Create your 'Hunting Horror'

[oudeis]

“And in the air about him were great viperine creatures, which had curiously distorted heads, and grotesquely great clawed appendages, supporting themselves with ease by the aid of black rubbery wings of singularly monstrous dimensions.”


I remember first reading about these in high school, when my friend's father (our DM) brought home the box set for the original Call of Cthulhu. The Mythos is crammed with names, both cool and not, but Hunting Horror always stuck with me. However, while their stats were frightening, the art and description weren't and I always thought the name was wasted on something that didn't really inspire horror.

I used the name to describe a vampire-tainted Hellhound from Vampire: The Masquerade in a write-up for a LARP I was in a long time ago. I described it as a monstrous combination of man and canine, with a head and muzzle that had been grotesquely warped by Tzimisce fleshcrafting and orange-pink flesh that wasn't quite covered with a matted coat more akin to human hair than dog fur. I based my conception on the werewolf transformation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHyvfOUEK4o)in An American Werewolf in London, which looked incredible but also looked incredibly disquieting before it assumed its final form.

I'm trying to create a monster worthy of being called a Hunting Horror and so far what I've come up with is something vaguely arachnoid or a kind of amalgam creature like the form of the alien when it absorbed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C9JbK7slrk) the dogs in The Thing, another incredible scene and even more incredibly disquieting than the werewolf. However, horrifying players is easy and even kind of cheap: turn the dial on the grossometer to 11 and you're set. I'm looking for ways to emphasize the 'Hunting' part of the name, to create an atmosphere more of suspense and terror than revulsion. I know there are lots of sound-effect apps and libraries available that can help set the mood, but I'd like to use gameplay mechanics and description as much as posssible.


What image does 'Hunting Horror' evoke in you? How would you create the feeling of hiding and evading an unknown danger in your players without it becoming just a more elaborate version of hide-and seek?

[The Glyphstone]

The best monsters are the ones you can't completely see - a person's mind can conjure up horrors far worse than anything you can describe. Give it an aura of magical darkness, or the ability to turn invisible when looked at straight-on so you can only 'see' it in peripheral vision or reflective surfaces. Let it 'cheat' in its ability to move, teleporting through shadows or sharp angles. Make it a slow, stalking chase rather than hide-and-seek - it will catch them if they just try to hide, so staying mobile or at least evasive keeps them reactive instead of feeling safe and secure.

[Thrawn4]

My first thought was of the... thing... in the movie "It follows".
It hunts you and it inflicts horror even if it is not around.

[Draconi Redfir]

my head immediately goes to the "Bird box" creatures.

They're out there, they're powerful, they're malevolent, they want you dead, they could be anywhere at any time, you can't look at them without dying / going crazy, they actively WANT you to look at them, nobody knows what they are, what they look like, where they come from, or what their goals are, and to top it all off: you got people who CAN look at the things actively hunting you down and infiltrating your sanctuaries to trick everyone into looking / dying.


So basically "Being outside is dangerous" and "nobody is safe".

[Jakinbandw]

My first thought was the monsters from the music video for The Wolf:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX44CAz-JhU

[Biggus]

I'm trying to create a monster worthy of being called a Hunting Horror and so far what I've come up with is something vaguely arachnoid or a kind of amalgam creature like the form of the alien when it absorbed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C9JbK7slrk) the dogs in The Thing, another incredible scene and even more incredibly disquieting than the werewolf.

You could take further inspiration from The Thing and give it some kind of ability to control/infect the PCs/their companions, leading to a fear that one or more of their own may turn against them. Should definitely ramp up the tension.

I started a thread about exactly this the other week in the D&D 3.5 forum, you might find some useful ideas there: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?660838-Creatures-like-John-Carpenter-s-The-Thing

Edit: it also makes me think of the first Alien film, might be another place you could get some ideas from.

[gatorized]

any time I need something like this I just use the dead space regenerator - if I really feel like being an *******, I give it invisibility and short range teleport

[Vorpal Glaive]

I remember first reading about these in high school, when my friend's father (our DM) brought home the box set for the original Call of Cthulhu. The Mythos is crammed with names, both cool and not, but Hunting Horror always stuck with me. However, while their stats were frightening, the art and description weren't and I always thought the name was wasted on something that didn't really inspire horror.

I used the name to describe a vampire-tainted Hellhound from Vampire: The Masquerade in a write-up for a LARP I was in a long time ago. I described it as a monstrous combination of man and canine, with a head and muzzle that had been grotesquely warped by Tzimisce fleshcrafting and orange-pink flesh that wasn't quite covered with a matted coat more akin to human hair than dog fur. I based my conception on the werewolf transformation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHyvfOUEK4o)in An American Werewolf in London, which looked incredible but also looked incredibly disquieting before it assumed its final form.

I'm trying to create a monster worthy of being called a Hunting Horror and so far what I've come up with is something vaguely arachnoid or a kind of amalgam creature like the form of the alien when it absorbed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C9JbK7slrk) the dogs in The Thing, another incredible scene and even more incredibly disquieting than the werewolf. However, horrifying players is easy and even kind of cheap: turn the dial on the grossometer to 11 and you're set. I'm looking for ways to emphasize the 'Hunting' part of the name, to create an atmosphere more of suspense and terror than revulsion. I know there are lots of sound-effect apps and libraries available that can help set the mood, but I'd like to use gameplay mechanics and description as much as posssible.


What image does 'Hunting Horror' evoke in you? How would you create the feeling of hiding and evading an unknown danger in your players without it becoming just a more elaborate version of hide-and seek?

I have this lifelong reoccurring nightmare of being attacked by myself! I hate that! It's movies like "The Thing" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" that really mess with me. You know? Like being stalked by something that looks like you or resembles people you trust but it's really a monster? DnD Dopplegangers are like this and I think monsters like this are the spookiest because they fool you by appearing friendly and familiar. Even "The Terminator" where a human-looking killer-cyborg is chasing Sarah and John. To me the scariest hunting-horrors are monsters that look normal but are out for blood.

I think in-game a GM could make it super-spooky by using those kinds of hidden-hunting-horrors which would make the players and their characters hyper-paranoid. Being stalked by something like that would definitely eat up SAN, right?

[Kardwill]

The best monsters are the ones you can't completely see - a person's mind can conjure up horrors far worse than anything you can describe. Give it an aura of magical darkness, or the ability to turn invisible when looked at straight-on so you can only 'see' it in peripheral vision or reflective surfaces. Let it 'cheat' in its ability to move, teleporting through shadows or sharp angles. Make it a slow, stalking chase rather than hide-and-seek - it will catch them if they just try to hide, so staying mobile or at least evasive keeps them reactive instead of feeling safe and secure.

Yeah, when I hear "hunting horror", I picture something unseen, unstoppable, slowly getting closer to its designated prey. You don't know what it is, you're not even sure it actually exists outside of your fevered imagination, and that's what makes it more frightening than any bare-fanged predator.

It could be a "It that walks behind" deal. You can feel something behind you, getting closer, when you're alone, but it's never there when you turn around. If you look into a mirror, you can faintly see something, hidden behind your own reflection. Does it looks like it's closer than the last time you looked? Is it closing on you? What will happen when it's in striking distance? Can you prevent it?

Or another one reflection-based : The Horror That Dwells In Mirrors. That thing is hunting your image in mirrors and any reflective surface. Anything that happens to your reflection will happen to you. Can you strike back through the mirror? Can your own reflection actually hurt it?

Or is the monster actually your own reflection? That face that looks back when you shave? Looks like you. Almost. Subtly different. Alien. Other. Something already ate or corrupted your reflection, and now, it's hunting you in every mirror, any puddle, any panel of glass in this blasted city, waiting for the time it will take your place (and trap you in the mirror?).

[King of Nowhere]

another possibility is something creeping that only moves when you're not looking. like the weeping angels of doctor who. i didn't even knew they were an established trope, but i had some success creating a horror feeling that way

[Maat Mons]

In order to really earn the “Hunting” part of the name, I think it should be supernaturally good at finding its target. If you can stymie the thing by obscuring your tracks, masking your scent, or having the Trackless Step class feature, you’re not likely to feel very hunted.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, in order to inspire dread, the PCs should be very likely to survive an encounter with it. If it’s competent, they won’t even know something is after them until it strikes. You can’t really be afraid of something you don’t even know is after you. You need the PCs to somehow escape or drive it off, while still making them view it as a major threat. Then they can spend their time worrying about when it will inevitably strike again.

I’d advise against telling the PCs they “feel something” when it’s nearby. Yes, it can put them on edge when you let them know it’s around, but they can’t see it. But it also lets them know they’re safe whenever they can’t “feel something.” You want them to always be on edge, not to just be on edge when you tell them it’s time to be on edge.

The monster should be nigh-impossible to go after proactively. You want them to have no option but to wait for an attack that could come at any moment.

I used to have this recurring nightmare where, during the nightmare, I’d become convinced that something from beyond our reality had invaded my dream as a way to forge a connection with my mind, and if it’s manifestation in my dream, which could look like anyone or anything, got to me, the otherworldly entity would wake up in control of my body, and I’d spend the rest of my life trapped in endless dreams. Also, when I tried to wake up from the dream, about half the time I’d just dream that I woke up in my bed, and then I’d dream about going through a normal day, and only realize I was still asleep when the dream monster made its next attack. Fun times. Maybe that could serve as inspiration for something.

From a metagame perspective, the scariest monster is one who sneaks up to the party’s campsite under the effects of Invisibility and Silence, ganks the person on guard, and then coup-de-graces the rest in their sleep, since the fight that just happened won’t have made any noise, what with Silence and all. Actually, wait, make it a group of Invisible, Silenced assassins, who coup de grace all the sleeping PCs at the same time, and then kill however was on guard duty.

[King of Nowhere]

From a metagame perspective, the scariest monster is one who sneaks up to the party’s campsite under the effects of Invisibility and Silence, ganks the person on guard, and then coup-de-graces the rest in their sleep, since the fight that just happened won’t have made any noise, what with Silence and all. Actually, wait, make it a group of Invisible, Silenced assassins, who coup de grace all the sleeping PCs at the same time, and then kill however was on guard duty.

also known as "the dm decided to kill you for real"

[Bohandas]

black rubbery wings
Is it just me, or does this line make it sound like a cheap prop from a b-movie?


From a metagame perspective, the scariest monster is one who sneaks up to the party’s campsite under the effects of Invisibility and Silence, ganks the person on guard, and then coup-de-graces the rest in their sleep, since the fight that just happened won’t have made any noise, what with Silence and all. Actually, wait, make it a group of Invisible, Silenced assassins, who coup de grace all the sleeping PCs at the same time, and then kill however was on guard duty.

Except for the part about there being more than one of them, that almost sounds like the premise of a cheesy late '70s-early '80s slasher movie; something in the vein of the Halloween or Friday the 13th

[Grim Portent]

Add me to the 'mirror monster' list.

I've had an idea for a mirror demon that can only attack and be hurt while someone is looking at it in the mirror, but it always manifests behind the shoulder of people looking in the mirror, so you need someone else to attack it by shooting the space immediately behind you. Obviously someone blindly (it can only be seen in the mirror) firing a shotgun immediately behind your ear is not a comfortable experience, so I don't think it's one people will come to intuitively, but turning to strike at it properly will usually take your gaze from the mirror so it disincorporates before you can strike.

I imagine the demon as a sadistic creature, the kind that takes its time before killing. It starts by just manifesting in the mirror and vanishing when you spin to look behind yourself, but over time it starts to touch you or move things in the reflection, escalating to scratching the victim by reaching around to their face/chest with its claws. End point is it just grabbing the victim's head and slitting their throat. Some kills take months, some years or even decades. The sort of thing where some victims get hospitalised for their irrational fear of mirrors and tendency to 'self harm' when they see their own reflection, but ends when they wind up exposed to a reflective surface anyway and get discovered with their throat slashed.