Goodman Games

Due to conflicting schedules and other distractions my DCC campaign did not start a feew weeks ago but it looks like everything is settling down and all of us are going to get together "soon". I am working on an adventure that takes place after the funnel. Any input would be appreciated.

The location of the adventure is the home of an influential family in the town; maybe they run the trading company, mine, or something similar. The hook that draws the adventurers in is the disappearance of the family. The house is empty but some people have claimed to see "figures" lurking inside through some of the windows.

Basically, think of a swords & sorceery version of the Resident Evil mansion from the first game; maybe not that big and expansive but the basic idea. I can think of the following rooms:

Dining Room
Family Bedrooms
Kitchen
Servant's Quarters
Study / Library?
Stable area ?
a secret room (accessed from library or a bedroom?) for magic study or experiment ?

My problem is that I just keep coming up blank on room ideas. Any ideas?

I am thinking that a family member was experimenting with magic or some other dark and secret stuff and unleashed some terrible power. The family and all of their workers are now missing. It is up to the PCs to find out what happened to the family and contain the trouble they have unleashed.

Any help would be highly appreciated. I have not done any judging in 20 years so I am a bit rusty.

Infested Wine Cellar
Torture Chamber with strangely fresh stains
Haunted Children's Bedroom and Nursery
Oddly Alien Garden (inc. Well from which noises emanate)
The Attic from which something watches

If the house is big enough, it should have some hidden passages/bolt holes.

A classic trope along those lines is the length of the hall and the width of the rooms off of it don't add up...

Colín & GnomeBoy: you guys rock! That's helpful already.

You're welcome. Also consider as hidden passages the narrow walkways inside walls by which things can move from room-to-room unseen, peering out from the eyeholes of portraits on the walls.

Don't forget some supernatural mirrors too; gateways or viewing devices to places odd and unholy, and from which other things can gaze out.

The house could have it own little dungeon or oubliette too, and maybe a flensing room, a place where the flesh and skin of the experimental subjects is removed, something akin to a butcher's slab awash with blood and horrific steel instruments.

Another cool thing might be The Room That Lives. It's warm, it shifts oddly underfoot, it seems to breathe, and if cut, it bleeds, but it is still just a room.

Secret room(s)/hidden passages

+1

Nice! I hope you don't mind if I swipe that one for my own campaign, Colin...

Have you been playing some Call of Cthulhu secretly?!

Heh. My name's in the contributor's section of the newly revised (and award-winning) edition of Cthulhu by Gaslight for a reason. On a more general note, my games often run with a horrific bent as that's just the way my brain works. For example, in Privateer Press' award-winning Monsternomicon, one of the critters I created was the unique duo of Gristle & Flay, a skinless supernatural "man" and his animate, tattooed skin (which killed you by suffocation and constriction). And you don't wanna know about some of my other creations for other rpg supplements.

Colin

To steal from Harry Potter, which stole from other sources, consider staircases that shift where they lead, and pictures that change or watch you as you move around.

Also:

Greenhouse with hordes of man eating plants
Observatory with portals to other worlds
The Stables ... and what _are_ those stains?

... and if the estate is large enough, they may very well have their own cemetery or mausoleum.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Monsternomicon, very cool. Purchased!

A big THANK YOU to everyone that has responded with ideas. They are all great and will help out tremendously!

Nice!