I love ghosts, and am sad how they are often not used. However, just like people mention in literature how hard it is to write a good ghost story because of the ease it can slip into laughable caricature, it can be similarly challenging to keep the RPG atmosphere oblique and implicit enough to retain the tensions necessary for a good ghost. I'd love some extra practice to get it down right. Apparently I've received some compliments for retaining a creepy feel, but creepy is just halfway towards the horror I want to achieve.

I also like dangerous enchanted/possessed gardens. Things like "The Shining"'s topiary, or like Alura Une from Castlevania, or Vulthoom from CoC, and the like. Something about the passive danger is cool.

Now that I think about it, there's something cool about possessed dolls, or poltergeists, too. Perhaps I like the whole passive objects being a danger, making the player's unsure of their environment. A disconcerting initial comfort growing into unease gives that feeling of being off balance that really triggers that traditional Gothic Horror I really enjoy.

Quote from: Opaopajr;540205I love ghosts, and am sad how they are often not used. However, just like people mention in literature how hard it is to write a good ghost story because of the ease it can slip into laughable caricature, it can be similarly challenging to keep the RPG atmosphere oblique and implicit enough to retain the tensions necessary for a good ghost. I'd love some extra practice to get it down right. Apparently I've received some compliments for retaining a creepy feel, but creepy is just halfway towards the horror I want to achieve.

I also like dangerous enchanted/possessed gardens. Things like "The Shining"'s topiary, or like Alura Une from Castlevania, or Vulthoom from CoC, and the like. Something about the passive danger is cool.

Now that I think about it, there's something cool about possessed dolls, or poltergeists, too. Perhaps I like the whole passive objects being a danger, making the player's unsure of their environment. A disconcerting initial comfort growing into unease gives that feeling of being off balance that really triggers that traditional Gothic Horror I really enjoy.

Ghosts are great because discovering how to lay them to rest is such as classic investigation adventure.

I like ghosts, but they are way too deadly in D&D.

Quote from: danbuter;540274I like ghosts, but they are way too deadly in D&D.

The van richten guide to ghosts gave gms a bit more flexibility scaling the challenge level

I'm fond of ghosts, but my favorite is the banshee. Like the ghost, its weaknesses aren't as well-known as those of the vampire or werewolf. But mostly, it's because the banshee from Darby O'Gill and the Little People scared the shit out of me when I was a kid and saw it in the movie theater.

Quote from: danbuter;540274I like ghosts, but they are way too deadly in D&D.

I agree it basically fucked an early character of mine (human fighter). Good news is that ghost started my love affair with all things magical.

Look at the MTG Innistrad set. they have created a Gothic Horror world that is very invocative.

Golems - which can be massive and franenstein mosterishly made up of bits
Ghosts - go by the name Geists (as in polter....)
Werewolves
Vampires
etc..

get art and some compelling ideas

THE NUCKELAVEE



Hellboy vs The Nuckelavee


A Scottish water monster that's described as a horse and rider, though the "rider's" torso is actually growing from the horses back. The humanoid part has incredibly long arms for grabbing victims and dragging them into the water. The head is that of a drowned victim, and constantly rolls about loosely on it's neck. and the whole creature is skinless...you can see the entire muscular anatomy, threaded with grotesque sickly yellow veins.

A tutelary spirit or faerie, the Nuckelavee legend often had the monster as the Doom or curse of a clan or family line (like the Baskerville Hound, etc), every member of which was fated to die in it's grasps.

Anything with tentacles and/or impossible angles.

RPGPundit

I must say that Nuckelavee is pretty awesome. If I could find a Scottish Mythos book with mythologies, background stories, ecology, and kickass art like that, I'd buy it.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;540276The van richten guide to ghosts gave gms a bit more flexibility scaling the challenge level

The Van Richten Guides were some seriously great stuff. Not just for mechanical options but for flavor for the various monster types.

Just make something up rather than directly rip off a tired old trope.

The Big Bad appears as

1 - a nobleman
2 - a scientist or doctor
3 - an artist
4 - a religious man (hermit or clergy)
5 - a merchant or explorer who's spent time in a distant land
6 - an oriental man (Arab, Turkish, Chinese, etc.)
7 - someone on the fringes of society (gipsy, gravedigger, hangman, etc.)
8 - an unliving body (mummy, ancient ancestor, animated statue, etc.)
9 - an item (uncanny painting, primitive idol, jewellery, etc.)
10 - nothing with a physical body


The darkness in him/her/it stems from

1 - the harmful or overflowing aspect of a passion (love, vengeance, duty, sorrow, etc.)
2 - intellectual pride
3 - man's animal nature
4 - the rejection or misinterpretation of morality/Good/God/etc.
5 - ancient and/or pagan power
6 - the evil of the locale or the circumstances
7 - the madness hiding in all of us
8 - whatever evil others carry into his lair
9 - past grievance or curse
10 - great goodness corrupted by the evil of Mankind


It's powers are themed after

1 - the night (or some other time of day)
2 - shapeshifting (animals, beasts, etc.)
3 - disguise/alternate identities (random/specific people)
4 - etheriality, impossibly fast travel or bilocation
5 - possession, hypnosis, mind control
6 - creating new life (or twisted mockery thereof)
7 - an aura of despair
8 - occultism, hermetic magic, pagan rituals
9 - weather
10 - uncanny coincidence / fate / accidents