#horror rpg tabletop

[legionofmyth]

[Hour 3 of 3] James "Grim" Desborough | Wightchester: Prison City of Ye Damned | Horror Genre

Wightchester: Prison City of Ye Damned [PDF]Wightchester: Support Material [PDF][Part 3 of 3] – James “Grim” Desborough joins 🐲 RPG Die Gest 🐉 to talk about his 500 page campaign sourcebook, Wightchester: Prison City of the Damned, a historically inspired zombie / undead survival setting for your Dungeons & Dragons 5E, Old School Renaissance, and Mork Borg tabletop role-playing games. After this…

[prokopetz]

Today's aesthetic: cosmic horror tabletop RPGs from the 1980s whose creators wrote the "madness rules" by simply plagiarising a list of disorders and their descriptions from the DSM-II and turning it into a d100 lookup table, except the DSM-II still listed "homosexuality" as a mental disorder (it wasn't removed until the DSM-III), with the result that there are several published tabletop RPGs where there's a small but non-zero chance that seeing Cthulhu will make you gay.

[anim-ttrpgs]

(Exerpt from Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.)

[cassimothwin]

Which house will be you be assigned at Brackroot Academy??? Pause or Screenshot the gif at the top to learn your destiny!

Then "Keep reading" to learn more about your house!

Brackroot Academy is part of Tangled Blessings, a magical school horror roleplaying game that uses tarot cards to uncover your fate as a student.

If you like this fun exercise, learn more about the crowdfunding campaign happening now!

Learn more about your house further below! Does it suit you?

House of Celestials 

The skies borrow from the elements to paint a backdrop for life. Featuring iconography of the sun, moon, and constellations, celestials are known for their inner glow. Still, they do not shy away from the dark surrounding them, understanding that all things require balance. Students in this house often carry at least one or more of these marks: discipline, passion, or indifference. This dorm overlooks the lake. 

House of Dahlias 

Dahlias rely on the energy of celestial bodies for growth and endurance. As a vibrant flower, dahlias are a symbol of elegance and devotion. The plant may seem abundant, but it requires careful nurturing in the wet and cold climate of Brackroot. Students in this house often carry at least one or more of these marks: creativity, perfectionism, or obsessiveness. This dorm is connected to the greenhouse. 

House of Panthers 

The panther needs a garden to rest from its daily stroll, and the dahlias always supply. The panther is a symbol of grace, athletics, and agility but still elusive and rare — a fierce creature of the shadows. Students in this house often carry at least one or more of these marks: observation, punctuality, or ruthlessness. This dorm is at the edge of the forest. 

House of Spires 

The spires are only safe in their tower because of the panthers who keep guard. The House of Spires represents the connection blades, pens, and spirituality share. While members of this house may only show interest or aptitude in one of the represented icons, they are a full member of the spire. Students in this house often carry at least one or more of these marks: empathy, isolation, or judgment. This dorm is in the high tower. 

House of Elements  

Elements are the wildest of the quintet, but they maintain control with help from the spires. The elements symbolize excess and power, but together, they represent the strength of unity. Students in this house often carry at least one or more of these marks: cleverness, hunger, or negligence. This dorm is under the school, but furnished with enchanted windows that overlook the neighboring mountains.  

House of None

Accessible by only walking along the edge of a bridge in the right invisible spot, students in the House of None often think of themselves as beyond reality. These thoughts only worsen the more they understand magic on cosmic and atomic scales. Students in this house are often detached, cold, and fiercely intelligent Symbols commonly associated with this house include the number zero, a black hole, a vortex, lanterns, and knots. 

House of Divines

Hidden beneath the campus Chapel and graveyard, this house was annexed centuries ago for blatant misuse of dark magic. Some stories claim this house serves as the birthplace for demons and vampires. Whatever the reason for the House's former eradication, blood stains remain in the foundation. Students in this house are often vengeful, patient, and not above harming others to get what they want. Symbols commonly associated with this house include blood, fruit, teeth, bones, claws, horns.

[vintagerpg]

This is Horror Tales: Spirits, Spells, & the Unknown (1974), edited by Roger Elwood and gorgeously illustrated by Robert Baumgartner. It is, I thiiink, the last in an unofficial 6-volume series of similarly bound and dressed books from Rand McNally (the others are Tales of Terror, Monster Tales, Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures, and two volumes of Science Fiction Tales. Most of them are edited by Elwood. I know them from when I was a kid — my local library had a few of them on the shelves. They don’t seem common on the second-hand market, which makes me think they were primarily marketed to libraries, similar to Helen Hoke’s excellent anthologies.

I confess, I have never read this. Honestly, I don’t recognize a single author. Well, one, maybe, I think might be a shitheel who got booted from the Horror Writers Association a couple years back. The rest ring no bells — if you told me they were all Elwood writing under different pseudonyms, I’d believe you.

I’m hear for the art, really. Baumgatner’s stuff is somehow both wholesome and nightmarish. There is a folksy vibe to his style and it mostly feels warm and inviting, but everything also looks like it might melt into horrible goo at any moment, the way the G.I. Joes do in the mindfucking horror cartoon classic, "There's No Place Like Springfield." I particularly like the one of the kid in bed, scared of the shadows and the tree outside, because it reminds me of staring at my wallpaper as a kid in bed and being convinced it was moving and that the toys in the pattern were going to come down off the wall and get me. God. Where was I? Halloween? Horror? Never turn the lights off ever again?

[chrisairgames]

When in Rome

Right, so I write for Mothership RPG, yeah?

It was basically a professional obligation for me to go see Alien: Romulus on its opening weekend.

Short review: Cool. Though I wish directors would make a new alien horror movie instead of new Alien movies.

Lemme tell ya, I might have designer brain disease, but this movie really is a series of problems for a sci-fi adventure, haha. My favorite thing about this movie was the smart, player-skill level problem solving the characters came up with. I was actually impressed. The film made me want to put my friends through the same ringer, and write up a similar scenario.

So I did.

When in Rome is a 20pg Mothership RPG adventure module with two player handouts, obviously heavily inspired by Alien: Romulus. I started last weekend, and released it yesterday. (What’s wrong with me, right?). That is: writing, playtesting, Mothership 3pp approval, peer review (thanks Josh Domanski, Christian Sorrell, Iko and Allen Hall!), hiring Brandon Yu “Chaoclypse” for the sick art, revising and putting into layout.

So yeah, this module is basically an adaptation of the film, but it does have some very notable (read: legally distinct) differences.

It's free for the next five hours, and I would love to hear what you think, and how your PCs fare on Caesar/Augustus.

Click here to download the module on itch.io. Note that I’m still working on the plaintext file and VTT asset updates. I would love to hear what you think, and how your players’ crews fare on Caesar/Augustus.

Good luck.

[tabletopresources]

Darren Tan

Check out Tabletop Gaming Resources for more art, tips, and tools for your game!

[zhjake]

Magnagothica: Maleghast necromancer house 3/6: ABHORRERS

[2minutetabletop]

The Haunted Mansion Map by Windsock

Windsock's custom rendition of the Argynvostholt from Curse of Strahd, built with 2MT assets and a wagon-load of skill – yours to download!

→ Download it here!

[cat-cosplay]

To illuminate the truth, you have to bring your own light.

[roguecentaur]

It's June, 1973. You were waiting at the bus stop on the morning of the last day of school, daydreaming about your summer plans.

But then something terrible happened, and you're somewhere else now. 

The news outlets called him The Black Alder.

None of this was your fault.

Navigate The Black Alder's lair. Search for clues and weapons to help your escape. Maybe you'll be the lucky one.

[legionofmyth]

[Hour 1 of 3] James "Grim" Desborough | Wightchester: Prison City of Ye Damned | Horror Genre

[Part 1 of 3] - James “Grim” Desborough (@Grimasaur) joins to talk a/b Wightchester: Prison City of the Damned. After this we take a broader look at the #horror genre in tabletop role-playing games. #Wightchester #ttrpg #osr #DnD5E #DnD #MorkBorg

Wightchester: Prison City of Ye Damned [PDF]Wightchester: Support Material [PDF][Part 1 of 3] – James “Grim” Desborough joins 🐲 RPG Die Gest 🐉 to talk about his 500 page campaign sourcebook, Wightchester: Prison City of the Damned, a historically inspired zombie / undead survival setting for your Dungeons & Dragons 5E, Old School Renaissance, and Mork Borg tabletop role-playing games. After this…

[prokopetz]

Concept: survival-horror tabletop RPG set in one of those fleshy hell-worlds, except the Flesh Hell Planet is a. basically benevolent, but b. deeply incompetent. Like, it's not one of those "theoretically benevolent but thinks it knows what's good for you better than you do" or "trying to violently assimilate everything because it thinks that being made a part of itself is ontologically good" deals – it really does want to help its human inhabitants, and it's willing to do so on humanity's own terms. The trouble is that it doesn't really get humanity, its capacity for both receptive and expressive communication in ways that individual humans can understand is extremely limited, and also it's just plain not very good at a lot of things, to the extent that even when it does fully understand what's needed it often fucks it up in some bizarre way.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Exerpt from the Patreon-only September 5th Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook version! Art by team artist @chaospyromancy! If you want to get a less updated version of the rulebook for free right now, the August 1st version is on itch.io!

[bleakbarrows]

Beasts of the Putrid Hills, II

[vintagerpg]

Man, Games Workshop in the ‘80s was something else. The company had done floor tiles before — there were at least two dungeon boxes at this point, and the sci-fi Citi-Block set would come out in ‘87. In the middle as Halls of Horror (1986), and it presents, well, what the title says! These are mansion tiles probably most suitable for something like Call of Cthulhu, but would work for any gothic game.

They’re delightfully illustrated, with lots of little details. There are pieces of furniture and other stage dressing, too, that can be cut out and placed as necessary — suits of armor, rugs, corpse, body parts, you name it. There’s a ritual room, of course, a grand hall in two pieces, and various sitting rooms. I love ‘em. This might be my favorite set of room tiles.

And damn, that Ian Miller cover. Just, I can’t imagine just, having access to Ian Miller and sticking his art on a box of room tiles, even if it is recycled from the cover of the Fighting Fantasy book House of Hell (1984). So good!