I traditionally run a Halloween/Horror game every October 31st for my friends, and I am very interested in doing the same this year. I have been bouncing some ideas in my head for ways to roll this into the current Star Wars game I am running (mostly involving either alien ruins on a planet in the unknown regions, or a derelict ship encountered after a Hyperspace malfunction of some kind).

I know it is kind of contrary to the style of Star Wars, but I like doing change of pace things in my games from time to time. Has anyone done something like this before? Any thing I need to try to keep aware of to make sure I don't deviate too far from Star Wars (I have ruled actual Undead out for this reason, but wouldn't mind ideas that appear to be undead or the like at first but are just really weird creatures)?

You may find some ideas here...

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/90740-games-with-a-halloween-horror-bent-to-them/

Check out the nearby Zombies! thread too... the Blackwing Virus concept is the clearest link to a zombie horror type theme.

On the other hand, other themes might include the Nightsisters of Dathomir, or exploring an area strong with the Dark Side of the Force ("Remember your failure at the tree!!") The latter could be a really good ghost-type story where the players actually end up effectively battling themselves as they explore a (unknown to them) Sith ruin.

Conversing with force ghosts is very much a part of Star Wars.

I could see a situation where a force ghost of a being who died traumatically leaving something important unfinished might go a bit crazy and start terrorising people Poltergeist style, until the party can complete whatever business is keeping them around and lay them properly to rest.

Yeah, I started looking at the zombie thread after this. Some good ideas there, would make for a good intense action scenario. The Force ghosts and similar might make for a more subtle type of creepy horror, but I think my group is more action oriented, they seem to get bored with extended "story" sections. The only problem with the action oriented type of Horror, is that normally you need players to run away at points, and this group might be a bit too much of a stand and fight to the death type.

Yeah, I started looking at the zombie thread after this. Some good ideas there, would make for a good intense action scenario. The Force ghosts and similar might make for a more subtle type of creepy horror, but I think my group is more action oriented, they seem to get bored with extended "story" sections. The only problem with the action oriented type of Horror, is that normally you need players to run away at points, and this group might be a bit too much of a stand and fight to the death type.

Do characters in zombie movies stand and fight every time? No, there are often times where no matter how good/smart you are, you are against insurmountable odds and need to run/hide/regroup.

Need I remind you what happened to Private Hudson in Aliens?

Players, though, tend to turn up to pretend to be heroes and not to pretend to run away and so can be very reluctant to do something that might, in a certain light, look less that totally badass.

As such, it is probably better to redefine their objectives in to something more soothing to their egos.

For instance, their goal is not to run away from the zombies, but rather to kill their way through the zombies fast enough to reach the other survivors before said survivors are overrun. Or to hold out against endlessly respawning waves of zombies for X turns until the blast doors shut.

Yeah, I started looking at the zombie thread after this. Some good ideas there, would make for a good intense action scenario. The Force ghosts and similar might make for a more subtle type of creepy horror, but I think my group is more action oriented, they seem to get bored with extended "story" sections. The only problem with the action oriented type of Horror, is that normally you need players to run away at points, and this group might be a bit too much of a stand and fight to the death type.

I'm going to start the Zombie campaign this Saturday. I will let you know what worked and what didn't if you are thinking about Zombies.

I too run a Halloween/horror game each year. Sometime within the next week or so, I am going to post an EotE adventure I'm creating with a horror theme. It's not zombies but more of a murder mystery/mob hysteria/ancient evil type game. If you are interested keep an eye out!

My players started up a similar conversation to this at the end of tonight's game. We've just finished our episode V, a museum heist.

They want a Halloween horror game. Their requests included:

Not allowed to use Cthulhu.

Can have zombies but not Stormtrooper zombies.

Want old school Hammer Horror.

Going to make a cup of tea and starting thinking about it.

Want old school Hammer Horror.

Vampires are beings who drain the living force from their victims to extend their own lives.

Maybe the crew get a job of carrying an estate agent to visit a nobleman out on the fringe so he can sell him property on Coruscant. Naturally, the nobleman is Space Dracula, and he imprisons the party in his castle (in the care of his Vampire Brides) while he heads off to Coruscant to find his lost love reincarnated in the being of the estate agents fiancée, Space Mina Harker. The PCs must escape the castle, get to Coruscant, save Mina, meet Space Van Helsing (who is a Jedi) and hunt down the count.

Sleepy Hollow? A remote farming community is terrorised by a Headless Battledroid on a hoverbike. The droid was notorious for its evil deeds during the Clone wars, but was thought decapitated and destroyed. While the townsfolk assume it is taking revenge on them for damaging it, the droid is controlled by one of the townsfolk who reactivated it and is using it to eliminate their rivals.

There are definitely ways to do "horror in scifi." One of my favorite scenarios is where the group comes across a derelict ship or space station and decide to board to see what they can get for salvage, only to find that some terrible event has taken place. Of course, the creatures or cult or whatever nasty thing you want to come up with is still inside...

This is the basis for most good Call of Cthulhu games. The players get put into a weird situation where they have to figure out what is going on, and then figure out how to deal with the horror that has been unleashed. It's been used in sci-fi as well. Alien and Aliens are the best examples, but Firefly also did a great job with this scenario when they came across a colonist spaceship Reavers had attacked. One group explores the ship, one group has to disarm the booby trap the Reavers left for anyone that came trying to help, one group carries out the salvage operation and then everyone has to deal with the Alliance and the nascent Reaver that was left behind.

Personally, this Halloween I'm running my players through an adventure that is, shall we say, heavily influenced by the Indiana Jones movies. In addition to the constant action and the need for the players to adapt to situations as they get worse and worse, which is perfect when you consider advantages, triumph, threats and despairs, they're also going to encounter Jedi and Sith in Star Wars history. Since only one person in my group has any Force sensitivity, coming face to face with the remnants and artifacts of beings who wielded supernatural powers in very dark ways should provide the group with all the supernatural they need.

Here are some more spooky situations you can throw at the group:

• An unknown bounty hunter or alien infiltrates the ship and stealthily attacks the players while they're traveling.
• The players make a delivery to a town where the inhabitants are acting strangely. Why are they acting that way? Why won't they let the PCs leave?
• The players explore a planet that was supposed to be uninhabited. So why do the scanners detect signs of civilization?
• A Clawdite with a thorough dossier on the players infiltrates the group. Why? How can the players tell who's who?
• The players have to transport some cargo, sight unseen. Halfway through the trip, the cooling units on the crates break down. Why are the crates moving, and what are the sounds coming from them?

I ran a horror themed session awhile back with Saga edition. The players discovered a derelict Chiss frigate. The Chiss had been experimenting on various biological weapons, primarily weaponizing the Rakghoul virus and the Mnggal-Mnggal. The Mnggal, being as intelligent as it is, managed to invest the crew and unleash the Rakghouls upon them.

The party initially believes the crew to be dead, but in reality their Mnggal controlled bodies were just dormant, and reawoke when new lifeforms became present. The party discovers large blobs of Mnggal in the galley, (the crew was infected through their food) and eventually makes their way to the bridge where they fight a few Rakghouls and then use the controls to overload the hyperdrives. (It helps if someone has some decent knowledge or mechanics skills as Chiss technology should be pretty foreign to most people) The session culminates with the party chased by a horde of Mnggal zombies while trying to make it back to their ship in time before the whole thing blows.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mnggal-Mnggal

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rakghoul