Let’s Play D&D With David S. Pumpkins
Come to Fright Night and ride 100 Floors of Fright. But be warned, we’re going all in on David S. Pumpkins.
It’s almost Halloween. And that means it’s time to get ready for some scares when we go to David S. Pumpkin’s One Hundred Floors of Frights! Well, One hundred ish. Most of the floors are David S. Pumpkins. But it’s fine, I’m sure this right will be fun and plenty spooky anyhow. This week we’re playing D&D with…
David S. Pumpkins
SNL has a pretty iffy winner-to-stinker skit rate. But 2016’s Haunted Elevator sketch with Tom Hanks managed to become an immediate internet sensation. I can’t even say why for sure, but it’s goofiness won so many of us over right away, making David S. Pumpkins something of a recent Halloween staple. So of course, if we’re finding monsters to fight for spooky campaigns this Halloween season, we have to pay a visit to David S. Pumpkins and his One Hundred Floors of Frights.
But how do you make a Tom Hanks character into a fightable D&D monster? Well, you don’t. It’s impossible, he’s too likable! So instead, we leaned into that.
David S. Pumpkins spends most of the skit being a decidedly not scary dancing weirdo and making all of us watching absolutely adore him. So in-game, his Halloween dance will cast one of a few spells all designed to confuse, charm, win over, or disorient the potential adventurer. The Skeletons are there too, also dancing and confusing, but they’re there in a protecting sort of capacity.
Where the danger of David S. Pumpkins really lies is in his Hundred Floors of Frights. Only, they really went all in on David S. Pumpkins so there’s not a hundred floors unique as much as ten. And the rest are… you guessed it, Mr. Pumpkins.
I imagined this encounter as more of a gauntlet, where you’ll be confused, frightened, stricken with laughter, or something else before being whisked away to another floor with one of ten randomly selected encounters. Some of them are hard. Some of them have a small collection of lower-threat-level creatures.
Others like the little girl from The Ring and Leatherface are monsters I made sheets for myself. But after every encounter, you’ll be right back to see David S. Pumpkins and get confused or charmed all over again.
Of course, I didn’t want to give him no attacks of his own. So I gave him a simple slap attack since we see him smacking some skeleton booty a few times. But honestly, it barely does any damage at all. It’s more of a distraction than anything else.
So should you send your players into the Hundred Floors of Fright with David S. Pumpkins? I vote yes. And so do the skeletons. But will they have fun? Well, maybe not once they figure out what’s actually happening. So take a laugh break halfway through with the skit… And then throw them back in! Good luck!
Did you think this skit was funny when it first aired? How would you make David S. Pumpkins for a D&D setting? What movie, show, book, game, or comic should we make sheets from next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
