PDA

View Full Version : Here, we don't get shotguns...



JamesHowlett
2008-03-02, 10:28 PM
Okay, I'm a fairly experienced DM but I'm running into a fairly large problem. I'm running a horror game, but I'm not exactly sure how to make it, well... scary. It's an Eberron campaign set in Karrnath where the party has already been captured and stripped of all their gear, and the only healer in the party is a crusader, so you'd think I'd have a lot going for the game, but I'm still running into the "this really isn't that creepy wall". Does anyone have any advice? :redface:

BRC
2008-03-02, 10:31 PM
Make them sweat, be vauge. Nothing makes players worry more than not knowing things. Have them run into the aftermaths of situations, bodies everywhere, maybe one survivor who was driven insane by what he saw.

Neftren
2008-03-02, 10:39 PM
You know in the DMG... there's a page about futuristic campaigns... I've always wanted to drop a Laser Rifle or a Laser Pistol on my characters... haven't had the chance yet.

RTGoodman
2008-03-02, 10:40 PM
Have you checked out the Taint and/or Sanity rules from Unearthed Arcana? Maybe you could slowly introduce those or something like them to your game, hoping to unnerve your players by having their characters slowly go mad and having to escape before the madness/taint consumes them. (The Taint and Sanity stuff can also be found here (http://systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedTaint.html) and here (http://systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedSanity.html).)

Thane of Fife
2008-03-02, 10:45 PM
There's some excellent, general advice on horror games here (http://www.strolen.com/content.php?node=1277).

mabriss lethe
2008-03-02, 10:49 PM
house of horrors style remains of failed necromantic experiments.

A wall full of zombie fetus-things in jars. every now and then one of them twitches or spasms. maybe some of them make strangled bubbling cries from inside the ichor filled jars.

The caged remains of living creatures, possibly sentient, who've been exposed to a host of unique necromancy spells. Some of them might be able to speak. All of them have been driven completely mad. Think of Renfield from Dracula if you need inspiration.

a "nursery" full of giggling undead children going through the empty motions of playing together, possibly with a few grisly toys thrown in.

Zeful
2008-03-02, 10:57 PM
I agree with the assertion that you should make them sweat. Have them run into a DMNPC of about two or three levels lower than the party (if the party's level one then you have some issues) and have him be the guy who tells the party to run when things get hairy. Then have them run into things that aren't explained. People dead, other monsters (ogres, trolls and werewolves for example) torn to pieces, people simply rambling about "It killed them, killed them all..." the walking dead rising up as the PCs pass. That kind of thing.

Nohwl
2008-03-02, 10:59 PM
i dont know where karrnath is, but im gonna guess its a city. ill put a few things you could do for a dungeon just to be safe though.

you said they were captured, so you could have them be split up. not knowing whats going on to a party member would be pretty bad. or them metagaming and knowing whats going on and being unable to help would still be bad.(have a few of them tortured.)

if they are in a dungeon, something along the lines of a big shadowy figure following them, like let them know they are being followed, but whenever they turn around to check its gone.

set a time limit. being stuck somewhere knowing the world is going to end would make it more urgent that they get things done.

a voice only 1 character can hear, start it off like laughter or something, then move to screaming, then like the voice is drowning or something. or have the voice age really fast, like start as a child and then the next time its heard, its an adult, and then an old lady.

a face in the crowd that looks strangely familiar, like a loved one who died long ago.

if youre in a town, get one of them to help you. replace him with a doppleganger and tell him to do whatever he wants to slow down the party. like have him kill a few townspeople and plant the knife on one of the party members. especially if its a group that has been together for a while. you would have to keep what he was doing secret from the rest of the group though.

having one person vomit random human limbs might help too.

Leon
2008-03-02, 11:06 PM
A read through Hero's of Horror is a Must

maybe, have some "undead" warforged crawling around - half intact etc

Scintillatus
2008-03-02, 11:15 PM
Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere.

It's all about the little details. Y-shaped scars on the chests of lumbering zombies. The sharp smell of acid and metal. Wide, expansive environments in which a threat can come from any side, or claustrophobic environments in which you can't trust your senses.

I second the advocation of post-event reveals. A hidden monster is a lot scarier than a revealed monster. Victims are a lot more creepy than hostages.

Build tension as much as possible, then throw an unpleasant thing of your choice at them.

Sow seeds of distrust, place obvious (and deeper) symbolism in the description of your setting.

Wyvern_55
2008-03-02, 11:15 PM
What has always worked for me is to let the characters dream up their OWN threats. don't describe the creature, don't even let them SEE it, but DO be very detailed in what they CAN gleam from it. when they finally do run into the threat, describe it loosely enough so that each player can put something that they find scary in their minds eye, yet throw them off a bit by being very descriptive about one small part, like the glistening teeth or the frail childlike hands on the horror.

for areas, take some time and write up descriptions of the area, unless you are really good at improvising you should have this prepared, and remember, lack of information done in a good way lets speculation take over.

evisiron
2008-03-02, 11:31 PM
One of the Call of Cthulhu players I know once ran a game in a run down apartment he rented. He took out all of the lights and added a soundsystem running around the room that played scratching scuttling or 'slimy' noises moving the outside of the field of vision.

The game started at midnight with a single 4 hour candle lighting the room. He starting by saying "when the candle goes out, darkness will take you".

If the players are in a room they have never seen before and surrounded by unnerving sounds with only a single candle for illumination and are not scared... there is really nothing else you can do.

Dumbledore lives
2008-03-02, 11:35 PM
Little things can mean everything. Have twisted experiments, and maybe have some rations or something become human remains. Or human teeth found in fruit or something instead of seeds. Just little things can really make a campaign creepy.

Tura
2008-03-03, 12:00 AM
I agree with most of the above, but I'll try to make it more specific for this case.

the party has already been captured and stripped of all their gear
This is an excellent premise.
If they haven't already heard rumors about the unspeakable horrors that await those who end up in those cells, now is the time. The guards don't need to be intimidating and macho all over the place, they'll just be smug and smile unpleasantly - and knowingly. Have other prisoners thrown in the same cell or the next one. One has gone mad from fear, mumbles incoherent things, while the faintest noise startles him and makes him yell. Another one is talkative, describes what he has heard the guards do to the prisoners, and begs the party to kill him. Suddenly the doors open and an unconscious man is thrown inside, fresh from the torture chamber. You get the picture.

Background noises are also essential. Chains rattling, doors slamming, people screaming, monsters growling. [Just don't don't go over the top with this, if it becomes a habit they'll get used to it and fail to be impressed. Cue screams only when dramatically appropriate.]

If an interrogation is in order, take them one by one, solo. It is a rare instance of solo actually working in favor of the atmosphere, because players will be waiting impatiently just as their characters do, and no time will be lost.

All these are little things that build up tension without actually harming the players. Will the threats be realized? That depends on your adventure, but if so, I suggest you progress slowly. Don't just throw them in a room with all the tools of the Inquisition and 17 hungry monsters , because what will you do next? [Well, actually, the possibilities are endless, but I don't know how graphic this is supposed to be.:smallamused: ]

RTGoodman
2008-03-03, 12:27 AM
Also, here's something else I just though of.

Randomly, whenever the party is walking/talking/planning/whatever, tell them all to make Spot and Listen checks. When they roll, just say "Oh, nevermind then," and scribble some stuff down on a pad where they can't see it. Do this several times, maybe adding in a little chuckle, smile, or something else unsettling some of the times. They'll be paranoid out-of-character, and that'll carry over into in-character situations, too.

SurlySeraph
2008-03-03, 12:29 AM
This thread. (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=166882) Everything in it that is compatible with a fantasy setting. I recommend that you don't read more than 20 pages in one sitting.

SilverClawShift
2008-03-03, 01:01 AM
I beleive I've mentioned something about this before, but the number one element of a successful horror campaign is making sure that everyone agrees to play along with the fear.

When you come down to brass tacks, you're sitting in a semi-circle with good friends, eating snacks and playing a game. It's not a terrifying situation to be in, even with creepy real world elements added in.
No trick or trap you have is going to scare the players if they try to diffuse the situation with out-of-character humor.

AslanCross
2008-03-03, 01:10 AM
You have to play up the psychological fear of the unknown, not just the "Oh noez our characters are gonna get curbstomped" kind.

Carefully chosen background music might help---I found that Diablo I music worked very well for an Eberron adventure I ran in the past (Hell's Heart).
The music is very atmospheric and often goes from very quiet to "all of a sudden, whispers and groans." Really, really creepy. That said, the gaming area must be prepared. As much as possible, avoid bright lighting, but that's not such a problem. Loud background chatter will prevent you from playing in the first place. The worst mood bashers are little siblings and parents coming in randomly---though strangely enough, the phone ringing sometimes isn't, especially if it's late at night.

It also helps to play on the players' fears of making mistakes (which often causes them to actually make mistakes). They ended up shooting arrows into a statue that they actually shouldn't have shot thanks to paranoia (and ironically due to metagame thinking. "omg it might be a gargoyle") Thus, deceiving them once in a while will help. Of course, they learn and understandably become more cautious later on.

Random, disturbing elements at rare intervals would make a good horror element if well-calibrated, punctuating periods of eerie quiet. These don't even need to have any mechanical effect on the PCs---you're freaking the players out, not their characters. Mechanical effects actually may remove the scariness. "A giant, severed head falls out of the ceiling as you step closer to the forbidding statue. Bits of gore splatter you as it hits the ground with a thud. Roll a reflex save. The head's eyes look toward you, weakly, pleading, weeping black tears. Roll a will save and a Fort save."

Finally, it really helps if you rehearse your spiels beforehand. Iron out all the stammers and kinks so that your stammering doesn't ruin your narrative.

Squash Monster
2008-03-03, 01:18 AM
Scaring your players is two parts. First, you need to scare them through environment. Then, you need to scare them through gameplay.


Environment is the one people usually get right. No matter how scary your monster is, it's not scary if they just peek their heads into a room and see it. There are two ways to build up the encounter so it will be scary. The first is to make the monster's presence known for a long time. Leave a trail of carnage somewhere. Make them hear loud scratching or footsteps from the next room. Have an encounter against things running away from the monster. Chase the players with it. The second way is to make the lack of the monster's presence known for a long time. Have an empty room. Have an empty room with treasure. Make them make listen checks and not hear anything. When you reveal the monster, it needs to be close. Walk into it when you turn the corner close. Fall off the ceiling and get a surprise round close.

When actually describing a monster, something has to be wrong about it. If, during your description, you don't have to say what kind of limbs it has, you're doing something wrong. Use imagery for as many senses as you can, but don't use anything trite. Smelling like rotting flesh is boring. Moving without any sound is getting lame. Smelling like stagnant salt-water is kind of scary. The sound of a gigantic heart beating irregularly, is pretty scary. Take something completely mundane and twist it until it breaks. With the right words, you can terrify people with something that smells like salt.


Next, you need gameplay horror. Violate the players expectations. When you want to make something scary, pick a rule and have your monster break it. A franken-creature with parts from a dozen animals can have a different initiative count for each part. A floating bag of bile can get bigger every time you hit it. Oozes can split. Other times, let the environment help you. A grappling monster next to a cliff is scary. That stereotypical crushing ceiling trap is much better if a room full of zombies is trying to stop you from disarming it. Finally, sometimes it pays to describe a random room in extra detail, so the players think there's something important about it, and the paranoia of having missed something follows them all session.

ashmanonar
2008-03-03, 01:19 AM
I beleive I've mentioned something about this before, but the number one element of a successful horror campaign is making sure that everyone agrees to play along with the fear.

When you come down to brass tacks, you're sitting in a semi-circle with good friends, eating snacks and playing a game. It's not a terrifying situation to be in, even with creepy real world elements added in.
No trick or trap you have is going to scare the players if they try to diffuse the situation with out-of-character humor.

How did I know I'd see you post in this thread?

quiet1mi
2008-03-03, 01:21 AM
the less the better...
diseese is good because little is known and pc's can contract them.even something as small as you feel a little itchy will really distress someone

as for the setings
IF YOU HAVE A ROOM COVERED IN BLOOD the pc will ignore or get used to it but ... if you have a room that looks like this.

you enter through the door to find a child's playroom... dolls and building blocks that are scattered thorough out the floor confirm this... a chest sits in the corner... (if the pc open the chest) as you go through the chest you find some more toys and dolls .... as you reach further down you find something squishy and malleable. you find a good perchase and as you take it out you are shock as the "toy" that you have taken out is A SEVERED HEAD DRIPPING IN BLOOD!

Avilan the Grey
2008-03-03, 01:24 AM
I beleive I've mentioned something about this before, but the number one element of a successful horror campaign is making sure that everyone agrees to play along with the fear.

When you come down to brass tacks, you're sitting in a semi-circle with good friends, eating snacks and playing a game. It's not a terrifying situation to be in, even with creepy real world elements added in.
No trick or trap you have is going to scare the players if they try to diffuse the situation with out-of-character humor.

All of the posts above are great suggestions IMHO.
This is important, keep out-of character humor out of it; cynically put it is hard to really put the players to constantly feel creeped out, but if they have good enough imagination and are good enough role players, they should easily be able to understand what their characters feel at any given moment.
We had this discussion a few times when we have played Call of Cuthulu (and for the life of me I can't remember the spelling right now ;) ) where our very good GM after the session felt bad because he could tell we were not constantly on the edge. We explained to him that we, being 30+ and have watched / read / played countless horror settings, makes us a bit harder to scare, but that we really understood the setting and the atmosphere. He agreed that we had played our characters perfectly.

One thing he did at one point was when we had explored the big half-ready tunnels under the Thames that was going to be the London underground, and my character alone had to run back to grab a third lantern. Even though we had checked everything and the tunnel was surely empty, just the idea of running back that half mile only seeing the small spot of light at the other end (from a lantern we had left there) was making my character all cold sweat and shaky, and me quite tense I admit, because the could be something in the dark...
Very simple, but it worked because of things suggested above in this thread.
Another thing was the mosaic floor in a room that my character (and only my character) thought changed into a demonic grin in the flickering light of the torches, but no one else in the group saw anything weird...

shadowdemon_lord
2008-03-03, 02:30 AM
I second the trail of carnage. But make the carnage not your average run of the mill "entire village gets slaugtered", no no, that's no good. I think it would be scarier if 1 family in the village got slaughtered, and no one found out that it even happened for a while. There were no people running from the house in fear, obvious signs of struggle but no noise. No, it just dropped on the family in the middle of the day in broad day light, and killed them brutally undetected. If you do want to go with the "large area is destroyed route", make them just dissapear. No the family wasn't isolated, whatever this horror turns out to be, is hard to detect. Combine this with the random spot/listen checks. Maybe things appearing out of the corner of the PC's eyes.

Oooh I know, you could go zombie apocalypse style and have everyone just sort of gone one day when they wake up. The guy in the cell across from them isn't there anymore, the guards never show up. No chatter from people in cells adjacent. Eventually the PC's will realize no ones coming, and have to escape from their cell. Once they inspect the lock, tell them it's rusted and fragile.. Matter of fact, upon close inspection, the ENTIRE DOOR has completely rusted. Now the PC's should be wondering how long they were asleep. As they explore the now abandoned dungeon, be sure to play up just how quiet it is. Also have layers of dust on things, books and scrolls should be decaying and yellowing with age.

Once you've really impressed into the players they are more alone then they thought was possible, start dropping hints that something is still around and moving down here. Something following them, tracking them, hunting them. Catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of your eye here, a split second view of it there before it disappears again out of sight. During this stage a good thing to do here would be to introduce dead bodies of former guards/inmates as well. Introduce one body by having blood splatter on a PC from above, maybe have one of the things tracking them eating another corpse right before they enter the room, it jumps out of view as they enter the room, blood still dripping from it's chin. Be sure to be very descriptive when your describing this part. The crunch of bone, the tearing and ripping of flesh. The loud chewing. Better yet, have some of your corpses move when not being watched. But have them be totally inanimate (and not detect as undead, hostile, magical, etc). If your PC's demand combat, don't reveal what's tracking them yet. No, attack them with undead (maybe that aforementioned guy that was bleeding on them from the ceiling). Time the attack so that they already investigated the corpse, but are not yet done with the room. If he drops from the ceiling, he does so silently, and with a surprise round, nothings creepier then being clubbed over the head by the corpse you just saw hanging from the ceiling. Don't have your PC's place themselves on the battle mat until after you attack one of them, and make your first attack an auto hit (roll the dice, just fudge em if you have to).

That should do to sufficiently set the mood (assuming they buy into the whole horror thing, if they don't buy it, just tell them point blank that if they're not going to take it seriously their wasting their own time and yours by playing it).

CthulhuM
2008-03-03, 03:02 AM
In my experience, it's very hard to make a campaign in a fantasy setting (let alone a pulpy action-oriented one like Eberron) scary. A zombie isn't scary when the party wizard knows animate dead and the cleric can turn it. A dark shape flying overhead isn't scary when the ranger can pincushion it at 200 yards. A trapped room isn't scary when the rogue is perfectly capable of disabling it, and a giant slavering monster (regardless of how you describe it) isn't scary when the barbarian can fly into a rage and start merrily hacking bits of it off.

In your standard dnd campaign, the PCs themselves are too capable (and the wierd and magical too commonplace) for the players to really feel anything other than "Eh, we can take it," in response to the situations you describe. Sure, you can always put the PCs up against something they have no chance of beating, but then the response is not "Oh god, what is that thing?!" it's "Oh god, what were you thinking sending a Balor against a 5th level party? That's just not fair!"

The point of this being, I suppose, that to really do horror you're probably going to need a relatively modern, relatively mundane setting. There's a reason horror movies (or at least horror movies that are actually somewhat scary) feature groups of college kids or average middle-class families or what-have-you, rather than, say, a team of navy SEALS. Not only can the audience/players relate more to the group of average people, but, if the characters are themselves dangerous and capable individuals, you don't create the sense of helplessness you need to. Even if the navy SEALS really are helpless against the monster, it never ends up feeling like it.

I can say that the only time I personally have had any sense of actual horror from an RPG was from a d20 modern campaign where the characters (and the players, for that matter) didn't actually expect to encounter anything supernatural. The first session in which wierd things started happening (two NPCs walk through a door, seconds later one has third degree burns all over his body, the other has been hit by a lethal dose of radiation - neither has any idea what happened. A random mob thug we're in a firefight with melts and leaves behind a pool of incredibly powerful acid. The area around the building we're in suddenly turns dark as night, etc.) we really were fairly freaked out. But even as well as the DM played it, by the next session (even though we still had no idea what was going on) we'd gotten used to the fact that crazy things were happening, and it simply wasn't all that scary anymore.

FlyMolo
2008-03-03, 09:05 PM
There's an excellent list in heroes of horror, and a lot of the things mentioned earlier are in there.

One which really creeped me out is the one with a mirror. A Pc looks into a mirror, and suddenly his reflection is agonisingly murdered, with lots of blood. the PC never sees the attacker. For 3 days, the PC has no reflection. Then the PCs reflection comes back, for no apparent reason. Stuff suddenly turning to blood can be weird, and a bit of a nuisance. Superstitious characters will drop that canteen like a rock.

Neon Knight
2008-03-03, 09:26 PM
Personally, I think that the most important factors will be whether the players decide to play to the spirit of the game. All of the above things help and can entice players to, but they won't do it all by themselves.

Secondly, over the top gore is in no way a ticket to creepsville. Prolific blood and gore, both fictional and in real life, can be desensitizing. Just enough blood on the windowsill, perhaps no more than a few drops, can inspire fear just as surely as obscene amounts. Subtlety can work just as surely as blatant depravity.

I'd also like to note that the zombie scenario might not be the best for horror. Yeah, yeah, I now, heresy and what not. A zombie is slow and stupid, prone to either groaning like a person with a bad hangover or muttering about brains. Really, how intimidating is that? In most zombie movies, they have to nerf human being's flesh to the consistency of play dough in order to let zombies be a threat. And we're talking magical zombies. At least science zombies have the threat of infection.

Not to mention that certain media works have made their fortunes on openly mocking or annihilating zombies. Shawn of the Dead. Dead Rising. Evil Dead. Some people, when they here zombie, think of these things, which leads to action and comedy instead of horror.

Jayngfet
2008-03-03, 09:30 PM
just do what darren shan does, mix n' match critters, homebrew a lil

how about the head of a man with one snakes eyee and a blank socket, body of a centipide, legs of a dog, feet of a lizard, wings of a raven, a 40ft cone of acid, and the size of four hummers, lined up.

Tura
2008-03-04, 03:46 AM
Not to mention that certain media works have made their fortunes on openly mocking or annihilating zombies. Shawn of the Dead.
Shaun of the Dead, in particular, was a tribute as much as a parody, but that's besides the point. Zombies can't be really scary in DnD, because they are the standard CR1 critters you expect to find in your first dungeon. You're used to them, and what's more, you're used to them being a very minor threat. You can try to make it more personal, like turning a friendly NPC the players were particularly fond of to a zombie, but still... they won't be very impressed.

Talic
2008-03-04, 04:05 AM
True horror comes from a lack of hope. Find a way to shift the focus.

If halfway through a session, players are no longer trying to "win" and instead, only trying to "survive", you're on the right track.

Individual combats should be winnable. The nature of the very world, however, must be such as to nearly guarantee doom.

Whether it's a zombie apocalypse or a serial killer who leaves behind the only discernably clue, the name of the next victim... And a PC is on the roster for, "next served"... Hopelessness inspires horror.

Roderick_BR
2008-03-04, 06:20 AM
As a rule of thumb, you must make descriptions to make them sweat. If you say they enter a room full of bodies, and they start moving, they'll just think "zombies". The cleric will go "darn, if I had my holy symbol, we'd be out already... oh well, we'll do it the common way".
Now, try something like. "You enter a dark and omnous room. The stench of death and rottness permeate the air. As you walk in, trying to adjust your vision, you suddenly feel your foot sink into something soft, yet, brittle, with a sickening sound. When your vision finally adjusts to the dimly light room, you notice you have your foot stuck inside a corpse's ribcage. It's lifeless eyes staring upwards, as if it were trying to tell you something. Among the bodies, you see women, men, children, and old folks, all dead with the same brutality, with bodies ripped appart, burnt, and cut open. Some faces stuck into a silent mask of pain and desperation. Holding back the will to throw up, you notice, in the corner of your eye, something moving. Startled, you turn around, half expecting to find a survivor. But when you see the half-rotten body stand up, a look into those life-less eyes is enough to make you abandon that little hope."

Seriously, in D&D, you can't keep the characters from fighting their way out of everything. But you can make things get unpleasant for them. A trap room with fresh blood around, monsters that advance inexorably, no matter what lethal wounds they carry, and situations explained in enervating ways are sometimes enough to shake a player. Instead of insanity rules, you could discrible situations in a distorted way, and just say they are getting weird perceptions due to stress and how the local is scaring. A skeleton standing up is one thing. The resting bones of an ancient warrior that suddenly moves when you approach, and with a unnatural sound slowly starts to stand up, while staring you with his empty eye sockets, as it reachs for an old and rusty army sword, drenched in dried up blood, is another.

Personally, I'd avoid sanity point rules. Some players play it well, but others starts to treat it as just a different type of HP.

Neon Knight
2008-03-04, 07:25 AM
True horror comes from a lack of hope. Find a way to shift the focus.

I disagree. True hopelessness just leads to apathy and frustration. It should be noted that psychologically people who feel truly hopeless are not the kind that keep running around and operating. They're the type that end up committing suicide. Which could be a morbid and great way to end a tragic horror campaign. But if the majority of the game is just delaying the inevitable and both the players and characters know it, I'd think they wouldn't be all that motivated. (Unless they know about and have agreed to a tragic ending beforehand.)

In addition, I disagree with your example. "Winning" is "surviving" in survival horror. The triumph is not being dead (or undead.) The only way to make the situation hopeless is to put them in a situation were they will die, no ifs ands, or buts. Which can actually work if you're going for tragedy. But a sad or tragic ending is not automatically assumed even in horror.

And being able to win individual combats gives hope, in my opinion. You never fear something that you know you can kill.

Project_Mayhem
2008-03-04, 08:27 AM
just do what darren shan does, mix n' match critters, homebrew a lil

Except that Darren Shan isn't scary. Not one bit. Gory and disgusting, yes, but it's far too pulpy and zany to be actually scary to read. A far better source to use would be Lovecraft or something similar

Take 'The Colour out of Space' for example, often considered to be one of Lovecraft's greatest stories. Whats scary are the skirted descriptions, the allusions, rather than straight out telling you what's there. Lord Loss is a grotesque bugger, but he's never scared me, mainly because of the way he's obviously described. However, we are never really told what the colour looks like, what it does, what it's motivations are etc. Similarly, the mutilated corpses of its victims are only alluded to - grey twisted and brittle.

Essentially, in game, I think this translates to keeping the players on their toes. Give them glimpses of movement out of the corners of their eyes. They turn round to just see something dark scuttling away. Never let them feel comfortable. When you drop a monster on them, either do it suddenly at a moment of low tension, or gradually forebode it until the players literally are firing magic missile at the darkness. Another good theme to borrow is gradually revealing horrifying facts. For example, the mutant monstrosities they fight aren't that scary untill they realise from their corpses taht they were the missing villagers. Or that the benificial potions they found were brewed from the flesh of the villages children. Never state this at any point. Suggest. Let them figure it out.

Works in our CoC games anyway.

Attilargh
2008-03-04, 09:48 AM
One must keep in mind, however, that Lovecraft cheated at times. He had a habit of describing his gribblies as "indescribable", "eldritch", "not of this universe's geometry" and so on, which I think works especially badly in RPGs where the only thing that keeps the players immersed is their imagination. When someone flat-out states that it is not possible to imagine something because their minds work on the principles of three-dimensional existence, they probably won't, and that's not good.

Of course, I've never been very scared by the few examples of horror literature I've encountered, so I might not be the right guy to talk.

JamesHowlett
2008-03-04, 07:20 PM
Awesome. Thanks all, I think I can throw something together now. If anyone would like to keep the thread going on what they think a god horror game should have, by all means, go ahead. We're listening. :smalltongue:

Blanks
2008-03-05, 09:34 AM
Zombies can't be really scary in DnD, because they are the standard CR1 critters you expect to find in your first dungeon. You're used to them, and what's more, you're used to them being a very minor threat.
I once used this, with some effect:

The players encounter a horde of zombies. No biggie, as the quote says, zombies are weak. They started merrily hacking away as they advanced through the ranks of zombies.
They got nervous when i told them that one of the first zombies stood back up again. When the next round more of the defeated zombies started rising again they got panicky. By that time they had placed themselves deep into the ranks of the zombies, which was now rising behind them.
My point was, take a common thing and change it (zombies that reanimate 3 rounds after they are downed). Nothing much but the moment of realization was precious :smalleek:


But generally i agree, its hard to do horror in DnD.

strayth
2008-03-05, 10:34 PM
Let's touch on some things I experienced in an incredible (and scary) Star Wars (West End) game, years ago. (oh god, TEN years ago...)

-Foretelling or warning that one among them is a traitor / will be responsible for their deaths.

-One of them gets killed (or removed; killed is much, much scarier but obviously can anger the player).

-Walk into a room? The floor is inches-deep with blood. There's a chittering noise growing more distant. A single blood drop ticks each second into the pool. (Scary as hell if you do this right.)

-Some environmental fright. (In this case, the lights of the Mon Cal cruiser's bridge were flickering, making a sharp contrast to the darkness, it was also great as a counter to the regularity of the blood drops.)

-Disarmed isn't good enough. Cripple or handicap some of them.

Hope this helps.

Hawriel
2008-03-05, 11:53 PM
Go to your local Video rental store and go to the horror or sci-fi movie section. Pick out affew classic horror movies. Any thing over 15 years old at least. Most of the ressent stuff is CGI splatter porn. Also ask the clerk for his/her advice. Hopefully there is some one close to 30.

No matter what movie you get pay attention to how it builds suspence. Remember the unknown is what peaple fear the most.