GM a Great Haunted House Adventure

Looking to run a great horror one shot adventure, or even write your own? GMing a great haunted house isn't as easy as it looks. Well, here's 5 tips to help you become a better horror GM, no matter whether you're playing Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, GURPS, or some other roleplaying game.
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[@ninjagoggles]

Generated a lot of thoughts for a game I'm running next week! Thanks!

[@jirhonarmstrong4107]

Never be afraid if using a monster or slasher in a haunted house, to have secret passageways throughout. This way the villain can move around unseen.

[@1ShotJC]

Yes! Secret passages are a must!

[@AceFrahm]

0. What is the party's GOAL with this haunted house?
Why risk the danger, unless the reward is worth it? At the point at which the risk outweights the reward, why will our characters not simply depart the haunted house?
WHEN, under what conditions, could that happen in our plotlines? If it does, why will each PC remain inside the adventure?
What will keep them stuck in the haunted house zone?
What are the possible outcome end-states of the story that matter? Is it open-ended? Why should will we care?
1. The creepy mystery of a haunted house story is THE BACKSTORY of WHY the house got to be like this. Slightly more complexity is good. In what ways will you enable the PCs to discover these details of the house history?
2. Start the adventure BEFORE the PCs arrive at the house. You can establish some creepy public perception of the history & reputation of the house to "set the scene" or establish what's "baseline normal" of the "first act of the movie".
You could use this before-arrival section of the story to allow the Party to decide which NPCs to take with them, what tools, props, et cetera.
3. Use a real architectural floorplan for your haunted house "set". It's NOT a D&D "dungeon crawl". Ordinary rooms can outnumber the rooms stocked with extra-ordinary plot-relevant special things.
Maybe edit it to add secret passages and blocked lines-of-sight. How will your antagonists be able to sneak so easily, and bother the party, if there's no space that could provide a plausible way for them to be stealthily sneaking up and spying, eavesdropping, and departing undetected? How will your PCs do it in return, if there is no place to hide?
Establish "privacy zones". In a real house, you hear someone in the detached garage screaming their head off if they're mauled by a real bear, from the upstairs bedroom on the opposite site of the house, and the entire family can rush to help in less than 30 seconds. So why is there any chance that a monster attack ( or appropriate other scary thing ) could take place in your haunted house, without ALL players & NPCs becoming quickly aware of the total situation? Is that good or bad or neutral for the plot | scene you have prepared?
4. Always bring NPCs!
NPCs can give the starting seeds of the house's history to the PCs. NPCs can be the source of house history | item history when PCs discover plot-relevant props.
NPCs can trigger the default plot points if your PCs don't create a story path of their own. The NPCs can take the default "losing at every turn" path through the decision tree of the adventure, and they can be a hidden "timer" of the story if the PCs get bored or fail to act.
NPCs can signal dangers to the PC party in advance, by being the "monster's first victim". The PCs can then make semi-informed CHOICES about what to do under conditions of partial information, and all good games are about giving players interesting CHOICES to make, with interesting consequences.
5. Give each PC a REASON why they might need to be splitting up the party instead of acting like "bunker defense zombie survival until dawn", herding together for maximum protection.
Maybe a reason to suspect that the "safety" of the herd is actually the danger?
Have some nifty PLOT scene ready for PCs when or where they pursue those individual goals, with a special creepy plot point that can't be had UNLESS this party member(s) leaves the overall safety of the entire group.
Have some plot-relevant reward "scene" that "the rest of the party who stayed in the dining room" can enjoy while ( and maybe CAN'T EVEN GET UNLESS ) the adventurous PCs depart from the whole.
After all, they become more vulnerable when their numbers decrease, right?
Why would a thinking, predatory monster attack a herd of prey at the moment when the herd is strongest in numbers?
6. What, exactly, is the antagonist of your plot? Is it the "environment" of the haunted house in a man-against-nature struggle for survival? Is it a monster or animal? Is it secretly, mundane evil human villains with wicked goals, using the "haunted house" as a tool to get what they want? Is it many monsters? Are the monsters engaged in a competition or conflict or race with each other? Is the PC party just caught in-between, or will they have an opportunity to ( or be forced to ) take sides?
Whoever the antagonist is, define who they are in advance.
Give the "monster" a motive, a clear objective, and maybe a deadline it needs to meet. This will help you make GOOD, story-consistent choices about where they are and what they are doing when the PCs act.
7. Create some opportunities for "jump scares" that are "harmless", especially if the jump scare is a fun misdirection. Jump scares can be used to lure the PCs into a false sense of security when signs of the dangerous antagonist are mistaken for harmless signs of a repeat of jump scare distraction just like one that came before.
Perhaps the sound of 2 characters canoodling when they think they are alone is mistaken for the noise of....animals....or monsters eating. And so the noise can hide the noise of the real monsters eating elsewhere!
So plan in advance what kind of "jump scare" scene could mislead your Players by having a similar warning "signature" as that of the real antagonist(s).
Can your PCs have habits or hobbies or tasks which create false signs of trouble for your other players, but they don't even know that's possible until it happens? Example: A PC is a fantastic chef, and on the 1st night in the house, makes loud meat-chopping noises in the kitchen. FUN!
The "jump scares" might be the event that REVEALS pieces of the haunted house's history. Necessary events on the path of the "successful storyline" of the plot's decision tree.