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Adamaro
2009-09-29, 01:24 AM
Hi!

Me and my group are already deep in our first horror campaign, I use "Heroes of horror" a lot and really like the book, but would also like some good advice/hints on such a campaign. Any good suggestions are welcome.

tnx

TheCountAlucard
2009-09-29, 02:49 AM
It'd be a little more helpful if we knew more about it all... are you wanting advice on how to make it more horrific, how to immerse the players in it, general advice, or when to spring the Undead Inquisition? Hint: it's when they're not expecting it.
For that matter, what kind of game is it? Low-level, undead/aberration/outsider-heavy horror? High-level, Elder Evils horror? Horror Eberron? Horror Greyhawk? Homebrewed horror?

Adamaro
2009-09-29, 02:58 AM
Hmmm, good point :)

It'd be a little more helpful if we knew more about it all... are you wanting advice on how to make it more horrific, how to immerse the players in it, general advice,

Yes, yes and yes. I had in mind suggestions like "when I played/made my horror campaign, I especially liked ..." etc.

It is medium lvl game (6 -14), as for creatures, it is not very specified, with the basic underplot being corruption. (one example of corruption was an undead "family" of wraiths. That was imo quite nice twist. But it is not specific-creature-type oriented) And it is homebrew horror.

Delwugor
2009-09-29, 12:21 PM
I'm starting my first Horror Campaign GMing tomorrow night! And I'm very nervous about it. Mine is a mixture of Survival Horror and Heroic Fantasy in the world of Greyhawk.

Some of the feelings I'm trying to touch with the characters:
Fear - there are things much worst than death, but death does not stop it from happening to you.
Desperation - no matter what you do you can't seem to stop the horror from winning. All you can do is survive with your life and sanity intact.
Unexpected - You can't stop the horror because you don't know what it is going to do or where it is going to strike next.
Unknown - fear of the unknown is a very strong feeling
Waiting - you're waiting in fear of the unknown and you can't stop it anyway.
Solitude - you're facing this horror alone, the king can't help, the wizards can't help even the gods can't help. It's just you and your party against a world of horror and insanity.
Sanity - how can you keep your sanity when continually facing these horrors.
Survival - success isn't winning it is surviving and helping others survive.

But since this also include Heroic Fantasy the characters will be given the chance to overcome their fear and desperation to learn what the horror is and how to beat it. If they succeed their names will be placed among the great of Oerth, if they fail no one will be left to remember anyway.

This is more of the emotional Gothic horror than the Gore horror, but the ideas still apply for all horror types (I think ...). Also for the characters to really face the fear it needs to be personal to them. Not necessarily their families eaten in a gory brain feast, but something that affects their own personal life and beliefs and changes them in ways that are not good.
Also you can use more than just undead to generate fear into the characters, the same with gore monsters, the same with *surprise*. All of these are tools to be used but the important thing is to set the mood either with the characters, the players or if you're ambitious both.

The Big Dice
2009-09-29, 02:13 PM
There's a few things you can do to make horror work in RPGs, and most of them aren't tied to the system you use. I find one of the main things to remember is that slasher movies aren't really horror unless you've never seen one before.

Something I've found that works time and time again is the reversal, or what I call the bait-and-switch. It's that moment when you think you're in one situation and then suddenly realise that you're in a totally different one from the one you thought you were in.

There's a section of Baldur's Gate 2 that would work well as an example of what I mean, if it were handled a bit differently in a tabletop game. The war between the two rival Thieves Guilds, where one gang are actually Vampires. Except you do't tell the players that one gang are suckheads until they're deep into the gang war.

And that's when the reversal hits home.

The problem with D20 based games, is they don't work too well for this kind of subtle horror. Character growth is too closely tied to combat to be able to pace things right. Action and survival horror are genres that it works for, but psychological horror isn't something it really does well.

Delwugor
2009-09-29, 02:49 PM
The problem with D20 based games, is they don't work too well for this kind of subtle horror. Character growth is too closely tied to combat to be able to pace things right. Action and survival horror are genres that it works for, but psychological horror isn't something it really does well.

Starting tomorrow night, I will be doing my utmost to disprove your statement. :smalltongue:

To some extent I agree with you and originally proposed to run my campaign in a different system, but the group wanted to keep with D&D.
The trick will be to keep d20 mechanics where they belong as rules for how a character can accomplish some actions. This also covers character level advancement.
Character development and growth (not level advancement) will be kept in the hands of the players and me as GM. I will provide the opportunities for their characters growth, they will role-play their characters to take the opportunities and turn them into something they want.

FlyingWhale
2009-09-29, 03:17 PM
@Adamaro~~~ Timing, timing, timing. It was 6pm when we started my first ever horror campaign, and it was 6am when we ended the first session. The sun had not yet come up, it was overcast, and there were 5 players. They each walked to one car in the driveway, then dropped off the others at their cars across the street in a parking lot. Think they were frightened? :smallwink:
Never tell too much. Lovecraft had a huge inspiration on my works in the games and my own personal writing. Though he was a decent writer at best, he was a genius in the scare dept. Too much in the imagination, it goes awry fast. Not enough in the imagination, the reader/player is dulled and not intrigued. I know it isn't much help but I think you'll find that a big step-up. Give them a little but let their minds and fears boil away at it and they should do all the hard work themselves.
Unknowns have always been a good source of 'bump and crawls'(my version of hack'n'slash). If they don't know what is behind the door, but they know something is, or they see a shadow swaying in the hallway, but don't know that there is anything in there... I always found good descriptors of what they come face to face with does a heap of good. Also, if you can browse through DeviantArt through Macabre/horror... See if there is anything like what they see. Visuals are good.
Music. At least, I think there is a good bit involved in the audibles. I myself own the entire discography to Nox Arcana, Midnight Syndicate, and the Devil May Cry soundtracks as well. All of which do miracles for a good horror setting. Careful with Nox, because there tends to be a bit of vocals(chanting and what-not). MS has a lot of organ sounds and sometimes a lot of other instruments, which may spoil a moment. DMC has something I love. Battle songs, labeled as such and ambiance, which is also labeled as not battle. :smallcool: Very smooth. Make a playlist! If you know there is going to be a decently long battle... plan out an hour or two of music and play it nice and soft in the background. You try it out and see what volume and type works best.
Ambiance. Get your players in the mood. More importantly... Get yourself prepared mentally and physically. I don't want to sound like a gym rat, but get plenty of sleep, eat a good breakfast... Be on the ball when they show up. Sure, we have rulebooks and what not... But when a player asks to tie a bell to a rope and shoot an arrow with said rope attached into an unintelligent zombie to track and possibly discover the Lich's lair... What page do you turn to? Anyway, lighting is pretty cool too. I find Christmas lights, icicle-lights, or rope lights make great ambient lighting for horror. Also candles... Though that rakes in the heat, plus it could get a bit dangerous. Not saying you're an idiot! It's just, a 40watt bulb gives off nearly 40 candle light power... You would roughly need 40 candles to give the same visible light as one 40watt bulb. I use them to supplement the scene while still giving a little bit of light. Like in the hallways, kitchen, bathrooms, etc. It's imperative that you don't break character or scene. If someone goes to get pizza or something, when they get back it might be difficult to get back to the game ya know?

Hmm I think I covered everything that I wanted to there :) Hope it helps!

(afterthought food might make things interesting...Spaghetti & meatballs, sausages, chili... Meatloaf or ribs... Those might be interesting for the times where you describe the fallen over body of the local aristocrat when his innards slide out)

@Delwugor~~~ I love it! I had everyone give me a page. Yes a page. Of likes, dislikes, fears, etc etc... Not so I can abuse them at every turn, but to incorporate them into the overall game mechanics. You open a door, there is a vampire biting someone. You kill it. Yay xp. Unacceptable! You open a door, the vampire is holding a young boy by the shirt, he tells you the child is dead unless you bring him two virgins to sacrifice their lives to serve him. The two sacrifices will not come to harm, merely serve him in his castle (whatever) and he will no longer attack the villagers. In this situation the vampire's father is a local lord who still loves his son and will do everything to save him. The pc's are now stuck in quite a quandary. Not only that... One of the players was the first love of the vampire! (if no female or oriented player fitting, then was his son? whatever example here!) Yes yes YES! The party kills a hag in the woods somewhere, she says something inaudible to the party cleric/healer who now is blind, and unable to cast cure spells... Slowly at first his powers are dwindling, healing 50% hit points, causing weakness when he casts spells on people, and eventually losing his powers completely. His holy symbol no longer glows in prayer. The paladin/church elder knows nothing of this condition. The cleric begins writing strange scrolls in an ancient Draconian script that cannot readily be identified. What is happening to me? Why? I may take a few sessions, but that hits home with people... Just make sure the person is a role-player or someone with imagination... Don't make the power gamer lose powers, they'll just flip the table and pout.

FoE
2009-09-29, 04:30 PM
I really should consider putting together a guide of some kind. This comes up every couple of months. :smallbiggrin:

Horror is hard to do in D&D, largely because characters face the stuff of horrors on a regular basis and kick its ass. But it's not impossible. Leon Kennedy beat the crap out of a lot of scary monsters in Resident Evil 4 and I was no less scared.

1) One of the elements of good horror is isolation. Look at Alien, Night of the Living Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead (OK, that's a comedy), The Thing, Resident Evil, etc. A lot of those movies involve isolation in one form or another.

Maybe your heroes are trapped in a particular location and can't escape. Maybe the monsters have found a way to strike at the heroes in such a manner that they can't get help, like in dreams. Or maybe the heroes are alone in a world full of monsters.

The point is, there's no help coming. You're on your own.

Here's a fun idea: what if the players went into a dungeon and the entrance collapsed behind them? What if they had no way out past the rocks? Suddenly, the search for treasure becomes a search for a way out. The stakes are raised.

2) Don't turn everything into a trap. At least, not right away. Some things have to be safe for the players, at least so that you can turn it around on them.

I remember one time my players encountered a room with nothing but several corpses in it. One of my players said they were obviously going to raise up as zombies the minute they searched them.

On the other hand, the same trick gets pulled in the video game Bioshock (dead bodies suddenly spring up and attack the player) and it was incredibly creepy. Why? Because you've spent the entire game rifling through the pockets of corpses without consequences. So when one jumps up at you, it's damn creepy.

3) Remember this old rule: nothing is scarier (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NothingIsScarier). Sometimes all you need to freak the players out is the suggestion that something is going to jump out and tear their heads off. D&D players in particular are paranoid this way: when they find a big spider web, they think they're going to fight a giant spider. So they get themselves worked up to fight a giant spider. But what if you screwed with their heads and had nothing attack them? This can actually be more effective than having a big ol' spider suddenly appear.

I remember one time my friend and I fought and killed some orcs. We left their bodies in a room and then came back to it later. The bodies were gone, the only trace of them a bloody smear indicating some beastie dragged them off. We just about pissed ourselves.

Another guy on this board once mentioned that the scariest adventure he had was the ghost town where they expected some zombies to attack them. But nothing jumped out to attack the party until nightfall. When the zombies actually showed up, it was almost a relief.

But take caution! This trope should be used only in small doses. You don't want adventures filled with the party wandering from empty room to empty room.

4) Change up your players' expectations with the creatures they face. A lot of D&D players know the MM inside and out, so they know what to expect when, say, facing off with vampires. Shake things up. (I think this is a suggestion in Heroes of Horror, too.)

5) Don't overdo it, by the gods! Horror requires a bit of a fine touch. Dead children can be unsettling. Zombie children can be scary. A zombie giant made of dead children is just cheesy, although it might be appropriate for splatterhouse horror.

Overall, though, it's easy to go overboard in horror. This was a pretty common complaint with Clive Barker's Jericho, where pretty every enemy is a hellish abomination that will tear you limb from limb, blah blah blah. "OMG, that monster's wearing human flesh like an overcoat. Just like the last dozen or so beasties we faced."

Hadrian_Emrys
2009-09-29, 04:42 PM
FlyingWhale brought up the single most important aspect of a fear based game, and I want to hammer it home. The single most primal, potent fear is that of the unknown. Every single time you are setting up a fear inducing event, keep in mind that the goal is to make the players ask a question in their minds that they cannot get the answer to until they put themselves through some level of blind risk.

Example:
A merchant with a fixed smile offers a passing party member something that they sorely need (or would just really like) if they will just sign on the dotted line of a covered scroll. You can make it a genuine offer in the end, with no downside whatsoever, or reveal it to be a magical contract that compels the character to enter a dangerous situation. Perhaps the trick is actually a test of faith and writing one's own name down saves one from an effect that could temporarily cripple the character in some way. Either way, the players will agonize over the choice, building tension over something that would have otherwise been a bland market scene in a typical game.

FlyingWhale
2009-09-29, 05:07 PM
...
1) One of the elements of good horror is isolation...
The point is, there's no help coming. You're on your own...

Always a good one. I played a cheesy version of Ravenloft, but my Radiant Servant of Heironeous fell through a trap. The trap? A room full of zombies. One quick turn check... and the splintering zombies exploded and dealt 1d6 each to him. Barely lived past that. I was afraid to touch a zombie after that! Worse yet? I spent an entire session alone trying to find my way back to the party! I fell through a pit that dropped seemingly forever... It was actually a slide that pushed me into an old crypt/dungeon. The party thought I fell to my doom. Jerks.

2) Don't turn everything into a trap. At least, not right away. Some things have to be safe for the players, at least so that you can turn it around on them...

Yes indeed. Things are always as they appear to be. Unless they aren't. Like the above! haha. There was a time I remember our paladin was forced with either killing an innocent child or the party would all be beheaded or what have you. It was a nightmare that we all participated in. After that ordeal we were in a theater, watching a play when they killed a bunch of people on stage during the show. It was real and when we found out during the show, we started fighting them off and the whole crowd and guards attacked us. Turns out they were all undead and hidden by magic. I played dumb and left so I could rescue the party from a jail cell later in the session. Unfortunately it was an illusion and I rescued 4 zombies who promptly tried to eat my brains.

3) Remember this old rule: nothing is scarier (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NothingIsScarier). Sometimes all you need to freak the players out is the suggestion that something is going to jump out and tear their heads off. D&D players in particular are paranoid this way: when they find a big spider web, they think they're going to fight a giant spider. So they get themselves worked up to fight a giant spider. But what if you screwed with their heads and had nothing attack them? This can actually be more effective than having a big ol' spider suddenly appear.

I remember one time my friend and I fought and killed some orcs. We left their bodies in a room and then came back to it later. The bodies were gone, the only trace of them a bloody smear indicating some beastie dragged them off. We just about pissed ourselves...

I engineered a dungeon crawl one time which had a series of cell, caverns, and hallways, all the typical 5' or 10'. Then they came into a hallway that was 20' wide with a 10' set of double doors. They never saw that Skeletal Black Dragon coming. I had described bones littering the hallway and scorch marks on the door. I tried but failed to make it clear something was in there not be messed with.

4) Change up your players' expectations with the creatures they face. A lot of D&D players know the MM inside and out, so they know what to expect when, say, facing off with vampires. Shake things up. (I think this is a suggestion in Heroes of Horror, too.)

Also really great! Those splintering zombies murdered my perception of the norm. It could be a bit tricky, I know I've ran into a lot of issues tweaking monsters in practice sessions... But that's why we DM/GMs need to beta our new ideas out. Some of us are prodigies or whatever but preparation is never a bad thing where I come from.

5) Don't overdo it, by the gods! Horror requires a bit of a fine touch. Dead children can be unsettling. Zombie children can be scary. A zombie giant made of dead children is just cheesy, although it might be appropriate for splatterhouse horror.

Overall, though, it's easy to go overboard in horror. This was a pretty common complaint with Clive Barker's Jericho, where pretty every enemy is a hellish abomination that will tear you limb from limb, blah blah blah. "OMG, that monster's wearing human flesh like an overcoat. Just like the last dozen or so beasties we faced."

As a closer to this, there is never a bad time to throw a grizzly bear in a 10x10 room. What was the bear doing in there? Why did it venture into the castle? Who cares, it gives people a chance to relax a little and maybe let their guards down... Enter a black pudding dripping from the next rooms' ceiling :)

FoE
2009-09-29, 05:12 PM
As a closer to this, there is never a bad time to throw a grizzly bear in a 10x10 room. What was the bear doing in there? Why did it venture into the castle? Who cares, it gives people a chance to relax a little and maybe let their guards down... Enter a black pudding dripping from the next rooms' ceiling :)

You ever see the bear chase from the game Condemned 2? Awesometastic.

"It's OK, it's OK, the bear can't come up stairs ... OMG, THE BEAR IS COMING UP THE STAIRS!"

Actually, I think the bear is a good example of another point I should have made: mundane evil.

6) Monsters can be scary, but at times, you should consider using non-powered humans and humanoids as your villains. Sometimes, those can be the most unsettling monsters, because they speak to everyday evil.

The X-Files, Supernatural and Torchwood have all had episodes dedicated to "human monsters" — cannibals living out in the woods, traumatized children driven to murder and religious fanatics. The 456 in the TV special Children of Earth were scary, but the conversation where world leaders debate who to sacrifice to the 456 is terrifying, because you could actually imagine that taking place in some backroom at some world capital.

An isolated village trying to capture the party could turn out to have a pact with some ferocious beast in exchange for their protection. An innkeeper whose patrons are being kidnapped by a local necromancer could be in it for the money. A series of killings could appear to be commited by a monster but are actually the work of a madman or a local cult.

Or just look to our own natural world for what's scary. What if the party was attacked not by hellhounds but rabid dogs?

FlyingWhale
2009-09-29, 05:45 PM
FlyingWhale brought up the single most important aspect of a fear based game, and I want to hammer it home. The single most primal, potent fear is that of the unknown. Every single time you are setting up a fear inducing event, keep in mind that the goal is to make the players ask a question in their minds that they cannot get the answer to until they put themselves through some level of blind risk.

Example:
A merchant with a fixed smile offers a passing party member something that they sorely need (or would just really like) if they will just sign on the dotted line of a covered scroll. You can make it a genuine offer in the end, with no downside whatsoever, or reveal it to be a magical contract that compels the character to enter a dangerous situation. Perhaps the trick is actually a test of faith and writing one's own name down saves one from an effect that could temporarily cripple the character in some way. Either way, the players will agonize over the choice, building tension over something that would have otherwise been a bland market scene in a typical game.


Yesh! Yesh! Although I have to give a word of caution... Once more, not trying to say you are inept... BUT... I once gave this riddle to a Divination spell... The party is in a labyrinth... They cannot find the way out... The door leading into it, from a Medusa's lair, was blocked off by a huge stone altar. The Elf in the party didn't show up for the game and the Dwarf had to leave and everyone agreed to leave them in the lair as backup... Well, aside from that we spent the entire session in there. Anyway the door was at the opposite end and here is what the riddle was. "The door you seek, it's path is near, now close your eyes and heed your hair" The door lead to a cliff side and the opening from the door let in little rushes of air. They just had to walk to the wall and their hair would blow around. They ignored it as a fluke the first 2 times!!! GAH! hehe. Don't put players in a box unless you KNOW they can think outside of that box.

Um, I forgot what I was gonna say about that... BUT! A little bit of railroading is sometimes cool. I had a few other ideas... Lemme grab some dinner... Be back!!!

FlyingWhale
2009-09-29, 06:12 PM
6) ...The X-Files, Supernatural and Torchwood have all had episodes dedicated to "human monsters" — cannibals living out in the woods, traumatized children driven to murder and religious fanatics. The 456 in the TV special Children of Earth were scary, but the conversation where world leaders debate who to sacrifice to the 456 is terrifying, because you could actually imagine that taking place in some backroom at some world capital.

An isolated village trying to capture the party could turn out to have a pact with some ferocious beast in exchange for their protection. An innkeeper whose patrons are being kidnapped by a local necromancer could be in it for the money. A series of killings could appear to be committed by a monster but are actually the work of a madman or a local cult...


I was thinking that too! I really need to eat! GRR haha but it can't wait! So, the party comes into this village on their way to ... Townsington Villageburg. On their arrival they are attacked(NOT KILLED) by guards, villagers... Whatever. So, cue the party in an already odd situation. The locals identify you as adventurers and do not wish you further harm, but offer you the nights stay or, until your wounds are healed and you are rested as forgiveness for their attack. While in the village no one speaks to the party, if asked questions they lie and try to get away from the party and wont talk to anyone. At this point of course the party is unsure of themselves and the town in general... What is going on here?

Update. It wasn't noticed at first, but the entire town, there is no wildlife around the immediate area. For that matter, where are the fires? the smell of bread baking, stew stewing? The people themselves have sickly, greyish, and green skin. Something isn't right. The local church has marking and symbols that are unfamiliar to the party (DC28 religion-Flayed Men=a cult that believes eating the flesh of your enemies will protect you against them.Often the church demands the souls of their worshipers for promise of protection. DC30 religion-Especially true of undead, aberrations, demons, outsiders etc. DC35 religion/arcana- the result of consuming all this flesh often leads to mutations into the people which are often turned into monsters and used to fight in armies in some of the darkest corners of the world. With the souls of the victims they often power great armies in the Abyss.) When questioned the church denies anyone the knowledge of their gods and wish to be left alone and the party to leave at daybreak and nothing more.

After staying the night, or eating any food given by the innkeeper, the party members all feel rather pacified and are willing to leave and never look back. Perhaps they even lose memory of being there? At any rate, the cleric or healer is first to be effected. Their divine connection to the gods or magic slowly deteriorates. It starts rather odd, like they don't feel the normal flow of energy, they wake up later, sleepy, hard to pay attention. At first no mechanical effect, then the numbers start dropping. Eventually this malady truly starts to hurt the party as a whole, as everyone to cleric administers to begins to be show signs of the illness. If any divination is used, they see visions of the town being overran with horrible abominations, and a cult comes in promising to free them and protect them in exchange for their devotion. This is where they see the people preparing flesh from the creatures and the change take place. The head priest was locked in a crypt outside of town and he knows how to save the people and reverse the disease. Maybe. So imagine that? The only thing that can protect the party suddenly is everything that is hurting them! In addition, the cleric isn't likely to enjoy this... Give them the rage feature a few times a day that during combat they just blow up. Natural weapons like claws, or suddenly their muscles bulge out and they get +4 STR or whatever. So they aren't totally useless. Anyway, make them retrieve intangible things, like, the breath of a vampire, the heart of a ghost, and the light of the sun. They find a vampire that has been known to hide out in a nearby manor, he has an amulet of water breathing around his neck. A ghost that haunts the town has it's body buried just inside the graveyard and they need his heart. The heart fits in the amulet and they need to hold it in the church where the sun shines in at daybreak by the next full moon or the disease is forever bestowed. Just an idea sorry if I went wayyy off...

Anyway these are people that are preying off of innocent, ignorant people. And somewhat believable! For one day before, and after the full moon the people of the town, or all afflicted by this curse go into a deep mental slumber where they follow all commands of the cult. If the party tries drive off the cult, the townspeople fight them off. The cult has brainwashed them into believing all outsiders want to kill them as the monsters in the past have done.

Delwugor
2009-09-29, 09:06 PM
These posts is giving me an idea to throw in some periods where the characters are not facing horror situations. Maybe some basic and easy kill the monsters and take their stuff or even some light hearted play sessions.

An then as soon as they relax and let down their guard hit them with unexpected horror that sends them down the rollercoaster of fear. Ohh that is so evil ... I can't wait to pull it on them. :biggrin:

FlyingWhale
2009-09-29, 09:31 PM
These posts is giving me an idea to throw in some periods where the characters are not facing horror situations. Maybe some basic and easy kill the monsters and take their stuff or even some light hearted play sessions.

An then as soon as they relax and let down their guard hit them with unexpected horror that sends them down the rollercoaster of fear. Ohh that is so evil ... I can't wait to pull it on them. :biggrin:

I always wondered... What do adventurers do on their birthdays? Throw one of them a birthday!... Have the party give him a little party!!!......Then when he makes a wish.... find some way to corrupt it to the very essence of his ideas... muahahaha!!! I can see it now...The fighter...

"I wish for...The strength of a thousand men!" BAM... Suddenly he finds himself the proud owner of a strange ring he found in his (birthday cake?). Everyone denies giving it to him, they all eventually decide no one has to take claim of the wonderful ring. He wears it, and next thing he knows, someone claims he is the heir of Boron Thraustes's and demands his head! or I dunno, some wraith or some other sort of baddie seeks him out and tells him he is the proud owner of a small army of soul-less warriors damned to the abyss... anyway yeah, now he has the strength of a thousand men... Not quite horror but i dont know I'm rambling.

Delwugor
2009-09-29, 09:52 PM
Have you eaten yet?

Yeah unexpected suprises always adds an element of uncertainty and excitement to any campaign. Did I ever tell you the story of when GMing a AD&D campaign ... :smallbiggrin:

FlyingWhale
2009-09-29, 10:00 PM
Have you eaten yet?

Yeah unexpected suprises always adds an element of uncertainty and excitement to any campaign. Did I ever tell you the story of when GMing a AD&D campaign ... :smallbiggrin:

LOL I did eventually eat... Even if it was 4 chicken wings, 3 sticks of celery, and 2 onion rings... I'm on a diet... A very lonely diet... heh.

I never did get a chance to play or even see an AD&D game before... Though I have read a bunch of them... I wish there were people in my area who would play games like that... It just seems that... There are so many options... Games lasted for years and... I'm ashamed to call myself a DM/GM... Then again... Horror games have seemed to be the least lasting games I've encountered too... All the more reason why you folks need every step above the crowd!!!

Delwugor
2009-09-29, 10:56 PM
I had some unusual Chicken Kiev like concoction that was very tasty if small, a big baked potato and green beans (I love grean beans). And since I have the day off tomorrow I'm following it up with several Modelo Especials.

The biggest difference (IMO) in GMing AD&D (or any of the older D&D systems) was that there was much more empahsis playing the characters instead of playing the class abilities. You didn't go for balance so much as accounting for different playing styles and skills. It is where I developed my GMing style of semi-heroic/semi-sandbox campaigns wher ethe players encountered strange and unusual things/circumstances.

Now of course for this horror campaign I'm trying doing a more plot driven campaign where the characters will *maybe* end up the heroes that save Oerth from the most horrific things imaginable.

But let me tell you that I'm very nervous about running it. I'm used to setting a gaming mood of fun, excitement and doing unusual and cool things. But I'm not used to setting a mood of despair, hopelessness and fear while still keeping the players excited and letting them have fun. Balancing that out could be my downfall... oh well I can still play afterwards. :smallamused:

Adamaro
2009-09-30, 01:52 AM
Thanks for all the input

I also find attrition to work (cold dmg - party actually did not have enough protection from elements for everyone) and fog. Fog ROX.

I am actually getting lots of inspiration from game Sanitarium. Fits perfectly with my concepts.

Myrmex
2009-09-30, 02:13 AM
I find a little gore can go a long way. Grizzly ghoul pits can be really creepy. Remember, there are entire realities that look like Hieronymus Bosch paintings. PCs can know things are heating up they enter a chamber where the walls weep blood, in an otherwise mundane campaign.

Other things that are scary: the unknown. One of my best moments involved a deep, deep pit that no one could see the bottom of, save the party rogue who could see as far as he wanted in darkness (but still too far down to make out anything other than a floor littered with corpses), so the mage dropped a rock with light down it.

Since they were so far up, all they could see was a hunched, naked, figure move to the light, then the light went out. That spooked the mage, since he depended a lot on his spells. Then when the rogue saw a swarm of bestial, naked, creatures silently crawling up out of the pit with inhuman speed, maws agape, their eyes gleaming, they gtfo very fast.

Description goes a long way. Describe not just appearance, but how things move or glisten, what they smell like, how they sound, how the hair on the back of your neck rises. The strange sub-audial crack-pop noise of an outsider teleporting, the caustic, burning smell of a fiend. The way reality is flayed when a pseudo-natural creature is summoned, how the tentacled, miasmic horror wriggles through the seam torn between world, writhing and hungry.

Establish a weakness of a certain kind of enemy that the PCs can exploit (zombies can't open doors, vampires can't cross running water, golems are stupid, etc.), then after a couple months, have the zombies open doors, the vampire walk across the water without hesitation, the golems plan a trap. It will freak the party out, A LOT.