I'm planning a road trip horror campaign, where players will drive down an ominous high way and encounter things like haunted motels, cryptids in the woods, small towns with dark secrets, bands of murderous bikers, etc. I already got some ideas brewing (like most rest stops are odd, but not dangerous to get the players to let their guards down when the dangerous ones pop up, crashed cars on the roadside that can be scavenged but will try and run them off the road later), but could we get a thread going for road trip horror ideas, like the space horror threads in the good ol' days?
>>96769046Don't forget top-secret government test sites in the area. Bonus points if the game takes place during the Cold War.
>>96769157A recently set up Nuke Town would be a sick place for players to run into. Could even be something really powerful and really deadly that also ISN'T a nuke that gets released on it.
>>96769157>Don't forget top-secret government test sites in the area. Bonus points if the game takes place during the Cold War.Better yet, the players at one point end up in one of those false towns that the US military has been operating for decades; on rare occasions, random civilians can travel through these and the soldiers (read: literally everyone) are supposed to play their part, Truman Show style.You could even combine the two, where you have a false town that operates as a front - like a Potemkin village (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village) - combined with a top security test site behind the scenes. The players should experience a "normal" false town before encountering one of these, I think. Should be some especially odd things going on.
>>96769046I think the best idea will be to explain why player characters choose to engage with all that stuff. They can't all have just gotten mail from a dead wife.
>>96769046So American Gods?
>>96769727I'm not familiar, beyond the fact I haven't heard it described as horror before. Any stuff from it that's worth harvesting?
>>96769843There are certainly horror elements, one of the first chapters has a character eat a man through her vagina as she's having sex with him and the way it's described is a real Lovecraftian mindfuck. It's been a while though so I can't think of any other specific examples, but the book oozes Americana.
>>96769867>one of the first chapters has a character eat a man through her vagina as she's having sex with himThat is a very fine metaphor
>>96769046Back when I ran a superhero game, the South West highways wete stuffed with spooky paranormal shit. Ghosts of natives and highwaymen forever stuck in conflict, weird fucked horses showing up out of nowhere, ghoul brides luring fools into a certain death, all that jazz. Sometimes I'd also add really weird and suspicious people just casually standing along the road.Like another Anon said, Aliens are mandatory. I'd also add subtle paranormal oddities like non-sensical signs, the road suddenly taking a sharp turn into a loop the loop, the car radio picks up the schizophrenic rants of some lunatic who appears to be VERY close to the characters, etc
>>96769867Yeah, that definitely sounds worth a look at. Thanks for the tip.
>>96770079Also deer. God, I hate these fuckers. They show up unannounced and either explode into gibs in front of your car or just stare at you as you drive past them. Judging you.
Why would the PCs not just go NOPE? I mean, they have a fucking car.I mean, in horror generally the protagonists are just stuck in there/the bad guy is inexecapble. Or have an obligation of sorts to beat evil. This is clearly not the case with a bunch of people doing a road trip (hell, even in actual horror road trips like the Hills have Eyes, first thing go is the ability to drive away).Maybe the highway itself is Silent Hill 666? Like a parallel dimension?Anyway have a classic tale of (low key) spoopiness on the road https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/the-transdimensional-gas-station.23173/
>>96770183Maybe the Highway traps them, similar to how the little village in the TV show from Traps the protagonists and they don't have a choice until the Highway decides to release them?
>>96770262*From
>>96770262>TrapsI'll assume this not about what I think it is about
