Purely out of curiosity, has anyone ever tried throwing in unknown, unnamed things into your game? If so, what was the intent when it was introduced? Adding horror elements? Making your players realize just how little the Star Wars Galaxy knows about their own universe? Simply for fun? How did you run the encounter with said unknown entity?

I'm asking because in the last session I ran, the players came across a derelict Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruiser, and discovered that the captain of the cruiser had gone insane staring out into hyperspace, and something caused him to vent his entire crew into the inky void of space during his fit of madness. In the next game, as the players are jumping from the location of the Dreadnaught to Nar Shaddaa, I thought it would be fun if the pilot caught a glimpse of the eldritch thing drifting through the mesmerizing swirl of hyperspace. The encounter won't be long enough to permanently break the mind of my player character, like what happened to the captain of the ill-fated vessel the players just escaped, but it will still be enough to remind the players that the Star Wars galaxy is vast and full of scary things, not all of them known or understood. Nameless things wander through Wild Space, the Unknown Regions seem to actively repel any expeditions lead into them, with many dead or insane, if they ever return at all. It's something I've been wanting to dive into for a while in my game, and the Halloween game I ran was the introduction I needed to introduce these elements.

This is a pbp with lots of horror elements... Its in three mini stories with an interlude, that are parts of the campaign.

First is zombie/alien (the movie) like mobster hoards of rakghoul like creatures.

Second is gore and carnage in an abandoned mall.

Third is going to korriban with dark vergences and body horror.

Horror is one of my favorite genres; but in spite of that, my Star Wars campaign has remained relatively free of it. Not because I think it doesn't belong or anything, but just because I only run it for a quarter of the year and find the other campaigns that I run (Dark Heresy, Iron Kingdoms, and Word of Darkness) to be more conducive to it.

**** NO!

Not in ANY of my games.

Heck, I just quit a campaign because the GM introduced Cthulhu stuff.

No. Absolut-HELLno.

In short;

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, really. Isn't life scary enough?!?!

21 minutes ago, Mark Caliber said:

**** NO!

Not in ANY of my games.

Heck, I just quit a campaign because the GM introduced Cthulhu stuff.

No. Absolut-HELLno.

In short;

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, really. Isn't life scary enough?!?!

Ah come on, don't be such a jittery neek mate. Sometimes horror can be a "spice of life" XD

You could always add some Abeloth stuff.

Not exactly cannon anymore, but the closest thing to eldrich that star wars has seen. Some of the sith stuff can be pretty messed up too if you introduce it correctly.

But if you're looking for something less lovecraft and more star wars you could have them temporarily enter Beyond Shadows while in hyperspace, and say that because they weren't either force-sensitive or trained in mind walking if they are sensitive, then the strain and encounter with the sleeping Abeloth (or awake depending on what time the campaign is) messed them up good.

The pulp fiction that helped inspire Star Wars also included early horror, as evidenced by writers like H.P. Lovecraft (who only ever saw his works published in pulp serials). I think you could make an argument for it that way.

On the other hand, Star Wars itself never seemed to contain much in the way of horror; the mynocks and exogorth are about as close as you get. All the really nasty stuff occurs off-screen.

Personally, I'm not against including some unknown or unexplained things, but I'd probably keep them off-screen. Finding a derelict whose captain went mad in hyperspace is chilling. But for my group, as soon as they see whatever drove the captain insane they'll open fire and try to kill it. Once a murderhobo, always a murderhobo.

15 hours ago, Wandering Terä Käsi Artist said:

Ah come on, don't be such a jittery neek mate. Sometimes horror can be a "spice of life" XD

Black pepper is a spice.

Adobo is a spice.

Salsa can be spicy.

Horror flicks are a poor substitute for you poor mates who don't live in an area saturated with theme park rides.

Rakghouls - zombie, or alien like horror

Sith magik/alchemy or Relic- anywhere from exorcist to poltergeist, or the thing. Or any monster or ghost movie, evil sorcery, etc.

Dark side force vergence or Relic- mind altering horror, illusions, facing your demons, ghosts, evil spirit, body transfer, etc.

Virus/Disease - outbreak, count down/rush for a cure, more rakghouls etc.

Computer - Evil A.I., droid assassin, killer car/speeder, ghost ship etc.

Murder mystery, trapped in an imperial torture room like saw, a who did it/ trapped with a killer, so many more possibilities.

Oh and if you have a group of force sensatives you can do vampire stuff with those aliens with the cheek proboscis that suck force brains life force or whatever.

I haven’t had much Lovecraft-style horror, but I did have my players find a derelict cruiser in the Deep Core, and when they went inside they were followed throughout the ship by creepy black-eyes little girls that they only saw in glimpses and heard in song-song whispers. The ship was unnaturally dark, so that even their lightsabers couldn’t penetrate the darkness, and when they stumbled into the crew, who were all dead, they tried to take a mysterious box from the captain’s skeletal hand, only for the crew to wake up and come after them.

After defeating the undead crew, they learned the ship’s fate had been caused by an ancient Sith relic, which one of the PCs touched, unleashing the Sith Phantasm locked within. The creepy little girls from earlier appeared, stepping out of the shadows and saying that “Mommy” was coming. The freaky girls became monstrous then, and attacked the group as the Sith Phantasm tried to possess one of the players, and almost succeeded. The team barely got out of that one, and left with all due haste.

I don’t know if it really sounds that creepy when put into text like this, but while we were playing I shut off all the lights except for a single black light, and it worked really well. One of my players screamed at one point. He made me promise to never do something like that again. (I lied. I plan on doing something even worse the next campaign we do. *maniacal laugh*)