Terrifying DM Tips for Spooky Season

October is here, and the veil between worlds is thin. It’s the perfect time to unleash something unnatural on your unsuspecting players.

As the nights grow longer and candlelight flickers low, Dungeon Masters everywhere feel it: an irresistible urge to send chills crawling down the spines of their players. 

October isn’t just spooky season; it is the perfect excuse for every DM to get a little…sinister! 

The dice are ready, the candles flicker and your players? They have no idea what’s coming.

Here are three DM tips guaranteed to turn your next session into a tale they will whisper about around the campfire. 

DM Tip #1: Use Light & Shadow As Characters In Your Story

Nothing unsettles players like what the light barely touches. A single candle or flickering glow can make your setting feel alive or haunted.

Try it in: Haemoturgy Lab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beneath the city, a deranged alchemist works by a low-burning red lamp, fusing blood and magic into creations that should never have lived.

Flesh shapeshifts. Beakers bubble. And on the table, something pulses.

The party comes face-to-face with the twisted results of his dark experiments. They must save the blood-mad alchemist's subjects if they can or stop them before they spill into the streets.

Here, a single candle or a red glow can be more frightening than total darkness. As you build the terror, set the mood for your party. The red glow breathes with the story and allows your players to enter into the atmosphere of the story. 

Use twitching shadows over the lab equipment and allow the light to glint off metal and glass, painting everything in shades of blood. 

As you build the terror, the use of lights and shadows will work to make the fear hit harder, quicken the heartbeat and turn curiosity into dread. 

DM Tip #2: Pace the Dread - Lure Them In 

True horror isn't just a jump scare - it is slowly drawing the player into the horror. Give your players moments of calm before the chaos, and let fear take hold in silent moments. 

Try it in: Crimson Feast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Count Repartus has invited the party to a magnificent banquet stretching for miles beneath chandeliers of bone.

The wine? Thick and red. The host? All charm and smiles.

Your players dine and laugh, unaware they're the main course. Let them savour the luxury, and let the conversation stretch. Then, one goblet spills crimson. 

The first scream cuts through the chatter and shatters the light mood. Now, they must fight for their lives as vampiric hordes reveal their true hunger. 

Fear ripens slowly, DMs, so don’t reveal the horror all at once. Horror lands harder when it follows comfort, when your players are totally oblivious to the darkness that waits to devour them.

DM Tip #3: Describe What's Felt, Not Seen 

Don't tell your players what's there; let them feel it. A rustle in the dark, a whisper on the wind, the weight of unseen eyes in the shadows. Fear grows in the imagination.

Try It In: Phanteom Vengeance 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wind howls low as fog curls through a forgotten graveyard under a pale, watching moon. Here, the spirit of an Oathbreaker lingers. 

A knight who has forsaken sacred vows and now thirsts for power with fallen soldiers beside him. These phantoms don't march to conquer, they haunt the living who dare disturb their rest. 

Your heroes must survive a graveyard skirmish that puts the living against those who refused to stay dead and the Oathbreaker’s desire for vengeance. 

Let your players hear the crunch of boots on frost. The whisper of a sword being drawn, though no one is there. When the spectres finally rise from the graves, your players will already be holding their breath.

Describe the sensations: the smell of the abandoned graveyard, the whistle of the wind. 

“You hear the heaviness of the creature moving through the night” will always land harder than “You see a monster.”

Let discomfort crawl up your players’ spines as they confront their fears. Every moment of anticipation makes the coming clash a bigger moment.

Bring the Horror Home

Anyone can tell a story, but true horror takes craft. To make your table spooked and on the edge of their seats:

Step into the shadows with the Halloween 2025 5e Encounter Bundle - a chilling collection of our spookiest Mythic Box encounters plus an exclusive limited-edition Werewolf mini you won’t find anywhere else.

What is better than an individual encounter? All three in the same box!

Each Mythic Encounter Includes:
✹ A DM handbook packed with a ready-to-run 5e-compatible encounter, stat blocks, story hooks, and more!
✹ A set of high-detail resin miniatures made in Canada (8-9 minis in each box)
✹ A visually stunning digital battlemap you can print at home

Bundle & Save:

Save 20% when you get all three spine-tingling adventures and get an exclusive werewolf mini for only $107.95!

🕸 Share Your Horror 

We want to hear your own twisted tales!

Submit your spooky encounter name in the comments or tag @HeliosTabletop with #HauntingEncounters for a chance to be featured in our next newsletter.

Until then…

Keep your dice close, your candles lit, and your courage close at hand. The night is young, and something stirs beneath your table.