By Bixyl Shuftan
It's Halloween, and people across Second Life are "getting their spook on." While traditionally an American holiday, more people across the world are adopting it to some degree. For kids, the holiday has changed somewhat over the years from kids playing pranks on neighbors, to going door to door dressed up in costume chanting "trick or treat" after some of the pranks got not so harmless, to more parents opting to take their kids to Halloween parties instead in response to a few sick people hiding dangerous items in candy. For adults who are kids at heart, there's always been the chance to dress up in costume.
And here in Second Life, the holiday allows residents to go wild with their looks, and those who already don't have much of a problem occasionally changing their looks to go truly wild.
And you can do more than just look wild. There's various Halloween-themed places around Second Life. The Destination Guide lists over a hundred.
Among them was Castle Dracula, from Prehistorica, "Journey to 1890s Transylvania in search of the missing Jonathan Harker.
Explore the colossal castle of Count Dracula in search of his journals,
meet the Count Himself, and do try to stay among the living...if you
can."
"Castle Dracula: A Gothic Horror Experience is a massive, immersive narrative-driven haunt unlike any other, 14 years in the making, and open to the public from October 2022."
Some established places got a new look. Inspire Space Park has long been known as a must-see place in Second Life, one which we wrote about early in our history. Not representing any location in real life or science-fiction, it's more of a cosmic dream in which one can dance among the stars. Lately though, part of the area has been sporting a slightly new look, a spooky one for the season. the "Dark Alice in Wonderland."
A dark, twisted realm has descended upon Inspire Space Park. Inspired by the Dark Alice in Wonderland with a Burtonesque flare, make this Halloween fun and enchanting! Visit for an exciting Alice Madness that's sure to be Spooktacular! Be sure to explore the park and discover all of the hidden wonders!
Belliseria has it's "Trick or Treat" event. Get a HUD and Candy Bucket at various locations, such as Millbank (205/38/23). The bucket is not to carry, but to rezz at any house in Bellisseria.
Go around the Linden Home continent, and look for the glowing pumpkin-like candy buckets. Touching one when close enough is another point on your HUD. Sometimes in Bellisseria group chat homeowners with buckets will post SURLs of their places.
Some of the Linden Homes have been quite decorated.
Also in Millbank is the Linden and Moles' haunted neighborhood. Plenty of spooky sights and scary sounds, such as screams and the sounds of crashes and chainsaws.
Keep an eye behind you though. Not all the scares there come from the Lindens.
Twice a year at the Abnormality sim is "The Guild," formerly known as the "Gacha Guild." The place has numerous items for sale, notably Halloween-themed ones.
There weren't any "must-have" avatars that I heard about, such as the Spirit Fennec and the Chibi Noodle Dragon in the past. But there was the Halftime Hunt that went live in the middle of the month. One would get a HUD and a light and then start searching.
The object was to look for weird flowers in a suburban neighborhood with a dark spooky feel. You could come back the next day and find them over again, and exchange the points for prizes.
A post-apocalyptic place can be scary in itself. But what if you add ghosts? This Halloween, the Deathlands is offering "The Haunted Bunker Hunt."
The backstory involves "Ghostly Gene," the lone occupant of a military bunker who survived the nuclear blasts, only to zombify and fall apart. Your quest is to go in, and brave the monsters and other ghosts in the rusty old facility. Bloody footprints and handprints give clues on where to go and touch.
The object is to recover all of Gene's bones so this one lost soul will be at peace, which are kept track of on the HUD. The reward for winning is a Deathlands-style adult bed from Goddess Creations (which is appropriate for a post-apocalyptic land as eventually the land heals and it's time to repopulate).
At Mieville is "Haunted Nawlins."
No, that's not a player, but a (friendly) NPC.
Besides the spooky sights, there's a Trick or Treat game in which you can wear a free HUD or a deluxe one that offers some bonuses. Look for houses with lighted porches and knock on the doors to get points, which can be exchanged for prizes at the French Market. More information can be found here: https://lfxnawlins.blogspot.com/
Just touch the coffin in the tracks, and 'ol 666 will quickly arrive. Just sit down and it will spirit you away.
The ride is best viewed in mouselook. No shortage of thrills.
There's also a ghost hunt in the area. Just get any gun that fires bullets and fire away. But be quick as the ghosts appear and vanish within seconds (contact Cynthia Farshore or Shockwave Yareach if you have trouble or questions).
You can keep track of scores at the Goblin Cave at Caledon Downs (123/102/31). There was also a mention of a pumpkin hunt there. The notecard gives five clues to look for the five pumpkins and get a prize for finding them. But you may not want to try for more than one per gourd.
And the sim itself has no shortage of spooky sights.
Farshore Field has it's own ghost hunt. You may need to be a member of the Sunweaver group for the guns to work properly though.
Ghosts aren't exactly the best thing for an airport, hence the open season on them. You can check out the scores in Joy Mountain at Sunlight Bay (44/55/43).
The main community's beach club, the Happy Vixen, temporarily moved it's events to it's yearly Halloween Haunt. This year, it's "The House on Haunted Hill."
The place is full of spooky and creepy sights, courtesy of Jasmine Dawn.
It's been the sight of many fun parties.
With plenty of fun spooky looks by some.
The house is at Purrfection Estates (207/210/2501). But not everyone can teleport directly there. For those who end up at the beach club, there's a teleport chest in the middle of the blue dance floor. Touch it to go up and enjoy.
On a final note, the Lab Gab on Thursday Oct 27 listed several places. So by all means check it out.
That's it for now. We may have time to list a few more spooky sights. For now, go out and have some spook-tacular fun.
Bixyl Shuftan
