Silent Hill style horror in a Ravenloft game?

[Shadow]

I recently played a few of the old Silent Hill games on PS 2 and got thinking about running a Silent Hill style horror scenario. However, I'm not sure how well the surreal/psychological horror of Silent Hill would work with Ravenloft. On the other hand, there are the Lovecraftian domain of Bluetspur and nightmarish Nightmare Lands.
Basically, I would focus on the psychological elements of the game such as the freakish, deformed creatures being spawned from the dark parts of the characters' subconsciousness. That, of course, would be the difficulty of running the game - the focus is on the characters coming to grips with their past, not defeating or escaping from an enemy.
Has anyone ever done anything like this before in their games?

[Zilfer]

Never have, however I am a fan of the games, and would love to hear how any other DM's might have done something similar.

[The Lesser Evil]

Disclaimer: I'm not familiar at all with Silent Hill other than the very general gist of what I've heard from it.

One option might be to use some (heavily altered) version of Aggarath (as detailed in the Forgotten Terror and Castle Spulzeer), as it it is literally within one madman's mind (although as written it is very jumbled/hard to make heads and tails of). Another one you could try could be the City of Nod (admittedly, a pocket domain within the Nightmare Lands but it's all about one wizard's struggles with other psyches/souls that inhabit his same body.) Vechor would be a third alternative, not quite nightmarish in the same sense but very prone to shifting realities.

If you wanted a central antagonist to play head games with the PCs, Scaena (the illusionary theater domain) or Darkon (Azalin and his memory warping powers) might fit the bill.

Remember that individual people can have their own dreamscapes, so you could conceivably have a shared dreamscape if an entire town was somehow all pulled to sleep at once. There are places where dreamscapes bleed into reality for a sort of quasi-reality, quasi dream state.

As for me, yes, I've ran such games before (I did a several month interlude through a land of dreams.) However, these were linked dreamscapes of people who all were affected/tormented by one of the PCs's dark souls. To progress through the individual dreamscapes, they had to solve each victim's traumas. This wasn't really a Ravenloft game but rather a Nightbane game. (The Nightbane sourcebook "Between the Shadows" is one that really shaped how I like dreamscapes to be.)

Remember to leave journals, notes, and other indirect evidence of things going wrong to hint at things and get the players working over their own minds. You may even pay attention and steal one of their ideas once in a while.

One thing that's really important with stuff like this is that it's really important to get player buy in. And don't sweat it too much when your stuff isn't frightening- sometimes you'll hit and miss with personal horror like this. Conversely, you may hit too close to home. It takes a lot of finesse.

[Hazgarn]

Two settings that come immediately to mind for this type of plot are Illhousen's hospital in Egertus in Nova Vaasa, and the asylum in Maykle in Darkon.

Nova Vaasa still has strong ties to the Nightmare Lands, if I recall, and Illhousen is the closest thing to an expert on the Nightmare Court and the workings of dreams in Ravenloft. I think Maykle, being in Darkon's Mistlands, is also tied to the Nightmare Lands (I seem to remember dreamspawn being mentioned as one of the region's dangers). So those would both be good places to launch a plot focused on nightmares reaching into the waking world.

I don't know much about Dominiani and his domain and experiments, but a mad scientist cerebral vampire running a madhouse seems like another potentially rich avenue to look at. It might better fit a flavor of Lovecraftian/psionic weirdness if that's what you're after.

Another possible hook might be the Thaani population in Immol in Barovia (descended from refugees escaped from Blutspur). I think there were hints at aberrant traits possibly caused by mindflayer breeding experiments (but that could be from the netbooks, my memory is lousy).

[Dark Angel]

Disclaimer: I'm not familiar at all with Silent Hill other than the very general gist of what I've heard from it.

One option might be to use some (heavily altered) version of Aggarath (as detailed in the Forgotten Terror and Castle Spulzeer), as it it is literally within one madman's mind (although as written it is very jumbled/hard to make heads and tails of). Another one you could try could be the City of Nod (admittedly, a pocket domain within the Nightmare Lands but it's all about one wizard's struggles with other psyches/souls that inhabit his same body.) Vechor would be a third alternative, not quite nightmarish in the same sense but very prone to shifting realities.

If you wanted a central antagonist to play head games with the PCs, Scaena (the illusionary theater domain) or Darkon (Azalin and his memory warping powers) might fit the bill.

Remember that individual people can have their own dreamscapes, so you could conceivably have a shared dreamscape if an entire town was somehow all pulled to sleep at once. There are places where dreamscapes bleed into reality for a sort of quasi-reality, quasi dream state.

As for me, yes, I've ran such games before (I did a several month interlude through a land of dreams.) However, these were linked dreamscapes of people who all were affected/tormented by one of the PCs's dark souls. To progress through the individual dreamscapes, they had to solve each victim's traumas. This wasn't really a Ravenloft game but rather a Nightbane game. (The Nightbane sourcebook "Between the Shadows" is one that really shaped how I like dreamscapes to be.)

Remember to leave journals, notes, and other indirect evidence of things going wrong to hint at things and get the players working over their own minds. You may even pay attention and steal one of their ideas once in a while.

One thing that's really important with stuff like this is that it's really important to get player buy in. And don't sweat it too much when your stuff isn't frightening- sometimes you'll hit and miss with personal horror like this. Conversely, you may hit too close to home. It takes a lot of finesse.

While the City of Nod would not be as good of a parallel, a dreamscape based on one person's hometown that draws the others in as well would be a good analog for Silent Hill. With the exception of Homecoming, the protagonist is ill prepared to deal with the nightmarish creatures. Unless more drastic measures are taken, most player groups have enough mettle and means to take on a variety of monsters and manifestations. Unless you nullify that advantage and give them the means to avoid confronting those things, then they would have a 'Silent Hill' effect. Always did like that the place was real, but the game presented a creepier version for the player. That constant 'ash fall' did creep me out as well.

[Zilfer]

Well to be fair to get a little bit more of the “Silent Hill Vibe” you could do Monsters that are killable during the “mist/ash phase” of the town, however when it goes to the “Otherworld” as it is called in the Silent Hill universe then the dangerous monsters come out where it might be better to run or outlast certain monsters. Usually creepy puzzles come out during this time. Conceivable combinations might be that you need to trick or use a monster to unlock the next phase or a door or something.

Monster has spears stuck all in them and it’s clear they should probably be dead so battles not really going to kill the monster but the only way forward is to grab X amount of those spears and thrust them into holes in a door or the wall near the door or something similar. I could see it working for a quick idea.

See I think Silent Hill type game would work better for a 1 on 1 game or maybe a 1-3 player game. Large groups I think would add too much dynamic to what you’re trying to do.

[Manofevil]

Aren't High Priest Michal's Gothic Journals in the Fanfic board based on Silent Hill or is that a different game?

[Le Noir Faineant]

Posted something about a "Silent Hill"-style D&D campaign over here, a while ago:

http://blackmoor.mystara.net/forums/vie ... =76&t=8208


From a DM's perspective, I don't think SH is really that complicated; it's basically a city with a planar nexus at its core - or rather, it can be played like that. At the end of the day, a very "Pool of Radiance" sort of scenario.

[Le Noir Faineant]

The most remarkable thing about this spammer is... Runescape is still a thing? Wowzer, I feel young again!

[MichaelTumey]

I've never played Silent Hill, although I've been told the original story is about the Cherry Mine disaster, a multi-year burning coal mine near Cherry, Illinois - which is only about 30 miles from where I live. I've been to Cherry, Illinois, and roughly know where this mine is supposed to be, but that's all I know. Interesting that the events inspiring the game is so close to where I live.

[Zilfer]

I've never played Silent Hill, although I've been told the original story is about the Cherry Mine disaster, a multi-year burning coal mine near Cherry, Illinois - which is only about 30 miles from where I live. I've been to Cherry, Illinois, and roughly know where this mine is supposed to be, but that's all I know. Interesting that the events inspiring the game is so close to where I live.

Funny most of the time when I've had someone refer to the burning coal mine they've referred to Centralia, Pennsylvania.

The fires currently still burn there AND will continue to do so for the estimated next 250 years.

Centralia Mine Fire

Needless to say your not supposed to go there but I do believe they let people go. I think if I recall correctly there is only 1 resident left that lives there. (Or near there).

(What you do you mean? I don't obsess over everything silent hill related..... what do you mean every time I see fog, pretending I'm entering a form of purgatory isn't normal...?)

On that note we've gotten a lot of fog the last few weeks here in Washington.... think someone's calling to the old gods. Another note is that I played Silent hill 2 HD collection yesterday.... coincidence?

[MichaelTumey]

Well aside from the burning, the Cherry Mine Disaster occurred in 1909 and killed 259 men and boys with about 250 survivors. It was the largest mining disaster at the time, and forced Illinois to change both its mining safety statues and Workman's Compensation laws. One group of survivors (21 people) barracaded themselves behind a wall of loose stone to prevent the "damp black" burning coal soot from overtaking their chamber. They hid for 8 days drinking water seepage until there was no more water, then they clawed their way out of the burning mine and escaped.

[Zilfer]

Well aside from the burning, the Cherry Mine Disaster occurred in 1909 and killed 259 men and boys with about 250 survivors. It was the largest mining disaster at the time, and forced Illinois to change both its mining safety statues and Workman's Compensation laws. One group of survivors (21 people) barracaded themselves behind a wall of loose stone to prevent the "damp black" burning coal soot from overtaking their chamber. They hid for 8 days drinking water seepage until there was no more water, then they clawed their way out of the burning mine and escaped.

Haha! Very nice. Could definitely use an event like that to craft something Ravenlofty I'm sure!

[Hazgarn]

Now that I think of it, the "Unreality Wrinkles" mechanic from the FoS: Nocturnal Sea chapter on Vechor might be worth adapting for this kind of adventure. They were basically a bubbles of warped reality around those suffering madness effects in which their neuroses and delusions actually take a physical form. Even if you don't plan to run the adventure in Vechor, it probably wouldn't be difficult to port the idea elsewhere, possibly tied to ethereal resonance from a particularly strong, madness-related Sinkhole of evil.

[Nevermorrow]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread again, but this is the first chance I've had to browse old threads on the forum for a long time. Anyway, I remembered this fan-made domain and thought you might be interested.