How to Write Horror for D&D

⬇️ Download The Night Hunter horror adventure for free below! ⬇️
Kelsey from The Arcane Library talks about the three critical elements for writing and running horror adventures for 5E D&D.
1. Suspense: "We don't know what's going to happen."
2. Powerlessness: "We can't directly attack or defend against the source of danger."
3. Mystery: "There are secrets we want to understand."
🔪 Download The Night Hunter: www.dropbox.com/s/v3rh6383wt6...
Check out Lantern's Light Maps: / lanternslightmaps
01:09 - Suspense
02:28 - Powerlessness
04:31 - Mystery
05:39 - The Night Hunter adventure walkthrough

[@veerkillerx]

How to give someone PTSD in a fantastical world 101!

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Exaaaactly ;)

[@jeremyc5015]

Your adventures have helped me immensely in learning how to be a DM. It can be really intimidating to have to come up with a whole world and being caught off-guard by player actions. The structure helps me just focus on combat, interactions, and enjoying the game before getting more into a grand narrative adventure. Really appreciate all your work and the amount of detail those goes into each adventure. Also, thank you for emailing me back your customer service is great!

[@scottendicott7970]

I love how you use D&D to teach us how to be better writers and storytellers. Happy almost Halloween, Kelsey!

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Happy almost Halloween to you too, Scott! :D

[@Lellie77]

Thank you for the amazing information. I’m writing my first horror one shot right now. Your Poe inspired one shot was my first GM experience and it was a blast!

[@jameszell5942]

Kelsey, I love the way that you explain your methodology and the passion that you bring to your adventures. I love the cursed magic item. I think there need to be more items like this in D&D. Maybe even a sentient weapon. I will try to run this for Halloween (If I can) and report back the results. Awesome work as always!

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Thank you so much! 🙏 I'd love to see more cursed and mythological magic items in D&D too, it's such a fun way to introduce a villain (and adventure)!

[@JeffersonMills]

I just recently became acquainted with your work via your appearance on Questing Beast. I really appreciate your insightful advice and the eloquence and contagious enthusiasm with which you present it. Keep up the great work!

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Thank you so much, that is lovely to hear! I really appreciate you scoping out my channel and leaving a kind comment, too! :)

[@gladstonepinheiro3295]

Thanks, Kelseys, loving yours tips to how be a better GM.

[@Decado1628]

One the campaigns I DM is very much a grim dark/horror based campaign. Setting the proper tone using 5e can be difficult and these are excellent suggestions. Thank you for sharing!

[@adamcampbell5226]

Your wife is Lantern Light Maps?! Ya'll are a freggin RPG power couple, and it's honestly not fair to have that much talent in one household.

[@sophiazengierski7480]

Very helpful. I passed this along to a fellow DM who loves to run horror! Thank you for another great (and free!) adventure!

[@momqabt]

Uhohoh I'm gonna have fun adding this to my upcoming campaign and fucking with my players! Thank you SO very much! This is a Wonderful addition! Your demeanor is a very stark contrast to what's in this adventure and it's getting me hyped😂

[@tophercollinsactor]

Thanks so much! I'm a newer DM and your content is the most helpful and accessible. I've been feeling the pressure of preparing new content for my group. Your advice is so solid, bringing it back to key ideas makes it much simpler to understand what I need to do next. Feel like I learn so much :) Love your work!!

[@OldMisterGone]

This is such a good video - super helpful, and your one shot looks very cool. Thanks!

[@hunterstreet13]

Great video! The Night Hunter sounds super fun to run! I hope I get a chance to run it.

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

You have the perfect name for it! ;)

[@shay212]

Thank you so much for this!! I'm DMing for the first time and doing a mystery and this is so helpful!!

[@DornXeon]

Great video! I'm running a Halloween one shot this weekend and I'll definitely put your tips to good use.

[@cazzyjunk7585]

Thank you. Love the way you write your adventures.

[@DillyDallyLove]

Thank you! Hope to get good at the horror side of things! DMing and adventuring ⚔️

[@DillyDallyLove]

🥰

[@brentnorton1602]

It spooky season. I’m running the Moat house village of Hommlet and mixing it with Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The characters have rescued a possessed child of Hastur, but the “friendly” NPC’s kidnap the child and take him to the Moat house. The moat is over grown with yellow musk vines and a evil alchemist (a player’s old character he gave up on) has taken up residence and is mixing yellow musk vines and Moonstone. Some of the monsters are still per the OG encounter, but the underground area has chemical vat areas where town folks have been cloned including the NPC.

[@edwardromero3580]

Kelsey, thank you so much for this video and scenario. I'm running a Halloween one-shot, using Kids on Bikes, next week for my regular D&D party. And to be honest, I wasn't really digging any of the scenarios at the back of the book (deluxe edition). The Night Hunter is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I'm going to adapt it for KoB with teenage campers. I think it will work. Not sure how they'll kill the Night Hunter, but they'll figure something out.🤞🤞

[@motsgm]

Great stuff! Thanks Kelsey!!!!!

[@terrybeal2252]

An extremely useful video and a free adventure. Win Win 🏆 Thank you Kelsey. Happy Halloween! 🎃

[@MenschWerdeWesentlich]

Nice! Also reassuring, because your approach is very close to how I’m running Tomb of Annihilation as a horror campaign for my friends.

[@Nonofyourbussiness15]

using this to help me write a Christmas theme call of cthulu one shot, thank you for your advice.

[@isaacgraff8288]

Thank you. I am excited to give this a shot.

[@tokugawajones3504]

Love the cursed magic item idea!

[@WillMowass]

Great discussion and adventure. Much obliged.

[@RobHTMG]

Wonderful presentation with great ways to implement suspense. Thank you.

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Thanks so much, Rob! :)

[@ilariavitali8409]

Hiii! Yesterday evening I run your oneshot module and it was great! I must congratulate with you! It was concise, well written, and perfect material for a 2h short session. My players loved it (they survived!). Also we'll see how they will use the knife in the future:D

[@ilariavitali8409]

Also the map was super;)

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Thank you so much, I’m really glad to hear that! 😊

[@tonyking6417]

Great stuff!!!

[@nat20adventures]

Wonderful! Thank you for the Halloween gift as well. I've been running all your horror one-shots for a dedicated group of investigators in a pseudo magi/steampunk world. They cannot get enough of them and, alas, I have run them all. But, thanks to your one page combats, your lessons in suspense and psychological horror I have begun crafting my own adventures so they can continue thier exploits. They are having a blast, so thank you again Kelsey and I will continue to reccommend your adventures to other DM's.

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Thank you so much, James! Wow, you've run all of them -- I think that deserves some kind of award! :D

[@Sirwilliamf]

You might want to check out Dungeoncraft's Frankenstein. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3iamY2Ldtprrq8 He also has a new encounter based on an a Poe story coming out this week on YT.

[@renjynx]

Thank you! I Love the adventure and your explanation! I Love how easy and quick all of your stuff is to play. I was wondering what I would use this Halloween with my group of 13 yr olds - now I have an option! I've even managed to take your other stuff and use it with my online D&D classes for kids. I slightly modify things so as not to scare the heck outta the young ones and it all works. Hopefully this little gem will work nicely this coming weekend.

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

I’m so happy you’ve been able to adapt these to use with your 13 year olds! Good call on modifying the adventures a bit to be a bit more age-appropriate - glad to know you were able to do that!

[@mikesands4681]

A good presentation Obviously easier at lower levels and smaller parties

[@thenightowl3433]

Nice video with a lot of good advice! Thank you! :-)

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Glad it was helpful! :)

[@Naliao]

good info! tryna make a spooky beastman encounter rn

[@RobinD.]

The "Howling" you described I did use in a group of BECMI Mystara Group of mine entered a forest owned by a Gakarak (an extremely old humanoid hating treant variety) Even years after that session when they enter an old forest and hear in the distance; Ghakarakarak, Ghakharakak Gkhakarak, they almost shit their pants, and turn around instantly...;P Keep in mind that enough sleep is required (at least in BECMI D&D) to be able to get spells...So robbing them of sleep, deprives them of one sort of attacks. And Lack of sleep always reduces Hitrolls, endurance, strength and concentration and such

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Hahahahahaaaaaa, I love that!! 😈

[@DemstarAus]

So in a few days I'm running a Halloween one shot. Lovecraftian, homebrew, 11th level... never done this before and I'm super nervous!

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Good luck! You will do great!! :D

[@TheRebelGM56]

Brilliant video Kelsey! I have really enjoyed using your one shots for my D&D group and one where I was a guest DM. It's interesting to see your methodology at work and how you create these fantastic one shots and adventures! I can't seem to see the link for the one shot you mention?

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Thank you so much, Peter! And no worries, the link is sort of mixed in among other information. Here it is: www.dropbox.com/s/v3rh6383wt6qul6/The%20Night%20Hunter%20V1.zip?dl=0

[@tdworwood]

KZbin hides the video description. On an iPhone you have to X out of the comments, scroll up and tap on the video title. Then the description text should show up with the download link and the Patreon look for Lantern Light Maps.

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Thank you for the insight on that!!

[@lonic123]

Thanks

[@demongustavditters7150]

How do you feel about the (lack of) lethality in 5e? @thearcanelibrary

[@Leppykrom]

great video! I loved all the tips, especially for building suspense and mystery. now how would one go about balancing the adventure for a 5th level party with feats and a bunch of magic items? any advice would be appreciated.

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

For this particular adventure, I’d leave the elk encounter the same (they’re not really meant to be a combat), and then I’d overlay the night hunter’s abilities onto a giant ape, keep him medium sized, remove his rock attack, and make the fist actually be the knife.

[@Leppykrom]

@@TheArcaneLibrary thank you! I might try it this Friday. I hope they make it out alive :)

[@calebserafy7933]

Thank you for all the great content. I’m planning to run this Friday night. One thing I’m not grasping. When the night hunter drags the pac animal out and kills it, what is the intent? Is he trying to lure them out to attack or is he doing it to simply terrorize them? Does he get power or pleasure from their terror?

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

It's purely to terrorize them! He's a chaotic evil being bent on destruction (due to the curse of the magic item), so I'd say he enjoys terrorizing his victims.

[@calebserafy7933]

@@TheArcaneLibrary thanks Kelsey. Love your writing and really appreciate the free gifts.

[@Juliostravellife]

Hey Kelsey! Is there a mobile friendly version of this without a computer or do I have to download and create and create an account for Dropbox?

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

Hi Julio! You should be able to download the file(s) without needing to make a Dropbox account, they just tend to hide away the button a bit. I think it depends on the mobile device, but there's a way to see the full .zip file and its contents, and the adventure docs are PDFs within that file.

[@patrickcreson7722]

Question... Will the person that attunes to the knife be aware of the curse?

[@TheArcaneLibrary]

I personally think it's more fun if they know about the curse after attuning! They'd still need magical help to un-attune, and then it turns the kill timer into an interesting choice the character has to make.