“Horror for Shadowdark” is an independent product published under the Shadowdark RPG Third-Party License and is not affiliated with The Arcane Library, LLC. Shadowdark RPG © 2023 The Arcane Library, LLC.
Introduction
Those who plunge into the Shadowdark may not be wholly sane, but they normally do not bolt or quail at the horrors down below. Yet some sights can unhinge even these jaded explorers.
Horror Check
When player characters first encounter something horrific, the GM will call for a Horror Check with a specific Difficulty Class (DC).
The players involved make a Wisdom Check for the given DC. If they failed their last Horror Check, they roll with Disadvantage.
Consult the chart below to determine the player character’s reaction.
| Result | Reaction |
|---|---|
| Critical Success | Advantage on next Horror Check |
| ≥ DC | Act normally |
| < DC | Freeze (do nothing) for 1d6 combat rounds. |
| Critical Failure | Freeze (do nothing) for the entire encounter. |
An ally may attempt to snap the character out of their shock with a CHA check equal to the DC of the Horror Check.
Alternate Horror Check
For more complex but nuanced rules for horror, use the rules above but the following charts:
| Result | Reaction |
|---|---|
| Critical Success | Advantage on next Horror Check |
| ≥ DC | Act normally |
| ≥ DC - 5 | Roll 1d6 + 0 on Fear Chart |
| ≥ DC - 10 | Roll 1d6 + 2 on Fear Chart |
| ≥ DC - 15 | Roll 1d6 + 4 on Fear Chart |
| ≥ DC - 20 | Roll 1d6 + 6 on Fear Chart |
| < DC - 20 | Roll 1d7 + 7 on Fear Chart |
Fear Chart
| Total | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tremble: Shake uncontrollably; all DEX tasks are at Disadvantage. |
| 2 | Drop Item: Drop whatever is in your dominant hand. |
| 3 | Pause: Do nothing for one combat action. |
| 4 | Scream: Let out a single piercing cry that everyone and everything can hear. |
| 5 | Freeze: Do nothing for 2d6 combat actions or the next crawling turn. |
| 6-7 | Flee: Run as fast as possible from the HORROR. |
| 8-9 | Fight: Attack the HORROR or a nearby target in a frenzy. |
| 10-12 | Faint: Lose consciousness and drop where you’re standing. |
| 13+ | Die: Lose all HP and start the Death Timer: 1d4 + Con Mod, min 1. |
Unless otherwise implied, effects persist until the source of HORROR is gone and the player completes a rest.
Difficulty Class
The following are just examples. The scenario text or creature statblock should specify the DC.
| Situation | DC |
|---|---|
| Corpses | |
| A dead body | 9 |
| A bloody dead body | 12 |
| A mutilated dead body | 15 |
| A dismembered dead body | 18 |
| A mass of dead bodies | 21 |
| Eldritch Horrors | |
| A minor eldritch horror | 12 |
| A middling eldritch horror | 15 |
| A major eldritch horror | 18 |
| A group of eldritch horrors | +3 |
| A mass of eldritch horrors | +6 |
| A partial manifestation of a Great Old One | 27 |
| A fully manifested Great Old One or Elder God | 30 |
| Hauntings | |
| A petty haunting | 9 |
| A pernicious haunting | 12 |
| A potent haunting | 15 |
| Phenomena | |
| All the birds suddenly fall silent | 6 |
| All the birds screech in unison | 12 |
| All the birds in a grove drop dead | 15 |
| All the birds in the sky drop dead | 18 |
| The sky turns bright green | 24 |
| All objects suddenly start falling up | 27 |
| Fingers of a giant hand close over the sky | 30 |
Eldritch Horrors
Eldritch Horrors are not ordinary monsters. There is something fundamentally wrong about them: their movements, their geometry, their size, their nonsensical biology. Perhaps it’s some subtle emanations from a universe fundamentally incompatible with our own.
Whatever the cause, they break the minds of those who witness them in ways a Brain Eater (Shadowdark p 199), Demon (p 204), Devil (p 206), Gibbering Mouther (p 220), or Ten-Eyed Oracle (p 255) does not.
Hauntings
See Haunts by Joker & Thief Publishing.
These rules assume that hauntings are unnerving because they can’t be fought or, really, explained. This stands in stark contrast to a Ghost (Shadowdark p. 217), which can be fought if it manifests corporeally.
My DCs are lower than in Haunts because that supplement uses a “Sanity” system in which hauntings chip away at mental integrity. In my Horror mechanic, characters either save against fear or succumb to its effects immediately.