A great way to introduce this sort of mechanic is by trapping the players in the house at the beginning. This style of haunted house, which entails giving players a task to complete or a puzzle to solve in order to progress, harkens back to games like Resident Evil or Amnesia. RELATED: Dungeons & Dragons: How to Build the Perfect Death Domain ClericĪnother way to get players invested is to give them a task. Revealing information - like about who used to live there, what might be haunting the house and why, and what players can do to help should they be inclined - can keep players invested in the haunted house.

Players will naturally be curious about what's happening in the house, and providing breadcrumbs and clues along the way lets the DM guide the party through the experience they've planned. Mystery is often the heart of great horror, and presenting players with a mystery to follow can be one of the most effective ways to get them to engage. Maybe they saw a figure in one of the windows watching them, but they find that the house is abandoned.

Upon entering the house, the players may be presented with the first bit of the mystery. Such elements are great starters for any horror scenario. A scream from inside the house or a strange figure in the window pulls the party's attention as they travel by, or it could be an inexplicable pull to enter the house.

Setting the scene with an inciting incident that can lead the players into the house would be the first step in setting up something like this. This could be as simple a mystery as asking 'why are these things happening in this house?' or 'why is this house haunted?' However, a deeper mystery will keep players more invested. Creating a mystery of some kind is often the first step to creating compelling horror. Aside from simply setting up ahead of time and saying that the plan is to play through the house for a Halloween event, there are a few other things they can do to ground the one-shot somewhat.

One of the first things a DM will contend with is enticing players into the house.

How to play a spooky character dnd