How to scare the muffins out of my players.

[Mystic Muse]

Okay, tomorrow is the start of a campaign I'm going to be running with my players. It's a horror style campaign and I was wondering what kind of stuff I can do to scare the *insert appropriate word here* out of them? I'm going to get creepy sounds/music, and I know a few things that'll help, but I was wondering what else I should do? If it helps anything, the players will be level 3.

EDIT: I should also mention this is modern world, the group is mostly mundane, and they're all human.

[kharmakazy]

Asking what their saves are constantly for no reason.

Rolling dice without any kind of explanation.

Providing too many details for mundane environmental features.
"In the center of the room you find an ornately carved obsidian throne, It has red leather padding around ins arms and seat. Around the base of the throne you notice piles of a fine powdery substance that appears to be ash."

[ryu]

I've had ideas with doppelgangers and splitting the party without them knowing it. Spring it at the worst possible moment and bring in a dramatic escape slash regrouping scene. Remember always that epic level challenge isn't scary. It's hard. Now the unknown and actually well played tricks? That's scary.

Also use his ideas to set the mood and put the group off balance.

[Soranar]

Keep mentioning a roving band of rust monsters that are terrorizing the countryside, they're freak out every time they hear a branch snap.

alternatively

Make them play the tomb of horrors.

or

kill whatever trapkiller they have and make them face a LOT of kobolds.

[Doktor Per]

Don't call most creatures by their names. Describe them instead, emphasize the unnatural about them.

A unicorn can be a horse with a horn. Or it can be an equine creature of terrible beauty, with a sharp bone jutting out of it's forehead like a dagger against the moon.

Don't let your players be sure of what they are seeing, demand to do perception rolls for them, that you will do so when appropriate but they can request specific ones. Explain that they will have to request sense motive. Information gives people comfort. You must take that comfort away from them.

Descriptions are not as informative as names. Something may sound a lot like something, but you can't be sure. This is why you shouldn't even have a monster manual book around, unless you're doing something what they know is, like simple things such as animals and such. Then throw away the book when you attack them with kobolds or zombies or what have you. Just don't be a dingus.

[Cofniben]

Be descriptive on the environment, and make sure to slowly build things up. Just throwing a tough monster at them won't scare them. Remember no one is afraid of the dark, they are afraid of the fact that they don't know what's inside of it.

[NecroRick]

"okay everyone, make a d100 SAN check"

---

But surely it would be easier and simpler not to give them muffins in the first place? Perhaps bagels or a nice scone as an alternative?

[Curmudgeon]

Having people who are undoubtedly, absolutely dead just suddenly not be there anymore as soon as the PCs turn their backs. You don't need to have the bodies reanimate or turn to mist or any of that stuff; the mystery alone is plenty creepy.

[Mystic Muse]

Thanks for the responses.

@NecroRick Hardy har har:smalltongue: Yeah, I laughed.

I'd prefer to stick to undead and aberrations.

[Acanous]

"The small group of speciallists ransacking the kingdom seems to be lead by a rogue agent of another kingdom, known as Commander Shepard"

That'd do it ;)

[Machinekng]

If it's a mundane world, use incorporeal undead. Shadows, ghosts, and spectres, for example. If the players can't kill them, they'll be afraid.

If you're using corporeal undead and other monsters, make sure to use overwhelming numbers.

[Cornelius Grim]

I recommend getting the Heroes of Horror book. That book may be a bit too gruesome for your players. The sample encounters are just...just... Ugh, I have no words to describe them *shudder*. However, it does have some neat tips about creating creepy effects, although probably none you can't come up with yourself. I hope that you'll do good in horrifying your players. It'll add enjoyment for both of you; mostly you though. :smallamused:

[Slipperychicken]

Not that I have the slightest bit of experience DMing, but taking one out of one's "comfort zone" helps a lot. One thing I've imagined (and heard of on Gitp) would be a good idea is refluffing statblocks to throw off players who know the MM a bit too well (ex: that claw/claw/bite isn't a Cat, it's some kind of sickly, emaciated, bluish-greenish Thing with eyes that open sideways, open dripping wounds, patches of cloth stitched over where skin should be, etc). Basically, as others said, focusing on description and atmosphere rather than rules-related things.

[Tengu_temp]

Mannequins are always creepy. Especially when they move when nobody is looking.

One of the players has to put his hand in a tight place to retrieve a key or something. When he does so, he feels the cold touch of alien fingers brushing against his hand briefly, feeling it.

A player is looking for a light in a dark room. Something puts a match in his hand.

When a player looks into a keyhole, he only sees red - this happens only once, further inspections will reveal a normal sight of the room beyond. Later, the party learns the legend of a monster with glowing red eyes...

A locked bathroom stall in an abandoned building. If someone knocks on it, something inside knocks back. When everyone's backs are turned, the stall unlocks loudly and opens. It's empty, but the seat is covered in blood...

[Lord Loss]

There's a lot of types of horror, some easier to acheive than others.

At its simplest, horror comes in the form of disgust, either by throwing disgusting things at the players, or by making them feel self-loathing (disgust towards themselves, that is).

Example of Disgust: I recently ran a horror scenario in a hospital infested by horrible creatures. It had children getting their heads sawed open and worms placed on their brains, a monster that was two patients with their bodies withered, fused together at the ribs. The player characters had their hands chopped open and one of them had his finger bones replaced by those of other PCs or NPCs. Another had a third eye implanted into his forehead. Later, they discovered a room full of chopped off heads (each having a third eye) and hands, with their bones looking strange and mishappen. Also, a character walked into a room where there was a living mosiac made up of flesh, depicting his murdered wife and son in the state of their death, horribly maimed but somehow still alive.

Harming children and making it personal (family, friends or self targeted) are good ways to accentuate this horror.

Don't go too far with this, though, as it's easy to overstep boundaries and make people too uncomfortable.

Self Loathing: Make the characters take actions they'll regret, by guiding situations towards the wrong idea (a child may be the incarnation of a powerful devil and it's suggested that they should kill it. Turns out it's not and they just slew an innocent). Alternatively, a suggestion I got in another thread (asking for similiar advice) is that the PCs feel sick, lighteheaded and/or confused. A few minutes later, they fight a monster (or many) that look powerful enough, but are easily defeated. When they look around ,they realize that the monster(s) were actually elderly people, innocent townsfolk or even teenagers.

In general, when attempting to scare players, you'll want to make them feel helpless and ineffective. Don't take away their feeling of control completely, or they'll get frustrated, bored and unsatisfied, but rather make their victories bittersweet. The clues to the monster that's been preying on the townsfolk are being assembled, but meanwhile, friends and townsfolk are being killed off and the clues are leading in more and more unpleasant places. Is the monster their friend? Is the monster one of them? Every advancement they make should have a price, but don't deny them their victories altogether. For instance, they manage to stop the vampire, but not in time to save their loved one from vampirism. Now, they must kill their significant other.

I'll come back with more advice later, hope this helps for now. And yes, heroes of horror is a decent book (which I personally love). Watching a ton of horror movies and mercilessly ripping concepts, tropes, monsters and whatnot from them works quite well also. B-Movies often work best, surprisingly.

[Flame of Anor]

"The small group of speciallists ransacking the kingdom seems to be lead by a rogue agent of another kingdom, known as Commander Planar Shepherd"

Fixed that for you.

[kharmakazy]

I once had a party square off against a group of hobgoblin fighters in full-plate. The combat went fairly standard with the group eventually prevailing. After a moment of victory music, the hobgoblins got back up and continued to fight.

After taking down the hobgoblins for the second time one of them started to get up and was critted on. Off with his head. Despite this fact, the hobgoblin continues his assault.

It took a little while, but eventually the party realized that they were no longer fighting the hobgoblins, and they were not in fact undead...

I had been using Steel Shadows I found online updated from second edition. They can exist inside metal and animate it. A small amount of the aberrations had been reared for the purpose of inhabiting armor and serving as a sort of Fighter's familiar.

Only CR 3, but the party had never experienced them before, so they were creeped the hell out.

[PollyOliver]

I'll second/third/whatnot of the the stuff above. Asking for rolls, rolling yourself, or "checking something" on your sheets or theirs and then not doing anything works well, but only if used sparingly. If you do it every ten minutes and the majority of the time nothing happens, it's going to wear thin. Similarly, used sparingly, theme music is great. A good scene-setting is fantastic, but only if you can do it well in few enough words that peoples' minds don't wander. Very rarely, an encounter that is obviously so high CR that they have no choice but to hide under the beds can be effective, but it needs to be done in such a way that they don't actually think they have a shot, because if you're not careful Bad Things might go down, and not in the fun horror sense. And leave some things up to the imagination, because peoples' minds will occasionally supply things that are way scarier to them than whatever you can come up with.

The other thing is, please read SilverClawShift's campaign journals if you haven't, especially the horror one (which I believe is the first one).

[RedWarrior0]

They walk through a hallway, open a door, and enter a room. In the room is a very freshly-sculpted bas relief of the person reaching to open the door with the rest of the group, exactly how they were standing. Near the bas relief a hammer and chisel, and dust from sculpting still on the ground. The room's walls and floor are smooth concrete.

If you want, you can throw an extra person in with the group, or a shadowy monster, or whatever. Or make the walls, as depicted, be completely covered in eyes. Perhaps drop them through a trap door into a hallway exactly like the one they were in before, with no sign of a trap door in the ceiling.

Make them stumble upon a corpse, which, upon inspection, is the exact same as someone in the party, clothes, loot, and everything.

Also, perception/spot/listen checks and saves randomly. Lots of them. And say they can't take ten.

[Xtomjames]

Rules for horror 101: When you're setting up a horror campaign you need to pay attention to three vital things. Atmosphere, content, and description.

Atmosphere applies both to the OOC and IC environments. You're not going to scare a group of players unless the OOC (that's out of character) environment is cheery and everyday. (Though being overly cheery can have the same affect as having a dark candle lit room and creepy music in the background...think Umbrdige from Harry Potter and you'll get what I mean.~ A good group who can become extremely engrossed in the game won't need this btw.)

In game the horror atmosphere needs to reflect events. While the main story can start out mundane enough, if not cheery (a party, night out drinking, etc) the atmosphere in game needs to shift subtly quickly and most often the time without the character's noticing until it's too late. This can be achieved by them catching something out of the corner of their eye and going to investigate down a dark alley or into a wooded thicket. Maybe only one of them notices while they're having a wee. The object that catches their attention after a distraction of some sort disappears leaving them puzzled.

This leads me into content:what is scary doesn't have to be a monster or uber creature. In fact the less likely or more unexpected it is the scarier it will be. In D&D monsters are expected especially for the PCs who are often the heroes of the game world you're in. Using things that are less expected, a haunted doll (think Chucky) a Dreammaster (think Freddie Kruger) can all be highly effective even though their over all power is limited. How you present the content is also key,

Description plays a part in how the players perceive the scenes that you set up.

Pre-writing a scene can be very effective for this just so you can wrap your head around what you're going to tell them.

If say for example you had a gruesome murder scene instead of saying the sort of usual: "You see a girl, she's dead and bloody, some of her limbs are removed, the room is cluttered." Make it more detailed if not grossly so.

"You enter a room, the floor is caked with dirt and it's darkly lit by a few lanterns that cast deep narrow shadows across the floor and wooden walls. A red hue fills the space as you notice one of the lanterns is covered in a thin film of blood. A body is sprawled out in the far left corner opposite the door. It's a young girl, the girl you were looking for. Her mouth is agape and her pale blue grey skin seems damp as her lifeless eyes stare out and towards the wall to your right. Her dress is ripped open the front wool linen torn to shreds, long gash marks cut deeply into her bare chest . As your eyes move over her body the blood lust of the murder is even more apparent. Her stomach is lopped to the side and her intestines are bulging from her cut open abdomen. They're seeping that last bits of her last meal. A sick aroma wafts towards the door as your movement stirs the air and the dull smell of death you met before is replaced with a fresh smell of rot and decay."

If you can set up the scene in extreme detail you make the imagination pop.
However what that scene needs is the ultimate horror bit~

"As you approach her corpse in the room, the lights flicker and the sickening sound of breathing comes from the darkened corner. As you turn to the corner a man is huddled there, his skin is stained a dark black red, only his eyes stand out . He's trembling and anyone could see the bloody long knife that's still dripping blood in his hands. As you observe him a slight rustling comes from behind you, a twitch, a creek, you ignore it. One of you decides to check the corpse and as you turn the body has vanished. Your shift in position reveals the disappearance to the huddled man who without warning leaps out striking out at one of your companions...."

You could easily take it from there, though I've only supplied this to explain what I mean by description.

[Shadowknight12]

In brief:

You have to make them care. You can't scare them if they don't care.

[Xtomjames]

I don't know if it's about caring or not. You can scare a person even if they don't care. Its really about engrossing them into the story. The most evil of characters can be scared even if the character doesn't care.Its really about using psychology to get at the players. What a properly scary horror film does to make a person jump and scared in their seats is the same techniques you use to make a player scared in a D&D horror game.

[Shadowknight12]

I don't know if it's about caring or not. You can scare a person even if they don't care. Its really about engrossing them into the story. The most evil of characters can be scared even if the character doesn't care.Its really about using psychology to get at the players. What a properly scary horror film does to make a person jump and scared in their seats is the same techniques you use to make a player scared in a D&D horror game.

Analyse every single instance a person is scared and you can trace it back to them caring about something. When you jump at someone from inside a broom closet, you scare them because they care about their own well-being. When a person is engrossed in a story (regardless of the medium), they are scared because they care about the characters and/or the story.

[Amoren]

Throw in a Beholder Mage. My DM's been threatening to do that the past few days and it STILL sends shivers down my spine. xD

But anyway, on a more serious tone one 'horror' type scene I've been turning around in the back of my mind is based off of the necrotic cyst line of spells from... Either Libis Mortis or Heroes of Horror, one of the two. Except turn it from a line of spells into a plague that's starting in whatever town they're in. Symptoms of the plague start with the cyst (discomfort, pain), growth of the cyst (visibly), to the point it creates a basketball+ sized swelling on their body, and then finally pop - the victim explodes quite painfully (perhaps even slowly) and from their body's remains the cyst animates one of those... cyst spawn.

Infection is spread from contact with the cyst fluid (early stages), blood (later stages), shower of gore from explosion, or from touch attacks with the cyst spawn. For emphasis, have a character that sticks with them (perhaps a DM NPC character) contract the disease beforehand or in secret, and have them see the entire process from beginning to end.

Sure, it's pretty much a zombie apocalypse with cyst spawn instead, but I guarantee it'll be more horrific than the moaning dead. (Especially since cyst spawn should make disgusting, wet noises when they move about in vents and what not).

[JaronK]

Play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuAGIWxQD8s for them in the dark before things get started. Then have everyone sit around the table with just enough light to play by, and get to work.

JaronK

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Three words:

Weeping Angel Statues

They randomly appear and vanish with no discernible pattern. Any Dr. Who fan will be pissing his pants.

[Amoren]

Three words:

Weeping Angel Statues

They randomly appear and vanish with no discernible pattern. Any Dr. Who fan will be pissing his pants.

Hmmm, I think I was more scared of the gas masked child than I was the Weeping Angels... But still, a nice suggestion!

[NecroRick]

Thanks for the responses.

@NecroRick Hardy har har:smalltongue: Yeah, I laughed.

I'd prefer to stick to undead and aberrations.

For undead like Zombies I favour a rule that instead of them keeling over at 0 hit points (which is flat out stupid) they *start* at 0 hit points, and then keep going deeply into the negatives (*well* past -10). Feel free to add descriptions to the mega-damage the players do.
"16 damage eh? You slice of it's leg, it is still coming for you.
14 damage? Good good, you slice off an arm, but it picks up the arm to use as a weapon (doing more damage btw) and keeps coming for you.
A crit eh? There goes the head... but... guess what? It's still coming for you..."

[kharmakazy]

For undead like Zombies I favour a rule that instead of them keeling over at 0 hit points (which is flat out stupid) they *start* at 0 hit points, and then keep going deeply into the negatives (*well* past -10). Feel free to add descriptions to the mega-damage the players do.
"16 damage eh? You slice of it's leg, it is still coming for you.
14 damage? Good good, you slice off an arm, but it picks up the arm to use as a weapon (doing more damage btw) and keeps coming for you.
A crit eh? There goes the head... but... guess what? It's still coming for you..."

So... you give undead arbitrarily high HP? Is there a scale you use, or just whenever seems like a good time for them to die? (I rarely use actualy stat blocks for my monsters actually, and monster death tends to occur whenever I feel like they have been hit enough.)

[NecroRick]

So... you give undead arbitrarily high HP? Is there a scale you use, or just whenever seems like a good time for them to die? (I rarely use actualy stat blocks for my monsters actually, and monster death tends to occur whenever I feel like they have been hit enough.)

If you want it to be scary, you have to break out of the 'rules sandbox' where the players know the system (often better than the DM) and play it like a violin, which gives them a feeling of security.

You have to introduce atmosphere and uncertainty.

You have to make them a bit paranoid. <- this may not be a good thing

What if the players confront a bunch of the shambling undead and the Cleric steps up and turns them and nothing happens, but the DM says "you were 30% of the way there, gotta have *true* faith you know", and then the Cleric burns through his turn attempts...

...and on the last one he blasts the flesh off the zombies with a searing flash of light (think Sarah Conner's nightmares in Terminator 2) ...

and then the DM says "okay, now only the skeletons remain, so they're faster now..."

As for aberrations, the thing to do is to make up your own. No one who has memorised the stats block of a Mind Flayer is ever scared of them. If you're too low for their CR you just whinge and accuse the DM of being a right proper "so and so". If you're too high for their CR you just think "right, prevent brain from being eaten. *snerk* 'as if that would happen' ".

Note: difference between scared by a monster and the monster being dangerous. If you throw a Mind Flayer against a level 1 party, yes you'll get a TPK, but the players won't be *scared* they'll just be *angry* that you are so unfair.

[SgtCarnage92]

For creepy environmental music Midnight Syndicate is fantastic. :smallbiggrin:

As far as trying to scare them, we fear what we don't understand. If you give them information about what's going on, make it appear in a situation that only gives them more questions to be asked. You don't even have to be completely aware of the answers, you just have to get them asking questions. Also, try to have an idea what scares each of your players. If one of your players has a fear of spiders, make them fight giant spiders (or at least hint at the presence of them).

[Hiro Protagonest]

Roll a few dice behind your DM screen and ask for saving throws or spot and listen checks every once in a while.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Inspiration for some TRUE nightmare fuel (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/467287).

[Hiro Protagonest]

I got it! Put Candle Jack in th

[Gettles]

I've had the idea to try to worry a group by turning all their prep against them.

For example, lets say the party is set up to attack a blue dragon, a pretty standard scenario. They buff themselves up expecting to see a lot of electricity. Then, after the fight starts, they realize that the blue dragon is in fact a white dragon that has been using disguise self.

Something like that.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I've had the idea to try to worry a group by turning all their prep against them.

For example, lets say the party is set up to attack a blue dragon, a pretty standard scenario. They buff themselves up expecting to see a lot of electricity. Then, after the fight starts, they realize that the blue dragon is in fact a white dragon that has been using disguise self.

Something like that.

No no, it's an albino red dragon that they think is a white dragon. All that fire stuff that they got to deal double damage? Worthless.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Play Silent Hill 2's Haunted Music Box (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY-x8N_4eQc&feature=related)quietly on repeat in the background.

Also Swiftmongoose didn't Candle Jack just come for y

[Silus]

Don't hesitate to pull from stuff that is already there/has been done.

First campaign I ran was a horror game and I pulled pretty heavily from popular culture. The game was essentially a blend of 1408 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(film)), the Fable 3 Shadelight (http://fable.wikia.com/wiki/Shadelight) area and a dash of HP Lovecraft, all wrapped up in a nice reality warping, Genius Loci house on Carceri. By the end of the first session, I had the players begging to be able to fail their Listen checks (I wouldn't let them. Hehehe).

I found that the easiest way to scare them was by limiting their options a bit. Especially if you're using a sentient location or anything that can easily manipulate an environment, make it clear that the players are not in control.

For example, in my game, after everyone went to the second floor for the first time, the house sealed the doors and windows by bricking them up. So one guy was like "Ok, I break through the brick wall". He ended up coming back through another window elsewhere in the house. And later, when they thought they were out of the house, reality warps and BAM, they're back in the house.

Suspense, impending doom, the feeling that you are being watched/manipulated, all that jazz. Let your evil, sadistic side out =3

[ILM]

Keep it mysterious. The less answers you give, the more your players' imaginations work for you. Describe stuff for no particular reason, ask them to roll just for kicks, keep the gore for when it's really needed. Unnatural is what you want to go for rather than outright graphic violence and cheesy horror movie stuff ("oh god he's behind you!"). A dog with a small, extra limb; a house where all the doorframes are too low; lights that dim just a little when PCs get close; smoke that doesn't smell anything. The effect isn't instantaneous but it should weigh on them after a while. :smallsmile:

[Silus]

Keep it mysterious. The less answers you give, the more your players' imaginations work for you. Describe stuff for no particular reason, ask them to roll just for kicks, keep the gore for when it's really needed. Unnatural is what you want to go for rather than outright graphic violence and cheesy horror movie stuff ("oh god he's behind you!"). A dog with a small, extra limb; a house where all the doorframes are too low; lights that dim just a little when PCs get close; smoke that doesn't smell anything. The effect isn't instantaneous but it should weigh on them after a while. :smallsmile:

Like this sort of stuff? (Bits from my first campaign I ran)

"The house is abandoned, but all the gas lamps are lit and it seems they have been lit only recently."

"After you break through the plaster, you find a door. Upon opening it, you find a little girl's room. Though dusty, it's in good condition."

The closet
"As you push past the shelves of stuffed animals in the little girl's closet, you notice that the further back you go, the more sinister and horrifying the stuffed animals appear. Their eyes become huge and bloodshot and seem to follow you, and their once cheerful smiles have turned into snaggle-toothed cheshire cat grins. A few of them seem to be leaking a fluid not unlike blood, but it flows too slowly and looks to be the wrong shade. At the bak of the closet sits a small tea table and a pair of chairs. In the chair closest to you is the skeletal remains of what appears to be a human. Their skull rests on the table with a long, sharp kitchen knife going through one of their temples and out the other. In the other chair sits an obviously dead young girl. Upon closer inspection, her skin seems to be sewn together. In one hand she is holding a teacup, it's contents long since gone. In the other hand is a key, most likely to the locked door you passed in the hallway earlier. You reach for the key and manage to get it out of the girl's grip. As soon as it leaves her hand though, the lights go out and the closet is blunged into an inky blackness. It's at that time that you notice the stuffed animal's eyes glowing as they climb down off the shelves to attack you."

"The darkness in the basement is almost oppressive, as if it is trying to snuff out the light of your torches."

"The operating room was as you remembered it, with gurneys scattered about, each with a person, or what was once a person lying atop them. Tray tables covered in dried blood and medical instruments sit not far from their operating tables. However, this time, the room has taken on an unnatural twist--literally. The entire room has been corkscrewed, so what was once the floor at one end of the room is now the ceiling at the far end. What's more, all the gurneys and tables adhere to the "floor", as does the coin your comrade tosses down the hall. However, when your party makes their way slowly down the hallway, you adhere to "natural" gravity." (And messing with anything on the "ceiling" causes everything to revert to natural gravity)

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

If you have perceptive players mess with their sense of perception. This is especially good if you have a player who is very attentive to detail and likes to remember/write down, everything you say about things. Just move things around when they aren't looking. First the tea cup is here, now it is there.

Also well placed fogs and darkness can be helpful. If they set up a fire at night have something cast pyrotechnics on it to create a smoke cloud and just leave it at that. The fire is now out, they are in darkness and even if they could see in the dark they are blinded by the smoke.

[Taelas]

Three words:

Weeping Angel Statues

They randomly appear and vanish with no discernible pattern. Any Dr. Who fan will be pissing his pants.

Better yet, have them meet one Weeping Angel. Allow them a very tough battle to kill it.

Then put perfectly ordinary statues everywhere.

[HunterOfJello]

A few things that I've noticed my players get scared of:

-Using strange monsters from official sources that they've never heard of. The Fiend Folio is a great book for this and I'm sure you can find a few others that fit. My players really got weirded out by Ethergaunts that kept on popping in and out of the Material Plane to attack them. None of the players had heard of Ethergaunts, so when the emaciated humpbacked abberations started materializing all over the place shooting at them with force rays from glaives, taking over the PC's minds by simply showing them their faces, and finally kept resisting a large number of their spells, the Players were far less confident about their survival than they usually are.

-Another fun concept to use is time restraints. A pocketwatch or small hourglass works very well for this. After the PCs have encountered a problem with a built in time constraint, pull out the watch or hourglass and tell them they have the same amount of time to think of a solution as their characters do. Then, just stare at the watch/hourglass and ignore the players until they decide on a solution or their time runs out.

-One method that I don't use enough and need to remind myself to introduce more often is the inclusion of over-CRed threats to the PCs. Making sure that the players come across foes that are too difficult for them to handle by themselves or at their current level gives them something to strive for, encourages them to work hard at strengthening their characters, and works towards building a more interesting game setting.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Three words:

Weeping Angel Statues

They randomly appear and vanish with no discernible pattern. Any Dr. Who fan will be pissing his pants.

Indeed, the weeping angles are definitely a way to make your players try to long-range smash every statue you throw into a room. It is really funny watching them try not to blink in real life when you tell them that the angel is there.

[ClothedInVelvet]

One of the players has to put his hand in a tight place to retrieve a key or something. When he does so, he feels the cold touch of alien fingers brushing against his hand briefly, feeling it.


Any PC dumb enough to stick his hand in a tight place to retrieve a key deserves to lose at least three fingers.

Inevitability and uncertainty are the keys to this game. As they get deeper and deeper into the dungeon, they find the results of something really scary (half-eaten bodies, large scratches on the walls, etc) but can't find the thing. Then they find something that they can identify with, so they're suddenly seeing themselves as the victims instead of the hunters. Now they realize that their best hope is actually to flee, but now they're playing a game of cat and mouse. When they encounter the creature, they're no longer thinking "how can we kill it?" They're thinking "how can we get away?" They feel like they're trying to escape fate.

[Lord Loss]

Never make affirmations. If they ask you something, or you decribe something don't say "The room is empty" or "He's a friendly old man" say "The man looks friendly enough" or "The room appears to be empty".

[PollyOliver]

Three words:

Weeping Angel Statues

They randomly appear and vanish with no discernible pattern. Any Dr. Who fan will be pissing his pants.

A DM in a pbp I'm in did this actually, but they didn't move around (yet?).

[Doktor Per]

Don't do the weeping Angels, unless everyone there is a piss their pants Dr. Who fan. Otherwise it will just look like a stupid in-joke between you in the fandom. Which can wreck the horror you are trying to build. Also the angels are a known entity now.

[kharmakazy]

Gargoyles work though. Don't they get like +elevntybillion to hide while not moving or some such? Line every wall of a dungeon with statues. While deep into the place have one or two of them be alive. Occasioally have the players hear creaking sounds from the direction of a large amount of statues...:smallbiggrin:

They'll spend the next week smashing every statue in the building.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Don't do the weeping Angels, unless everyone there is a piss their pants Dr. Who fan. Otherwise it will just look like a stupid in-joke between you in the fandom. Which can wreck the horror you are trying to build. Also the angels are a known entity now.

I didn't say they had to be actual Weeping Angels... just statues that vanished whenever you took your eyes off of 'em. And then reappeared where no one was looking.

[Tengu_temp]

Any PC dumb enough to stick his hand in a tight place to retrieve a key deserves to lose at least three fingers.

In a dungeon, maybe. This thread is about a modern setting game, and last time I checked real life locations tend to not be trapped like crazy. Also, encouraging the approach of Tomb of Horror explorers who poke everything with a 10-foot pole taking a single step does not help with creating a scary atmosphere.

[AppleChips]

Uncertainty is the best way to keep them paranoid. Make sure you apply modifiers like "seems like", "appears to be", and "looks" so that even when there are just random decorations, the players keep on the defensive. Or, you could do the reverse, and use the modifiers so they appear the opposite of what it really is. The lights look like they were used recently, but upon a DC 20 spot check, they're just really bad candles.

[Karoht]

Ghosts.
Not all of them are enemies.
But you can spook players with them with two words.
"Roll Initiative"
Then, have the ghosts just win initiative. If there are 5 players, there are 5 ghosts. And they each fixate on individual players. And start moving in.
And while the party is worrying about what to do, the ghosts eventually catch up with them, and pass through them harmlessly.

Another suggestion, have lots of baddies utilize fear effects. Maybe it's just from their horrible visage, maybe it's a palpable, tangable aura of fear. Lots of Will saves to negate, easy ones.
If they save, they should get a temporary +2 to a stat for a short while, if they fail it's a -2. Very short duration, like a single combat, or 2 minutes, or a few rounds of combat. Nothing heavy duty, but something that says that their character has been at least shaken by what they have encountered, and a bonus if they succeed for shaking of the fear and showing some courage. It's a house rule I've used in the past to excellent effect. Players feel bolstered when they face their fears, they feel an impact when they don't face them.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I will say that D&D 3.5 is not the best system to play a horror game in. Too many ways to make your characters immune to fear effect (a simple Protection from Evil will do it), and too many ways to build characters that just won't be intimidated. And worse, when you start going outside the rules, your players will not be scared, they'll be pissed, with 'that's not the way the rules work' being the most common phrase. Backed up by tossing rule books in your face.

If your players know anything about 3.5, then use a different system. CoC works exceedingly well for this genre.

[Silus]

Another suggestion, have lots of baddies utilize fear effects. Maybe it's just from their horrible visage, maybe it's a palpable, tangable aura of fear. Lots of Will saves to negate, easy ones.
If they save, they should get a temporary +2 to a stat for a short while, if they fail it's a -2. Very short duration, like a single combat, or 2 minutes, or a few rounds of combat. Nothing heavy duty, but something that says that their character has been at least shaken by what they have encountered, and a bonus if they succeed for shaking of the fear and showing some courage. It's a house rule I've used in the past to excellent effect. Players feel bolstered when they face their fears, they feel an impact when they don't face them.

One word that shuts this down.

Paladin.

[Karoht]

One word that shuts this down.

Paladin.
Think outside the box just a bit.
I doesn't have to be a fear effect per se. Paladins don't shut down any and every effect which would cause a Will save.
Or better yet, call it a 'courage check' and base it off each players best stat or best save.

Bear in mind, it is not meant to be a crippling effect so when I did this I kept the DC's within about 60% chance that the players could beat it. It is more for flavor (it is saying to the player that something is shaking them enough that a roll of the dice is required), and the plus 2 to a stat (so granting a +1 bonus from that stat) temporarily (or minus) doesn't disrupt things either.

It worked excellently in about a level 3-6 campaign. After that the stat difference becomes negligable to the point where characters ignore it as a detail. I played with a bunch of people who would probably not be phased by seeing a dead body, and yet these people really got into the mood of it.

But hey, your mileage may vary.

[randomhero00]

OK first some points, remember, killing them off (making it very hard) does not make for a scary campaign. In fact, when I play in high death campaigns I tend to be a lot more detached.

Second, there's a big difference between paranoia (asking them to roll at random times) and scary.

How to scare them then? That's a difficult question without knowing them. Try to find their fears. This might be easier than you think.

First make everything creepy. Like a monster doesn't just run over, it glides without noise, its eyes are white, and its smell is putrid.

Second, break taboos. Undead children for example.

Third, things need a dark, creepy history. Don't just slay the bad guy cause he's evil, murder that SOB because he tortured women and stole and ate their organs while they were still alive. That kind of thing.

Once you have a basis for fear, THEN start throwing in paranoia.

Fourth, make their characters seem as human as possible. The less invincible they seem the more human they seem and the more fear possible.

[Mastikator]

The unknown is scary, so is their imagination, give them only clues about the horrors that lurk in the darkness, let them imagine what it looks like and what it'll do to their bodies after it has killed them.

[Anderlith]

Demonic cult is a basement or cave, the cultist are surrounding an alter & chanting & cutting themselves, a pregnant woman lays on the alter naked, as the players walk in & before they decide to do anything, a priest in dark robes cuts open her stomach & a swarm of rats/beetles/locusts/bats or other vermin, bust from her & swarm towards the party. Make sure that the swarm is not too high of a ECL for them to take on with the cultists themselves. (You could have the cultists just flee or suicide during the ritual if they are too much of a ECL when added with the swarm monster) That should supply them with some nightmare fodder.

[Karoht]

If you're going to borrow a detective vibe, have the trail run cold. Ice cold.
People would rather kill themselves than speak of the unspeakable horror that is coming and their involvement in bringing it here. By the time you can actually question someone they are already lost in madness, or are reaching for an impliment, not to defend themselves with, but to off themselves with.
Heck, even the fanatical cultists who are responsible for the unspeakable horror are starting to fear it, and realize how big a mistake they have made.
Look at Lord Blackwood in the Sherlock Holmes film, and how he used fear and mysticism as his greatest tool of all.

...and if they crazies are afraid of it, that sends a message to the players.

[Mystic Muse]

I will say that D&D 3.5 is not the best system to play a horror game in. Too many ways to make your characters immune to fear effect (a simple Protection from Evil will do it), and too many ways to build characters that just won't be intimidated. And worse, when you start going outside the rules, your players will not be scared, they'll be pissed, with 'that's not the way the rules work' being the most common phrase. Backed up by tossing rule books in your face.

If your players know anything about 3.5, then use a different system. CoC works exceedingly well for this genre.

Normally, you'd be right, but here's the thing. I'm the one that makes their sheets.:smallamused:

[TOZ]

Feed them false/conflicting information about their surroundings.

Have only one character spot something.

In Shackled City, Secrets of the Soul Pillars, the spellweaver ruins had embedded coffins in the floor containing spellweavers held in statis.

Every couple minutes, I'd call for spot checks, and pick one player at random. I'd pass them a note saying 'You see a hand run across the lid' or 'The body below you thrashes and opens its mouth in a silent scream'. And no one else would see it.

Had my players seriously creeped out at the place. You can adapt this easily to any game. Have the party spot someone pass the doorway of the room their in, then find no one when they charge through. Have one character feel something drip on him, but find nothing when he checks it. Things that don't make sense.

The unknown is the best way to frighten someone.

[NecroRick]

They'll spend the next week smashing every statue in the building.

Well, that is exactly the problem with paranoia.

If you feel that your players don't do enough prep, if they are the just barge in and "lootz teh templez" types then yes, crank up the paranoia level a little.

If your players already do enough prep, then cranking up the paranoia will *increase* the amount of prep they do. As the amount of prep goes up, so do the arguments, and also the number of encounters per session drops.

Do you really want to have a game where the players sit around and argue with each other, coming up with more and more ridiculously overcomplicated plans, and then picking holes in each other's plans, while the number of actual encounters drops down to roughly one every three sessions? If so... by all means, crank up the paranoia levels.

*I* wouldn't consider it fun, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

[Flame of Anor]

Well, that is exactly the problem with paranoia.

If you feel that your players don't do enough prep, if they are the just barge in and "lootz teh templez" types then yes, crank up the paranoia level a little.

If your players already do enough prep, then cranking up the paranoia will *increase* the amount of prep they do. As the amount of prep goes up, so do the arguments, and also the number of encounters per session drops.

Do you really want to have a game where the players sit around and argue with each other, coming up with more and more ridiculously overcomplicated plans, and then picking holes in each other's plans, while the number of actual encounters drops down to roughly one every three sessions? If so... by all means, crank up the paranoia levels.

*I* wouldn't consider it fun, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

The answer to this is don't let them have their safe, uninterrupted prep. They want to buy stuff? The shopkeepers that sell them things are dying right and left. They go back to their base to regroup? No, they don't--either there's a time limit, or they keep losing their way, or all their stuff is gone, or who-knows-what is on fire, you know the deal.