Tags
Estate House, Floorplan, Free RPG, Ghastly Affair, gothic game, Gothic Gaming, Gothic Horror, Gothic Literature, Gothic Romance, Gothick, Great House, Haunted House, Manor, Mansion, Map, role-playing game, Romantic Horror, rpg
Highdark Hall is a fictional eighteenth-century estate house suitable to be the primary location for an entire Saga of Gothic roleplaying. It features five floors and over 100 rooms, with many possibly intriguing locations to stimulate your creativity.
The Maps are intended to be further developed by the Presenter (or Game Master). Its for you to decide if Highdark Hall is a cursed hive of supernatural evil, or actually just a leaky old house with somewhat eccentric inhabitants.
Although primarily intended for use with the Ghastly Affair role-playing game, there’s no reason why Highdark Hall couldn’t be adapted to your favorite game system as well.
Those who play Victorian-era, Steampunk, or other Horror games might be able to use Highdark Hall, simply by advancing the assumed time-frame. You could even use the maps for an uninhabited structure being explored by modern day paranormal investigators!
There’s plenty to explore and uncover, whether the Player Characters join the house as servants, are travelers stranded there by a fearsome storm, or are members of High Society attending a Masquerade Ball or Salon. You might even have Players portray members of the family that inhabits the House – there are parts that are mysteries even to those who live within its walls.
The ideal place to locate Highdark Hall is on the bleak moors of the northern Peak District in the English midlands, but it could also work well on the English-Scottish border, in Ireland, or in the middle of Wales. The date is assumed to be in the late 1790’s, but those adapting Highdark Hall for use in game systems other than Ghastly Affair might want to set a later date. If you decide to incorporate Highdark Hall into a fictional setting, simply change the names of the people and places referenced.
The estate grounds and outbuildings will be developed in a future series.