing with in the first place, so I think it would make for quite an interesting and memorable (no pun intended) encounter :)
Dementia is indeed terrifying. The worst thing ever: having your mother looking at you, but seeing that she doesn't recognize you as her child any more. Been there, done that. It's the worst feeling in the world. So yeah, fucking horrifying.
The False Hydra already exists as an Alzheimer's /Dementia monster.
Dementia runs in my family and so I am very adamant in never having to deal with a false hydra or similar monster. Always check with your players on what themes are ok with them because its one thing to have a fun scare and another to trigger someone's biggest fear and anxiety.
take my sub. THIS is quality content. Succinct, formulaic, and insightful into something relatively unexplored before (at least in DnD). A lot of channels will post a lot of common sense, which is still good for new DMs, but this is useful for anyone of all skill levels and applies to writing in general, making it particularly ubiquitous. I love the insight into the horror genre; horror for the sake of horror never amounts to anything, so having meaning behind the horror makes all the difference (think grief in the Babadook). Not doing the work on all the ins and outs for your monster leaves plotholes, but going that extra mile makes it seem like everything is accounted for. But then drawing the curtain more to blot out a lot of the evidence of worldbuilding adds to the mystery. I knew about the first point, but second two are genius: similar to DMing in general, worldbuilding to be prepared for every possible scenario, but then focusing in on a few details to leave the audience in the dark really gives off the feeling of verisimilitude and mystery simultaneously which is a great combination to get them really immersed in the story.
The Restless is, indeed, TERRIFYING and a great monster that I will 100% be using in my campaign! Thank you, Pointy!!
did this never get the actual stat block for it? i cant seem to find it anywhere
I designed a monster once that I was so sure would be scary and turned out to be just another slog battle. The idea was based around a Sleep Paralysis Demon, basically it was a monster that was able to apply sleep over the course of battle, and feed on the dreams of the one asleep by forcing them to roll the saving throw they're worst at, healing for the damage dealt and they couldn't wake up until the succeeded. The idea was great, execution he was overshadowed by a small marshmallow creature that was in the same fight. I think I might try redesigning him using this method!
I would LOVE a full video about setting the atmosphere! That would be so cool and if I ever DM'd I'd definitely use your tips, and if I'm not the DM I'll send the video to any and all DMs that DM for games I'm in
I once did a horror one-shot when our power went out completely lit by candles and lanterns, It did wonders, both of my players said they were terrified. I find that playing LOTS of sound effects REALLY helps, also limiting their movement and confining them to one area, like a boat/ship. It makes them much more scared of the threat because they have to face it directly, or the threat can be hiding among them. If done properly, your players will constantly be on edge.
Just wanna say thank you for all the work you put into the ideas and monsters you post BTW love the whole lich line your doing
If you made a book, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
Seriously, the art you do is top notch!
Love this idea which is perfect for a campaign I'm planning! Looking forward to that Twist document (hint, hint, reminder). :)
I would love to see a full video on scene-setting, especially in online settings! I've almost stopped playing TTRPGs entirely because I find it so hard to get into character when playing online. If you have tips for how to make VTTs and Discord calls more immersive, it'd be invaluable!
Thank you! This confirmed that I’m on the right track with my haunted house horror oneshot.
One of my plans is to ask players to make a Constitution save during a long rest. Anyone who fails will have disturbing dreams related to the history of the house and wake up with scratches or words carved into their skin (plus a couple points of psychic damage). Also, with a decent perception roll, they’ll all notice that objects in the room where they slept, including heavy furniture, will have moved around during the rest.
I scared one of my players pretty badly by having her stalked by a Junji Ito ghost. I picked the ribless woman, and described the sound it made to creepy music at some point during her watch for three in game days before I had it jump her. Good times.
These are some good tips, I'd also add that for a monster to be threatening, there needs to be a 'threat'. For some their characters lives/sanity is enough, but I'd highly recommend giving your characters something to lose. Find out what motivates them, and dangle it as the bait "If you succeed you can get/save this, but somethings coming for your thing and its not playing nice bwhahahaha'. This can be an npc the monster is preying on slowly weakening, or it could be a shiny item, or a pet. Give them something to lose that will make them want revenge against the monster, rather than simply put them back to "well guess its time to roll out my backup character".
Yes I love the when a new pointy hat video drops. Always gets me in the mood for my Friday night game
I'd say the player's main safe place is with each other. Imagine a monster that approaches the party during a long rest in a hostile area. The person keeping watch might hear a childish voice say "come and play with me" and the next thing they remember they're alone in a random room in the dungeon. The party, whenever they wake up, will have to race to find each other before the dungeon's other denizens do.
Lots of excellent inspiration on a very needed topic. Thank you, Pointy Hat!
I love love love getting the notification for a new video from you. FANTASTIC job as always!
That said, I have some ideas for unseen monsters that you can feel crawling on your skin when you stop moving or a monster so afraid of being alone that they slowly isolate someone in a community (or adventuring party) to be their friend and convince them that they should be friends or together. But the one I'm probably the most excited to use in an upcoming game is a monster who feeds on success and will seek out the rich and powerful and thriving individuals of a community, starting with small good things for the everyday person until they grow to civilization toppling monstrosities. They are vaguely sentient, but are most commonly known for speaking a single phrase "Sallie Mae must be paid...." Should be fun!
we had one game
the DM turned had us move away from the table sit in a circle the lights right down till only a low candle in the middle and talked us though the horror story, like an actual campfire story.. during this the NPC who was telling the story told us about the dismembered bodies he had found and started reaching in his bag, he passed us the fingers he had found cold and sweaty (sausages) he then continued the story as we passed these around, saying he had only found 3 of the 6 eyes of the dead bodies and passed around the three eyes (soft boiled eggs peeled and cold and wet) and he went on with his story... towards the end after passing around some ears he had found nailed to a tree, he told us about the heart he found and how he was sure in the deep dead of night he heard it beating ... and he passed around a soft beef tomato... but in the dark we could not really tell and we were invested... when the heart got slowly to the last of our group it started beating the PC freaked out with a beating heart in her hands... he had put some battery operated pulsing thing inside which had a remote.. we late had ideas what it might be but do not know for sure, but when she screamed we all screamed.
Not all TTRPG needs to be at the table.
I'm pretty confident you'll be one of, if not the biggest, RUclipsrs in the future. Your content is just so damn good, and you have the charisma to match. Kudos!
Ten candles is a game that shows how integral atmosphere is, that it’s in the instructions to dim the room light or turn it off and light the candles.
It shows atmospheres greatest strength!
I sooo could have used this video for my halloween one shot...
The monster ended up been a homebrewed mummy called "The HallowQueen" (get it?).
It wasn't scary, but it was fun at least.
The scary one ended up been the Sphinx i made, because it was mysterious and ominous, it didn't even fight the players but they were disturbed by it jaja.
Great video man, i will use this consejos in my next one shot!
I would absolutely use the fear of loss. I don't have specifics, but I imagine a creature that slowly steals memories from an individual, making them forget small things at first (like where they left their keys) and eventually taking bigger and bigger memories (like the name and faces of loved ones, purpose in life, what they like or dislike, life-changing memories) until eventually the person just falls into a vegetative state unable to remember even how to walk.
Or in the same vein of fear of loss, maybe a creature that makes you increasingly paranoid until you inevitable cause the event of loss that you dreaded so.
The phrogging concept was my first thought too (thanks for that word btw). I assumed this idea couldn't be used in a dnd campaign but this kinda work and it inspire me. Let's take it to the next conceptual level. A creature secretly living into your body, seeing through your eyes, feeling through your heart and experiencing everything, always hiding in the back of your head.
Note that this is a first draft but let's design this creature and a few interaction with the players.
I won't name it, since it would make it less scary and I don't want the player to gather any information from book or local legend anyway. This never happened before.
Its origin doesn't matters and can be tweaked to fit your narrative, maybe it's a part of a shattered world seed forgotten in the plane of chaos for aeons, a random parasite from space, a mind poison created from the brain extract of an Ilithid, whatever you need. What's important is that this is a new mind, craving experience, and is a totally alien psyche with no concept of guilt or morality.
At first, this creature is almost undetectable, by magic or otherwise. It's neutral, doesn't count as a poison or a mind affecting effect, isn't magical in nature and would require dangerous invasive surgery with a ridiculous high DC to be found.
Now let's get to the events related to this creature. Since my group would be incredibly wary of this kind of thing I'll keep this to just a few interaction. I'd spread these maybe one every two or three game depending of what I'm reading from the players. Before the big reveal I'd want to keep them wary, not paranoiac.
The infection: It start with a player seeing the world with new eyes one morning, colors seem more vivid, food taste better, everything seem more alive than it usually is. At that point, I'd give the player a +2 morale buff on everything for a few days.
First interaction: After the next quest while the group is camping the character on guard duty feel watched. On a successful detection check the only thing of note is that the infected player seem uneasy while sleeping, then the feeling stop. Otherwise he keep that feeling of being watched until the next shift.
Second interaction: A few day later during downtime the infected player, without realizing, turn his head and eyes towards the player that was on guard duty. I can't describe the look the creature would give the character the way I would for my player in a youTube comment, but make it disturbing, describe a twisted smile and eyes filled with psychotic lust or something. Maybe I would take the player apart playing that scene in private so no one else know this happened, not even the infected player.
You may need a few more before the final, I'd keep my eye open for opportunities.
The reveal: Here's the twist, dnd is a power fantasy and your player should start to be really strong at that point. The creature living in the mind of the infected player is drunk on that power. What it love the most is when its host crush the bone of their enemy with their massive 2 handed weapon, or when they take control of the sky to smite someone with a lightning, when they channel destructive energy, or whatever their class can do. But this time, its different. This fight was out of their league, the party is crushed. The combat was long and epic but nothing was enough, they are going to die. The host, is going to die. But the creature refuse that reality, it throw a tantrum, take control of the infected body and mind and use it in way it shouldn't be used. He'll break its arm to hit and enemy out of reach and use it like a tentacle afterward, It'll rip its tongue out to use as component to cast a spell that shouldn't exist, it'll kill its animal companion and merge with the carcass. Something that fit with the player class but is clearly horrible and the host, still awake inside, feel the pain as he watch powerless. The battle is won when the infected character is at its body limit. Out of breath they almost fall, but then turn toward the unconscious body of the player that was most aware of its existence, with the same look he gave earlier except this time the rest of the party clearly see it happen. As it stumble toward its companion, the infected player feel the cold sweat on his body as he realize what's about to happen as one of the remaining member of the group knock them unconscious.
While I like the horror of it, be careful with which player you infect, you don’t want to make it like you take away their autonomy as a PC. Maybe wait for the player who comes to you with the “yeah I am cool with anything, just surprise me”
One of my favorite scary DND scenarios was the character Baron from Dimension 20's Fantasy High. I think that encounter really hits the nail on the head with every single one of these points and it's clear that this encounter was so well designed that even though only one character in the party was encountering it, it scared the Hell out of everyone at the table.
I would actually love to hear more about how you set the mood at the table. Specifically, I've only used music in two situations: a dragon fight, where I prepared the music all beforehand; and as a player when combat was taking so long that I turned on a random playlist just to have something to do.
We have music when a player thinks of a fitting pun and looks up some song about ducks or North Korean military music. We had Ducktales bardcore in the background for a bit. They got a little computer in their hand and can look this up easily these days.
The first time I ran 3.5's Expedition to Ravenloft, I had a little laptop that played not only a playlist of creepy music, but I had an app that played ambiance sounds; cicada chirps and owl hoots when traveling at night, rain and thunder while exploring the castle, and eerie whispers and scratching when they stepped down into the basement. Sound really helps!
Maybe this is why the False Hydra is so effective at being scary. All the tips you outlined are pretty much inherent to how the monster works.
My newest villain is imo quite scary,
just known as the shrouded lady, or the shrouded queen, she barely makes noise and everyone that looked into her eyes doesn't want to talk about them or is dead. She appears as a grey skinned, black haired malnourished women, tales say that she is actually the spirit of saint Lucia (original character in original world), protector saint of the poor and starving, who died after being thrown in an oubliette, tortured and starving . She was born deaf and later in her life blinded by the same king who killed her. She is technically a spirit of a saint, which the players can see by the halo above her head, but the halo is black and simplistic. She is full of scars seemingly from torture and lacks thumbs. But that's not what makes her scary, her curse is what is supposed to scare the players. She has two eyes that she often chooses to show individually. One stands for nutrition of food, and makes the victim always hungry, but never fed after it is seen. The player will be always thirsty, and never be able to quench this thirst. This causes the victim to be permanently on the brink of starvation. The other stands for the taste of food, making the victim lose all taste and smell. The victim starts detesting food and will eat only what is necesary. She is also a bad omen, predicting famine. If you happen to look into both her eyes, your body will rapidly deteriorate. If you are within her area, you get the fear of a famine. For example, if she roams the cathedral or sewers at night in a city, everyone in the city will start hamstering food and stop enjoying the privilege of easily accesable food. Fruits and meat in her prescence wither and rot and old wives tell tales about people resorting to cannibalism, whilst food is still readily available.
Oh boy, another tarot deck for my ever growing collection lol. Honestly the horror that generally gets me is anything that is just barely out of peripheral vision. Which is why the viral video Lights Out still freaks me out. A shadow monster would be cool. Also the Weeping Angels from Dr. Who. Nope nope just nope. Also would make a good monster for DnD
I'd get that flavor with either a Doppelganger that is actively screwing with your PCs or something like an Invisible Stalker. Or the big daddy itself the Oblex. A creature that is physically amorphous that can suddenly appear or appear as others, all for the sake of potentially messing with your players or devouring them.
Phrogging is terrifying to me because of the idea of me not even having a clue someone is there, but also I think that the reason I don’t feel “invaded” per se is probably because I grew up with 11 older siblings and nothing was ever really mine. Then when I moved out I’ve never lived alone, but phrogging still scares me on some level
Bro I would never mash A through your dialogue. I love your explanations and new ideas!
Absolutely FANTASTIC video!! This my first time coming across your channel but it was really great..I might just stick around :D Also the Restless is such a freaking amazing monster, phrogging is actually my personal biggest fear and it was so awesome when the wheel landed on that
So there are so many fears to work off of and given I spent the last few months listening to The Magnus Archives, which is all about fear. I have some ideas.
One fear that would be interesting to play with is the fear of judgement. Having someone pass judgement on every single thing you do can make every little thing incredibly difficult or even impossible to do. A Jeer is what I'm coining for a monster to embody that fear, a monster that attaches to a victim and constantly passes judgement on everything they are doing. Decrying everything they do as terrible or not good enough and making them doubt every thought they have. This would for sure incur some effect on stats like Charisma, Wisdom and Intelligence perhaps even permanently lowering certain stats if the influence goes on for long enough. Jeers would be a Bards worst nightmare. Suddenly having a nagging voice of doubt and judgement attacking every single word, every note, every gesture. Like a heckler has moved into your head and you've no idea how to kick them out. They could exist in the Etherial plane, and only appear in the physical plane in places where people are actually jeering, so essentially every pub and inn with a rowdy enough cliental. Jeers take pleasure in ruining the confidence of performers, and will attempt to bind themselves to any Bard that makes a mistake in their performance or shows any insecurities. Once bound, they are incredibly tricky to detach as they will bind themselves deeper and deeper into the host over time as their self confidence erodes from the constant heckling. If a Jeer stays attached to someone for too long, eventually they will be paralyzed from taking normal everyday actions like sleeping, or eating or breathing, and eventually succumbing due to their inaction. I could easily see a storyline of a Bard college (that being an actual physical college rather than loose free study) suffering from an unusually high rate of drop out with students giving up the craft entirely and then mysteriously disappearing. The party investigating and eventually finding out that a group of students had been sicking Jeers onto their classmates to eliminate all potential competition, and all secretly approved of by the head of the college as a way to eliminate anyone he deemed unsuited to the craft.
I tried to create a one-shot monster that took advantage of the Exhaustion mechanic and acted as a stealth/ambush and persistence hunter. Standard “town where people are dying horribly after weird shit happens to the victims” and then the party hunts down the monster.
However, pretty much immediately they are caught in its “no-sleep” aura and from there on its a race to track it down and kill it before they lose all movement speed and it eats them alive. Really ramp up the tension, the desperation, force them to make choices which can increase their exhaustion level or further weaken them in order to get potshots are the creature that has turned from the hunted into the hunter.
I accidentally made a medium-dangerous hag sound so scary that my players did not have the nerve to have their characters attack her. They told me at the end of the session it felt so intense... and I though she said weird-funny stuff and it was a silly encounter. Apparently my jokes made things worse. I still am wondering how that happened so I can do it again XD
Something I've wanted to make for a bit would be a devourer of light. Candles and fires within so many feet of it blow out. Magical lights don't give off any light, but instead look like eclipses.
Even if no one in the group is afraid of the dark, having "the dark" persue you, making it impossible to start a campfire, or even go into town and buy something.
As for a motivation, why is it so determined to follow your PC? Well, either there's an internal light in the character it wants to extinguish, or even an internal darkness it wants to embrace.
I've found that I unintentionally make my campaigns scary for my players. The atmosphere and story type I usually go for is gritty realism just because I find it makes an interesting world to live in. In addition, when I consider an enemy, especially an evil one, I think of what type of people live in my world, what goals do they have, and what are they willing to do to get to it. Oftentimes my villains are ones who suffer some sort of psychological abnormality, whether it be narcissism, depression, or some type of delusion. They range from sympathetic to downright cruel. Because of the combination of gritty realism and some sort of delusion these characters often have uncanny features on how they act that perturb the players, especially when I speak as them. I don't usually intend for them to come across as creepy or uncanny of the rip, but circumstances often lead them to being so. In addition to psychological horror, I also incorporate body horror too. I try to make grotesque flesh monstrosities have some sort of metaphor for real forms of corruption such as lust, greed, and gluttony.
I try to make most of my story say something, and oftentimes, when I want to make what I am trying to say vague enough to not scream out at the players, that leads to mind-melting character concepts that impact the players' soul rather than just their thoughts. I have been dialing it back a bit, because horror all the time eventually takes out the horror. In a world where everything is dark, there must still be light.
Love this! I just gave my group their semi-annual injection of horror, so I'll wait a while, but the next time the scare-bug bites me as DM, I'm using this method!
All the DM has to do is chuckle every time you roll dice for a save or check.
"Can I get everyone to roll a perception check please." *looks at the results "huh, interesting, yeah you guys don't see anything, carry on." though you can't overdo it, you have to limit it to once per session and it has to, eventually, have a payoff.
I have 2 fears usable for monster making...
1 - Fear of being evil/committing sins... Imagine the party kills the goblins, return to the village, get their monetary reward, only to learn that the village is selling slaves and the goblins were just peaceful villagers in that cave, which explains why they were not properly armed and just had normal rooms... Villagers wanted to get rid of them because they were witnesses of their illegal slave trade!
2 - Fear of passing time... this one is simple... a monster that causes a player to be unable to act in any way for some time during the session... if they player at that time goes to the bathroom, make sure to tell them you will be pausing the adventure... It's going to be annoying for most, but while you are not in the state of the void, knowing it will happen, you might get scared of it happening again...
1:18 Jokes on him, I homebrew every slightly significant monster. The only "from the book" he is getting is those presented only to drain party resources.
A creature that when it attacks it not only damages your body but your mind too. Every time it takes away a hit point it’ll also take away a key memory, it could be your favorite drink or even the knowledge of a spell. The lower your hp the more important the memory or knowledge until you’re either dead or you’re just a shell with no memories and no way to get them back.