A Strange Devil in the Details

On Twitter a while back, I tried to start a conversation and RPG resource trending topic called #rpgoddities. My goal was to have little strange things that could serve as things that could creep players out, be the seed for an adventure, a complication to an ongoing adventure, or be a red herring to mess with the players. At some point I’m going to try and revive the concept because I honestly think that many GMs would find some benefit from thinking of adding small details like this to their games. Here’s the original list that I came up with back in the day.

• A found vial of blood that never dries out and is always hot, almost to the boiling point.

• A warm breeze that carries a smell that is totally at odds with the location. Such as baking bread in an abandoned mansion.

• Sounds and feel that don’t match up with visuals. Walking across a wood floor, only to sound and feel like metal grating.

• A viewing device (magic mirror, tv, website) that shows the PCs in their current location, with no visible means of observation

• Music only heard by the PCs that matches their current situation. Not recordable. Sometimes only heard by 1 PC at a time.

• Mirrors that reflect lights and other mundane things that aren’t in the room with the PCs.

• A book which contains different writing for each person who sees it. The writing changes when someone looks away.

• Cobwebs that appear to spell words in different languages and scripts.

• A set of fancy silverware (or plates/bowls) that causes anybody eating with it to experience taste as color and light.

• A painting whose background constantly changes to reflect the time of day somewhere far away and whose nighttime stars are odd

• A table that, when touched, makes the PC feel like he’d just eaten a large meal, but makes them hungrier when they stop.

• Standing on a particular spot allows a PC to hear gibberish that increases in volume from a whisper the longer they stand there

• The same unidentified man is in the background of every painting/photo/TV the PC sees. And he’s closer every time.

• Walking down a hall leaves the PCs with an undeniable feeling of moving downward. Even when they walk back from where they came

• A compass which points to one specific person, but that specific person changes at random times with no rhyme or reason

• PCs start finding notes in places they’ve never been in their own handwriting about events that they don’t remember.

• In a certain room, PCs all feel like they’ve taken a bite out of their favorite food. Real food eaten in that room tastes rotten

• A wind blowing through a room makes players touched by it feel as though they’ve been bound with chains

• A door that never leads to the same place twice. Every place it leads to is a dead end or otherwise sealed off.

• Any fire in a particular fireplace seems to show a face. The face changes depending on what wood or other item is being burned

• All water in a place, even that brought in from outside, faintly glows blue in the dark. Except on a new moon, when it’s orange

• A light source (torch, flashlight, etc) which makes everything it lights up appear to be 25 years older or abandoned.

• All plants grown on a certain plot of land seem to scream or cry whenever they’re cut or pulled from the ground.

• A camera (video, handheld, phone) which only takes disturbing and warped photos of the subject or area (ie, covered in blood)

• All sound in a room comes from the walls, floor, or ceiling. Not the origin point. Including sounds that the PCs aren’t making

• All timepieces suddenly begin to count backwards. When they reach midnight they break completely and cannot be fixed.

• A clearing in the woods is always clear, bright, and sunny, no matter the weather or time outside of the clearing.

• A personal journal changes handwriting to reflect who is holding it. When nobody is holding it, the writing hurts your eyes.

• A glass figure feels freezing to the touch, but gradually warms and turns red as it’s held. The person doing so gets very tired

• When walking through a cloth covered doorway, the players feel like they’re being grabbed, caressed, and otherwise touched.

• Passing through a doorway seemingly magnetizes all metals, even those which shouldn’t be affected.

• PCs wake up to find that they are looking on their body from a few feet away and cannot look away. The effect fades shortly

• The PCs find a box containing a severed hand that is identical to that of one of the PCs (with unique scars, rings, or other marks). On the hand is written “Welcome back”

• All food cooked in a particular pot gives the diners energy and clarity of thought, but also gives vivid dreams of their death.

• No musical instrument stays in tune or perfectly functional around a PC. Even recorded music skips and is warped.

• After a night camping, the PCs find a ring of footprints around the campsite. No footprints lead to or from the site

• Out of the corner of their eye one of the PCs can see but not hear, a man screaming and crying. Approaching makes him disappear

• All lights in a room are turned off, then turn back on seconds later. All furniture in the room was rearranged in the darkness.

• As the PCs walk through a town, they see the same rooster on nearby rooftops watching them no matter where they go.

• As the PCs fall asleep every night, something whispers a 5 number sequence to them. Different people hear different numbers

• Characters breathing a strange cold mist feel as though something were scrambling down their throat into their body.

I tried to make them as general as possible, able to work in many different game systems and genres. Horror games of all stripes obviously would benefit the most from these added bits of detail, but I’d hope that any game which can use a little taste of the unexplainable, the horrible, or the supernatural can find some use for them. Feel free to add more in the comments.