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Drenn
2010-10-18, 05:32 PM
Halloween is on its way, and myself and my co-DM thought it might be fun to run a special, Halloween session on top of our usual game. We currently have ten players in the party (hence the need for a co-DM) ranging from levels 5 to 7, so that alone makes planning things interesting.

Currently, the party's traveling through a poverty stricken, mostly desert country. Our plan as of now is to have the necromancer-wizard the party attacked and chased off a few session later come back for revenge. Here's the catch: due to various reasons, most of them involving devils (who may or may not assist him in this endeavor) he's not allowed to kill the party, but no one ever said anything about psychological torture. Well then.

I'm looking for both in game ideas (ie. the characters hear screams in the distance) and out of game ideas (ie. dim the lights and use candles).

This is a fourth edition D&D game, btw with some distinctly steampunk flavoring.

Any thoughts?

WitchSlayer
2010-10-18, 05:47 PM
Tell them you want to try this new game you found called "FATAL"

PopcornMage
2010-10-18, 05:57 PM
Any thoughts?

Well, besides the suggestion above, though I was going to pick another one, desert horror could involve Scorpions and Spiders. Props should be generally available.

Jastermereel
2010-10-18, 07:46 PM
You want to scare them? Nine little words:
"So I thought we'd try Tomb of Horrors tonight..."

flabort
2010-10-18, 08:43 PM
While undead seem to be stock in a horror campaign, Necrocarnum and other almost-but-not-quite undead seem to scare the c*** out of players more than describing a rotting corpse moaning and shuffling towards them.
Now, if you describe a person's skeleton bulging through their skin, and actually breaking through in places, in the middle of a perfectly normal conversation...

Crafty Cultist
2010-10-18, 08:56 PM
Players tend to be more scared of things they don't know. if they're attacked by a vampire they know what its capable of, but if you use some homebrewed beasties you can keep them guessing.

Skorj
2010-10-18, 09:17 PM
Players tend to be more scared of things they don't know. if they're attacked by a vampire they know what its capable of, but if you use some homebrewed beasties you can keep them guessing.

If it has stats, the players won't be scared of it (this a a corrolary to: if it has stats, the PCs can kill it). Homebrewed for sure. The best ideas I've seen for scaring players are:

Start with some forshadowing, some evidence that groups stronger than the party have been killed in this place at this time of year in the past, and that whatever rare events bring forth the terrors are here now.
Make it look like an Impossible Boss Fight, potentially with multiple opponents: the PCs' attacks do no damage or make the monsters stronger, and they slap the PCs around pretty good (actually knocking PCs across the room with a blow is always good). The party should get the hint and run for it.
Then have the bad guys catch the running party. This can start to get scary, as it's diverting from the normal tropes into the unexpected. Let the party do something clever to get away.
Then, once the party has gathered at a safe distance, have the monsters catch them again, shocking them out of their safe place. Coming in through the walls is always good. If the party is in an inn or populated area at this point, have a couple of your homebrewed terrors killing everything around the party.
This pattern works well if you set the mood OOC. Make it clear that this isn't just "rocks fall, everyone dies", but a normal encounter, then just keep escalating the danger level in ways you ususally wouldn't in your campaign. Works best of course if you start in the evening (IC and OOC) so that it's late night when the real fun starts. The key is to start by making them uneasy, then letting them think they've succeeded in the encounter, then go crazy once they relax.

HunterOfJello
2010-10-18, 09:20 PM
I used a timed riddle that the PCs only had 1 minute to answer in my last game. I pulled out a watch right after i finished saying the riddle and it seemed to freak them out quite a bit. (I know this isn't exactly spooky scary, but it could be nice to add in.)

Logalmier
2010-10-18, 09:21 PM
Check TVtropes for examples of scary drama. The Apocalyptic Log is a particularly nice tool to use in my opinion. Have the PCs find a blood-spattered journal that's filled with increasingly cryptic and panicked entries that eventually break off suddenly. Bonus points if you actually make the journal.

Drenn
2010-10-18, 10:47 PM
Definitely liking the idea of something that has to fit within a time limit (with ten players it takes forever for them to sort themselves out most of the time, so it'll be killing two birds with one stone) and constantly ambushing them.

I may throw something medium to small at them at the start, and then at the next encounter, when the "real" monsters get there, let them see me close the monster manual, set it aside, and then tell them to roll initiative.

Cryptic props are always a lot of fun. I've used several before, and the party typically invents way scary reasons for it than I even dreamed of to begin with, so it might be fun to let their imaginations work against them, especially my more meta-gaming prone players.

It's a good thing Halloween only comes once or year, or I might have power-trip issues. =)

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I think this will work really well. (Though if anyone has any more ideas, I'd love to hear them.)

BG
2010-10-19, 01:32 AM
Another key thing with horror is to keep them in suspense for as long as possible. Avoid having them fight something for as long as you can, because once a fight starts, any tension is usually broken as old player habits of trying to figure out how many hit points it has, what its AC is, etc., kick in. Also, don't use a standard monster, chances are you'll have players who know the MM backwards and forwards and will be able to know how to beat it. If you do use a standard monster, modify it in some way to flummox the players.

Take hints from horror movies, many of which correspond to keeping suspense. Go for the slow build. Give them one safe haven, then slowly take it away from them. Also, if you're using monster, I find that it's scarier if monsters have rules, because the players know the rules will be broken. For instance, have a monster that won't come within the light radius of a special candle. Then do everything in your power to get the players out of that radius (make them split up, have the candle run out, or be blown out, your call).

Finally, description is your friend. If you told your players about a small, wiry creature with a pushed in nose slowly crawling over a stone on its way for them, its eyes never blinking, that's a lot creepier than saying, "there's a goblin coming towards you." Keep their minds off of stats as much as possible, because things will lose their power once the players can put numbers to it.

This was very rambly, but it's late here. Good luck.

Amiel
2010-10-19, 01:39 AM
Ambiance will definitely help with the mood of the game. You could try searching for especially creepy noises; the creaking of floorboards, the scrapping of wooden walls by tree limbs, screams in the distance, groans and moans of distant threats et al.

Describe localities in only vague detail, with some emphasis toward the disturbing. Draw out the creepiness within a particular locality, and have the players scare themselves through their own imagination.

Morph Bark
2010-10-19, 05:28 AM
Personally I am building up a slightly Nightmare Before Christmas-flavoured small adventure to put my players through on the 30th, so not as much that it will be about the scare, but moreso about the atmosphere of the game.

Of course, this does not mean I have to exclude things that may scare my players, but since my two oldest players are hard to scare and I don't know the new ones very well, it will likely mostly come down to freakish traps, unseen monsters and slowly whittling away some of their ability scores - perhaps using Taint rules from Unearthed Arcana or Heroes of Horror.

Or use the Broodmother from Dragon Age as a boss.

ShriekingDrake
2010-10-19, 07:40 AM
I'd also consider:

--having them face creatures they're confident they can handle which are actually much more powerful than the usual form.
--having ordinary objects, such as door knobs, bite, grab, and trip the characters.
--having one character or half the party disappear
--having your sound system remote ready to play a LOUD scary noise every time the party gets surprised by something (this way both players and party get surprised)
--having any members of the party who are killed, rise and begin attacking the party

dsmiles
2010-10-19, 07:44 AM
You want to scare them? Nine little words:
"So I thought we'd try Tomb of Horrors tonight..."

Alternatively, run them through ToH without telling them it's ToH. :smalleek:

Amphetryon
2010-10-19, 07:47 AM
Horror gaming is primarily about atmosphere and pacing. Small details that are slightly off, showing up with gradually more frequency, is scarier than 'ZOMG it's teh zombeh R-mees!' Horror creeps over you slowly; a frenetic pace works against this effect. Keep the pacing slower until the players are really immersed and - probably - in a pickle, at which point you can turn up the intensity by increasing the tempo of the action.

Amoren
2010-10-19, 07:56 AM
You want to scare them? Nine little words:
"So I thought we'd try Tomb of Horrors tonight..."

In a similar vein, have them be dragged off to Ravenloft! Always helps to be scary when you're in a gothic horror genre.

Anyway, one idea I thought might be helpful is the series of necromancy spells from Libris Mortis I believe, the necromatic cyst spells. The first one is relatively minor, just causing a cyst of undead flesh to grow inside their bodies and reduce their saving throws against necromatic spells, the later ones get nasty... Ranging from causing the cyst to grow into their brains and take them over, to causing them to explode with an undead made from their entrails crawling about.

The necromancer probably couldn't use it against the party, but if you make their trusted friend/ally suddenly go berserk (growing the cyst into his brain), then after they kill him his body starts to twitch and spasm, until it explodes in gore and a monstrous thing made of his intestines and innards starts to try to eat them? I imagine that's got to range somewhere on the horror or what-the-f scale.

kestrel404
2010-10-19, 09:40 AM
A small (less than 100 people) village has gone silent. For the past few days, any traveller who goes there does not return and the locals have come to beg the PC's aid. A small boy has followed some of the brave fools who went into the village and the few who HAVE ventured out towards this village were heard screaming in terror shortly after they crested the low rise that surrounds it, followed by begging for their lives, and then finally making truly horrifying, inhuman noises that permeated the land for miles. The boy is too terrified to tell this to adults, unless the PCs have a means of coaxing him - the locals only know that he won't speak to anyone. The only other thing anyone knows is a local ranger who probably won't mention anything unless asked. But he knows that the village has attracted a swarm of vultures, dozens of coyotes, and numerous other carrion eaters.

When the PCs go to investigate, they will find a village that appears deserted from the top of the rise, but smells like a charnal house on a hot summers day. Once they travel to the bottom of the low hills surrounding the village however, they will be attacked by a small group of very odd skeletons. Try to get the encounter to be at nigth - it will be spookier that way, but having these horrors walk around in the daylight may be just as effective. Each skeleton is covered in bits of dried or drying meat that looks more like recently made jerky than decaying flesh. But worse, each skeleton is clothed in the ghostly flesh of a person - obviously not real skin, but real enough that each one is recognizable as an individual. And each of those individuals is screaming in pain, babbling about 'save me' or 'kill me' or 'my baby, not my baby!'

The skeletons also each have strange special powers, like one is flying, another one has an electric touch attack and a third with a cloak of flame that causes attackers to take damage, etc. All of them are harder to hit due to their strange ghost-flesh (15%+ miss chance). Any incarnum wielder in your group should be able to recognize these abilities immediately (possibly with a low DC knowledge check if he's not an incarnate).



What's really happening:
So, the necromancer has been given a new spell - it's a save-or-die spell based off of animate dead. The general idea is that inside every living being is a perfectly viable skeleton waiting to be animated - all you have to do is ignore the flesh. You cast this spell on a living creature, and that creature's skeleton begins ripping the annoyingly clingy flesh from its bones until it is stripped (somewhat) clean and ready to serve. This, of course, tends to leave behind piles of fresh meat wherever the target had been standing. Oh yes, and the target is perfectly aware while their own skeleton forces them to rip the flesh from their own bones - hence the screaming.

What's worse is that the necromantic magic animating the skeletons has ALSO trapped the spirits of the dead, binding them to their own animated corpses! Because of this, each of the skeletons gets levels in the Incarnate class instead of undead HD! Treat their constitution score as 11+HD (since otherwise they coudn't shape soulmelds). Animals and Monstrous Humanoids who get hit by this spell instead get levels of Totemist. The ghosts themselves are the source of the incarnum being used by the skeletons, and as such they are in constant, excrutiating pain. Otherwise, they are effectively Ghosts with no ghost powers and permanently manifested into their old bodies. Killing the skeleton will allow the ghost the escape - possibly freeing it back to the ethereal, possibly allowing it to move on to the afterlife. But the area will almost certainly be haunted for ages to come because of this! If the PCs kill the GHOSTS before killing the skeleton, it would unshape all of the skeleton's soulmelds.

The only limitation on the skeleton's meldshaping ability is that their Soul chakra must be taken up by the ghost, which acts exactly like a Fellmist Robe - that's where the miss chance comes from. The only difference being that the ghost cannot be dispersed by wind effects, but can be seperately targetted and killed (or killed in AOE spells, but don't forget the 50% miss chance for incorporeal creatures).

What happens after the first encounter is up to you. Perhaps the Necromancer is still there, using his spell on anyone who enters his domain - using the spell on a PC could be a REAL shocker to them. It's NOT an instantaneous save-or-die (fortitude save, by the way, as your basically fighting your own skeleton - you determine the spell level but it should be at least 4). It lasts CL rounds and does 1d6 + TARGET'S strength bonus in damage each round, but if the target doesn't die before the spell ends, the skeletal animation fails and the target survives. This spell is extremely lethal to commoners, but a hero with HD roughly equal to the CL of the spell should be able to survive (if just barely). However, watching one of your fellow adventurers begin to tear their own flesh off their body ought to be horrifying in and of itself. I suppose that someone could jump on the target or otherwise immobilise them to prevent them from dealing damage to themselves for a round - call it an opposed grapple check? Some immobilisation spells would ALSO work, but Hold Person would not (you'd stop the Person, but his Skeleton would keep going). Same for any compulsion spell they tried for the same reason. The exception being Control Undead - that could be used to counter the animate spell.

Of course, the necromancer may have already moved on and just left behind a 'surprise' for the next person to come through. Whatever. The primary shocker will be in the PCs discovering exactly what it is that the spell does - either by interrogating the ghosts or by the necromancer monologuing at them.

Hope that helps!

Drenn
2010-10-19, 01:49 PM
Wow.... *GRIN*

I think this is going to go really, really well.

Thanks so much everyone!

Tokuhara
2010-10-19, 04:29 PM
I almost suggest, if you want a "traditional movie monster," a Feral Yeti (SS and FB) would be absolutely terrifying, if done right.

Here's how I'd set it up:

Legends in these parts tell of the Wendigo, a beast of immeasurable strength and ferocity that is said to live in the forests north of [insert major village here]. The legends state that the Wendigo is a beast of great size, standing far taller than an ogre, stronger than 100 men, and able to disappear without a trace. The beast tends to prey on widows and stray children who enter the forests, though more reports arise of soldiers and even mages being felled by the beast. They say blades have snapped over the creature's flesh and spells have bounced off the creature's fur. Legends claim only a dagger made from the purest silver, coated in the blood of a noble hero, and blessed by a priest of [insert obscure god here], stabbed straight to the beast's heart can slay it (this could be in a book found by the PCs)

You find yourselves near the village of [insert name here]. The wind is deeply cold and biting. Fresh snow has fallen and the winds are howling like a thousand wolves. The village seems deserted, save for one small boy, who wanders the streets aimlessly, searching for his mother. The boy yells to you, "Please help me find my mother... Please...Something dragged mama into the woods and I fear she may have been taken by "The Creature." Please help me find Mama..."

After a few miles into the forest, the sounds of what may be a woman begging for her life can be heard in the distance. The boy runs towards the noise, yelling "Mama! Mama!" As you chase the boy, you hear a snapping sound to the right. As you approach towards the sound, you see a younger woman's body, the chest torn open and her entrails thrown asunder. Around the tree, there is no tracks or signs of who or what carried the body up said tree. The tree almost seems as if whatever hung her body from the tree flew up the side.

Suddenly, you hear a loud wail: a cross between a howler monkey and a woman shrieking. A large white beast charges from the bushes, its fur the color of fresh powder, the hands and mouth stained with fresh blood. Its teeth glisten with fresh saliva, its hot breath trailing behind it. As it runs on all fours, no tracks can be seen, as if the beast is not real. Its eyes are bloodshot with a blood frenzy, its snarling wail shaking you and your comrades to the bone [Will Save or be panicked]. It continues to charge, its full-body stride elongating, its eyes revealing a single, solitary thought: Hunger. Pure animalistic gluttonous hunger.

Fight: The PCs, with all of their blows, seem to do no visible damage. When the HP would drop, it vanishes into thin air, leaving a really weird taste in your player's mouths, or if the PCs decide to run, have it be a chase-battle, where the PCs run, almost get away, and the Wendigo catches up to them 2-3 times.

Later, the boy, his shirt torn apart and his toy sword shattered limps out of the forest. He is crying as he sees the corpse of the woman. He kneels beside her. "Mama!! Mama!!!" Only his cries can be heard echoing throughout the forest. Even the ravens caw no more. The boy soon passes out, exhausted from his grievous injury.

Hours later, the boy awakens, picking up a [random weapon loot the players have] and run off into the woods.

The players chase after him, only to encounter the Wendigo a second time. This time, it has 2-3 lesser Wendigoes (say the actual template on humans) fighting alongside it. Make sure the PCs don't know what they actually are. The PCs should barely survive the fight, killing the Lesser Wendigoes, who revert to the mutilated corpses of the woman, a man, and an elf. On a knowledge: local check, these are the bodies of the mayor (elf) and the boy's parents.

The PCs venture further until they find a small clearing, hung from the trees are the corpses of the villagers, almost like a slaughterhouse, as if the wendigo is saving their meat for later. As the PCs approach a predetermined point, several of the corpses spring to life, becoming lesser wendigoes. After a brutal fight, the Wendigo (as in the Feral Yeti) makes itself aware and ambushes the party. On the corpse of one Lesser Wendigo is a silver dagger with a vial of red liquid and on the edge is an engraved blessing of a priest of [insert god's name here].

As the PCs get the Wendigo's health about half, it suddenly speaks, its voice the boy's, begging the PCs not to kill him. Claiming that the hunger made him do it. Just as the considers this option, it speaks again, in a far deeper and more evil voice about how much he wants to know what [insert one PC's race]-flesh tastes like. Force the PCs to choose whether or not to kill him. If the PCs kill him, they would be found, standing over the corpse of a child by a woman, who would run off and nearby town would call them murderers. However, if the PCs don't, he will move on to the next village and wipe them out as well.

[Edit:] How to make the monster do what you want:

Make it have some insane DR/Special Dagger, Give it Trackless Step, give it a bite attack and two claw attacks, a 1/encounter vanish ability, almost like a teleport/invisibility so it can escape, and some insane seemingly non-threatening abilities that turn out to be its assets, like an unrealistic speed, ect.

As for external, quiet, creepy sounds should be playing in the background, the room lit only by candlelight. Whenever the Wendigo/Wendigoes appear, play a wolf howling to make the players jump clean out of their skin. Have the candles in the room mysteriously go out at random intervals, and even leave the room for a "bathroom break," only to play the wolf's howl and listen with glee as the players become more and more nervous.

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii91/YukaDragoness/AWendigo1.jpg
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii91/YukaDragoness/AWendigo2.jpg
http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc128/reapingshadow/beastiary/wendigo.jpg
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p144/AfterRagnarok/Referance/wendigo2.jpg

Hope it Helps

Wings of Peace
2010-10-19, 04:59 PM
Ambiance is the biggest factor I've found with my players.

If I'm running a scary campaign I'll black out all the windows and get some bright candles. They don't have to be Halloweeny candles or anything special but have enough of them that light won't be an issue.

Also, be serious for the whole session. I don't know what you normally DM like, but we're normally very light hearted in my group. If as each player arrives you're dead serious though then you're setting the mood that they'll enter the adventure with.

I wouldn't go crazy with props for ambient noise. If you have reasonable vocal pitch I'd grow slightly quieter as you lead into something dramatic happening and then slap the table or just do something loud.

The hard part with scary campaigns is you need to keep things dark but prevent them from getting monotonously so. After awhile you can only hear so much about the looming darkness before you're tired.

Callista
2010-10-19, 05:06 PM
Desert?

Mummies.

That is all.

Drenn
2010-10-19, 06:51 PM
Ambiance is the biggest factor I've found with my players.

If I'm running a scary campaign I'll black out all the windows and get some bright candles. They don't have to be Halloweeny candles or anything special but have enough of them that light won't be an issue.

Also, be serious for the whole session. I don't know what you normally DM like, but we're normally very light hearted in my group. If as each player arrives you're dead serious though then you're setting the mood that they'll enter the adventure with.

I wouldn't go crazy with props for ambient noise. If you have reasonable vocal pitch I'd grow slightly quieter as you lead into something dramatic happening and then slap the table or just do something loud.

The hard part with scary campaigns is you need to keep things dark but prevent them from getting monotonously so. After awhile you can only hear so much about the looming darkness before you're tired.

I like this because it's the Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) principle at work. Easier to do, and probably more effective.

dsmiles
2010-10-19, 06:52 PM
Desert?

Mummies.

That is all.

Mummies for dessert? Ew. :smalltongue:

Logalmier
2010-10-19, 07:17 PM
Mummies for dessert? Ew. :smalltongue:

Mmmmm.... mummies....

Hyudra
2010-10-19, 07:20 PM
Players tend to be more scared of things they don't know. if they're attacked by a vampire they know what its capable of, but if you use some homebrewed beasties you can keep them guessing.

This.

My own experience running such a game:One of my best games (which had my players telling me months later that they'd been unnerved) involved a dungeon filled with unidentifiable threats. A gang of what look like patchwork dwarves (made up of different body parts, patches of cloth stitched over skin, etc), crawling around a lightless mine, gibbering and engaging in violence against each other as much as the PCs. The patchwork dwarves were accompanied by the occasional patchwork dwarf with tentacles wreathing it's head and the mottled lower body of a caterpillar. When the spellthief chased one of the caterpillar dwarves into a hole in the wall, he wound up cornered in a tight space & had to make no less than six saves vs. paralysis (successful) before managing to get out of there. I think at that point, the party realized it was serious business.

Add in the complications of the mine being flooded by a rival adventuring group (with the PCs starting to run out of breath before they were even halfway out, and one previously-easily-circumvented pit trap becoming an effective whirlpool trap that took out one member of the group) and the knowledge that the end-of-dungeon-boss aboleth (described by what little they could see by torchlight, never named as what it was) was chasing through the flooded tunnels after them, they (or at least, those who got back to me) were pretty affected by the experience.

In truth, the dwarves were using mongrelfolk statistics & class levels, while the tentacle dwarves were carrion crawlers with advanced HD and an aesthetic overhaul (including gibbering, singsong prophecies, and being freaky looking).

Zhalath
2010-10-19, 07:31 PM
My experience with running horror is that it's best to keep the players on their toes. Give them little information, imply things, mean other things, and sometimes just have things be there out of nowhere. The less stable of ground the PCs stand on, the easier it is to shock them suddenly.

Homebrew rules are best here. Be ready to make stuff up for sudden events.

blackjack217
2010-10-19, 07:38 PM
mutant troll that can only be killed with sonic

Chrono22
2010-10-19, 07:52 PM
Use a wendigo.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50136.jpg

Adapt it to 4e's rules and replace the arctic theme with a desert one.

BG
2010-10-20, 12:33 AM
Oh, I'd also forgotten a system that I'd used once for a horror game that worked really well: Jenga.

If you don't have Jenga, it's worth getting for this.

Basically, the way it works is that over the course of the game, instead of rolling a die for a skill check, they have to play Jenga, pulling one block out and putting it on top (possibly more than one if it's a difficult or prolonged skill check). Make sure they know that if they knock the tower down, something bad will happen.

This kind of system works off simplicity. As the game goes on, the players will be more and more tense the more blocks they have to remove, as the tower gets shakier and shakier. That way you can have two different sources of tension, whatever horror stuff you've come up with and the physical tension of having to carefully remove and balance blocks.

Then all you need to do is come up with a list of bad things that can happen. It can be as simple as failing the skill check and taking some damage. It can be as complicated as an ancient mummy suddenly awakening from millenia of slumber. If you really want to make your players nervous, have the bad thing be something that isn't immediately obvious (like the mummy example). When the tower falls, just make some quick notes and shake your head solemnly.

Lev
2010-10-20, 12:51 AM
Some tips for running your DnD campaign in a way that starts freaking out the players:

When something isn't scary, make it scary.

When something is supposed to be scary, make it eerily quiet and non-action.

Take away your players sense of security and certainty, keep them in the dark (literally or nonliterally), have people start brutally dying around them or disappearing mysteriously to spook em, then draw out the tension by not providing solutions for them to solve.

Another good way to take away that sense is to screw with perception, either with illusions, psychics or chemicals.

Don't get them to charge in, if your players have that mentality give them redshirts as a warning shot, charging it could be the worst mistake they could make and get that across to them, that way they are retreating a lot and their courage starts to fade.

If you expect them to "lose" then have it an escape mission, if you expect them to "win" have it a "last survivors barely pulling it off" scene where they have to slam a rock against the monsters face repeatedly to kill it once it's already down.

A good example of a horror adventure is Frozen Whispers in the WotC 3.5 archive of free adventures.

dsmiles
2010-10-20, 06:23 AM
Take away your players sense of security and certainty, keep them in the dark (literally or nonliterally), have people start brutally dying around them or disappearing mysteriously to spook em, then draw out the tension by not providing solutions for them to solve.

This works. I ran 'Expedition to the Barrier Peaks' (revamped for 3.5, of course), substituted Aliens for all of the robots, and gave everything that Giger-esque feel. Kept them literally in the dark (played by candlelight & their characters were in the dark). Had Aliens coming at them fast and hard, out of the darkness (and yes, they did try to magic missle the darkness). For a while, they believed that it was someone in the party that was killing them off, until that person bit it.

Lev
2010-10-20, 06:47 AM
This works. I ran 'Expedition to the Barrier Peaks' (revamped for 3.5, of course), substituted Aliens for all of the robots, and gave everything that Giger-esque feel. Kept them literally in the dark (played by candlelight & their characters were in the dark). Had Aliens coming at them fast and hard, out of the darkness (and yes, they did try to magic missle the darkness). For a while, they believed that it was someone in the party that was killing them off, until that person bit it.

Controlling the light IRL is a good way to go, if you can then it's really useful to play next to 3 different light controls.

1 setting should be white lightbulb, dimmer switch helps for improving the ambiance in a tavern at night, ect.

1 setting should be fire, whether that be candle or lantern, doesn't matter really. If you are using fire its a good idea to also try for a window as the more fire you add the more vents you need, and a window is also a good temperature and smell control.

1 setting should be blacklight, it helps for when the characters are actually in the dark as it emulates darkness while still having players read the sheets-- it also kinda looks like darkvision.

dsmiles
2010-10-20, 06:49 AM
I'm not quite that technologically advanced. I still don't even allow laptops at the gaming table, only hard copy books (or printed copies of the info the players need).

Gnaeus
2010-10-20, 10:15 AM
I like adapting call of Cthulhu adventures. Many of them are excellent as source material. I don't know about how available they are today or if you can purchase any of them as PDFs.

ThirdEmperor
2010-10-20, 10:19 AM
Just a thought, but a reallly good idea is to buy a pet scorpion (available at most pet stores, but get one with the tail still on) and have the PCs encounter a giant scorpion. When this happens, put the scorpion on one of the players and refuse to take it off until they kill the scorpion ingame.

PopcornMage
2010-10-20, 10:19 AM
I'm not quite that technologically advanced. I still don't even allow laptops at the gaming table, only hard copy books (or printed copies of the info the players need).

Three lights, one light bulb for each.

dsmiles
2010-10-20, 10:22 AM
Three lights, one light bulb for each.

I have a room with a light attached to a ceiling fan. They're either on, or off. All of the other lamps in the house are too big to be moving around like that.

Not just a ceiling fan with a light, though. I am technologically advanced enough to have a table and two couches, as well. :smalltongue:

Raimun
2010-10-20, 10:26 AM
Aren't gazebos pretty scary? Yeah, everybody fears gazebos.

"Attack of the Gazebos", man!

dsmiles
2010-10-20, 10:28 AM
How about tomatos? Didn't they do a move about that once? (Or perhaps three times?)

Lev
2010-10-20, 11:21 AM
Just a thought, but a reallly good idea is to buy a pet scorpion (available at most pet stores, but get one with the tail still on) and have the PCs encounter a giant scorpion. When this happens, put the scorpion on one of the players and refuse to take it off until they kill the scorpion ingame.
Excuse for premeditated attempt at murder?

Sipex
2010-10-20, 12:21 PM
Some ideas:

1) Monsters which are never truly defeated. I'm taking this straight out of SilverClawShift's campaign journal. They found an enemy which distorted and took over the body of a living being and lived through it. They fought it and barely killed it. As soon as they killed it something else nearby started to twist and contort and speak in the monster's voice, showing that the monster was just going to keep inhabiting bodies to attack with. This is the vestiges campaign. Adapt this however you like, undead which keep getting up or simply endless waves of them. The PCs can hack and slash all they like but they'll forever be followed by more.

2) Staring. Things which just stare at the PCs with no expression. Just forever watching. You need a proper outlet for this though.

3) Always have some music playing softly in the background (bring a tape deck/cd player/ipod/whatever). It can either be soft and calm (piano pieces are nice for this) or mildly creepy. When you want the creepyness to hit the fan (ie: the PCs enter a room where there's SOMETHING else there) turn the music off. Everyone will notice the void.
Don't use this too often as it will lose it's effect.

4) De-human something. If something doesn't have a face when it should or it's face is distorted people tend to creep out. Don't add anything to the face though, just things that you would find on a face but not in a face-like way. The Grinning Man and Slenderman are great examples of this.

5) Bumps in the night. Make the pcs hear sounds, closing doors, knocking on the windows, that sort of thing. There should be nothing there when they investigate though. Once they stop investigating, up the ante and actually have something happen.

marius\tobius
2010-10-20, 05:20 PM
alright first get them to play somthing short but stressfull and scary.
(we used to play a kind of IRL left 4 dead with nerf guns and bopper swords turn out all the lights and give the "suvivers" a touch screen phone with the candle app as their only light source then the rest of us wold hide and try to get the suvivers) then when thats done keep the lights low and turn on some ambiance music (i highly recommend nox arcana) and start the game
try to keep them as tense and on edge as you can they will remember that night forever:smallbiggrin:

Tokuhara
2010-10-21, 01:05 AM
Use a wendigo.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50136.jpg

Adapt it to 4e's rules and replace the arctic theme with a desert one.

Already suggested it. Sheesh. Sometimes, I wonder if people actually READ the spoilers...

Drenn
2010-10-25, 02:11 PM
When the tower falls, just make some quick notes and shake your head solemnly.

Clearly you are well versed in the art of scaring players. The solemn head shake so often says it all. =)

Drenn
2010-10-25, 02:14 PM
Some ideas:

1) Monsters which are never truly defeated. I'm taking this straight out of SilverClawShift's campaign journal. They found an enemy which distorted and took over the body of a living being and lived through it. They fought it and barely killed it. As soon as they killed it something else nearby started to twist and contort and speak in the monster's voice, showing that the monster was just going to keep inhabiting bodies to attack with. This is the vestiges campaign. Adapt this however you like, undead which keep getting up or simply endless waves of them. The PCs can hack and slash all they like but they'll forever be followed by more.

2) Staring. Things which just stare at the PCs with no expression. Just forever watching. You need a proper outlet for this though.

3) Always have some music playing softly in the background (bring a tape deck/cd player/ipod/whatever). It can either be soft and calm (piano pieces are nice for this) or mildly creepy. When you want the creepyness to hit the fan (ie: the PCs enter a room where there's SOMETHING else there) turn the music off. Everyone will notice the void.
Don't use this too often as it will lose it's effect.

4) De-human something. If something doesn't have a face when it should or it's face is distorted people tend to creep out. Don't add anything to the face though, just things that you would find on a face but not in a face-like way. The Grinning Man and Slenderman are great examples of this.

5) Bumps in the night. Make the pcs hear sounds, closing doors, knocking on the windows, that sort of thing. There should be nothing there when they investigate though. Once they stop investigating, up the ante and actually have something happen.

Really liking most of these ideas. Because of various back story reasons, the necromancer that's after the party can't actually kill them, so any and all forms of psychological torture, such as the unbeatable enemy or the de-human something or other should work well. Probably a combination of two.

Dr.Epic
2010-10-25, 02:15 PM
SPIDERS! A legion of SPIDERS!!!

dsmiles
2010-10-25, 02:19 PM
Some ideas:

1) Monsters which are never truly defeated. I'm taking this straight out of SilverClawShift's campaign journal. They found an enemy which distorted and took over the body of a living being and lived through it. They fought it and barely killed it. As soon as they killed it something else nearby started to twist and contort and speak in the monster's voice, showing that the monster was just going to keep inhabiting bodies to attack with. This is the vestiges campaign. Adapt this however you like, undead which keep getting up or simply endless waves of them. The PCs can hack and slash all they like but they'll forever be followed by more.

2) Staring. Things which just stare at the PCs with no expression. Just forever watching. You need a proper outlet for this though.

3) Always have some music playing softly in the background (bring a tape deck/cd player/ipod/whatever). It can either be soft and calm (piano pieces are nice for this) or mildly creepy. When you want the creepyness to hit the fan (ie: the PCs enter a room where there's SOMETHING else there) turn the music off. Everyone will notice the void.
Don't use this too often as it will lose it's effect.

4) De-human something. If something doesn't have a face when it should or it's face is distorted people tend to creep out. Don't add anything to the face though, just things that you would find on a face but not in a face-like way. The Grinning Man and Slenderman are great examples of this.

5) Bumps in the night. Make the pcs hear sounds, closing doors, knocking on the windows, that sort of thing. There should be nothing there when they investigate though. Once they stop investigating, up the ante and actually have something happen.

Excellent, Smithers.:smallbiggrin:

May present an alternative to #1?
Ever seen the John Carpenter version of The Thing? There's a montser for you. Plus, you get to turn everything they think they know against them. BONUS!

Drenn
2010-10-25, 02:32 PM
Some ideas:

1) Monsters which are never truly defeated. I'm taking this straight out of SilverClawShift's campaign journal. They found an enemy which distorted and took over the body of a living being and lived through it. They fought it and barely killed it. As soon as they killed it something else nearby started to twist and contort and speak in the monster's voice, showing that the monster was just going to keep inhabiting bodies to attack with. This is the vestiges campaign. Adapt this however you like, undead which keep getting up or simply endless waves of them. The PCs can hack and slash all they like but they'll forever be followed by more.



So, along that same line, I was thinking of getting inside the PCs heads...literally. See, they have this kalashtar (sp?) who grants group telepathy, and they use it ALL the time to talk to each other when there's anyone suspicious around, which is fine. My thought was, why should they be the only ones around with telepathy?

My thought essentially was the idea from number 1 (above) and have them face something twitchy and spastic. They kill it after a fairly difficult battle, and then the nearest thing to them, say, a dog, goes spastic and attacks them. After that, ask the nearest PC what their Will defense is (really it doesn't matter), and, if its anything medium to low, give them a slip of paper that says

"You hear a low, sinister voice in your head. It whispers, 'Hi'...."

and then just sit back and watch the players freak out. If they have a high enough Will, then move on to the next. With ten of them there, someone has to have a low will eventually. The PC isn't actually in any danger of going spastic, but they don't know that.....

Does anyone think that would work both mechanically and story-wise?

Tokuhara
2010-10-25, 02:34 PM
So, along that same line, I was thinking of getting inside the PCs heads...literally. See, they have this kalashtar (sp?) who grants group telepathy, and they use it ALL the time to talk to each other when there's anyone suspicious around, which is fine. My thought was, why should they be the only ones around with telepathy?

My thought essentially was the idea from number 1 (above) and have them face something twitchy and spastic. They kill it after a fairly difficult battle, and then the nearest thing to them, say, a dog, goes spastic and attacks them. After that, ask the nearest PC what their Will defense is (really it doesn't matter), and, if its anything medium to low, give them a slip of paper that says

"You hear a low, sinister voice in your head. It whispers, 'Hi'...."

and then just sit back and watch the players freak out. If they have a high enough Will, then move on to the next. With ten of them there, someone has to have a low will eventually. The PC isn't actually in any danger of going spastic, but they don't know that.....

Does anyone think that would work both mechanically and story-wise?

Use this in tandem with a PsiLich (LM, but don't quote me) and make his "phylactery" be his mooks' bodies. Every time he "dies," his mook rises with all of his abilities. Eventually, the PCs would be wary of what they kill

Drenn
2010-10-25, 02:42 PM
Use this in tandem with a PsiLich (LM, but don't quote me) and make his "phylactery" be his mooks' bodies. Every time he "dies," his mook rises with all of his abilities. Eventually, the PCs would be wary of what they kill

That would actually be perfect, because one of the more...impulsive PCs, shall we say, just beheaded said necromancer and the party is under the happy illusion that the necromancer is gone forever. (They then glibly handed over the body to the campaign's prime suspect for a slew of cultic attacks. Go figure. Resurrection takes what, eight hours?)

The PC is already facing a death sentence for the killing but I think something like what you're describing would help reinforce the lesson, "Be careful what you kill...."

Jolly
2010-10-25, 02:43 PM
They have telepathy? Oh man, that's scaring PC gold right there. I love the Paimon-from SilverClawShift's campaign journal-idea. An enemy whispering into your head, threatening to take you over as you sleep (just like it took over Friendly NPC back at the inn) which leads to insomnia... bonus points if the afflicted char says nothing for fear the other party members will have to kill him/her if taken over. Oh man... I like this idea. :smallbiggrin:

Also, if anyone tried putting a scorpion (or other potentially dangerous critter) on me as some sort of roleplay aid, I would not allow that. Up to and including using physical violence to prevent it. And I like spiders/scorpions! But used in that way, just no.

Sipex
2010-10-25, 02:44 PM
So, along that same line, I was thinking of getting inside the PCs heads...literally. See, they have this kalashtar (sp?) who grants group telepathy, and they use it ALL the time to talk to each other when there's anyone suspicious around, which is fine. My thought was, why should they be the only ones around with telepathy?

My thought essentially was the idea from number 1 (above) and have them face something twitchy and spastic. They kill it after a fairly difficult battle, and then the nearest thing to them, say, a dog, goes spastic and attacks them. After that, ask the nearest PC what their Will defense is (really it doesn't matter), and, if its anything medium to low, give them a slip of paper that says

"You hear a low, sinister voice in your head. It whispers, 'Hi'...."

and then just sit back and watch the players freak out. If they have a high enough Will, then move on to the next. With ten of them there, someone has to have a low will eventually. The PC isn't actually in any danger of going spastic, but they don't know that.....

Does anyone think that would work both mechanically and story-wise?

Sounds good, but if I were in your position I would just request to see everyone's sheets pre-session and write a quick cheat sheet for the party (Usually one line per character which has their defenses, saves, perception (spot, listen), and health). That way asking about will isn't so suspicion inducing. Also prevents them from suddenly going awol and putting up will protection.

That way the person with the lowest will just starts getting notes saying 'hi'.

In addition, when you're passing out notes to cover this pass out a note to everyone. The others should just get notes stating things like "You feel a bit chilly." or "Your foot crunches down on the leaves and makes a crisp crackling noise."

I like "Hi..." though, very casual, very unnerving.

Drenn
2010-10-25, 02:51 PM
Sounds good, but if I were in your position I would just request to see everyone's sheets pre-session and write a quick cheat sheet for the party (Usually one line per character which has their defenses, saves, perception (spot, listen), and health). That way asking about will isn't so suspicion inducing. Also prevents them from suddenly going awol and putting up will protection.

That way the person with the lowest will just starts getting notes saying 'hi'.

In addition, when you're passing out notes to cover this pass out a note to everyone. The others should just get notes stating things like "You feel a bit chilly." or "Your foot crunches down on the leaves and makes a crisp crackling noise."

I like "Hi..." though, very casual, very unnerving.

Hmmm. That is a good point. I was thinking of asking, because my PCs every now and again have a tendency to metagame a bit. Will saves actually have nothing to do with it; the specifics for this type of telepathy technically doesn't constitute as an attack. I just thought that by asking for the Will defense their metagaming selves would "think" that they were under some kind of attack, of possession or what have you. And the PCs would act accordingly, thus expending their resources and making them that much more vulnerable.

Sipex
2010-10-25, 02:52 PM
Oh right.

Well then, that's fine, go forth and sow suspicion.

Drenn
2010-10-25, 02:54 PM
Oh right.

Well then, that's fine, go forth and sow suspicion.

Why thank you, I believe I will. *GRIN*

I've never been so excited for Halloween in. my. life.

Tokuhara
2010-10-25, 02:54 PM
and with the Telepathy scare, pull a psycho mantis and make sick jokes on the characters' backstories

Sipex
2010-10-25, 03:10 PM
Another idea, which I'll be running for mine in a bit, is to give the PCs an enemy which they know nothing about and have it stalk them, fight them and have them win. Then have a lot of the same enemy show up and have the PCs realise how screwed they are.

Mine will be a Bodak, it's got a lot of the features already (inhuman, creepy, the ability to go invisible, kills people with a look) and is pretty strong compared to them.

It'll harrass them, knocking on windows, making bumps in the night. A few brief shots of "You see a grey figure behind you in the mirror" or "There's someone in a grey suit skulking out in the middle of the street." and "You notice a face in the window. Upon looking back it's gone. You feel a chill as you realise that there wasn't actually any face to it's face, nothing except a gaping, black mouth."

Other creepy stuff will happen as this occurs, the village the PCs are in slowly empties of people who keep dissapearing, usually leaving the message "Don't let it in."

Eventually, when everyone in the village has dissapeared, it will attack the PCs and they'll have a difficult battle. I expect them to win and feel good.

Then I'll state that they hear something outside and cue creepy music again.

Outside they see one standing, staring at the ground. Another comes into view, trudging down the street. They see movement on the roof of the building across the street and there's a third. A fourth pushes open the door to the house next door. More and more keep showing up and they soon realise they're outnumbered.

Then the Nightwalker shows up.

Should be fun.

ShinyRocks
2010-10-25, 03:12 PM
Just as an adjunct to all the talk about controlling the light.

Why not have them attacked (at night) by some nocturnal creature. Skittery with enormous eyes - basically give them a strong enough hint that these creatures are frightened of the light. So they'll make a fire. Or cast a Light spell.

And then come the creatures that are attracted to the light.

The skittery ones are outside the circle of light, waiting. They won't come in to the light. But inside the light you're being assaulted by, I dunno, hundreds of flaking, biting, rotten moths.

Which. Do. You. Fight?

Drenn
2010-10-25, 05:09 PM
Just as an adjunct to all the talk about controlling the light.

Why not have them attacked (at night) by some nocturnal creature. Skittery with enormous eyes - basically give them a strong enough hint that these creatures are frightened of the light. So they'll make a fire. Or cast a Light spell.

And then come the creatures that are attracted to the light.

The skittery ones are outside the circle of light, waiting. They won't come in to the light. But inside the light you're being assaulted by, I dunno, hundreds of flaking, biting, rotten moths.

Which. Do. You. Fight?

Love it. On top of that, I could throw in some kind of a time crunch quest, as someone suggested towards the beginning of this thread.

So not only does the party have to decide what they fight, but they have to decide quickly and be able to get the operation done with/in spite of whatever monster they end up choosing to fight. I'm thinking both major monster types will be tied to noise. (Probably in much the same way the weeping angels from that Dr. Who episode, "Blink" are tied to sight. When the music goes away, RUN) And once they get done with that and FINALLY get somewhere safe, the big bad twitchy boss appears. And when they finally get done with THAT, then someone starts hearing a very familiar voice in his head.... Probably the party's tank.....

Poor party. They can't seem to win for loosing. Oh well. They'll be okay. Well...they won't die, is what I mean.....

BG
2010-10-25, 11:39 PM
Also, never underestimate the psychological effect of asking a player, "What's your will save?" then rolling a die, making a note, and moving on.

The best part? You don't even have to have it mean anything. The note can just say "banana" for all they know. Just make sure you don't overuse it, as players can catch wise very easily.

Also, if you're in a desert, something that moves underground is always a good option.

Fuzzie Fuzz
2010-10-25, 11:42 PM
Also, never underestimate the psychological effect of asking a player, "What's your will save?" then rolling a die, making a note, and moving on.

The best part? You don't even have to have it mean anything. The note can just say "banana" for all they know. Just make sure you don't overuse it, as players can catch wise very easily.

Also, if you're in a desert, something that moves underground is always a good option.

Even better, actually pass the player a note that says something along the lines of, "You notice nothing. Don't tell the other players. Pass this back when you're done." They will undoubtedly tell the other players anyways, and then you just have to sit back and watch the fun.

Drenn
2010-10-26, 12:35 AM
Even better, actually pass the player a note that says something along the lines of, "You notice nothing. Don't tell the other players. Pass this back when you're done." They will undoubtedly tell the other players anyways, and then you just have to sit back and watch the fun.

Seriously. Some days I think the most effective DMing trick is to just to sit back and let the party make life difficult for itself by trying to beat the system.

dsmiles
2010-10-26, 05:00 AM
Seriously. Some days I think the most effective DMing trick is to just to sit back and let the party make life difficult for itself by trying to beat the system.

This works. I almost let my players make up the plot as they go along. I pass a note to one of them, but my players won't tell each other those things. Soon, the other players think the one player with the note is infected/werewolf'd/otherwise in league with the DM, and paranoia ensues.

kestrel404
2010-10-26, 08:04 AM
Depends on the group, I guess. I mean, my groups passes notes to the GM all the time during actual play. It's part of the fun - both for you (knowing something the others don't) and for them (trying to figure out what's going on with Bob's character).

I mean, due to unreasonably complicated plot stuff, I pass notes to the GM all the time for my current game, simply because if we got bogged down in a discussion of what I'm capable of (I've got a Wildshape-like at-will power (costs XP) in a game system that's got nothing even remotely close to the Alter self spell, let alone the rest of the polymorph line). And so when he passes notes to me saying stuff like, "You fail to notice anything important", literally no one at the table notices.

Of course, if he did that to the party archer, everyone would notice. I guess it's just important to pick the right person to get the ball rolling.

Tokuhara
2010-10-26, 01:28 PM
In a desert-themed environment, the environment itself can be a terrifying weapon of terror.

For instance, an oasis in an area that by the map has none can be a scary incident, since, with the note thing, you could tell one player its an illusion and have the rest of the party not know.

In the same sense, that which is most comfortable can be the most scary. Say have them find an oasis and have it have a pool of water. When a PC drinks from this water, they get a Taint point. Keep track of it inconspicuously, having Player A make a will save every so often, say after 6 rounds of drinking the water, then 12, ect. Have mysterious boils pop up on his skin, and have him have a temporary alignment shift to a neutral alignment. The player (if he's a good role-player) will start to act funny. Maybe it only affects the one player, but since they all drank the water, they panic and ditch all of their water. Then, implicate the dehydration rules.

For the above to work, you need to have one player in on the whole scheme. Someone you trust. Sure, its evil, but so is horror as a whole

Drenn
2010-10-26, 01:55 PM
For the above to work, you need to have one player in on the whole scheme. Someone you trust. Sure, its evil, but so is horror as a whole

Definitely have that end of things covered. Just a couple sessions ago, there was an incident with a doppleganger who impersonated one of the PCs....while the PC was standing there. So there were essentially two of them running back and forth trying to kill one another in the middle of another battle and the rest of the party lost track of which was which.

In order to stop the rest of the party from inadvertently metagaming, we got the player who was copied in on it from the get go. He convincingly played the doppleganger and his own PC at the same time to the extent that he almost got his PC killed. Gotta love players like that.

Tokuhara
2010-10-26, 02:12 PM
Definitely have that end of things covered. Just a couple sessions ago, there was an incident with a doppleganger who impersonated one of the PCs....while the PC was standing there. So there were essentially two of them running back and forth trying to kill one another in the middle of another battle and the rest of the party lost track of which was which.

In order to stop the rest of the party from inadvertently metagaming, we got the player who was copied in on it from the get go. He convincingly played the doppleganger and his own PC at the same time to the extent that he almost got his PC killed. Gotta love players like that.

THAT'S EVIL... I'd never do that...

Drenn
2010-10-26, 02:18 PM
THAT'S EVIL... I'd never do that...

lol. Well, the player's a bit of a ham, and he really enjoyed himself, so I didn't see any real problem with it. Can't throw any shapeshifters at the party for a while though; they're a little twitchy about such things just now. :smallsmile:

(With this upcoming Halloween game being the exception of course.)

Sipex
2010-10-26, 02:21 PM
I used a doppleganger on my party once.

Took them 6 months before they trusted anything.

Drenn
2010-10-26, 02:27 PM
I used a doppleganger on my party once.

Took them 6 months before they trusted anything.

Yeah, that sounds about right. :smallsmile:

The funniest part was, one of the players wanted to switch out to a new character, which I allowed since they were still relatively new to the party, and not central to any plot lines. Suffice to say he didn't think about recent events too closely. Guess which race he picked? Changeling. The party nearly killed him on sight.