Horror Adventures · The Handy Haversack

Creating your own horror adventures is like crafting any other D&D adventure with one exception: your goal is to horrify your players in the most fun way possible. Frightening adventures benefit from an atmosphere of dread, conceived through a combination of terrifying narratives, dramatic presentation, and game elements encouraging fear. Drawing out the anxiety and anticipation of players requires deliberate consideration, though. The tools and techniques in this chapter provide ways to make sure your game is both spooky and safe in ways right for your specific group. A toolbox of horror-focused rules also provides options for what sort of grim adventures you might create. At the end of this chapter, a horror adventure puts these methods to use and leads characters on their first steps into the Domains of Dread.

During a séance, a spirit makes itself known to the Keepers of the Feather

Preparing for Horror

Before you run a horror game, consider the following steps to ensure the willingness and full engagement of your players. If a group gathers to play a fun, low-stakes adventure but is immediately thrust into unexpected horror, the game can feel like a trap. You should avoid this. Rather, set expectations with your players about what a horror-focused game means, and determine what topics and themes will encourage or discourage players' participation.

Understanding Horror

Your primary goal as a DM running a horror adventure is to facilitate a fun D&D experience. This book assumes you and your players enjoy the thrill and suspense of scary stories. The audience of a horror movie can enjoy the menace on screen because they know it can’t harm them (and they have an idea of what to expect from the film’s trailer). In the same way, your players count on you to make sure an adventure’s terror doesn’t target them personally or otherwise step beyond the game. Your goal is never to make players feel uncomfortable or threatened. As D&D adventures aren’t scripted, unexpected elements can arise during play. If your whole group can agree to the terms outlined in this section, everyone should have an exciting, enjoyable experience.

Set Expectations

Well before you assemble a group around a game table, pitch the adventures you’re thinking about running to your prospective players. Note the types of conflicts that might arise, the tone, and major themes. Telling players what to expect prepares them as they imagine what sorts of characters they could create and launches conversations about content to be embraced and avoided. You don’t need to reveal the major plot points or twists in your story, but share the kinds of monsters and general themes you’re interested in using, other horror stories you’re inspired by, and which genres of horror from chapter 2 interest you. Being transparent with your players allows them to decide if this is a game they want to play, which is best to know before play begins.

Horror Content Survey

Take advantage of the time before your first game session to learn about your players' thoughts related to horror adventures. To do this, create a brief list of questions focused on the following topics. After preparing this survey, distribute it to your players as an e-mail, physical handout, or otherwise before gathering to play. Keep the survey’s results anonymous, but use them to guide what sort of adventures you’ll create.

Content and Themes Questions

Start your survey by listing common story and horror elements to determine your players' comfort with them. The following list is not exhaustive; customize your list to include elements you imagine could arise during adventures. End the list with a space where players can add other topics to avoid or that they’re interested in. For each of these topics, ask whether it should be included or avoided:

General phobias and common fears, such as clowns, needles, or spiders
Descriptions of gore or visceral violence
Romantic in-character dialogue
Themes of mental and physical health involving the body and the mind
Real-world religion and politics, or analogs of them
Topics related to real-world social or cultural injustices and discrimination
Game-specific content, such as dangers, monster types, and setting details you might use
Specific genres of horror, like those in chapter 2

If you’re not comfortable adding any of these topics to your game, don’t include them as options, and use them as the starting point for a list of elements that your adventures won’t include.

Serious Fear
Many horror D&D games are spooky romps not too different from typical D&D adventures. Others venture into more unsettling territory. You and the players should decide what level of intensity is right for your horror adventures. This section provides guidance that applies whether your adventures are morbid comedies or explorations of mature themes. The advice here emphasizes structures that work for all players, including those with different tolerances for being scared or who have certain topics that are off-limits for them. Always consider what you can do to make players feel comfortable with your game, even if no one entirely knows how the horror might unfold. Never assume you know your players' deepest fears—no matter how long you’ve been roleplaying with them.

Gameplay Questions

After your list of topics, use the following questions to query players about gameplay considerations:

How scary do you want the game to be? Do you enjoy being creeped out as a player, or should the characters alone experience fear?
How difficult do you want the game to be? Should there be a high, average, or low threat of death?
How do you feel about effects that take away your ability to control what your character does?
Do you want to allow phones or other distractions at the game table, or should they be set aside?
Are there any specific stories or rules you’d like to see highlighted during the game?
Are there general events or experiences you don’t want to see during the game?
Do you have any accessibility needs that would make the game more enjoyable, such as captions for video calls or a specific kind of seating?
Do you have any other notes or concerns?

Once you’ve completed this survey, distribute it to your players, give them a window of time to respond, then collect the results. Use this information to inform your adventure planning and to create an anonymized list of content that will not be featured in your game. Bring this list to your session zero.

Session Zero

After you learn what topics your players are excited about, it’s time to discuss what you’ve learned with your potential players during a preliminary, before-play gathering or “session zero.“Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything outlines how to run session zero discussions, but in general, use this session to discuss the game’s content, social contract, and house rules, and to create characters.

Reinforce Expectations

Make it clear that D&D is a group storytelling game. As the DM, you have a role in crafting adventures and arbitrating rules, but you aren’t solely responsible for how much fun the group has. Everyone is responsible for the group’s enjoyment of the game. By the same token, the whole group has a role in determining how scary the game is and how far that frightful content goes. Chapter 1 provides guidance for players participating in horror adventures. Make sure you and the players are aware of this and use it to inform character creation and play.

Establish Boundaries

Review your takeaways from the content surveys. Then, informed by players' survey responses, present your list of content the game will not feature. These are your game’s boundaries and will not be included. Emphasize that boundaries aren’t negotiable, and neither you nor any of the players should bring them into the game.

Note that boundaries may change during play. Encourage players to bring any additions to you, privately or in the moment, so you can add them to the list. When this happens, don’t refer to past survey data, defend past choices, or ask players to explain their boundaries. Trust that players know their needs best, and update the game accordingly.

Let players know that this list of boundaries will be accessible during every session and that by playing, they agree to respect these boundaries. Make it clear that players who don’t respect these boundaries will have to leave the game.

Customize Your Experience

During session zero, the group can discuss ways to customize the game in the following ways:

Discuss Genre. If there are horror genres that players gravitated toward in the survey, see if there are elements players would like to use to inspire their characters.
Discuss Campaign Themes. If you already have ideas for the sorts of adventures you plan to run or your own Darklord and domain, share the general concepts you’re interested in and see what players get excited about.
Create Player Characters. If players want to discuss their characters or create them collaboratively, now is a great time to do so.
Choose Optional Rules. If there are optional rules—like those presented later in this chapter—that you’re amenable to using, determine which ones work best for the group.

Running Horror Games

While preparing and running frightening adventures, keep in mind the ebb and flow of suspense. Atmosphere, pacing, description, and player involvement all influence a game’s tension and directly contribute to how scary your adventures feel.

Horror Atmosphere

Atmosphere is the overall mood of your game. It’s the sense of levity, excitement, or dread that stems from a story’s content and players' perception of it. Atmosphere can be challenging to build and easy to disrupt, but any D&D game—particularly scary games—benefit from your work to cultivate an atmosphere consistent with the experience you’re trying to create. Consider the following elements to influence your game’s atmosphere and create moody trappings for your horror adventures. Customize what you can and don’t fret about what you can’t.

Accessibility

When choosing the space you’ll be playing in, review any accessibility needs communicated in the content survey. Accommodate what you can; communicate what you can’t as early as possible. Enlist players for help. Players may have difficulty with low light, loud background music, small printed text, strong odors, cramped spaces, specific allergens, or challenges with programs (if playing online). If any player identified these as an issue, don’t use them to create an unnerving atmosphere. Recognize the difference between creating a moody atmosphere and making it difficult for players to participate.

Location

If possible, play in an area with minimal visual or auditory distractions. Favor surroundings that appropriately reinforce your desired atmosphere and have little non-player traffic. If space is shared, negotiate with non-players to reserve the space in advance. You can also reduce distracting stimuli by turning screens off, covering decorations, and moving unnecessary objects away.

Music

Consider what fills the pauses in the game’s action or other quiet moments. Lulls breed distractions. Subtle music, though, can fill such instances while reinforcing the game’s atmosphere. Search for ambient, atmospheric, or instrumental music. Choose options without lyrics and that aren’t recognizably tied to popular media. Create playlists in advance. If you can subtly control volume, slowly raise it when you want attention, and lower it when players are talking. Experiment with how volume and tempo influence whether a scene feels subdued or energetic.

Lighting

Dimming the lights can transform your game space, causing distractions to fade and making it look unfamiliar. If the lighting’s easy to control, you might adjust it to suggest a setting’s light level. More elaborate techniques might involve using colored lights or using patterned cut-outs to cast eerie shadows. Whenever manipulating lighting, though, always ensure players have enough light to read by.

Props

Props can serve as artifacts from your game’s world, atmospheric focus pieces, or complete distractions. The first rule of creating props for your game isn’t to overdo it. Props can be nice to have, but shouldn’t become chores to create, reasons to delay game sessions, or distractions from play. Props can be as simple as a whiteboard for notes or sharing pictures of characters or monsters to increase their memorability. Furniture, whether by its arrangement or removal, can suggest a specific location. Props can even represent game mechanics, such as tracking hit points with crimson flat glass marbles in clear goblets. Ravenloft in particular has a history of featuring props in its adventures (see “Tarokka Deck and Spirit Board” section later in this chapter). The world of creating custom props is endless, but don’t compare your game to performances with whole production budgets.

Distractions

A distraction for one player may be a necessity for another. Discuss compromises that benefit everyone. Maybe food and non-game items are kept away from the play space. Perhaps phones and tablets are permitted as long as they are silenced and used away from the table. Additionally, not everyone is comfortable being photographed or identified in public discussions of a game, whether in real-time or after a session, so ask about the place of social media in the game before making assumptions.

The Dungeon Master

You have incredible control over your game’s tone and atmosphere. Model the behaviors you want players to emulate by staying focused on the game, letting others speak in turn, heading off encroachment on boundaries, and complimenting exciting choices. Stand or pace during intense moments. Speak faster or sound anxious when something scary is happening. Raise the volume of your voice during pitched battles and whisper during tense or conspiratorial moments. Allow yourself to sound uncertain, correct yourself, or pause as if you heard something outside. Ask players, “Are you sure?” Engaging with the suspenseful atmosphere you want to create helps bring it into being around you.

Horror Pacing

Pacing is the speed and energy with which your story unfolds. This relates to the amount of action in your game and, in a horror adventure, the tension or frequency of suspenseful moments. Everything can’t be scary, and continuous terror is unsustainable. Before players grow numb to endless tension, create opportunities for them to catch their breath and regain a temporary feeling of calm. The best horror adventures are like roller coasters, ratcheting up suspense and releasing it before building toward the next harrowing moment. Also, mix up social interaction, exploration, combat, and other types of encounters to create interesting and engaging pacing. Ensure that scenes are always somehow relevant to your story and move characters toward their goals.

Logistics

You often have less time to play than you think once late starts, food breaks, and other interruptions are all taken into account. When planning your adventures, account for less time than your full game session.

Undermine Reality

Dread and uncertainty are keys to engaging horror adventures. Horrific experiences or supernatural settings undermine assumptions about what can or can’t happen. Have a character wake from a prophetic nightmare with a fresh scar. Have a threat characters are fleeing appear ahead of them. Make candles gutter, paintings cry, animals whisper curses, or gigantic eyes peer through windows. Did these things actually happen, or are characters' senses turning against them? The answers often don’t matter, particularly when the Mists provide explanations for all manner of casually dreadful impossibilities.

Idle Uneasiness

Occasionally slow your adventure’s pace to draw out the tension you’ve established. Linger on describing sensory details. Ask players to describe what their characters are thinking, feeling, or fixating on. Detail the ways objects could be used violently, words could be lies, and shadows could hide monsters. Ask players what they think is the worst possible thing that could happen right now. Describe feelings of being watched. Hint that the characters are being hunted. Let characters respond to these stray thoughts. Sometimes these impressions should just be their nervousness getting to them. But sometimes it’s the calm before a threat strikes.

Out of Time

When the time for action comes, make your narration feel urgent. Speak quickly and in short bursts. Focus less on senses and more on descriptions of impact—a splash of crimson, who knows where it came from? Split the characters' attention. Roleplay other creatures begging, panicking, and trying to escape. Politely demand players react quickly: “There’s no time to debate—what do you do?”

Parallel Scenes

Occasionally encourage players to split the party. When characters are separated, cut back and forth between them. Encourage everyone to watch even scenes their characters aren’t in. Keep these split scenes short, and when an exciting event occurs, cut away and make the players wait for resolution. Give characters things to tell one another when they meet again. Players can then decide whether or not their characters trust such reports.

Reliability and Trust

Reliability and trust are just as important to your horror adventures as lurid shocks. Frequent betrayals encourage paranoia that can paralyze players. Emphasize that certain people and locations will never turn on the characters through repeated positive encounters. The players can trust these allies, but can they keep them safe?

Just Enough Hope

Fear without hope tempts paralysis and apathy, which can ruin the game. Reward characters who behave dramatically, heroically, or in ways that increase the game’s frightful atmosphere. Rewards might include brief scenes focused on a character’s actions, opportunities to regroup and rest, clues to adversaries' weaknesses, and discoveries of actual treasure. To maintain character agency, avoid having strangers or allies of the group rescue characters from problems they got themselves into. By the same token, don’t throw characters into impossible situations. Never let hope die.

End on Cliffhangers

Leave players excited to play again. When ending a session, implement one of the following to conclude on a cliffhanger: hint at a new threat, impose a complication on existing plans, increase the stakes, introduce a new mystery, have a foe appear, have the world change, or otherwise shock the characters, then call for a break before players can react.

Describing Horror

The horrors populating your adventures can take endless forms, whether they be foes, impending events, or magical forces. Rather than just naming what the terrible thing is, inspire your players' imaginations by describing a horror indirectly in stages. Chapter 5 features advice or making familiar monsters more frightful. Also consider the following elements when describing terrors:

Before It Arrives. Foreshadow the horror’s approach. How do the environment, nearby animals, the weather and nature, and the light and shadows react?
Approaches. What sounds does it make as it moves? What parts do characters see before the whole comes into view?
Up Close. What does it smell like? How does it breathe? Does it cool the air around it or bring heat wherever it goes? How does it stand? When it reaches out to grab a character, what does it feel like?
Attacks. How does it attack? Does it have weapons, or does it use its body to fight? Does it have sharp claws that rake across flesh, or is it a supernatural force that warps what it comes in contact with?
Wounded. When it’s wounded, how does it react? What does its blood look like? What is inside it instead of flesh and blood? When it becomes desperate, how does it react?

Let Players Fill Gaps

Invite players to turn their imaginations against themselves. Leave details intentionally blank, describing just enough to reveal gaps that inspire horrific implications. Fixate on a specific trait, like only describing a vampire’s eyes as it attacks.

Alternatively, directly ask players to fill in details. Ask questions like these: What does the way it moves remind you of? It emits the worst smell—what is it? Something falls free and, for an instant, what are you certain it is? Players' responses don’t need to control the narrative; it’s up to you whether they’re true or just one perception.

Horror Gameplay

Just as you consider how you’ll tell your tales of terror, keep in mind what you can do to make the experience of playing the game more suspenseful.

Horror Threats

While horror traditionally nullifies heroes' strengths, doing so can remove the players' agency and undercut their enjoyment. Beyond the Dungeon Master’s Guide advice for creating dangerous encounters, consider the following techniques to make combat feel more menacing:

Feature monsters that are immune to tactics characters often use but that are vulnerable to other strategies the characters could employ.
Have foes spend combat actions doing things that are fundamentally creepy, like chanting to sinister gods or regurgitating their last meal.
Use another creature as the opening act for the true threat. A notorious monster is all the scarier when it emerges and rips apart something the characters assumed was their true antagonist.
Have foes play dead, only to “return to life” after characters think things are safe.
Make use of the techniques detailed in the “Horror Monsters” section of chapter 5.

Subvert Clichés
When characters and worlds feature clichés, they become dull and predictable. If your favorite horror story features outdated tropes, your fondness doesn’t redeem them. To create dynamic and compelling characters, consider the following options:

Avoid drawing inspiration from stock characters in fiction or film.

Treat characters as real people with real motivations. Put yourself in their shoes. What would you do?

Show how multiple people from the same culture are different.

Feature members of different genders, ethnicities, and sexualities, as well as people with disabilities and of varied beliefs, as having broad roles, professions, interests, and outlooks. Endlessly work to quash stereotypes.

Don’t use cliché accents, especially to represent marginalized people.

Matter-of-factly provide opportunities for everyone to be exceptional. Magical settings bear no resemblance to real-world history, and character creation rules presuppose no standard bar for heroics.

Encourage Space

A typical D&D session is longer than a typical horror movie, and it can be hard to sustain the atmosphere for hours on end. Plan to take breaks during your game session, and encourage players to step away from the table if they need to. If you feel like the game has gotten intense or taken a turn someone’s not enjoying, ask, “Is everyone comfortable with continuing?” before proceeding. If anyone’s not, thank the players for their honesty and hasten the game to a cliffhanger. Before the next game session, talk with the group about the best way to move forward in a way everyone can enjoy. Work to create a supportive environment where players can admit to being uncomfortable without fearing that they’re going to ruin everyone’s fun. As DM, you can model this behavior by noting when you’re shying away from a creepy idea that comes to you or thanking players who uphold the game’s boundaries.

Beyond impromptu checks, once during a session, after a scheduled break, check in with the group and consider asking the following questions:

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What do your characters hope will happen?
What do your characters worry might happen?
Do you want to update any content boundaries?
Is there anything that would make the game more enjoyable for you?

Ask Permission

Players put considerable thought and investment into their characters. Don’t impose rules on characters that might make players not want to play them anymore. For example, characters might gain any of the lineages and Dark Gifts from chapter 1 during play. If there’s an opportunity for a character to gain one of these options, ask that character’s player if they’d be comfortable with such an adjustment before imposing it. If the player says no, consider other options.

Beyond rules considerations, some actions also require special consideration before they occur in game, such as these examples: romance between characters, violence between characters, one player’s character influencing or controlling another player’s character, and yelling. All players (including the DM) must ask and gain permission from everyone playing—not just the affected players—before introducing this content. Without any explanation or debate, if a single person gives a thumbs down or doesn’t respond, this action shouldn’t be performed. Players may change their minds at any time. If a topic was listed as a boundary, it is off the table entirely.

Content Tools

Content tools enable you and your players to adjust the game’s content as you play. Since D&D is improvisational, the game can go in unexpected directions. If a direction makes the game a worse experience for anyone, use these tools to correct course.

Many content tools exist, but a popular one involves passing a blank note card to each participant, (including the DM) and instructing everyone to draw an X on their card. One uses their X-Card to signal to everyone else in the game that a boundary has been crossed. If you are playing remotely, players can lift the X to the camera, type X in a chat window, or cross their arms to form an X. In any case, this is a sign that something that just happened is off limits. The person touching the card can comment on what they want adjusted, or whoever’s narrating the scene can walk back what just happened, try something else, or leave the scene with a vague ending (like in a film where things fade to black). The person using the content tool doesn’t have to explain why the content is objectionable, nor should anyone question it. Instead of a debate, thank the person for being honest about their needs and move on.

Make it clear to players that if a person doesn’t feel comfortable using a content tool, they can wait for a break to check in or talk to you privately. Players may also give a friend permission to use the card on their behalf. As the DM, lead by example. Treat content tools seriously and use them to adjust how your shared story plays out.

Engaging Players

If players seem disengaged, check in with them. Ask them what they would like to see happen next. If they don’t know, write two or three options down, hand them the options privately, and ask them to choose one. If issues remain, call for a break, and privately ask what you can do to make the game more engaging.

After the Horror

It’s always a good idea to check in with players at the end of a session, but this rings especially true for adventures where tensions run high and the stories can elicit strong emotional responses. At the end of a horror game session, leave time to check in with players and ask them how the game went, how they’re feeling, and what they liked about the session. You might ask the following questions:

What unsolved mysteries do you want answers to?
Did you find anything confusing or off-putting?
What are you looking forward to in the next session?

These answers can help you craft the next session to create a game your players enjoy.

If players give short or vague answers or you suspect that trust at the table has been broken, try creating an anonymous space to receive feedback. It’s important to hear honest feedback from players so you can ensure everyone is fully immersed in the story and you can address any issues that might prevent them from enjoying the next game session.

Tarokka Deck and Spirit Board

Ravenloft has a tradition of adventures featuring setting-specific props and memorable, set-piece encounters. Such atmospheric scenes immerse players in an experience unique to the Land of the Mist. Two fateful tools used in such encounters are detailed here, the tarokka deck and spirit board. Consider including these mystery-steeped props in your own Ravenloft adventures, or use them as inspiration to create other immersive experiences.

Tarokka Deck

In both 1983’s adventure Ravenloft and 2016’s adventure Curse of Strahd, the plot changes in accordance with cards drawn from a tarokka deck. A tarokka deck contains fifty-four tarot-like, fortune-telling cards, each one bearing one of the following symbols:

Crowns. The portentous cards of the high deck are marked with crowns but are not themselves a suit. The figures on these fourteen cards represent distinct forces of fate, change, and despair.
Coins. The ten cards of this suit symbolize avarice and the desire for personal gain.
Glyph. The ten cards of this suit symbolize faith, spirituality, and inner strength.
Stars. The ten cards of this suit symbolize the desire for personal power and control over mysterious forces.
Swords. The ten cards of this suit symbolize aggression and violence.

Tarokka decks allow you run encounters where fortune-tellers predict characters' fates. Once you’re familiar with the cards and their meanings, you can interpret them in ways that tie in to the characters' pasts or events in your adventures. You can also use the results of tarokka readings to guide your campaign and make sure predictions come to pass.

The tarokka hails from the same world as the domain of Barovia, but it and its users have since spread throughout the Domains of Dread. Further details and a complete tarokka deck appear in the adventure Curse of Strahd.

Spirit Board

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Spirit boards are tools to contact and divine the will of spirits or other mysterious forces. Upon placing their fingertips on a planchette set atop the board, assembled users feel forces move the planchette toward letters and symbols, gradually revealing a cryptic message. The spirits boards common in the Land of the Mists were first created by members of the Keepers of the Feather (see chapter 3), and feature half-understood images from their occult studies and Barovian lore. These markings include symbols from the tarokka deck, which carry the same meanings as they do upon those cards. All manner of mysterious beings consider a spirit board’s use an invitation to communicate with the living, resulting in messages shared from beyond the grave and frightful revelations.

This book’s appendix provides a depiction of a spirit board to use in your adventures, while a planchette to be used with it appears here. The adventure “The House of Lament” later in this chapter features séances employing a spirit board. When making use of this game prop, you take the role of the forces guiding the planchette. Move the planchette subtly to reveal mysterious messages appropriate to your adventures.

Horror Toolkit

Setting the stage for horror isn’t entirely a product of good storytelling. As highlighted throughout this book, any rule might take on a terrifying cast, whether you present it as having some grim source or you customize it with ominous new options. This section goes a step further, providing options to make existing rules more terrifying and presenting systems that encourage unique horror experiences.

Curses

An ancient warning echoes in a tomb robber’s mind. A lost treasure bears a magical affliction, assuring it remains lost. A dying priest’s last breath carries a portent of doom. Curses come in myriad forms, presaging terrifying tales and distinctive dooms.

This section provides guidance for creating dramatic curses, either distinct from or as part of curses resulting from magic, monsters' actions, or other effects. These curses provide ominously poetic responses to fateful choices and afflictions that last until they’re alleviated by specific remedies. Spells at the characters' disposal might relieve these curses' effects temporarily but can’t lift them completely. The price must be paid.

Laying Curses

Curses aren’t something to throw around lightly. They should be dramatically appropriate responses to meaningful choices characters make. If every goblin or bandit coughs out a dying curse, the narrative impact fades. There should always be a way to avoid a curse, and a curse’s effects should clearly arise from wrongdoing. Here are some examples of actions that warrant a curse:

Defiling a sealed tomb
Desecrating a temple
Slaying a villain who is backed by a powerful entity such as a demon lord or a deity
Murdering or grievously harming an innocent
Stealing a treasure that is meaningful to an entire culture

In cases where the curse arises from a creature, such as a dying villain’s last breath, the pronouncement of the curse is clear. When there is no wronged party present to lay the curse directly, the curse should be obvious in some way, such as a warning of dire consequences carved into the wall of an ancient crypt or relayed by a spell such as magic mouth.

Components of a Curse

Most curses have three distinct components: pronouncement, burden, and resolution. Whatever form these take, at least one of them, especially the burden or resolution, should have an ironic connection to the action that triggered the curse.

A dying priest of Ezra curses his murderer

Pronouncement

The first component of a curse is the pronouncement, which amounts to a threat. It promises suffering to those who dare to perform or have already performed a specific offensive act. The pronouncement can be a standing warning against taking some action, or it could be a declaration in the moment. The following examples suggest just a few possible pronouncements:

A widely spread story explaining that a particular action tempts terrible punishment
A warning spoken on the cusp of a deadly battle, assuring dire consequences for the victorious
A poem, rhyme, or song foretelling doom
A carved epitaph on a gravestone discouraging robbers
The last words of a dying person—either a powerful villain or a wrongly slain innocent
Swearing a vow to refrain from or undertake some action on pain of great suffering

Burden

A curse’s burden is the effect that causes hardship and suffering to the curse’s victim. A burden is often reflective of what caused the curse in the first place, twisting the transgressor’s action against them. The burden takes effect immediately, along with a vague sense of foreboding—such as a chill down the spine or a wave of nausea. The victim might not notice the curse’s effect until a situation arises to make it obvious. For example, a character cursed with clumsiness that manifests as disadvantage on Dexterity checks might not notice anything until they make such a check. Burdens can take many forms, such as the following:

The victim has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, saving throws, or some combination of the three. This can be tied to a single ability score or applied generally.
The victim can’t communicate using language, whether through speaking, sign language, writing, telepathy, or any other means.
The victim gains 3 levels of exhaustion that can’t be removed while the curse endures.
When the victim finishes a long rest, they must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, or their hit point maximum is reduced by 1d10. If this reduces their hit point maximum to 0, the victim dies, and their body crumbles to dust.
When the victim takes damage, they take an extra 1d10 necrotic damage. This effect can’t happen again until the start of the victim’s next turn.
The victim gains a Dark Gift (see chapter 1) appropriate to the circumstances surrounding the curse.
The victim gains vulnerability to one damage type.
The victim’s Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution score is reduced to 3, and the victim can’t be raised from the dead while the curse lasts.
A monster hunts the victim relentlessly. Even if the monster dies, it rises again or a new one takes its place 24 hours later.

Resolution

Sometimes a curse can be ended by making restitution to a wronged party (or their closest kin in the case of a death) or reparation if something was stolen or destroyed. The resolution might be declared as part of the pronouncement, or it may be left to those who suffer the curse to make amends on their own. Research and divination can offer clues or even reveal the exact steps needed to resolve the curse.

While more general curses can lifted by a remove curse spell, more specific or dramatic curses can’t be permanently lifted through spells. Magic can offer temporary respite, though. A remove curse spell cast on the victim of such a curse suppresses the burden for 1 hour. A greater restoration spell suppresses the burden until the victim finishes a long rest. Death usually ends a curse, but the curse returns in full force if the cursed character returns to life without resolving the curse.

Persistent Curses

When a curse is resolved, its effects usually end immediately. Some more insidious curses might linger beyond the resolution but can then be removed by a remove curse spell or similar magic if the victim succeeds on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw when the spell is cast. If the save fails, it can be repeated after a specific interval passes, usually 1 month, with the curse ending on a successful save. Adjust the DC of a particularly weak curse to 10 or that of a stronger one to 20.

Here are some examples of curse resolutions:

Protecting a loved one dear to the person who laid the curse from some dire threat
Returning every piece of a stolen treasure hoard, down to the last copper coin, to the place where it once rested
Slaying the head of a dynasty that has long held power in the region
Accomplishing a seemingly impossible task, such as raising a castle above the clouds or making the sun cross the sky in a different direction

Sample Curses

Provided here are several example curses and the circumstances surrounding them. Change the details of any of these examples to customize them to your adventures.

Ancient Seal

“The House of Lament” is an adventure for a party of four to six 1st-level characters, who will advance to at least 3rd level by the adventure’s conclusion. The adventure’s climax serves as a springboard into future adventures in the Domains of Dread, should you wish to take your campaign into those haunted lands.