Hauntings (Promptober 2025 #16)

What Vibes Haunt Here?

When thinking about hauntings, images of ghosts, poltergeists, and imps spring to mind. Those are all echoes of beings of one sort or another. What if we start with something less tangible like emotions or actions? What happens when emotions haunt a place instead of beings?

Anyone with telepathy or psionics can sense an area of intense emotional haunting, but others will just have a weird feeling when entering the area. Effects can vary wildly, from simple spookiness or a feeling that someone watches your every move, to overwhelming emotions or even suffering the effects of an enchantment spell cast upon you.

Every emotional haunting is different, as is each character it influences, so reactions will vary widely. Generally, some sort of willpower resistance roll should negate the effects, like a Wisdom saving throw in D&D. If they fail, apply effects as they feel right, so let your GM intuition guide your decisions here.

I'll detail a few possible emotional effects to get you started, as setting up a table for such an open-ended idea seems pointless.

An intense zone of horror or powerlessness can lower a character's effectiveness with skills or combat (disadvantage on combat rolls and/or a penalty on damage rolls). Intense fear could act like an antipathy effect, as the spell, causing characters to flee the area. Intoxication or lust could lower inhibitions (disadvantage on mental saving throws against compulsions) or heighten bravado (advantage on saving throws against fear effects). Apathy could lower resistance to manipulation (disadvantage on all mental saving throws) or dampen mental processes (disadvantage on skill checks). Feverish industriousness might induce speedy work (time spent crafting counts twice) at the cost of physical stamina (add a level of exhaustion every 4 hours).

To create your own emotional haunting, choose an intense emotion from the location's history, then sit with it to discover how it makes you feel. Translate that feeling into game terms, give it a Wisdom saving throw DC to resist it, and you're in business.

Listen to players when they detail how their characters react to the overwhelming emotion. Their responses will guide you when applying effects to specific individuals, if you want to go that granular with them. I'd suggest a default effect with the ability to modify it in specific cases.

Part of the Promtober project for 2025.