I’ve taken a good friend’s suggestion (challenge?) for Astral Projections: Come up with ideas for Halloween themed one-shot scenarios for RPGs. BUT, the Trick (or Treat!) is that these be on the more light side – meaning, in this case, less gore and and toned down horror. This isn’t just for the kids. There are many adult RPGers who just aren’t into the horror genre, me for one. (If you mention Robert Englund to me, I think of the 1980s version of the SF series V, not the Freddie Kreuger movies.) I’m not the only one in my game group either. While I list systems that I’ve played and enjoy, or am at least familiar with, a number of the seeds can be used with other systems.
Harry Potter for Genesys (unofficial D20 Radio theme) and other Magic School settings/systems
Play up the culture shocks and clashes by letting the students experience A Muggle Halloween! This can happen several ways.
- A Muggle student invites their Hogwarts friends to a non-wizarding Halloween party and/or Trick or Treating.
- The Muggle Studies Professor arranges a Field Trip to a nearby (Muggle) family friendly Halloween/Fall Festival, or a (think big!) Theme Park’s Halloween Event. (The Headmaster didn’t pay attention to the details when they signed off.)
- Each PC is a Prefect, Head Girl/Boy, or Quidditch captain, from various Houses. They learn a group of students have been making unauthorized trips to a Muggle village. The student leaders follow them to drag them back, before the younger kids accidentally reveal the magical world or the faculty discovers what’s going on. Can also work with Professor PCs.
- Politics (AKA Minister/Ministry of Magic) forces the Headmaster to host the British Prime Minister! On Halloween! (Where were the Minister of Magic’s handlers/advisors when this was decreed?) What factions want to disrupt this Historical Event and how? What can Student or Professor PCs do to thwart them?
Mutants & Masterminds
- A PC’s younger sibling/sidekick/fellow student admires Lord Etheric (Jinkies!) and is pulling dangerous stunts to get The Gallivant of Gloom’s attention. Or maybe Etheric’s ego has expanded to the point he thinks he’s ready for an apprentice and is trying to charm (Hahaha!) them into his clutches. This is a good one for the Hero High “subgenre.” Instead of the Recruiting angle, you can have the “kid” trying to challenge Lord Etheric, not realizing that they are out of their league.
- Tone down the free M&M 3e “Monster Mashup” module which has some scary and dangerous elements. Make the “Madame Macabre” and “Silver Scream” (along with their “summoned” minions) who appear into elaborate Special FX Fakes, not the actual villains. It’s all perpetrated by Randall Fox as a publicity stunt, and goes out of control.
Star Trek Adventures
From The Next Generation on, your ship’s Holodeck is your tool for transporting your favorite scary story or trope where no one has gone before. The first seed is an example of this. Optional – holodeck or other malfunction traps the users in their story.
- A holodeck scenario based on some version of Count Dracula. Novel, Bela Lugosi, Strahd von Zarovich inspired. (Starfleet has Bond fans and poker sharks. It’s only fair to have a few D&D geeks in the ranks.) But the vampire simulacrum is infected by a non-corporeal technobabble lifeform that needs blood…Can the Holodeck failsafes protect the crew using it from this?
- Go oldschool and return to the Shore Leave Planet and TOS Era! A scientist who will one day help invent Holodecks is studying the computer control and creation systems for the recreational simulacra. They have convinced the Semi-AI to accept them as the new Caretaker. Being a newb, errors are inevitable – resulting in ghosts, ghouls, zombies, werewolves and everything else that goes bump in the night.
- You want a Halloween episode that is more thoughtful? An ambassador from a new species has an appearance that is horribly scary and repulsive to most Federation races. Depending on the species it may resemble a mythological demon, something from horror fiction or just be super gross (a crossbreed of tentacle monsters and a slimy microbiology experiment?). AND the feelings are mutual. How do both sides get over it?
Star Wars
A new Alliance/Resistance base is established on a level of an abandoned tibanna gas processor station. The Base Commander tasks the PCs with exploring a section for expansion and/or salvageable materials. Opponents and challenges: Innocent type of droid with corrupted programming that makes it dangerous/aggressive; bad sections of decking/bulkheads that act like dungeon traps; multi-tentacled mutant dianoga. Use scary details like moaning “winds” from ventilation shafts, malfunctioning doors and lights, “lightning flashes” caused by gas storms on the nearby gas giant.
Cyberpunk RED
Not the easiest setting to make lighter, but it can be done to some degree. Still only for mature players.
- A concert for an independent band with a Goth/fright theme – and a recording corp wants to “recruit” them – we all know what that means…Depending on Roles, the PCs might be part of the entourage: Publicist (Media, Fixer); Bodyguards; Backstage/Roadies (Nomads, Netrunners, even Medtechs); Band members or opening act (Rockerboys).
- Elflines Online, the braindance MMO is hosting a Halloween themed in-game event with all the trappings. A gang is suspected of using chat and their ELO PCs to plot a crime. The player characters – in their ELO avatars – are hired to find out what’s going on, and then troubleshoot the problem in real life.
- Lonely AI seeks out the party’s netrunner and asks to be a silent partner, but needs to be rescued from an imprisoning server first. Will the crew help? Is this a ruse or a revenge gambit? Does the AI even exist? Have all the virtuality imagery be Halloween with Monster avatars for Black ICE and programs.
- Obtain a MacGuffin from a small biotech corp’s lab or even an illicit ripperdoc’s “clinic.” There’s plenty of creepy things you can have in labs and ORs besides the MacGuffin.
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Linda Whitson
Contributing Writer & Copy Editor at D20 Radio
Linda Whitson is a long-time RPGer, amateur musician & artist, & an officer in the Rebel Legion Star Wars costuming club. Linda met her husband in an AD&D game and they have 2 teenagers, an anime fangirl daughter and a son who plays on his university's quidditch team. She is the Lead Mod of D20 Radio's forums and Copy Editor for the blog.
Linda can be reached at GMLinda@d20radio.com
Latest posts by Linda Whitson (see all)
- Astral Projections – The Ripperdoc Is In - May 8, 2023
