Horror games, and why (I think) I have issues running them

[ArqArturo]

Now that Halloween is coming, there's always the time for a horror story.

I've tried time, and time again, to make a horror D&D story (whether is in 3.5 or Pathfinder), but time and time again, it always comes to the same problem: Players get angry at how the style of game is ran (at one point one of my players threw my sheet and told me to keep it... That sucked because he's a dear friend of mine).

I guess part of my problem is that I influence my horror games from Lovecraft and Poe just a tad bit too much. I haven't used the mythos trope just yet, except maybe for the Yellow Sign. I love the idea of hopelessness, and futile victories, and maybe that's part of the problem, because most of the time, my friends like to feel like the fantasy version of rambo, cutting through swaths of horrors.

That being said, how do you run a horror game in which players actually feel a bit of tension?.

[CRtwenty]

That being said, how do you run a horror game in which players actually feel a bit of tension?.

You need to threaten them in ways they can't roll their way out of. Keep them constantly on alert for threats that only rarely materialize. You know how the scariest parts of horror movies are usually before you actually see the monster? That's how you need to run things. Let them find traces of the monster, see what its done to its victims, give them conflicting information so they're not entirely sure what they're actually dealing with etc.

Also d20 is not a system that's well suited to horror games. It's a system that empowers characters. Look at systems specifically designed for horror like Call of Cthulhu or Little Fears. One of the main things they do is give you a character that's ill equipped to deal with the threats you're facing. The monsters are big, scary, and don't follow the same rules you do, and are immune to almost everything you have. The few weapons you do have come at a horrible cost to your character making using them almost as dangerous as the thing you're using them against.

[ArqArturo]

I've been thinking also in using the nwod system. I've ran a Changeling game for the last months (that was put on ice because of reasons) and there were some parts that my players looked at me like if I just kicked a bag of puppies :smallfrown:.

[Irk]

I'm planning on doing something similar, and it is very difficult. Honestly, It kinda depends on the players as well. You REALLY need to make sure that the story is perfectly engaging, which can take a great deal of effort. The one I;m doing is going to take place in a city, so while investigating ill have them run into cultists and such, that way investigation can be blended with combat.
The people I'm playing with actually would kinda appreciate this kinda campaign though, so its hard to say how to do it right.

Here's an idea, you could maybe send them to the far realms. That's pretty Lovecraftian, and will definitely appeal to the Rambo mentality that we are all to familiar with. However, you can still induce a sense of hopelessness perhaps by describing the greater monstrosities that writhe beneath them as they fight beings of inconsequential nature, making no true dent in the innumerable and horrific forces of this twisted plane.
You could also do the classic enter an old tomb mummy kinda thing.
I'm not really sure, it's kind of a difficult thing to do as I mentioned above.
You could also look at heroes of horror.

Anyway, that's my advice, but good luck, those can be awesome if you can pull them off!

[Irk]

Oh! you could run a call of cthulu game! it is a different system, but it is horror oriented, seems like what you could be looking for. Just watch out for old man Henderson (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Old_Man_Henderson).

[ArcturusV]

I presume you mean Later Rambo rather than Original Rambo. Because Original Rambo could play very well to the Survival Horror genre. I mean he's basically someone who already lost SAN in a hopeless situation which he (in part) created, and the more "victories" he earned the worse it was going to be.

As opposed to the later "I kill an entire base with just a bow and a knife" Rambo.

As is, there's a few things which a DnD group should be used to that plays into the idea of horror at the start. Chief of which is an assumption that is very basic to DnD (Though not universal to RPing necessarily), that you can and will lose if you mess up.

If you play Kid Gloves DnD though where you purposefully build adventures so no one can ever lose, characters can't die, and even if they mess up they are somehow just KOd and kidnapped to escape from prison 15 minutes later... they might forget that basic premise. And if you lost that basic premise, it's almost impossible to do a Horror game. I don't know if that's a problem at your table. But between the suggestion of playstyle (Mowing down mooks as an avatar of death, who really don't stand a chance against you as you can sit out in the open saying "come and get me" and they won't stand a chance), and the Ragequit mentioned... I thought there was a possibility that might be the case. It's a way to play the game. RPGA apparently runs on that theory from what I've heard. But you can't really do a horror game when you're softballing people.

Presuming "You can lose" isn't a problem. Then that suggests the next level of problem is one of storytelling and pacing. If you do it right, even "futile" victories will still work for players. See things like... banishing some Demon Lord. You can't kill him. He's effectively immortal. He has millenia to effectively wait out the heroes and come back later. But it's still a VICTORY if you banish him. You still stopped the current rampage. Even if you had to kill yourselves to do it in some MacGuffin Ritual, and the seal is only going to last 100 years? Still a victory. Means generations can exist without being under the heel of a demon lord in unending torment.

But if you do it CoC style where "... even if you kill him he comes back 10 minutes later... and you're not too gibbering insane to do anything about it or even realize it's happening..." level of Futile Victory, that can be a problem.

Course like a lot of problems some of this is just solved by the simple expedient of talking to the players outside the game. "Hey guys, I'm making a horror themed campaign. This means that you guys CAN fail. And that even if you succeed, it probably won't be all roses and champagne. You interested?"

Because one of the worst things for a player (And I've seen this before) is not find out they're in a horror campaign until after they played, and failed already.

[CRtwenty]

Oh! you could run a call of cthulu game! it is a different system, but it is horror oriented, seems like what you could be looking for. Just watch out for old man Henderson (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Old_Man_Henderson).

Old Man Henderson only worked because the GM in question was a Tool. :smallamused:

[wayfare]

Another way to keep things tense is to eliminate the binary nature of win/loss often seen in RP. For example:

Yes, there is a demon haunting the town, but it is a vengeance demon conjured by the dreams of a child who watched the beloved cleric murder his family because they worshipped different gods. Killing the boy will banish the demon, as will killing the cleric. But the boy is basically innocent, and the cleric is beloved and moving against him will rile the whole town. Is teh party willing to stand up for what is right, even if it means their reputation will take a beating. Even if innocents will come to the aid of a murderous cleric.

[Red Fel]

There was an excellent discussion of ideas for a horror campaign in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307779). (Disclaimer: I contributed heavily. And awesomely.)

Ultimately, futility is the style of Lovecraftian horror. It is terrifying because it is hopeless and bleak. Players don't generally play D&D for that.

D&D is, at its core, a combat engine. You can do other things with it, and they can be engaging and crazy fun, but most players aren't going to work all the way to level 20 for the awesome Diplomacy checks. They're going to do it for the action. They're going to do it for the victories. They're going to do it because they want to be Big D*** Heroes.

So step away from bleak and hopeless, and explore another vein of horror - the Unknown.

The key to such a campaign, first and foremost, is atmosphere. The mood should be tense. There should be pressure, and a keen sense that something is amiss. Don't rely on monsters or blatantly supernatural phenomena, however; mundane means are far more effective. For example, torches blowing in a sudden gust of wind at a key point. The distant rumble of thunder. Shadows around a corner.

Put your players in an uncomfortable situation from which they cannot simply walk away. Then start dropping perfectly explainable coincidences, like the ones above, on them. Have them make random spot and listen checks, most of which reveal absolutely nothing. Make them paranoid.

Then, slowly, start revealing real things. Blood stains. Distant screams. Some of these will have perfectly explainable causes - for example, a butcher cut himself on a knife. Harmless. Others may have no explanation at all - when the players arrive, there's nobody there.

Ultimately, there must be something. Make it something sinister, but something that can be, if not completely destroyed, at least sealed/delayed. Give the players a victory. But not before scaring them out of their wits.

Any adventure where the players will never trust another little girl / shadowy merchant / puppy / jovial baker is a successful horror story.

[Hiro Protagonest]

These players like being filthy rich murderhobos?

Hand them little fortune-cookie style slips at the start of each session. At first, they're hints for what comes ahead. Later, they reflect on what they've done. Tell them it's their Spec Ops The Line loading screen.

If you want to run a horror game with action hero players, that's how you do it. And if they all get up and leave before the campaign ends, know that you succeeded.

[ArqArturo]

I'm actually getting some interesting ideas ant tips, and maybe doing a low magic one shot horror game in PF might do the trick. Here's also another tip a friend gave me, but I'm not so sure if they'll agree: Premade characters, and to add the element of surprise, they roll to see which characters they get, but this would be more of a way to see how to get them out of their comfort zone. So here's a general rundown of the players (not that they're boxed in the cliches and styles of play, but 8 times out of 10, it comes like this).

1.- One that loves playing female characters (and does a crapful of double entendre jokes), and enjoys grappling.

2.- Player that enjoys RPing the Big Dumb fighter 1

3.- Player that enjoys RPing the Big Dumb fighter 2

4.- The disruptive I-did-not-mean-to-cause-a-TPK player

5.- Book eater (really, give him a rulebook and he will learn it. He's actually a nice guy and helps me from time to time with the mechanics) that, surprisingly, is the optimizer.

6.- The Heroic player.

7.- The Chess player (loves spellcasters and/or ranged combat).

[Irk]

Make them ALL play commoners, and see which ones take chicken infested.
Seriously though, you could have them start off with commoner, as if they were just regular people, and then their next level could be an actual class or something, as if they were normal people who were just sucked in to a horrifying scenario, and eventually gained experience in certain areas by handling said scenario.

[ArqArturo]

I was thinking something like that. Make them all starting commoners, maybe one guy is a blacksmith, another runs the tavern and knows to play an instrument or two, another is learning from the town's healer, another is just starting militia training, and then someone says that they saw a dragon last night, swimming in the ocean.

Then someone mentions that there hasn't been a word from a nearby town. The local lord sends scouts (one of the players, maybe?) to investigate, and they only find a sacked town, and a huge axe just smashed in the town's church.

Did I mention I might place them at the start of the Viking Age? :smallbiggrin:. Could I make Vikings scary?.

[Grinner]

If you can, don't use D&D. As the others have already said, it's a skirmish game with an afterthought skill system. It's not made for what you're trying to do.

Personally, the best game I've seen for horror is Dread. The core resolution mechanic relies on players pulling bricks from a Jenga tower, brick by brick, and when the tower falls, somebody dies. Suspense is built right into the game.

[ArqArturo]

These players like being filthy rich murderhobos?

Hand them little fortune-cookie style slips at the start of each session. At first, they're hints for what comes ahead. Later, they reflect on what they've done. Tell them it's their Spec Ops The Line loading screen.

If you want to run a horror game with action hero players, that's how you do it. And if they all get up and leave before the campaign ends, know that you succeeded.

Stuff like "one of the players is intending to murder you" pre-game?.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Stuff like "one of the players is intending to murder you" pre-game?.

No, standard video game "X is the most effective weapon against Y" stuff.

I am honestly not sure whether I should recommend you play Spec Ops: The Line...

[Red Fel]

I'm actually getting some interesting ideas ant tips, and maybe doing a low magic one shot horror game in PF might do the trick. Here's also another tip a friend gave me, but I'm not so sure if they'll agree: Premade characters, and to add the element of surprise, they roll to see which characters they get, but this would be more of a way to see how to get them out of their comfort zone. So here's a general rundown of the players (not that they're boxed in the cliches and styles of play, but 8 times out of 10, it comes like this).

1.- One that loves playing female characters (and does a crapful of double entendre jokes), and enjoys grappling.

2.- Player that enjoys RPing the Big Dumb fighter 1

3.- Player that enjoys RPing the Big Dumb fighter 2

4.- The disruptive I-did-not-mean-to-cause-a-TPK player

5.- Book eater (really, give him a rulebook and he will learn it. He's actually a nice guy and helps me from time to time with the mechanics) that, surprisingly, is the optimizer.

6.- The Heroic player.

7.- The Chess player (loves spellcasters and/or ranged combat).

A solidly-built horror session(s) functions well regardless of player archetypes. The players could be commoners, knights, archmages, even their own regular, familiar characters.

Apart from the encounter at the end, you want there to be a minimum of combat. Combat is distracting. Thus, the combat archetypes will have to learn to do other things, at least for purposes of a good horror game. (Note that players in it for a hack-and-slash session may not enjoy true horror, as it should not rely on hack-and-slash mechanics for satisfaction.) Similarly, your scouts, diviners, and such will receive too many false-positives and half-truths to be effective. Your rules players will be encountering flavor, not rules - their encyclopedic knowledge will not avail them. In short, solid horror should give the players the sensation of powerlessness without the sensation of futility, not by robbing them of their powers, but by forcing them to focus on more mundane solutions. At least for awhile.

That said, a good horror campaign will definitely test your players' ability to roleplay. If they are the types to get impatient and start blowing things up, your campaign will crumble apart as they simply demolish everything. (After all, how many Call of Cthulhu campaigns end before they begin if a player adopts the philosophy of "burn every book, burn down every creepy mansion, and stab anyone who speaks any language I've never heard"?) So make sure your players are willing and able to play along.

Your first step should be to decide on a setting. I don't just mean high or low magic, 3.5 or PF, Realms or Ravenloft; I mean a specific venue to set the scene. Perhaps an abandoned castle or a cabin in the woods. Perhaps a party in a small mansion. Perhaps a fortified keep preparing for a siege. Perhaps simply a tumble-down village in the middle of a drought. Pick a location for your scenario.

Next, come up with an ultimate outcome. Is there demonic influence? An undead plague? An evil cult? A monster in the woods?

Next, compile a (massive) list of red herrings you intend to throw at the players. The key is misdirection - when they no longer trust their senses, when they no longer know what is truly dangerous and what is simply coincidence, fear of the unknown will start to overtake them, ICly and OOCly. Making the players afraid is how to make the characters afraid, and that's the heart of horror.

Why do we jump at horror films? Because we don't know what's around that next corner. We know it could be nothing, it could be something, or it could be something that intends to kill us. But we know that we have to turn the corner anyway; we can't simply leave it unknown. That's the emotion you want to evoke.

[tasw]

I love horror games.

The trick is to have mystery, something is going wrong, people are going missing etc and they have to be found.

Use the ethereal plane. If your players are fairly low level they wont be able to easily explore it or move back and forth, so have some suitably fairy tale way for them to do so. Mushroom rings or something.

I'm going to run one this weekend using phase spiders working for drow attacking an isolated outpost in the middle of a horrible blizzard that traps the town.

The twist is gonna be that the Drow arent really the bad guys, they are the good god worshipping drow and are actually trying to take out evil priestess of Shar whose disguising herself as a priestess of Selune with magic.

Her healing comes with a slow acting curse that twists the natural magical essence of the target (i always play where all living things have some level of magic energy, like the force) and turns it slowly into shadow weave energy instead as part of a greater plot by a whole caball of them through the heartland working to destabilize the weave and weaken the good casters of the elven court and dalelands to make it rife for conquest.

The drow dont really care about either of those places but the weave being unmade weakens their magic too.

.... or I might do that next week and do a traditional vampire hunt this time. Depends on which direction the players go in to cash in their loot from the last adventure. Which is occasionally the ***** with a sandbox game.

[ArcturusV]

Or (not to be contrary to Fel, as he has good stuff there), one way you can do it is to have a horror campaign where Combat happens, it exists, you plow through mooks, etc. But it's not the way you solve the final conflict. I find this works better when you're talking DnD.

Bump up the "rank and file" encounters in difficulty more than you'd normally do. If you'd throw 6 CR 2 enemies at the characters, throw 8 CR 3 ones instead. Things like that. This makes the combat more deadly, more likely to drain resources or kill players. Combat should be something they don't really want to do. But an option that exists when they can't think of anything else. In particular you want to enter the mindset for horror of "We stack the deck as far in our favor as we can before we ever roll initiative". You want the challenges set up so that your girl there doesn't just charge grapple without a thought beyond "I wonder what grapple joke I can make this time".

You want them feeling like they can die in any combat. Not because you're cheating... but because the odds are stacked against them. The enemies are smart, dangerous, AND powerful. They use intelligent tactics, prey of fears, adapt to the players and have unusual abilities and defenses.

Do NOT use things out of the monster manuals if you can help it. Particularly with the "book eater" around. If you break out bog standard monsters, it doesn't approach horror. It becomes a combat simulation instead. When monsters are strange, unknowable, and you're never quite certain what they might be able to do... then you get the first inklings of horror.

Having the end boss set up so he can't just be stabbed to death is a common theme in horror adventures. Excepting the original Dracula (Who was killed by a knife stabbing, seriously), it tends to be Plot MacGuffins. Ancient Rituals, forgotten items of power, etc. These are the methods of dealing with your horror of horrors. If the solution is "There is no secret, just attack him" (Like Dark Falz as the story goes), then it serves as being anticlimatic. Particularly if every problem up to that point involved NOT fighting, or having to outthink enemies.

EDIT:

One additional thought. You don't have to be "powerless" to have Horror. You can have horror at basically any level that your players aren't so Optimized that they are basically immune to any plot they don't want to be a part of.

But I would suggest avoiding the "You have to be evil" plots, where you have to choose between various levels of suckage. 1) Paladins and other alignment based characters are a thing. No one likes feeling like their Paladin, or Good Aligned Cleric, etc, is basically being fed an "Autofall Scenario". 2) Even if you don't have people playing that... some people like to feel heroic. They like there to be a POSSIBILITY of some other option. It may be hard, it may not work necessarily. But there should be a high road. At the very least there are people who just HATE games where they are forced to butcher children and basically be a **** because the DM didn't give them any other choice.

[rockdeworld]

Edit: Because I see a lot of weird opinions in this thread, let me reiterate this: D&D does not naturally do horror. If you want to run a horror game, you can not run it like a normal D&D game. You can play D&D and do horror, but you can't just run an adventure and expect players to get scared (I've tried).


The trick is to have mystery
Exactly this. We as an audience - which your players are, if you're crafting a horror story - have to be interested in order to be scared. You have to invoke that magical feeling of curiosity before you can make them feel anything like apprehension, nervousness, or horror. To scare people, you have to get them out of hack/slash mode, and into the mode you want them to be in: uneasiness, uncertainty, and a need to know more. Only once they're in that mode, then you can make them feel fear. And then, only if the object of fear is worth being afraid of.

D&D can do this, but not in the normal way. Ghouls (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110401013824/amnesia/images/4/43/Gatherer.jpg) and things from the BOVD (http://www.treadwells-london.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Slenderman-irl.jpg) can be scary, but in regular play that usually comes across as "you see a monster. Roll a will save vs. fear." Obviously, that does nothing for your players. In real fiction, the monster is always so incredibly stronger than the victims that it's unstoppable. The victims can't fight, they can only run. In other words, what we call an unfair encounter in a D&D game (like a demilich vs a commoner) is what we'd call horror in real life. And D&D doesn't pull that off well, so it takes work on your part if you want to try it.

Here (http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/9614082/)'s a decent read. This (http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/9929866/) guide is specifically for d&d. In fact, TG has a bunch to say on this subject.

PFS actually has a really good scenario that I loved playing through, called Day of the Demon. If run right (and changing some of the encounters to be scarier and less lame), you can freak people out with it.

Ultimately, it's up to you to create atmosphere. If you're charismatic enough, you can pull it off. If you stall for long periods of time to look up rules, and don't connect with your players, you won't. The good news for you if you do those bad things is that you can get better with practice.

Sorry I couldn't find the specific story I was looking for. Search TG if you want - they have some great ones.

[TuggyNE]

In real fiction, the monster is always so incredibly stronger than the victims that it's unstoppable. The victims can't fight, they can only run. In other words, what we call an unfair encounter in a D&D game (like a demilich vs a commoner) is what we'd call horror in real life. And D&D doesn't pull that off well, so it takes work on your part if you want to try it.

One of the reasons D&D is so bad at this is because running is, even if one is badly outmatched, usually a worse idea than just staying to fight.

[georgie_leech]

I've run a few fairly successful horror games in the past, and while it's more difficult with action-oriented success-driven players, it can still be done. With D&D, I find that campaigns are difficult to make really scary, so my D&D horror adventures tend to be one-shots. My advice is written with that in mind.

First, I try to make sure the game itself takes place somewhere that doesn't jar with the mood too much. I usually achieve this by having a single table used for the game, using a light that illuminates the table well but leaves most of the room shadowed, or ideally, completely dark. It may be subtle, but I find it helps to keep the emphasis on the horror if you have fewer distractions like TV's (even shut down ones) in view, and it contributes to a sense of isolation that primes people for being scared. Likewise, food and snacks tend to be out of sight for the actual game. Because nothing says horror like Doritos.

Next, I make sure that I have a good grasp of what experiences/situations my players will encounter. While that's good advice for any adventure, I find that horror is a lot harder to improvise than other moods. To me, an out-of-place element like a weird random encounter or an inappropriate PC kills horror.

Another thing I find useful is the passing of notes. If there's anything one PC would recognise that the others wouldn't, I pass a note. If a player wants to try something without discussing it first, I have them pass a note instead of announcing it. If a player appears to be tuning out, a quick note reading "You think you saw something moving outside the window" after you roll a meaningless d20 is a good way to get them paying attention again. This helps keep a sense of mystery, as players know that things are going on they don't necessarily know about.

In terms of combat, I prefer to use it sparingly. A lot of the time, actually having a concrete target to swing at empowers the players, which can be good for a break, but it also keeps things from actually being scary. I prefer my combat encounters to impress a kind of urgency, so if I have, say, a zombie encounter, it won't be because some zombies need to be slain but because they're acting as an obstacle to some other objective. I also prefer my combats to always have some degree of risk. To me, a combat that the PC's feel safe in is counter to the horror experience. That isn't to say they have to be physically dangerous on their own; I ran an encounter with nothing but endless weak, 1hd zombies that could easily be cut down. The trick was that they did nothing but try and grapple the PC's, as they were trying to escape from a much nastier monster they knew was coming, so if they didn't find a way to deal with them, they'd be slowed down enough for the bigger monster to catch up.

One of the most useful tools I've found for horror is proper music selection. Whether hectic or subtle, good music can reinforce the mood so that even ordinary situations become scarier. For instance, I used this music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=029GLL15qig) to turn what was a fairly pedestrian rune puzzle/riddle into a rather frantic event as the Paladin struggled to hold the door closed against hordes of undead as the Wizard struggled to decipher the passage on the wall to figure out how to open the next door. Music Boxes are also fantastic, if you can find a music box track that is just a little too quick to be relaxing.

I also try to keep my players guessing, by changing elements they expect to find. This is pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it, but a good place to start is, say, if they're exploring a spooky house, to move furniture around in rooms they've already been in. You don't need to draw attention to it, just put it in, and the more astute players will notice and will probably say something.

Finally, implied threats are almost always better than real ones. If left to their own imaginations, people will almost always scare themselves better than you can, just because they know what scares themselves better than you do. It also leaves mystery, and again, the unknown tends to be a good way to leave people unsettled. In my last adventure, taking place in a haunted manor of unknown origin, one of the early rooms was a dining hall with a set of candles that had ghostly blue flames. Each time they returned to the room, one of the candles was burnt out. My players never knew what that meant, but they knew something bad would happen if they all went out, so they were always conscious of how much time it took them to explore. It also forced them to actually think about the mystery presented to them, instead of using the adventure game standby of using every item on everything else.

[Raven777]

No, standard video game "X is the most effective weapon against Y" stuff.

I am honestly not sure whether I should recommend you play Spec Ops: The Line...

Just go read the TvTropes article about it. It does a good job of describing what makes it interesting. Basically, think Apocalypse Now : The Game.

[Chester]

Keep them constantly on alert for threats that only rarely materialize. You know how the scariest parts of horror movies are usually before you actually see the monster? That's how you need to run things.

This.

I ran a few adventures where the undead played a major part. The party, without specific details as to what the undead entailed, ended up avoiding the area.

Just don't make the mistake I did: I left that threat in one area only, so once they avoided it, the tension vanished.

[Amphetryon]

Threaten things the PCs care about, or that play on the sympathies of the Players, in ways they can't immediately solve. For an off-the-cuff example, have one child in town disappear during the night, leaving nothing but bloody bed sheets. Have this repeat every night while the PCs gather up clues. Make the townsfolk blame the PCs for their inability to immediately fix the problem and/or return the children, and make the townsfolk get a little more desperate and paranoid as each night passes.

In theory, a situation like the above allows for a victory for the PCs (allowing the murderhobo hero complex to be sated), while creating a growing sense of dread and hopelessness.

The other common suggestion to running horror games is to have common things be ever so slightly off: friendly dogs start biting their owners; children refuse to go play in the old orchard; birds all stop singing whenever the wind blows from a certain direction. You get the idea.

[Red Fel]

Here (http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/9614082/)'s a decent read. This (http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/9929866/) guide is specifically for d&d. In fact, TG has a bunch to say on this subject.

These links make some really good points. I'd also like to emphasize the use of passing notes. (Admittedly, I'm a fan of notes not only in horror games, but in regular games - why should one character being aware of something automatically make everyone else aware?) Passing notes makes the players who don't get them paranoid - what does this guy know? What's he going to do? And is he telling us the truth when he reads it to us? (You can make a rule that people aren't allowed to show other players the contents of a note, but may discuss them.) It also makes the players who receive them paranoid. Did I actually see/do what this note says, or is it all a trick? Will the other players trust me? Is my character going crazy?

I'll acknowledge that Arcturus has a point with regard to combat. (Arcturus makes a lot of good points on this subject. Listen well!) It doesn't have to be the last encounter, and there should be some combat. But I emphasize again that it cannot be the focus of your session. When horror focuses on combat, it becomes familiar; it becomes safe. When that happens, you lose your atmosphere. Horror is about keeping your players away from comfort, away from the familiar. In some ways, D&D is perfect for horror, specifically because it's so ill-suited to it.

And let me quality the safety issue. Don't make it constant tension, but near-constant tension. Think of your average horror movie. (Ideally, an above-average horror movie, but we'll take what we can get.) Even when the protagonist is sneaking through the clearly-haunted mansion, there's a serial killer lose someplace and two of her friends are already very dead, there will be at least one moment of levity. One moment where she turns a corner, gasps, and sees - a puppy or something. She breathes a sigh of relief.

You need those moments of decompression. If you keep escalating the tension, continuously, it becomes mundane. It becomes tedious. But by breaking the tension, even for a moment, you can come back to it, make it more profound.

After they see the puppy and breath their sigh of relief, maybe have a chuckle, have them roll listen. A scream is heard elsewhere in the mansion. When they arrive, there's another fresh corpse, its throat ripped open. A hunched, gaunt figure stands in the window. For one brief, terrifying moment, its face is illuminated by a flash of lightning, revealing slitted, serpentine eyes, sharklike pointed teeth, and blood running down its chin. Then it leaps from the window, and is gone.

[DarkWhisper]

Players get angry at how the style of game is ran

I'm not sure this has been mentioned already, but even if it has, it's essential enough to repeat.

Make sure the players want to play a horror game.

No matter how good your horror-fu is, if the players don't want to play a horror game, it won't succeed; horror games depend on the players being willing for their characters to feel fear, horror and terror.
A group of players that prefer an easy, kick-the-door-in style of game without moral dilemmas and are not willing or ready to get into a horror game... won't.

[ArqArturo]

Well, they do ask me every once in a while to run X type of game, horror is a style we enjoy once in a while, but I'm a real novice about it.

[NichG]

Part of the thing about a horror game is that the mindset to enjoy it has to be so different. Getting attached to your character, making it about your character, etc is counterproductive to actually enjoying a horror game (it may be effective in making you 'feel something' from the horror, but its not generally a good result).

Instead, try to encourage the players to see the characters as already dead/lost/etc. Maybe even take the uncertainty out, and make the narrative be all past-tense coming from 'the one survivor' or something. Basically, make the players feel like they're watching the characters more than they are the characters, and they will be a little less sore when bad stuff they can't prevent happens to the characters. The game becomes less about 'what can I do in this situation?' (which leads to a lot of frustration when the answer is 'nothing really') and more about exploring the situation itself.

Maybe one gimmick would be to, say, have 10 people in the situation for 5 players, and each player can 'pick' someone to run for a given scene out of the 10. So its more like 'well, I just got Jim killed' rather than 'well, I just got killed'.

I dunno, I haven't tried any of these things, but it seems like it might help acclimate players who are taking the hopelessness of the horror game too personally to enjoy it.

[ArcturusV]

Well, a lot of it just comes form the mindset and the knowledge of storytelling.

Things important that we've touched on so far:

Avoid the familiar. Horror depends on putting people out of the familiar. Interestingly this is something DnD is SUPPOSED to do. Delving into unfamiliar dungeons, where you're never sure if that thing is a treasure chest, or a mimic. If that's your buddy Quinn, or a Doppleganger who assumed his form last time he was alone on watch. If that item is a +5 Doomageddon Longsword of Awesome, or a cursed Berserker Blade. Things that were built into DnD long, long ago and have mostly been pushed aside by the time third came around. But those elements are still in the game. Avoiding bog standard monsters and enemies, established scenarios, and knowing your own game group and putting them in situations that they never deal with otherwise (e.g.: Making the murder hobos have to give something back, or protect something, etc, instead of just mass murdering).

Atmosphere is king. More so than any other game. Use of good, spooky, or just unsettling imagery and descriptions gets you miles and miles of coverage in a horror campaign. If I'm running a Murder Fest, Gauntlet Arcade style campaign, I probably won't waste too much time describing the bland grey dungeon of monster spawning, and instead focus on layout and the loot they are getting, or the details of combat. But horror builds on paranoia and unrest. And part of that is just maintaining a spooky atmosphere. The lack of information (Dark, tight corners, blind spots, etc) helps. Divinations being less reliable really helps if your players depend on it, with cryptic answers, or doom and gloom responses being standard, or even just nonsensical gibberish. Having signs of things that are going on being discovered pays off more than just discovering something. The scream in the distance, the faint sound of whispered songs in the dark, seeing a trail of wet footprints miles away from any water source, etc. Little details like that, especially if you call them out, will build up tension a lot more than throwing a gibbering horror at their faces.

Pressure Releases and Red Herrings. Important as Red Fel noticed. The typical horror movie thing where it looks like someone is creeping up on someone. You see them reach out. The person jumps as they feel a hand on their shoulder but oh! It's just a friend scaring the **** out of you instead of saying "Hi". It shouldn't be THAT bad... but having things that aren't related to the horror plot itself is an important element. Bonus points if they're never certain if it IS unrelated to the plot. For example in the other topic about a demonic cult influence on a campaign I metnioned the players finding two people trading hushed whispers, looking suspicious, checking to see if people were watching, etc. They walk off, players follow because of course by calling out this behavior you just put a giant neon sign saying "PLOT THIS WAY" on it. And after a long, winding path they find that the couple snuck off to the wine cellar to go bang one another in relative private. Which serves as a red herring and a pressure release as they realize that this tryst is well, just that. It was suspicion born of relatively innocent activity (Though probably something they didn't want to advertise). You can also later double back on it and leave a hook making them wonder if the act they witnessed wasn't part of some fell ritual however... A red herring that may not be a red herring and later on you want to basically wait until they walked away... then two days after the session ended go "... wait... what if...?".

There is no No Win Scenario. That's probably the worst offender of "Bad Horror Games". Is that they're designed so DMs/publishers think they are being clever and building up a great feeling of horror by making it impossible for a player to win. It just leads to pissing off players. Particularly if you force them to be something they don't want to be (Like turning them into stark raving psychopathic axe murderers when they wanted to be heroic). Even if your horror plot is about how this elder evil is unstoppable and has true immortality and timelessness to go about hatching their goal... the player should still feel as if they can "win". They can ruin a plot. They can save the day, even if it's only temporarily (And no, 10 minutes doesn't count). It doesn't mean everything has to be sunshine and puppy farts in the end. Maybe someone does have to make a true sacrifice (Ideally a self sacrifice. Don't make the paladin go kill babies and kick kittens, but something where they choose to suffer themselves in order to save the world. It plays into what people want when they pick Paladin types typically, AND avoids them feeling like the DM ruined their character). Let them choose various levels of damnation and salvation. Inevitable is a buzzword your villain uses, not a truth of the campaign.

Never a Simple Solution. Have your final plot be something that requires a true change of pace to solve. Nothing should ever be as simple as "I roll an attack. I deal damage. I win." when it comes to the final showdown. MacGuffins are key to horror for a reason. Ideally this means that you can actually "Reveal" your villain ahead of time, compared to typical scenarios. You aren't afraid of what happens when your wizard says: "**** it bad guy, I cast Disintegrate at it!/I Scry and Die it" because it will laugh it off. This can make the final showdown more satisfying because you got to reveal the Evil at the heart of the horror, it was this unstoppable beast. And you finally, after hours/sessions of assembling MacGuffins, of delving into insanity to find out the clues needed, can put it down.

Powerlessness. Which is funny because I said earlier that you can run horror with basically any party that isn't so powerful that it can just say "**** it, I'm outta here" and totally avoid the plot. But making players feel powerless in some fashion is part of horror. For example, in the topic linked earlier the DM wanted a scenario where this castle was under siege. It was going to fall. There was no escape from the massive goblin army surrounding it. The whole set up is based around the despair that you're doomed, and that you can't avoid it. At least the players can't avoid it with any method they have at their disposal to start with. They find out later perhaps, about the demonic rituals and pacts they can form to give them the power which might let them survive the goblins. But the point of the powerlessness is to make them afraid, and willing to grasp at things that they may know are bad ideas. To consider things that normally they wouldn't. And to make them afraid of these things that they cannot help. This can usually tie into the "You can't just STAB the boss" theme, as you can often provide some horror that the players are far outclassed against which is hunting them down. Or at the very least, goes after things the PCs value. Knowing that they can't just STAB this thing. That if they get up in a fight with it, it will slaughter them. That it mows through armies of people more powerful than the heroes without even staggering, and provide a real level of terror to players who are used to "Just stab it already" as the solution to their problems. Knowing that what they rely upon won't help them builds despair, uncertainty, and fear.

Lateral Goals. I think this is an important part of Horror Campaigns, but one that isn't mentioned too terribly much. Most campaigns have two real goals. "Kill bad guys" and "Get stuff". Most HORROR campaigns people try have two goals "Kill bad guys" "Survive". One of the reasons why I find a lot of horror campaigns are bad, they turn into meat grinders as their source of horror, as the horror is built entirely off the idea death is going to happen, you're doomed, sheer numbers/power will overwhelm you and kill you off at any moment. Instead, go for lateral goals. Instead of having the binary "Kill or be killed", think in terms of things like "Limiting collateral damage and sealing the horror to just this locality instead of letting it rampage unchecked across the world" or "Saving other people" or even "Prevent the Evil from becoming even more powerful than it already is". It's not a "Horror" element necessarily. But it's one that serves as a force multiplier on the elements that are already there. If your horror campaign still devolves into "Kill the monster", that in the end caps the level of fear that you can inject into the scenario. Plus it suggests your horror is beatable and can be stopped, which lessens suspense and despair. But if your goal is "... prevent the monster from gaining nigh unlimited power by discovering the clues to its ultimate goal and somehow managing to steal away the lynchpin of the plan at the last second" it gives a wholly different feel to the campaign. You still can't "beat" the monster. But you can get a victory over it. You're still afraid of it because if you challenge it directly, it will curb stomp you. You have to deal with the peripheral elements of this monster's plan. You get to discover depths of depravity and truly unsettling things that will give you nightmares more so than "Gibbering beast tried to eat me". If you do it right, these sort of lateral goals will have your players looking at you in horror going "You sick, demented bastard!"... which means you just evoked an emotional response, which is the power you want to have over your players in a horror campaign.

Suspense is leaving things suspended. Seems obvious, but bears mentioning. Horror campaigns tend to provide answers too quickly. I mean to the point where they'll set up something creepy (Voices in the darkness for example) then show/explain what it is almost immediately. This provides good "Jump scares" but isn't really horror. Horror is built on suspense... and suspense is... well... to quote Hitchcock "When the bomb doesn't go off". Set things up, provide clues, hint at things about to happen... then... don't. When things DON'T happen is when players start to get curious, and start to feel tension and paranoia. When you call something out like "A whisper that comes from the dark hallway" or something... and then don't explain it, don't follow it up, don't reveal the ghost, or abomination, or whatever, it'll gnaw on their brains. It feeds on player expectations. The DM said something... it had to be important. Why did he mention it? What is making those whispers? What did they say? Should we go after it? Should we avoid it? Is it a warning? Is it a trap? Is it a red herring? These questions will go on and on in your player's heads. Hell, they might even ask these out loud. You just smile, shrug, and say nothing more about it. You showed them the bomb. Just don't set it off. The more you do this, the more it puts them on edge. You keep sprinkling these things in until they have a laundry list of unexplained, unknown phenomenon that they occasionally run into. You can even use them to establish false patterns to set up paranoia... like... every time they hear those whispers some creature appears within about 2 minutes. They might start to expect it, think it's a clue you're leaving them. They hear the whispers and they're scrambling for a hiding place, or prepping for combat, etc. You wait until they accepted "Whispers=Monster" as a fact... then one time it just... doesn't happen. Man you will make them flip out. Because they expect it, they think they figured it out. And when it doesn't happen they realize they got it wrong. It's something else. Or they think that something even WORSE is coming for them...

EDIT: I suggest you let people get attached to characters. I mean NickG has a point in that most Horror games, you might as well tell the players that their character is lost. Because bad DMs, or adventure publishers, derive their horror from the "No Win Scenario". That it's impossible for players to win, or even survive for long, int heir game.

That's not actually true of the genre in and of itself. No more so than it is for any other sort of DnD Adventure. But it's a choice in how you derive your horror. The "No Win Scenario" is one way to get it. But often I feel that depending on "You're all doomed anyway" as a source of your horror actually lessens the horror. No one cares because they're dead anyway. It's harder to evoke emotional responses. They're not invested in things, and eventually they get frustrated over the fact that they can never "win" and you get things like the rage quit the OP mentioned with the guy walking out of the game.

It's possible to have Horror games where almost the entire roster (There's always one guy who does something massively stupid. Or chooses to sacrifice themselves for the good of the team/plot in my experience) of original characters live to see the end. And not because they're suffering a fate worse than death necessarily. It's the sort of horror campaigns I prefer because it allows people to become invested. They know they might survive, so they care. Their characters are characters instead of disposable meat bags and playing pieces. It allows you to play up angles you wouldn't normally like "What price victory?", or sequel campaigns, etc.

[tasw]

One of the best pieces of horror advice I read was from stephen kings book on how to write.

Take whats normal, what seems familiar and safe and comfortable and twist it subtly, Subtly is the key. Not in a big obvious way, but as a "hmm, that doesnt seem quite right" kind of way. And make that a theme.

Also the monster hiding in your neighbors clothes, living with his family with them none of the wiser is far scarier then the bogeyman in the closet.

The best horror is something human and near and to us that feels like it could actually happen.

[Grayson01]

I love this Idea!!!!



Another way to keep things tense is to eliminate the binary nature of win/loss often seen in RP. For example:

Yes, there is a demon haunting the town, but it is a vengeance demon conjured by the dreams of a child who watched the beloved cleric murder his family because they worshipped different gods. Killing the boy will banish the demon, as will killing the cleric. But the boy is basically innocent, and the cleric is beloved and moving against him will rile the whole town. Is teh party willing to stand up for what is right, even if it means their reputation will take a beating. Even if innocents will come to the aid of a murderous cleric.

[justiceforall]

ArqArturo in your OP you didn't mention if you'd told your players it was going to be a horror game and laid out the expectations. Did you sound them out before trying, or just throw them into it?

[ArqArturo]

Yes, I did mention my players that it was a horror game.

[justiceforall]

Did you spell out to them exactly what that meant? Or did they have previous experience playing a horror game?

I ask because the assumptions are basically totally reversed from a normal game of DnD as numerous other posters in this thread have discussed already. I'd think the response of the fellow or lady who threw their character sheet at you would be totally out of line if they already understood what they'd signed up for.

I've found that a primary cause of failed games in our groups is the players and the GM being on different pages about the assumptions of the game itself, either through miscommunication or the GM failing to meet their own assumptions.

[ngilop]

I love the idea of hopelessness, and futile victories; my friends like to feel like the fantasy version of rambo, cutting through swaths of horrors.


Thats really the only problem I see in this scenario yo u as the DM and your firends as the player are playing different games

you want teh game where ' you lose and it don't matter if you win a fight here and there. in the end everything is moot.'

your friends want to be beat up. bloody but victorous after wading through the bad guys.

its the other side of the 'players alwasy win' coin.

I know for myself, I want to be in a game where it feel liek what my character does has repercusions. Why even play a game where it don't matter if we kill that monster or what have you. becuase the DM wants everything to be pointless.

The first game i walked away from was a game where I found out that no matter what, we (the players) were going to win. I assume your players feels the same about your 'horror' game, why play whne no matter what nothing they do matters and in the end they are all just going to lose.


also. i have to say we have different versions on what the term horror consists of. Perhaps they have the same definiton as me " theres going to be a lot of old blakc and white monsters you are going to be fighitn not so much orcs dragons and saving maidens.

did you expalin to them that you definition of 'horror' ois ' you auto-lose'?

[AMFV]

The key to running good horror games (as I’ve found so my personal experience), is giving the players lots more information than they need, but not anything really significant. Let their imaginations fill things in, make them make dozens of unnecessary listen and spot checks, nodding grimly after they finish rolling them. Remember suspense is scarier than surprise, most people try for surprise.

Secondly decreasing the number of encounters helps. The players are constantly expecting an encounter that just doesn’t seem to come, even as eerie as things get, nothing happens and the anticipation is driving them crazy. Lots of empty rooms that have good spots for ambushes help in this regard, having things that seem like they should be trapped not be is also good, or having them again roll for things they don’t need to when around items, you should be able to build the proper fear doing this.

I also like to have a table for results for the bad listen or spot checks, filled with things they might have heard or think they saw. Giving them little bits of bad info, because it is easier to disseminate some bad information than deny players information under most circumstances. They key is to let them have enough that they can imagine things as being much worse than they are.

[the_david]

I'll add another don't use D&D. The reason for this is that the players will expect to slay monsters while using magic. That's what you do in D&D, but it doesn't work in horror stories. I did use the d20 modern system quite succesfully for a robot-zombie slasher. (As one of the player's described it.)
Another reason is that players will know what you'll throw at them because they will be familiar with the game.

Player 1: Oh no! It's a gibbering mouther!
Player 2: Who cares, we beat up a dragon last week. We can take this. I stay at a distance and attack with my aberrationbane longbow.

[georgie_leech]

Player 1: Oh no! It's a gibbering mouther!
Player 2: Who cares, we beat up a dragon last week. We can take this. I stay at a distance and attack with my aberrationbane longbow.

DM: Before you a strange black mist begins to rise, and from within you hear faint sounds of screaming and the gnashing of teeth. The mist thickens and roils, concentrating into a dense, writhing cloud that slowly begins to turn a deep, blood red. The screams grow louder as you become aware of mouths filled with rotting, serrated teeth that form and disappear too quickly for you to count, rising out of the mist-turned-flesh only to subside a moment later, cutting off the scream with a sickening squelch. You become aware of eyes, always unblinking, always staring, appearing alongside, and in some cases, inside the mouths. The stench of rotting meat engulfs you as the beast becomes solid, and the screams become the screeching counterpoint to an awful cacophony of voices and whispers, exposing your deepest fears and darkest secrets, hinting at truths too awful to consider. With a sickening lurch, the abomination begins to roll forward. Always, the eyes seem fixated on you, and you know in the depths of your heart that it will not stop, will never rest, until it has feasted on your flesh, devoured your bones, and consumed your very soul.

Players: :smalleek:
Player 1: ...It's a Gibbering Mouther?

DM: :smallamused:

[ArqArturo]

Yes, when I do a special session (horror, one-shots) I usually say beforehand what it's going to be about. I guess it's usually been the execution that has been the problem rather than the theme.

[ArcturusV]

That's actually a reason why I avoid using monster names in game if I can unless it's PAINFULLY obvious or mundane (No, I'm going to call a Goblin a Goblin... then again you don't know if that's a Goblin Rogue 3, or a Goblin book standard, or a Goblin Sorcerer 8, etc).

Avoiding names is how things like the demon named Slight became "legendary" in one of my games. I never just told them that Slight was some overgrown Dretch. Well, more like "Reskinned" Dretch. Dretch stats, but slightly more "humanoid" appearing over the book standard. He had 2 HD. He was always alone. He could have had his ass kicked by the players without breaking a sweat from the first time he appeared... But granted the first time he appeared was during a summoning ceremony and I really went all out describing how this unnatural creature was crawling out of a rift in reality. Scared the players so badly they tried to deal with him rather than fight. (And Slight being significantly weaker bluffed, lied, and accepted a deal). Got to the point where I had level 10 characters ****ting bricks and scared witless of this 2 HD demon that can't even hurt them unless I lucked out and popped a Balor out of his ass.

[upho]

One of the most useful tools I've found for horror is proper music selection. Whether hectic or subtle, good music can reinforce the mood so that even ordinary situations become scarier.This. IME, the difference between a good horror campaign and a more standard D&D one can be almost purely ambience, playstyle and subtle things like how you portray locations, NPCs etc. Especially if your players aren't used to carefully planned music, sound FX, controlled lighting etc, these "real-world" ambient components can have a HUGE impact. In fact, I've found especially audio to be such a powerful tool I often compose campaign-specific music and make event-specific sound effects. Very rewarding and worth every second of extra work IMO.

I've noticed (both as a player and as a DM) that it's usually rather easy to invoke a sense of dread. I guess this is because there's just so many surefire "cheap stunts" to pull. Besides the story and setting elements other posters have mentioned and controlling the atmosphere with music etc, you can, for example:

Interrupt a hushed, tense scene with a sudden "Buh!"-incident (preferrably aided by playing a fitting sound at high volume)
Prepare a suitable prologue speech that you deliver to fitting music before each session, establishing the sense of dread and improving immersion before the game has even begun
Play out short solo scenes with each individual player, based on their PC and the adventure/campaign. Things that make them feel powerless, like vivid nightmares or premonitions of impending doom often work well and can also serve as plot vehicles and personal motivators.
Play out one or two minor "scripted" scenes in each session just to be able to pull effective "horror stunts" and strengthen the sense of dread. In order to avoid railroading your players or robbing them of their power to affect the story, try to find short scenes where the players' actions are easy to predict or where their actions cannot affect anything or have no real consequences anyway (as in for example the previously mentioned nightmares)

If your group usually has a "snacks on the table, out-of-character jokes and rules-talk"-kind of playstyle, you should probably also talk to them first. Let them know you'd like to try giving them a different type of RPG experience which requires slightly different table manners. If they're unwilling/hesitant to work with you right away, try to slowly introduce some new elements and see if their playstyle changes and whether they enjoy it. If they don't, running a horror campaign is probably a bad idea.

Also, IME there's a bonus that comes with the whole "scary is easy" because fear often works as a shortcut to getting emotionally engaged and immersed players in general, which naturally helps improving this kind of game experience immensely.

Finally, I believe a horror theme can be played as freeform or using virtually any rules system, but as other posters have said, D&D combat is complex and tends to turn the players' attention to rules mechanics and away from the "gut-instinctive" and immersive RP which makes a horror theme successful. So I'd recommend making combat relatively rare (say one encounter per session at the most). And when combat does happen, make sure your players are scared s**tless before it even begins and that they'll percieve the encounter as really challenging and deadly. If the initiative rolls are preceded by the players being unable to hide signs of serious stress (like jumping up and down and flailing wildly, attempting to take cover/hide under furniture, crying in fetal position, covering eyes and ears, and comments like "No, please, no...", "Stop! Seriously, we need to stop, this isn't fun anymore!" or "Mommy... *sob* ...I want my mommy!"*), you've probably done your job... :smallbiggrin:

*Actual behavior and quotes (translated from Swedish) from grown adult players in a fantasy horror campaign. I was one of the players... :smallredface:

[ArqArturo]

I think I achieved some of that on this last Pathfinder session :smallsmile:.

In my campaign, the Philosopher's Stone has been broken down into shards, and the party has started to collect the pieces of the McGuffin (lead by the drug-addicted Ragechemist/Barbarian), and one of the pieces has been led to an abandoned city, that every npc has told them that either 1.- Do not go, under any circumstance, or 2.- GTFO of the city at sundown, otherwise they will die.

We are the Flame, they cried And darkness fears us

Into the city they went... They arrived at morning, and they found a beautiful city in ruins... Imagine a Greek city. Almost intact. The party druid felt no connection to nature whatsoever (he could cast spells alright, but they felt... Empty, somewhat), there was heavy silence in the place, and no animals, and the party was palpably tense. Sure enough, there were some scavengers in the place (a couple of combat sessions to break the ice, and another group that neither of them wanted to fight, so they let them be). They went under the city, and well, they were creeped out by some of the imagery (thank goodness for At the Mountains of Madness :nale:). The party took what they got, and ran.

At sundown. They only got a small glimpse, a white and black orb floating around, and that's when the party needed to just lose it and panic XD (It kinda helped the lights went out for a little while when I was narrating XD).

We are not the Flame they cried We are but moths, and we are Doomed!.

[upho]

I think I achieved some of that on this last Pathfinder session :smallsmile:.Heh, this sounds beautiful. I mean horrible, of course! Successfully horrible? ...Awesomely awful? :smallconfused:

Besides the story, setting, Lovecraftian porn and the "blackout" surprise, did you use any other elements (like music/audio, creepy visions/nightmares etc)? And what did your players say afterwards?

Kinda fun/weird but totally OT:
There seem to be striking similarities between the barbarian you mentioned and our current PF party's ranger/barb. He also does a lot of alchemy, usually in a lot of bottles, and says stuff like:

"Why y'all sissies keep yappin' 'bout ma medicine potions? Ain't nuthin' wrong with a little mornin' rouser! ...or a couple o' pick-me-ups! Gotta keep 'em devil flames burnin', ya know. An' whut about me downin' a few o' that goblin s**t? Yeah, damn right it's explosive! Wouldn't put scales on ya chest 'n' keep both ya flamin' tails waggin' otherwise, now would it? Now this sure's hell ain't no goddamn "drinkin' problem" or whatever y'all limpd**k juice sippin' hoes call it!"

Meaning he's a tiefling with a bad case of alcoholism... So, are MC barbs with addiction problems the new black or something? :smalleek:

[ArqArturo]

My players were thrilled about what happened. And there was that nervous laughter when the lights were back on XD.

I used the soundtrack of Ravenous for the ambiance (I wanted to use the Diablo 1 soundtrack, but to be honest, old games soundtracks sound like midis, so that kills the mood), and it worked, especially this one (http://youtu.be/vLt98WxrYAw).

[upho]

My players were thrilled about what happened. And there was that nervous laughter when the lights were back on XD.Good they liked it, nervous laughter is great sign! Since I guess they were OK to try and step outside of their comfort zone and try a slightly different play style, you'll probably be able to ramp things up considerably if you'd like to do a one-shot again or a whole horror campaign some day.


I used the soundtrack of Ravenous for the ambiance (I wanted to use the Diablo 1 soundtrack, but to be honest, old games soundtracks sound like midis, so that kills the mood), and it worked, especially this one (http://youtu.be/vLt98WxrYAw).Heh, that's a nicely "wrong" and subtly psychotic piece. I like how the almost familiar merry folk song feel is twisted by weird out of place turns and creepy harmonies. Very "something's not right here..." (much like the movie).

Speaking of sounding like old midis, I used to be rather pedantic about the music I used for classic fantasy (regardless of theme), thinking it really had to sound analogue and as if played on "period" instruments in order to not hinder immersion instead of aiding it. But, after having played a lot with a couple of truly brilliant DMs who successfully mixed in rather obvious electronic music, I believe the unexpected and alien makes "anachronistic" sounding music perfect "themes" for the truly unknown and scary story elements. Especially if contrasted by using more typical heroic adventure type music otherwise.

Here's a few suggestions on very dark horror songs, in that anachronistic vein, by In Slaughter Natives that I happened to remember. I used these exclusively in episodes involving demons (main antagonists) during a short campaign, with very good results (players showing signs of stress just by hearing the music :smallbiggrin:):

Angel Meat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQQ54NNuYTk&feature=youtube_gdata_player) - long creepy intro builds to something doomsday-like. I used it as a "discovering big scary evil place"-theme.
Sacrosancts Bleed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmsC4wXT6R0&feature=youtube_gdata_player) - powerful and sort of darkly industrial, lots of obvious synth choir and manipulated voice samples though. In my case, the unnatural voices happened to be perfect, as I could use this as the theme for an Orcus cult which held rituals where the corpses of humanoid sacrifices would rise and "sing", their rotting throats forming the pipes of a macabre church organ played by invisible demonic hands.
Still Just Only Death (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztUGEhM6a1U&feature=youtube_gdata_player) - relentless and merciless machine-like grinding. I used it for the most panicky and brutal action episodes, like a frantic battle and escape from a balor and his underlings.

These are all rather monotonous songs with no sudden or major dynamic changes, making them ideal for looping during longer scenes or D&D combat.

[XmonkTad]

The best horror stories end with "and he's right behind you!"

[Pickford]

Tenants for a good horror game. (Some of these points are stated in different posts, but I didn't want to leave something out)

1) Everyone on the same page. Players and DM both know the purpose of the game is to provide a spooky feeling. Success, while nice, is secondary, and failure is a possibility.

2) DM has a good understanding of situations that evoke feelings of horror, dread, terror. The underlying thread of discomfort that links these feelings is the unknown. Sure, despair in the knowledge of certain failure has its fine points, but that's not the same thing as waking in the middle of the night to the annoying sound of a tree scratching at your third story window, only to remember there is no tree outside your window.

Here are a few examples of tension raising scenarios (p.s. let me know how you'd tweak them, I'm always interested in making these things even creepier :D):

A) While traveling, PCs experience a breakdown of their method of transportation, fortunately there appears to be a village off the road in a nearby valley, as it is growing darker, the PCs (naturally) elect to travel there for some shelter/supplies/repairs. As the darkness falls, the valley grows cold and mist begins to rise off the ground, reducing visibility to only a few feet. Perhaps throw in the sudden appearance of a dog barking (false scare). The PCs, relieved and a tad chagrined, move on to the inn...when they hear the barking of the dog cut off, in a yelp. Presumably, being the heroes they are, they opt to return and investigate, only to find the body of the dog lying on the side of the road, next to a tree...unmoving. Closer inspection reveals the dog is untouched, except for its head where all the fur, skin, and flesh has been removed, leaving only the white bone underneath.

B) Several Adventurers have been investigating strange occurances in a town following the death of a friend, when they discover from a stranger/passerby that someone fitting the friends description was seen. In an effort to uncover the truth, they go to the local graveyard at night (the better to obscure their activities) to exhume the body and confirm the death of their friend. Properly paced, this can be a hair-raising event, up until the reveal (which can be mundane (i.e. You find your friends corpse), spooky (there is no body!), switcharoo (there is a body...but it is not your friends), or worse (there is something...but it is not human)).

It can be difficult to factor in some classes (Paladins, Clerics) when dealing with a horror setting, here's one way of doing that:

C) Your Paladin's liege lord has tasked you with escorting his new ward to the manor. Shortly after delivery, the Paladin discovers they have brought the ward as a blood sacrifice the re-animate the recently deceased brother of the lord. This may be mixed up where the Paladin discovers the partially animated zombie remains of the brother by accident, or stumbles upon the castoff body of a previous attempt. This method leaves the rev-up till later, where the first part of the adventure is establishing the normality of the setting (Idyllic countryside, etc...) prior to the unsettling revelation that the veneer of normalcy was false and life was not as the character at first perceived it.

I am in agreement with ArcturusV et al that descriptions of horrific creatures will likely play better than naming them. Imagine this: Instead of saying, you turn the corner and see a shadow, you turn the corner and see a shifting in the air. There is a writhing unnatural darkness, as it moves closer the light dims. Creepy no? In part because it's not totally clear 'how' one can deal with it.

One way of letting a player know they are seriously threatened without actually killing them is to have sacrificial NPCs. That is, an NPC visibly tries to do something that the player themselves might try, and fails...badly. (i.e. A warrior type attacks a zombie physically and gets their sword stuck in it, the zombie then proceeds to grapple them, eating their face off (descriptions count); or a spellcaster uses magic on a scarecrow (golem) which it shrugs off, and proceeds to tear them apart.

As a DM, it might be fitting to stat out your own monsters, things that creep you out personally. It might be helpful to look up some books on short horror stories.

ex: Alvin Schwartz: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark