what are some crazy powers to have players develop in a long term horror game. like not normal pyrokinesis stuff but some unholy spooky stuff like that you wouldn't be proud or confident using.
>>44844966
They seem how everyone around them would die.
>>44845081
hmm how would that work for other PC's
>>44844966
Spontaneously sprouting semi-controllable tentacles?
>>44844966
Don't plan it out ahead of time.
Here's an option: none of the characters gain powers themselves, aside from binding THINGS from beyond the stars. When they're fully bound, they can't do anything but minor magic, like pyrokinesis or the like. The ancient languages spoken are just them speaking to the captives, giving specific instructions.
Two further options present themselves: summoning the creatures fully and granting them some unfortunate autonomy, or binding them into your being. Which has consequences
Immortality but they lose something each time they come back untill they're nothing but a feral amnesiac. foreshadow this by having them run into a slasher who had the same origin. did it in WoD it was awsome
>>44845143
come on dude thats like entry level horror
>>44844966
The ability to morph or change their body parts at will.
Kinda like what The Thing does, but every time they use it there's a chance they'll only be able to partially return to their body part's original form.
For extreme changes there's a chance they won't be able to change it back at all, only morph into differently shaped grotesque extensions.
Holes.
Holes, on the body, which lead... somewhere. It's dark in there, far too dark to see anything. You can feel the hole on your body, you can feel when things enter, but once they're through, they're just sort of... gone. The hole never closes up. They also appear with the simplest thought, to the point where you may have to actively focus on not sprouting more of them.
>>44844966
Passive necromancy. Imagine Sixth Sense, only built up and recognizable by the whole party, and virtually uncontrollable by the PC.
It starts when they encounter the corpse of a traveller on the side of the road, who surprisingly starts breathing again and sits up, even when he's split at the waist.
End with entire towns briefly popping back to life as they pass, panic ensuing as living people are shocked by the dead, and the dead are unable to come to terms with the fact that they're dead
As the player grows in power, the things that come to life keep coming from older and older eras, some nice and others out to kill anything, and eventually the things that are coming out of the ground start becoming less and less human.
>>44845143
>>44845198
How about being followed by an uncontrollable tentacle?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwZET_O2m5s
>>44845143
>drawing on the old wizards boards "list of randomly spooky things which could happen in your game but ultimately have no meaning"
K
>>44844966
raising the dead and having them in your control, but they're constantly pleading you to let them die again.
good, actually, beneficial spells, but every time they cast one, a string of ancient runes or disfiguring scars appears on their body
being able to kill someone with a touch, but they begin to rot slowly over the course of several hours instead of dying right away. so every time you use it you know they're going to die horrifyingly over a long period of time. and you don't really know whether you used it on people by accident like your friends and family, so you're constantly worried about people you may have accidentally touched recently
>>44845282
Jesus Christ that comic took a dark turn fast. I thought it was gonna be some Mandy stuff but holy crap.
>>44845282
Did she get raped by daddy?
>>44844966
>Your hair grows quickly, uncontrollably, and inevitable tangles. When pulled or cut out the clumps crawl about on their own and, with a sort of animal cunning, attempt to fulfill your desires.
>There's some sort of centripetal parasite living in your throat that acts out of hunger or when faced with danger. It's wicked fast, strong enough to punch right through a whole cow, and you're not entirely sure how long it is.
>There seems to be a bit of everything that only you can see. Just a small bit that, when pulled, causes whatever it's a part of to unravel, piece by piece.
>When you look at someone else's fingers, they melt. No exceptions. Just the fingers.
If you're hard up for inspiration I'd read a bunch of Junji Ito comics and try and imagine what it would be like if the protagonists were the one's that had the weird horror powers instead of the antogonists.
Nothing good should come about after contacting eldritch powers. Once the genie is out of the bottle people will die.
Many many people.
Body liquefaction/vaporization.
At first they lose part of their proprioception (like being really, really drunk), the their senses are gradually fused together in a synaesthetic nightmare.
When the liquid is divided they can roughly perceive themselves being torn apart in a group of multiple dying telepathic beings.
When the liquid is absorbed by something they feel that their mind is blended with the environment.
Growing microscopic organisms to man size.
>>44845853
Yes.
Giving the dark depth.
>>44845909
Came into this thread and my mind went immediately to Junji Ito. So I'm seconding this anon
>>44844966
The ability to draw a targets blood out through their pores/eyes slowly, resulting in them crying/sweating blood until they end up a shrivelled corpse.
>>44846146
Short horror fiction is generally good for strange powers because they don't feel the need to bog everything down with an explanation.
So they should give one of their players a power based on that one Steven King story about a finger crawling out of a guys sink drain.
You can get someones entirely life history, but only if you consume their entire skeleton.
Regeneration, temporary invulnerability or some similar buff.
The user doesn't know (at first) but the harm is displaced onto some random unfortunate within range.
>>44845117
Talk to the DM sessions ahead and talk to him about their deaths for coming sessions.
Have the PC know about their death but not how, seed paranoia between players
>"Your last breaths will be a struggle, as if water fills your lungs"
Cue said PC avoiding all water scenarios, leading to interesting freeform and more cautious play.
>>44846553
>Your last breaths will be a struggle, as if water fills your lungs
That's fucking perfect actually
He thinks he will die from water, and acts reckless when ever it's not around
Sooner or later he fucking up and gets killed and that's when DM drops the
"Monster deals the final blow, with a ruthless strike it slashes at your throat tearing it to bloody mess. Before even feeling pain, you start to choke and struggle on the ground, as your blood flows outside and inside your throat. Your cough and cough, unable to take a breath as your lungs are filling up with your own blood
>>44846854
Adding an aspect of paranoia to a campaign will allow PC's to build on their own characters. A barbarian wouldn't care, thinking it's superstitious nonsense. A cleric or paladin would consult their domain to make amends and discover the point of the adventure that their quest ends. A selfish wizard would risk anything to ensure his ending fate never happens.
I've never DM'd nor played tabletop due to a lack of time, but I'm fascinated and love the idea of interactive story telling. And being able to exploit human psychology to affect events in game would be fantastic to see.
Glad you find promise in my theory
>>44844966
You can slowly pull out someone's nervous system, bit by bit. Including your own. It's incredibly painful, but somehow the body still functions even if bits of the nervous system have been pulled out. But they lose pain and other sensation.
Similar question to OP:
I'm running an H.P. Lovecraft style horror game, and I want there to be one single spell hidden in the town they are stranded in that (if they find it) will aid them in some beneficial way.
I want it to have a catch, though. Any ideas? They're only up against Deep Ones, cultists, and crazed citizens.
>>44846101
Dank
The ability to give somebody an aura of bad luck
The ability to make something decay
Enhanced suggestion
The ability to see the way, but not time that a person will die
the ability to see the time, but now way that a person will die
Being able to distend their jaw like a snake and swallow people whole.
Regenerating, but the parts don't come back quite right. Like they come back spongy...or filled with pockets of fluid.
Flaying people alive at a touch.
Causing pic related.
Drowning people alive by filling their lungs with fluid.
>>44848182
shit, here's pic related
>>44844966
Mind-reading (paranoid thoughts only).
>>44848027
Go to church anon
>>44845514
Oh no, that whole series is pretty fucked.
>>44848220
>acute cranial osteosarcoma
You cruel bastard of a man
>You can give birth to a creature that is an amalgam of every creature you've eaten in the last 24 hours.
>Your fingers have little mouths on them that eat any living flesh them come into contact with. They become longer the more they consume.
>Every time you you snap your fingers you become supernaturally lucky at whatever you are currently attempting, such that it's nearly impossible to fail. At the same time someone that you know, chosen at random, will become supernaturally unlucky at something they are attempting, such that it's nearly impossible to survive.
>You can become one with your shadow. You/your shadow stays where it was when you merged and can not move from that spot under its own power, but it is not immobile. To move you must simply murder another shadow within reach and attach to the now shadowless creature/object. You do not change to resemble the shadow of what you're now attached to. Creatures/objects with murdered shadows regrow their shadows in about an hours time after you detach. Shadows may fight back when attacked.
>>44849344
There's a series?
>>44849510
Yes.
http://imgur.com/a/mDf8c#0
It's made to spread awareness and it's supposed to make you feel uncomfortable.
>>44849510
Better link.
http://www.whatisdeepfried.com/2001/01/01/clarissa-ruins-thanksgiving/
>The ability to create powerful, but partially uncontrollable electrical disturbances. Anyone in contact with metal nearby will be fatally shocked, and lightning arcs from thin air or powerlines.
>The ability to convince anyone have anything requiring a minimum of props. For example, one could convince a pedestrian to walk in front of a car by telling them the colour of the car is like a light breeze or pass through any number of security measures simply by writing the word pass on a small piece of paper. The power is immensely tiring though, and requires consumption of large amounts of food. Brain tumour optional.
>Extended life or possibly immortal with the ability to greately contort their body, squeezing through very small gaps. Must eat raw liver and hibernates for days at a time.
>The ability to change your appearance at will, though painful. Only trait that remains at all times is a short tail.
>Shadows destroys anything that touches it, behaving as a bizarre black hole type structure it eradicates all matter that enters it's range. Can be counter acted by avoiding harsh light and standing in soft light, which diffuses the shadow to harmless levels.
>Can manifest another, temporary, version of themselves to act on their will. While the other is alive though, it acts of it's own volition, as an exaggerated version of the original.That's all I remember from the X-files.
You have a happy little flower growing somewhere on your body, which spits out little seeds occasionally. If you plant one of these seeds in a dead body that person will come back to life with no memory of ever having died, all the vital missing bits being filled in with plant matter that is, on the outside, indistinguishable from skin. They'll be just as they were, with the exception of being a little less hungry and a little more thirsty.
To power these plant zombies the happy little flower occasionally grows into a giant evil venus fly trap and devours living people. You can present people to the flower for it to eat, or point it at those you thing deserve it, but if the flower gets hungry enough it will hulk out and eat anyone that happens to be around. The more people that you've revived with the seeds the more often the flower has to eat. If one of the plant zombies is severely damaged the flower will hulk out instantly and attempt to eat until it has the energy to make repairs unless you're willing to let the person go.
>>44849866
>The ability to walk through matter, horribly degrading it in the process. The exception to this is glass.
>>44850093
Which can still be walked through, but if it's not safety glass you're gonna have a bad time.
You can rearrange the function of every orifice in your body.
You can remove peoples eyes and see through them. Any eye you just leave somewhere will rot at a normal pace, but you can embed them on your own body to keep them fresh and yank them out as needed.
By placing your hand on another persons head you can copy yourself into their body.
