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Running Cosmic Horror in D&D (Pennywise Inspired)

Flamey The GM

14,463 views

Pennywise from Welcome to Derry is actually a PERFECT D&D villain.
In this video, I show you how to run IT in your tabletop game using fear mechanics, illusions, feeding cycles, deadlights, town-wide corruption, and a fully homebrewed version of Derry inside a fantasy world.

If you want to build a horror campaign, design stronger villains, or bring cosmic terror into D&D, this breakdown will give you everything you need.

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:33 Pennywise Isn’t a Clown
2:22 Run Pennywise as Pressure, Not Combat
3:04 How to Run Derry
4:05 Fear Mechanics
5:56 How Pennywise Hunts
7:49 Feeding the Cycle (Campaign Structure Overview)
7:55 Act 1: The Disappearance
8:43 Act 2: The First Feedings
9:23 Act 3: Discovery of The Pillars
10:45 Act 4: The Rising Aggression
11:24 Act 5: The Augury
12:00 Act 6: Descend Into The Dark
13:02 Escape
13:47 Sequel Hook
14:01 Running Horror Safely
14:42 Closing
15:17 Outro

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#pennywise #welcometoderry #tabletopgame #ttrpg #dnd5e #roleplayinggame #dungeonsanddragons #criticalrole

20 Comments

@ItMeansSun 9 months ago

Finally! Someone who gets horror and knows it isn't just another gross monster

@beowulfbismark2337 9 months ago

I’ve been using Pennywise as a template for black dragons in my setting for years to great success.

@Cadwallader38 7 months ago

The pointy hat "pandemime" demon fits the pennywise vibe very well for anyone who wants more ideas in this realm.

@Abarise 9 months ago

well I know how I'll be running Strahd

@Battleaxolotl912 9 months ago

I haven't used pennywise but I have created an entity that pulls inspiration from Fiddlesticks from LoL and The Unknown from DBD

@Dookieman1975 9 months ago (edited)

Honestly having an Oni haunting a single town, spreading terror is basically all you need for the basics. Could work with a hag too. Just make it so players have to figure out what it is while the Oni makes itself look even more intimidating and unstoppable than a literal evil spirit already is

@snappa_tv 9 months ago

As someone who runs a lot of horror in dnd and especially cosmic horror the best advice I can give is that if you want to do horror right the best horror is a slow burn. Work on making it scary over a lot of sessions. In my experience about 10-20 sessions if slowly dropping hints to having strange encounters leading up to the big reveal works best.
Have your players asking questions. Never knowing what or who to trust. Leaving them with unanswered questions that allows them to worry about it and think about them over weeks and weeks works best.
And don’t show the monster at the end. Make the description vague and let their mind do most of the work. The pay off is fantastic if you do so. Absolutely worth it.

@whiterabbit2029 9 months ago

My players would genuinely hate me. Lol

@rendiar.mp4 9 months ago

call of cthulhu would be perfect for this

@wowforeverspeedruns 9 months ago

I’m working on a dnd app that allows you to setup and run campaigns you can share with people via a join code. Let me know if you’d like to test it out!

@Jason-sj7xi 8 months ago (edited)

Absolutely brilliant- no extra sub-systems, no new fear/horror mechanics, just good storytelling and usage of existing systems to create fear. I especially enjoy the disbelief mechanic. You still see the illusion, you’re just not paralyzed by fear.

@RifterBlade 9 months ago

And that last bit of advice is, to me, the most important. Traumatize the characters, not the players. Leave the characters some agency, or the players will be frustrated instead of having fun. The game is about everyone having fun, not just the DM! My 2 coppers on it.

@Alohadungeoncrawl 9 months ago

This is great!! Totally going to use this! Mahalo for your hard work on this

@gideonkvo7332 9 months ago

I have a false hydra arc coming up pretty soon, I'll definitely be incorporating a bunch of this stuff. Great video!

@FireBowProductions 9 months ago

Here's how I would probably handle things in Daggerheart:

- The entity causes the characters to mark Stress until they're Vulnerable, then appear to "strike". While vulnerable when the PC marks HP, they also lose a Hope.

- When kicking in the Dead Lights, the PC is unable to act unless they can succeed at an Instinct Reaction roll or another PC snaps them out of it. While under the effects of the Dead Lights, the Entity can use a reaction to have the PC lose a Hope.

- When a PC loses a Hope due to the Entity, it regains 1d4 Stress.

- I'd also give the Entity like 2 HP and probably 9 Stress. It would also have another passive that when it would mark HP, it would mark a Stress instead. This is to represent its physical invulnerability until you can "starve it of fear", at which point you can kill it.

Thoughts?

@TheMagicienWorld 9 months ago

Those are nice tips to run Strahd tbh X)

@gamelairtim 9 months ago

Absolutely love the idea of reflavoring/disguising Exhaustion as the death mechanic rather than attack rolls and hp. Daggerheart of course is just waiting for something like Derry (or my boo, Silent Hill) to be written up as an Environment. Imagine a mechanic like, "After the DM gains a Fear, the players choose a party member to mark a Stress".

@BeInspiredwithDominic 8 months ago

I don't think my party is suited for this kind of campaign, but now I want to watch Welcome do Derry (despite lacking the right streaming service). Thanks for sharing!

@colleencarper4331 9 months ago

now i actually want to see an interaction between someone with magic like a Paladin or Cleric try to fight Pennywise. it would be interesting to see the interaction between a spiritual/natural force vs a cosmic one.