Creepiest D&D Content

[SgtCarnage92]

I kind of want to do a campaign based on their background, now: maybe one of them is the beau of another fey, who tasks the party with getting back the Rider's stolen heart from the Witch's castle, and giving it back to him - or maybe just getting it to the lover will do the trick ("heart belongs to her" and all that jazz).

Giving it back to her is the key, while they have to contend with the cold rider himself trying to retrieve it from them so that he can return it to his new mistress (the witch). Either make him continuously ressurecting so that they can fight it without worrying about upsetting their patron, or make it so that they have to be careful NOT to kill him because that would upset their patron...and there is nothing quite as frightening as a vengeful faerie...

But don't you like that image? Something like the castle of the witch with the heads in Return to Oz, except instead of heads you have case upon case of hearts, maybe each one captured in a block of ice. The macabre hall would echo with the slow pounding of all the hearts...

That is beautifully creepy...

now I want to run a Return to Oz game. It's probably an obscure enough movie that it wouldn't be hard to find players who haven't seen it, but would that be better, or would it be better to play with people who have?

I have not seen it so I wouldn't be able to help you there. Granted, it sounds interesting enough that I may have to check it out

[willpell]

This thread keeps showing as unread in my feed, so I'm posting to try and advance it. On-topic, I agree with Sith_Happens.

[Barmoz]

Technically, this was in the BoVD, but they weren't trying to be unsettling at that point: D&D morality.

Lying: Probably evil.
Cheating: Evil.
Making an advantageous contract: Evil
Having a disadvantageous hallucination: Evil
Cannibalism: Evil
Masochism: Evil
Self-Mutilation: Evil
Obesity: Evil

etc.

There's no way Santa is evil

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

There's no way Santa is evil

No way at all?

[Doxkid]

^beat me to it.

All modern myths were edgy way back when in some odd corner of the world (modern cool myths, I mean). Some were full religions.

I really don't recommend looking too far into some of them. Things can get pretty disgusting very quickly.

[Novawurmson]

I like the Cold Rider, especially because I'm thinking of pulling the Children of Winter into the mix, and Paizo's put out a LOT of ice-themed fey (it's part of their campaign world).

Totally up for any other creepy fey/creepy old fairy tales.

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I like the Cold Rider, especially because I'm thinking of pulling the Children of Winter into the mix, and Paizo's put out a LOT of ice-themed fey (it's part of their campaign world).

Totally up for any other creepy fey/creepy old fairy tales.

I'm glad to see so much creepy fae enthusiasm. I am working on a fae-themed forum game right now, and I hope to see some people from this thread joining.

[willpell]

We are rapidly approaching a cultural paradigm in which people will be so scared of faeries that they ask vampires to protect them.

Now that's creepy.

[Arbane]

We are rapidly approaching a cultural paradigm in which people will be so scared of faeries that they ask vampires to protect them.

I think you just wrote the next Twilight sequel.

Now that's creepy.

[Sith_Happens]

We are rapidly approaching a cultural paradigm in which people will be so scared of faeries that they ask vampires to protect them.

Now that's awesome.

Fixed that for you:

Spoiler

Show

[Libertad]

I think that the Far Realm's incredibly creepy, due to its remote nature and being a realm full of unknown horrors. The Mind Flayers of Thoon (Monster Manual V) are a good example of how even the reality-warping effects of the Plane can twist and destroy even creatures as powerful as Illithids.

I also think that the Elder Evils of Atropus and Ragnorra are very creepy as well. Atropus is literally a giant fleshy moon of the raw essence of death. It collides with other planes and planets to rob them of all life in an apocalypse of negative energy. Ragnorra, by contrast, is an apocalypse of life. It enhances postive energy, but the life it bestows causes parasitic growths to reside in your body or wars you into an insane aberration.

[tbok1992]

I also think that the Elder Evils of Atropus and Ragnorra are very creepy as well. Atropus is literally a giant fleshy moon of the raw essence of death. It collides with other planes and planets to rob them of all life in an apocalypse of negative energy.

That's not all that's disturbing about Atropus. Because, if you read the section on lesser cryptic alliances in Famine In Far-Go for the newest edition of Gamma World, you'll find one of those groups that worships Atropus and awaits his coming. Implying that he might exist in Gamma Terra. Chilling, ain't it?

[Serpentine]

We are rapidly approaching a cultural paradigm in which people will be so scared of faeries that they ask vampires to protect them.

Now that's creepy.

I... actually really like that idea. I would read/watch/play that world.
Maybe you could have something along the lines that vampires are parasites, but the fae are predators. And parasitism can be a first step on the way to symbiosis...

[willpell]

Fixed that for you:

There are faeries in Hellsing?

I think that the Far Realm's incredibly creepy, due to its remote nature and being a realm full of unknown horrors.

Personally I think it is too damn vague to qualify. It certainly could be awesome if they would ever detail it, but they might has well just have said "if you want to play with these guys just go buy Call of Cthulhu d20 and mix it into your D&D game". Which doesn't suit me at all; I want something that fits D&D while also seeming vaguely Cthulhoid, but in a very definite and distinct way.

Maybe you could have something along the lines that vampires are parasites, but the fae are predators. And parasitism can be a first step on the way to symbiosis...

That's actually my default positive spin on vampires - that they are meant to take a shepherding role toward humanity, using immortality and supernatural power to play Big Brother/Sister to a little enclave of humans who repay them for this service with just a little bit of blood, no more than they can spare. But the vast majority of vampires have turned out to be just like the vast majority of humans - selfish, impatient, irresponsible, preferring to get a quick fix at someone else's expense and then p*** off to devote all their time and energy to complaining about how bored they are and inventing decadent schemes to preoccupy themseleves, because doing your duty to society is just so plebian when you've forgotten how to feel empathy for the mayfly people around you. It's theoretically possible for a vampire to avoid losing their connection with humanity, I have a few characters based on the idea, but it's a very slippery slope and even the most idealistic tend to develop a megalomaniacal self-satisfaction and a certain blindness toward the possibility of things going wrong. Which is horrifying in its own way, where instead of a cackling black hat, you have a hypocritical zealot who refuses to listen to anyone who mentions the word "hubris". This may be a reflection of the fact that I distinctly prefer mages and faeries to vampires, and so tend to make my vampires more prone to human failings rather than having them accept themselves as monsters.

[Eurus]

I seem to recall someone brewing an awesome take on the Far Realms... made of infinite amounts of tiny tiny layers (each one horrifying and disturbingly organic), to the point where particularly massive entities existed on many layers at once and had a hard time perceiving or affecting single layers at once.

[Volthawk]

I seem to recall someone brewing an awesome take on the Far Realms... made of infinite amounts of tiny tiny layers (each one horrifying and disturbingly organic), to the point where particularly massive entities existed on many layers at once and had a hard time perceiving or affecting single layers at once.

Realms of Chaos did that as a part of his Xenotheury project (posts 26 to 29).

[Eurus]

Realms of Chaos did that as a part of his Xenotheury project (posts 26 to 29).

Aha, right. Good stuff.

[Slipperychicken]

Aha, right. Good stuff.

Reminds me of when I first read Far Realms fluff... at 2am, with the lights off, and these two songs blasting into my headphones.

To this day, Far Realm remains the scariest D&D fluff I've ever read.

[SgtCarnage92]

Reminds me of when I first read Far Realms fluff... at 2am, with the lights off, and these two songs blasting into my headphones.

To this day, Far Realm remains the scariest D&D fluff I've ever read.

I can surely understand why. I may use the second one in a future campaign actually...

[Coidzor]

I seem to recall someone brewing an awesome take on the Far Realms... made of infinite amounts of tiny tiny layers (each one horrifying and disturbingly organic), to the point where particularly massive entities existed on many layers at once and had a hard time perceiving or affecting single layers at once.

Reminds me of the Orz of Star Control II, who are from *Below* and who are not *many bubbles* but are *fingers.*

[willpell]

I seem to recall someone brewing an awesome take on the Far Realms... made of infinite amounts of tiny tiny layers (each one horrifying and disturbingly organic), to the point where particularly massive entities existed on many layers at once and had a hard time perceiving or affecting single layers at once.

That's the way it is described in the MOP...but it doesn't actually make very much sense. If these planar "layers" are so wafer-thin, how can any planeshifting character fit inside them? What does it mean to exist on multiple layers at once - wouldn't that just be like standing inside a book with your body intersecting multiple pages? There's nothing profound or extranormal about that; it renders the plane's nature basically irrelevant.

[Kelb_Panthera]

That's the way it is described in the MOP...but it doesn't actually make very much sense. If these planar "layers" are so wafer-thin, how can any planeshifting character fit inside them? What does it mean to exist on multiple layers at once - wouldn't that just be like standing inside a book with your body intersecting multiple pages? There's nothing profound or extranormal about that; it renders the plane's nature basically irrelevant.

First and foremost, it's not supposed to make sense. The far realms are supposed to be madness given form.

Even so, thinking of the layers of a plane in only three dimensions is a huge mistake. In-spite of their "proximity" to one another and the perception of continuity created by the boundaries between them, two layers of the same plane are seperate dimensions from one another. In any plane one layer can appear to be paper thin while it actually stretches to infinity in three dimensions. That this is actually the case in the far realm is closer to a piece of normalcy than something bizarre. Example: when you're in the swamps of minauros; in baator; looking up, you'll see a sky above you. If you happen to be in the sinking city you'll also see a hole in the sky that leads to Dis.

[willpell]

First and foremost, it's not supposed to make sense. The far realms are supposed to be madness given form.

Yes, but "madness" =/= "something silly and pointless". Describing the Far Realms in a random and uncool way does not better represent them.

Even so, thinking of the layers of a plane in only three dimensions is a huge mistake. In-spite of their "proximity" to one another and the perception of continuity created by the boundaries between them, two layers of the same plane are seperate dimensions from one another. In any plane one layer can appear to be paper thin while it actually stretches to infinity in three dimensions. That this is actually the case in the far realm is closer to a piece of normalcy than something bizarre. Example: when you're in the swamps of minauros; in baator; looking up, you'll see a sky above you. If you happen to be in the sinking city you'll also see a hole in the sky that leads to Dis.

The description of Baator in the MOTP makes it quite clear that the dimensions are NOT infinite in the vertical direction; they are layers in the sense of being stacked three-dimensionally on top of one another. The sky of one layer is nothing more or less than the floor of the next, possibly lost in the haze and decorated with clouds since it's so far up, but nonetheless a solid rock ceiling like in a cave, with holes you can climb up through. Which I find lame, but it is what the book describes. There is no fourth dimension explicated ANYWHERE in the MoP, because they didn't want the book to seem incomprehensible to anyone who bought it, even if that person didn't have enough brainpower to be able to visualize a fourth spatial dimension (which virtually no-one can, save by clumsy allegories). They just made Baator one more dungeon crawl, rather than making it seem truly alien, and it is perhaps to their credit that they didn't try very hard with the Far Realms, as they would probably have done it the same injustice if they had.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Yes, but "madness" =/= "something silly and pointless". Describing the Far Realms in a random and uncool way does not better represent them.



The description of Baator in the MOTP makes it quite clear that the dimensions are NOT infinite in the vertical direction; they are layers in the sense of being stacked three-dimensionally on top of one another. The sky of one layer is nothing more or less than the floor of the next, possibly lost in the haze and decorated with clouds since it's so far up, but nonetheless a solid rock ceiling like in a cave, with holes you can climb up through. Which I find lame, but it is what the book describes. There is no fourth dimension explicated ANYWHERE in the MoP, because they didn't want the book to seem incomprehensible to anyone who bought it, even if that person didn't have enough brainpower to be able to visualize a fourth spatial dimension (which virtually no-one can, save by clumsy allegories). They just made Baator one more dungeon crawl, rather than making it seem truly alien, and it is perhaps to their credit that they didn't try very hard with the Far Realms, as they would probably have done it the same injustice if they had.

I know how much you hate hearing this, but I'm afraid you're wrong on this one. Take a look at the sidebar on pg 11 of MotP. It says plainly that the layers of the planes are realities seperate from one another. FC2, the most recent description of hell, even specifically points out that in the example I gave that the chains supporting jangling hiter don't make any sense to non-natives because they don't appear to attach to anything. MotP itself even points out that they'd have to pierce the dimensional boundary to connect to the "underside" of dis.

[willpell]

They do say that the planes are "separate realities", but that only means that the conditions defined in a given plane, such as Fire-Dominant or No Gravity, stop happening at the borders between planes; it emphatically does NOT mean that the planes are infinite, because they have borders. Page 115 explicitly states, "The Ledge-layer extends outward infinitely, but the circumference of each inner ledge (which opens onto the Pit and the next lower ledge-layer) is finite". Thusly, you literally can throw an ordinary rope up from Minauros and climb up to Dis; they are not "separate realities" any more than an air-conditioned office on the 21st floor of the Empire State building is a separate reality from another office up above where the heat is turned on. But according to D&D's cosmological logic, having a different ambient temperature counts as being a separate reality. The "dimensional boundary" is just phlebotinum for where the planar traits change; it's still ordinary physical space on both sides of said boundary. The description of Jangling Hiter in MOTP says it's a "good bet" that the chains are anchored to the underside of Dis, and in no way suggests that this does not mean the chains pass through three-dimensional space with a "planar boundary" bisecting them. Fiendish Codex might contradict this but I'm not as familiar with it, and am still going by the MOTP for now.

[Eldan]

Hah. And people wonder why Planescape fans discard 3.X fluff when playing.

[Ashtagon]

Those who know, know they are separate planes entirely. While to a berk they might appear to be stacked on top of one another, the true chant of it says those holes you are flying through are just very very big portals. Try to fly around the portal? You'll find you can't. I don't know why. Ask the sects who made Baator. I'm told one guy tried climbing one of those chains once. Six months later, he's still climbing.

[willpell]

Berk? Wuzzat?

[Volthawk]

Berk? Wuzzat?

Planar cant. Whole load of slang that comes up in Planescape.

[Kelb_Panthera]

They do say that the planes are "separate realities", but that only means that the conditions defined in a given plane, such as Fire-Dominant or No Gravity, stop happening at the borders between planes; it emphatically does NOT mean that the planes are infinite, because they have borders. Page 115 explicitly states, "The Ledge-layer extends outward infinitely, but the circumference of each inner ledge (which opens onto the Pit and the next lower ledge-layer) is finite". Thusly, you literally can throw an ordinary rope up from Minauros and climb up to Dis; they are not "separate realities" any more than an air-conditioned office on the 21st floor of the Empire State building is a separate reality from another office up above where the heat is turned on. But according to D&D's cosmological logic, having a different ambient temperature counts as being a separate reality. The "dimensional boundary" is just phlebotinum for where the planar traits change; it's still ordinary physical space on both sides of said boundary. The description of Jangling Hiter in MOTP says it's a "good bet" that the chains are anchored to the underside of Dis, and in no way suggests that this does not mean the chains pass through three-dimensional space with a "planar boundary" bisecting them. Fiendish Codex might contradict this but I'm not as familiar with it, and am still going by the MOTP for now.

You're still ignoring the sidebar I mentioned. The seperate layers of a plane are seperate realities unto themselves. They have an appearance of continuity, but they're not the same place.

Berk? Wuzzat?

It's a colloquialism from the cant dialecto of common. It refers to a person who either voluntarily remains on only one prime material plane, or someone ignorant of the vastness of the multiverse, IIRC.