[Monster Hunters] Haunts & RPM

[Nexahs]

I've decided to turn up the horror in my ongoing Monster Hunters campaign, so I'm going to run a haunted house adventure. I know that one of the supplements I have (I want to say GURPS Horror, but it could be one of the MH series) discusses haunted locations, but I'm interested to hear other GM and player experiences with haunts - especially concerning magic. My concern is that the whole adventure can be solved with judicious application of Greater Destroy Crossroads (or Undead, or Spirit, etc.)

Anybody have any good tips, or just good stories?

[Phantasm]

A few ideas:

1. Have the spirit a free roamer, not actually tied to the house. This means you actually have to trap the spirit before it can be banished/destroyed.

2. The haunting is really a cry for help from a beloved relative of one of the party members!

3. Multiple spirits having their own Halloween bash party. Just because you destroy/banish one doesn't mean you got them all . . . in fact, you may have just ****** the rest off!

Have fun!

[Bruno]

• Ghosts are sometimes terrifyingly powerful. Feel free to crank up the numbers on it to make it likely a simple Greater Destroy Crossroads will blow up rather than work.
• If a house has many ghosts, the obvious question is WHY? Is the house cursed? If so, you have to resolve the curse or it'll just get re-haunted. Is the house actually haunted by a monster who's killing everyone, leaving their traumatized ghosts? Showing up to perform the ritual might result in a very rude surprise when the enemy sorcerer/mummy/vampire lord/demon/whatever pops out. Or more likely, the swarm of non-ghost minions pops out.
• If the ghosts are victims of the real badguy, they may be the only allies the PCs have...
• Is the monster feeding on the ghosts?
• A haunted house may not be haunted by ghosts at all. The house may be posessed by evil spirits of other kinds, demons, or a massive, malicious, psychic presence contained in its structure. See The Shining, Coyoyte Waits, or the Thief of Always for this kind of haunted house.
• It could be a god...

[ericthered]

Two things to do:

First, keep the heroes working on what exactly the 'haunting' is? a ghost? a cursed item? an insubstantial demon? get creative here.

Second, crank the numbers up so its a proper challenge for a hunter, and make sure there are consequences for failing.

[Phantasm]

Or, in the words of Samuel L. Jackson to John Cusack, "It's an evil [BLEEP]ing room," in which case, Greater Destroy Crossroads/Spirit/Undead is probably useless . . . particularly when things start to go bonkers the moment you close the door.

[Nexahs]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

Or, in the words of Samuel L. Jackson to John Cusack, "It's an evil [BLEEP]ing room," in which case, Greater Destroy Crossroads/Spirit/Undead is probably useless . . . particularly when things start to go bonkers the moment you close the door.

This is actually quite pertinent. I don't think I want to completely abolish magic in the house, but it needs to be harder to cast and/or have serious(er) consequences for failure. What would y'all advise? Just a flat penalty to gather energy inside the house?

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Nexahs

This is actually quite pertinent. I don't think I want to completely abolish magic in the house, but it needs to be harder to cast and/or have serious(er) consequences for failure. What would y'all advise? Just a flat penalty to gather energy inside the house?

It's more like the entity or entities in the house know when someone is casting or drawing energy and immediately move to disrupt it.

This could be a steady stream of skill checks as the caster tries to cast while being attacked every 5 seconds/minutes. A Dodge roll could force a casting check with a penalty (say, -1 for each subsequent Dodge attempt in the casting, and maybe a flat -3 if he tries to concentrate while getting attacked without defending?).

Also, the ambient energy drawn while in the house could be flavored with its own quirks, possibly even aspected to a particular Path or element, which may or may not be useful for the needed spell(s).

[Christopher R. Rice]

I've got a bit to say here, but I'm exhausted right now. I'll get back to you. For now, check out "Safe as Houses" in Pyramid #3/58: Urban Fantasy II. I talk about haunted houses a bit and how they might come about using my Threshold-system. (You might find my Designer's Notes for this article useful as well.)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Nexahs

This is actually quite pertinent. I don't think I want to completely abolish magic in the house, but it needs to be harder to cast and/or have serious(er) consequences for failure. What would y'all advise? Just a flat penalty to gather energy inside the house?

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

It's more like the entity or entities in the house know when someone is casting or drawing energy and immediately move to disrupt it.

That's certainly my first go-to - this is not only sensible, it's also a great way to give the rest of the party something very important to do while the sorcerer casts the big ritual!

I'd also note that the haunted house is probably desecrated ground, certainly not consecrated. That right there is going to make things tricky.

[ericthered]

I was thinking about this, and a scenario popped into my head. The basic idea is that the house isn't a fortress, its a prison. Something REALLY nasty was imprisoned there by a powerful wizard. The thing is leaking out of its prison and that's what's causing the haunting. Careless adventurers will just damage or destroy the prison if they go throwing around spells willy-nilly.

I'm considering a full write-up...