Looking for some Spooky Ideas For your D&D Halloween One Shot?
Here are 3 of our favorites!
Halloween is a very beloved holiday all around the world. For the Dungeon Masters, that means it’s time to get the special spooktacular one-shot going and scare the ever-loving hell out of the players. In this article, we are going to review three ideas that will send literal shivers down the spines of your players.
The Pumpkin Patch Festival
A little spook for the kids
For the ones that don’t claim to be horror fans, The Pumpkin Patch Festival might be a good one-shot to run. Set in a small town, right outside a thick dark forest, the Pumpkin Patch Festival begins! A one-shot with your favorite Halloween games, in which players can play and win rewards.
One of the games, and the star of the festival, is the scavenger hunt! The participants can be separated into groups or go solo. Each group is given a bag with a map, a notebook, an ink jar, and a pen, The map has a few locations marked in, while the notebook contains the “last notes” of the unfortunate adventurers that attempted the hunt.
The hunt takes place in the heavily haunted forest right outside the town. As the players follow the map for clues and pointers, they face specters, zombies, and remnants of adventurers that lost their lives while trying to find the so-called “treasure”. The treasure is nothing but a scroll of true resurrection, which the town mayor desperately needs to bring back his long-lost wife.
The one-shot begins as a lighthearted adventure but quickly takes a turn for the dark and grim while unraveling the secrets behind the town’s dark past.
Twisted Halloween
The abandoned village
Twisted Halloween is a one-shot that takes place in a seemingly abandoned village, cut off from the rest of the world.
Adventurers can find themselves there after getting lost in the dark misty woods that surround the valley. Once they get there, they quickly realize that every year, during the hunter’s moon, villagers go missing and crops seem to disappear.
After exploring the village and the outskirts, players find a secret entrance to the Underdark. A certain Drow Queen has established the traditions of the Blood Moon. A series of rituals that involve human sacrifice, offerings of crops to deities so she and her clan will continue dominating their turf.
Their “army” consists of drows, aboleths, and skeletons, which can also be found outside the Underdark at night, trying to steal crops, kidnap villagers and burn down fields.
A one-shot with a more “horror film” vibe, that can be easily tailored to the party’s needs and the DM’s desires.
Undead Masquerade
The classic Vampire story.
The party, a group of well-known vampire hunters, receives an invitation for a Masquerade Ball. The host of the party, a noble, has the fear that one of his guests is a vampire that’s planning on taking his and his family’s lives during the ball. He asks the party to come incognito, as members of his royal family, to investigate the guests and eliminate the vampire in a discreet manner before it’s too late. The reward is very generous.
The party must uncover the secrets of the castle, the lord’s past, and secrets while using their brain to unravel the plot. In reality, the group is heading to a trap, as when the Blood Moon reaches its peak, they will be captured and sacrificed for the “crimes committed against vampires”. The Lord and a small number of the guest list are vampires with a huge grudge.
This one-shot is a slow burn of mystery and detective work with a murderous finale.
We hope you get some inspiration from these concepts, and even if you don’t end up using them exactly, please feel free to comment below on what you came up with or any variations of the above!
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