Halloween Edition: "Horrors That Walk" in your games

Well Halloween is almost here and I figured I may as well try and make something different.

In many tabletop games, players rarely have to face creatures that are virtually impossible to kill.  Monsters come in many different forms, but the monsters can be defeated, they can be killed.  A horror is very different in this respect - they can be detained, they can be subdued, and only after a vast effort they can be killed...if only temporarily.  Below are some guidelines I came up with that will help to govern how you can use them in games.


--Horrors That Walk--
There are monsters, then there are monsters that frighten other monsters.  They are the Horrors that Walk, beasts that may wear human skins, have voices and minds of their own or move and act upon some instinct to slay certain people, or anyone that is in their way.  The horror can never rightly be killed as they always seem to come back, though if a means of finally putting an end to the horror did exist it would require a great effort to see through, and cost much from the people hunting it.

Rules of the Hunt                                                                 
Immunity:  Horrors are generally immune to being harmed.  They can appear to take damage, but have a ghoulish capability to ignore the harm done to them.  Pain is fleeting, and only an irritation.

Hit Points or similar methods of tracking damage should be ignored.  First halve any damage done to the Horror, it feels little to no real pain and tends to heal rapidly or is some form of undead.  Damage does add up and upon reaching a certain "Threshold" the Horror will fall inert for a time.  A few minutes typically in which time half of this accumulated threshold is reduced.  It can also choose to go inert to lure a target into a false sense of security, only to strike.  It also can continue to act beyond its threshold, but it runs the risk of being diminished or even defeated.

A weakness is also a possibility for the horror, something it fears, something that may pertain to its nature.  When around its source of weakness damage against it is increased.

A good guideline for setting a Threshold for the Horror is to add up the HP (or similar health) of the group, and divide by half.  The horror will typically not rest, and only rests if made inert.  It also will become inert on its own under certain circumstances (such as no one being with in a mile of it, or when a certain season has passed by, or if a  certain ritual is performed, and so on).

This doesn't mean that its threshold doesn't decrease.  If enough time passes (usually 24hrs) in which it's not harmed, it can reduce its built up threshold by half.

For example:  Jason Voorhees, while not afraid of water per say, was killed by drowning.  When fought around bodies of water he is weakened.  Freddy Krueger was burned alive and tends to be weakened greatly when dealing with fire...at least real fire and not something with in the dream realm.

Death:  The horror can be killed, but this is often a temporary solution (though not always).  Part of the fight and story of dealing with this sort of creature is discovering its weakness, or the one way to put it down for good (allegedly).  The easiest solution is often to render it inert and beguin the gruelly process of dismembering the horror, though as we all know this is often just a temporary solution.

Combat:  The horror doesn't need to have an easy time with hitting the players or being difficult to hit.  It should be moderately easy to hit since it just doesn't care about the damage to its body.  What matters is how hard it hits back.  These creatures often hit hard, hard enough to kill with a single hit.  This is what I call Brutal damage.  Consider this to be akin to taking a critical hit without actually rolling for the crit, and should it do so (if the game supports this), well then you may as well just have the player make whatever roll they need to to avoid dying.  Remember that these are beings that can break through walls, doors, and the like with what seems to be very little effort.

The Realm They Inhabit:  One way of holding the horror in check is that they are restrained to certain area's or realms in which they hunt.  Freddy Krueger haunts the realm of dreams, and can only hunt in this realm...but because of this any group caught with in the realm that Krueger hants (Elm Street, and the city it is in) can all be with in the same dream if they are close to each other, otherwise they are limited to their own dreams.  In such a realm, the rules still apply to Krueger - but the key to survival is to wake up - and that would require certain objectives to be met, to survive certain things, and reach a point where one has mastery over the waking dream and then choose to awaken from the nightmare.

One way to look at it is the horror having their own biome in which they thrive.  But if you take them out of that biome they are weakened to some degree.  Such as being easier to kill.  Again with Krueger, once you are able to awaken, if you grab him and wake up with him held - he will no longer be with in the dream realm but will be physical once again, which means he can be killed...well for a time.

Story:  All horrors have a story of some sort, why they are what they are.  Players may never quite learn how they came into being, but it's important that they be able to learn about the horror, and have methods at their disposal to best the creature should they manage to learn about it and uncover some of its secrets.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown from "IT" is one example of a story surrounding the monster.  Clues are uncovered as the story progresses and as the children manage to survive the creatures various attempts on their lives.  They eventually find out how to fight it and best it the first time, but on the second round they had to put it down for good, and the task was made that much more difficult.


Ultimately your horror should be chopping down NPC's, but treat them as a living environmental challenge to overcome.  They should always have a way of surviving so that you can heard the group toward the final confrontation where survival is truly up in the air.  A good horror monster is all about the story.

Have you already done something like this in your game?  Did you borrow a horror movie Icon, or did you come up with something original?

In the spirit of Halloween, sound off in the comments section with your creations, your rules, or just your stories for others to enjoy.


Enjoy your Halloween everyone.