TEXT: Horror Gm’s 
  ToolkiT
  Paul “Wiggy” Wade-Williams
  
  
  By: 
  Paul “Wiggy” Wade-Williams
  Editing: Jodi Black
  Proofreading: Simon Lucas, Piotr Korys, Dave Blewer
  Layout: Sarah Robinson
  Art: Leanne Buckley, Chris Malidore, Daniel Rudnicki
  Savage Worlds Rules by Shane Lacy Hensley
  Requires the Savage Worlds rules, available at 
  www.peginc.com.
  Savage Worlds, Smiling Jack, Great White Games, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and all associated marks and logos are 
  Copyright © 2006, Great White Games. 
  Horror 
  Gm’s 
  ToolkiT
  
  
  inTroducTion
  Virtually every Savage Setting has some element of horror in it. 
  Okay, we’ve given you enough horror to make your hair go gray, but what if you want to create your own 
  setting? What steps do you need to take to make your world setting come to life? What gear should you use, 
  and are the existing spells dark enough? 
  Created with this in mind, the Horror GM’s Toolkit is a handy resource for cutting corners. It contains 
  advice, example rules, and gear both magical and mundane, suitable for any style of horror game. 
  We begin our walk down the path of darkness with a look at some styles of horror. This is primarily 
  intended for those of you who wish to create your own setting, and it explains what decisions you need to make 
  to lay the foundation. Then we take a brief look at creating atmosphere at the table.
  The next chapter introduces new equipment suitable for a range of horror settings, including weapons 
  and ghost hunting equipment. Whether you want to kill vampires or just bust ghosts, there’s something 
  here for you.
  Then we enter the darker realms, taking a look at sanity, insanity, and fear, and how you can use them 
  in your game. Following that we present a quick way to create grimoires (magic tomes), including books that 
  supply the Power Points and arcane skill. 
  Next we present a look at dark magic, including a system for summoning, binding, and banishing demons 
  and other extradimensional entities, and some new powers suitable for the vilest of villains. Related to this are 
  sections on curses and demonic pacts.
  There’s also a sample of magic items suitable for horror games, ranging from anti-demon swords to 
  vampire’s coffins. Finally, we end up presenting a system on how you can introduce fortune telling into your 
  horror setting.
  None of the new rules are written in stone. Instead, think of them as guidelines and examples to help 
  you design the setting you’ve always wanted. If you want to use the material as it stands, then that’s going to 
  save you some time. However, if you want to use it as a model for your own rules and creations, then that’s 
  just as cool.
  Boo!
  Did I scare you, cowards? No, well, we’ll see if we can’t change that attitude once 
  yu start reading.
  What you have in your sweaty hands, in case you missed it on the cover, is a toolkit 
  designed to help the GM create a cool horror setting.
  What’s a toolkit do? Let me tell you what it doesn’t do—it doesn’t give you another rulebook. 
  Sure, it’s got rules in, but they’re optional with a capital “O.” The aim of these toolkits is to 
  make your life easier as a GM by giving you tools—remember that word, kiddies—to making your 
  own setting as unique and exciting as anything my deformed minions produce.
  They explore every aspect of a setting, and I mean every aspect. From designing a cool 
  world to populating it with interesting cultures; from designing new weapons to cool artifacts, 
  like magic and starships.
  A lot of what’s in these toolkits is advice rather than gospel. You get to pick and choose the 
  bits you want for your setting and discard the rest.
  And if you don’t like what Jack has to say, change it!
  We’ve giving you the tools to make kick-ass settings—if your game falls flat after reading 
  this, then it’s your own fault for not following my advice.
  Now, get reading and go make Jack proud!
  
  TaBle oF conTenTs
  
  introduction 
  3
  draWing Board 
  5
  style of Horror 
  5
  action 
  5
  greater evil 
  5
  dark 
  6
  setting 
  6
  fantasy 
  6
  sci-fi 
  6
  modern 
  6
  Historical 
  8
  oPen or secret  
  knoWledge 
  8
  oPen 
  8
  closed 
  9
  location 
  9
  Hook 
  9
  Plot Point 
  9
  Plot Point ideas 
  10
  Background 
  10
  forWard Planning 
  10
  creating atmosPHere 
  11
  set tHe initial mood 
  11
  traPPings & tools 
  11
  sHoW, don’t tell 
  12
  isolation 
  12
  tHe sense of tHe  
  unknoWn 
  12 
  suBtlety vs gore 
  12
  tools of tHe trade 
  13
  melee WeaPons 
  13
  corPse catcHer 
  13
  stake 
  14
  ranged WeaPons 
  14
  atomic gHost 
   
  Hunting Pack 
  14
  flare Pistol 
  14
  Holy Water grenade 
  14
  Holy Water Pistol 
  14
  rePeating crossBoW 
  15
  WincH crossBoW 
  15
  ultraviolet grenade 
  15
  ammunition 
  15
  garlic Bullets 
  15
  silver Bullets 
  15
  silver nitrate Bullets 
  15
  ultraviolet Bullets 
  15
  Holy Water 
  15
  making Holy Water 
  16
  mundane gear 
  16
  crucifix 
  16
  gHost traP 
  16
  melee WeaPons 
  17
  ranged WeaPons 
  17
  ammunition 
  17
  kirlian camera, still 
  17
  kirlian camera, video 
  17
  kirlian goggles 
  19
  mirror 
  19
  motion tracker 
  19
  neck Protector 
  19
  uv flasHligHt 
  19
  Warding material 
  19
  sanity & fear 
  19
  sanity 
  19
  starting sanity 
  20
  losing sanity 
  20
  recovering sanity 
  20
  sanity recovery taBle 
  20
  treatment 
  20
  losing it 
  20
  edges & Hindrances 
  21 
  douBting tHomas 
  21 
  (major Hindrance)
  Hardened  (Weird edge) 
  21
  sound mind  (social edge) 
  21
  magic 
  21
  fear 
  21
  knoW tHe rules 
  21
  frequency of cHecks 
  21
  modifiers 
  22
  additional fear  
  modifiers 
  22
  insanity taBle 
  22
  tomes of PoWer 
  23
  mundane tomes 
  24
  taBle 1a: suBject taBle 
  24
  taBle 1B: skill Bonus 
  24
  taBle 1c: language 
  24
  naming Books 
  24
  descriPtion 
  26
  using a mundane tome 
  26
  Passive 
  26
  active 
  26
  samPle mundane Books 
  26
  tHe land of atlantis 
  26
  ecliPses, alignments, 
  and otHer celestial 
  events 
  26
  egyPtian Book  
  of tHe dead 
  26
  leylines of  
  Western euroPe 
  27
  tHe sealing of jars 
  27
  sPell tomes 
  27
  taBle 2a: arcane 
  Background 
  27
  taBle 2B: 
  random sPell 
  27
  grimoires 
  27
  creating a grimoire 
  28
  taBle 3a: arcane Background 28
  taBle 3B: sPell 
  28
  taBle 3c: arcane PoWer 
  and PoWer Points
  taBle 3d: numBer of  
  28
  sPeical aBilities
  taBle 3e: sPeical aBilities 28
  using a grimoire 
  28
  no arcane Background 
  28
  arcane Background 
  30
  examPle grimoires 
  30
  Book of eartHly 
  resurrection 
  30
  Book of tHe 
  WritHing one 
  30
  tHe dark scriPture 
  30
  tHe fletcHer’s guide 
  30
  liBer timor 
  30
  dark magicks 
  30
  summoning rituals 
  31
  WHat can Be summoned? 
  31
  summoning sPells 
  31
  rank 
  31
  cost 
  31
  range 
  31
  duration 
  31
  traPPings 
  32
  timing 
  32
  arcane skill roll 
  32
  Bargaining 
  33
  Bargaining modifiers 
  33
  samPle summoning  
  sPells 
  34
  summon Black judge 
  34
  summon gluttony demon 
  34
  summon jjrikillimsg 
  34
  summon liBrarian demon 
  34
  summon living god 
  34
  summon terrorizer 
  34
  Warding 
  34
  creating a Warding 
  35
  testing tHe Ward 
  35
  Binding & BanisHing 
  35
  Bind entity 
  35
  BanisH entity 
  35
  neW PoWers 
  36
  designing from scratcH 
  36
  introducing neW sPells 
  36
  examPle neW PoWers 
  36
  consecrate ground 
  38
  corPse senses 
  38
  drain life 
  38
  encHant WeaPon 
  38
  enHance undead 
  38
  grave sHroud 
  39
  grave sPeak 
  39
  nigHtmares 
  39
  sacrifice 
  39
  sPirit sHield 
  40
  strengtH of tHe 
  undead suPPress 
  40
  lycantHroPy 
  40
  curses 
  40
  mundane curses 
  41
  fundamentals 
  41
  tyPes of curses 
  41
  self-induced 
  41
  vengeance 
  41
  Wording a curse 
  41
  crime & PunisHment 
  42
  triggers 
  42
  strengtH 
  42
  deadly 
  42
  dangerous 
  42
  deBilitating 
  42
  annoying or 
  emBarrassing 
  42
  looPHoles 
  43
  game mecHanics 
  43
  curse modifier taBle 
  43
  effects 
  43
  examPle curses 
  44
  tyPical fantasy curse 
  44
  limited effect curse 
  44
  PoWerful curse 
  44
  magical curses 
  44
  existing sPell 
  44
  extended duration taBle 44
  neW sPells 
  45
  examPle curse sPells 
  45
  curse of tHe BaBBling fool 45
  curse of tHe emPty stomacH 45
  curse of lost sigHt 
  45
  curse of misfortune 
  45
  curse of luna’s calling 
  45
  curse of tHe snail’s Pace 
  47
  demonic Pacts 
  47
  not for Players 
  47
  finding a Patron 
  47
  tHe Pact 
  48
  reWards 
  48
  Basic system 
  48
  intermediate system 
  48
  detailed system 
  48
  tHe cost 
  49
  salvation 
  49
  final Word 
  50
  magic items 
  50
  Bandages of anuBis 
  50
  Blood money 
  50
  Brazier of 
  conjuration 
  50
  canniBal mask 
  50
  ceramic masks 
  52
  cold iron cHainmail 
  52
  corPse dust 
  52
  diary of a madman 
  52
  flail of unHealing flesH 
  52
  frankenstein’s 
  laBoratory 
  52
  corPse golem 
  53
  grave dust 
  53
  Hellfire Blade 
  53
  Hockey mask of terror 
  53
  jack’s scalPel 
  53
  jade mirror 
  53
  mark of tHe demon 
  55
  collector demon 
  55
  moonBlade 
  55
  music infernalis 
  56
  nigHtmare stone 
  56
  Portrait of immortality 
  56
  Puzzle Box 
  56
  ring of magical Warding 
  56
  sacrificial knife 
  57
  soul candles 
  57
  staff of tHe necromancer 57
  temPlar Blade 
  57
  voodoo dolls 
  57
  Warding cHalk 
  58
  Wax messengers 
  58
  WitcHes’ cauldron 
  58
  vamPire’s coffin 
  58
  fortune telling 
  58
  limiting readings 
  59
  Basic card system 
  59
  Basic dice system 
  59
  in-dePtH card system 
  59
  tHe story metHod 
  59
  Professional edges 
  60
  designing neWedges 
  60
  name 
  60
  requirements 
  60
  Bonus 
  62
  draWBacks 
  62
  acquisition 
  62
  Background 
  63
  arcane Professional edges 63
  examPle Professional edges 63
  exorcist 
  63
  fanaticism
  (leadersHiP edge) 
  63
  fortune teller 
  64
  necromancer 
  64
  imProved necromancer 
  64
  occult researcHer 
  64
  talisman creator 
  64
  vamPire slayer 
  64
  WereWolf Hunter 
  64
  
  
  drawinG Board
  Horror stories are as old as humanity. Most people fear 
  something, and for our ancestors there was much to be afraid of. 
  Check out any culture on Earth and you’ll find stories of ghosts, 
  werecreatures, vampires, and other horrors.
  But times have changed, and horror has evolved to find a 
  place among other genres. In the past we had ghost stories, but 
  now we have stories of aliens that grow inside human hosts, and 
  spaceships which have traveled to alternate dimensions and come 
  back with an evil presence aboard.
  Horror games can be set anywhere from the days of 
  cavemen through to the glory of Rome, and onto the modern 
  era and far beyond.
  The first thing you need to decide is what type of horror game 
  you’re running. We don’t mean the obvious choices, like fantasy or 
  sci-fi, although we’ll mention those as well, but the actual flavor of 
  the game. Take a look below and you’ll see what we mean.
  style of Horror
  Horror isn’t just about scaring people. Sure, that’s important, 
  otherwise it wouldn’t be horror, but there are several styles of 
  horror, each with its own scare factor. The first step you need to 
  take is to decide which style fits the tone of your setting.
  Of course, by combining various elements, you can create a 
  more unique feel to your world.
  Action
  Action horror combines the usual horror monsters and 
  elements with fast paced action and two-fisted combat. It’s 
  cinematic horror where the monsters get their butts kicked more 
  often than not.
  Action horror doesn’t have to be stuck in either the pulp 
  or modern settings, as it often is on TV or in the movies. A 
  cowboy setting with gunslinging heroes can be action horror, as 
  can a Roman game, where the characters are legionnaires pitting 
  Roman steel against the horrors of the barbarian lands.
  In an action game, monsters still have cool powers, but they 
  aren’t usually so tricky to kill. For instance, a standard vampire 
  has to be staked through the heart, which incurs a huge penalty 
  to attack rolls. Sure, this suits certain styles of horror, but not 
  this one.
  Wouldn’t your game run faster if vampires took hits as 
  normal? The blow that actually kills the creature could be 
  considered to have been a stake to the heart or decapitation 
  without needing to worry about dice mechanics.
  Action horror heroes aren’t innocent victims waiting to be 
  butchered by evil fiends, either. No, these guys are more akin to 
  your typical fantasy or pulp heroes, and can hold their own in a 
  fight against all but the toughest foes.
  And there should be some tough foes. Sure, there are 
  vampires and zombies that you can bitch slap into submission, 
  but there should also be powerful entities the group can’t just 
  walk up to and beat senseless.
  An action game is likely to make use of “magic items,” and 
  characters are probably going to have access to them. Swords 
  enchanted to slay vampires, occult books, cloaks of demonhide, 
  and such like are tools rather than treasures.
  Likewise, the heroes may have access to magic or miracles, 
  depending on how far you want to take the action. Unlike some 
  other types of horror, this magic doesn’t corrupt the user, or 
  require messy sacrifices. No, this magic is designed for the good 
  guys to wield in their war on evil.
  GreAter evil
  Mankind is pretty proud of his achievements since he 
  climbed down from the trees. He’s created cities, laws, religion, 
  vehicles that allow him to travel across the world in hours, and 
  has even made his first steps to the stars.
  That’s all well and good, but what if there is an evil in the 
  universe against which all our technology is next to useless? What 
  if mankind’s destiny isn’t to make some galactic empire, but to be 
  subjected to the whims of powerful beings akin to gods?
  In the greater evil style of horror, mankind is nothing, a 
  race of mindless insects running around one small rock in an 
  otherwise hostile universe. Aliens aren’t little green men who 
  come in peace to trade cultural and technological ideals, either. 
  No, what lives beyond our world is too alien for humans to 
  understand and knows nothing of mercy or compassion.
  In this style of game, the heroes aren’t usually heroes from 
  the outset, they’re normal people. They have jobs, they have 
  families, they pay their bills, and they know that unless they can 
  stop it, some truly terrible fate awaits humanity. 
  While the heroes have knowledge of Things Man Should Not 
  Know, the world at large is ignorant, and it’s for their own good. 
  The horrors that dwell in dark places aren’t vampires and walking 
  mummies. They are far older, far more powerful, and far more evil.
  A greater horror game pits humans against these gods and 
  their servants. Modern weapons do little to stop these nightmares, 
  and Fear checks are made often, and usually with huge penalties. 
  Insanity or heart failure are just as likely to kill a hero as some 
  huge fanged beast from beyond mortal comprehension.
  In fact, in a greater evil game, character survivability is not 
  guaranteed. After all, these are average Joes thrust into a fight 
  against a foe they have little chance of ultimately destroying.
  Magic and miracles should be extremely rare, and what 
  powers can be invoked come at a price. Magic in this world isn’t a 
  toy, but a powerful force that few humans have ever mastered (at 
  least while retaining their sanity). 
  Likewise, magic items should be extremely rare, and rarely 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  possessed of any world shattering power. A blade that allows you 
  to inflict damage on a creature modern guns can’t hurt becomes 
  very useful, if somewhat limited in its application.
  The three “Fs” for a greater evil game, by far the darkest style, 
  are Fear! Futility! Flee!
  DArk
  Dark horror falls somewhere between action and greater evil, 
  and has several shades. While the characters can beat up zombies 
  with some ease, more powerful fiends, such as vampires, are still 
  far tougher than the average mortal. They’re not indestructible, 
  but they take some killing.
  A modern era game where vampires are real and the characters 
  are average Joes would fall under dark heading, as would a standard 
  zombie apocalypse game. The characters don’t have access to any 
  crazy gear, but neither are the monsters walking gods.
  Fear in dark horror games is also more common, though 
  not as terrifying as in a greater evil game. Characters may spend 
  a great deal of time running away in terror while screaming, “It’s 
  alive!” at the top of their lungs, but they’re less likely to die of 
  heart failure or end up drooling for the rest of their lives.
  setting
  Now you’ve thought about the style of horror, you need to 
  think about the setting. Are you going to run a fantasy game? Or 
  maybe sci-fi? You might also go for a historical or modern setting.
  FAntAsy
  The vast majority of fantasy games and setting already 
  contain horror elements. What fantasy setting hasn’t got 
  skeletons, zombies, or demons? Okay, some exist, but they’re in 
  the minority. Heck, Tolkien used wights, wraiths, and ghosts in 
  The Lord of the Rings to great effect.
  Fantasy games make cool horror settings because of the 
  wealth of material already associated with the genre. Dusty tombs 
  lost for millennia, evil gods, foul cults, and demonic realms are all 
  part and parcel of fantasy.
  All you need to do is to decide how much horror you want 
  and how it affects the setting. In an action horror game, for 
  instance, you might stick to zombies, skeletons, mummies, and 
  vampires, the main staples of the genre. The characters are hardy 
  heroes who defeat such foes with regularity and are armed with a 
  variety of magic items and spells.
  Then again, you could also have a near-unstoppable army of 
  darkness swarming across the land. The main antagonist might 
  be a powerful liche, a demon lord, or even a dark god returned to 
  the mortal realm. The characters are drawn into a titanic battle to 
  save their world from becoming a huge necropolis.
  sci-Fi
  Horror in a sci-fi game is less common than in a fantasy 
  setting, but it still has a place. What you need to be careful of is 
  turning your sci-fi game into a sci-fantasy game.
  Rather than using supernatural foes, think instead about 
  using aliens to generate the horror. Sure, a zombie in a futuristic 
  setting is scary, but an alien that actively hunts humans to use 
  as living incubators or a rogue artificial intelligence in charge 
  of a space station on which the characters are trapped can be 
  just as scary. Remember, horror isn’t about game mechanics or 
  monsters—it’s about the tone you set. Just searching for a serial 
  killer on a derelict spaceship or in the mines of an asteroid can be 
  downright terrifying if you can set the right mood.
  You also need to decide what type of sci-fi setting you’re aiming 
  for. Is your setting cyberpunk, space opera, hard sci-fi, or B-movie? 
  Knowing this might alter the way you incorporate horror into your 
  game. For instance, maybe zombies in your cyberpunk game are 
  actually techno-zombies, corpses brought to life by nanites.
  If you’re going down the sci-fi horror route, there’s already 
  a Savage Setting out there. Necropolis pits holy knights against an 
  undead invasion of mankind’s last refuge.
  MoDern
  Not a lot needs to be said about a modern setting. You live 
  in a modern world, you know about the cultures, technology, and 
  Bennies & Horror
  Bennies are a way of rewarding players for heroic actions, 
  witty dialogue, and whatever else the GM deems adds to the 
  roleplaying experience. In most settings, they can also be used 
  to trade in for experience points. But horror is a special case 
  where you may want to tweak the rules.
  In an action game, bennies should probably still apply. 
  After all, it’s about heroes kicking butt, so back-flipping over 
  a vampire, staking him, and delivering a quip deserves a 
  reward. Since the characters are true heroes, they should also 
  be able to progress faster through bennies.
  However, in a grittier game, you may want to change 
  these rules. Instead of rewarding heroes for cool tricks and 
  stuff, reward them for solving clues or defeating monsters 
  without resorting to violence—after all, no gun is going to 
  truly kill Todoto! Bennies are also more important for Soaking 
  wounds and rerolls in these settings, and by removing the 
  experience trade, players don’t have to worry about whether 
  to take the hit or save the benny in the hope of scraping 
  another XP at the end of the game.
  Whatever you chose to do, just make sure everyone is 
  aware of the changes before the game begins.
  
  
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  no doubt many of the myths associated with various peoples. All 
  you need to do is decide how the horror aspect fits into this world. 
  Are all the character federal agents charged with investigating 
  so-called supernatural occurrences, or are they part of a secret 
  Vatican hit squad who have been holding back the tide of demons 
  for centuries?
  HistoricAl
  Historical settings can range from the earliest days of 
  civilization (or earlier if you prefer) to the jungles of Vietnam (or 
  slightly later if you can find a good hook).
  There’s no fixed way of creating a historical fantasy setting, but 
  one piece of advice we can offer is to use material from the time. 
  Let’s take a look at ancient Greece as an example. Now, the 
  Greeks had legends about centaurs, minotaurs, harpies, and all 
  manner of beasts we today treat as mythical. However, if you set 
  your game back in the glory days of the Greek city states, these 
  creatures can quickly become the source of your horror. Maybe 
  the myths we know were written down only because brave heroes 
  talked about the creatures they encountered. Perhaps they were 
  written as a warning to later generations that evil exists.
  Remember, horror doesn’t have to have zombies, ghosts, and 
  vampires. That’s a modern perspective on the genre. A Colonial 
  American during the Salem witch hunts will be more afraid of 
  devils and witches than he would a vampire, talk of which he’d 
  likely treat with some skepticism.
  If you take the historical route, remember that time is your 
  friend. Use historical events and work them into your game. Say 
  you’re running a Roman horror game. Everyone knows that 
  Nero burnt Rome during one of his funny turns, but what if the 
  burning was actually caused to create a huge number of sacrifices, 
  or maybe it started when a band of heroes stormed through the 
  temple of a demonic cult, scattering braziers as they went.
  Don’t worry either if the characters somehow alter history. In the 
  game, it isn’t history, it’s the present, and everything beyond the setting 
  is irrelevant. So the characters fail to stop the revolt of Bouddica and 
  her army of zombie Celts. Now you get to re-invade Britain all over 
  again. Look upon such things as opportunities, not problems.
  As GM, you’ll need to decide whether or not your historical 
  horror setting is going to be pure historical or tinted with 
  fantastical elements from a magic point of view. Are you going to 
  allow priests and mages to cast spells, or are they merely devoted 
  men of faith and tricksters respectively?
  The same goes for magic items as well. A little fantasy can 
  work wonders, especially if you remain true to the source material, 
  but if you go too far, you’ll end up playing a fantasy game without 
  elves and dwarves under a thin veneer of historical backdrop. 
  Of course, this depends on your setting. A Viking horror game 
  would likely involve elves and dwarves, since the Vikings believed 
  in them, but these wouldn’t be your typical fantasy types. To the 
  Vikings, elves and dwarves were mysterious otherworldly folk 
  whose motives are unfathomable by humans.
  oPen or secret 
  knoWledge
  Think about the general populace in your game world. Not 
  the heroes, but the regular Joes and Janes. Do these people know 
  that the supernatural exists? It’s an obvious question, but that 
  doesn’t mean it should be left to answer itself. Decide whether 
  the horror elements in your game are open knowledge or kept 
  secret from the masses. Let’s look at each in turn.
  open
  In an open game, the supernatural makes the news. It may 
  be sensationalized, reported accurately, or maybe the darker 
  facts are kept hidden while allowing some public knowledge 
  to leak out.
  Let’s take the example of a world in which the dead are 
  returning as brain eating zombies. Okay, it’s a cliché, but it’s an 
  easy one to use. 
  Sensationalized news has up to the minute media coverage 
  of zombies rising from the grave, those who have fought zombies 
  become media stars overnight, and every man and his dog has a 
  theory about why the zombies are here. Worse still, the networks 
  let these people go on air to discuss their theories.
  Accurate reporting is likely to lead to mass panic. Heck, 
  if someone told me the dead were coming back to life, eating 
  people, and growing in numbers faster than we could stop them, 
  I’d soil my best writing pants.
  Concealing the true facts gives you a perfect blend of openness 
  and secrecy, with several layers of truth to be uncovered. So the 
  people know that zombies exist, but they’re told the situation is well 
  in hand and there’s no need to panic. And guess what? The public 
  fantasy & sci-fi Horror
  We’ve mentioned that horror can be combined with 
  fantasy and sci-fi to make a cool setting, but we haven’t given 
  you much in the way of fantasy and sci-fi notes.
  Well, there’s good reason for that. You see, unlike horror, 
  fantasy and sci-fi are much wider genres. 
  If we were to put in all the notes you’d need to create a 
  complete fantasy or sci-fi horror game, including things like 
  gear and bestiaries, this book would be really huge.
  However, help is available. If you want to create your 
  own horror fantasy, you’ll find everything you need in the 
  Fantasy Toolkit series. Likewise, all your sci-fi needs are in the 
  Sci-Fi Toolkit series.
  By combining the material from those books with what 
  we have given you here, you’ll be able to create a fantastic 
  setting, full of all the fantasy and sci-fi goodies players expect, 
  but with a horror twist.
  
  
  buy the story. However, the heroes, through several adventures, 
  learn that the situation is actually much worse. The zombies are 
  spreading rapidly, every country in the world is affected, law and 
  order is breaking down in smaller towns and cities, and, the deepest 
  secret of all, the zombie-virus is man-made.
  An existing setting that uses open secrecy is Necropolis. The 
  people know that the undead are real, but they believe the Church 
  is winning the war. Of course, the heroes know better.
  closeD
  A closed setting is one in which information is either a 
  closely guarded secret or simply not believed.
  In the case of the former, the characters may be behind the 
  conspiracy of silence trying to keep knowledge of the supernatural 
  from reaching the general populace, or be involved in uncovering 
  the dark secrets that haunt our world.
  With the latter, the knowledge is out there, but people refuse 
  to take it seriously. Our modern viewpoint on the past tells us our 
  ancestors didn’t necessarily believe in dragons or trolls, despite 
  the myths surrounding these creatures. But what if, without 
  newspapers and TV, these stories were the only way of spreading 
  the word of the dark monsters lurking in the woods.
  Imagine in our world of steel and neon if a news story 
  reported a spate of vampires. Would you really believe the culprits 
  were supernatural entities, or would you blame misguided Goths, 
  Satanic cultists, heavy metal freaks, nutters, or just a false media 
  report? Sure, a few newspapers might follow it up, but these 
  aren’t your mainstream media outlets.
  Humans are also remarkably resilient. A host of zombies 
  could invade New York and the general populace would happily 
  put it down to hallucinations, riots, some bizarre pranks, or even 
  a government conspiracy using hallucinogenic gas, but most 
  won’t look for the truth.
  So, the characters uncover the existence of dark gods, but 
  where do they go with the news? Who’d believe them other than 
  cranks and end-of-the-world-is-nigh types?
  location
  Every horror setting needs a location. The obvious choice 
  for a horror game is Earth. Not only are the majority of horror 
  stories written and set on Earth, you also don’t need to do any 
  work to create the world.
  Of course, a horror fantasy or sci-fi game usually needs a 
  different stage. For fantasy, the obvious choices are to take an 
  existing world from literature or a games company, and throw in 
  some horror or to build your own world from scratch, shaping it 
  from the beginning into a horror realm.
  If you want sci-fi horror, decide whether you’re setting it 
  in a future where mankind has only explored our solar system, 
  whether he has colonized other worlds close to Earth, or if 
  the entire universe is his plaything. One key horror element is 
  isolation, and long duration space travel can be a great way of 
  handling this. Maybe being on a four year mission without any 
  hope of support isn’t so bad, but it gets downright terrifying 
  when something starts killing the crew.
  For a space horror game, you should check out the Sci-Fi 
  World Builder Toolkit for advice on world building. For fantasy 
  horror, read the Fantasy World Builder Toolkit.
  Hook
  When you walk into a game store in search of a new setting, 
  what makes up your mind when it comes to pulling out your wallet? 
  Is it the cool cover, the name of the author, or the fact that it was 
  published by Company X? Maybe, but there’s also a pretty good 
  chance that what you read on the back cover played a big part.
  Some people call that the sales pitch, but we prefer to call 
  it the hook. Your setting needs a cool hook to make it attractive 
  to your players. A hook differs from a Plot Point, which is the 
  campaign itself, but one can lead to the other. 
  A modern horror game where the characters are trying to stop 
  a secret cabal from releasing a demon lord is a Plot Point. Telling 
  the players they are part of a secret Vatican group dedicated to 
  overthrowing evil and keeping it quiet is a hook.
  Already the hook presents you with a series of questions you need 
  to answer, such as how does the group work, what equipment do they 
  get, what magic resources are at their disposal, and such like.
  Hooks don’t have to be tied into the Plot Point. The Vatican 
  hit squad setting is a hook in itself but doesn’t limit you to a 
  particular Plot Point.
  Plot Point
  Plot Points are the Savage Worlds way of scripting a campaign. 
  They have a beginning, a middle, and an end. They turn the actual 
  facts about the setting into the backdrop for an epic story.
  Of course, you don’t need a Plot Point. Most older settings 
  were open ended, allowing the players to do what they wanted, 
  when they wanted. Having a Plot Point doesn’t make the 
  campaign linear nor does it railroad players, but it does make 
  your life very easy.
  Rather than creating a tangled web of interconnected hooks 
  designed to keep the heroes on track as they travel the world 
  looking for fame and glory, the Plot Point allows you to nudge 
  them along and yet still give them room to roam.
  Let’s take our Vatican example. The characters investigate 
  and stop a Satanic cult in the first adventure. There they learn 
  about some big astronomical event taking place soon. It’s all very 
  woolly and vague, but they know something is going on. Then 
  nothing important to the plot happens for a few weeks. They 
  get to stake some vampires and stuff, but they can basically do 
  whatever they want. Then you drop in an adventure about an 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  10
  astronomer disappearing shortly after making an announcement 
  that he was calling a press conference. How are the two tied 
  together? Well, that’s up to the players to find out.
  Remember, at this stage all you need is a basic idea—
  expanding the idea into a background story comes next. You 
  should also remember that completing a Plot Point doesn’t mean 
  the game is over. Completing one may lead to another. 
  Maybe the characters stop the demon lord from being 
  released, only to discover that a cardinal was behind the plot. 
  Does the cardinal have other allies in the Church? How far does 
  the corruption go? Cue the next Plot Point.
  Here’s a few basic ideas to get you started.
  plot point iDeAs
  •  
  The dead are rising from their graves and begin taking over 
  the world. This could be caused by a meteor carrying spores, 
  a secret government project gone wrong, a mutated disease, 
  nanites gone awry, or just good old fashioned necromancy 
  on a global scale.
  •  
  A demon lord has been trapped for centuries, but now an 
  evil cult is seeking to release him.
  •  
  Vampires are working on a way to blot out the sun. This 
  could range from a powerful magic item (fantasy) to a series 
  of orbital umbrellas (sci-fi).
  •  
  Important people are being replaced with doppelgangers or 
  are somehow changed. These could be aliens or clones, or 
  maybe they’re just vampiric thralls. This plays on the horror 
  classic of paranoia.
  •  
  The ancient gods of Egypt have been reawoken, and they 
  begin animating mummified servants to rebuild the glory 
  of ancient Egypt, with a distinctly necromantic twist. This 
  works with any ancient culture, really.
  •  
  A powerful relic which has kept evil at bay for millennia is 
  failing. As the energy weakens, more and more horrors are 
  released into the world.
  •  
  The evil has always been there, hidden in myths and legends, 
  but now they have formed a coalition, and seek to conquer 
  the world.
  •  
  The characters are slayers, born to combat evil whether they 
  want to or not. You might also go for the one slayer and lots 
  of helpers approach as well.
  •  
  The ancient gods worshipped by humans were in fact 
  extremely powerful alien/extra-dimensional beings. These 
  gods crave nothing but sacrifices and the spreading of 
  madness. Worse still, they’re worshipped to this day.
  •  
  The characters are actually vampires, mummies, werewolves, 
  or ghosts (or some other monster) caught up in a war 
  between various factions.
  •  
  The characters are all Frankenstein monsters (but better 
  looking), but don’t realize it until later in the campaign. 
  Who made them and for what purpose?
  •  
  The characters are all soldiers, whether Roman legionaries, 
  American G.I.’s, or futuristic space troops, fighting in a war 
  in which supernatural creatures are involved in some way.
  •  
  Lucifer wants to make his peace with God and he’s chosen 
  the characters as his agents. Of course, his fellow devils aren’t 
  so keen on surrendering.
  •  
  The war between Heaven and Hell has spilled onto Earth. 
  Regardless of their religious beliefs, the characters are drawn 
  into the conflict and are expected to pick a side.
  Background
  Okay, so you know the type of horror you want to use, 
  you have an idea of the scope of the setting, and you have an 
  interesting hook and Plot Point idea. Now it’s time to turn the 
  idea into a background story—the reason why the Plot Point 
  exists in the first place.
  The background story is the first part of your campaign 
  map. Not in the physical sense of a map of the world, but as in a 
  map of the story arc, the overall goal of the characters.
  The background fills in the whos, whys, and hows of the story. 
  You don’t need to know all the details at once, but you should have 
  a good feel for how things got to their present state. How much 
  detail you want at this stage is up to you, but the more you know, 
  the easier it is to work through other parts of this book.
  You can use parts of the background to give to your players. 
  If you want, you can create a handout for the players with all the 
  pertinent information their characters would know. 
  If the Vatican really did have a hit squad trained to wipe out 
  supernatural evil, they’d have some idea of their history and their 
  mandate. It may not be important to the game, but flavor text 
  helps players get into character (and, of course, that flavor text 
  may be seeded with adventure ideas).
  If the modern world is overrun by zombies, give a timeline 
  as to what happened before the apocalypse and what sorts of 
  zombies have been reported. You could add some flavor by typing 
  it up as a series of news reports or newspaper clippings.
  Feel free to add some historical flavor or foreshadow events 
  to come as well. Maybe the Vatican background mentions how 
  the order of slayers was founded after a group of warrior monks 
  fighting in the Crusades stopped a demon. Guess what, the same 
  horned beast is coming back!
  What the player’s background shouldn’t do is give away 
  any of the back story or secrets. Where did the zombies come 
  from? What is their goal? Is there a leadership? How can they be 
  defeated? All these questions should be known by the GM, and 
  discovered slowly by the players as the campaign unravels.
  forWard Planning
  Now you need to start building your world, fleshing out 
  everything of relevance. This doesn’t just relate to the history or 
  major players, but also to what rules you want to include, what 
  
  11
  types of magic exist, whether magic items exist, and, of course, 
  the types of monsters the characters will encounter.
  If zombies are running rampant, think about where the 
  problem started, what types of zombies exist, whether they can 
  mutate into new breeds, and so on. The more work you do before 
  you start putting pen to paper, the better the final result will be.
  If your horror game involves evil beings from alternate 
  dimensions, think about how they can be summoned. In a sci-fi 
  game, you’ll need to think about the types of weaponry available. 
  Will there be laser guns, conventional ballistic weapons, or plasma 
  weapons capable of frying small cities? The more powerful the 
  weaponry, the greater chance the characters will simply try to 
  vaporize any horrors you confront them with.
  creaTinG 
  aTmospHere
  Regardless of how cool your setting is, you can’t expect to 
  create atmosphere at the game table by using game mechanics. 
  Using Fear might scare the characters, but your players might be 
  sharing a joke at the same time your ultimate evil turns up. What 
  was meant to have the players checking the shadows as they walk 
  home after the game instead becomes part of the joke, and all the 
  impact is lost.
  This chapter takes a look at how you can use various tricks to 
  keep the atmosphere of your game at the right level, and without 
  a single game mechanic or die roll in sight.
  set tHe initial mood
  Gamers are people. They have jobs, families, and other 
  activities outside of gaming (in most cases, anyway). When they 
  meet up to game, it’s only natural they want to spend some time 
  catching up with current events. This is especially true if they 
  only meet up occasionally.
  Ideally, you should ask (don’t tell, as that can set up unwanted 
  antagonism in the game) the players to do their catching up 
  during the preparation period. If it’s the first session of your new 
  campaign, fill them in on the general tone of the campaign. Most 
  gamers are at the table to have fun, and that usually means they’ll 
  go with the flow once the dice start rolling.
  Horror has its own set of “rules,” and one of these is light. 
  A scary movie is better watched with the lights off, for instance. 
  Of course, we don’t recommend you play in the dark wearing 
  nightvision goggles (though that might be cool), but you should 
  adjust the lighting accordingly. 
  However, make sure the players can see their character sheets 
  and dice. There’s nothing worse than building up to a tense 
  moment, only for a player to ask for the lights to be turned up 
  because he can’t see his skill list. Make sure everyone is happy 
  with the lighting level before you begin.
  Dim the lights, draw the curtains (especially true if you’re 
  playing a horror game during the day), and maybe light a few 
  candles to help create flickering shadows. (Make sure candles are 
  not near anything flammable.) It’ll all help, but it won’t remove 
  the crunch of snacks, the rattle of dice, bodily noises, in game 
  jokes, and the occasional out of game chatter.
  How can you remove these elements? Well, you can’t. We said 
  gamers were people, remember? It’s all part of the gaming experience 
  and you just have to learn to ignore it or work around it. Ideally, put 
  candy in a bowl to stop bags rustling, and make sure players have all 
  their dice and minis to hand before the game begins.
  Now imagine two of your players start talking about the 
  football game last night. Suddenly the real world has infringed 
  on the gaming world. Any atmosphere you had has disappeared. 
  So how do you recover the situation?
  Whatever you do, don’t try to break up the chatter with a 
  rod of iron. Ordering your players (and friends) to shut up and 
  continue gaming will likely damage the atmosphere beyond 
  repair for the rest of the session. 
  Instead, add an element to the game that draws them back. 
  Start talking in a whisper, dim the lights even lower, make tapping 
  sounds as if some unseen lurker is knocking at the door of the 
  cabin they’re hiding in, or howl like a wolf.
  Alternately, just stop the game for a rest break and let the 
  conversation die a natural death. When everyone is ready, start again.
  traPPings & tools
  We’ve talked briefly about using lighting to create atmosphere, 
  but there are plenty of other tools you can use to set the mood. 
  A sound track, either of horror sound effects or suitable 
  music, can do wonders to aid your game, so long as technology 
  doesn’t hamper the flow of the game. Pausing to find the 
  right music track or having an unearthly howl erupt from the 
  speakers when you wanted a knocking at the door  will break the 
  atmosphere you’ve been trying to create. Any music should also 
  be kept low, barely audible if possible. 
  Why? Because you don’t want your players humming along 
  to the tune or shouting to make themselves heard over the din.
  Props are also handy, whether used in or out of game. If the 
  characters discover a magic book, hand them an old leather bound 
  journal with a glyph you’ve drawn and taped on the front. If they 
  find a statue of some dark god, hand them a suitable ornament. 
  Many ceramic shops, not to mention stores catering to Goths and 
  heavy metal fans, carry such objects at reasonable prices. Artwork, 
  whether from books or the Internet, can greatly enhance a game—
  there’s plenty of weird monster artwork out there for free.
  Drinks and drinking vessels can also be handy. If the 
  characters are invited to a mysterious castle by a man introducing 
  himself only as “the Count,” hand them glasses filled with tomato 
  juice when he serves drinks. If you have fancy goblets (again, 
  check out Goth stores), use these to help create the mood.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  1
  These are all minor things compared to the adventure you’re 
  lovingly crafted, but if it helps get the players into the right frame 
  of mind, then go for it.
  Out of game, you can have a few ornaments placed on the 
  gaming table. An ashtray made to look like a skull or evil font can 
  be handy to store snacks, as well as looking cool. It’s eye candy in 
  more ways than one.
  If you get hold of one, place an animal skull on the table. 
  We don’t recommend you start making your own collection from 
  neighborhood pets, but they’re not impossible to find, especially 
  if you live in the country. They look creepy and they make great 
  candle holders as well.
  Simple things like using a black cloth on the table can also 
  add to the flavor of the game, as well as muffling dice rolls.
  Ask the players to switch off their mobile phones unless 
  they’re expecting an urgent call. It’s okay if the player’s wife is 
  expecting their first baby any minute, but not if his buddy wants 
  to call to arrange Friday’s poker game. Ask him to do that either 
  before or after the game.
  sHoW, don’t tell
  Okay, so the game has begun and the players are into the 
  mood. Everything is going swell, until the characters enter a 
  graveyard and you tell them, “You see a zombie shuffling toward 
  you.” Bang goes the atmosphere.
  Horror relies on atmosphere and a sense of the unknown. By 
  breaking the latter, you’ve destroyed the former. This where the 
  “Show, Don’t Tell” part comes in.
  Which of these is cooler for a horror game? “You see a zombie 
  shuffling toward you,” or, “A figure emerges from the mist, its 
  arms outstretched, clawing at the air in front of it as it moves 
  closer in shuffling steps. Its flesh hangs in tatters from its bones, 
  and the smell of the grave assaults your nostrils.”
  The former gives the players the bare facts in a rather clinical, 
  perfunctory way. They also know exactly what they’re facing and, having 
  read the rules, they immediately start making Called Shots to the head.
  The latter description gives the players exactly the same 
  information, but rather than being told it’s a zombie, they’re 
  shown a zombie. The creature has all the hallmarks of the walking 
  dead, but they’re revealed based on what the characters can see, 
  smell, and hear, rather than what they actually know.
  Of course, while the heroes may still go for head shots, the 
  figure could also be a wight or some homebrew grave monster 
  (neither of which have that Weakness in the brainpan).
  isolation
  Isolation is a powerful tool in your armory of atmosphere. 
  While the obvious thought is to separate the characters from one 
  another, forcing them to face the darkness alone, consider group 
  isolation as well.
  How can you do this? Imagine the group is in a foreign 
  country and doesn’t speak the language. Now they have only 
  themselves to rely on. When some vile beast starts chasing 
  them through unfamiliar streets, they have no one to turn 
  to for help.
  Characters can also be socially isolated. A group of 
  characters of low social rank might be attacked by a werewolf 
  in a fog shrouded street, but the middle class inhabitants think 
  it is just the local thugs mugging some helpless beggars and 
  refuse to get involved.
  In both cases, the party is surrounded by fellow humans, but 
  at the same time they’re isolated from the source of help.
  One standard method of isolation is to have a tomb 
  door close behind them. Only when the evil is defeated 
  can the door be opened. The weather is another common 
  tool for isolation. Exploring an old house is fine when you  
  know you can flee, but it becomes scarier when the sudden 
  blizzard closes all the roads or a storm takes out the only 
  bridge into town.
  tHe sense of tHe 
  unknoWn
  The sense of the unknown is your friend, so use it. Never 
  reveal facts unless you absolutely have to.
  Imagine the group is exploring an old house. In one of the 
  rooms they see a long curtain gently moving. One of the characters 
  asks, “Can we see what’s behind it?” Rather than just saying, “No,” 
  which might be factual, add another layer to your answer by adding, 
  “Would you like to pull it aside?” Now the player begins to wonder 
  whether he should pull it aside or not. Maybe there’s something 
  nasty lurking there.
  When a player says he’ll open the door encrusted with 
  mysterious slime, ask him which hand is character is using. It’s 
  not important to the game, but the player won’t know that.
  If you’re describing a room or situation, focus on the unknown, 
  rather than the known. Bring their attention to the cupboard with 
  its door slightly ajar, the deep shadows of the forest, and the thick 
  mist swirling through the graveyard at night. Let them create their 
  own fears based on what they think may exist.
  suBtlety vs gore
  Lastly, good horror uses implications of violence rather than 
  visual violence. If the characters hear a scream from an alley, let 
  them find blood splatters and drag marks rather than a corpse 
  torn limb from limb.
  Show them a clawed body, and they have information 
  about the assailant. It becomes a creature of flesh and blood, not 
  a creature of nightmares. By having them find only the blood, 
  they have no idea who the victim was, or what sort of wounds he 
  suffered. Let their ignorance breed fear.
  
  1
  Of course, none of these tips are any use if the adventure 
  sucks, but that’s something we leave in your hands. Even a simple 
  chase through a town or haunted house investigation can take on 
  a new level of fear with the right atmosphere.
  Tools oF  
  THe Trade
  Whether you’re running a fantasy, historical, contemporary, 
  or futuristic horror game, monster hunters need specialist tools. 
  Sure, the main rules have crossbows, guns, melee weapons, armor, 
  and basic mundane items, but there’s no specialist gear designed 
  purely for monster hunting. This chapter puts that straight by 
  introducing a new kit.
  Not every piece of gear is going to be useful in your setting. 
  It’s very unlikely a dwarf exploring a liche’s tomb is going to 
  have access to Kirlian goggles, and a starmarine is very unlikely 
  to reach for his repeating crossbow just because an alien is 
  stalking him.
  melee WeaPons
  Few monster hunters relish going toe-to-toe with a hulking 
  werewolf or a rancid zombie, but sometimes there’s no other 
  choice. That’s where melee weapons come in.
  corpse cAtcHer
  Corpse catchers are based on a martial arts weapon called the man 
  catcher. Comprised of a long metal shaft with a set of “pincers” at one end, 
  they are designed for catching monsters with minimal damage and are a 
  favorite tool of mad scientists. A switch near the butt activates the pincers.
  A success on a Touch Attack (+2 to Fighting) means the 
  target has been caught around his waist but his hands remain 
  free—with a raise the arms are pinned as well.
  Pinned victims may attempt to break free. An opposed 
  Strength roll is required if pinned around the waist and an opposed 
  Strength –2 roll if the arms are pinned. The corpse catcher has an 
  effective Strength of d12+1 for resisting escape attempts.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  1
  stAke
  Even when surrounded by high tech gadgets, the trusty 
  pointy stick is still one of the most effective ways of dispatching 
  a vampire. A silver-tipped stake (good against lycanthropes and 
  some vampires) costs an extra $20, but is otherwise the same as a 
  conventional wooden one.
  ranged WeaPons
  Often the safest way to defeat a monster is from a distance. 
  This section presents a sample of new gear designed for just 
  that purpose.
  AtoMic GHost HuntinG pAck
  Atomic ghost hunting packs are large backpack 
  weapons, similar in appearance to a flamethrower. Unlike 
  a flamethrower they do not discharge fire, but a stream of 
  atomic particles capable of ensnaring or injuring ghosts and 
  other ethereal creatures.
  As such, the weapon has two settings—ensnare and destroy. 
  Set to destroy, an atomic ghost hunting pack causes 2d8 damage 
  to ethereal creatures.
  Ensnare mode causes no damage, but does bind the spirit 
  in a web of crackling energy. On a successful Shooting roll, 
  the spirit is partially bound, and suffers a –2 penalty to Pace 
  and skills linked to Agility and Strength. A raise restrains 
  the target fully. He cannot move or use any skills linked to 
  Agility or Strength. Each following round, the spirit may 
  make a Strength or Agility roll to break free. On a success he 
  breaks free, but doing so consumes his turn. With a raise, he 
  escapes and may act this round as normal. Other spirits may 
  also attempt to free the ensnared ghost by making a Strength 
  roll at –2.
  An ethereal entity may be safely moved 3” per round while 
  trapped in the field. Any faster, and the entity gets a +1 bonus to 
  its next escape roll per additional inch of movement. Why move 
  the ghost around? Check out the ghost trap on page 16.
  Each round the ensnarement is maintained, another 
  charge is used from the magazine. If the weapon runs out 
  of power, the ensnarement field disperses and the spirit is 
  automatically free.
  Atomic packs can be recharged from any standard power 
  outlet at no cost (unless characters have to pay utility bills in your 
  setting, in which case they’re in for a shock).
  FlAre pistol
  Flare pistols are, of course, used for signaling. Monster 
  slayers, however, have learned that certain monsters, notably 
  mummies, are quite flammable.
  A flare pistol striking a mummy causes +4 damage and has a 
  chance of catching it on fire as a flammable object. Against other 
  targets, the damage is as listed, but there is a lesser chance of 
  igniting the target’s clothing.
  Holy WAter GrenADe
  Holy water grenades aren’t explosive, but they do cover 
  a Small Burst Template on impact. Basically, it’s just a glass 
  container containing holy water. The price covers a single 
  container pre-filled with holy water. Of course, it’s unlikely in a 
  modern or futuristic game that you can find these in the mall.
  So what damage does the weapon do? Well, that depends 
  on how holy water works in your game. Check out the section on 
  Holy Water for guidelines (see page15).
  Holy WAter pistol
  First used by a group of teenagers fighting vampires in California 
  during the 1980s, the holy water pistol has come a long way since 
  those days. Modern water pistols have greater range, enhanced 
  storage tanks, and, more importantly, a pump action mechanism.
  The weapon itself has a base range of 1/2/4. However, if the 
  firer spends an action pumping up the pressure before firing, the 
  range increases to 2/4/8. Reloading can be a bind, as the firer needs 
  a source of holy water. Assuming he can find a suitable amount, 
  Purity of suBstances
  Lycanthropes are vulnerable to silver, and demons 
  detest cold iron, but what does this mean when you’re after a 
  weapon made of the substance?
  silver
  In most horror settings, a silver item has to be made of pure 
  silver to be effective. Coating a sword blade with a veneer of silver 
  just doesn’t work. A pure silver melee weapon should cost at least 
  five times as much as normal and inflicts normal damage.
  colD iron
  Cold iron is iron that has not been heated in a forge 
  before it is worked. As such, it contains no carbon and is 
  therefore pure, but also brittle. Cold iron melee weapons 
  should cost twice as much as normal. They shatter if the 
  wielder gets a critical failure on a Fighting roll.
  
  1
  replenishing the tank to maximum takes 2 actions. A character can 
  opt to half fill the reservoir by spending just one action reloading.
  The price covers just the gun—finding a source of holy water 
  is up to the characters.
  So what damage does the weapon do? Well, that depends 
  on how holy water works in your game. Check out the section on 
  Holy Water for guidelines (see below).
  repeAtinG crossboW
  The repeating crossbow has a 36-round drum magazine 
  and is reloaded by a small gas cylinder mounted on the stock. 
  Aside from its obvious use against living targets, it is an 
  effective weapon against vampires. Reloading a new magazine 
  takes one action.
  If you’re running a game where staking through the heart isn’t 
  considered a requirement for slaying an undead, crossbows with 
  wooden quarrels inflict their full piercing damage against vampires.
  WincH crossboW
  The winch crossbow is a specialist weapon, primarily 
  employed against vampires. The steel shaft has a barbed head for 
  digging into flesh, and the quarrel is attached via a thin steel wire 
  to a winch mounted on top of the crossbow. The wire measures 
  40” (the maximum range of the weapon).
  If the firer scores a wound, the bolt has dug into the victim’s 
  flesh. On his next action, the firer may activate the winch, drawing 
  the vampire closer to him. This requires an opposed Strength roll 
  of the winch’s Strength of d12 against that of the target. A victim 
  who can grab onto something solid, like a supporting beam or a 
  door jamb, gains +2 to his roll. On a success, the victim is pulled 
  3” per success and raise. 
  Why would anyone use this to draw a vampire to them? 
  Simple. The firer can skewer the bloodsucker indoors, run outside 
  into the sunlight, and then drag the vampire to a burning death 
  without having to get up close and personal.
  ultrAviolet GrenADe
  A state-of-the-art anti-vampire device, the UV grenade 
  contains a powerful UV light encased in a steel container. When 
  thrown, side panels blow away and the powerful UV light fills a 
  Medium Burst Template in a blinding flash. Although powerful 
  enough to burn vampires, the grenade is good for one use only. 
  A vampire caught in the blast suffers 2d10 damage and has 
  a chance of catching fire.
  Although not designed for use against mortals, or indeed 
  other undead, the powerful light can blind targets. Non-
  vampiric targets within the template must make an Agility roll 
  at –2 or be Shaken.
  ammunition
  Aside from the repeating crossbow magazine and winch 
  crossbow quarrel, a variety of ammunition exists for use in 
  conventional firearms.
  The Ammunition Table (page 17) lists the weight and price 
  of bullets as a modifier. These are added to the regular weight and 
  price found in the Savage Worlds rules. For instance, UV bullets for 
  a 9mm pistol would weigh a total of 6/50 (5/50 for the regular 
  bullets plus 1/50 for the UV modification) with a cost of $125/50.
  GArlic bullets
  Garlic bullets are hollow point bullets filled with a garlic 
  and holy water puree. They allow the weapon to inflict its full 
  piercing damage against a vampire (and other undead you deem 
  are susceptible to garlic or holy water).
  silver bullets
  Aside from being made of silver rather than lead, these are regular 
  bullets. They are effective against lycanthropes and other creatures 
  susceptible to silver, but are not as damaging as silver nitrate rounds.
  silver nitrAte bullets
  Silver nitrate bullets are hollow point bullets filled with 
  silver nitrate. Unlike regular silver, the nitrate form is a liquid, 
  which gets into the bloodstream. These rounds cause +4 damage 
  to lycanthropes and other monsters susceptible to silver.
  ultrAviolet bullets
  Designed for use against vampires, UV bullets are tipped 
  with a glass capsule filled with a chemical that emits ultraviolet 
  light. On impact, the capsule shatters, exposing the vampire’s 
  innards to the scorching light.
  These rounds case full piercing damage against vampires.
  Holy Water
  So you’ve loaded up with holy water grenades and filled your 
  water pistol reservoir, and now you want to know what holy water 
  does in the game, right?
  Well, it does two things. Firstly, it harms vampires with the 
  Weakness (Holy Water). A vampire caught in the template of a holy 
  water grenade or who is hit with a successful Shooting roll from a water 
  pistol firing holy water counts as if splashed. That is, he is Fatigued.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  1
  A direct hit from a grenade or a raise on a Shooting roll with 
  a pistol drenches the vampire, and causes him to combust as if he 
  was hit by sunlight.
  Okay, so that’s vampires covered, but what about other 
  undead? Whether or not holy water has any affect against undead 
  other than vampires depends on your setting. Here are some 
  suggestions of possible effects. You can replace the vampire/
  holy water relationship with one of these if you prefer to keep 
  everything the same. Note that demons can be equally affected by 
  holy water if that suits your setting.
  •  Holy water affects all undead as it does vampires, either 
  Fatiguing them or causing them to combust.
  •  
  Holy water causes 2d6 damage to all undead struck by it. Raises on 
  a Shooting or Throwing roll increase damage by 1d6 as normal.
  •  Holy water automatically Shakes undead, but causes no 
  actual damage.
  •  Holy water slows undead, but causes no actual damage. An 
  undead struck by holy water has to redraw all action cards of 
  Jack or higher, with the exception of Jokers, for the remainder 
  of the combat.
  •  Holy water is simply a trapping of certain Miraculous 
  powers, such as blast, bolt, or stun, and exists in no other form. 
  All effects are as per the power. If you use this method, you 
  might allow offensive spells to cause +2 damage to vampires 
  and have them make rolls to resist powers (such as the Vigor 
  roll to resist stun) at –2.
  MAkinG Holy WAter
  Holy water is just normal water blessed by an ordained 
  member of an organized religion. Usually this is the Christian 
  faith, simply because water plays a fundamental part in that faith, 
  but there’s no reason why other religions can’t have holy water. 
  In a fantasy game, most “good” deities should allow their 
  priests to bless water. There may be some exceptions, of course. 
  The god of fire, while probably a benevolent deity, is very unlikely 
  to have water used in religious ceremonies honoring him.
  As to the exact mechanics of how water is made holy, here 
  are some suggestions. You’re free to use any of them, or make 
  up your own. Of course, there’s nothing stopping the characters 
  from going into a church and raiding the font if they can’t 
  manufacture the stuff themselves.
  •  
  An ordained character need simply say a prayer over the water 
  to make it holy. This takes an action. At your discretion, it 
  may also require a Faith roll.
  •  
  A character must have the Holy Warrior Edge to make holy 
  water. This takes an action. At your discretion, it may also 
  requires a Faith roll.
  •  
  A character must have the Arcane Background (Miracles) 
  power. Blessing a pint of water (a grenade) or the contents of 
  a holy water pistol requires a Faith roll and uses 1 Power Point. 
  The water remains blessed until used or actively despoiled.
  •  
  Holy water is simply a trapping of certain Miraculous powers, 
  such as blast, bolt, or stun. If the priesthood in question is 
  “good,” the priest can switch between a holy water trapping 
  and his regular trapping as he needs.
  In the battle against supernatural creatures the ability 
  to detect and contain undead is as important as the ability to 
  destroy them. Here are some sample gear an intrepid monster 
  hunter might find useful.
  cruciFix
  In “traditional” horror games, crosses and crucifixes have 
  power over vampires. Usually they are held at arm’s length to 
  keep the bloodsucker at bay, but they can cause severe burns 
  when touched against a vampire’s flesh. 
  Of course, whether or not they have this secondary effect depends 
  on the needs of your setting. In a pulpy game, this might be a foregone 
  conclusion, but in a dark game of vile horrors, it may be a red herring. 
  Whether a cross has this power over other supernatural evil 
  creatures, such as demons, is again your choice. For instance, a 
  silver crucifix might work against lycanthropes.
  Assuming the vampire isn’t wearing armor, a successful Touch 
  Attack with a crucifix inflicts 2d6 damage. Crosses do not work through 
  armor. The attacker must make a Called Shot to bypass armor.
  If you’re allowing crosses, you might wish to think about 
  allowing the Star of David, Yin-Yang, and other religious/spiritual 
  symbols to have the same affect.
  GHost trAp
  Ghost traps are designed to work in conjunction with atomic 
  ghost hunter packs. Indeed, unless a ghost is maneuvered over a ghost 
  trap by an atomic pack’s ensnarement field, the ghost hunter has to 
  mundane gear
  Type	
  Weight	
  Cost
  Crucifix/religious symbol 
  1/5 
  $20
  Ghost trap 
  5 
  $200
  Kirlian camera, still 
  3 
  $260
  Film, 24-exposure 
  — 
  $10
  Kirlian camera, video 
  6 
  $600
  Video tape, 4-hours 
  — 
  $20
  Kirlian goggles 
  2 
  $1400
  Mirror 
  2 
  $25
  Motion tracker 
  4 
  $650
  Neck protector, leather 
  1 
  $30
  Neck protector, metal 
  3 
  $120
  UV flashlight 
  4 
  $65
  Battery 
  1 
  $10
  Warding material 
  1 
  $5
  
  1
  hope the spirit accidentally blunders onto his trap for it to work.
  A ghost trap is basically a rectangular box, about 12” x 6” x 
  3”, with a double lid. It can be activated by hand, or via remote 
  control by way of a handset attached to the trap with a 2 yard 
  cable. Both activation methods count as an action.
  Ghost traps work by generating a powerful energy field 
  capable of sucking ethereal creatures into the trap. Once a ghost 
  is over the trap and the device activated, the ghost must make 
  an opposed Strength roll against the trap’s Strength of d12. On 
  a failure, the spirit is sucked into the box, from which it cannot 
  escape. An entity trapped in a ghost trap cannot use any powers 
  to affect the outside world, either.
  It is important to note that the ghost trap only works on 
  ethereal entities. It has no effect on corporeal beings, including 
  ethereal beings possessing a physical body.
  kirliAn cAMerA, still
  Kirlian photography was invented in 1939 by a scientist 
  named Semyon Kirlian. He discovered that an object touching a 
  photographic plate that receives an electrical charge generates an 
  image of electrical fields in the part touching the plate. The aura 
  it produces is said to be the “life force” of the object.
  Let’s get one thing straight, though. Kirlian photography 
  isn’t much use in hunting ghosts or other ethereal monsters in 
  the real world. Why? Because to generate an image, the target 
  must be touching the recording equipment.
  However, in a horror game, Kirlian photography works slightly 
  differently. In a horror setting, Kirlian photography can be used to 
  detect ethereal entities by catching snapshots of their energy aura 
  without requiring the ghost to touch the photographic plate. 
  Although it isn’t much use in a fire fight, the Kirlian still 
  camera can aid investigations. A typical Kirlian camera holds a 
  24-exposure film with a special coating and doesn’t need a flash. 
  It captures ethereal beings even in total darkness. 
  kirliAn cAMerA, viDeo
  The next step up from the still camera is the Kirlian video 
  camera. The tape, again it’s a special tape, has a 4-hour play time. 
  melee WeaPons
  Type	
  Damage	
  Weight	
  Min	Str.	
  Cost	
  Notes
  Corpse Catcher 
  None 
  4 
  d6 
  $300 
  Reach 1; see notes
  Stake 
  Str+1 
  2 
  — 
  $10 
  ranged WeaPons
  Type	
  Range	
  Damage	
  ROF	
  Cost	
  Weight	
  Shots	
  Min	Str	
  Notes*
  Atomic ghost pack 
  5/10/20 
  Special 
  1 
  $3000 
  15 
  15 
  d6 
  Flare pistol 
  3/6/12 
  2d6+1 
  1 
  $100 
  4 
  1 
  — 
  1 action to reload
  Holy water grenade 
  5/10/20** 
  Special 
  — 
  $30 
  2 
  — 
  — 
  Small Burst Template
  Holy water pistol 
  1/2/3 
  Special 
  1 
  $50 
  4 
  10 
  — 
  Repeating crossbow 
  15/30/60 
  2d6 
  3 
  $800 
  12 
  36 
  d6 
  AP 2, Autofire
  Stake 
  2/4/8** 
  Str+1 
  — 
  $10 
  2 
  — 
  — 
  Winch crossbow 
  10/20/40 
  2d6 
  1 
  $650 
  15 
  1 
  d6 
  AP 2; 1 action to
  UV Grenade 
  5/10/20** 
  Special 
  — 
  $100 
  2 
  — 
  — 
  Medium Burst Template
  * See Notes in all cases ** Thrown range 
  ammunition
  Ammo	
  Weight	
  Cost	
  Notes
  Crossbow, repeating 
  6 
  $75 
  AP 2; holds 36 quarrels
  Crossbow, winch 
  1 
  $10 
  AP 2
  Garlic bullets* 
  +0/50 
  +$5/50 
  Cause normal damage against vampires
  Silver bullets* 
  +1/50 
  +$10/50 
  Cause normal damage against lycanthropes
  Silver nitrate bullets* 
  +1/50 
  +$20/50 
  +4 damage against werewolves
  UV bullets* 
  +1/50 
  +$100/50 
  +4 damage against vampires; negates halving of damage
  * Weight and cost are in addition to regular ammunition of the same caliber.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  1
  
  1
  The film cannot be watched while it is recording, however, but it 
  can be played back after the event through the viewfinder.
  kirliAn GoGGles
  These are state-of-the-art ghost hunting goggles. They look 
  exactly like standard image intensifier or night vision goggles, 
  but the lenses are coated in a special film that allows the user to 
  see the aura generated by ethereal entities. When worn, the user 
  can see invisible and/or ethereal entities and suffers no penalty 
  to attack them.
  However, since everything generates a faint Kirlian aura, it makes 
  interaction with the normal world difficult. The wearer suffers a –1 
  penalty to all actions not directly involving an ethereal entity.
  Mirror
  Mirrors have no special powers against supernatural monsters 
  (except medusae), but they do let characters peek around corners 
  without having to expose their head to any critter waiting for them.
  Motion trAcker
  Handheld motion trackers are designed to pick up movement 
  of any sort, and that extends to ethereal entities as well as 
  corporeal ones. Remember though, they detect movement, but 
  have no special ability to detect life or unlife. An object blowing 
  in the wind registers as well as an invisible monster advancing 
  toward you. For this reason, they are best used indoors.
  Motion trackers have an effective range of 20 yards (10”), 
  though signals can be detected up to 40 yards (20”) away with a 
  successful Smarts roll.
  Motion trackers do not work through walls, but so long as 
  there is some opening between the target and the sensor, they 
  function. A sealed room may be full of targets, but the sensor 
  cannot register them. Open a door, and it works fine.
  The tracker comes with a readout screen marked with 
  numbered range bands and several controls to adjust the 
  sensitivity to filter out small creatures, such as rats, and to 
  account for atmospheric distortion. Moving objects appear 
  as blips on the screen, which gives range and direction, 
  accompanied by a pinging sound which gets louder as the 
  sensor nears the target.
  The tracker only work in the user’s front arc, however—which 
  leaves him open to surprise attack from the flank or rear.
  neck protector
  Neck protectors are used to stop vampires sinking their 
  fangs into a person’s neck. They are just a simple, wide band of 
  leather or metal (usually leather backed for comfort) that covers 
  the entire neck. They provide either +1 Armor, for leather, or +3 
  for metal.
  They provide no protection against Called Shots to the head, 
  unless the attacker states he’s aiming for the neck (such as in a 
  decapitation attack).
  uv FlAsHliGHt
  Unlike regular flashlights, ultraviolet flashlights do not give 
  off visible light, and thus are no use for illuminating an area 
  unless the user is wearing nightvision goggles. However, they are 
  an effective weapon against vampires.
  As with a regular flashlight, they project a beam 10” long. 
  Aiming them requires a Shooting roll, but because pinpoint 
  accuracy is not required, the attacker receives a +2 bonus. This 
  is effectively a Touch Attack with a ranged weapon. Vampires 
  completely covered by clothing, including sunglasses, are not 
  affected by UV flashlights.
  Any vampire struck by the beam suffers 2d10 damage and 
  has a chance of catching fire. Treat the flashlight as being good 
  for 30 “shots” before the battery is drained. The weight and cost 
  of the flashlight includes a battery.
  WArDinG MAteriAl
  Warding material covers garlic (for vampires), wolvesbane 
  (for lycanthropes), and cold iron (for demons). Other materials 
  exist, of course, but exactly what they are depends on your setting 
  and the weaknesses of any monsters therein.
  Shaped into necklaces or bracelets, warding material 
  gives creatures the material is designed to thwart a –2 penalty 
  to Fighting rolls against the wearer. It has no affect on other 
  creatures. Wearing multiple charms of the same material does 
  not grant a cumulative penalty.
  saniTy & Fear
  This section takes a look at introducing rules for sanity, 
  which are perfectly suited to any style of horror, and also 
  provides some expanded notes on what can cause characters to 
  make a Guts roll.
  sanity
  For those of you looking to expand Fear into something 
  far more traumatic, here’s some guidelines on using a  
  new derived stat called Sanity. These are based on rules 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  0
  presented in Tour of Darkness, with something similar 
  appearing in Rippers.
  stArtinG sAnity
  If you’re going to use Sanity in your horror game, you need 
  to create a new derived statistic called Sanity. Characters begin 
  the game with Sanity equal to 2 plus half their Spirit. Ideally, you 
  should also create some Edges and Hindrances to modify this. 
  More on that later.
  Once Sanity has been determined, it can only be altered by a 
  permanent gain or reduction to Spirit. Each die step grants a +1 or –
  1 penalty respectively to the character’s permanent Sanity score. For 
  instance, a character who increases his Spirit die by one step through 
  advancement also gains +1 permanent Sanity. If he had his Spirit 
  lowered by a lower trait spell, his Sanity would be unaffected.
  A positive Sanity number means a character is well grounded 
  and stable, while a negative number means that he’s starting to 
  get that weird light in his eye that says, “Wow, this axe would look 
  good in your head.”
  Anything from grisly horrors of war, to supernatural 
  creatures, to certain items (books, strange idols, and other 
  esoteric things) can cause a fluctuation in Sanity.
  losinG sAnity
  As a character continues his journey against the forces 
  of darkness, he is often forced to endure and witness things 
  that push him to his limits. Couple with this the dark secrets 
  found in musty tomes, and you have a mind numbing cocktail 
  capable of pushing even the most down-to-earth to the brink 
  of madness. 
  Anytime a character fails a Guts check he loses one point 
  of Sanity. A character who rolls a 1 on his Guts die, regardless 
  of Wild Die, loses two points of Sanity. Should he roll a critical 
  failure, he loses three points of Sanity and must roll on the Sanity 
  Table, regardless of his current Sanity total. 
  Irrespective of to what degree the roll was failed, all characters 
  also suffer the effects of Fear as normal.
  recoverinG sAnity
  In general, it’s far easier to go mad than become sane. The 
  mind can be a fragile thing and, as with the body, it’s easier 
  to cause harm than it is to heal. However, recovering Sanity is 
  possible, if a little slow. By far the easiest method is to stay away 
  from scary things.
  The Sanity Recovery Table below lists a few ways in which he 
  can try to repair the damage. As GM, feel free to add additional 
  items to the list as they arise in your campaign. A character’s 
  Sanity can never exceed his normal maximum.
  sanity recovery taBle
  Condition		
  Recovery
  Successful adventure 
  +1
  Two “sane” months  
  +1
  Successful Adventure: The character recovers one Sanity 
  point if he participated in a successful adventure in which a horror 
  was defeated. You may wish to place further guidelines on this, such 
  as the character actively being involved in the final battle, or only 
  adventures where the characters earn 3 Experience Points count.
  Sane Months: A character who goes two months without 
  losing any Sanity recovers one point.
  treAtMent
  Another way of restoring Sanity is to undergo some sort of 
  psychiatric treatment, whether that be seeing a shrink or booking 
  oneself in at a lunatic asylum.
  Any treatment center should be given a die type based on 
  how good its care is. You can also adjust this for the type of setting 
  you’re running. A lunatic asylum in the modern age might have a 
  d10 rating, for instance, but a backwater asylum in Egypt during 
  the 1890’s might warrant only a d4.
  Once per game month, the GM rolls the center’s die, which 
  is modified by the hero’s Sanity. Each success and raise allows the 
  character to gain +1 Sanity. With a failure, the month is spent 
  recuperating with no gain. Should the die roll be a natural 1, the 
  character gets worse and loses another point of Sanity. 
  Whatever the result, the hero cannot take part in any 
  adventures, research, or anything else of this nature. For all 
  intents and purposes, he is out of the game.
  Alternately, you might allow a fellow character to help the patient. 
  The “doctor” must have a Healing skill of d4+ and have a positive 
  Sanity score himself (otherwise you get the mad curing the mad).
  Each month, the doctor rolls his Healing skill, modified 
  by the patient’s current Sanity score. Success and failure are as 
  above. Obviously with this method both the doctor and patient 
  are out of the game for at least one month.
  Whatever the method, treatment can never raise a hero’s 
  Sanity above 0.
  How much does all this cost? As a guideline, an asylum or 
  shrink charges 1d6 x $200 per month, though you can alter this 
  depending on the setting.
  losinG it
  If a hero’s Sanity slips too far he becomes twitchy, 
  nervous and a little peculiar. If he isn’t treated, he can become 
  dangerously unhinged. 
  Anytime a Sanity loss takes a character to –1 or lower, he must 
  make a Spirit roll. Those who fail develop a quirk or personality 
  
  1
  disorder. This acts as an additional Hindrance for the hero (who 
  does not get any points for this Hindrance—it’s simply the price 
  he pays for the descent into madness). 
  Roll on the table on page 22 to determine the disorders 
  afflicting the character. The character rolls a d20 and adds the 
  Fear modifier of the encounter as a positive number.
  Some results have definite game effects while others manifest 
  themselves only in the way the player roleplays them. Prolonged 
  therapy may correct or permanently remove these disorders in 
  time (at your discretion).
  If duplicate results are rolled on the Psychosis Table, the 
  problem becomes worse. Maybe a character’s superstition goes 
  from carrying a rabbit’s foot to having to kill a fresh rabbit before 
  each adventure to bathe in its blood. The details are left to the 
  imagination of the individual GM.
  edges & Hindrances
  As we mentioned earlier, if you’re going to introduce rules 
  for Sanity, you might want to consider inventing some new Edges 
  and Hindrances that allow a character to modify his Sanity total. 
  There’s also nothing to stop you modifying existing Edges or 
  Hindrances related to scary situations either.
  Here are some examples.
  DoubtinG tHoMAs (MAjor HinDrAnce)
  Besides the description presented in Savage Worlds, Doubting 
  Thomases are just not prepared to deal with the mind-twisting 
  realization that these horrors could actually be real. Characters 
  with this Hindrance suffer double Sanity loss. On the plus side, 
  they start with a Sanity of +2.
  HArDeneD (WeirD eDGe)
  Requirements: Seasoned, Guts d8+
  This hero has seen things that would make most men lose 
  their mind. Somehow he’s hardened himself to it and can live 
  with it. The hero gains one extra point of Sanity during “down 
  time.” This is usually between adventures, and is entirely at the 
  GM’s discretion (a character who spends his time researching 
  monsters shouldn’t get the bonus, for example) and is in addition 
  to any he might gain for other reasons.
  sounD MinD (sociAl eDGe)
  Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+
  Your hero is of sound mind and not prone to flights of fancy. 
  Although the supernatural is still frightening, he or she has the 
  good sense to remain rooted in reality. A character with this Edge 
  is more likely to be able to deal with the many horrors he will 
  encounter. Modify this hero’s Sanity by +2.
  magic
  If your horror setting makes use of magic the characters 
  can wield, you might also want to think about allowing magic to 
  restore Sanity, and maybe even cure insanity.
  Maybe a healing spell can be used to regain a point of 
  Sanity (two on a raise), so long as it is cast within an hour 
  of the points being lost, as with physical wounds. Or maybe 
  greater healing can remove psychoses from the victim’s mind, 
  returning him to his normal self and removing effects gained 
  on the Insanity Table.
  Conversely, the fear spell becomes more powerful, as it can lead 
  to Sanity loss, especially if a villain uses it with great frequency.
  fear
  Whether or not you plan on using sanity in your game, 
  there’s a very strong chance you’ll be using the Fear rules. After 
  all, what’s the point of playing a horror game without any chance 
  of getting scared? 
  Here are some tips on using Fear. These guidelines 
  supplement the notes on giving monsters a Fear rating from the 
  Horror Bestiary Toolkit.
  knoW tHe rules
  Okay, it’s an obvious one, but chances are you’ll be using the 
  Fear rules a lot, so make sure you’re fully conversant with them. 
  Keep the Fright Table handy to save flicking through the book 
  every time a Guts roll is made.
  Frequency oF cHecks
  Don’t go overboard on forcing Guts rolls on the characters, 
  especially for Fear checks.
  Making the players roll dice every time a door creaks or there’s 
  a scratch at the window will destroy any atmosphere you’ve built 
  up at the table. By all means use these sorts of tension creating 
  events, but treat them as a tool.
  Here’s a quick tip for cutting down on Fear rolls—if a 
  player roleplays his character being afraid of a mysterious 
  scratching sound, or whatever, then don’t make him roll his 
  Guts. Simply give the character a –1 penalty for the scene, as 
  if he failed a Fear roll. Of course, if he starts running round 
  screaming (the character, that is), make him roll on the Fright 
  table without a Guts check.
  Likewise, if a player voluntarily makes his character run 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  from a monster, treat it as if he failed his Guts check and rolled 
  Panicked on the Fright Table.
  Be careful not to let the players use this as a trick to avoid 
  the Fright Table. Acting terrified is fine once in a while, but most 
  players aren’t voluntarily going to give their characters heart 
  attacks or phobias. 
  Try to find a balance between roleplaying (which is the 
  nature of the game) and die rolling.
  MoDiFiers
  Be very wary of high Fear modifiers, especially when using 
  Terror. Use scary monsters, those with a Fear rating of –1 or 
  lower, as Big Bads rather than as thugs.
  Rolling on the Fright Table with a positive modifier 
  (remember, that means there’s a negative modifier on the Guts 
  roll) grants a cumulative 5% chance of the victim suffering a 
  heart attack for each +1 modifier. 
  If you force characters to make Guts (–2) checks on a regular 
  basis, you’ll end up playing Cardiac Ward the RPG.
  ADDitionAl FeAr MoDiFiers
  The Fear rules make mention of grisly discoveries and dark 
  secrets, but they don’t give any guidelines on what these mean 
  in terms of game mechanics. How scary should a grimoire be? 
  Here are a few examples of things that can lead to the characters 
  making Fear rolls. Truly grisly discoveries might even cause 
  Terror, but that’s up to you.
  The modifier is applied to the Guts roll and as a positive 
  modifier when rolling on the Fright Table.
  Modifier	
  Cause
  +1/–1 
  Read occult grimoire touching on/detailing 
   
  vile subjects
  +0/–1 
  Discover corpse/mutilated corpse
  +0 
  Ghostly activity
  +0 
  Mundane shock
  Corpses: Discovering the corpse of a friend or loved one 
  makes the modifier one step worse.
  Ghostly Activity: This includes poltergeist activity, as well 
  as seeing writing in blood materialize on a wall. Depending on 
  the severity of the phenomena, there may be a higher penalty.
  Mundane Shock: A mundane shock is the classic cat 
  leaping out from a cupboard. A roll for this should only be 
  made if the tension surrounding the incident has been built up 
  through roleplaying.
  Occult Grimoire: Most occult books are harmless texts, and 
  require no roll. However, certain tomes, especially those dealing 
  with demons or necromancy, may contain passages of text or 
  images of a disturbing nature.
  insanity taBle
  Roll	 Result
  1-2 
  Superstitious: Whether it be religion or a lucky 
  rabbit’s foot, the hero has found something that 
  helps him deal with the terrors he faces. Pick a simple 
  routine or object to be the focus of this disorder. As 
  long as the focus is undisturbed, this character is 
  fine. If the focus is lost or disturbed all Spirit rolls 
  are made at –2 for the duration of the mission.
  3-4 
  Don’t	 Shoot!: This hero has seen many he 
  perceived as innocent die in the conflicts. Because 
  of this, he won’t act in violence toward non-
  monsters without first being attacked himself. 
  He always gives the benefit of the doubt to those 
  “innocents caught in the crossfire of war.” He 
  receives the Pacifist (Minor) Hindrance.
  5-6 
  Vacant	Stare: The distant look in this character’s 
  eyes speaks volumes about the horrors he’s seen. 
  This hero makes all his Notice rolls at –2.
  7-8 
  Flashbacks: When it really hits the fan this hero 
  is overwhelmed by images of past encounters and 
  dead comrades. In a combat situation, images 
  flash through his mind, confusing the past with 
  reality. He draws two cards per action, and acts 
  on the worst of the two.
  9-10 Eternal	 Pessimist: This hero has seen too many 
  friends and innocents get killed. He finds it difficult to 
  form relationships—why bother when they’re bound 
  to be just more meat for the grinder? Viewed as a bit 
  of a wet blanket in the best situations, this character 
  suffers a –4 to his Charisma. Should he have any 
  Leadership Edges, his Command Radius is halved.
  11-12 Night	 Terrors: Horrors affect every person 
  differently. Your hero is plagued by the visions of 
  things he or she has seen. Whatever the cause, 
  this character is traumatized by past events and 
  cannot sleep properly without drink or drugs. 
  As a result the individual is permanently tired or 
  intoxicated. When it is important to sleep, a failed 
  Vigor roll (–2) means this character cannot. When 
  it is important to stay awake, a failed Vigor roll (–2) 
  means the tired hero falls asleep.
  13-14 Addiction: This hero has seen too much and has turned 
  to drugs as a way of coping. While they have eased the 
  horrors locked within his mind, they have also created 
  powerful cravings for more to keep the demons at bay. 
  The hero has a Major Habit Hindrance.
  15-16 The	Shakes: When the adrenaline starts pumping, 
  this hero starts to shake like a leaf. During 
  combat or anytime the character is under stress, 
  his hands start shaking, reducing all Agility and 
  Agility related skill rolls by –1.
  
  
  17-18 Paranoia: The character has seen things in his life 
  that he simply cannot explain. He feels that every 
  mystery has a deeper meaning and goes to great 
  lengths to fit them into his skewed perception 
  of the world around him. He gets the Delusional 
  Hindrance (Major), as well as a –2 to his Charisma.
  19-20 Blood	Lust: The hero has seen his fair share of 
  killing and the experience has awakened a strange 
  lust within. He gains the Bloodthirsty Hindrance.
  21 
  Unnatural	 Appetite: This character begins to 
  believe he can survive only through eating strange 
  and disgusting things. It starts simply enough, with 
  bugs or paper or cigarette butts. This gives a –2 to 
  Charisma when dealing with those who know of 
  these weird habits. If the character rolls this result 
  again, it begins to progress in loathsomeness. 
  Eventually, people around the neighborhood may 
  notice their pets have disappeared as they go to 
  fill his appetite for blood or other entrees.
  22 
  Marked	for	Death: The character has looked into 
  the pits of Hell and seen his place setting at the table. 
  He knows it’s just a matter of time before he dies, 
  no matter what he does. This character receives one 
  less benny at the start of each adventure session for 
  each time he rolls this result.
  23+ 
  Permanent	Psychosis: The character has suffered 
  a shock from which he will never recover. He 
  spends his days drooling and drawing pictures 
  of strange creatures, when he isn’t strapped into 
  a straightjacket and screaming at the top of his 
  lungs—about monsters, that is.
  Tomes oF power
  One staple of horror games, whether they be camp, 
  Gothic, or involving Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, is 
  the tome of power.
  Tomes of power come in three types, each of which is 
  described in more detail below. Which types exist in your game 
  should be decided while you are designing the setting. In a sci-fi 
  setting, tomes may be fragmentary texts from a lost civilization 
  which can manipulate energy or open portals to other realms, 
  data files, or even instruction manuals on how to use nanites.
  mundane tomes
  Mundane tomes are mundane because they do not contain 
  any magical powers. They are actually reference books of the occult, 
  usually with a narrow focus. These aren’t the sorts of occult reference 
  books you find in the library either—these books detail things the 
  general public could not hope (or wish) to comprehend.
  When the characters discover one, or you wish to plant one 
  in an adventure, roll on each of the tables below. The first table 
  covers the subject of the book (in terms of a Knowledge skill), and 
  the second determines the benefit.
  Of course, you can just as easily pick an entry and skill bonus 
  to suit the adventure.
  tAble 1A: subject tAble
  The subject of a book is presented only in broad terms. We 
  don’t recommend that every topic be a separate Knowledge skill. 
  See the sidebar on page 23 for some advice on using Knowledge 
  skills in a horror game.
  You’ll notice that the list is far from exhaustive. This is 
  a sample list to get you started. If you’re planning on using 
  mundane tomes, create a list specific to your setting. If you only 
  have demons in your game, for instance, you could have one book 
  per type of demon.
  d20	
  Topic
  1 
  Special (See below).
  2–3 
  Astronomical Events
  4–5 
  Demons & Devils
  6–7 
  Ghosts
  8 
  Mummies
  knoWledge skills
  To keep it simple, it’s advised that you keep the number 
  of Knowledge skills related to the supernatural needed in your 
  setting to a minimum. We recommend just using three.
  knoWleDGe (ArcAnA)
  Covers magic topics, from determining the qualities of magic 
  items to deciphering spells, to understanding what type of creature 
  was summoned with the strange chalk marks on the ground.
  knoWleDGe (occult)
  Covers all topics relating to supernatural creatures, 
  including known weaknesses, strengths, and so on.
  knoWleDGe (reliGion)
  Covers not just accepted religions, but also cults, ancient 
  religions, sacrificial paraphernalia, and such like.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  9–10 
  Occult Magic Items
  11–12 
  Occult Paraphernalia
  13–14 
  Occult Places
  15 
  Spells & Rituals
  16–17 
  Vampires
  18–19 
  Werewolves
  20 
  Combination. Roll twice. Add  
   
   
  more subjects on further results of 20.
  Special: Roll again to determine the base focus of the book, 
  rerolling further results of 1. The book also has a specific reference 
  related to the topic, as determined by the GM. 
  For instance, a book on vampires might have a special section 
  on Count Dracula, ways of curing vampirism, or the powers of 
  vampiric brides. When used to research this specific material, the 
  bonus increase by +1 (to a maximum of +4) and the unskilled die 
  increases by one step (to a maximum of d6).
  tAble 1b: skill bonus
  Mundane tomes provide a skill bonus from +1 to +3, or 
  give an unskilled character a base skill, depending on the level of 
  detail of the text and pictures within. 
  d20	
  Skill	bonus	
  No	Skill
  1–12 
  +1 bonus 
  d4–2
  13–17 
  +2 bonus 
  d4–1
  18–20 
  +3 bonus 
  d4
  tAble 1c: lAnGuAGe
  Occult books are seldom written in modern English. 
  Many are centuries old, written in archaic languages, 
  and veiled with double-meanings, ciphers, and seemingly 
  nonsensical grammar.
  If you intend on making languages a key part of your game, 
  roll on the table below to see what language the book is written 
  in. If you’re using a real world setting, modern, futuristic, or 
  historical use the Real World column. For fantasy games, use the 
  Fantasy column.
  d20	
  Real	World	
  Fantasy
  1 
  Sumerian 
  Half-Folk
  2-3 
  Aramaic 
  Ancient Elven
  4-8 
  Latin 
  Elven
  9-11 
  Greek 
  Dwarven
  12-13 
  Hebrew 
  Ancient Human
  14-15 
  Hieroglyphs 
  Orcish
  16 
  English 
  Giantish
  17-18 
  Arabic 
  Demonic
  19 
  French 
  Goblin
  20 
  German 
  Dragonspeak
  nAMinG books
  Horror games require atmosphere to work well. All mundane 
  tomes should be given a unique and flavorsome name somehow 
  related to the topic.
  For instance, if you roll a book on vampires, don’t call it a 
  Book of Vampires. Instead, why not call it the Codex of Night 
  Fiends, the Study of Those Creatures Which Devour Blood, or 
  the Dictionary of Vampiric Matters?
  mundane Book oPtions
  no bennies
  It doesn’t take a genius to work out that once the group 
  has a +3 book in their hands they’ll have little use for their lowly 
  +1 volumes ever again. Here’s a way to make sure all books 
  are useful.
  If a character uses a mundane tome and fails his roll, he 
  cannot spend a benny. The book simply does not contain the 
  references he seeks. He can, however, use another book to 
  make the roll again, even if that book grants a lower bonus.
  investiGAtion
  Why don’t mundane tomes provide a bonus to 
  Investigation? Well, as stated before, most of them aren’t 
  written in modern languages. The authors used ciphers 
  and codes to conceal the information so only those “in 
  the know” could make use of the book, and because the 
  subject material is usually esoteric and not understood by 
  the casual reader.
  In general, if you think the information would be 
  commonly available in a modern reference book or on the 
  web, a character can use Investigation to find it.
  FlAt skill
  Rather than granting a bonus to a skill, you might just as 
  easily decide that books contain a fixed skill die on the specific 
  subject. Anyone who can read the book can use the skill.
  If you want to use this method, treat each book as having 
  a specific Knowledge skill about its subject.
  Rather than using the listed No Skill entry, replace that with 
  a d4, d6, and d8. This also cuts down the need for Knowledge 
  skills as any character can now use a book as reference.
  
  
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  Description
  As well as giving the tome a name, you can also give it a write 
  up. Decide when it was written, what type of paper it is written 
  on, whether the ink is special, whether the book has a known 
  history, and such like.
  Take a look at the example books later for some ideas on 
  what you should do to make your mundane books stand out as 
  important parts of your game.
  using  
  a mundane  
  tome
  In order to use a mundane tome, a character simply has 
  to reference it when he wishes to study the subject in question. 
  Mundane books can be used in one of two ways.
  pAssive
  If the reader is researching the same topic as the book, he 
  gains the relevant bonus to a Knowledge skill. 
  There is some leeway here, of course. A book on vampires 
  might allow the character a bonus to his Knowledge (Religion) 
  roll if he is researching ancient blood cults and a bonus to his 
  Knowledge (Occult) if he is looking for advice on defeating a 
  specific type of vampire.
  A character with no Knowledge skill can still use the book, but only 
  with regard to its specific topic. If the character finds a name written 
  in blood at the scene of a murder that you know belongs to a demon, 
  reading a book on vampires isn’t going to provide any benefit.
  Most books, as can be seen from the chart, give the character the 
  same skill die as if he were making the roll unskilled. The advantage 
  of using the book is that the character can actually make the roll. 
  Most Knowledge skills, especially when referring to supernatural 
  topics, should not be allowed to be attempted unskilled.
  How long does it take to research something from a book? 
  A quick guide is to have a default time of one hour plus one hour 
  per +1 bonus of the book. Remember, occult tomes rarely have 
  indexes or glossaries, and the language is likely to be an older 
  form either handwritten or printed with a hard-to-read typeface.
  Active
  A reader can use an appropriate book to gain a bonus to non-
  Knowledge skills. For instance, a character trying to summon a 
  demon can use a book on summoning to gain a bonus to his 
  Spellcasting roll. The book doesn’t contain any spells, but it does 
  provide guidelines on suitable warding and incantations.
  A doctor with access to a book on demons who suspects 
  the heart attack victim he is treating may have been kissed by a 
  succubus can use the bonus on his Healing roll.
  Exactly what skills your players can claim bonuses for 
  is left to you to decide. Just remember though, that in a 
  modern setting, it is likely to raise a few eyebrows if a doctor 
  starts reading from an ancient Latin text on demons while 
  resuscitating a patient.
  samPle mundane 
  Books
  Here’s a selection of mundane books you can use straight 
  off the page. Each book is listed by title, author’s name, year of 
  publication, the language it is written in, and then any notes, 
  including bonuses.
  tHe lAnD oF AtlAntis
  Walter Johnson, 1903, English
  Written in Maine at the turn of the last century, this 
  work draws on both Plato and the work of Ignatius Donnelly. 
  Although written as a work of fiction describing a mariner’s 
  accidental discovery of the island, Atlantis-hunters have long 
  insisted that Johnson, a mariner by profession, actually visited 
  the island.
  It grants a +3 bonus (or d4 skill) but only when specifically 
  used to research Atlantis.
  eclipses, AliGnMents, AnD otHer 
  celestiAl events
  Richard Blake, 1854, English
  Blake was a noted occultist during the Victorian era. He 
  and his works would likely have faded into obscurity had he not 
  mysteriously vanished during a planetary alignment in 1856.
  The book covers all manner of celestial activity for 
  occult purposes, but is very wordy and makes use of complex 
  diagrams. It grants a +1 bonus (or d4–2 skill) when dealing with 
  astronomical alignments.
  eGyptiAn book oF tHe DeAD
  Unknown, c.2713 BC, Egyptian hieroglyphs
  Many copes of the Egyptian Book of the Dead are available 
  in print from bookstores, but this particular version, said by 
  Egyptologists to be a myth, goes into greater detail about the 
  rituals and charms used in mummification.
  It grants a +1 bonus (or d4–2 skill) when dealing with 
  mummies. A small chapter covers Egyptian talismans in great 
  detail. This section gives a +2 (d4–1 skill) bonus when used to 
  research ancient Egyptian magic items.
  
  
  leylines oF Western europe
  Cecilia Hapgood-Warren, 1899, French
  Published in Paris in 1899, this tome uses spurious logic and 
  happenstance to link all the major prehistoric sites of Western 
  Europe together through leylines. The illustrations of the sites 
  are accurate and the descriptions show the author had likely 
  visited them all.
  It grants a +2 bonus (or d4–1 skill) when dealing with places 
  situated on leylines.
  tHe seAlinG oF jArs
  Mustafah ibn-Iblis, 716, Arabic
  The author makes no claims that this is an original work, 
  instead alluding to an earlier scroll written around the time 
  of King Solomon. The work describes the rituals used by King 
  Solomon to bind rebellious genies into copper jars, which were 
  then deposited in the sea.
  The author’s name is likely fictitious, as the word Iblis refers 
  to the Islamic version of Satan.
  It grants a +2 bonus (or d4–1 skill) when dealing with 
  binding rituals (see page 35) and a +3 bonus (d4 skill) when 
  referencing Arabic demons (also called djinn, efrit, and ghuls) 
  with any Knowledge roll.
  sPell tomes
  Spell tomes are a special form of book. They bestow no skill 
  bonuses, but are instead learning tools for those able to work 
  occult powers.
  Each tome contains a single spell. So long as he has the same 
  Arcane Background as the writer, a character with an Arcane 
  Background can try to use a tome to increase his power.
  To study from the book, the character must spend 1d6 hours 
  per Rank of the spell in quiet study. At the end of this time he 
  makes a Smarts roll. If the character’s Rank is below that of the 
  spell, the roll has a –1 penalty per step difference (for instance, a 
  Novice trying to learn greater healing, a Heroic spell, would suffer 
  a –3 penalty). Conversely, if the character’s Rank exceeds that of 
  the spell, he gains a +1 bonus per step.
  If the roll is successful, the reader may add the spell to 
  his repertoire and begin using it, even if he doesn’t meet the 
  Rank requirement. 
  With a failure, the character must begin the study process 
  from scratch. His Smarts roll to learn the spell suffers a cumulative 
  –1 penalty for each failed attempt. When the penalty reaches –4, 
  the character has one final attempt to learn the spell. Should he 
  fail, he may never try to learn from this book again.
  Should the character roll a 1 on his Smarts die, regardless of his 
  Wild Die, he has completely failed to grasp the spell. He may never 
  learn the spell from this book, no matter how hard he studies.
  Tomes are valuable in game mechanic terms because they 
  allow a spellcaster to learn a new power without taking the New 
  Power Edge.
  To create a random spell tome, roll for the Arcane Background 
  type, and then for the spell.
  tAble 2A: ArcAne bAckGrounD
  1d20	
  Type
  1-13 
  Arcane Background (Magic)
  14-20 
  Arcane Background (Miracles)
  tAble 2b: rAnDoM spell
  3d20	
  Type
  3-6 
  Armor
  7 
  Barrier 
  8 
  Beast Friend
  9-10 
  Blast
  11-13 
  Bolt
  14-15 
  Boost/Lower Trait
  16 
  Burrow
  17-18 
  Burst
  19-20 
  Deflection
  21-23 
  Detect/Conceal Arcana
  24-25 
  Dispel
  26 
  Elemental Manipulation
  27-28 
  Entangle
  29-31 
  Environmental Protection
  32 
  Fear
  33 
  Fly
  34 
  Greater Healing
  35-37 
  Healing
  38 
  Invisibility
  39-41 
  Light
  42-43 
  Obscure
  44 
  Puppet
  45-46 
  Quickness
  47 
  Shape Change
  48-49 
  Smite
  50-51 
  Speak Language
  52-53 
  Speed
  54-55 
  Stun
  56-57 
  Telekinesis
  58-59 
  Teleport
  60 
  Zombie
  grimoires
  A grimoire is related to a spell tome in that it contains a spell, 
  but unlike the spell tome, a grimoire is not a learning aid. Instead, 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  a grimoire contains a single spell that can be used straight off the 
  page, even if the reader doesn’t have an arcane background.
  creating a grimoire
  Creating a grimoire requires a few simple die rolls. Roll on 
  each table below as instructed and record the results. After you’ve 
  finished rolling the dice, use the guidelines earlier in the chapter 
  to give the book some flavor.
  tAble 3A: ArcAne bAckGrounD
  Roll a d20 to determine if the grimoire has a Faith or 
  Spellcasting arcane skill die.
  1d20	
  Type
  1-16 
  Arcane Background (Magic)
  17-20 
  Arcane Background (Miracles)
  tAble 3b: spell
  Use Table 2B on page 27 to determine the spell.
  tAble 3c: ArcAne skill & poWer points
  To determine the grimoire’s arcane skill and power points, 
  roll twice on the table below (once for each column).
  A grimoire always contains enough Power Points to cast its 
  spell at least once. If the spell requires more Power Points than 
  were rolled on this table, move up the column until you reach a 
  number equal to or higher than the required Power Points.
  For example: quickness requires 4 Power Points to cast. If you 
  only rolled 3 Power Points for the grimoire, you move up the column 
  to the first entry that has 4 or more Power Points. In this case, the tome 
  would have 5 Power Points.
  1d20	
  Arcane	Skill	
  Power	Points
  1-3 
  d4 
  1
  4-6 
  d6 
  3
  7-13 
  d8 
  5
  14-16 
  d10 
  10
  17-18 
  d12 
  15
  19 
  d12+1 
  20
  20 
  d12+2 
  30
  tAble 3D: nuMber oF speciAl Abilities
  Roll a d20 to determine if the grimoire has any special 
  powers. If it does, roll on Table 3E to determine what they are.
  1d20	
  Number
  1-14 
  None
  15-17 
  One
  18-19 
  Two
  20 
  Three
  tAble 3e: speciAl Abilities
  Roll a d20 for each special ability indicated above. Unless an 
  entry says otherwise, reroll duplicate results.
  1d20	
  Type
  1-10 
  New	Power. Roll for another spell. The 
  grimoire uses the one set of Power Points to 
  power all its spells.
  11-13 
  Power	Points. Increase the grimoire’s Power 
  Points by 5.
  14-16 
  Rapid	Recharge	Edge. If you roll this twice,  
  treat it as Improved Rapid Recharge. Reroll a 
  third result.
  17-18 
  Mastery. Increase the grimoire’s Wild Die one 
  step (max d12).
  19-20 Wizard	Edge. Use for both types of Arcane 
  Background.
  using a  
  grimoire
  A grimoire can be used one of two ways, depending on 
  whether or not the reader has an Arcane Background. However 
  the power is invoked, any backlash as a result of a poor arcane 
  skill roll affects the reader, not the grimoire.
  no ArcAne bAckGrounD
  A character without an Arcane Background must use the 
  grimoire’s arcane skill die and its Power Points. The grimoire 
  always rolls a Wild Die.
  Any variable linked to a trait uses the reader’s trait. Thus, 
  puppet, for instance, has a Range of the reader’s Smarts.
  The character must have the grimoire open in front of 
  him, be able to speak, and have some way of turning the pages. 
  For a variable spell, such as bolt, the caster must declare how 
  many Power Points he is investing before he rolls the arcane 
  skill die.
  There is no need to state in advance how long the spell is being 
  maintained. The grimoire automatically pays the maintenance 
  cost until it runs out of Power Points or the caster closes the book 
  (which cancels the spell). Power Points in a grimoire recharge as 
  normal (usually one per hour).
  
  
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  0
  ArcAne bAckGrounD
  A character with the same Arcane Background as the grimoire 
  can invoke the spell using his own arcane skill die if he prefers. There 
  is no bonus or penalty to do this—it’s simply a choice he has.
  Likewise, the character may elect to use his own Power Points 
  to cast or maintain the spell, treating the spell as if it were one he 
  had cast from his collection.
  Otherwise, he may treat the grimoire as if he had no Arcane 
  Background as above.
  examPle grimoires
  Here’s some sample grimoires ready to use. Each has a name, 
  its arcane type and skill, Power Points, spell, any special abilities, 
  and some flavor text.
  book oF eArtHly resurrection
  Arcane	Skill: Spellcasting d10
  Power	Points: 10
  Spell: Zombie
  Special	Abilities: Rapid Recharge, Wizard
  Created by a necromancer, this book appears at first glance 
  to restore life. Only with closer examination does the reader 
  realize that the grimoire only returns the physical form to life—as 
  a mindless slave. Any non-evil character invoking the spell must 
  make a Guts roll.
  book oF tHe WritHinG one
  Arcane	Skill: Spellcasting d12
  Power	Points: 3
  Spell: Blast and entangle
  Special	Abilities: Mastery (d8), New Power
  Written in honor of Vralkresh, a dark god, this tome deals 
  with the conjuration of black, slimy tentacles tipped with biting 
  mouths. The tentacles are capable not just of holding a foe tight, 
  but also of stripping away his flesh.
  The book is actually unfinished. Not only does it end 
  halfway through a paragraph, leaving almost 20 pages blank, 
  but the low Power Points do not fit well with its high arcane 
  skill and mastery ability.
  A complete copy, if such exists, will have many more Power 
  Points (use 20 if you create a full copy).
  tHe DArk scripture
  Arcane	Skill: Faith d6
  Power	Points: 8
  Spell: Puppet
  Special	Abilities: Power Points
  Although the original is said to date from Sumerian times, 
  this Latin version of the Dark Scripture was written around 1640. 
  According to a passage near the front of the book, it was originally 
  written to ensure a steady supply of “willing” brides available for 
  the demon the writer served.
  tHe FletcHer’s GuiDe
  Arcane	Skill: Spellcasting d8
  Power	Points: 5
  Spell: Bolt
  Special	Abilities: None
  This slim volume was crafted by a dark wizard to allow his 
  minions to protect him while he was engaged in performing 
  summoning rituals.
  liber tiMor
  Arcane	Skill: Faith d8
  Power	Points: 20
  Spell: Fear and stun
  Special	Abilities: New Power
  Known in English as the Book of Fear, this Latin tome 
  originally dates from Roman times, though it has been rewritten 
  many times throughout the ages. Supposedly written by priests of 
  Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld, it contains numerous 
  incantations for evoking fear.
  The first half of the book deals with invoking fear, 
  terrorizing victims with vivid hallucinations, and even stopping 
  their hearts with fright. The second half is concerned with 
  driving victims into a temporary stupor by invoking terrible 
  images in their minds.
  dark maGicks
  The magic in a horror game often comes in two forms—the 
  type used by the good guys (the characters), and that used by the 
  bad guys. As you might have guessed by the title, this chapter 
  deals with the latter.
  In a sci-fi game, dark magic might be a mathematical rote 
  or complex equation which if repeated or solved manipulates the 
  barrier between dimensions. For most other settings, dark magic 
  is simply another form of magic.
  Whether or not you allow the characters to dabble in the 
  black arts is up to you. It’s your game.
  
  1
  summoning rituals
  For the most part, the summoning of demons, ghosts, dark 
  gods and other supernatural entities can be handled by the needs 
  of the story. If the evil cultist priest has to summon forth a dark 
  god to progress the story, then no game mechanics are required. 
  However, for those GMs that want to let fate decide, and for 
  players who wish to make contact with otherworldly creatures, 
  here are some guidelines on using summoning magic.
  WHAt cAn be suMMoneD?
  Not every creature can be summoned through magic. The 
  first thing you need to decide are exactly which entities can be 
  summoned, and which can’t.
  There are no right or wrong choices here. Whatever you 
  want to be summonable can be summoned. However, as a rough 
  guideline, noncorporeal creatures, such as ghosts, should be 
  considered summonable, as should as all demons. Other creatures 
  depend on the needs of your setting.
  Using the creatures from the Horror Bestiary Toolkit, we suggest 
  that only animators, the Black Judge, dark gods, demonic steeds, 
  demons, devilkin, emotion spirits, ghosts, gladiators, helldrakes, 
  hellhounds, living gods, and terrorizers be allowed. If you have 
  the Fantasy Bestiary Toolkit, you can add creatures like elementals 
  and jinn to the list (there’s also another batch of demons you can 
  lift straight off the page).
  suMMoninG spells
  In order to summon an entity, one needs to know the correct 
  ritual. While you could simply create a single Summon Entity spell, 
  we suggest you give thought to creating one spell for each being. 
  Using this method, you can control what the players can summon 
  (by handing out the spell), and more importantly, you can craft each 
  spell around the specific nature of the creature being called forth.
  We’ll look at each aspect of a summoning spell individually, to 
  give you an idea of how to go about crafting specific spells. At the 
  end of this section, we present some example summoning spells.
  As always, these are merely suggestions and guidelines for 
  you to play with as you see fit.
  rAnk
  Summonings are not without risk (often mortal danger 
  is involved) and the magic used to call forth extradimensional 
  beings are beyond the ken of amateurs and dabblers. As such, 
  summoning spells should require a minimum of Seasoned rank, 
  and these are for the weaker creatures.
  As one rises through the ranks, so one learns the techniques 
  needed to summon more powerful entities. Creatures such as gladiators 
  and helldrakes should require Veteran or Heroic status, whereas dark 
  gods should need Heroic or Legendary level summoners.
  cost
  Opening gateways to other realms is tiring, physically and 
  mentally. The boundaries between our world and the next are 
  deliberately hard to breech, primarily in order to stop these beings 
  from simply blundering into our world en masse.
  At a guideline, a summoning spell should require a number 
  of Power Points equal to 10 + (the creature’s Size x 10). Treat 
  creatures with a negative Size as Size +0 for these purposes.
  You may wish to lower this for “common” creatures, such 
  as hellhounds or demonic steeds. In these cases, using a cost of 
  just 5 or 10 Power Points, or maybe 5 plus 5 per point of Size over 
  zero can be used.
  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that no mage 
  can hope to summon a dark god, or even a large demon, not by 
  himself anyway. Cultist priests have cultist followers for more 
  reasons than the love of being exalted by fellow madmen. One 
  reason is to aid in summoning rituals.
  The character performing the rite is called the summoner, and 
  he may use as many or as few of his Power Points as he desires. Clever 
  summoners try to use as few as possible, just in case the summoning 
  goes wrong and magic is required to save one’s own life.
  Every other person involved in the ceremony, known as 
  participants, may give a number of Power Points equal to half their 
  Spirit die, regardless of whether he has an Arcane Background or 
  not. Of course, these participants aren’t actually focusing true 
  Power Points, but rather fill a supporting role, lending power in 
  the form of chants and ritual dances.
  Participants with an Arcane Background may spend up to 
  their maximum Power Points, so long as their Background is the 
  same type as that of the summoner. So a wizard can help another 
  wizard, but a dark priest could not help the mage.
  rAnGe
  Range is less important for summoning spells than for those 
  that affect a target. Summoning spells open gateways that only 
  certain creatures can cross, but they do not impel the creature 
  to step through. However, the caster should be fairly close to 
  the summoned creature. Typically the summoned creature must 
  appear within the viewer’s sight to a range of Smarts x 2 yards.
  DurAtion
  Summoning spells typically come in one of two durations—
  temporary and indefinite.
  Temporary summonings can last for hours, days, weeks, 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  even years, or until the summoned creature has performed 
  one task set by the summoner. In most cases, the latter has a 
  time limit of a year and a day to stop the summoned creature 
  from accomplishing their goal and being returned to their 
  own realm.
  In all temporary summonings, when the duration expires, 
  the creature simply vanishes.
  Most summonings should be of temporary duration, but 
  the exact length is up to you. One way to handle this is simply 
  to list a fixed duration for the spell. Another is to have a base 
  duration, and then an extra cost if the summoner wishes to 
  extend the period. Unlike regular spells, these extra points 
  are spent at the time of casting, and not treated in the same as 
  maintaining powers.
  For instance, a summon devilkin spell might have a duration of 
  just one night. However, for an extra 5 Power Points, this can be 
  extended to three days, for 10 Power Points it becomes a week, and 
  for 15 Power Points the creature can stay in our realm for a month.
  With indefinite duration summoning, the creature is free to 
  remain until it is destroyed or gets bored and goes home of its 
  own volition. Few choose the latter option voluntarily.
  Ideally, very few spells of this sort should exist, especially 
  with regard to higher level beasts. Aside from mad cultists, 
  who really wants to have a dark god running around 
  terrorizing the planet for eternity?
  trAppinGs
  All summoning spells require trappings. Every spell requires 
  candles or braziers, chanting, and gestures as a minimum, but 
  they should also have unique trappings dependent on the type 
  of creature being summoned. This is purely for flavor.
  For instance, the dark god Crazalphasalius (the fire god) can 
  only be summoned if there is a conflagration at least the size of a 
  burning house as a trapping. Summoning a demon of gluttony 
  might require $500 of food to be used as a trapping.
  Trappings can also be tied to celestial events, such as 
  phases of the moon, or planetary alignments, although the 
  latter should be reserved for truly powerful creatures and acts 
  as a natural limitation of how often these monstrosities can 
  be summoned.
  tiMinG
  Most spells in Savage Worlds require only a single action to 
  invoke. However, summoning spells are long, elaborate rituals, 
  requiring a great deal of time. The casting time for a ritual is one 
  minute per Power Point.
  Although Power Points are allocated at the start of the 
  ritual, they aren’t actually spent until the die roll is made. During 
  the ritual, the loss of any participant means a reduction in Power 
  Points, which might make the spell uncastable.
  For this reason, and for other reasons we’ll look at in just a 
  minute, cultist priests often have more cultists than they need at 
  the ritual to ensure a healthy supply of power.
  ArcAne skill roll
  Aside from the high Power Point cost, summoning powerful 
  entities is extremely difficult. Every syllable and inflection of the 
  complex ritual must be chanted correctly, and even if that is done, 
  there is no guarantee a creature of the appropriate type senses the 
  open gateway.
  As such, every summoning spell has a penalty to the arcane 
  skill roll. This is basically an artificial way of preventing characters 
  from summoning dark gods every week. Although you’re free to 
  create your own modifiers, we have supplied some examples based 
  on the monsters in the Horror Bestiary Toolkit.
  There’s no equation used to calculate these values—
  they’re simply based on the overall power of the creature 
  being summoned.
  
  
  Creature	
  Modifier
  Animators 
  +0
  Black Judge 
  +0
  Dark Gods 
  –12
  Demonic Steed 
  +0
  Demons 
  –2 to –4
  Devilkin 
  –1
  Emotion Spirits 
  –1
  Ghosts 
  +0
  Gladiators 
  –4
  Helldrakes 
  –8
  Hellhounds 
  +0
  Living Gods 
  –2
  Terrorizers 
  –1
  Yep, some of these penalties are quite high, but don’t worry, 
  there are ways of reducing them. Remember those extra cultists 
  we spoke about earlier? Well, they come in handy right now.
  For every sentient life sacrificed, the summoner gets a +1 
  bonus to his arcane skill roll. Well, this section isn’t called dark 
  magicks for nothing, you know.
  Sometimes things go wrong with summonings, and it’s at 
  this time that the summoner should be grateful he (hopefully) 
  kept some Power Points back.
  If the roll is merely failed, the spell simply fails to yield results 
  and all the Power Points are lost. If the summoner rolls a 1 on his 
  arcane skill die (regardless of Wild Die), the creature is summoned 
  as normal but is not bound to listen to the summoner’s bargain 
  (see below). It may act freely for 2d6 rounds before it is forced 
  back to its own realm.
  Should the roll be a critical failure, the summoner has 
  somehow managed to call forth a different type of entity (GM’s 
  choice), which again is not forced to listen to any bargain and 
  may act freely for 2d6 rounds.
  Bargaining
  Okay, so now you’ve summoned a demon, you need to make 
  a deal with it. That’s right, foolish mortal, summoned creatures 
  aren’t bound to obey the summoner’s every whim.
  Just a quick note before we go into the details, though—no 
  mortal can ever strike a bargain with a Dark God, no matter what 
  he has to offer. Most of these entities are completely insane, and 
  look upon their followers as they would a speck of crap on the 
  bottom of their foot (or whatever they use to get around on). 
  Summoned dark gods usually go on an immediate killing spree, 
  starting with the cultists who foolishly summoned them.
  If you’re using the Dark Judge from the Horror Bestiary 
  Toolkit in your game, you can’t bargain with him either. He 
  judges the summoner, then he decides if he wants to help or 
  not. Summoners can’t compel him to assist them, no matter 
  how worthy their cause might be. The Dark Judge answers to 
  no mortal.
  Until a bargain is attempted the summoned creature 
  (barring failed rolls and the exceptions above) cannot try to kill 
  the summoner. The summoning magic automatically gives the 
  summoner a fighting chance before the creature is released fully 
  into the world. However, if you want to add an extra stage in here, 
  check out Warding on page 34.
  The summoner must state the exact bargain he is striking 
  (the player must speak it aloud). He doesn’t have to offer the 
  creature anything in return, but it is often wise to offer it at 
  least a token. 
  The bargain must be of 20 words or less and cannot contain 
  more than two clauses (they usually follow words like “but,” “if,” 
  “however,” and “and”). If the character breaks these simple rules, 
  the bargain is instantly declared null and void, and the creature 
  may act as if the summoner had scored a critical failure on his 
  bargaining roll (see below).
  In order to strike a bargain with the creature, the 
  summoner must succeed in a Persuasion roll at –2 opposed 
  by the creature’s Smarts. The summoner can try to Intimidate 
  the creature, but the roll is made at –6 (some creatures are 
  immune to Intimidation) and opposed by the creature’s 
  Spirit. Let’s face it, when you live in a Hell realm, some 
  mortal threatening to whup your butt is rather laughable. 
  There are modifiers to either roll, however, as shown on the 
  table below.
  With success, the creature is bound by magic to carry out 
  the bargain to the best of its abilities. On a failure, the creature 
  is automatically forced to return to its own realm of existence. 
  On a roll of 1 on the skill die, regardless of the Wild Die, the 
  creature is freed for 2d6 rounds before it is forced to go home. 
  During this time, it usually attacks the summoner for his 
  impudence. Should the roll be a critical failure, the creature 
  manages to find a loophole in the bargain. It is not bound, nor 
  forced to go home. Instead, it usually attacks the summoner 
  before going off to do what it does best.
  Bargaining modifiers
  Event	
  Modifier
  Appropriate cause 
  +2
  Inappropriate cause 
  –4
  Offering (per $1000) 
  +1
  True Name 
  +4
  Weapon of weakness 
  +2
  Appropriate Cause: Most summoned creatures have a 
  purpose, and summoning them to perform a duty related to that 
  cause pleases them. A terrorizer, for instance, often gladly works 
  for a summoner who lets it cause terror.
  Inappropriate Cause: An inappropriate cause is one related 
  to the creature’s reason for existence. A plague demon asked to 
  retrieve a relic isn’t going to be a happy demon, for instance.
  Offerings: Extradimensional creatures don’t want money or 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  mobile phones, but they are partial to gemstones (purely because 
  they cost the mortal a lot), rare spices (for the same reason), and 
  magic items (which they keep).
  True Name: Names have power, and a summoner knowing the 
  individual creature’s True Name has greater bargaining potential. 
  Remember, even demons of the same type have unique names. 
  Discovering a creature’s True Name might involve an adventure, or 
  just an Investigation roll (typically with a –4 modifier).
  Weapon of Weakness: Certain entities suffer from a 
  weakness to specific materials, such as demons and cold iron. 
  Having a weapon capable of harming the creature is a powerful 
  bargaining tool, though if the bargain fails the creature will no 
  doubt look unkindly at attempts to threaten it into submission.
  samPle summoning 
  sPells
  As promised, here are some sample summoning spells to get 
  your brain ticking over. None of the spells have effects listed, as they all 
  perform the same function of calling forth a beast from another realm. 
  All trappings, unless otherwise stated, are in addition to 
  candles or braziers, chants, and gestures.
  Of course, creatures should arrive in a suitable manner. A 
  plague demon’s arrival may be heralded by a swarm of flies hovering 
  over the place it will appear, for instance, whereas Crazalphasalius 
  appears in a shimmering heat haze (shortly before he incinerates 
  everything in sight on a whim).
  suMMon blAck juDGe
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 10
  Range: Smarts x 2
  Duration: Five minutes
  Trappings: The problem the Black Judge is to solve must be 
  written on a piece of paper and then burnt.
  suMMon Gluttony DeMon
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: 40
  Range: Smarts x 2
  Duration: One day (can be extended by one day per 5 additional 
  Power Points)
  Trappings: Food with a minimum value of $500.
  suMMon jjrikilliMsG
  Rank: Heroic
  Power	Points: 90
  Range: Smarts
  Duration: One hour
  Trappings: Must be cast on a full moon when the star Sirius is in 
  the sky.
  suMMon librAriAn DeMon
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 20
  Range: Smarts x 2
  Duration: One hour (extended to 6 hours for +5 Power 
  Points one day for +10 Power Points, and a week for +20 
  Power Points)
  Trappings: An item of knowledge, (In a modern game, 
  Librarians might accept CD or USB storage devices as well as 
  ancient tomes.)
  suMMon livinG GoD
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: 30
  Range: Smarts x 2
  Duration: One day (can be extended to three days for +5 
  Power Points, a week for +10, and a further +10 for each 
  subsequent week)
  Trappings: An item appropriate to the faith of the living god (a 
  cat for a living god of the Egyptian goddess Bast, or a large 
  hammer for one of Thor, for example).
  suMMon terrorizer
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: 20
  Range: Smarts x 2
  Duration: One day (can be extended by one day for each +5 
  Power Points).
  Trappings: A quart of fresh blood.
  Warding
  The system presented above is Fast, Furious, and Fun! 
  It does the job perfectly well, but for those of you who want 
  some extra flavor, here’s an additional stage to add to the 
  summoning ritual.
  When an entity is summoned, it is not bound from tearing 
  the summoner limb from limb. In order to get to the bargaining 
  stage, the summoner must summon the beast inside a warding, 
  be that a pentacle drawn in chalk, a circle of iron rods, or Star of 
  David made from salt or holy water. Again, note that no warding 
  can hold a dark god, no matter how powerful it is.
  
  
  creAtinG A WArDinG
  A warding is not a spell, but a physical object. Although the 
  object may seem flimsy compared to the might of a demon lord, it 
  is the magic inherent in the warding that keeps the entity at bay.
  In order to create a suitable warding, the summoner must 
  first know what warding works against a specific creature. Locating 
  this knowledge requires an Investigation or Knowledge (Arcana or 
  Occult) roll, usually with at least a –2 penalty. Ideally, the GM should 
  make this roll, for reasons which will become obvious below.
  Of course, the summoner needs appropriate reference 
  material. This may be an old tome located in a library’s restricted 
  section or a browse on the web, depending on your game setting. 
  Note as well that the same warding applies to every entity of the 
  same type. That is, every gluttony demon, for instance, is bound 
  by the same warding.
  With success, the summoner finds what he is looking for. 
  Raises on this roll give bonuses, as detailed below. Note that 
  once the summoner knows a specific warding, he does not have 
  to research it again. He should note any raises he scores on his 
  character sheet for future reference.
  On a failure, the summoner merely wastes his time, but he 
  may try again. Should he roll a 1 on his skill die, regardless of 
  Wild Die, he has found erroneous information but believes it to 
  be correct. On a critical failure, the data is for the wrong type 
  of entity and the warding has no chance of working, but the 
  summoner remains ignorant of this.
  Once he has the knowledge to hand, the summoner must 
  then create the warding. This requires a steady hand as well as 
  knowledge, as the slightest error can spell disaster. The summoner 
  creates the ward before the ritual begins, but he doesn’t get to see 
  whether he has done it right until the entity arrives. 
  Note that if the summoning goes awry and the wrong 
  creature is summoned, the warding is automatically useless.
  testinG tHe WArD
  So, summoning ritual complete, and you now have a rather 
  uppity entity contained inside the warding. Now it’s time to see 
  if it works.
  The summoner must now make an Agility or Smarts roll 
  (use the lowest) opposed by the creature’s Spirit. Each raise on 
  the Investigation roll above grants a +1 bonus to the summoner’s 
  roll. If the Investigation roll was a 1, however, the demon gets a +4 
  bonus to its roll instead.
  On a success, the summoner has held the fiend in place and 
  he can go into bargaining with it, as detailed above. On a failure, 
  the creature escapes and may do as it wishes for the duration 
  of the summoning spell. Critical failures have no additional 
  effect. The summoner may still try to make a bargain with the 
  summoned creature, but he must do so as an action (and running 
  away is usually the best action the summoner could take at this 
  point in time).
  Binding & BanisHing
  Summoning and bargaining is certainly one way to get 
  service from an entity, but it isn’t the only way.
  You might allow magicians to bind extradimensional 
  entities to their will through base magic, such as a binding spell. 
  Likewise, a magician may know rituals to banish these entities if 
  summoning goes awry, or if a magician finds himself the target 
  of an attack by such a fiend. The easiest way to handle both these 
  situations is through the creation of new spells. Whether or 
  not you require a unique spell for each entity is up to you. Our 
  examples assume that a single spell covers all entities.
  binD entity
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: Special
  Range: Smarts
  Duration: 24 hours (5/24 hours)
  Trappings: Chanting, wardings, special substances
  A bind entity spell allows a spellcaster to force an entity in 
  servitude. Any entity that can be summoned, with the noted 
  exception of dark gods and the Black Judge, can be bound (see 
  the list on page 33). The creature may be summoned and then 
  bound, or it might already be on Earth.
  The cost to invoke this spell is equal to twice the entity’s 
  Spirit die type. A pazuzu, for instance, has a Spirit die of d8, and 
  therefore requires 16 Power Points to cast bind entity on it.
  In either case, the caster must make an arcane skill roll 
  opposed by the entity’s Spirit roll. If the entity has been 
  summoned and bargained with by another caster, it receives a +2 
  bonus to its roll. A creature already subject to a bind entity spell 
  receives a +1 bonus for each die step in the binder’s arcane skill 
  (so a d4 equals +1, a d6 gives +2, and so on).
  On a success, the caster has bound the creature to his will for 
  the duration of the spell. The creature must obey commands given 
  to it, both to the letter and spirit, though orders that obviously 
  endanger the entity’s existence allow it another roll to break free.
  Should the spell fail, however, the creature is free to attack 
  the caster. If he summoned the fiend, it has 2d6 rounds to act 
  before it is forced back to its own realm. 
  The caster may not try to bind the same entity more than 
  once in any 24 hour period. Any entity bound by the caster 
  cannot be subjected to further bind entity spells from the same 
  caster until the duration of the previous spell has passed and a 
  period of 24 hours has passed.
  bAnisH entity
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: Special
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  Range: Smarts
  Duration: Instant
  Trappings: Runes, chants, gestures, prayers, special substances
  A banish entity spell forces extradimensional entities back to 
  their own realm. Any entity that can be summoned, excluding dark 
  gods and the Black Judge, can be banished (see the list on page 33).
  The cost to invoke this spell is equal to the entity’s Spirit die 
  type. A revealer demon, for instance, has a Spirit die of d10, and 
  therefore requires 10 Power Points to banish entity. It’s far easier to 
  banish these entities than it is to summon them, as they do not 
  belong to this world.
  The spellcaster must make an arcane skill roll opposed by 
  the entity’s Spirit. With a success, the entity is instantly driven 
  back to its own realm, though it is not destroyed. On a failure, the 
  entity is free to continue its business and suffers no ill effects.
  neW PoWers
  You might be tempted to create some new spells for your 
  horror setting. That’s cool, but think carefully about why you 
  want the spell first—horror doesn’t normally need as many spells 
  as a typical fantasy setting.
  By far the easiest way to create a new spell is simply to 
  tinker with an existing one. For instance, say you wanted a 
  spell that drains the lifeforce from a victim, leaving him 
  a withered husk. Well, why don’t you just use bolt with the 
  trapping of withering the victim’s flesh? You don’t have to 
  change anything then.
  Of course, you can also easily modify bolt to have a 
  range of Touch and reduce the number of bolts to just one. 
  Yes, it’s slightly weaker than the original version, but you can 
  counter this by having it cause extra damage, or by tweaking 
  the trapping so that every wound the victim loses heals one 
  wound on the caster.
  To help add flavor, consider changing nothing but the spell’s 
  name. While entangle neatly sums up what the spell can do, calling 
  it “Tentacles of Vralkresh” is much cooler. 
  In a setting where characters can only learn magic from 
  tomes, consider giving spells names that don’t immediately 
  give away what the spell does. Magic is not a science taught in 
  schools, and magicians rarely give their spells boring names. 
  Why not rename bolt to be “Angel’s Spear”? In game terms, 
  this could be bolt, but can the player be sure it doesn’t relate 
  to smite or stun?
  Completely new spells should be built with the horror 
  aspect in mind. Sure, a fantasy game might need a bolt spell with 
  a lightning trapping, but it isn’t really a cool horror spell.
  DesiGninG FroM scrAtcH
  The first step when creating a new power is to think about 
  the effect. Until you’ve done this, you can’t assign it a Rank, 
  Power Points, Range, or Duration. Remember though, if you’re 
  creating a new combat spell the basic power and a new trapping 
  cover most bases.
  Effects can be whatever you want. Really. However, the 
  more powerful the effect, the higher the Rank of the caster, 
  and possibly the Power Points. Instantly destroying a target, 
  especially a Wild Card, should be Legendary and cost at least 
  20 Power Points.
  Most standard powers have a duration of 3 (1/round). This 
  should suffice for most new powers, though it depends on the 
  effect. A power that opens a gate to another dimension might well 
  have this short a duration, but one that allows communication 
  with creatures from other worlds should have a duration of 
  minutes rather than seconds.
  Non-offensive powers that work at distance should be 
  based on the Smarts or Spirit of the caster, depending on the 
  Arcane Background type. At most, a spell should have a range of 
  Smarts x 2, and usually only when it has a Burst Template effect. 
  Offensive spells, especially those which inflict damage, should 
  use the standard 12/24/48 brackets.
  No amount of tables can help you balance a spell. You can 
  use the existing powers as guidelines, but you can also apply some 
  forethought. Think about the cost of the spell and the effect in 
  relation to how many Power Points characters can have at each 
  rank. Work out how many times it can be cast before the character 
  runs out of Power Points. 
  At the end of the day, common sense should prevail. If you 
  allow arcane spellcasters to have an Instant Death spell at Novice 
  with a cost of just 2 Power Points, don’t be surprised when your 
  lovingly crafted dark gods drop dead like flies.
  introDucinG neW spells
  If you’re already running a game and use this section to add some 
  new powers, think about how you’re going to introduce them.
  If you just turn round and say, “Here’s a load of new 
  powers you can take,” your players might be a little upset. 
  After all, their characters might have taken different powers 
  from day one.
  The use of spellbooks and ancient grimoires gives you a 
  perfect tool for slowly introducing new spells without opening 
  the floodgates. This way, you can drip feed new spells into the 
  game in order to test them.
  If the players think they suck, you can tinker with them or 
  simply pass them off as “the creations of a deranged cultist.”
  examPle neW PoWers
  Okay, enough chat. Here’s a selection of powers designed 
  with a horror game in mind. Some of them appeared in the 
  Fantasy World Builder Toolkit, but if you don’t have (or don’t need) 
  that book, we’ve duplicated them here.
  
  
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  consecrAte GrounD
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 3
  Range: Medium Burst Template
  Duration: 1 minute (1/minute)
  Trappings: Circle of holy water or salt, energy barrier, pentagram
  Consecrated ground is an anathema to evil creatures. 
  Through the use of this power, an area of holy ground is created, 
  filling a Medium Burst Template centered on the caster.
  Any supernatural evil creature entering the area must make 
  a Spirit roll or suffer a –2 penalty to all trait rolls while within the 
  effects of the spell, –4 on a raise on the casting roll.
  Permanently consecrating an area, like a church or temple, 
  is possible, but not usually within the confines of an adventure. 
  High ranking priests, valuable oils and unguents, and saintly 
  or other holy relics may be required, as is some sort of altar or 
  other focus of worship. At the end of the day, only a deity can 
  permanently consecrate an area—everything else is just to get the 
  god’s attention—so the GM has some flexibility.
  corpse senses
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 2
  Range: Smarts x 100 yards
  Duration: 3 (1/round)
  Trappings: Chanting, staring into a mirror
  Necromancers often guard their tombs with undead, and this 
  spell allows them to use their minions as a set of roving senses. The 
  power only works on corpses the caster has animated himself.
  For the duration of the spell, the caster uses the senses of the 
  target as if they were his own. He sees what the undead sees, hears 
  what it hears, and so on. The caster has no control over the corpse, 
  and cannot make it change direction or speak through it. Should the 
  target wander out of range, the connection is instantly severed.
  DrAin liFe
  Rank: Heroic
  Power	Points: 20
  Range: Smarts
  Duration: Permanent
  Trappings: Chanting, spoken curse
  This vile spell causes one target to wither and age many years 
  in an instant. 
  The caster makes an arcane skill roll opposed by the 
  victim’s Vigor. On a success, the victim ages rapidly, and loses 
  a permanent die of Strength and Vigor, two die steps on a 
  raise (both to a minimum of a d4). The character is treated as 
  having the Elderly Hindrance, and so no neither attribute can 
  be increased with advancements.
  If cast on an Elderly character, the victim dies of old age if he 
  fails his Vigor roll.
  encHAnt WeApon
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 1
  Range: Touch
  Duration: 3 (1/round)
  Trappings: Weapon glows, changes to a specific substance, or 
  becomes covered in runes
  Some monsters are more susceptible to weapons made 
  of specific substances, such as demons and their weakness of 
  cold iron, or are immune to normal weapons, such as ghosts. 
  This power enchants an existing weapon into one of two types, 
  determined by the caster at the time of casting.
  The first physically changes the weapon into a material 
  harmful to a creature. In the case of demons, the blade would 
  become cold iron, whereas to harm the dark god Crazalphasalius, 
  the weapon would be made of “solid” water, allowing the wielder 
  to cause normal damage to the deity.
  However, the caster must state what substance the weapon is 
  to become, which means having an understanding of the creature 
  in question. The spell does not know a monster’s weakness. In a 
  horror game, characters often encounter fiends they have never 
  seen before, which makes deducing its weakness (if any) very 
  hard. They usually have to discover a monster has some sort of 
  invulnerability the hard way. They then retreat and research the 
  creature’s weakness, ready to face it again on more even terms.
  The second version simply makes the blade magical. This 
  does not affect its damage, nor give the wielder a bonus to hit 
  his foes, but it does allow him to damage creatures immune to 
  nonmagical weapons.
  enHAnce unDeAD
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 3/undead
  Range: Smarts
  Duration: Special
  Trappings: Runes engraved on undead, chanting
  This unusual spell allows a necromancer to enhance the 
  abilities of an undead of any sort (and yes, undead casters can 
  augment themselves).
  Each casting allows the necromancer to give an undead an 
  advancement as if it were a character. So, the undead can have an 
  increased attribute or extra skills, or even gain a new Edge. The 
  target does not have to meet the requirements for an Edge, but 
  the caster must meet the Rank requirement. 
  The caster can affect more than one undead at a time, 
  determined by the amount of Power Points he spends during 
  casting, but all undead must receive the same enhancement.
  
  
  With a success, the dead remain enhanced for 1 hour. With a 
  raise, they remain enhanced for 1d6 hours. With two raises, they 
  remain enhanced for an entire day.
  Certain powerful necromancers may have improved versions 
  of this power that are cheaper to cast and create permanent 
  enhancements.
  GrAve sHrouD
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 2
  Range: Touch
  Duration: 1 minute (1/minute)
  Trappings: Victims gains the appearance of an undead
  Grave shroud transforms the target’s appearance to that of a 
  zombie. Unwilling victims receive a Spirit roll to resist, opposed 
  by the caster’s arcane skill.
  The target does not gain any special abilities (including 
  Undead), as the spell is illusory, and he keeps his own traits. 
  However, he looks and smells like a walking corpse.
  Near-mindless undead (such as zombies and skeletons) 
  treat the target as one of their own and do not attack him, and 
  intelligent undead (such as vampires) are likely to think of the 
  character as just a mindless minion, and typically ignore them. If 
  the character attacks an undead, it will defend itself, however.
  Any intelligent undead closely examining the character may 
  make a Notice roll at –2 to spot the deception, or –4 if the caster 
  scored a raise.
  A character subjected to this spell who sees his reflection 
  must make a Guts check.
  GrAve speAk
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 4
  Range: Touch
  Duration: 3 (1/round)
  Trappings: Runes carved on bodily remains, black candles, 
  “leather” books, Ouija boards.
  It is said the dead know many secrets, and through the black 
  arts a mage can reach beyond death to contact departed souls. 
  Though not evil, many good spellcasters avoid using this power 
  as there are risks involved.
  In order for this spell to work, it must be directed toward 
  a particular soul. The caster must either know the name of the 
  deceased or possess a personal item, which includes their corpse, 
  or any part of it at least, as well as treasured items.
  If the spell succeeds, a ghostly voice makes itself known and 
  may be questioned. One question may be asked for each round 
  the spell is active.
   The spirit contacted is not necessarily friendly and can 
  lie, but it may not refuse to answer or make guesses. The GM 
  must adjudicate what information the entity knows—the spirit 
  is not omnipotent and knows only what it knew in life up to the 
  moment of its death.
  A roll of a 1 on the caster’s arcane skill, regardless of Wild 
  Die, may summon up a demon or other hostile entity. While it 
  cannot directly affect the caster, it will try to convince him it is 
  the person he sought, then feed him inaccurate or dangerous 
  information, perhaps seeking to lead the character to his death.
  niGHtMAres
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: 4
  Range: Smarts x 1 mile
  Duration: Special
  This insidious spell causes the victim to suffer terrible 
  nightmares, preventing him from sleeping. The caster must know 
  the name of the victim and possess something which belonged to 
  him (a lock of hair, item of clothing, and such like), but need not 
  know his exact location.
  When the victim next goes to sleep, he must make a Spirit roll, 
  –2 if the caster scored a raise. On a success, he tosses and turns, 
  but otherwise sleeps through the nightmare with no lasting effect. 
  Should the Spirit roll fail, the character receives no sleep. On a roll 
  of 1 on the Spirit die, regardless of the Wild Die, the character has 
  terrifying nightmares and must make a roll on the Fright Table. 
  With a critical failure, he rolls on the Fright Table at +2. 
  In all cases of failure, the character gets no benefit from 
  sleeping. Check out the Sleep rules in Savage Worlds for details.
  sAcriFice
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: 2
  Range: Self
  Duration: Special
  Trappings: Any form of quick death
  Sacrifice is a power purely for the “dark side.” It allows a 
  necromancer to sacrifice a sentient being in return for Power Points. 
  Such an act is inherently evil, and the mark of a true villain.
  Upon casting the spell, the spellcaster kills his sacrifice 
  (assume this works instantly when dealing with Extras incidental 
  to the plot), gaining its Vigor die in Power Points. These last for just 
  ten rounds, after which any unused points are lost. The spellcaster 
  must have the Power Points to cast this spell in his own reserve.
  The necromancer may use his own Power Points to maintain 
  spells cast with or maintained by these extra Power Points.
  Power Points gained this way are commonly used to save the 
  sorcerer’s own Power Points, at the expense of a living being’s life.
  For example: An evil cultist priest is desperately short of Power 
  Points after summoning a demon but failing to bargain with it. He grabs 
  a nearby cultist and plunges his knife through his chest, whilst invoking the 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  0
  sacrifice power with his last 2 Power Points.
  He changes the cultist’s d6 Vigor into six Power Points. For the next 
  ten rounds, he may use these Power Points freely.
  If at the end of ten rounds he has only used 2 of them, for instance, 
  the remaining 4 points disappear.
  spirit sHielD
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 3
  Range: Smarts
  Duration: 3 (1/round)
  Trappings: Ring of holy water or salt, wall of energy, sigils 
  inscribed in the air
  This spell creates a barrier that can keep out ghosts, poltergeists, 
  and other ethereal entities—it has no affect against demons or 
  undead in physical form. The caster makes his arcane skill roll and 
  then places a Medium Burst Template centered on himself. 
  Spirits wishing to enter the Template must make an opposed 
  Spirit check (no pun intended) against the caster’s arcane skill. If 
  they fail, they cannot pass the barrier while the spell remains active. 
  Spirit shield stops the entity from passing through, but 
  does not prevent it from using monstrous abilities such as Fear 
  or throwing physical objects. The spell is negated if any living 
  creature of rat-size or larger crosses the circle.
  strenGtH oF tHe unDeAD
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: 6
  Range: Touch
  Duration: 3 (1/round)
  Trappings: Pallid skin, claws, fangs
  This unusual power allows the caster to mimic a trait or Special 
  Ability of an undead he is touching when he invokes the spell.
  The caster gains one trait or Special Ability possessed 
  by the undead for the duration of the power. In the case of 
  traits, the mimicked trait replaces the caster’s. For instance, 
  a cultist who mimics a vampire’s Strength has a Strength 
  of d12+1 for the duration. The undead does not lose the 
  affected trait or ability.
  suppress lycAntHropy
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: 6
  Range: Touch
  Duration: One night
  Trappings: Potion, runes drawn on body, circle of wolvesbane, 
  silver coins over eyes
  Few curses are as terrible as that of lycanthropy, but for 
  those afflicted, there is hope. This rare spell (which should be 
  found only at the end of a lengthy and dangerous quest) gives 
  lycanthropes a chance to avoid their involuntary changes on 
  nights of the full moon.
  The lycanthrope may make a Vigor roll, +2 if the caster 
  scored a raise, to resist the change for one night of the full moon. 
  With any failure, the lycanthrope assumes his animal form.
  Naturally, the spell is only useful when cast on nights of the 
  full moon. It has no effect on non-lycanthropes.
  curses
  No, we don’t mean swearing when we say curses. We’re 
  talking about the kind of curse commonly uttered by evil villains 
  with their dying breath, promising revenge upon their killer, or 
  invoked by black-hearted mages.
  This chapter looks at mundane and magical curses. There’s 
  
  1
  a sample system for mundane curses, and a list of example spells 
  for magical curses. As always, use what you want. While good 
  aligned characters can utter curses and instill them with the 
  power to come true, we recommend you keep such power in the 
  hands of NPCs to stop the system being abused.
  Mundane curses can be hard to work into a sci-fi game, 
  especially one involving space grunts versus hyper-dimensional 
  alien fiends. Magical curses are slightly easier, as these could be 
  alien powers or perhaps even short-lived nanites which produce 
  weird effects. For instance, curse of the babbling fool may simply be 
  nanites which affect the speech center of the brain, while with 
  curse of the empty stomach the nanites prevent the victim from 
  gaining any nutritional benefits from food.
  mundane curses
  Mundane curses are called that simply because they require 
  no Arcane Background to invoke. Anyone, given the right 
  circumstances, can invoke a mundane curse.
  FunDAMentAls
  Let’s make this clear from the start, a mundane curse 
  shouldn’t be thrown around like a bolt spell or treated like a 
  regular Test of Wills. 
  To be truly effective in a game, mundane curses should be 
  used very sparingly and only when they are justified. Treat them 
  as something to use when the heroes have killed your Big Bad and 
  he tries for one final act of revenge.
  tyPes of curses
  There are basically two types of mundane curses you as GM 
  need be concerned with—self-induced and vengeance.
  selF-inDuceD
  Self-induced curses are, as the name implies, curses cast on 
  oneself. Why would anyone do this? Take the following situation 
  as an example.
  A character gets involved in a fight with a monster. Although 
  he wins, he’s unable to stop the beast from killing a close friend 
  or loved one. The character vows that he shall never rest until 
  every monster is dead. 
  Although it sounds like a vow, the character has left himself 
  wide open for whatever dark powers grant curses to interfere in 
  his life. Why? Because the character has said he would “never 
  rest until every monster”. Killing every monster is a tall order, 
  especially in one lifetime, so he might well return as some form of 
  undead with a fixation on slaying monsters.
  Of course, you should treat such comments with extreme 
  caution. We really don’t suggest you start enforcing rules on self-
  induced curses every time your players say something like this. 
  Far from it, in fact. Unless the player is bringing a lot of emotion 
  to his roleplaying, ask him if he wants to give his character a Vow 
  to represent his comments. 
  Only if the player gives an Oscar-winning performance should 
  you invoke a self-induced curse, and then only after much careful 
  thought. Good roleplaying shouldn’t be punished with curses.
  Ideally, self-induced curses are for villains. A villain who will 
  stop at nothing to get eternal power might eventually self curse 
  himself into vampirism, or even return as a ghost. Self cursed 
  individuals should be pitied as much as reviled, for it was human 
  weakness that led them down their path in the first place.
  Oh, and just in case your players read this, you cannot curse 
  yourself to be better off. Curses cause misery and heartache, and 
  never grant bonuses.
  venGeAnce
  Vengeance curses, on the other hand, are curses made against 
  someone else who has wronged you. 
  Vengeance curses rarely work for minor matters, such as 
  someone stealing your parking space, or given you a kicking You 
  might wish the perpetrator harm or ill-luck, but it’s very, very unlikely 
  to manifest as a true curse. True vengeance is something very few 
  humans ever feel, and without that feeling the curse is impotent.
  It’s important to note that vengeance curses don’t have to 
  be uttered by those who have actually been wronged. A perceived 
  wrong works just as powerful to fuel a curse, so long as the desire 
  for vengeance is strong enough.
  Other forms of vengeance can be uttered by good men. 
  An unjustly accused man facing death for his “crimes” has the 
  emotional state necessary to curse his accusers. Here’s an example 
  from history.
  The last Templar Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was 
  burned at the stake in Paris in 1314 after being falsely accused 
  of heresy (among other things). With his dying breath, he cursed 
  both Phillip IV, King of France, and Pope Clement V, his main 
  accusers, to die within a year. Guess what? Both died within three 
  months of the curse being uttered.
  Wording a curse
  In order to be effective, curses must be worded—thinking 
  them or writing them down is no good. As GM, you have the 
  privilege of allowing supposedly dead characters to utter a curse 
  with their dying breath. We don’t recommend you do this for 
  every villain, by the way—keep curses for the real bad guys.
  So, how do you go about wording a curse? Well, first 
  and foremost the curser should never, ever mention game 
  mechanics. Players understand game mechanics but characters 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  in the game do not. Thus, while you might curse a swordsman 
  with the words, “No skill with the blade shall you have from 
  this day forth,” you shouldn’t say, “Hey, reduce your Fighting 
  skill by two die types.”
  Try to use flowery, obscure language where ever possible. 
  This hides a multitude of sins, and allows you to define the 
  game mechanics better later on. You don’t have to use rhyming 
  couplets, unless you’re good at that sort of thing.
  Every curse must have a punishment, a trigger, a strength, 
  and ideally a loophole. Let’s look at each of these in turn.
  criMe & punisHMent
  Let the punishment fit the crime, so the old saying goes, and 
  with curses that’s doubly true.
  Let’s imagine that Joe Average is driving his car and 
  talking to his wife at the same time. He knocks down an old 
  gypsy lady, who curses him. What do you reckon a suitable 
  curse will be? 
  Make him lose his driving skills? Annoying, yes, but not really 
  worthy of a dying curse. How about never talk to his wife again? 
  Sounds pretty dull as well, doesn’t it? That’s because you’re not 
  thinking like a GM.
  For a start, not being able to talk to his wife doesn’t make 
  him mute. What it could mean, on the other hand, is that he can 
  only argue with her. Give it a few weeks and she’ll move out to her 
  mother’s house. There goes the marriage.
  triGGers
  Decide whether the curse is triggered by an event or is 
  constant. Usually you can determine this by the punishment meted 
  out. The type of curse should be worked into the wording.
  A triggered curse has no effect until certain conditions are 
  met, sort of like lycanthropy. For most of the time, the victim may 
  live a normal life, but when he breaks the curse’s prohibition, it 
  affects him. 
  So, a character cursed ”To have no skill with a blade,” 
  doesn’t suffer any ill effects until he picks up a bladed weapon. 
  A more extreme case is a character with a curse to “never walk 
  under the light of the sun.” At night, or away from the sun, he 
  remains unaffected.
  Triggered curses can also be tied into times of the day, 
  such as, “Never shall you see the sun again.” During the day, 
  the character likely goes blind, falls into a deep sleep, or the sun 
  burns him like it would a vampire.
  A constant curse is, logically, one that affects the victim day 
  in and day out without requiring any form of trigger. The curse 
  is always present, and always active. Cursing someone to be weak 
  willed (a reduction in Spirit) is a constant effect, for example. A 
  common curse in fairy tales is turning someone into a frog. You 
  can’t get much more constant than that.
  strenGtH
  Curses come in a variety of strengths. A curse should never 
  simply blurt out, “You shall suffer a debilitating curse!” Instead, 
  the curse should be worded in such as way that you, as GM, can 
  base the strength of the curse on what the curser says.
  For instance, saying, “May you never be healed of your 
  wounds” is clearly a nasty curse. It will lead to death pretty 
  quickly. A curse that goes, “When words you seek to those in 
  power, jumbled words are all you’ll stammer,” on the other hand, 
  is just annoying.
  Here are the four categories of curse strengths.
  DeADly
  While curses should never lead to instant death, they can 
  prove fatal. A character who “finds no sustenance from food” will 
  starve to death, for instance. Being the most powerful curses, they 
  are also the hardest to pull off.
  DAnGerous
  Dangerous curses are ones that can lead to death over 
  prolonged periods or serious change of life-style. A character with 
  the Arcane Background (Miracles) Edge cursed to lose his power 
  if he commits even the smallest sin must forever walk a very thin 
  tightrope, or lose his greatest asset. Being turned into a frog is 
  definitely a dangerous curse (especially if you consider that frogs 
  have natural predators).
  DebilitAtinG
  Debilitating curses cause the victim to suffer weakness, either 
  mental or physical. Loss of attributes, penalties to skills, removal 
  of Edges, or even gaining Hindrances are all debilitating.
  The actual strength of the curse is up to you, but ideally 
  the victim should suffer no more than a two die reduction 
  to traits or no higher than a –4 penalty to one skill or –2 to 
  several skills.
  AnnoyinG or eMbArrAssinG
  These curses rarely result in reductions to traits, but they can 
  be linked to them. A character cursed to be clumsy, for instance, 
  might critically fail any roll linked to Agility which comes up a 1, 
  regardless of his Wild Die.
  Other annoying or embarrassing curses may cause a character 
  to break out in boils (loss of Charisma), to stutter uncontrollably 
  when something important needs to be said (Persuasion or 
  Intimidation penalty), or to suffer a bad case of diarrhea.
  
  
  loopHoles
  Every curse should ideally have a loophole. A loophole 
  is simply a way of avoiding the curse. Loopholes come in two 
  types—those which allow a curse to be avoided, and those that 
  break a curse.
  Again, the wording of a curse should contain the loophole, 
  but it needn’t be immediately obvious to the victim. Let the victim 
  discover the loophole himself.
  Avoidance
  Avoidance loopholes allow the victim to circumvent the 
  curse, but usually by placing him at some disadvantage. A hero 
  cursed “never to strike the first blow” can still fight, but he always 
  has to wait until he is struck first. A character cursed never to use 
  guns can simply pick up a bow and arrow or throw rocks, but 
  when the enemy start filling the air with lead, a pointy stick isn’t 
  much of a comeback.
  Break
  Curse breaking loopholes might be based on a physical action 
  the victim must perform, an action that must be performed toward 
  him, the passing of a single lunar cycle or other calendrical event, 
  or a more abstract condition (such as a woman becoming Pope).
  Let’s look at the hapless prince turned into a frog as a well-
  known example. The prince gets to spend his days eating flies 
  and wallowing in pools, but the curse can be broken if he finds 
  a princess willing to kiss him of her own volition and without 
  knowing anything about his true nature. In short, it requires an 
  act of human kindness to break the curse.
  game mecHanics
  Curses are most effective when they come from the 
  heart, the passion of the moment, not when you’ve learned 
  something from a musty old book or been taught by a 
  gypsy. As such, the game mechanics for a curse don’t require 
  anything other than a set of game mechanics that can be 
  used at (almost) any time.
  To invoke a curse, the curser must have a Spirit roll at –6. The 
  big penalty is primarily there to stop this being abused. There are 
  bonuses to the roll, and further penalties, as shown on the Curse 
  Modifier Table below.
  curse modifier taBle
  Event	
  Modifier
  Circumstances
  Curse uttered for petty reason 
  –6
  Dying breath 
  +2
  Self-induced 
  +2
  Victim perceives true injustice 
  +2
  Crime	&	Punishment
  Punishment fits the crime 
  +2
  Punishment doesn’t fit the crime 
  –2
  Triggers
  Constant 
  +0
  Triggered 
  +2
  Strength
  Deadly 
  –2
  Dangerous 
  +0
  Debilitating 
  +1
  Annoying/Embarrassing 
  +2
  Loophole
  Avoidance loophole 
  +2
  Break loophole 
  +1
  No loophole 
  –2
  Circumstances: A curse uttered with a dying breath is more 
  powerful. It doesn’t matter if the victim has really suffered an 
  injustice, so long as he feels he has. A lycanthrope killed by a 
  werewolf hunter feels he has suffered injustice because the curse 
  was not his fault and his killer choose to end his life rather than 
  try to find a cure.
  Crime & Punishment: A curse where the punishment fits 
  the crime (as determined by the GM) has a better chance of being 
  heard by whatever powers grant curses and acted upon. Likewise, a 
  curse without a just punishment stands more chance of failure.
  Triggers: A triggered curse is easier to pull off than a 
  constant curse as it is less punishing. Not putting in a loophole 
  makes the curse far more difficult to empower, however.
  Strength: Generally, the more debilitating a curse is, the 
  harder it is to empower.
  eFFects
  Okay, now it really is crunch time. What punishment do you 
  give a curse in terms of game mechanics?
  Well, that’s really up to you. We could give you a big list of 
  sample curses and punishments, but that’s not the idea of this 
  book. We give you the tools, but we don’t make the finished 
  product. Game mechanics should depend on the strength of the 
  curse, the trigger, and the punishment, as well as your generosity.
  For instance, a character cursed, “Though thoughts of 
  bravery fill your heart, no strength of courage will it impart” 
  should suffer some penalty to Guts rolls, but how much?
  One way is to base the result on how well the curser 
  invokes the curse. This works very well with trait reductions. 
  With a successful Spirit roll from the curser, the victim suffers 
  a one die penalty to a single attribute, or –1 penalty to one or 
  more skills. A raise increases this to a two dice reduction or a 
  –2 penalty. No trait can be reduced below a d4 with a curse, no 
  matter how it is worded.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  Curses without mechanics, such as, “Never again shall friends 
  hear your voice,” boil down to good roleplaying. In this case, the 
  victim’s voice can never be heard by his friends. He doesn’t have 
  to be talking to them for the curse to be effective. As far as his 
  voice is concerned, his comrades are stone deaf.
  examPle curses
  Let’s look at a few examples you can use as guidelines. Every 
  curse has the wording of the curse, the punishment, trigger, 
  strength, and loophole, as well as the game mechanics.
  typicAl FAntAsy curse
  Curse: When blade you hold your strength shall fail.
  Punishment: Quite obviously, the character loses Strength 
  whenever he holds a blade. Any yes, this includes magic items 
  or cutlery as well.
  Trigger: The curse is Triggered only by the character holding a 
  bladed weapon.
  Strength: This is a Debilitating curse. While it can lead to death 
  in combat, that is not guaranteed. 
  Loophole: The character can avoid this curse simply by using a 
  non-bladed weapon.
  Game	Mechanics: The victim suffers a one die step reduction in 
  Strength if the curser scores a success, and two steps on a raise.
  liMiteD eFFect curse
  Curse: Though cold your bones and flesh might be, no warmth 
  from fire is there for ye.
  Punishment: The character never receives any benefits from fire. 
  While this may not sound too bad, we’ll look at how this can 
  work in terms of game mechanics later. It’s worse than you 
  might think.
  Trigger: Since this doesn’t affect every aspect of the character’s 
  life, it is a Triggered curse.
  Strength: At first this might seem only annoying, but under the 
  right circumstances it can be Dangerous. If in doubt, use the 
  more powerful strength.
  Loophole: No loophole is provided.
  Game	Mechanics: The curse has only a single effect, though in game 
  terms it is quite narrow. Without being able to feel warmth, the 
  character cannot recover Fatigue lost to cold temperatures.
  poWerFul curse
  Curse: On rise of moon full and bright, the beast within shall 
  haunt your nights, until a woman pure of heart, does know 
  your curse and love impart.
  Punishment: The victim is cursed with lycanthropy.
  Trigger: Again, this is a Triggered curse, which comes into effect 
  only on the full moon.
  Strength: Becoming a werewolf is a Dangerous curse as it affects 
  the character in a very serious way.
  Loophole: The wording clearly implies that the curse can be 
  broken by the love of a pure woman who knows of the 
  character’s curse and accepts it.
  Game	Mechanics: Every night of the full moon, the character 
  becomes a psychopathic killing machine.
  magical curses
  Now we turn our attention to magical curses. Unlike 
  mundane curses, these can be cast without good reason and rely 
  on magic rather than emotion as fuel. 
  existinG spell
  Savage Worlds already contains a curse spell, though it isn’t 
  listed by that name. The lower trait spell is perfect for simulating 
  debilitating curses, albeit with a rather short duration.
  However, you can easily get around this by creating an 
  Extended Duration Table, such as the one shown below. The 
  longer the duration, the more Power Points are required to cast 
  the spell, and the higher Rank the caster must be. So, if you 
  wanted to cast lower trait to last a week, you’d have to be Veteran 
  and pay 8 Power Points.
  Because these spells have greatly increased durations, 
  maintaining them is handled differently. By spending additional 
  Power Points during the casting of the spell, the caster can extend the 
  base duration. This is shown on the table below as well. You cannot 
  maintain an extended duration curse spell once it has been cast.
  It doesn’t take a genius to work out that a powerful spellcaster 
  can lob a few curses, wait a day to get his Power Points back, and 
  then cast some more curses. If you don’t like the idea of this, 
  here’s a solution—the caster only recovers Power Points expended 
  on a curse spell when the curse ends (which includes the death of 
  the victim) or is dispelled.
  Whereas the victim of a mundane curse is stuck with it 
  for life (hence the reason loopholes are used), magical curses 
  can be negated with a successful dispel spell. Just use the 
  normal rules.
  extended duration taBle
  Duration	
  Power	Points	
  Rank
  One Day 
  4 (+2/day) 
  Seasoned
  One Week 
  8 (+4/week) 
  Veteran
  One Month 
  12 (+6/month) 
  Heroic
  One Year 
  16 (+8/year) 
  Legendary
  
  
  neW spells
  Another way of creating curses is to create a batch of new spells. 
  While lower trait may weaken traits, it isn’t much good for cursing a 
  character with blindness, or having him become a werewolf.
  New curse spells should have a minimum Rank of Seasoned, 
  and then only if they are relatively weak or have a short duration. 
  The more potent the curse, the higher the Rank and the more 
  Power Points it requires.
  We recommend that maintenance costs be paid up front and 
  that casters do not recover Power Points until the spell expires or 
  is dispelled, as above.
  examPle curse 
  sPells
  Here are a few examples of new curses. These spells assume 
  that maintenance costs are paid when casting, forcing the caster 
  to set a defined limit for the duration of the curse. Ideally, the 
  caster should work this into his spell casting. So a character 
  invoking a curse of lost sight might say, “No sight shall you have for 
  one month.”
  curse oF tHe bAbblinG Fool
  Rank: Veteran
  Power	Points: 6
  Range: Smarts x 2
  Duration: One day (+2/day)
  Trappings: Gestures, speaking a stream of gibberish, voodoo dolls
  Not all spells need physically harm a foe to be effective. 
  Sometimes just removing an opponent’s ability to converse can 
  be an effective weapon. A guard who cannot shout for help or an 
  officer who cannot give orders is just as helpless as if he were slain.
  The caster must succeed at an opposed roll of his arcane skill 
  against the target’s Spirit. With success, the victim loses all ability 
  to speak coherently, being able to produce only inane babbling 
  and random noises. On a raise, the victim is mute.
  This is especially useful against verbal spellcasters, as it 
  removes their ability to work magic.
  curse oF tHe eMpty stoMAcH
  Rank: Heroic
  Power	Points: 12
  Range: Touch
  Duration: One week
  Trappings: Rune inscribed pill, potion
  This powerful curse is designed to kill the victim over a 
  number of days, though strong victims can survive the magic. 
  The caster makes an arcane skill roll opposed by his victim’s 
  Spirit. With success, the victim cannot digest food in any form 
  (though he can drink water). The victim suffers from the Hunger 
  rules in Savage Worlds. A victim who can last the week without 
  food (good luck) is free of the curse.
  curse oF lost siGHt
  Rank: Heroic
  Power	Points: 10
  Range: Smarts
  Duration: One week (+3/week)
  Trappings: Evil eye, words, voodoo dolls
  Removing a person’s sight is among one the vilest, and most 
  powerful, curses.
  This curse is an opposed roll of the caster’s arcane skill 
  versus a single target’s Spirit. If the caster is successful, the 
  victim is completely blind and suffers a –6 penalty to all trait 
  rolls. Because the victim cannot see incoming attacks, his Parry 
  drops to 2.
  Other versions of this curse exist, each affecting one of the 
  other senses These require a caster Rank of Seasoned and have a 
  Cost of 6 (+2/week).
  curse oF MisFortune
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 8
  Range: Smarts x 2
  Duration: One day (+2/day)
  Trappings: Evil eye, words, voodoo dolls, victim becomes clumsy
  This curse is designed to hamper yet not cause direct harm. 
  The caster picks a single target within range and makes an 
  arcane skill roll opposed by the victim’s Spirit. On a success, 
  the victim suffers misfortune if his trait die rolls a natural 1, 
  regardless of Wild Die. With a raise, the victim suffers misfortune 
  on a 1 or 2.
  The exact nature of the misfortune is left to the GM’s 
  imagination, but it should cost the victim his entire turn at 
  the very least. Examples are dropping a weapon, slipping, 
  striking an adjacent ally, or maybe suffering a pulled muscle 
  (Fatigue level).
  curse oF lunA’s cAllinG
  Rank: Legendary
  Power	Points: 20
  Range: Touch
  Duration: Permanent
  Trappings: Light of the full moon, blood of a werewolf
  This is perhaps the most powerful, and evil, curse in existence. 
  The victim is transformed into a werewolf, permanently and with 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  
  
  no chance of cure, for this curse cannot be dispelled. Such powerful 
  magic comes at a price, and the caster permanently loses 10 Power 
  Points, whether the spell works or not.
  The caster rolls his arcane skill versus the victim’s Spirit, 
  –2 with a raise. With success, the victim will transform into a 
  werewolf at the next full moon.
  curse oF tHe snAil’s pAce
  Rank: Seasoned
  Power	Points: 3
  Range: Smarts
  Duration: One hour (+1/hour)
  Trappings: Evil eye, words, voodoo dolls, victim’s legs  
  become palsied.
  Pursuers or escaping foes are usually the recipients of this curse. 
  The curse requires an opposed roll of the caster’s arcane 
  skill versus the target’s Spirit. With a success, the recipient’s base 
  Pace is halved. With a raise, movement becomes an action as well, 
  giving the target a multi-action penalty if he wants to move and 
  act in the same round.
  demonic pacTs
  Let’s be totally clear here—this isn’t some Satanic manual 
  on selling your soul. It’s fiction, a game, make believe. Right, now 
  we’ve kept the lawyers happy, we’ll continue.
  This chapter deals with one of the other horror staples, the 
  bargain with the Devil.
  not For plAyers
  Despite this section containing game mechanics, it is 
  not designed for players to use. There’s several reason behind 
  this reasoning.
  First, most players understand that they’re playing a game. 
  While this means that they personally are not making a pact 
  with demonic forces, it also means that the full force of selling 
  one’s soul is lost to them. Who cares if their character is facing an 
  eternity of damnation and torture? Once the character is dead, 
  they get to make a new one and leave the damned soul consigned 
  to the Hell of dead characters. Thus, the impact of damnation is 
  immediately lost.
  Second, the forces of darkness don’t hand out gifts like 
  candy. They expect favors in return, the sort of favors that heroes 
  don’t even think about in their worst nightmares. Any character 
  who walks down this road is well on the path to becoming a 
  villain, and when that happens, he stops being a player character 
  and becomes a non player character.
  Third, we prefer that the characters are the good guys, the 
  heroes who put their lives on the line to make the world a better 
  place. While heroes often have to make grim choices, they don’t 
  rejoice in walking the path of the damned.
  A good example of this is Rippers. The characters in that 
  setting can rip out organs from supernatural beasts and graft 
  them to their own flesh, but they do so because it gives them a 
  weapon with which to fight evil. There’s also a price to pay.
  FinDinG A pAtron
  The first thing the villain seeking a demonic pact needs to 
  do is find a patron, and that requires a demon. We’re not talking 
  about your petty demons, such as those listed in the Horror 
  Bestiary Toolkit. They’re mere pawns in the armies of darkness, 
  and while tougher than humans, they can’t go around granting 
  real power. Sure, the seducer demon comes close, but he’s really a 
  middle man for the bigger bads in Hell.
  A patron must be a demon lord, a prince of Hell, one of 
  Satan’s trusted lieutenants. These guys never come to Earth in 
  person, they can’t be summoned with petty summoning spells, 
  and their power (in game terms) puts those of the supposed dark 
  gods, like Todoto, to shame.
  Finding a patron may be as simple as verbally offering your 
  soul in return for power, or as complex as finding an ancient tome 
  containing a dark ritual, which requires months of preparation 
  and huge expense.
  Either way, once the villain offers his soul, he gets a visit 
  from a seducer demon acting on behalf of the patron. Note 
  that seducers usually take the role of the patron, claiming to 
  be the demon lord. The villain gets to feel important, and more 
  importantly can be intimidated into selling his soul more easily.
  tHe pAct
  A demon lord will happily grant power to anyone who asks, 
  so long as he makes a pact. The strength of a pact determines 
  how much power the petitioner receives, but it also details what 
  he must do to fulfill the pact. Pacts are rated between 1 (a petty 
  sin) to 10 (wanton debauchery that corrupts thousands, public 
  sacrifice of a senior figure on the side of good).
  We’ve left all the grisly details to you, but since this is a 
  system for villains, we strongly recommend you gloss over the 
  details and simply refer to them as “despicable and inhuman” 
  acts. If you’re the sort of GM who wants to detail these things in 
  minute details, you might want to get professional help.
  Whether the petitioner must fulfill his end of the pact or 
  not to gain the boons is up to you. At the end of the day, the 
  demon lord doesn’t care. Why? Because in all cases, the petitioner 
  forfeits his eternal soul to his patron, whether he has carried out 
  the details of the pact of not.
  Each step on the ladder grants the petitioner one boon, 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  or point of boon. Exactly what this equates to depends on the 
  system you pick for adjudicating rewards.
  A character must always move up the ladder when making 
  new pacts. A character who picks a level 2 pact to start but later 
  wants to acquire another 2 points of boons can’t invoke another 
  level 2 pact—he must make a level 4 pact. Once on the slippery 
  slope, the only way is down. Literally.
  No villain may have pacts exceeding 10 points. It’s just a 
  game mechanic limit.
  reWArDs
  Pacts are made to reap temporal rewards. Demons can grant 
  wealth, long life (but never immortality), physical prowess, and even 
  magical powers, but they cannot grant salvation or happiness. A 
  deal with the Devil may bring power, but it is always fleeting. Sure, a 
  hundred years of robust health and unlimited wealth sounds cool, 
  but compared to eternity in the pits of fire, it’s a blink of an eye.
  Depending on how much effort you want to put into 
  portraying damned souls and the sorts of rewards petitioners can 
  gain, we’ve given you three example systems for gaining rewards.
  bAsic systeM
  With this version, the petitioner gains one advancement for 
  each step on the pact ladder. These advancements are treated as 
  regular advancements, with two noted exception.
  First, the petitioner can buy Background Edges. Second, the 
  petitioner cannot purchase the Arcane Background (Miracles) 
  Edge. Demon lords can grant magic, even psionics and weird 
  science, but they can’t form any link to the gods. Other than that, 
  all the usual rules for advancements apply.
  Note that the character doesn’t receive any Experience 
  Points, just the benefits of an advancement.
  interMeDiAte systeM
  This system works pretty much as above, but with a small 
  added degree of complexity. It also grants more powerful boons, 
  but at greater cost.
  The petitioner can buy Edges, including Background ones, 
  without meeting any of the requirements except that he must 
  purchase lower levels of “improved” Edges first. So, a character 
  who wants to gain the Improved Level Headed character has to 
  buy Level Headed first.
  The level of pact for an Edge becomes equal to the number 
  of steps the character is below the Rank requirement + 1. If the 
  character is of equal or higher rank, it simply costs one level.
  For example: If a Novice villain with First Strike wants to buy 
  Improved First Strike, he must make a level four pact (one for the three Ranks 
  above Novice he needs to reach Heroic, plus one extra for good measure).
  DetAileD systeM
  With the detailed system, the villain can purchase a range of 
  abilities not available in the other systems. As well as the usual 
  traits and Edges (treat these as per the Simple System above), he 
  can buy things like Invulnerability and Poison, if he’s prepared to 
  commit to a hefty pact, that is.
  In all cases, these abilities work as per the Monstrous 
  Abilities of the same name from the main rules. In the case of 
  infection and poison, the GM should determine the potency and 
  adjust the cost accordingly.
  In many cases, the victim will undergo a physical change. An 
  Aquatic villain should have gills, for instance, whereas a character 
  with Armor may have scaly skin, and one with Poison may have 
  blackened hands.
  As GM, you have the final say on what physical changes 
  occur, but you should not let villains off lightly. In the rare 
  chance you let players go down this route, make sure the changes 
  are obvious.
  Benefit	
  Cost
  Aquatic 
  1
  Armor (per 2 points of Armor) 
  2
  Burrowing 
  1
  Fear 
  2
  Fearless 
  2
  Hardy 
  3
  Infection (GM to determine potency) 
  2-4
  Infravision 
  2
  Immunity (to one form of damage) 
  4
  Invulnerability (must take a Weakness) 
  6
  item descriPtions
  Many of the relics use standard powers from the 
  Savage Worlds rulebook, and some use spells from the Dark 
  Magic chapter of this book. In both cases they have their 
  description reprinted, at least in summarized form, as part 
  of the item description.
  This duplication is to make your life easier. Rather than 
  just say, “This item functions as per the invisibility power,” and 
  let you go flicking through the main rules, the description 
  details everything you, and your players, need to know.
  If you are writing your own adventures, print the item 
  out a sheet of paper and stick it on an index card. When the 
  characters discover the relic’s function, hand them the card. 
  Now they can see exactly what the relic does.
  Spells not covered in this book or the main rules are 
  most likely taken from the Fantasy World Builder Toolkit. 
  However, everything you need to know in order to use the 
  item is included in its description.
  
  
  Low Light Vision 
  1
  Paralysis 
  2
  Poison (GM to decide potency) 
  3-5
  Regeneration, Fast 
  7
  Regeneration, Slow 
  3
  Stun 
  2
  Undead 
  4
  Wall Walker 
  1
  tHe cost
  Fulfilling the pact and losing his soul isn’t the only price a 
  petitioner must pay. Far from it, in fact. Deals with the Devil bring 
  other consequences to the damned soul who struck the bargain.
  First, any character with the Arcane Background 
  (Miracles) Edge loses it, as well as his Faith die and any Edges 
  with the Arcane Background as a requirement. Unlike Magic 
  or Psionics, which may be inherent or learned ability, the 
  Miracles Edge represents a link between the character and his 
  god. By making a deal with demonic forces, the character has 
  foresworn his deity.
  Yes, some evil gods do exist, and in this instance you might 
  allow a villain to keep his Arcane Background. However, fallen 
  heroes make better villains than willing devil worshippers. A hero 
  gone bad or driven to make a pact with the legions of Hell has 
  indeed fallen far from the path or righteousness.
  Second, if you’re using the Champion and Holy Warrior Edges 
  in your game, the petitioner now counts as a supernatural evil 
  creature. Yep, his tainted soul registers him on the list of bad guys.
  Third, his tainted soul becomes noticeable, especially to 
  animals. Regardless of how he has changed physically, there is an 
  aura about the character, something different, unnatural even, 
  that others can sense, if only subconsciously. The character suffers 
  –2 Charisma and a similar penalty to any roll involving animals.
  Fourth (yep, it’s a long list), the character registers on detect 
  arcana spells as having supernatural powers. Hey, he didn’t get his 
  gifts at a convenience store, you know.
  Fifth, and last, the villain might receive some sort of Hindrance 
  tied into his boon. Demons are tricky buggers at the best of times. 
  A character who petitioned for Very Rich might gain the Greedy 
  (major) Hindrance as well. Yep, he’s got his sacks of gold, but he 
  wants more, and he’ll go to any lengths to get richer.
  sAlvAtion
  Ah, optimism. You think you can sell your soul and then 
  try to trade it back, like some dime store knickknack? Well, that 
  depends on how generous a GM you are. Since you should be 
  using this system purely for villains, ideally you should let them 
  get their just rewards.
  When the vile villain gets defeated by the heroes, don’t have 
  him just drop dead like some meaningless Extra. You’re running 
  a horror game, and the poor mortal has sold his soul. Time for 
  someone to collect.
  How you want to handle this is up to you, but you could 
  have a fiery crack open beneath the villain’s body, a host of small 
  winged demons or shadows could rise up from the ground and 
  drag the villain’s soul (which looks like a ghostly version of the 
  villain) down to Hell shackled in chains, or a powerful demon 
  might turn up to lay claim to the soul.
  Remember though, any demons are only there for the villain’s 
  soul. If the heroes don’t interfere, the demon won’t bother with 
  them. Don’t use a cool ending to start another fight.
  Now, let’s assume for a moment that for reasons known 
  only to you you’ve decided to let player characters walk this 
  dark path. They revel in getting some powers for a bit, and then 
  decide it’s time to put the darkness aside and step back onto 
  the path of light.
  Well, the path of darkness is surrounded by, well, darkness 
  really. Seeing the path of light isn’t that easy. However, there’s one 
  possible way a truly repentant (and those words must be totally 
  heartfelt) character can save his soul.
  First, as stated above, the character must be truly repentant. 
  Repenting because it seems like the right thing to do, or because 
  you’re bored with evil isn’t good enough. The character must 
  fear for his eternal soul and beg absolute forgiveness from some 
  greater force for good (such as God), being prepared to suffer 
  whatever torment God (or whoever) decides to vent upon him as 
  part of the cleansing process.
  Second, the character must not use his dark gift for a 
  year and a day. During this time, you shouldn’t remind the 
  character about not using his gifts. He chose to walk the path 
  of damnation, and he must find his own way out. A character 
  gets just one chance to keep to this—if he uses a dark gift for 
  any reason, even to save an innocent soul, he falls forever from 
  the grace of God and is beyond redemption. The road to Hell is 
  paved with good intentions.
  If the character has gained extra dice to his traits, he may 
  voluntarily use his original trait value instead of the full dice 
  type. In the unlikely event that a character used a pact to learn 
  an Edge and then used Experience Points to learn an “improved“ 
  version of that Edge, the character cannot use either version.
  Third, the character must strive to live a good life for a year 
  and a day. We’re not talking sainthood here, but theft, murder, 
  blasphemy, and pretty much any other crime or sin are out the 
  window. Again, one transgression means it’s game over.
  Finally, if the GM believes the player has roleplayed the 
  repentance to the best of his abilities, the character’s soul is 
  saved. All demonic gifts are immediately lost, as are any Edges 
  that required them. 
  Of course, the forces of Hell don’t take kindly to this sort of 
  betrayal, and they’ll come looking for the character. Some demon 
  lords will strive to lure the character back to their side, whereas 
  others prefer to teach the character a lesson in pain. What they 
  won’t do, however, is kill the character. After all, his soul is no 
  longer theirs.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  0
  FinAl WorD
  This system deliberately glosses over despicable acts 
  committed by the misguided fools who trade their soul for 
  temporal power. It doesn’t go into specifics about what a pact 
  entails, nor what the petitioner must do to fulfill his agreement. 
  This is a very simple game system to allow you to create evil 
  villains, not an attempt to create Satanist: The Roleplaying Game.
  maGic iTems
  Magic items, whether beneficial or cursed, play a part in 
  some styles of horror setting. In general, horror games are not 
  about making such items, only finding and using or destroying 
  them. If you want some guidelines on how to make magic items, 
  check out the Fantasy Gear Toolkit.
  A few of the items here are duplicated from the Fantasy Gear 
  Toolkit, but only the ones that are perfectly suited for a horror 
  game. Everything else you find in this chapter is brand new.
  Most, but not all, items have a line or two of text in parentheses 
  at the end of the description. These are included for a fantasy 
  horror game, where characters might reasonably be able to create 
  the items. All reference to Edges you can’t find in the main rules, 
  such as Artificer and Enchant, come from the Fantasy Gear Toolkit, 
  and unknown spells come from the Fantasy World Builder Toolkit. All 
  the items detailed here contain all the game mechanics you need to 
  use them without either of these books, however.
  The cost is the price to manufacture the item, not to purchase 
  it. Even the simplest item here would likely cost many times its 
  cost price, if it could be purchased at all.
  Don’t forget that magic tomes can be found in the section 
  on grimoires (page 28).
  If you want to make your own items, don’t feel constrained by 
  the rules for using powers. Simply give the item whatever powers 
  you need to make it work. At the end of the day, your players will 
  appreciate a cool story with a great item without giving a damn 
  about whether it was made to the rules or not.
  bAnDAGes oF Anubis
  First created millennia ago in Egypt by priests of Anubis, 
  these seemingly innocent rolls of bandages are actually a powerful 
  necromantic tool. The magic within them can return a person to life 
  as a mummy, but they must be applied while the person is alive.
  Once completely wrapped in the bandages, the victim must 
  make a Spirit roll against the bandages’ arcane skill of d10. With 
  a failure, the victim’s skin and muscles desiccate, and the bandages 
  bond themselves to the withered flesh, turning the victim into a 
  guardian mummy. The magic is irreversible, and extremely painful.
  In olden days, priests and magicians received this as a blessing, a 
  way of granting them eternal life. They were not subservient creatures, 
  but free willed undead. In modern times, necromancers have altered 
  the magic to create mindless guardian mummies, and use the bandages 
  to punish wayward disciples and create an army of undead. 
  (Alchemy, zombie with two raises; Cost $2150)
  blooD Money
  Two millennia ago, a follower of a well-known religious 
  figure handed him over to the authorities for 30 pieces of silver. 
  The coins, also known as Judas coins, have survived to this day 
  and still carry with them the taint of that betrayal.
  A character who acquires one or more of these coins is tainted 
  by a terrible curse. At some point at a crucial juncture in an adventure 
  the GM should arrange for the character to somehow betray his 
  friends. He might run away, give away a secret to an enemy, or just 
  refuse to lend support to a beleaguered colleague in a fight.
  Note that the character needn’t be carrying any of these coins 
  to be cursed—he merely needs to own a single coin. He could stick 
  it in a bank vault and he’d still suffer the curse.
  If you think the player will handle the situation well, you 
  might allow him to pick the moment of betrayal. Good roleplaying 
  should be rewarded with a benny. Of course, you always retain the 
  right to overrule a player who fails to enact a good betrayal.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  brAzier oF conjurAtion
  Standing three feet high on a tripod base, the inner surface 
  of this black, iron brazier is engraved with runes of opening. 
  When used as part of a summoning ritual, the brazier grants a 
  bonus to the summoner’s arcane skill, but only for the purposes 
  of summoning extradimensional beings.
  Three versions of this relic exist, granting a bonus of +1, +2, 
  or +3 respectively. The higher the bonus the brazier grants, the 
  more runes of opening are inscribed in the bowl. The braziers 
  require no special fuel source.
  (Artificer, +1, +2, or +3 arcane skill with limitation; Cost 
  $600, $1100, or $1600)
  cAnnibAl MAsk
  The cannibal mask is a painted, wooden face mask, similar 
  to those found in tourist shops in many parts of Central Africa. 
  Unfortunately for anyone who wears it, this particular type is cursed.
  As soon as the mask is placed on his face, the wearer must 
  make a Spirit roll against the mask’s Spirit of d10. On a failure, the 
  mask melds into the victim’s flesh and becomes part of his body.
  From this moment on, the wearer develops a craving for 
  human flesh. It doesn’t matter if the flesh is rotten or still on the 
  bone, so to speak, the victim will eat any human tissue. No other 
  
  1
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  food, including other forms of meat, satisfies the victim’s hunger. 
  In addition, the wearer’s teeth sharpen, giving him a Bite attack that 
  inflicts Str+1 damage.
  Removing the mask, once it’s existence is suspected, requires 
  a successful Disarm maneuver, but it obviously must be made 
  against the victim’s head.
  The victim is allowed another attempt to break free of the 
  mask’s influence on the first night of each full moon. With success, 
  the victim can pull the mask from his face. Unfortunately, he is 
  left with very vivid memories of the terrible acts he committed 
  while under its influence. With a failure, the victim remains a 
  cannibal for another lunar cycle.
  Exactly how these masks are created is a mystery, but many 
  who have studied them believe that a demon or cannibal spirit is 
  bound into the mask through arcane rituals.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  cerAMic MAsks
  Made of white porcelain and painted in the style of Japanese 
  kabuki masks, these foul items are found worn on the faces of 
  skeletons or zombies.
  When donned, the undead gains the Invulnerability 
  Special Ability. No damage of any type, magical or mundane, 
  can affect the undead so long as it wears the mask. Removing 
  the mask requires a successful Disarm attack made against  
  the head. 
  As soon as the mask is removed, the undead crumbles to 
  dust immediately.
  (Improved Enchant, enhance undead with limitation; 
  Cost $4,000)
  colD iron cHAinMAil
  Forged to protect warriors against demons, cold iron chain 
  mail covers the torso, arms, and legs of the wearer. The armor 
  grants them +2 protection, or +4 against attacks made by demons, 
  whether mundane (such as claws) or magical in origin.
  (Improved Enchant, armor with raise and limitation; 
  Cost $1800)
  corpse Dust
  Made from the ground bones of the dead and enchanted 
  with necromantic energy, corpse dust returns the dead to life—
  as undead. Each pinch animates a corpse, either as a zombie or 
  skeleton, depending on how much flesh remains.
  When the dust is sprinkled, the user must call upon the dead 
  to rise and make a Spirit roll. With a success, the undead serve 
  for just 1 hour. With a raise, they serve for 1d6 hours. With two 
  raises, they serve for a day.
  The dust is usually found in skin bags containing 1d6 doses. 
  Listed prices are per dose. 
  (Alchemy, zombie with raise; Cost $150)
  DiAry oF A MADMAn
  This unique item has been attributed to many madmen 
  throughout the ages, though in reality it is not the work of a single 
  person, but a collection of writings from numerous authors, all 
  totally insane.
  Contained within the pages of gibberish and mad ramblings 
  are many secrets. A reader can use the diary to get a bonus to any 
  Investigation or Knowledge roll, but he risks losing his mind.
  The reader simply states what bonus he wants, from +1 to +6. 
  However, after making his Investigation or Knowledge roll, he must 
  make a Spirit roll with a penalty equal to the bonus he gained.
  On a failure, the reader goes slightly insane, and gains a 
  Minor Delusion. Should the Spirit roll be a critical failure, the 
  reader gains a Major Delusion. The exact nature of these delusions 
  are left to the warped mind of the GM.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  FlAil oF unHeAlinG FlesH
  This magical, and cursed, weapon is a cat-o-nine-tails tipped 
  with metal barbs. In combat, it acts as a flail, and leaves deep, 
  weeping wounds. These wounds cannot be healed with first aid 
  or magic, but must heal naturally.
  Victims get no bonuses to their natural Healing roll for 
  medical attention, nor does a character with Healer grant any 
  bonus. Fast Healer works as normal, however, as this is a bonus 
  to the character’s natural healing power. 
  Characters who suffer a Bleeding Out or Mortal Wound 
  result on the Knockout Blow Table from the flail cannot be 
  stabilized with a Healing roll.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  FrAnkenstein’s lAborAtory
  This isn’t the actual laboratory of Doctor Frankenstein (that 
  was destroyed in a fire), but a recreation based on his journals. As 
  you might expect, it’s good for just one thing—making monsters.
  Creating a monster, known as a corpse golem, takes time 
  and money. The doctor (if one can call him that) must spend 
  $56,000 and spend 9 months on making his monster. He then 
  makes a Knowledge (Medicine) roll.
  With a success, he creates a monster as below. The creature 
  is free-willed, but has an almost animal level of intelligence. For 
  each raise on the roll, the creature gains one die in Smarts (max 
  d12). This isn’t necessarily a god thing, by the way. Once it realizes 
  what it is, it’s likely to be a little upset.
  
  
  On a roll of 1 on the Knowledge die, regardless of Wild Die, 
  the creature is brought to life but is constantly berserk and suffers 
  from acute psychopathic tendencies.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  corpse GoleM
  Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d10, Strength d12,  
  Vigor d10
  Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidation d10, Notice d6, Stealth d6
  Pace: 4; Parry: 6; Toughness: 8
  Treasure: None
  Gear: Typically a long sword (Str+3)
  Special	Abilities:
  • Arcane	Resistance: +2 Armor against damage-causing arcane 
  powers and +2 on trait rolls to resist opposed powers.
  • Armor	+1: Hard skin and muscle.
  • Berserk: Corpse golems have the Berserk Edge.
  • Construct: +2 to recover from being Shaken; No additional 
  damage from called shots; Piercing attacks do half-damage; 
  Immune to poison and disease.
  • Fear: Characters seeing a corpse golem must make a Guts check.
  • Fearless: Golems are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
  • Slow: Corpse golems have a Pace of 4 and roll a d4 for their 
  running die.
  GrAve Dust
  This dark, gritty dust is made from the burnt bones of 
  skeletons. Despite its name, it is used to communicate with the 
  dead, not animate them.
  The dust must be sprinkled on the remains of the deceased, 
  a personal item, or his grave marker, and the user make a Spirit 
  roll. With a success, a ghostly voice makes itself known and may 
  be questioned. Up to three questions may be asked of the dead.
  The spirit contacted is not necessarily friendly and can lie, but it 
  may not refuse to answer or make guesses. The GM must adjudicate 
  what information the entity knows—the spirit is not omnipotent 
  and knows only what it knew in life up to the moment of its death.
  A roll of a 1, regardless of Wild Die, means the caster has 
  accidentally contacted a malevolent spirit. While it cannot directly 
  affect the caster, it will try to convince him it is the person he 
  sought, and feed him inaccurate or dangerous information. 
  Grave dust is found in batches of 1d4 doses. Listed prices 
  are per dose. 
  (Alchemy, grave speak; Cost $200)
  HellFire blADe
  Crafted from black metal not found on Earth, quenched in 
  the blood of virginal sacrifices, and inscribed with runes of fire, 
  hate, and pain, the hellfire blade is, quite literally, a weapon from 
  the depths of Hell.
  When drawn, green hellfire erupts along the blade, crackling 
  with demonic fury. Any victim struck by the blade has a chance 
  of catching fire (see Savage Worlds). The blade is magical, gives the 
  user +1 to Fighting rolls, and inflicts Str+6 damage.
  (Artificer; Improved Enchant, +1 Fighting, +2 damage, smite 
  with fire trapping; Cost $8400)
  Hockey MAsk oF terror
  Beloved by chainsaw-wielding serial killers, this relic is a 
  hockey mask stained with the blood of countless victims. When 
  activated, the mask causes those who see it to make a Guts roll, 
  or Guts –2 if the user scored a raise. Wild Cards who fail roll on 
  the Fright Table. Extras are Panicked instead.
  The mask has an arcane skill of d8, contains 10 Power Points, 
  and each use costs 2 Power Points. The effect is instant.
  (Enchant, fear; Cost $4500)
  jAck’s scAlpel
  Whether or not this scalpel really did belong to Jack the 
  Ripper is questionable, but it certainly has all the hallmarks of 
  either once being his, or being the item which caused his murder 
  spree in 1888.
  Once grasped, the holder must make a Spirit roll or fall under 
  the scalpel’s insidious spell. On a failure, the victim develops a 
  minor loathing of women. He shuns their company and subtracts 
  2 from his Charisma when dealing with them. 
  On a roll of 1 on the Spirit die, regardless of the Wild Die, 
  he develops a hatred of women. The Charisma penalty increases 
  to –4. Worse, he must kill a woman every month using the scalpel 
  or suffer a level of Fatigue. Characters can become Exhausted 
  by this, but never Incapacitated. Fatigue can only be restored by 
  killing a woman, and then at the rate of one level per kill.
  Should the victim roll a critical failure, he becomes a woman 
  hating psychopath, and must kill one woman a week or suffer 
  Fatigue as above. His Charisma drops by –6 with regard women.
  The scalpel is razor sharp and inflicts Str+1 against all targets 
  except women, on whom it inflicts Str+3.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  jADe Mirror
  Supposedly created by priests of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, 
  whose name means “Smoking Mirror,” these jade mirrors come in a 
  variety of sizes. The smallest measures only six inches across, whereas 
  the largest stands over six feet tall with a width of half that.
  When smeared with the blood of a sentient sacrifice and 
  lit by the light of the full moon, the owner can ask the mirror 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  
  
  questions related to occult matters. Answers appear on the surface 
  of the mirror, either in writing or in the form of pictures.
  In game terms, the mirror grants a +1, +2, or +3 bonus to 
  Knowledge (Occult) rolls, the bonus being dependent on the size 
  of the mirror.
  (Artificer, +1, +2, or +3 to Knowledge (Occult); Cost $2000, 
  $4000, or $6000)
  MArk oF tHe DeMon
  The Mark of the Demon is a powerful item of great evil, 
  and yet appears as nothing more than a slip of paper. The paper 
  appears blank unless read by the light of the moon, at which time 
  silvery writings in an unknown language appear.
  At the stroke of the next midnight, the magic contained in 
  the paper conjures forth a terrible demonic entity known as a 
  collector (stats are included below). This beast of Hell has only 
  one purpose—to find and slay the last possessor of the Mark of 
  the Demon.
  That’s right, the last possessor. And there’s worse. The 
  magic can only be transferred to another person if the paper 
  is passed to them without their knowledge. Obviously, villains 
  take great care to first ensure that their victim is slipped the 
  paper unawares, such as in a coat pocket, and then take almost 
  ludicrous measures to ensure that the victim does not return 
  the paper to them somehow.
  Destroying the paper does not prevent the magic from 
  working, either. Burn it, shred it, eat it, and the magic will still be 
  invoked at midnight.
  The demon appears within 4d6 yards of its victim, whom it 
  can sense through its Unnatural Senses. It remains on Earth until 
  its victim is killed, it is banished with magic, or it is destroyed in 
  the course of its duties.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  collector DeMon
  Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d12, Strength d12, 
  Vigor d12
  Skills: Fighting d10, Intimidation d12, Notice d8, Stealth d12, 
  Tracking d12+2
  Pace: 8; Parry: 7; Toughness: 9
  Special	Abilities:
  •  Claws: Str+2. The claws of a collector ignore all mundane and 
  magical Armor.
  •  Demon: +2 to recover from being Shaken; Immune to poison and 
  disease; Half-damage from nonmagical attacks except for cold iron.
  •  Fear	(–2): Collectors exude an aura of terror. Anyone seeing 
  one must make a Guts roll at –2.
  •  Improved	Arcane	Resistance: +4 Armor against damage-
  causing powers and +4 on trait rolls to resist opposed powers.
  •  Single	Minded: Collectors are not easily swayed from their goal. 
  They receive a +2 bonus to resist Tests of Will and Smarts Tricks.
  •  Size	+1: These cowled demons stand over 7’ tall.
  •  Soul	Drain: The uncowled stare of a collector can literally 
  rip the soul from a living being. Fortunately, they usually 
  reserve this fate for their quarry. To use this Ability, the 
  collector must grapple its foe, at which point it removes its 
  cowl and forces its prey to stare into its demonic eyes. The 
  victim must make an opposed Spirit roll or die instantly.
  •  Unnatural	Senses: A collector can detect arcana as if it were 
  part of its normal vision. It also ignores all penalties for bad 
  lighting, including complete darkness.
  •  Weakness	(Cold	Iron): Demons take normal damage from 
  cold iron weapons.
  MoonblADe
  These foul blades are not truly magical, but they are definitely 
  cursed. Formed from the canine of a werewolf, the tooth ripped 
  out under a full moon while the werewolf still lived, moonblades 
  are deceptively named. They do not grant the user any power to 
  defeat lycanthropes, but they do allow him to infect victims with 
  the curse of the werewolf.
  A victim reduced to Incapacitated by a moonblade (even 
  if it deals the final wound that sends him to Incapacitated) 
  must make a Vigor roll. On a failure, the victim is infected with 
  lycanthropy and will transform into a werewolf on the night of 
  the next full moon.
  The victim learns to control his changes, but only after 1d6 
  years as a werewolf.
  (Improved Enchant, shapechange; Cost $8000)
  golem creation
  Chances are you aren’t going to let characters build 
  golems in your game, but here’s a suitable Edge if you are. A 
  version of this first appeared in the Fantasy Bestiary Toolkit.
  Requirements: Heroic, Smarts d12+, Knowledge 
  (Medicine) d12+
  The character has learned the secrets of golem creation. 
  Crafting a golem takes time and money.
  Each trait die (or point after d12) costs $1000 and 
  takes one week to enchant. Special Abilities with a variable, 
  such as Armor and Size, cost $1000 and take a week per 
  point. The maximum bonus they can bestow is +3 on top of 
  any existing modifiers.
  For	example: a golem with metal skin would have +3 
  Armor (plate). It could have another +3 extra protection, for 
  a total of +6.
  Other Special Abilities, including Edges, take a month 
  each and cost a flat $4000. Hindrances reduce the cost and 
  time by $4000 and one month respectively.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  Music inFernAlis
  Said to have been penned by Lucifer himself, the “Music 
  Infernalis” is a musical score with a poor reputation. Said by many 
  classical musicians to be unplayable, any character trying to play 
  the whole thing must make a Common Knowledge (assuming he 
  has a musical background) roll at –6. Unfortunately, it’s not the 
  sort of music one wants to play correctly.
  With success, the musician completes the piece, and in doing 
  so has a sudden and total understanding of what it means to be 
  condemned to Hell for eternity. He must make a Spirit roll at –4.
  On a success the character is reduced to tears for several 
  hours, but is otherwise unharmed. With a failure, the character 
  must roll on the Fright Table at +2. With a roll on 1 on the Spirit 
  die, regardless of Wild Die, the character rolls on the Fright Table 
  at +4. A critical failure increases the modifier to +6.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  niGHtMAre stone
  Nightmare stones are cursed items, often slipped into the 
  pockets of victims by nefarious sorcerers.
  Despite their name, nightmare stones don’t have to be stones. 
  Most are innocuous items that a victim would ignore, such as a 
  paperclip or small pebble. However, the name of the victim must be 
  written on the object somewhere, though it can be microscopic.
  Note that the object must be on or within 8 yards of the 
  named person for it to function.
  These cursed items activate every night when the “owner” 
  goes to sleep, and cause him to suffer terrible nightmares. When 
  the victim goes to sleep, he must make a Spirit roll opposed by 
  the arcane skill of the stone. 
  On a success, he tosses and turns, but otherwise sleeps 
  through the nightmare with no lasting effect. Should the Spirit 
  roll fail, the character receives no sleep. On a roll of 1 on the 
  Spirit die, regardless of the Wild Die, the character has terrifying 
  nightmares and must make a roll on the Fright Table. With a 
  critical failure, he rolls on the Fright Table at +2. 
  In all cases of failure, the character gets no benefit from 
  sleeping. Check out the Sleep rules in Savage Worlds for details.
  Nightmare stones contain 4 Power Points, which recharge 
  normally, and have an arcane skill of d10.
  (Enchant, nightmare; Cost $4800)
  portrAit oF iMMortAlity
  A portrait of immortality is a painting, imbued with unholy 
  power. Many necromancers have claimed knowledge of how to 
  create these dark items, but none has ever revealed the secret.
  When newly created, the portrait appears to be nothing 
  more than a simple painting of the person who will benefit from 
  its power. It should be noted that the portrait cannot contain 
  images of any other object, be it inanimate (such as a chair) or 
  living (including plants and animals).
  The power of the painting is to grant the owner a limited 
  form of immortality. Disease, poison, wounds, and even aging 
  cause no harm to the owner. Instead, all the effects are transferred 
  to the painting, which steadily changes to represent the terrible 
  injuries inflicted on the owner’s body.
  In game terms, the owner becomes immune to poison and 
  disease, does not require air to breathe, needs no food or drink to 
  survive (though most do still partake), suffers no ill effects from 
  aging, and has invulnerability to all forms of damage, be they 
  mundane or arcane. In short, nothing can harm the owner.
  Well, that isn’t true. The character is forever tied to the well-
  being of his portrait. Damage caused to the painting is likewise 
  reflected on the character. If it is slashed, a wound appears in the 
  same location on the owner’s flesh, if the painting is destroyed, 
  so is the character.
  In game terms, damage is compared to the portrait’s 
  Toughness of 6, not to the owner’s Toughness. The character may 
  spend bennies to Soak the damage as normal. When the character 
  reaches Incapacitated, the painting is destroyed, and with it the 
  owner. Don’t roll on the Knockout Blow or Injury Tables.
  (Improved Enchant, greater healing with raise, intangibility; 
  Cost $79,000)
  puzzle box
  Based on Chinese puzzle boxes, these wooden or metal cubes 
  are actually keys to Hell. A character wishing to solve the puzzle 
  box must make a Smarts roll at –6. Sadly, success may not bring 
  the rewards the character was anticipating.
  With success, the puzzle box opens to form a pentagram, 
  and also summons a demon. Chain or spined demons are suitable 
  demons, but you might prefer something a bit tougher.
  The demon is not under the puzzle solver’s control, nor can 
  it be bargained with or bound. All it wants to do is kill the mortal 
  who released it and claim his soul.
  King Solomon, who in Islamic legend was a powerful 
  magician, bound jinn who would not swear an oath to follow 
  Allah into copper jars and sealed them. A puzzle box might just 
  as easily be one of these fabled copper jars. Jinn and demons are 
  one and the same.
  (Improved Enchant, summoning; Cost $40,000+)
  rinG oF MAGicAl WArDinG
  These silver bands contain a single topaz, a stone renowned 
  for its properties in warding off magic. 
  Some wearers are defenders of good, and use the power 
  to resist hostile necromancers, as well supernatural creatures. 
  Others are said necromancers, seeking ways of protecting 
  themselves from angry demons who object to being summoned 
  
  
  from their fiery homes.
  The wearer gains 2 points of Armor against damage-causing 
  arcane powers, and adds +2 to his trait rolls when resisting opposed 
  powers. Even friendly arcane powers are affected. These bonuses stack 
  with the Arcane Resistance and Improved Arcane Resistance Edges.
  (Improved Artificer, Arcane Resistance Edge; Cost $2000)
  sAcriFiciAl kniFe
  Favored by cultist priests and servants of dark gods, the 
  blade of a sacrificial knife is usually made from some hell beast 
  and is engraved with runes of death and magic.
  As a weapon, the blade counts as being magical, and can 
  therefore harm ethereal beings and other monsters otherwise 
  immune to nonmagical damage. It also grants a +1 bonus to 
  damage (thus causing Str+2 damage).
  It has, however, a more insidious power. For each wound 
  the blade inflicts, one Power Point is stored in the runes on the 
  blade. As the number of Power Points increases, the runes glow 
  red, starting off with a barely noticeable sheen and rising to 
  a blazing hellfire when full. The blade can store a total of 15 
  Power Points, which can be used by the wielder to power his 
  spells. Excess points are simply lost.
  Drained Power Points can only be recharged by inflicting 
  more wounds. 
  (Artificer, Improved Enchant, +1 damage, sacrifice with raise; 
  Cost $10,000)
  soul cAnDles
  Soul candles must be tied to a specific individual during 
  creation. This is usually achieved by adding a lock of hair or a few 
  drops of blood to the hot wax.
  Once lit, the candle burns for 2d4 hours, during which time 
  the benefactor (the one for whom the candle was made) gains the 
  Hard to Kill and Improved Nerves of Steel Edges, as well as the 
  Hardy Monstrous Ability.
  Should the benefactor be killed while the candle is lit, he dissolves 
  into a puddle of molten wax, only to reform an hour later, completely 
  healed. Of course, if the candle has burnt out, he stays dead.
  Although lighting extra candles doesn’t increase the potency 
  of the magic, it does allow an ally to extend the duration of the 
  power by lighting a new candle as one burns down.
  (Improved Artificer, Hard to Kill, Harder to Kill, Hardy, 
  Nerves of Steel, Improved Nerves of Steel, all with limitation; 
  Cost $5000)
  stAFF oF tHe necroMAncer
  This feared relic is carved from gnarled, black wood with a 
  withered human hand at the “working end.” The hand clutches a 
  clear orb, in which floats a myriad of trapped souls, each howling 
  silently in eternal torment.
  The staff has two powers. When a command word is uttered 
  (no arcane skill roll) and the wielder points to a spot within his 
  Smarts x 2, the spirits in the orb swarm forth to fill an area the size 
  of a Large Burst Template centered on the chosen spot and begin 
  howling in anguish.
  Any creature within the Template must make a Guts check. Wild 
  Cards roll on the Fear Table (see Savage Worlds). Extras are Panicked 
  instead. The spirits remain out as long as the user desires—he can 
  even redirect them to a new area simply by gesturing with the staff.
  The staff also grants the holder the power to animate corpses 
  under his control. To do so, the orb must be touched to a corpse 
  and the wielder make a Spirit roll. On a success, a spirit from the 
  orb then enters the corpse, bringing it to “life” as a skeleton or 
  zombie, depending on how much flesh remains, for one day. The 
  undead is under the staff wielder’s command.
  More powerful versions of this staff—capable of raising the 
  dead permanently—are rumored to exist. 
  (Improved Enchant, fear with raise, zombie with two raises; 
  Cost $18,000)
  teMplAr blADe
  Although accused of heresy and devil worship by the 
  Church, the Knights Templar had secretly dedicated themselves 
  to fighting a secret war against the forces of Hell. While priests 
  performed Masses warning of the power of Satan, the Templars 
  were actively engaged in the destruction of Satanic cults across 
  Europe and the Holy Land.
  One key weapon in their war against evil were swords of cold 
  iron emblazoned with holy runes dating back to Old Testament 
  times. It is said that the Templars discovered the secrets to forging 
  these blades in the catacombs beneath the Temple of Solomon, 
  though no record of any such discovery exists today.
  These long swords grant the user +2 to Fighting and cause 
  Str+5 damage against demons, but function as normal blades 
  against all other creatures.
  In addition, the blades can be used to detect demons. Each 
  blade has an arcane skill of d6 and 10 Power Points, which recharge 
  normally, and holds the detect arcana spell. However, the spell only 
  detects demons and magic associated with demons (GM’s call).
  (Artificer, Enchant, +2 Fighting and +2 damage with 
  limitation, detect arcana with limitation; Cost $6250)
  vooDoo Dolls
  Voodoo dolls are wax, mud, or straw effigies of someone a 
  spellcaster wishes to harm at a distance. Although called voodoo 
  dolls, similar items can be found in several other beliefs.
  When the doll is made, the maker must have a token of his 
  victim, which must be incorporated into the doll. A lock of hair 
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  could be stuck to the doll’s head, whereas a fragment of clothing 
  or a piece of jewelry could be worn by the doll.
  Armed with a voodoo doll, the mage may cast certain 
  spells against his victim at a range of Smarts in miles. Only the 
  following spells may be cast through a voodoo doll, however—
  boost/lower trait (usually only the latter), entangle (victim is 
  paralyzed), fear, puppet, stun, and telekinesis (only to throw the 
  victim around).
  You might allow the mage to cast bolt through the doll to harm 
  his victim, but this is rather powerful. The GM should decide if any 
  spells from other books can be worked through a voodoo doll.
  Ideally, voodoo dolls should remain firmly in the hands 
  of villains. Giving them to players is a license for them to ruin 
  your adventure.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  WArDinG cHAlk
  Warding chalk was first created by Babylonian mages millennia 
  before Christ. Although it appears to be a normal stick of chalk, 
  warding chalk is made of rare ingredients and manufactured over 
  a period of several lunar cycles, and requires constant attention to 
  ensure ingredients are added at the correct time.
  When used to draw a warding (see page 34), the chalk grants 
  the user a bonus to his Agility or Smarts roll. Each stick is good 
  for just one warding.
  (Artificer, +1, +2, or +3 to Agility or Smarts with limitation; 
  Cost is $250 per bonus)
  WAx MessenGers
  Wax messengers are small candles, often carved into 
  unusual shapes. 
  Originally, wax messengers were used by wizards during the height 
  of the Spanish Inquisition to pass secret messages without resorting 
  to human agents, carrier pigeons, or incriminating writings. 
  To make this version of a wax messenger, the mage must cast 
  the speak language spell into the mixture as he shapes the candle 
  and speaks a message of no more than 20 words. When the wick 
  is lit, a ghostly voice repeats them, but only once. As the message 
  is spoken, the candle burns, dissolving into a pool of molten wax 
  when the message is finished.
  There is a more sinister use for wax messengers, however. 
  During the manufacturing process, the mage casts one spell into 
  the wax, which is then held in stasis. When the candle is lit, the 
  spell is cast and affects the nearest person.
  In all cases, the spell is cast with an arcane skill equal to the 
  caster’s. If you need something quick, assume a d8.
  Although any spell can be formed into a wax messenger, 
  most mages stick to spells such as blast or puppet (often used to 
  make the victim commit suicide). The candle turns to molten 
  wax when the spell duration ends (so it might melt extremely 
  quickly in some cases).
  (Alchemy, one spell; Cost is $50 per Power Point of the spell)
  WitcHes’ cAulDron
  Witches are renowned for their love of potions, almost all 
  of which require obnoxious ingredients. Depending on whether 
  you’re using any magic item creation rules in your setting, you 
  can use a cauldron in one of two ways.
  If you are, then the cauldron adds a +1, +2, or +3 bonus to 
  arcane skill or Knowledge (Alchemy) rolls when brewing potions. 
  Otherwise, the cauldron holds 15 Power Points, which any witch 
  within 2 yards (1”) of the cauldron can use to power her spells. 
  These recharge at the rate of one per hour.
  (Artificer, +1, +2, or +3 to either arcane skill or Knowledge 
  (Alchemy) with limitations; Cost is $500 per bonus point granted) 
  or (Improved Artificer, Power Points (x3); Cost $6000)
  vAMpire’s coFFin
  Standard vampires in Savage Worlds don’t have any form of 
  Regeneration ability, so if they get wounded, it takes a while for them 
  to heal. Likewise, they don’t have to sleep in coffins. Gothic tradition 
  especially has the last one as a core part of vampiric folklore.
  Here’s one way of making sleeping in coffins attractive to 
  vampires, and it allows them to Regenerate damage.
  Vampire coffins grant the vampire the Regeneration (Slow) 
  ability, but only if it spends the day sleeping in the casket. When 
  the sun sets, the vampire makes a natural Healing roll. These 
  coffins aren’t created using magic—it’s an inherent power.
  Depending on what myths you use in your game, having 
  earth from the vampire’s homeland lining the bottom of the 
  coffin might be essential for the coffin to work, or grant a +2 
  bonus to the roll.
  Since coffins are relatively flimsy (Toughness 4), and can be 
  made unusable by placing holy water or a cross inside, most vampires 
  keep several spare coffins to ensure their continued existence.
  (Cannot be manufactured)
  ForTune TellinG
  Fortune tellers and horror settings seem made for each other. 
  In what other genre do heroes go to strange gypsy mystics to learn 
  what dark fate awaits them if they go into the vampire’s lair?
  This chapter takes a look at how you can use fortune telling 
  or soothsaying to spice up your horror adventure. Several systems 
  are presented, and you can pick whichever suits your needs, or use 
  these as a basis for determining your own system.
  Just so you’re aware, we doubt very much that any of the systems 
  presented here can actually give you any foresight into the future.
  
  
  liMitinG reADinGs
  All of these systems give some sort of benefit (or bane) and 
  are therefore open to abuse, with characters potentially queuing 
  up to have their fortunes told in the hope of getting good results 
  and possible bonuses. You should restrict fortune telling to one 
  character per session, and only if it fits into your plot.
  Characters who actively seek out fortune tellers every session 
  should be charged a nominal fee to have their fortune told, and 
  then informed the reading is ambiguous. Very few fortune tellers 
  have the true gift of foresight.
  bAsic cArD systeM
  When a character asks for a reading, simply draw one card 
  from the action deck. A red card means the reading is fortuitous 
  and the questioner earns a benny. A black card means the reading 
  is bad, and he loses one. You can make this slightly more in-depth, 
  and heighten the tension a little, by drawing three, five, or even 
  seven cards and basing the reading on whether the majority of 
  cards are red or black.
  Alternately, if you think we’re being too generous or tight-
  fisted, allow only a heart to grant an actual bonus (with diamonds 
  still being a positive outcome), and spades to lose a benny (with 
  clubs still being a bad omen).
  What about jokers you ask? Well, jokers are the wild cards of the 
  deck and should confer an extra boon. You might want to give the 
  character another benny, or perhaps grant him another Adventure Deck 
  card (if you’re using them). Heck, you could even be really kind and let 
  him change one of his initiative cards to a joker once during the evening.
  To answer a yes/no type question, a red card means yes and a black 
  means no. You’ll obviously have to do some winging to make sure the 
  result fits your adventure. We aren’t fortune tellers, you know.
  bAsic Dice systeM
  This system can be used to simulate the throwing of runes 
  or I Ching sticks. 
  Roll 3d6. If the majority are even, the reading is good. 
  Otherwise the reading is bad. Use the same bonuses for the card 
  system above. For yes/no questions, odd is no and even is yes.
  in-DeptH cArD systeM
  This system is slightly more in-depth than the basic card system, 
  but is still quick and easy to use. It works best when the characters 
  seek knowledge regarding the outcome of a battle with a foe, but it 
  could easily be tinkered to produce results for other situations.
  Draw three cards, one at a time, and place them face up on 
  the table. As you turn each card, make up some nonsense about 
  the fates based on the color of the card, with red being positive 
  and black negative. We’ll give you an example in a moment.
  Then turn a fourth card. This is the only one we’re interested 
  in—the rest are just window dressing. Depending on the suit, make 
  up some suitable flavor text and secretly record the following bonuses 
  or penalties. The characters should only ever get the flavor text—keep 
  the game mechanics secret. Fate doesn’t understand game speak.
  Clubs: The characters weapons will strike true, but the fates offer 
  no protection. They get +1 to attack rolls, but are –1 Toughness.
  Diamonds: The characters are protected by good fortune, 
  but their blades will be weak. They get +1 Toughness, but suffer 
  –1 to attack rolls.
  Hearts: A very fortunate card. The characters receive +1 to attack 
  rolls and Toughness against the main villain they seek to destroy.
  Spades: The fates are against the characters in their endeavor. In the 
  climatic battle, they suffer a –1 penalty to attack rolls and Toughness.
  Joker: The omens are exceptionally strong. Look at the 
  previous card, and double any modifiers.
  Okay, here’s a quick example using flavor text for the first 
  three cards.
  The characters approach a gypsy seer to find out whether the omens 
  are good for storming a vampire’s castle.
  The GM draws the first card and gets a club. He tells the players that 
  the enemy they seek is shrouded in darkness (he lives in a crypt).
  The second card is a spade, so the GM says that the enemy is strong 
  (he’s a vampire, after all).
  The third card is a diamond, to which the GM says the enemy does 
  not know they are coming (which is true).
  The final card is also a diamond. Checking the notes above, the GM 
  says that they are protected by the powers of good, but their weapons will 
  not bite as true.
  tHe story MetHoD
  This method requires the GM to plan the fortune telling in 
  advance, and also leaves the outcome of his adventure open to 
  fate. If you’re not prepared to wing the finale of the adventure, or 
  indeed any other phase, then this method probably isn’t for you.
  There’s no one way to use the story method, but ideally the GM 
  should determine at least one important aspect of the adventure and 
  leave it to fate. For instance, if the characters are stalking a werewolf, they 
  might wish to know where his lair is located. Cue the fortune teller.
  The GM must determine in advance several locations where the 
  lair could be located and assign them to a suit. Here’s an example.
  Clubs: The deserted castle.
  Diamonds: A glade in the forest.
  Hearts: The graveyard.
  Spades: The manor house.
  Joker: He’s right outside.
  Then, draw a couple of cards before you get to the crunch 
  and make up some flavor text based on the color. When you get 
  to the important card, make up a suitable cryptic answer based 
  on the beast’s location.
  Here’s an example.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  0
  The werewolf hunters approach another gypsy to get some insight on 
  the werewolf.
  The GM draws the first card and gets a heart. He tells that the one they 
  seek is weakest at dawn. It’s a truth, of sorts, but it’s really just flavor text.
  The next card is a spade, to which the GM says the creature’s hatred 
  for life knows no bounds. Again, it’s just flavor text.
  The third card is another spade, and the GM tells the characters that each 
  night he grows more powerful. This is a lie, but it might serve to motivate them.
  Finally he draws a heart. He informs the characters that the beast 
  lairs among those who sleep but do not dream.
  Now all they have to do is work out the location and go kick some 
  hairy butt.
  proFessional 
  edGes
  As the rulebook says, Professional Edges are more than just 
  bonuses. Each one represents a vocation gained after years of 
  training. Those presented in the rulebook are, out of necessity, 
  generalized—they have to cover a wide range of genres. When 
  focusing on one particular genre, however, we can also focus the 
  Professional Edges.
  If a player wants to build an occult investigator, you can let 
  him take the Investigator Edge and he’s done. How about playing 
  a slayer? Just use Champion Edge.
  But what if these jobs are more than just a set of bonuses. 
  What if they represent an organization with a defined purpose? 
  Maybe there’s an order of slayers dedicated to overthrowing 
  demons and another to killing vampires? What if occult 
  investigators start with grimoires of power?
  Professional Edges can also be the only way of getting other 
  Edges. For instance, you have to become a member of the Order of 
  the Golden Dawn in your setting before you can take the Arcane 
  Background (Magic).
  Of course, there’s no reason why villains can’t also have 
  Professional Edges. Maybe a High Priest of Crazalphasalius 
  receives a bonus to his arcane skill when using fire trappings, or 
  perhaps any cultist of Arachnos who is chosen (i.e. buys the Edge) 
  can walk on walls like a spider.
  New Professional Edges allow you to show the players what 
  archetypes are common in your world, and encourages them 
  to get into the flavor of the game by playing these archetypes. 
  Professional Edges designed solely for your game also allow you to 
  add interesting social and political elements to your setting, helping 
  to expand the background without requiring pages of notes. More 
  importantly, they’re also ripe for using to generate adventures.
  designing neW edges
  If you’ve decided to create a batch of new Professional Edges, 
  you need to decide what they’re going to do. New Professional 
  Edges don’t have to be reinventions of the wheel. A few simple 
  tweaks here and there, the addition of some background, and 
  maybe an extra bonus, or drawback, can turn even the most 
  generic Edge into something new.
  nAMe
  Every Edge needs a name. In general, it should sum up 
  exactly what the Edge does. The Thief Edge, just by the name, 
  gives the player a good idea of what he’ll get from taking the Edge 
  without having to read it.
  You can still be descriptive, however. A Slayer of the Order 
  of the Silver Crescent is evocative and promises more than just 
  simple combat bonuses and gymnastic skills. Just make sure 
  the name has some link to the bonuses the Edge grants. Maybe 
  the slayer has a bonus when fighting lycanthropes, or they 
  receive special weapons allowing them to harm werewolves.
  requireMents
  Professional Edges require higher trait requirements than 
  most other Edges, but should always have a Rank requirement of 
  Novice. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from having an 
  “improved” Professional Edge.
  tyPes of fortune telling
  Most people have heard of astrology, tarot cards, 
  palmistry, Ouija boards, and crystal balls, but there are 
  many more ways of divining the future. Here are just a 
  few ways you can use in your game to avoid it becoming 
  stereotypical.
  Alectromancy: Placing a cockerel inside a circle of grain 
  around which are placed letters of the alphabet. The letters closest 
  to where the bird pecks are collected to answer questions.
  Alomancy: Reading patterns using salt.
  Arithmomancy: Divination by numbers. Also called 
  numerology.
  Belomancy: Tying possible answers to a question to 
  arrows. Whichever one travels the furthest when fired reveals 
  the future.
  Cleromancy: Using dice.
  Extispicy: Reading animal entrails.
  Gyromancy: Walking around a circle of letters until giddy. 
  Whichever letters the reader stumbles against spell a message.
  Hydromancy: Reading reflections in water or dropping 
  objects into water and observing the ripples are two 
  common methods.
  Oneiromancy: Interpretation of dreams.
  
  1
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  When assigning requirements, remember that taking a 
  Professional Edge is a result of dedication and training. If you set 
  the requirements too low, especially if the rewards are high, then 
  don’t be surprised if all your characters take the Edge. Likewise, if 
  the requirements are high and the payback low, no one will take 
  it. There is no magic formula to balancing requirements, but a 
  few traits at d8+ is a good start.
  bonus
  Let’s be honest, players take Edges to get bonuses for their 
  characters. Typically a Professional Edge grants bonuses to skills 
  associated with the profession. You wouldn’t expect a slayer to get 
  a bonus to Healing or Repair, but he could reasonably expect to 
  get one to Guts or Stealth.
  Typically, a Professional Edge should grant a +2 bonus to no 
  more than three skills. Try to avoid giving blanket bonuses to combat 
  skills, however. An Edge bestowing a +2 to Fighting is effectively 
  giving the character a bonus when using all types of weapons.
  If you’re handing out combat bonuses, restrict them to 
  certain types of weapons. A werewolf hunter may get +1 to 
  Fighting against werewolves to reflect his knowledge of how these 
  beasts fight, whereas a vampire hunter might get +1 Fighting, and 
  even Throwing, with stakes but not with other weapons. 
  An alternative is to allow the character to ignore penalties 
  instead or grant a bonus in another way. Our vampire hunter may 
  get a reduction in penalties to called shots to stake his foes, whereas 
  the werewolf hunter might get +1 Parry to +1 to perform Tricks 
  when fighting these hairy killers from his understanding of their 
  fighting style.
  Professional Edges can also be used to hand out free 
  equipment. A werewolf hunter may get a silver blade, for instance. 
  An occult researcher might be allowed to start with an occult 
  library, which grants him bonuses to Knowledge (Occult) rolls, 
  but only when he has his library to hand.
  DrAWbAcks
  Professional Edges can have drawbacks, but these should 
  not outweigh the bonuses. The Noble Edge gives lots of bonuses, 
  but also demands the character spend time governing his lands. 
  You just need to ensure the drawbacks are not oppressive.
  Drawbacks can include being tied to a particular region or 
  duty, but again care must be taken. Designing a group of slayers 
  sworn protect a specific town gives the character a purpose and 
  is full of adventure possibilities, but what if the character then 
  decides to go wandering and neglects his duties?
  If the Edge forces the character to stay around the city, then 
  make sure the majority of adventures are set there. If he wants 
  to go wandering, have him seek permission from his superiors. 
  There’s an adventure hook right there—the character can go after 
  he’s completed a minor task.
  Acquisition
  Decide if there are any restrictions on how a character can 
  take the Edge after character generation. Becoming a vampire or 
  werewolf hunter might only require the character to have slain an 
  appropriate beast (and meet the requirements), whereas becoming 
  an occult researcher requires the character to spend several months 
  tHe cHosen one
  Okay, how do you go about creating a slayer and making 
  her better than her normal friends? Here are a few suggestions 
  for you to think on.
  tHe proFessionAl eDGe MetHoD
  Requirements: Novice, Agility d8+, Spirit d6+, Strength 
  d6+, Vigor d6+, Fighting d6+, Guts d6+
  The character is the “chosen slayer,” a person dedicated 
  to the destruction of all supernatural evil. Obviously, being a 
  slayer means there’s some perks.
  Once you’ve created your character, give her advancements 
  and increase their Rank to Seasoned. The character does not 
  have to pay back these free Experience Points—she’s just better 
  than everyone else she hangs out with.
  tHe sliGHtly touGHer ApproAcH 
  The character is a Novice, but during character generation, 
  the chosen slayer may take Combat Edges without meeting the 
  Rank requirement. She must still meet any other requirements. 
  Alternately, the character might not have to meet any 
  requirements and may not be limited just to Combat Edges.
  tHe cHAMpion ApproAcH 
  The character builds a Novice character, but may take 
  the Champion Edge without meeting the Arcane Background, 
  Spirit, or Faith requirements.
  tHe FixeD pAckAGe
  A chosen slayer starts as a Novice character, but receives 
  a set package of bonuses. This might include free Edges (such 
  as Acrobat and Champion) or free skills (d6 Fighting and 
  Guts, for example). How many bonuses you grant depends 
  on the power level of your game.
  
  
  tracking down rare books and spending a fortune buying them.
  Of course, a character can call himself a werewolf hunter or 
  occult researcher without fulfilling any requirements at all, but 
  he wouldn’t get the bonuses.
  bAckGrounD
  Professional Edges unique to your setting, specifically 
  those based around an organization, should have some 
  background text associated with them, if only to let the 
  player know more about the organization. You don’t need to 
  write a complete history, but there should be enough detail 
  so the player knows what is expected of him and how the 
  organization functions.
  arcane  
  Professional  
  edges
  Whether or not you make new arcane Professional Edges—
  any Professional Edge aimed at characters with an Arcane 
  Background—depends, of course, on whether or not characters 
  can play wizards, priests, or psionicists.
  As with other Professional Edges, those designed for 
  spellcasters should have requirements, one of which must be an 
  appropriate Arcane Background. They can be used by mages or 
  priests with little modification.
  Each Edge should grant one or two bonuses with no 
  drawbacks. Having limitations on its use is fine, so long as they 
  do not render the Edge unusable.
  examPle 
  Professional  
  edges
  Here are some examples of Professional Edges suitable for 
  the horror genre. Use them as templates for creating similar 
  Edges for your own setting. There’s also one Leadership Edge 
  which suits a horror setting.
  exorcist
  Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Miracles), 
  Spirit d8+, Faith d10+, Guts d6+
  The character is an exorcist, a member of the clergy 
  trained at driving out demons from human bodies. The 
  exorcism ritual takes 1d6 hours, at the end of which the 
  character makes a Faith roll versus the Spirit of the demon. 
  With success, the demon is driven out and returns to Hell. On 
  a failure, the demon stays in its host and may not be exorcised 
  for 1d6 weeks.
  FAnAticisM (leADersHip eDGe)
  Requirements: Seasoned, Command, Persuasion d8+
  Some leaders can inspire their men to follow them 
  into the very depths of the Desert of Bones. Troops  
  under command of a character with this Edge add +2 to their 
  Guts rolls.
  examPle cultist edges
  These Edges are suitable for cultist villains.
  DevoteD servAnt oF crAzAlpHAsAlius
  Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Magic), 
  Vigor d8+, Knowledge (Arcana) d8+
  The character’s worship of Crazalphasalius has given 
  the priest a strong affinity with fire and heat, and he can draw 
  power from available sources. For every d10 damage rating of 
  a fire within his Spirit (in game inches), he reduces the cost of 
  powers by 1 Power Point (minimum of 1).
  cultist oF jjrikilliMsG
  Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, Intimidation d8+, 
  Taunt d8+, must have a Major Delusion Hindrance
  Cultists of Jjrikillimsg are completely and utterly insane. Their 
  insanity means they are not subject to Tests of Will, nor do they 
  suffer Fear. They gain a +2 bonus to Intimidation and Taunt rolls.
  cHosen oF ArAcHnos
  Requirements: Novice, Agility d6+, Strength d6+
  Arachnos grants a few of her most devoted followers 
  special powers. The character is one such devotee, and has 
  the Wall Walker Monstrous Ability (see Savage Worlds).
  MoutH oF vrAlkresH
  Requirements: Novice, Agility d6+, Fighting d8+
  Mouths are Vralkresh’s priests, whom he has blessed 
  with a special ability. The character develops sharp teeth 
  and may project his jaw. The character has a bite attack with 
  causes Str+2 damage at +1 Reach.
  
  Horror gm’s toolkit
  
  Fortune teller
  Requirements: Novice, Smarts d8+, Knowledge (Arcana) 
  d6+, Notice d8+, Persuasion d6+
  Fortune tellers are experts at reading the omens. The 
  character has the ability to read the future in some form, whether 
  through palmistry, runes, or watching for shapes in the clouds.
  Once per session, a character may ask the fortune teller for a 
  reading (fortune tellers can’t read their own fortune). You can use 
  whatever method you want to handle this, but we recommend 
  using the quick card method on page 59.
  necroMAncer
  Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Magic or 
  Miracles), Spirit d8+, arcane skill d8+, must know the zombie power
  Tammuz, lord of the dead, was once the guardian of the 
  afterlife. However, he has fallen from grace, and now seeks 
  to supplant the world of the living with a necropolis of his 
  undead minions.
  He adds +2 to his arcane skill rolls when using the zombie 
  power. When the character is in a graveyard, tomb, necropolis, or 
  other area commonly associated with death, he gains the benefits 
  of the Wizard Edge.
  iMproveD necroMAncer
  Requirements: Veteran, Necromancer
  Undead created by the zombie power cast by this character 
  are permanent, until destroyed.
  occult reseArcHer
  Requirements: Novice, Smarts d8+, Investigation d8+, 
  Knowledge (Occult) d8+, must speak at least two ancient 
  languages, one of which must be Latin or Greek.
  Knowledge is power. The character has a small, private occult 
  library. This may be an actual collection of books, or scanned 
  images on a laptop computer. The character begins the game 
  with three mundane occult tomes (see p. 24).
  In addition, the character has a +2 bonus to Investigation 
  rolls when researching occult matters.
  tAlisMAn creAtor
  Requirements: Novice, Smarts d8+, Spirit d8+, Arcane 
  Background (Magic or Miracles), Knowledge (Occult) d8+, 
  arcane skill d8+
  This is a horror version of the Gadgeteer Edge.
  Once per game session, a talisman creator can create a magic 
  talisman and imbue it with arcane energy. The device uses any power 
  available to a magician or miracle worker in that setting (though this 
  is still subject to Rank restrictions). It has half the creator’s Power 
  points and once these are used up they do not recharge.
  The ritual to imbue the object takes d20 minutes. Activating 
  the device requires a Smarts (magic) or Spirit (miracles) roll.
  vAMpire slAyer
  Requirements: Novice, Agility d8+, Fighting d8+, Guts d8+
  Vampire hunters know a vampire’s weak spot is the heart, 
  and they spend long hours practising heart strikes with melee, 
  thrown, and missile weapons.
  The character halves penalties for making Called Shots to 
  the heart due to his experience at slaying vampires. In addition, the 
  character never has to make a Guts roll when dealing with vampires.
  WereWolF Hunter
  Requirements: Novice, Agility d8+, Fighting d6+, Guts d6+, 
  Notice d6+, Stealth d6+, Tracking d6+
  Werewolf hunters are specialist slayers, focusing their 
  attention on removing the threat of werewolves from the world.
  Characters never have to make Guts rolls when dealing 
  with werewolves (and other lycanthropes, at your discretion). In 
  addition, long hours spent studying werewolves has taught him 
  how to best attack his foes, so each weapon has an additional +1 
  to Damage against lycanthropes.
  The hunter also gains a +1 bonus to Notice, Stealth, and 
  Tracking when hunting werewolves.
  Playing monsters
  Horror games are almost always centered around the 
  characters being the protagonists. You know, all the good 
  winning over evil stuff. But what if you, or your players, want 
  to play the other side of the coin?
  Well, there’s nothing to stop you, but it’s probably 
  best if you avoid playing truly evil characters. Compare it to 
  playing supervillains in Necessary Evil. The characters are bank 
  robbers and weirdos intent on building doomsday devices, 
  but they aren’t child molesters and rapists.
  As for monsters, well, in horror, it’s cool to play the 
  vampire or Frankenstein or the Wolfman. They’re monsters, 
  and they’re “evil” in a classic sense, but not in a “real world” 
  sense. PC “monsters” might even be noble in some way, but 
  they don’t wander into an orphanage and start snacking 
  down. Playing true evil (eating orphans) is just despicable 
  and you won’t enjoy yourself, and we’re sure as hell not going 
  to encourage it.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Savage Worlds System (SWADE) [multi]/Horror/Savage Worlds - Horror - GMs Toolkit.pdf