Silus
2011-02-16, 09:47 AM
DM thread, so any nosy players of mine shouldn't be snooping.
Anyway...
Here's a little bit of background so ya'll have a frame of reference for my question:
Started a horror based plot-line last session (not a campaign, but the "adventure" they're on is horror based). The players were sent to Carceri to find out what was creating portals out, essentially staging a multi-plane jailbreak, and shut down the source. The location, a New England style home ripped from it's former location and planted on Carceri, was intended to have a rather Call of Cthulhu feel, with the general horror aspects being reminiscent of the movie/short story 1408 (Stephen King). There are five players:
1. Human (?) Incarnate (Paladin variant from Dragon 310). Both player and character are apparently immune to fear. Tends to interrupt the fluff, words will be had before the next session. (Also has hangups about using children as horror elements, which kinda destroys the "corruption of innocence" thing)
2. Owlbear Rogue. Tried to be played as apparently a "silly" character. Player does not seem to get the concept of a horror session (upon entering the house, he went upstairs alone, where no lights were on). Also tends to not think things through all the way (Tried to break off some gas lamps, but at the urging of the party (their argument was that a spark from snapping the lamps off would ignite the gas pipes, thus destroying the house and everyone inside)). Also rolls Hide and Move Silently almost EVERY TIME he moves.
3. Deathless Necromancer. A little less genre savvy as I'd like, but he gets into the horror aspect of it, which I appreciate. Character lost his daughter and (I think) wife, so we'll see where we can go with this.
4. Elf Ranger/Monk Gestalt. No complaints regarding dealing with the horror aspect of the sessions. I'm regretting allowing him to play a Gestalt however.
5. Fire Elf Summoner. Again, no complaints. She's dealing with the horror aspects as intended (cowering, whimpering, and her character is being scared as well =3 )
Had the last three players dreading making Listen checks by the end of the session.
Also, a condensed, shortened list of the scares thus far (for those interested and/or feel like being unnerved):
1. They find a perfectly preserved, cleaned, stocked and lit New England style home, complete with grassy field and green, living trees in the first layer of Carceri, which is all rugged mountains and bogs.
2. They find the lights on in the house, recently having been lit, but nobody is home.
3. They find a locked door on the second floor. The door "eats" the Owlbears lockpicking tools (like the key in the movie 1408). Upon looking inside, they see a white haired woman in a night gown with her back to the key hole. Upon looking a second time, all they see is what looks like red tissue paper (an albino woman died in that room).
4. The front door slams and locks on it's own. The windows are also bricked up, thus leaving no current way to escape.
5. They find two walled up doors on the second floor, one leading to a little girl's room, the other to an office.
6. The closet in the little girl's room had the corpses of the girl and an adult male. The girl had the key to the office, and upon grabbing it, the stuffed animals in her closet animated and attacked (They gradated from normals to nightmarish the further back they went. Also there were voices telling them to run out of the closet).
7. Upon killing the stuffed animals, the lights in the closet went out, the door slammed shut, and the sound of pitter-pattering feat could be heard. The lights came back on, and the shelves of stuffed animals were replaced with decaying corpses hanging from meat hooks. The "dead" girl was also gone.
8. Upon entering the office and reading the slowly maddening journals of the father that had lived in the house, a pitter-patter of feet out in the hallway could be heard, along with a giggle. The Paladin's water elemental was one-shotted, and the previously lit lights throughout the house (save for the office where everyone was) went out.
9. Upon leaving the office, they went downstairs, where they saw a light on in the dining room. The horribly grotesque "paintings" of snarling monsters that had hung in the dining room were empty, revealing that they had been windows instead of paintings.
10. A Carceri "citizen" was found tied up in one of the chairs. Upon getting closer, an anamorphic shadow....thing lashed out from the wall, grabbed the man, and dragged him into the inky blackness. After that, everyone could hear things moving in the walls, things that sounded like thousands of rats.
Edit:
11. The journals they found at scare #8 mentioned having correspondence with a one "H. West".
Anyway, here's the question: When dealing with a session such as this, when would it be appropriate to try and kill off a character? I'm not suggesting something like "We've not had any drama yet, soooooooo.....YOU will die. *Points*". But more along the lines of them disregarding horror genre "rules" and/or DM suggestions, like the "Going up to the dark second floor alone" thing that player #2 pulled.
Anyway...
Here's a little bit of background so ya'll have a frame of reference for my question:
Started a horror based plot-line last session (not a campaign, but the "adventure" they're on is horror based). The players were sent to Carceri to find out what was creating portals out, essentially staging a multi-plane jailbreak, and shut down the source. The location, a New England style home ripped from it's former location and planted on Carceri, was intended to have a rather Call of Cthulhu feel, with the general horror aspects being reminiscent of the movie/short story 1408 (Stephen King). There are five players:
1. Human (?) Incarnate (Paladin variant from Dragon 310). Both player and character are apparently immune to fear. Tends to interrupt the fluff, words will be had before the next session. (Also has hangups about using children as horror elements, which kinda destroys the "corruption of innocence" thing)
2. Owlbear Rogue. Tried to be played as apparently a "silly" character. Player does not seem to get the concept of a horror session (upon entering the house, he went upstairs alone, where no lights were on). Also tends to not think things through all the way (Tried to break off some gas lamps, but at the urging of the party (their argument was that a spark from snapping the lamps off would ignite the gas pipes, thus destroying the house and everyone inside)). Also rolls Hide and Move Silently almost EVERY TIME he moves.
3. Deathless Necromancer. A little less genre savvy as I'd like, but he gets into the horror aspect of it, which I appreciate. Character lost his daughter and (I think) wife, so we'll see where we can go with this.
4. Elf Ranger/Monk Gestalt. No complaints regarding dealing with the horror aspect of the sessions. I'm regretting allowing him to play a Gestalt however.
5. Fire Elf Summoner. Again, no complaints. She's dealing with the horror aspects as intended (cowering, whimpering, and her character is being scared as well =3 )
Had the last three players dreading making Listen checks by the end of the session.
Also, a condensed, shortened list of the scares thus far (for those interested and/or feel like being unnerved):
1. They find a perfectly preserved, cleaned, stocked and lit New England style home, complete with grassy field and green, living trees in the first layer of Carceri, which is all rugged mountains and bogs.
2. They find the lights on in the house, recently having been lit, but nobody is home.
3. They find a locked door on the second floor. The door "eats" the Owlbears lockpicking tools (like the key in the movie 1408). Upon looking inside, they see a white haired woman in a night gown with her back to the key hole. Upon looking a second time, all they see is what looks like red tissue paper (an albino woman died in that room).
4. The front door slams and locks on it's own. The windows are also bricked up, thus leaving no current way to escape.
5. They find two walled up doors on the second floor, one leading to a little girl's room, the other to an office.
6. The closet in the little girl's room had the corpses of the girl and an adult male. The girl had the key to the office, and upon grabbing it, the stuffed animals in her closet animated and attacked (They gradated from normals to nightmarish the further back they went. Also there were voices telling them to run out of the closet).
7. Upon killing the stuffed animals, the lights in the closet went out, the door slammed shut, and the sound of pitter-pattering feat could be heard. The lights came back on, and the shelves of stuffed animals were replaced with decaying corpses hanging from meat hooks. The "dead" girl was also gone.
8. Upon entering the office and reading the slowly maddening journals of the father that had lived in the house, a pitter-patter of feet out in the hallway could be heard, along with a giggle. The Paladin's water elemental was one-shotted, and the previously lit lights throughout the house (save for the office where everyone was) went out.
9. Upon leaving the office, they went downstairs, where they saw a light on in the dining room. The horribly grotesque "paintings" of snarling monsters that had hung in the dining room were empty, revealing that they had been windows instead of paintings.
10. A Carceri "citizen" was found tied up in one of the chairs. Upon getting closer, an anamorphic shadow....thing lashed out from the wall, grabbed the man, and dragged him into the inky blackness. After that, everyone could hear things moving in the walls, things that sounded like thousands of rats.
Edit:
11. The journals they found at scare #8 mentioned having correspondence with a one "H. West".
Anyway, here's the question: When dealing with a session such as this, when would it be appropriate to try and kill off a character? I'm not suggesting something like "We've not had any drama yet, soooooooo.....YOU will die. *Points*". But more along the lines of them disregarding horror genre "rules" and/or DM suggestions, like the "Going up to the dark second floor alone" thing that player #2 pulled.