What scares you in tabletops?

[Sploosh]

Hi there,

A friend is working on a horror game and wants to know what would scare me. I then realized that I haven't really ever been afraid at the table as a player.

I was hoping you guys might chime in with some elements, stories, or anything else that could add to a Dark Fantasy Ravenlofty game to actually get the players into the halloween mood.

[Seffbasilisk]

Not making knowledge checks, and encountering high DR or energy resistance.

Something lurking in the shadows, with spring attack, that you can't seem to hurt....

[Zaydos]

Well I've had one game where my players said they were legitimately scared. They were dealing with 1 to 5 dimensional, Cthulian entities; it was night, they were in an elven house built into a tree and fog came in from the sea. The creatures attacked, and the party ran (with the owners of the house) and hid in the basement. Then the warlock and the DMPC went to explore the house, leaving the meatshield and ninja-shaman to guard the inhabitants. The warlock didn't even encounter the monsters again (this would have been the 3rd time they'd encountered these) and just heard them coming when he got scared and dimension doored back down stairs.

The knight and shaman had to fight one that broke into the basement during this.

They complemented me on making a good, scary adventure. I wasn't trying for horror.

The other thing has been beholders, my PCs have a phobia of beholders.

[The Glyphstone]

Atmosphere. Play in a room with dim lights if you can. Have some creepy music playing faintly in the background.

In-game...hints of things that might be there, or might not be. Notes handed to players, telling them of horrors that they can see but their loyal friends are oblivious to. Sometimes those are real. Breed paranoia and uncertainty.

[Kaun]

it all so helps to wear your players down,

find interesting ways to burn of their hp and chew through their prepared spells.

Then make sure to interupt any chance they have at resting.

When your players are facing an unknown element with minimal fire power left it will get them worried.

[chaser]

Spiders's and heights i have arachnophobia and Fear Of Heights

[Tyndmyr]

Folded paper notes, handed out to the players. Especially if that player either looks at it in horror, or begins laughing manically.

[The Big Dice]

Not knowing what you're dealing with until it's too late to run away. And then knowing exactly what you're dealing with and what it's capable of. Aka, fear of the known vs fear of the unknown.

Not being able to leave the location the Horribe Stuff is taking place in, despite not minding being there until right before the horrible stuff started happening. Aka, put them in a place they don't mind being, then make it so they can't leave and then start killing people off one by one.

Big stat blocks aren't scary. Not until your character is alone with something that's got one but doesn't yet realise your character knows what it is.

[boomwolf]

Anything that is immune to their auto-go-to methods, is capable to avoid them, or simply to clever to fall for them will cause them to work a bit.

Anything that is immune/too clever/able to avoid pretty much EVERYTHING they do, even if quite harmless otherwise, is a thing to fear of. just make sure there is SOME logical way to beat the damn thing, so they will feel clever when they finally find it.

[hiryuu]

It takes a certain amount of metagaming to put fear into folks. Break patterns, force the PCs into things the players know or think is dangerous. Give them enough information through metahints that there is an illithid behind that door, but that their PCs can't possibly know, and then show there isn't one. Do it one more time, then spring the monster on them in the third or fourth time.

Give hints in enemy conversation that PCs might be working for one or other. Don't use notes for it, either. Try to couch your words and terms so one or more players understand but another doesn't.

Running a good horror campaign requires a lot more cooperation around the table than usual.

[Katana_Geldar]

Give the impression that you're not giving them all the information all the time, that there MAY be something there to kill them but it may just be a cat.

Make sure you have false alarms as real threats and scares.

Passing fake notes works well too. Such as "When you get this note, nod and smile at Such-and-such and say 'I'll do that'."

[Doomboy911]

Here go to google and type in Zero Punctuation and watch Yahtzee's latest video it better explains what I'm going to say.

Pacing things out can make it terrifying the party goes walking down a hallway and they hear something go rushing through one door and out the other when they turn they just see a tail sliding in and the door slam shuts. They go to investigate and try opening the door they hear growl and black smoke slides out through the opening and the door is slammed shut. A laughter is heard they look around but see no one. Go walking down the hallway where one of them begins to sink through the floor they pull him out as the carpet lining the hallway begins to be sucked in. The door opens again they look back to see a fat shadowy object go skittering into the next room.

They don't know what is going on and that should scare the people.

[Draz74]

Re: What scares you in tabletops?

Hmmm, that's a tough one. They're normally pretty innocuous. Dire Termites, maybe?

[Fax Celestis]

I'm terrified of creatures with fast burrow speeds, spring attack, and swallow whole.

[Noedig]

Have a totally innocuous object or creature be present when something horrible happens, then make sure it is present almost all the time.

[Shadowleaf]

Water.

Because there is something beneath the surface.

[The Grue]

While I think the intent of the OP was to ask what elements players found made for a creepy or full-blown horror kind of atmosphere, I notice a lot of responses are to the effect of "here are some gameplay elements that I or my players find difficult to bypass".

I think that's pretty telling of the kind of gaming that goes on here at GitP. :/

[Zaydos]

A bunch of crows sitting in a tree.

One week I had that and the PCs freaked out.*

A few weeks later they kicked down a secret door in the building a PC grew up in; found a room full of lemures, killed them without flinching, and then fought an ice devil without batting an eye.

*Later on in that adventure I also had one character start feeling things moving under his skin. He freaked out and shot himself with a magic missile.

[Zaydos]

While I think the intent of the OP was to ask what elements players found made for a creepy or full-blown horror kind of atmosphere, I notice a lot of responses are to the effect of "here are some gameplay elements that I or my players find difficult to bypass".

I think that's pretty telling of the kind of gaming that goes on here at GitP. :/

I have to disagree a bit; one of the classical elements of horror fiction is that the monster can't be beaten by whatever weapons the heroes are used to using. That's what has been suggested.

[Grommen]

Players. You just never know what they will do next.

[Fax Celestis]

While I think the intent of the OP was to ask what elements players found made for a creepy or full-blown horror kind of atmosphere, I notice a lot of responses are to the effect of "here are some gameplay elements that I or my players find difficult to bypass".

I think that's pretty telling of the kind of gaming that goes on here at GitP. :/

The question was "what scares you in tabletops", not "what kind of tabletop game scares you", so I answered the question that was asked.

[Ertwin]

One thing I'm planning on; Pick a DC that is sufficiently high that it is fairly difficult to attain for the characters with the best senses.

In any spot/listen/perception check, if that DC is hit, tell that character that they sense something watching them. If a natural 20 occurs they either sense it (if they can't normally beat the DC) or get a vague direction (if they can normally make the DC)

Keep in mind only the characters that make the DC can sense something watching them.

This is particularly effective in 4th edition as the perception scores keep getting higher as the characters level, so the sense that something is watching them will only become more prevailent to more of the character.

Kudos to Billy from Predator for the idea.

[Draz74]

The question was "what scares you in tabletops", not "what kind of tabletop game scares you", so I answered the question that was asked.

Beat you to it, by one post ...

[Crossblade]

Count down times. There's something unnerving about having to think on your feet in a turn based game.

[WinWin]

Foreshadowing and portents can help set the mood. Can test your abilities as a storyteller though.

Setting and scenery can help a little. Abandoned houses and desolate terrain are good, hinting at the absence or loss of life. I think another poster mentioned carrion-birds watching the characters from a tree, another good image.

Slasher horror tends to lose it's impact if used all of the time, so try and keep it to a minimum, though YMMV.

The descriptions and actions of monsters you give can alter how players react. Don't just call a Zombie a Zombie for example. Describe the corpse, give little hints as to describe the person it once was. It could even appear to be a living person, horribly wounded, moaning in pain and reaching plaintitively out to the characters for assistance...Only once it gets close to them do they realise what it is.

I hope these suggestions help. Once you have developed a storytelling style you are comfortable with, don't be afraid to change the pace and experiment occasionally. Your players will appreciate the effort and with any luck, contribute to make a memorable game.

[FreshlyMinted]

Honestly, I just ran a session that was all about horror. There was not a single combat encounter in the lot, but the players ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT.

Tell your friend to check out http://www.creepypasta.com. I stole about 10 stories from that, made them fit the theme and set the players in the story and it was a huge success

[edit]: also I set the mood with a candlelit session and some really scary music. Tell your DM to try the ALIENS soundtrack Atmosphere Station and some others have that nice wreeeeaaaak (reeak... reeak...) sound to 'em

[Thajocoth]

That would scare me as a player?

If someone was swinging a knife around for some reason... If another player was trying to stab me... If someone brought in a wild carnivore, like a crocodile, to watch us play...

I guess my answer is "actual danger".

Also, thinking one of my friends is seriously hurt. Like, if they were having a heart attack or spraying blood everywhere... I'd be scared that my friend was gonna die.

[Roc Ness]

Making them roll Initiative, and roll Spot/Listen checks. Then have nothing happen. Once the players have freaked out a bit, and wasted some time/resources buffing and stuff, move on.
Rinse and repeat a few times.
Once the players start getting wary about this trick, hit them with something freaky but innoculous, just to keep them on their toes...


Oh yes! Obvious enemies that just don't fight back. Like those tallhat british palace guards, only evil, grinning and motionless to the death. Position a few of them in hard-to-reach places, or hiding in corners. Make those players paranoid...

[LordShotGun]

Whenever the DM say to roll ANY kinda of check and does not tell you if you passed or even what it is for. Works best on people with an attachment to thier characters.

[Caliphbubba]

In the groups that I play with there is an notorious amount of out of character chatter at the table some times. Disallowing or discouraging any out of character comments that arn't directly related to playing the game can go a long way to keeping the atmoshpere suitably horrific.

There is nothing worse than describing a crazy/horric sceen rife with paranoid and uncertainty only to have one of your players make an off color remark and have everyone burst out laughing lol