Creating a good horror atmosphere

[Kingscourt]

Tomorrow night, I will be hosting a small-one time d20 Call of Chuthlu sessions for a couple of friends. I've timed it so that there will be a thunderstorm out that night, and I'm planning on lighting candles up, to create a good, suspenseful kind of mood.

I guess I'm asking if you playgrounders have any good music to recommend, or anything that I could do to freak my players out, the goal tomorrow night will be in fact to scare them, or at least make them nervous around dark corners for the next few days :smallbiggrin:

[dsmiles]

Mood lighting and good descriptions. Dim the lights, but leave them bright enough that the players can read their stuff. If you haven't read any Lovecraft, I recommend you do so. His descriptions can be very disturbing. He leaves a lot up to the readers' imaginations.

[Grendus]

If you have, or could acquire (it's a shame WotC doesn't sell the PDF versions that were quick and easy to download anymore *cough*) Heroes of Horror has some good tips. In particular, there was a table for random things happening (your shadow lags half a second behind, your image in a mirror suddenly grimaces in agony for a split second, you hear animals that are completely wrong for the biome, etc). You don't have to use it as random chance, but a lot of the things were downright creepy, and non D&D specific. Makes for great little filler.

One thing I've noticed in general in horror games is the clutter. STALKER, Dead Space, Killing Floor... heck, Half Life 2 threw tons of random items at the player. Even if 90% are useless, you never know when something is going to spring out of the clutter, and if your characters aren't typical warriors (IE they don't walk into enemy territory with a greatsword/assault rifle) it makes for great frantic battles/chase scenes where the players are improvising constantly.

[Aidan305]

While mood lighting, thunderstorms and low, creepy music are all very well. I'd say the most important part of building a horror atmosphere is in the narration.

The most terrifying game I ever played in was not the one in the middle of a mountain by campfire light, nor the one in the candlelit basement.

It was in the middle of a relatively crowded bar/restaurant, with good food, comfy couches and in a warm cosy environment. But the GM told it so well that it was just as easy to imagine that I was a young girl being pursued by a pair of stitched together corpses as if I were in any scary location.

[Grommen]

The sound track from Dracula. The one from the 90's. creepy.
Any of the Batman sound tracks are creepy.

[Accersitus]

Keeping the players in the dark both using dimmed lighting (live candles can work nicely id you can get enough. If the players can't read their character sheets you need more light :smallbiggrin:) and keeping the players guessing (No one knows what the player is most scared of than the players subconscious mind), can give a perfect atmosphere for a horror game.

Nothing is better than the unexpected. I played in a horror session a few years ago, and we were so immersed the hours passed without anyone noticing giving us a huge scare in the morning when the postman arrived (the mailbox made a lot of sound and no one was expecting it).

[Lord.Sorasen]

About music: Sometimes, music is a good way to create mood, but a lot of people forget that equally important is silence. When you're describing sound, give music. But if the players are in a silent place, there's nothing more suspenseful than silence. If you're playing during a storm, the natural atmosphere may be worth more than a soundtrack for a lot of it.

Narration is a big deal. Consider the following:

- If you talk loudly, people will talk loudly. If you talk quietly, people will strain to hear you clearly.
- Write down what you want to say in advance. Stumbling on a description will bring people out of the game.
- Don't look up rules. Wing what you don't know. Once again, breaking the mood is bad.
- There's this video game... I don't know what it's called but it's popular, but the scene is as such: You're in a dark room, flooded with water but not too flooded to walk, and there is an invisible beast chasing you. You can't see it, but you can see the water splashing and hear the water splashing as it steps. It's scary precisely because you have no idea what it looks like or what it can do, and for the most part you don't even know where it is. My point is that some of the greatest frights are the things where the player fills in the gaps.

[Starwulf]

- There's this video game... I don't know what it's called but it's popular, but the scene is as such: You're in a dark room, flooded with water but not too flooded to walk, and there is an invisible beast chasing you. You can't see it, but you can see the water splashing and hear the water splashing as it steps. It's scary precisely because you have no idea what it looks like or what it can do, and for the most part you don't even know where it is. My point is that some of the greatest frights are the things where the player fills in the gaps.

Amnesia:The Dark Descent?

[Lord.Sorasen]

Amnesia:The Dark Descent?

Yes, that's the one. I haven't actually played it, but I've watched a friend play and I've seen that scene and it was enough to make it worth mentioning again.

[Starwulf]

Yes, that's the one. I haven't actually played it, but I've watched a friend play and I've seen that scene and it was enough to make it worth mentioning again.

Yeah, I do believe Frictional Games must have studied Lovecrafts works a good deal before applying them to their games. The Penumbra series is one of the most atmospherically terrifying games I've ever played in my LONG gaming career. More then one occasion where I had to save and exit out of the game because I Just didn't have the willpower to subject myself to anymore terror!

[kardar233]

The Tristram Village theme from the original Diablo is one that I've found that is really good for horror scenarios. It's scary as hell.

[Savannah]

I'm not a huge fan of music and various 'mood setting' devices. I personally find them rather distracting. If you want a good horror atmosphere, describe things in such a way that the players can imagine it and make it clear to them that they're going up against things much, much bigger than they are. Do that, and you can play wherever you want (assuming, of course, that the players are willing to buy into it).

[Polarbeast]

I imagine you've already run the game by this point, but in case of future horror encounters:

Movie soundtracks tend to swell and crescendo at the wrong times, since they're made for the movie and not your story. Game soundtracks, though, work well because they're made to their genre and for looping. Akira Yamaoka's work on Silent Hill, etc.

I like artists like Coil and Dead Voices on Air, real stomach-churning instrumental work that's ideal for psychological terror or driving yourself out to the desert to die. Also: Tuxedomoon, Unto Ashes, Jah Wobble.

Sound effect loops are useful. Ocean waves lapping against rocks. Wind. Distant thunder. Rain pounding the roof. Set a clock nearby so the players can hear it quietly ticking.

Grendus's post made me think of clutter, for purely descriptive reasons: rooms are filled with human detritus and past lives, made horrible by disuse and age. Crates of letters and old photos. Broken-in globes. Dressmaker's dummies lurching in a corner, stuck with pins. Chairs with sheets draped over them. Mantels with clocks and urns that may or may not contain ashes. Paintings leaning against each other in their frames, nonthreatening except for that strange, lonely oil of the girl standing in a field looking away at the empty farmhouse.

Make your characters creepy, but in a social sense. An old man who is grimy and leers when he smiles, and touches you on the arm when he speaks to you, is creepier than a "spooky" character.

Edit: Also, three of you have THE SAME AVATAR. That's truly scary... :)