Crystal Lake - A D&D One-Shot Horror!
About the adventure
The serene and scenic Crystal Lake is beautiful this time of year. The crisp autumn air, the changing colors of the leaves, and the cool breeze off the lake provides the perfect place to get away from the hectic adventuring lifestyle. A campground on the shores of the lake provides relaxing activities to enjoy the scenery and setting. But this year, an ancient evil awakens and threatens to shatter the serenity of the lake. The adventurers must abandon their plans for relaxation and save the innocent residents of the lake - and themselves - from a terrible demonic presence obsessed with revenge. Crystal Lake is a horror-themed one-shot adventure for characters of all levels. This product contains all the guidance needed to scale the encounters to match any character levels all the way from level 1 up to the maximum level of 20. Content Warning This adventure is inspired by traditional horror movies and contains scenes of graphic violence and gore. The Dungeon Master and players should be aware that this product contains: horror, body mutilation, decapitation, stalking, drowning, missing persons, and gore.
Meet the Game Master
About me
Hello! I started playing D&D back during the early red box days, took a very long break, and have rediscovered my love for TTRPGs in recent years. Mostly playing and DM'ing D&D 5E these days, which I got into back in 2015. I have an in-person group that meets regularly, and two different online campaigns going (one as a player and one as a DM). I'm very comfortable with online systems like Roll20 and Foundry VTT, as well as using Discord. I've run several of the official adventures, as well as written and run my own original adventures and campaigns. And speaking of writing, I have several items published on DMs Guild, including the popular "Puzzles, Predicaments, and Perplexities" series. I'm looking forward to running games and meeting players of a wide range of experience, and I'm just as comfortable DM'ing for veterans as brand new players.
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Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Creativity
Rule of Cool
Storytelling
Character creation
Creating your character
This adventure (by default) is geared towards Level 7 characters. However, it's flexible enough to change the character level. So if a group wants to come in with a level 3 party or a level 20 party (or anywhere in between), we can make it work. Pre-made characters are provided for those who would like to just jump into the action without having to create or bring their own character. However, bringing your own character is totally fine as well, whether it be a brand new character you make just for this adventure or an existing character that you bring. New characters should use the Standard Array for stats. New and existing characters should adhere to "standard" published WotC books. (i.e., no homebrew please, although exceptions can be made if discussed beforehand.) Any non-premade characters need to be loaded into Roll20 ahead of time, so a character sheet or link (such as to D&D Beyond) needs to be provided to the DM ahead of time. Last but not least, if any pre-made groups want to run this together, we can discuss what level it's run at. The adventure is designed to be scalable, so it doesn't take any additional preparation to tweak a few of the encounters for lower or higher levels.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
Discord is used for voice communication, so you'll need a Discord account and a microphone. Cameras are optional. A Roll20 account is needed. If you choose to use a pre-made characters, we will decide who gets to play which pre-made before the session starts. If you choose to bring a character, you'll need to provide a character sheet or D&D Beyond link prior to the session.
What Steve "Jaspor" Orr brings to the table
This adventure is played on the Roll20 VTT. (An account is required. A free account works just fine.) Custom maps, tokens, puzzle handouts, and other artwork to help visualize the setting are provided within Roll20. The DM may use some character voices for key NPCs. Generally we'll follow the Rules as Written, but Rule of Cool can certainly triumph in some cases. This adventure has a medium amount of combat and a good amount of roleplaying opportunities as the party attempts to survive and defeat the evil entity. So if you're looking for an adventure that is a combat heavy dungeon crawl, this might not be the one for you.
Platforms used
Safety
How Steve "Jaspor" Orr creates a safe table
X, N, & O safety tools will be messaged to the DM privately.