It's Grimvember time! A new WFRP event starts now!

Halloween came and went and here I am, hitting myself in the head, for not writing an adequately spooky post. All is not lost however, as the fine month of November gave me a splendid idea for a brand, new event on this blog.

From this point, every November will be known as Grimvember on "It always rains..." blog. What is a Grimvember exactly? Well, some time ago I've realised that after discussing various video and board games, as well as talking about the game itself, I've never reviewed a single module for WFRP. This will not stand. From now on, every week of November will be dedicated to a specific adventure, campaign or sourcebook for this fine and legendary game, which I especially value. Of course there are too many of them to contain within a single Grimvember, but you know... there's always next year and the year after that. I think we'll be fine.

Oh, and this one is for Karl Voss of Averland and the rest of the guys and gals from Warhammer-Empire.com. Keep on being awesome and never stop.

Anyway, here's a scenario for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay that I love to death - "Haunting Horror". It was released for the first time, many, many seasons ago, back in the days of the 1st edition. Initially it appeared in "The Restless Dead" campaign book, as well as in issue of the "White Dwarf" magazine and it was later reprinted in the "Plundered Vaults" supplement for WFRP 2nd edition. Personally I've first encountered it, when reading a polish RPG fanzine "Magia i Miecz" ("Magic and a Sword"), and immediately fell in love with the spooky, atmospheric nature of this adventure.

Ah, the good, old times

Without venturing into spoiler territory, here are the basics. Player Characters are tasked with checking out a suspicious house, somewhere in the city that they're currently visiting. After entering the huge and ghastly manor, things start to get... weird, to put it lightly. The beginning can be a bit railroady, since the players have no way of escaping the haunted house. I know that some peeps were irked by this, but then again - where would be fun in just walking out of a spooky building? Anyway, it soon becomes abundantly clear that the heroes will need to explore the entirety of the house, in order to escape from it. The Gamemaster is handled the map of the haunted building, which is always useful, as well as a plethora of nasty, creepy surprises for him to use against his or hers unwitting victims - the players themselves. These range from a Beastmen painting, coming to life, to arabyan Fire Spirit to the most dreaded and dangerous enemy of them all - possessed cuttlery. No joke, when I was running this adventure, one of my players got his ass handed to him by a bunch of forks and spoons. These things can be downright nasty and, what's best, is that they work really well as adversaries, if you can call 'em that. Every single enemy in "Haunting Horror" has been really well thought out and simply works great in such a scenario.

During their voyages through the titular haunted house, the players can learn the truth about its original inhabitant and what really happened to him, but the thing is that it's not really important. Now I know what you're thinking: how can a story be not important in an RPG adventure? Easily, since "Haunting Horror" is about atmosphere, the feeling of dread and unease, of claustrophobia and primal fear. If played right, it can be an extremly scary and climactic experience. I remember playing it with my group in late winter, during evening hours. The effect was incredibly and really worked well for our overall game. It still is one of the most memorable adventures in our crew.

Now it has a few problems, I'll grant you that. According to the author it should be played by a party that just entered into their 2nd careers, but honestly, I would not run it for heroes below 1500 experience points, since "Haunting Horror" is downright deadly. There are constant fear tests and the enemies and traps can be very, very dangerous, not to mention some of them have a nasty habit of coming back from the dead... many times. Again, no spoilers so you'll have to take my word on that. Another thing to take into consideration is the "Haunting Horror's" structure. If PC's will linger too long in some areas, their chances of survival can drop by a big margin. Of course it can be said of any adventure or campaign, but in the case of this adventure it is doubly so. Gamemasters are advised to prepare themselves accordingly, as to avoid a TPK early on (or at any given time really), since it is really easy to achieve such effect with "Haunting Horror".

Are you scared yet?

To sum things up - this adventure rocks! It's a great filler between campaigns as well as an excellent one shot material. I recommend "Haunting Horror" to all Warhammer Fantasy and horror enthusiasts out there.

Unti next time!

Xathrodox86