Greetings gamers from all systems, places, and timelines!
No matter what flavor of game you are playing or what system you’re in, it’s nice to shake things up once in awhile so that things don’t get stale. When my girlfriend asked me to run a game for her birthday, where everyone got to play as monsters, I jumped at the chance. My only guidelines were that each player was allowed to design their own monster for a night of raising hell.
It seemed the most logical to homebrew something in 5e, as all the players were familiar with the system, but all of the monsters needed to be comparable power wise with one another. And, rather than this being a mindless four hour slasher tabletop session, the game would need not only a point but also several surprises along the way.
So sit back and relax while I tell you about the framework I created for a stand alone Halloween game using 5e rules which could have nearly unlimited applications.
The Premise
My hook was that The Grandmaster from Marvel summoned the characters, who are monsters themselves dubbed “Nightmares,” to a place known as the “Dreamscape of Dread.” Here they will travel between classic 80s and 90s horror scenarios, causing havoc and spreading terror.
However, their rampages won’t go on unopposed. Each world has its protectors and entities of darkness to oppose them at every turn, with all of this building to a final showdown between the Nightmares and the Classic Villains of each world to determine who are the true masters of horror!
Everyone was encouraged to create their own unique villain. Rising to the challenge, the players devised a diverse crew of young aspiring fiends: a Witch, a Vampiress, a Were-ape, a Ghost (The Jackal from Thirteen Ghosts) and our version of the Bag Man from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.
All of the players were encouraged to imagine a total of six dark powers which they believed fit their character. Mind you, each Nightmare only started with one of these, but would gain one additional power as they completed scenarios throughout the game.
Creating the Cast
All of the Nightmares were scaled to around 7th level by 5e standards, which meant that all of them averaged around a +7 attack bonus. Each character was then broken down into categories based on their monster types. For example, the Witch was more of an Area of Effect/controller type (to borrow 4th edition lingo) so she was the most squishy with only 55 hit points, while the Were-Ape was built as more of a tank and started with 75 hit points.
Every Nightmare was assigned normal attacks which they could perform, as well as two additional character characteristics. For example, the Vampiress possessed both superhuman strength and agility. In game terms, this increased her damage and provided her with Advantage on Athletics Skill Checks while her increased agility boosted her Armor Class and allowed her to Disengage as a Bonus Action like a Rogue.
The players were encouraged to ask for the Dark Powers they would receive over the course of the game. So all of the characters were kept within the following guidelines: One power of the six they could choose from would act as a permanent boost, like the Witch’s black cat could provide her with a +3 to all of her Saving Throws, while most of the other powers could provide special attacks or abilities which also were kept within a scaled range.
However, each character could choose the Dark Power which would give them a “super attack.” For example, The Ghost (Jackal) possessed a deadly scream which dealt high psychic damage, similar to Synaptic Static. Alternatively, the Bag Man could perform a short range teleport by warping space and time and then deliver a devastating sneak attack to an unsuspecting target. However, all of these powers only recharged on a roll of a 5 or 6 on a d6 at the beginning of the player’s turn.
Game Structure
The party traveled to four classic horror scenarios, like Camp Crystal Lake. Here, there were ordinary people (“normies”) who could be scared or killed for points for a number of set rounds. I started with 8 rounds and quickly realized this was too many. We averaged about 4-5 rounds per stage for the remaining 3.
Each stage had minions of the Boss Villain (Jason Voorhees in this example) trying to do the same, with the object being to score the most points at the end of the scenario. If the players won the scenario they would receive a boon, like opening up a new Dark Power, and, if they failed, they would enter the next round with a curse.
At the start of each round, a few more “normies” or minor villains would spawn. Along with this, a d20 would also be rolled which might lead to the appearance of any number of special individuals showing up. Some examples being John Travolta’s character, Billie Nolan, from Carrie, or Kevin Bacon’s character, Jack Burrell, from Friday the 13th. If these special characters were killed or scared off, they had a significantly higher point value than other non combatants.
Additionally, a Monster Hunter, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Van Helsing, might arrive who would drop a special weapon or item if beaten. To add to the Horror-Fest vibes, minor bosses, like Ghostface from Scream or Leatherface, from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre might arrive to foil the Nightmare’s plans.
During the final round of the scenario, the Main Villain would arrive and they would have plot armor, providing Damage Resistance to all attacks and Advantage on all Saving Throws. So while they aren’t unkillable, they might be best avoided until the Final Showdown.
The Final Showdown
This game was inspired because my girlfriend really enjoyed a one shot game which featured the “Death Fast Club” from Collateral Damage, which allowed the players to play as Freddy, Carrie, the Blair Witch, Jason and Pumpkin Head in a parody of The Breakfast Club.
So, after traveling through each of the scenarios (Camp Crystal Lake, Elm Street, and the Bates High School Prom) the final showdown took place against all of the Classic Villains (Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Carrie, The Blair Witch, and Pumpkinhead) at once in a classroom – just so it stayed on brand with the movie.
Naturally this was a difficult battle but all of the Classic Villains no longer had their plot armor and had lower hit points so they were on par with the Nightmares. And after an intense battle the Nightmares were crowned by the Grandmaster as the new “Masters of Horror”… at least until next year.
Final Thoughts
A lot of the crunchy mechanics was left out of this article, mainly because it would have been super long (if people want to see the tables which we used or the monsters stat blocks, just shoot us an email at 3wisedms@gmail.com). But, more importantly, it also gives you fodder for your own Halloween Adventure while letting you tailor it to your own table, group, and system.
If you want to run a game like this for your table, in terms of a stand alone game, be prepared to make changes on the fly, like how we never played through Pumpkinhead’s stage because the game would have ended at 2am.
Finally, I want to give a huge thanks to our resident Wizard Washburn, who acted as my “terrain wrangler” by providing us all with the sets of each of the classic villains’ worlds as well as the classroom for the final battle. Scott makes some incredible products at Paper Terrain, which you can see many of in our continuing “Minis Monday” series on Facebook and Instagram and would definitely make fantastic additions to even the most seasoned DMs collection of props.
What will you be playing this Halloween? If you decide on trying your hand at the “Masters of Horror” competition, we’d love to hear how it turned out!