Let’s Play D&D With Pennywise So You Can Float, Too!
We all float down here, Adventurers. This week we’re playing D&D with one of horror’s most terrifying clowns, Pennywise.
It’s time for spooky one-shots and horror-themed adventures. And if you want to terrorize as many of your characters as much as possible in the smallest amount of time, clowns are always a good bet. This week let’s play Dungeons and Dragons with the infamous clown from It. Let’s be honest, it might be what your players deserve. We’re playing D&D with…
Pennywise
I’m not afraid of clowns per say, but I get it.
If you’re looking to take your already existing campaign and add a few horror sessions to the middle of the adventure, Pennywise is a surprisingly easy character to transition into. Unlike many other horror villains, he doesn’t rely on technology or modern weapons at all. We don’t need to reimagine a chainsaw or a television. And a murdery-looking jester following your party around can be just as scary as a modern-day clown. Basically, he could fit in anywhere and in any system and you could always have a great time.
Pennywise is an eldritch horror stuffed into a clown suit. And if you come up to New England sometime and stare at our gray ocean and rock-covered beaches in the middle of the winter sometimes, you may start to understand why so many writers from this area leaned so hard into this exact sort of horror. He’s impossible to truly know or understand, and even when he’s trying his best to “blend in” for the sake of hunting down some tasty tasty children, he’s creepy to be near. Something about him is just off.
Which all makes for great flavor text and scenery to describe to your players. But once they get down to brass tax, they’re going to find that this clown is no pushover. An ability to sneak into a character’s mind and find their greatest fear will quickly give Pennywise an advantage over the party in the form of the player’s disadvantage.
If the players go out to seek help, there is a good chance that nobody around them will know what they’re talking about or even be able to see Pennywise. And of course, he just may change his own form or the visuals of all of the terrain around you for a little while. Just to freak you out.
If for some reason, you let Pennywise get close enough, he’s got a powerful bite. Sometimes this feels like a cop-out attack for monsters. But in this case…
There are teeth and then there’s whatever nightmare fuel is happening here.
Finally, if the disadvantage, the psychological attacks, and the physical attacks aren’t enough for you, there’s always the Dead Light. While the kids speculate that Pennywise is some sort of spider creature, he’s much less tangible than that and the closest we could possibly know is the Dead Lights. In a Call of Cthulhu game, this would cause madness in a character. But in D&D it’s going to just cause your character to do a factory re-set real quick. That could be enough time to give the monster the upper hand, though.
How would you make Pennywise for a D&D setting? Which version of It is your favorite? Have you introduced modern monsters into your D&D campaigns before? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
