I have ran D&D horror for over a decade now and am running Curse of Strahd as a psychological horror with a pacing of the show 24 hrs. 10 sessions in and we barely made it 3 days (in game) so far. I incorporated a Sanity h.p. system in conjunction with DMG Madness, and the new Sandy Pederson Cthuhlu Mythos 5e Insanity system. Basically anytime they "fail madness, fear, horror checks" they lose sanity points (I decide how many) and fall deeper into insanity to the degree of unspeakable behaviors, even death. They start with: 11(current)/11(max) and recoupe when the bard sings songs, they share good memories, secrets, make food, etc. Think, "What would I do to maintain my humanity in Ravenloft?" Almost every zombie apocalypse story illustrates how the survivors do this exact same thing. Therefore, the party has to keep their H.P. & Sanity up. So long as the methodology of recouping Sanity points requires immersive RP (roleplay); including the bard picking a song on RUclips to play if that player isn't comfortable talking in character. Also we play in a dim lit room (ce ter light over the table) with ambiance and sound effects (DMDJ and RUclips ambiance). Keep your poker face, push the envelope here and there. Also study the difderent types of horror. That was one of the most essential lessons I have learned on my Dungeon Master journey. Being able to move from one sub genre to another is priceless in game as some types of horror will affect some players differently than others.
I put grim realism into my tabletop campaigns the kinda shit that you know is out there in society but don’t want to talk about rape murder cannibals evil satanic rituals beatings public executions exploitative noblemen pillaging corrupt politicians drugged or brainwashed people and other fucked up things can be found in my setting they aren’t everywhere but it’s definitely a thing and it’s something that an adventurer would be forced to come face to face with the reality that isn’t all sunshine and rainbows and that people are monsters contend that with monsters and other races being biased and bigoted and sexism being a thing at a down right fanatic level think nazi Germans and Jewish genocides and you get closer not to assume everyone is this way their more moral Grey and a few genuinely good natured people but in a world where monsters and other races exist along with a feudal society and diseases you get a time when self preservation is top priority and fucking over others is a necessity
Other than learn to place " periods," White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Vampire, vampires are blood sucking undead but they are not making the world a hellish place of cruelty or brutal depression, human are the real monster that make the world an awful place to live. Then you get Werewolf & Mage you find out spiritual warfare is real.
random guy: DnD isn't for Horror/Dark Fantasy! Me: "Looks back at Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Hero's of Horror, Age of Worms, Planescape, Masque of the Red Death, and Midnight, along with various Databooks and Homebrew."
As someone who regularly runs dark fantasy settings, I would also recommend looking into variant rules which do away with alignment. You would be amazed at how much of a difference it makes when things are not laid out black and white, and they can't detect evil their way out of moral situations.
@@asdergold1 Idk, maybe they think 5e still work like older editions. But in 5e aligment is only an rp crutch. It has mechanical effects only in the case of attuning to certain magic items and I think the rakshasa has weakness to piercing damage done by a good aligned creature. That's it.
I played in a horror game in 5e and it was amazing. It was a oneshot and we went to this mansion that seemed to be abandoned. Exploring, we found various letters around the mansion from secret admirers to the lady of the manor, with one of them giving off (to me at least) some seriously rapey vibes. As we entered the rooms where we found these letters, our characters felt uncomfortable in certain places, like above our pelvis in our lower stomach, or our legs just ached mysteriously. We found a key to the basement and found a dead cleric with a letter detailing something horrible happening in the manor, and how he was going to face this thing to the end. We also found a pentagram ritual circle, and magical darkness descended on us, with the 5 candles on each point of the pentagram being our only light source. Going down the hall, the DM started playing a sound effect of raspy, unnatural breathing. The source was just out of the light range before we reached a door to the library so we had the choice of looking at the source or going to the library. Naturally we chose the library, where we found an eyeball. This caused the breathing to begin approaching us, and this twisted, malformed woman floated into view. The DM described the visceral detail of her, starting with her missing eye, then describing her missing leg, with the other being twisted and broken completely. Her womb had been torn out of her abdomen and she had some other mutilation inflicted on her. The DM then asked us to make a wisdom saving throw as she let out a gargled moan, which he had a sound clip for that chilled me to the bone. If we failed, our movement speed was reduced to 0 for 1 turn. We scrambled, and picked up her body parts from where we found the letters addressed to her before making our way back to the basement after some really close calls. We placed the body parts on each point of the ritual, managing to exorcise the demon, and the DM read out the epilogue
Person”dnd is a fantasy based game,not horror and gothic themes. WOTC:put out Curse of Strahd Person: it is literally impossible to dislike the Curse of Strahd
No.. no no.. What you do about a players dark vision.. you utilize it. To deal with that and add on to the horror and dire circumstances.. You make the monster, the aspect of horror invisible to those with dark vision.. the only way to see it is a source of light.. What’s more frightening, seeing a monster charging at or watching you in the dark while it’s only details are in black and white.. or the snapping of twigs and branches along with the crunching of fallen leaves behind you.. only to look back as it sounded inches away, only to see nothing. Then suddenly, you feel it’s warm breath creeping down your neck.. It may be a bit simple but the Gloom Stalker Ranger has the ability to appear invisible to creatures with dark vision while in darkness.
Why not combine dark fantasy and gothic horror? Also throw some steampunk in too then you can have a Dr Victor Frankenstein encounter. Have steampunk because if magic is rare then add more tech base classes. You can still have magic classes instead of warlocks name it the Demonologist class. Instead of a rouge name it a fiend slayer. I don't know have fun with the darkness and evil setting. It Sounds like fun to me. Give me your thoughts on it.
Other than the Demonologist part you basically just described Eberron. Which is a D&D 3rd edition setting, that is getting a new book after Avernus. Tech based class? That's the artificer, and Eberron staple. Dark fantasy, gothic horror, and steampunk? Yup. It has existential horror too.
One way I like to think of making your D&D or chosen alternate a Dark Fantasy World, is to think of how you describe it to your players, the "essence" that you use to describe it.
I'd like to add in my 2 ¢, to help you fellow DM's out there. When your making a Dark Fantasy world, think of Dark Fantasy media. Dragon Age Origins, Witcher 3, Dark Souls. Dishonored. So what do all these worlds have in common? Their worlds are brutal, and unforgiving. The bad guys tend to win, the common person has a hard life, and is expected to have a hard death. Maybe your players will embrace the Darkness, or maybe they will try to be Paragons of the light. But setting the stage in the beginning is best, so they immediately know what sort of world they're in for. Here's an example, this is how I started my Dragon Age Campaign. * "You awaken, you feel pressure surrounding you, its dark and wet. You try to look up but something prevents you from moving. Are you buried? The ground is soft and mushy, yet crusted over, whatever is on top of you is aswell...you push it off, and look up to brown and black clouds, red pouring down your face. The air is filled with a brown smog, you look around you, you can barely see more than a mile, the ground is covered in decaying bodies, burning wagons, and puddles of black and red liquid. The air is so thick its hard to breathe, when you do, the smell is rancid, and horrid, like an outhouse with a gutted animal inside it. You look out and observe the vista of corpses, human,elven, and bodies almost too decayed to recognize, some low to the ground, some mounted on top of one another, like a roaring ocean of corpses spread across the plains, trying to drown you again. To the right is nothing but fire, a stalwart wall of flame shooting waves of heat, corpses burning and crackling. Behind you the ground is black and squirming, almost alive. Consuming the bodies that lay in it, leaving a shimmering blackness behind. In front of you is rubble, the skeleton of what was perhaps a great city, with walls standing tall, now a pile of death and rock. To the left the sea of bodies thins out, and blood precedes it, you see far off banners shaking in the wave of heat, and burning to ash. The only source of sunlight, a single ray piercing the clouds, but as soon as you see it, it's gone again, covered by the sickly brown clouds. You hear a roaring screech of pure malice from above the clouds, stabbing your ears, at such a high pitch it would break glass, and shatter hope, the very sound of it seems to drain you of strength. It's gone as quickly as it came. You see others standing up, amidst the smoke." * End Scene.
I really liked the video format you went with in this video m8, you and your friend just semi casually talking about a subject, should definitely do more stuff like that imo , subbed hoping for more in the future 😁👍
Slight caveat I feel needs to be said - horror isn't just scaring people or having nasty encounters. It's also a looming sense of dread and unease, and that's best done in the background with worldbuilding and setong a tonal atmosphere. How exactly one does that depends on the individual, but there's just as much horror in not knowing what lurks in the dark or being forced to listen to the cries of the tormented as being jumped by something ghastly. A lot of people saying D&D and Pathfinder don't work for horror seem to forget that horror can be conceptual and viscerally unsettling based solely off descriptions and tone. Just last weekend, I ran a game where a player character had a bit of a wakeup call, wanting to mercy kill a felled and bleeding foe, but another PC and an NPC wanted him to suffer as he died, so the second PC blocked them. Having that more innocent character come face to face with the brutality of their own allies in the wake of a nasty scuffle. The pair weren't particularly cruel men on most occasions, but one (the NPC) was a former soldier whose whole regiment was wiped out in a slow, grinding massacre when they were surrounded maybe a decade ago, and he wanted to make the man responsible suffer for not only the deaths of his unit, but all those felled in bringing them down when he could have just let the regiment leave the field. Thd PC who backed him was also a soldier, and while he hadn't dealt with quite the same amount of trauma, he still sympathized and sided with the NPC. There was a general understanding after the session that what the NPC did was understandable, and whole the players were fine with it and found it to be an interesting development, most of them also said it was still a little uncomfortable, and probably deeply disturbing to their characters - largely because he's usually one of the most jovial and amicable characters they've met, and despite that he was driven to such cruelty and malice as to make someone's death as slow and agonizing as possible. Sorry this is so long, just something that bothers me.
I've been interested in Dark Fantasy recently and this is one of the first videos I watched on the subject. I love your description of the genre, but a lot of novels I looked up don't sound like what you describe. In fact, one of the problems I have is that most fantasy seems to be categorized as dark fantasy, I guess because most fantasy has monsters and some evil wizard trying to take over the world. It's really frustrating. Do you know any novels that fit this description of Dark Fantasy?
dark fantasy is generally less hope and instead more consequences for actions which are not a happy ending. More tragedy, less distinct lines between good and evil. More of a "Rather have a tragic end instead of a neverending tragedy"
I’m goth and I love dark fantasy horror. I want to make dark fantasy horror movies when I graduate high school. I’m glad I found this video that discusses the genre.
I always wanted to run dark psychologic fantasy where there are scary monsters and where your party has to make run with packs of torches but the monsters aren’t the scariest part, but the it’s the humans, it’s our inner evil
This vid is picking up more traction than it ever has before! As school comes to a close, I actually may be able to hook you all up with the rest of the parts to this series
This was a really helpful outlook. I've been doing some research to prep for a horror style campaign & was kinda sad the rest of the parts didn't follow as your outlook on it was very helpful.
I'm making a horror campaign and stumbled upon this video during research. Love the tone and formatting! And the discussion with your friend was great.
I think the problem is not D&D 5e. It is just that some DM's feel constricted or lack the imagination to bring horror to the game. I have been running CoS on Roll 20 for different grups over the last three years. This is what I have learned: 1)Decide who your audience is going to be. I advertise all my horror games when looking for players as 18+ mature. Let them know ahead of time that you are running a horror setting so they mentally prepare for it. 2)One of the best ways to create the horror ambiance is through sound effects: tense music tracks, wolves howling in the distance, crows cowing overhead, the sound of rain and thunder, tense and sad background music, etc...3) Narration needs to be different, make your voice sound creepier, describe every element that adds to the horror atmosphere, from the dead, leafless half rotting trees in the forest, to the dense fog that is everywhere and obscures your vision, or the rusted iron gate screeching as the wind pushes it back and forth. 4)I recommend scripting some horrific or disturbing scenes that you present in between improv rp (make sure your players will be ok, and will not get triggered-discuss it beforehand during session zero). For example, I scripted this one for my current CoS game: *SPOILER ALERT* The characters had just finished killing Doru because they reasoned it was the humane thing to do for both Doru and father Donavich. They left Donavish in a state of distress, a crumpled heap of a man, on the ground sobbing. After leaving the church, they pause outside, debating how to dispose of the body of Doru, so it does not come back. When suddenly.."as you depart the church to head back to the burgomasters home to make preparations to escort Ireena to Valaki, you hear the church bells toll softly. The intermission of the sound is longer than you would expect, as if the rope is not being pulled forcefully, the ringing softer as well-[they went back to investigate] as you go back into the chapel to investigate, you see the source, the body of father Donavich hanging limp swaying to a fro by its own weight, with the bell rope tied in a noose around his neck, his dead eyes staring into nothing, streaks on his cheeks left by the shedding of tears...the church bell continues to toll ever so softly [i had a bell tolling track playing in the background mixed in with other dark, somber ambiance] My players were shocked and rattled. Good, I needed to impress upon them this is not your vanilla D&D game. These are all tools used in other media to scare the audience. Who is your audience? The players. Who are you trying to scare? The players first and foremost. if the players are not scared, their characters will not be.
one of my best sessions as a gm was the false hydra, it was Pathfinder so nobody knew what it was, and had failed checks to discover what it was. They had figured out that what ever it was was causing memory problems didn't effect clockworks, and used sound (cleric saw the fighter suddenly forget why he was running in a panic and will saved). Unable to identify the creature, he needed to make an extended will save and a library check to find the tome with the hydra. I had taken a stateless description of it from a website, complete with illustration. The cleric read it out loud. The look on the players face and his tone of voice spoke to the horror he was realizing. I could easily see the cleric reading it amongst the marble statuary of the dim reading room.
2 years later: I wanna say if u need inspiration look toward anime like berserk or games like the souls series...then apply that to the d&d universe. That being said keep in mind in the dark fantasy world the most terrifying aspect isn't the monsters but the people and the monstrous actions they commit in the conditions u set.
Horror doesn't work in role playing, because... well... you're playing... Your group needs to understand that maybe a situation may not be horrific for them in real life, but for their characters it could be. If you get that, it will work even with 5e D&D where there aren't even that many "evil" spells and abilities. 5e can be pretty much like a PG13 horror movie with super powers (or a Tim Burton movie). The way you describe situations and places is what's going to help everyone get in the horror mood, but that doesn't really work in combat much, because that's still always going to work like a PG13 horror movie with super powers and a giant bear chasing your teen mutants. Better keep the horror reserved for role playing encounters. Nightmarish visions, descriptions of the effects of a battle or attack (i.e. people suffering for the loss of their loved ones, realizing that your actions may have caused a lot of harm even though you stopped a more horrific event from happening, that some NPC, a GOOD NPC, took the resulting situation to become a tyrant who now leads a group chasing down people who think differently because that's now considered the source of the evil that had happened). Combat will always be cheesy. But the situations and the consequences are what's going to make your game system work with a horror theme.
There is watching a movie on your tv at home where you are nice and safe. Then there is the jump scare cause your friend " boo " you with a mask on. Either way, you are still safe. So horror does not translate. a.) two people are wrestling/ grappling with each other in the dark and both of you can't see. " common normal fear." b.) A vampire/ werewolf can grapple and bite within the same melee round, see in the dark, and make quick trip leg bites to slow movement to fleeing from the attack. " Deep rooted fear/ dread of not wanting to be eaten alive in the dark of the night." Pull out your smart phone or laptop during game play and play a video on people being attack by a dog. Say that the village you are in you watch someone getting attack by a dog. Later on in game have them get attack by a pack of dogs or a werewolf. Most DM run games with kid gloves on, so they usually never send over powering attacks on their PC. Cause the " heroes " are meant to win. Example, five goblins with three levels of rogue with nets that are touch AC to hit, it is a hit/capture/drag away encounter. Even a 15th-level fighter in full plate will get drag away by a dozen goblins using full out net attacks on an ambush.
I wanted to write a Halloween campaign where the players pick classic monster races but in the context of d and d, like werewolves, mummies etc, but I’m struggling with writing a story around these characters fighting other monsters because surely their morals and views would be the opposite where they would see the elves and humans as the enemies?
Start simple, wolves are territory pack animals. You guys are just local bandits hunting random travelers & adventures passing through. Please look up White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Werewolf or go with AD&D2e Ravenloft: Van Richten Guide to Werebeasts & other shape changers.
Guess you never made the other vids. Shame, it’s an interesting topic.
I have ran D&D horror for over a decade now and am running Curse of Strahd as a psychological horror with a pacing of the show 24 hrs. 10 sessions in and we barely made it 3 days (in game) so far. I incorporated a Sanity h.p. system in conjunction with DMG Madness, and the new Sandy Pederson Cthuhlu Mythos 5e Insanity system. Basically anytime they "fail madness, fear, horror checks" they lose sanity points (I decide how many) and fall deeper into insanity to the degree of unspeakable behaviors, even death.
They start with:
11(current)/11(max) and recoupe when the bard sings songs, they share good memories, secrets, make food, etc. Think, "What would I do to maintain my humanity in Ravenloft?" Almost every zombie apocalypse story illustrates how the survivors do this exact same thing.
Therefore, the party has to keep their H.P. & Sanity up. So long as the methodology of recouping Sanity points requires immersive RP (roleplay); including the bard picking a song on RUclips to play if that player isn't comfortable talking in character.
Also we play in a dim lit room (ce ter light over the table) with ambiance and sound effects (DMDJ and RUclips ambiance). Keep your poker face, push the envelope here and there. Also study the difderent types of horror. That was one of the most essential lessons I have learned on my Dungeon Master journey. Being able to move from one sub genre to another is priceless in game as some types of horror will affect some players differently than others.
Would love to see the other parts.
If you want to go old school, there's also The Deadlands.
Its been 11 months since i subscribed
Theres no part 2
What music are you using in the bg?
When are you going to come out with the next episode?
I put grim realism into my tabletop campaigns the kinda shit that you know is out there in society but don’t want to talk about rape murder cannibals evil satanic rituals beatings public executions exploitative noblemen pillaging corrupt politicians drugged or brainwashed people and other fucked up things can be found in my setting they aren’t everywhere but it’s definitely a thing and it’s something that an adventurer would be forced to come face to face with the reality that isn’t all sunshine and rainbows and that people are monsters contend that with monsters and other races being biased and bigoted and sexism being a thing at a down right fanatic level think nazi Germans and Jewish genocides and you get closer not to assume everyone is this way their more moral Grey and a few genuinely good natured people but in a world where monsters and other races exist along with a feudal society and diseases you get a time when self preservation is top priority and fucking over others is a necessity
Other than learn to place " periods," White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Vampire, vampires are blood sucking undead but they are not making the world a hellish place of cruelty or brutal depression, human are the real monster that make the world an awful place to live.
Then you get Werewolf & Mage you find out spiritual warfare is real.
So, no more videos on this stuff?
Where are the next parts of this‽
can we get a list of the music used in this vid?
there's no episode 2? how disappointing!
I need the other parts of this series xD. Thats the real horror.
Trashloot preach
AGREED lol
Agree 100%
I must know how to scare my players! AAAAHHH!
Please upload the other videos!!
random guy: DnD isn't for Horror/Dark Fantasy!
Me: "Looks back at Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Hero's of Horror, Age of Worms, Planescape, Masque of the Red Death, and Midnight, along with various Databooks and Homebrew."
There’s a masque of the red death dnd campign!?
@@indycole396 Ravenloft style setting rules set to Gothic Earth during the 1880's using AD&D combat rules with firearms.
I mean, the first rule books for AD&D had demons on the covers.
"Dark Fantasy + Cosmic Horror" is the Best
Bloodborne....... or Darkest Dungeon
Agree :D
blood borne
As someone who regularly runs dark fantasy settings, I would also recommend looking into variant rules which do away with alignment. You would be amazed at how much of a difference it makes when things are not laid out black and white, and they can't detect evil their way out of moral situations.
Detect evil doesn't detect alignment.
@@i.cs.z Exactly. Which is why I wonder what the hell this guy was talking about.
And why so many people mindlessly supported what he said.
@@asdergold1 Idk, maybe they think 5e still work like older editions. But in 5e aligment is only an rp crutch. It has mechanical effects only in the case of attuning to certain magic items and I think the rakshasa has weakness to piercing damage done by a good aligned creature. That's it.
Why did you never make the other parts? I loves this one ♥️
I played in a horror game in 5e and it was amazing. It was a oneshot and we went to this mansion that seemed to be abandoned. Exploring, we found various letters around the mansion from secret admirers to the lady of the manor, with one of them giving off (to me at least) some seriously rapey vibes. As we entered the rooms where we found these letters, our characters felt uncomfortable in certain places, like above our pelvis in our lower stomach, or our legs just ached mysteriously. We found a key to the basement and found a dead cleric with a letter detailing something horrible happening in the manor, and how he was going to face this thing to the end.
We also found a pentagram ritual circle, and magical darkness descended on us, with the 5 candles on each point of the pentagram being our only light source. Going down the hall, the DM started playing a sound effect of raspy, unnatural breathing. The source was just out of the light range before we reached a door to the library so we had the choice of looking at the source or going to the library. Naturally we chose the library, where we found an eyeball. This caused the breathing to begin approaching us, and this twisted, malformed woman floated into view. The DM described the visceral detail of her, starting with her missing eye, then describing her missing leg, with the other being twisted and broken completely. Her womb had been torn out of her abdomen and she had some other mutilation inflicted on her.
The DM then asked us to make a wisdom saving throw as she let out a gargled moan, which he had a sound clip for that chilled me to the bone.
If we failed, our movement speed was reduced to 0 for 1 turn.
We scrambled, and picked up her body parts from where we found the letters addressed to her before making our way back to the basement after some really close calls. We placed the body parts on each point of the ritual, managing to exorcise the demon, and the DM read out the epilogue
Person”dnd is a fantasy based game,not horror and gothic themes.
WOTC:put out Curse of Strahd
Person: it is literally impossible to dislike the Curse of Strahd
No.. no no.. What you do about a players dark vision.. you utilize it. To deal with that and add on to the horror and dire circumstances.. You make the monster, the aspect of horror invisible to those with dark vision.. the only way to see it is a source of light.. What’s more frightening, seeing a monster charging at or watching you in the dark while it’s only details are in black and white.. or the snapping of twigs and branches along with the crunching of fallen leaves behind you.. only to look back as it sounded inches away, only to see nothing. Then suddenly, you feel it’s warm breath creeping down your neck.. It may be a bit simple but the Gloom Stalker Ranger has the ability to appear invisible to creatures with dark vision while in darkness.
Looking forward to cosmic horror. Currently playing a campaign from 5e starter kit but with lovecraftian horror mixed in.
Why not combine dark fantasy and gothic horror? Also throw some steampunk in too then you can have a Dr Victor Frankenstein encounter. Have steampunk because if magic is rare then add more tech base classes. You can still have magic classes instead of warlocks name it the Demonologist class. Instead of a rouge name it a fiend slayer. I don't know have fun with the darkness and evil setting. It Sounds like fun to me.
Give me your thoughts on it.
Other than the Demonologist part you basically just described Eberron. Which is a D&D 3rd edition setting, that is getting a new book after Avernus. Tech based class? That's the artificer, and Eberron staple. Dark fantasy, gothic horror, and steampunk? Yup. It has existential horror too.
One way I like to think of making your D&D or chosen alternate a Dark Fantasy World, is to think of how you describe it to your players, the "essence" that you use to describe it.
I'm starting to think the other 6 parts of this series are not coming.
Ran an improvised version of this hag adventure for my group's halloween event, they all loved it! Thank you guys for the inspiration!
I'd like to add in my 2 ¢, to help you fellow DM's out there.
When your making a Dark Fantasy world, think of Dark Fantasy media. Dragon Age Origins, Witcher 3, Dark Souls. Dishonored.
So what do all these worlds have in common?
Their worlds are brutal, and unforgiving. The bad guys tend to win, the common person has a hard life, and is expected to have a hard death.
Maybe your players will embrace the Darkness, or maybe they will try to be Paragons of the light.
But setting the stage in the beginning is best, so they immediately know what sort of world they're in for. Here's an example, this is how I started my Dragon Age Campaign.
* "You awaken, you feel pressure surrounding you, its dark and wet. You try to look up but something prevents you from moving. Are you buried?
The ground is soft and mushy, yet crusted over, whatever is on top of you is aswell...you push it off, and look up to brown and black clouds, red pouring down your face.
The air is filled with a brown smog, you look around you, you can barely see more than a mile, the ground is covered in decaying bodies, burning wagons, and puddles of black and red liquid.
The air is so thick its hard to breathe, when you do, the smell is rancid, and horrid, like an outhouse with a gutted animal inside it.
You look out and observe the vista of corpses, human,elven, and bodies almost too decayed to recognize, some low to the ground, some mounted on top of one another, like a roaring ocean of corpses spread across the plains, trying to drown you again.
To the right is nothing but fire, a stalwart wall of flame shooting waves of heat, corpses burning and crackling.
Behind you the ground is black and squirming, almost alive. Consuming the bodies that lay in it, leaving a shimmering blackness behind.
In front of you is rubble, the skeleton of what was perhaps a great city, with walls standing tall, now a pile of death and rock.
To the left the sea of bodies thins out, and blood precedes it, you see far off banners shaking in the wave of heat, and burning to ash.
The only source of sunlight, a single ray piercing the clouds, but as soon as you see it, it's gone again, covered by the sickly brown clouds. You hear a roaring screech of pure malice from above the clouds, stabbing your ears, at such a high pitch it would break glass, and shatter hope, the very sound of it seems to drain you of strength. It's gone as quickly as it came.
You see others standing up, amidst the smoke." *
End Scene.
This needs way more views, definitely adding to my reference playlist. Can't wait for the sequel!
I really liked the video format you went with in this video m8, you and your friend just semi casually talking about a subject, should definitely do more stuff like that imo , subbed hoping for more in the future 😁👍
Slight caveat I feel needs to be said - horror isn't just scaring people or having nasty encounters. It's also a looming sense of dread and unease, and that's best done in the background with worldbuilding and setong a tonal atmosphere. How exactly one does that depends on the individual, but there's just as much horror in not knowing what lurks in the dark or being forced to listen to the cries of the tormented as being jumped by something ghastly. A lot of people saying D&D and Pathfinder don't work for horror seem to forget that horror can be conceptual and viscerally unsettling based solely off descriptions and tone.
Just last weekend, I ran a game where a player character had a bit of a wakeup call, wanting to mercy kill a felled and bleeding foe, but another PC and an NPC wanted him to suffer as he died, so the second PC blocked them. Having that more innocent character come face to face with the brutality of their own allies in the wake of a nasty scuffle. The pair weren't particularly cruel men on most occasions, but one (the NPC) was a former soldier whose whole regiment was wiped out in a slow, grinding massacre when they were surrounded maybe a decade ago, and he wanted to make the man responsible suffer for not only the deaths of his unit, but all those felled in bringing them down when he could have just let the regiment leave the field. Thd PC who backed him was also a soldier, and while he hadn't dealt with quite the same amount of trauma, he still sympathized and sided with the NPC. There was a general understanding after the session that what the NPC did was understandable, and whole the players were fine with it and found it to be an interesting development, most of them also said it was still a little uncomfortable, and probably deeply disturbing to their characters - largely because he's usually one of the most jovial and amicable characters they've met, and despite that he was driven to such cruelty and malice as to make someone's death as slow and agonizing as possible.
Sorry this is so long, just something that bothers me.
I've been interested in Dark Fantasy recently and this is one of the first videos I watched on the subject. I love your description of the genre, but a lot of novels I looked up don't sound like what you describe. In fact, one of the problems I have is that most fantasy seems to be categorized as dark fantasy, I guess because most fantasy has monsters and some evil wizard trying to take over the world. It's really frustrating. Do you know any novels that fit this description of Dark Fantasy?
@TeamMediocre WHERE TF ARE THE REST OF THESE DARK FANTASY VIDEOS!!!!!!!!!!!!
dark fantasy is generally less hope and instead more consequences for actions which are not a happy ending.
More tragedy, less distinct lines between good and evil.
More of a "Rather have a tragic end instead of a neverending tragedy"
I’m goth and I love dark fantasy horror. I want to make dark fantasy horror movies when I graduate high school. I’m glad I found this video that discusses the genre.
I always wanted to run dark psychologic fantasy where there are scary monsters and where your party has to make run with packs of torches but the monsters aren’t the scariest part, but the it’s the humans, it’s our inner evil
Tfw part 2 is never coming
This vid is picking up more traction than it ever has before! As school comes to a close, I actually may be able to hook you all up with the rest of the parts to this series
More please????
Excellent video! Where can I find the other six episodes?
They were never made :(
This was a really helpful outlook. I've been doing some research to prep for a horror style campaign & was kinda sad the rest of the parts didn't follow as your outlook on it was very helpful.
Please do an episode talking about cosmic horror
Show some love for The Deadlands and Grim Hollow. They might not be D&D but they are TTRPGs.
I'm making a horror campaign and stumbled upon this video during research. Love the tone and formatting! And the discussion with your friend was great.
People: Dnd isn`t a horror game
Me: Behold the Beholder
We need the rest of the episodes! :)
Anyone know the music in the background? Figured I could use this for a campaign as white noise
Soooo where tf the other parts at
tfw I go to the channel for the other 6 parts and there aren't any. Like Trashloot says, that there's the true horror.
ayo where tf the other episodes dawg?
This is just the video i have been looking for. Time to binge the series
Coming back to this because its so good. Please release the next part?
As someone who is planning out a campaign designed around Gothic and Lovecraftian horror, I really hope the next videos come out soon.
Curse of Strahd is a good example of a mix of Dark Fantasy, Folklore Horror, and Gothic Horror
I think the problem is not D&D 5e. It is just that some DM's feel constricted or lack the imagination to bring horror to the game. I have been running CoS on Roll 20 for different grups over the last three years. This is what I have learned: 1)Decide who your audience is going to be. I advertise all my horror games when looking for players as 18+ mature. Let them know ahead of time that you are running a horror setting so they mentally prepare for it. 2)One of the best ways to create the horror ambiance is through sound effects: tense music tracks, wolves howling in the distance, crows cowing overhead, the sound of rain and thunder, tense and sad background music, etc...3) Narration needs to be different, make your voice sound creepier, describe every element that adds to the horror atmosphere, from the dead, leafless half rotting trees in the forest, to the dense fog that is everywhere and obscures your vision, or the rusted iron gate screeching as the wind pushes it back and forth. 4)I recommend scripting some horrific or disturbing scenes that you present in between improv rp (make sure your players will be ok, and will not get triggered-discuss it beforehand during session zero). For example, I scripted this one for my current CoS game:
*SPOILER ALERT*
The characters had just finished killing Doru because they reasoned it was the humane thing to do for both Doru and father Donavich. They left Donavish in a state of distress, a crumpled heap of a man, on the ground sobbing. After leaving the church, they pause outside, debating how to dispose of the body of Doru, so it does not come back. When suddenly.."as you depart the church to head back to the burgomasters home to make preparations to escort Ireena to Valaki, you hear the church bells toll softly. The intermission of the sound is longer than you would expect, as if the rope is not being pulled forcefully, the ringing softer as well-[they went back to investigate] as you go back into the chapel to investigate, you see the source, the body of father Donavich hanging limp swaying to a fro by its own weight, with the bell rope tied in a noose around his neck, his dead eyes staring into nothing, streaks on his cheeks left by the shedding of tears...the church bell continues to toll ever so softly [i had a bell tolling track playing in the background mixed in with other dark, somber ambiance] My players were shocked and rattled. Good, I needed to impress upon them this is not your vanilla D&D game. These are all tools used in other media to scare the audience. Who is your audience? The players. Who are you trying to scare? The players first and foremost. if the players are not scared, their characters will not be.
one of my best sessions as a gm was the false hydra, it was Pathfinder so nobody knew what it was, and had failed checks to discover what it was. They had figured out that what ever it was was causing memory problems didn't effect clockworks, and used sound (cleric saw the fighter suddenly forget why he was running in a panic and will saved). Unable to identify the creature, he needed to make an extended will save and a library check to find the tome with the hydra. I had taken a stateless description of it from a website, complete with illustration. The cleric read it out loud. The look on the players face and his tone of voice spoke to the horror he was realizing.
I could easily see the cleric reading it amongst the marble statuary of the dim reading room.
Other guy sounds like Razorfist. Speech patterns sound pretty similar too.
A scarecrow could be teamed up with a flock of hostile crows. Think Fiddlesticks from League of legends.
2 years later: I wanna say if u need inspiration look toward anime like berserk or games like the souls series...then apply that to the d&d universe.
That being said keep in mind in the dark fantasy world the most terrifying aspect isn't the monsters but the people and the monstrous actions they commit in the conditions u set.
Your example story beginning at 14:40 is really good!
Looking for horror based d&d campaign, try Ravenloft and the new Grim Hollow.
i absolutely loved this video i wish you would continue on making the rest of them!!!
I can’t wait to see the rest of this series!
need the other parts, this is too good!
Ey, that's Yog Sothoth 2 from cryo chamber!
0:00 Good music choice
Is he dead?
Dark Fantasy: It's like Fantasy, but depressed.
Horror doesn't work in role playing, because... well... you're playing... Your group needs to understand that maybe a situation may not be horrific for them in real life, but for their characters it could be. If you get that, it will work even with 5e D&D where there aren't even that many "evil" spells and abilities. 5e can be pretty much like a PG13 horror movie with super powers (or a Tim Burton movie). The way you describe situations and places is what's going to help everyone get in the horror mood, but that doesn't really work in combat much, because that's still always going to work like a PG13 horror movie with super powers and a giant bear chasing your teen mutants. Better keep the horror reserved for role playing encounters. Nightmarish visions, descriptions of the effects of a battle or attack (i.e. people suffering for the loss of their loved ones, realizing that your actions may have caused a lot of harm even though you stopped a more horrific event from happening, that some NPC, a GOOD NPC, took the resulting situation to become a tyrant who now leads a group chasing down people who think differently because that's now considered the source of the evil that had happened). Combat will always be cheesy. But the situations and the consequences are what's going to make your game system work with a horror theme.
There is watching a movie on your tv at home where you are nice and safe.
Then there is the jump scare cause your friend " boo " you with a mask on. Either way, you are still safe.
So horror does not translate.
a.) two people are wrestling/ grappling with each other in the dark and both of you can't see. " common normal fear."
b.) A vampire/ werewolf can grapple and bite within the same melee round, see in the dark, and make quick trip leg bites to slow movement to fleeing from the attack.
" Deep rooted fear/ dread of not wanting to be eaten alive in the dark of the night."
Pull out your smart phone or laptop during game play and play a video on people being attack by a dog. Say that the village you are in you watch someone getting attack by a dog. Later on in game have them get attack by a pack of dogs or a werewolf.
Most DM run games with kid gloves on, so they usually never send over powering attacks on their PC. Cause the " heroes " are meant to win.
Example, five goblins with three levels of rogue with nets that are touch AC to hit, it is a hit/capture/drag away encounter. Even a 15th-level fighter in full plate will get drag away by a dozen goblins using full out net attacks on an ambush.
Are you planning on discussing the other six types of horror?
Wait wheres the other episodes?? I want the love craftian themed horror
Subscribed for the next episodes ~
Where’s episode 2
I know
Where's the videos for the other horror tropes, my guy?
A good example of Dark Fantasy is Warhammer Fantasy, if you’ve ever played Vermintide 1 & 2 it’s a good look into it
Another good example would probably be Dark Souls. Not at all scary but the sense of looming dread
im making a terror game too put my players in and i plan on keeping it go very gory and dark
I wanted to write a Halloween campaign where the players pick classic monster races but in the context of d and d, like werewolves, mummies etc, but I’m struggling with writing a story around these characters fighting other monsters because surely their morals and views would be the opposite where they would see the elves and humans as the enemies?
Start simple, wolves are territory pack animals. You guys are just local bandits hunting random travelers & adventures passing through.
Please look up White Wolf/ World of Darkness: Werewolf or go with AD&D2e Ravenloft: Van Richten Guide to Werebeasts & other shape changers.
Hey man please make the other videos these were really good.
Yall got any more of those parts?
Please do more videos about this subject!
I need the rest of gear episode, please please please upload them
where are the next episode? this was so good!
More... I'm gonna need more
Still waiting for episode 2
Please make the rest of the videos!
I need the other videos... A playlist if possible?
I don’t think there ever were any other videos
Now the hard part
Making my players take it seriously. I give plenty of comedic relief but they're all fools
Damn dude, i was really looking forward to watching the other episodes for a little extra inspiration before DMing today to get me in the groove
Lol “episode 1”
Still waiting
We need more
⚔️
Dark fantasy dnd is literally berserk
Wrong, Berserk is dark fantasy, dark fantasy was around long before berserk, Lord of the rings for example.
Where are the rest? What about gothic horror?
Look up D&D Ravenloft campaign setting.
Cosmic, Psych and Body horror can all co-exist by the way
Please make a second part. I really enjoyed this
This vid is an amazing inspiration for my book writing also
When are you doing to come out with Part 2?
Will we be seeing more of this?
I need mooooorrreee
Hi
Listen, it’s been 3 years but like, 🧍🏾cmon you can’t do this to me I need you