Author Topic: Running a horror game  (Read 6625 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

RobbyPants

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 7139
Running a horror game
« on: January 19, 2009, 09:59:53 PM »
I've always liked the idea of running a horror game, but I've never seriously tried it.  Ever since I picked up Heroes of Horror (probably my favorite 3.5 suplament), I've been intrigued by the subject.

I've read a bit here and there in other forums about how people do it.  Something I found interesting is how different people give entirely different (and conflicting) advice.  For example, one person might strongly encourage the DM to give very graphic, gory details.  Another person tells the DM to be very brief in their descriptions, letting the player's minds fill in the blanks.

That being said, I'm curious about your opinions and experiences.  Have any of you run a horror game or played in one?  What made it work or fail?
My balancing 3.5 compendium
Elemental mage test game

Quotes
[spoiler]
Quote from: Cafiend
It is a shame stupidity isn't painful.
Quote from: StormKnight
Totally true.  Historians believe that most past civilizations would have endured for centuries longer if they had successfully determined Batman's alignment.
Quote from: Grand Theft Otto
Why are so many posts on the board the equivalent of " Dear Dr. Crotch, I keep punching myself in the crotch, and my groin hurts... what should I do? How can I make my groin stop hurting?"
Quote from: CryoSilver
I suggest carving "Don't be a dick" into him with a knife.  A dull, rusty knife.  A dull, rusty, bent, flaming knife.
Quote from: Seerow
Fluffy: It's over Steve! I've got the high ground!
Steve: You underestimate my power!
Fluffy: Don't try it, Steve!
Steve: *charges*
Fluffy: *three critical strikes*
Steve: ****
Quote from: claypigeons
I don't even stat out commoners. Commoner = corpse that just isn't a zombie. Yet.
Quote from: CryoSilver
When I think "Old Testament Boots of Peace" I think of a paladin curb-stomping an orc and screaming "Your death brings peace to this land!"
Quote from: Orville_Oaksong
Buy a small country. Or Pelor. Both are good investments.
[/spoiler]

SixthDeclension

  • King Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 907
  • "Wit is educated insolence."
    • Email
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2009, 10:08:55 PM »
I presently have a DM who is attempting to run a horror game. Our problem is that our group dynamic generally leads to comedy no matter what. Something good he did, however, was put us up against a little girl(a vampire) who loves hide and seek. Any other group could have been scared.
My choice place for buying Magic: the Gathering Singles: adventuresOn.com

Currently DMing a Solo PbP, Check it out here

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

woodenbandman

  • Man in Gorilla Suit
  • *****
  • Posts: 2188
    • Email
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2009, 11:33:23 PM »
I'm working on a horror game but it's really hard on PBP. Stuff moves too slow for a horror game.

In my experience the element that seperates horror and action is the anticipation. There's a difference between not knowing whether you'll succeed or fail and not knowing what horrible things await you. Anyone can look at a monster and think "eh." Play up the approach. It's far scarier to think you saw the monster, look back, look again, and it's gone. It was really under the floor this entire time. You're already dead.

Shoggoth

  • That monkey with the orange ass cheeks
  • ****
  • Posts: 246
    • Email
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2009, 11:36:53 PM »
I've run good horror and terrible horror, and I've played in both good and terrible horror games.

I think one of the keys to truly good horror is to remember that you aren't horrifying the characters, you're horrifying the players.  Play directly to them.  Whether you go with little description or tons of description depends on what you can pull off and what your players will respond to.

Another important theme for running a personal horror campaign is a sense of hopelessness and helplessness in the players.  Nothing is more terrifying for anyone than the idea that no matter what you do, you're fucked.  It's important to do this right, however.  Putting a 5th level party up against a CL 20 encounter is hopeless, but not horrifying, it just makes you look like a dick.  

Now take a scenario where a small town has been taken over by vampires.  The PCs enter the situation trying to stop the vampires, but there are several wrinkles - the vampires have been turning a number of the towns children, and returning them to their families.  The people in the town are horrified at what is happening, but the don't want to lose their children AGAIN.  If the reveal can be done in the right way, the idea of cute vampire children could be really horrifying.  In addition, maybe the vampire children and the normal children in the town still play together, and they will all try to defend the vampires when the time comes.  Fucked if you do, fucked if you don't.

I'm sure that can be punched up, but you get the idea.
Still came that eldritch, mocking cry - "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!" and at last we remembered that the demoniac Shoggoths...had no voice save the imitated accents of their bygone masters.

Midnight_v

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 2660
  • Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori.
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2009, 11:41:28 PM »
I presently have a DM who is attempting to run a horror game. Our problem is that our group dynamic generally leads to comedy no matter what. Something good he did, however, was put us up against a little girl(a vampire) who loves hide and seek. Any other group could have been scared.
... I agree...
but a lot of times, horror and comedy are like seconds away from each other anyway. It's weird.
Here's what I got Robby.
I can't make people run.
No one runs. In D&D everybody fights. Lots of times will fight no matter what the odds, I guess expecting some duex ex machina or something.

I had a working horror campaign once though, here's how it worked.
[spoiler]Real life stuff happend.
We had a player quit, and dm'ing switched to me.
We all sat down and came up with a campaign setting.
I made them the "stars" they were basically the disciples(sidekicks and children, and inheritors also) of the group of people who had last saved the world, but the world was still realing from a war + calamity. (as I right that I realize I could have set this in ebberon or even faerun's 4th edition, in the end the campaign we came up with on our own ended up sounding like points of light.)
Now humanity was new and the world wasn't fully explored. Humanity (to the knowledge of the humans anyway) essentially only exitsted on the western most edge of a continent ocean on the west Mountains on the east (geographic isolation.)
So I send them on a rescue mission for a lost colony, on the other side of the mountains
The king of the had wanted to expand before the war and the King Regent who now ruled pushed to complete that dream (ooh manifest destiny)
The actually King and the heroes who proceeded you had left through a portal  during the last battle to keep the world from ending or whatever and had not shown back up That was 5 years previous.
Anyway, I send them on a rescue mission for a lost colony, on the other side of the mountains
I basically sent them into a "darkside" like tales from the darkside.
-------------- [/spoiler]
I selected a list of horrific things from the list as well as the creepy events thread from the old wizards board.
I used note cards to deliever the creepy events, each person noticed something else.

I ran the first adventure from the heroes of horror book. The one about the hag and uncle chortle.
A kid escorted the party to the house (who was a ghost like critter actually trapped and asking for help)
 I went to run the second story (the evil baby) but was looking at the lords of madness for somthing and came across the Tsocar, and then thought about "the thing" and invasion of the body snatchers.
I was sold.
[spoiler] So they showed up in a town divided, (with some really obscure architecture) both sides conviningly arguing the other had been "infected" or "Replaced"...
I also had some guy in a church (a mad man) warded with many cerulean signs gylphs scralwed in grafitti every where... Researching  guess what? The find the city bomb... rember that thread? He wanted to destroy the city and everyone in it "just to be sure". Communicating with him was hard cause he rambled so much.
Later they find that the inhabitants of the city had moved into an existing and abandoned land mark, everything was cool till someone tried to get in one of the doorless domeshaped building, which released the Tsocar. . . [/spoiler]

\\\"Disentegrate.\\\" \\\"Gust of wind.\\\" \\\"Now Can we PLEASE resume saving the world?\\\"

Midnight_v

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 2660
  • Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori.
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2009, 11:41:40 PM »
Quote
What made it work or fail?
I should have answered more briefly, sorry.
What made this adventure work?
Basically the fear of the unknown.
Isolation far from any back up. (you were the back up).
Walking into a bad scenario. (everyones kinda crazed)
Weird shit happening personally to your character as well, so you're basically constantly trying to get a bead on exactly what  the fuck is going on.
Well... are multiple things going on.
Isolation, paranoia, fear of the unknown.

\\\"Disentegrate.\\\" \\\"Gust of wind.\\\" \\\"Now Can we PLEASE resume saving the world?\\\"

Bozwevial

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 4497
  • Developing a relaxed attitude to danger.
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2009, 11:42:55 PM »
Of course, it has to be said that if your group is going to spend the whole time making dismemberment jokes ("Looks like he's getting ahead" or the like), then you probably won't have a very successful horror game. There's not really much you can do to get players to shift mindsets like that--all it takes is one disruptive player to start snickering, and then you've lost them.

Midnight_v

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 2660
  • Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori.
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2009, 11:45:03 PM »
Of course, it has to be said that if your group is going to spend the whole time making dismemberment jokes ("Looks like he's getting ahead" or the like), then you probably won't have a very successful horror game. There's not really much you can do to get players to shift mindsets like that--all it takes is one disruptive player to start snickering, and then you've lost them.
+1 You kinda have to have a plan for that.

Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori. = win
\\\"Disentegrate.\\\" \\\"Gust of wind.\\\" \\\"Now Can we PLEASE resume saving the world?\\\"

Bozwevial

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 4497
  • Developing a relaxed attitude to danger.
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2009, 11:47:51 PM »
Of course, it has to be said that if your group is going to spend the whole time making dismemberment jokes ("Looks like he's getting ahead" or the like), then you probably won't have a very successful horror game. There's not really much you can do to get players to shift mindsets like that--all it takes is one disruptive player to start snickering, and then you've lost them.
+1 You kinda have to have a plan for that.

Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori. = win


Heh, yeah. I guess I should find a different quote or something to go there, because otherwise it's just going to be confusing.

bhu

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 6783
  • Convincing the rich whale fat enemas are healthy
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2009, 06:36:58 AM »
Horror fans are separated into several categories, andits best to find out what your players are first.

Do they like gore filled splatter movies? 

Do they prefer humorous horror films?

Do they prefer suspense over blood?

Do they prefer realism or over the  top?

I find that sometimes the description I give scares the hell out of people more than the actual fight. For example, describing an NPC getting destroyed doesn't mean much if the PC's don't know him.  An NPC they traveled with and know well, who gets his heart torn from his chest in the first round hits home more.  Particularly if they know he's on a power level par with their own. 

Or if they prefer you be descriptive no 4th level PC wants to hear "Bob the NPC is hit (after rolling a 10) and takes 27 points of damage."   :smirk

Midnight_v

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 2660
  • Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori.
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2009, 10:33:32 AM »
Of course, it has to be said that if your group is going to spend the whole time making dismemberment jokes ("Looks like he's getting ahead" or the like), then you probably won't have a very successful horror game. There's not really much you can do to get players to shift mindsets like that--all it takes is one disruptive player to start snickering, and then you've lost them.
+1 You kinda have to have a plan for that.

Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori. = win




Heh, yeah. I guess I should find a different quote or something to go there, because otherwise it's just going to be confusing.

No! No, please don't. We have an actual latin motto there... we're like the last remnants of the Trancendental Order of Optimization or something. I wish MORE of us used this motto...
It just a reflection of the universality of "classic"


Quote
Or if they prefer you be descriptive no 4th level PC wants to hear "Bob the NPC is hit (after rolling a 10) and takes 27 points of damage."   
Big +1 for Bhu.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2009, 10:35:14 AM by Midnight_v »
\\\"Disentegrate.\\\" \\\"Gust of wind.\\\" \\\"Now Can we PLEASE resume saving the world?\\\"

RobbyPants

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 7139
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2009, 10:51:50 AM »
Yeah, those are a lot of problems.

One reason I haven't really tried this much is my group (myself included) tends to look for humor.  So, if the players do actually start feeling tense, they're going to look for a way to inject some humor to lighten the mood.

I also agree about the part with players not wanting their PCs to run away.  I've had problems with this in the past and it sucks.  I suppose the DM could make a point at the start of the game to tell the players that he will not fudge the dice in either direction; the rolls will be what they are.  If this point is driven home well enough, the players will hopefully watch for warning signs of defeat and run when things aren't looking so well.

I think part of keeping a horror game more horrific involves taking some of the tactical combat out of it.  This can be tough in D&D, as so much of the rule set revolves around this.  One big thing can be to not run encounters on a grid with minis.  No matter how scary your BBEG is, once the players see it represented as a mini, it loses all scariness.  Now, it is an obstacle that can be beaten through tactics.  The only way to keep it scary at that point is to thwart the player's standard tactics (which puts you on that thin line of being a horror DM and a dick).

The impression I've always gotten is the less you focus on combat, and the more you focus on things out of combat, the scarier you can make the game.  The players are probably used to solving almost any problem through combat and violence.  If this is not a viable approach, that might be enough to make them more nervous.
My balancing 3.5 compendium
Elemental mage test game

Quotes
[spoiler]
Quote from: Cafiend
It is a shame stupidity isn't painful.
Quote from: StormKnight
Totally true.  Historians believe that most past civilizations would have endured for centuries longer if they had successfully determined Batman's alignment.
Quote from: Grand Theft Otto
Why are so many posts on the board the equivalent of " Dear Dr. Crotch, I keep punching myself in the crotch, and my groin hurts... what should I do? How can I make my groin stop hurting?"
Quote from: CryoSilver
I suggest carving "Don't be a dick" into him with a knife.  A dull, rusty knife.  A dull, rusty, bent, flaming knife.
Quote from: Seerow
Fluffy: It's over Steve! I've got the high ground!
Steve: You underestimate my power!
Fluffy: Don't try it, Steve!
Steve: *charges*
Fluffy: *three critical strikes*
Steve: ****
Quote from: claypigeons
I don't even stat out commoners. Commoner = corpse that just isn't a zombie. Yet.
Quote from: CryoSilver
When I think "Old Testament Boots of Peace" I think of a paladin curb-stomping an orc and screaming "Your death brings peace to this land!"
Quote from: Orville_Oaksong
Buy a small country. Or Pelor. Both are good investments.
[/spoiler]

Midnight_v

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 2660
  • Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori.
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #12 on: January 20, 2009, 11:39:09 AM »
Quote
I also agree about the part with players not wanting their PCs to run away.  I've had problems with this in the past and it sucks.  I suppose the DM could make a point at the start of the game to tell the players that he will not fudge the dice in either direction; the rolls will be what they are
I did this. In fact many times I just rolled openly for all to see... turned into some edge of your seat entertainment. Everyone standing up to see what I rolled LOL.

Quote
I think part of keeping a horror game more horrific involves taking some of the tactical combat out of it.

Uhm this way lies fail.
For D&D is a tactical combat game.
Quote
One big thing can be to not run encounters on a grid with minis.
Disagree. I think that would be a terrible idea.
Two words.
Zombie horde. Seriously but the Pc 4 characters on the map. Then Feild 50 + zombies.
................ but thats beside the point.
....
Check it out.
The combat is needed, and should be a needed release from the horror. What makes it horrorfying is what leads up to combat and what happens immediately after.
If they're forced to flee from the 50 zombies/wights/ghouls whatever but when they flee that leaves the creatures to feast upon the town. . .
Force'em to flee... make kill cards. I mean a card that describes what happens to the person you kill.
Pass the card around this get them to use thier imagination. Then start on where you started aloud...

"...Tordek is momentarily obscured by the horde, you can still hear his axe thuding away for a moment but all to quickly this sound is replaced by a muffled scream, the last you see of your friend is a stocky arm struggling it's way out of a dog pile of carrion.  A young girl in a tattered green frock steps foward and clamps down on the exposed thumb pulling her head back brutally until a long strip of flesh is torn away dwarven blood gushing our from her lip-less mouth"
...
... Tordek is down, you can't seem him as every adjacent square between you and he is filled with bodies and he's prone. . .
..........

In the LoM they give an encounter guide for a horror campaign.
Heroic vs Horiffic encounters. Like page 11 or 13 I think.

So more than a lack of combat, there has to be ...
A close association between the characters, as well as a personal interest in the character.
I just found a lot of success using notecards at certain points... in the story as well as in the combat.
On thing I'd like to do is take thier characters from a heroic adventure, then enter into a horrific campaign.
...
I think a horror adventure or two within a campaign is better than a fullscale horror campaign....
Let them bring thier pc's through a couple of low level adventures. Level 1-2, then level 3-4 two separate heroic adventures. Then at level 5 Start a horror scenario that take them through level 9.
You'll probbably end up having to kill a pc. . . which is fine because after 4 level they'll care that "Rumil the bard" was killed. ... Hmm...
Man, I'm glad you started this thread. I suddenly realize how much this needed to be discussed.


\\\"Disentegrate.\\\" \\\"Gust of wind.\\\" \\\"Now Can we PLEASE resume saving the world?\\\"

RobbyPants

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 7139
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #13 on: January 20, 2009, 01:01:29 PM »
Two words.
Zombie horde. Seriously but the Pc 4 characters on the map. Then Feild 50 + zombies.
................ but thats beside the point.
Good point.  I hadn't thought to mention that.

I actually tried running a bit of this in the last game I ran.  When the PCs got to be about level 4, they went to a town that was infested with zombies.  I made a new template for that adventure that gave them claw/claw/bite attacks, statting human zombies out pretty similar to ghouls.  They were faster, and their bite transmitted a disease that could turn the bitten into zombies.  This was nice in that it gave a reason to be scared of a simple 1d6 (or whatever) bit attack.

The way I ended up running it was that they could deal with small groups of these guys (a dozen or so), but the longer they'd fight, the more attention they'd attract.

Initially, I was planning on having them hold up in some building, trying to defend it while they secured fortifications.  In practice, one of the players was smart enough to seek out the church, figuring it'd have a Hallow spell cast on it (and given the size of the city, it did).  So, they ended up having a pretty easy "safe spot".  So, to give them reason to go out and about, they went around to a few buildings rescuing the dozen or so survivors that had barricaded themselves in buildings.


I think a horror adventure or two within a campaign is better than a fullscale horror campaign....
Let them bring thier pc's through a couple of low level adventures. Level 1-2, then level 3-4 two separate heroic adventures. Then at level 5 Start a horror scenario that take them through level 9.
You'll probbably end up having to kill a pc. . . which is fine because after 4 level they'll care that "Rumil the bard" was killed. ... Hmm...
Well, it depends on how you set it up.  I suppose you could try to run a "dread" campaign with several "horror" adventures throughout.  The general theme of the campaign would be dark, but only a few adventures would have a horror tone to it.  I think that's more of the approach I'd take.


Man, I'm glad you started this thread. I suddenly realize how much this needed to be discussed.
No problem.  I remember reading some of these elsewhere, and I thought that I hadn't seen one here.
My balancing 3.5 compendium
Elemental mage test game

Quotes
[spoiler]
Quote from: Cafiend
It is a shame stupidity isn't painful.
Quote from: StormKnight
Totally true.  Historians believe that most past civilizations would have endured for centuries longer if they had successfully determined Batman's alignment.
Quote from: Grand Theft Otto
Why are so many posts on the board the equivalent of " Dear Dr. Crotch, I keep punching myself in the crotch, and my groin hurts... what should I do? How can I make my groin stop hurting?"
Quote from: CryoSilver
I suggest carving "Don't be a dick" into him with a knife.  A dull, rusty knife.  A dull, rusty, bent, flaming knife.
Quote from: Seerow
Fluffy: It's over Steve! I've got the high ground!
Steve: You underestimate my power!
Fluffy: Don't try it, Steve!
Steve: *charges*
Fluffy: *three critical strikes*
Steve: ****
Quote from: claypigeons
I don't even stat out commoners. Commoner = corpse that just isn't a zombie. Yet.
Quote from: CryoSilver
When I think "Old Testament Boots of Peace" I think of a paladin curb-stomping an orc and screaming "Your death brings peace to this land!"
Quote from: Orville_Oaksong
Buy a small country. Or Pelor. Both are good investments.
[/spoiler]

BowenSilverclaw

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 5337
  • Walking that fine line between genius and insanity
    • Email
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #14 on: January 20, 2009, 03:00:43 PM »
Man, this turned out to be quite a useful thread :)

I might be able to use it for my Eberron campaign :D
"Weakness? Come test thy mettle against me, hairless ape, and we shall know who is weak!"

Quote from: J0lt
You caught a fish.  It was awesome.   :lol

RobbyPants

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 7139
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #15 on: January 20, 2009, 03:41:13 PM »
Weird shit happening personally to your character as well, so you're basically constantly trying to get a bead on exactly what  the fuck is going on.
Yeah, I creeped one player out pretty well by targeting his player with something fairly unique once.  Basically, they'd pissed off someone powerful and evil who decided to assassinate the PCs one by one.  The trick was, he wanted them permanently assassinated.

It started one night where the PC saw a cloaked figure with a knife approaching him from behind in the reflection of a window.  He turned around and saw no one there.  When he turned back to the window, he saw the cloaked figure stab and kill his reflection.  The figure left, and he saw his reflection laying in blood on the ground.  From that point on, he had no reflection, representing part of his soul being killed.  Although, when he returned to the window, there was a blood stain on the ground in the reflection.

The next night, something similar happened.  He saw a shadow approach him from behing with no one actually there.  Then the shadow produced a blade and killed his shadow.  From that point on, he had no shadow.

On the third night, the shadowy creature attacked him in a tavern.  Basically, I just used the stats of a ghost, which had the ability to inflict Con drain with it's touch attack (the knife).  If the PC had died in this fight, his soul would have been destroyed and he wouldn't be raisable by the normal means.

He and another PC had a close call, but the other two finished the shadow off.  Once it was slain, his shadow and refelction returned as normal.  Still, it was fun watching him take a vested interest in his character like that.  HP damage is one thing.  Losing your shadow and reflection is something else!
My balancing 3.5 compendium
Elemental mage test game

Quotes
[spoiler]
Quote from: Cafiend
It is a shame stupidity isn't painful.
Quote from: StormKnight
Totally true.  Historians believe that most past civilizations would have endured for centuries longer if they had successfully determined Batman's alignment.
Quote from: Grand Theft Otto
Why are so many posts on the board the equivalent of " Dear Dr. Crotch, I keep punching myself in the crotch, and my groin hurts... what should I do? How can I make my groin stop hurting?"
Quote from: CryoSilver
I suggest carving "Don't be a dick" into him with a knife.  A dull, rusty knife.  A dull, rusty, bent, flaming knife.
Quote from: Seerow
Fluffy: It's over Steve! I've got the high ground!
Steve: You underestimate my power!
Fluffy: Don't try it, Steve!
Steve: *charges*
Fluffy: *three critical strikes*
Steve: ****
Quote from: claypigeons
I don't even stat out commoners. Commoner = corpse that just isn't a zombie. Yet.
Quote from: CryoSilver
When I think "Old Testament Boots of Peace" I think of a paladin curb-stomping an orc and screaming "Your death brings peace to this land!"
Quote from: Orville_Oaksong
Buy a small country. Or Pelor. Both are good investments.
[/spoiler]

BowenSilverclaw

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 5337
  • Walking that fine line between genius and insanity
    • Email
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2009, 03:51:59 PM »
Very nice :D
"Weakness? Come test thy mettle against me, hairless ape, and we shall know who is weak!"

Quote from: J0lt
You caught a fish.  It was awesome.   :lol

Midnight_v

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 2660
  • Dulce et decorum est pro alea mori.
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #17 on: January 20, 2009, 07:54:48 PM »
Have you went to the 1001 creepy events thread? Thats one of them. Yours is a bit better though. Mirror then shadow then you...!
...
I used a childhood toy that a player found in his sack. A toy soilder that kept popping up whereevever he went.
... waking up to chewing and lound smacking sounds like something was being devoured by many hungry mouths outside his sleeping bag... but he awoke to nothing buisness as usual (on a bright sunny day)
... and... I use the whole you horse won't eat. You could make them with a high enough handle animal check, but then they'd get sick and vomit. (fatigued horses "yay") Finally after a combat the horses wander over to the corpses and bury thier faces into the fresh dead "whatever) and get to feating greedily.
 :smirk
...
I think a part of it is you have to be in the horror mindset yourself. Read some steven king and short stories by Max Brooks. Maybe "Eaters and Feeders" by Gaiman.
I also don't like using just 1 type of entity. Though I applaud you use of contagion zombies. MY self I typically use wights. . .
Or abberations.

......... but my truest desire was to run a horror campaign I liked to entitle "Against the fey"
[spoiler]Where your major nemisies are Fey (obviously), plants, and feral or awakend animals of variying type.
I never got it off the ground though. Sadly.
I had some primordial evil awakening or a breach to an alternate prime where they let a "plant god" through essentially "The old man of the wood." I got to use the green bound template alot which was cool as well as "ZOMBIES" that were actually plants. Ala Musk creeper stuff...
Hmm... I can't rember it all but I really wished I'd have gotten to run it fully.
There are soooo many fey and what with the residual fear we have today of global warming and the such. It was a natural fit (plus it was last spring when gas prices were high as hell)
....OH! Here's how it starts. . . a slaughter of any elven kingdom nearby inside a deeply forested region.
They elves are *FIRED* from the role of Natures Guardian by this new role.
The Kiloreen have been chosen. So killoreen druid circles (in the old sense of only so many are druids) are the new chosen.
Finally the elder evils came out and I was like... hmm.. some of this can be used.
So I really need to go back to it. [/spoiler]
Which is why I was glad we had this chance to discuss.
Mayn the blood stain in the mirror is hilarious  :lmao
devious robby, devious.
Character investiture is a must.
\\\"Disentegrate.\\\" \\\"Gust of wind.\\\" \\\"Now Can we PLEASE resume saving the world?\\\"

bhu

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 6783
  • Convincing the rich whale fat enemas are healthy
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #18 on: January 21, 2009, 06:20:54 AM »
Oh and messing with their heads.  Forgot that.  You can do it remarkably simply.  Just have the local critters do nothing but give them the thousand yard stare (or their dwelling if they're inside).  After a week of bunnies and squirrels clustered around their apartment giving them the evil eye some of the players have got to be a little nervous about when the anvil is gonna fall.  Have them hallucinate perhaps.  Their food can talk to them.  The corpse of the Gorgon they just killed can raise it's head and ask how they feel about "interspecies erotica".  Doesnt have to be amusing like my examples, just enough to make them go "wtf?".  For example in my silly campaign a young girl had a pet rabbit named Mr. Bun.  Whenever the PC's woke up it was on one of their chests staring them in the face, and had obviously been doing so for some time.  It was apparently unhittable, and was able to swill lead paint and arsenic with no obvious side effects.  It also like to chew on them, and purred/meowed like a cat.  And it personally put down a Green Hag.   By the end of the campaign the PC's were more scared of Mr. Bun than the bad guys.


Plunking down a monster, no matter how big, doesn't really spook players.  Plunking down an obviously powerful monster who is masturbating furiously while staring at them makes players go "Do I really wanna lose this fight?  Can I afford buggery?  I am a Paladin after all...".  You just need to make it do something that squicks the players.  A Bugbear charging at players won't make them nervous.  Finding a Bugbear in the process of skinning children and making them into backpacks (and realizing you are currently wearing one) is a different thing entirely.

RobbyPants

  • Organ Grinder
  • *****
  • Posts: 7139
Re: Running a horror game
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2009, 09:36:43 AM »
Have you went to the 1001 creepy events thread? Thats one of them. Yours is a bit better though. Mirror then shadow then you...!
Was that thread at Gleemax?  I think I posted there two years ago or so, but I don't remember specifics.  IIRC, I did burrow the basic idea from somewhere and add to it.  That might have been where I found it.


I used a childhood toy that a player found in his sack. A toy soilder that kept popping up whereevever he went.
So, if the solider popped up somewhere, was it missing from his bag?  That could be interesting...


... waking up to chewing and lound smacking sounds like something was being devoured by many hungry mouths outside his sleeping bag... but he awoke to nothing buisness as usual (on a bright sunny day)
... and... I use the whole you horse won't eat. You could make them with a high enough handle animal check, but then they'd get sick and vomit. (fatigued horses "yay") Finally after a combat the horses wander over to the corpses and bury thier faces into the fresh dead "whatever) and get to feating greedily.
 :smirk
...
I think a part of it is you have to be in the horror mindset yourself. Read some steven king and short stories by Max Brooks. Maybe "Eaters and Feeders" by Gaiman.
I remember there being a 100 creepy things in the Heroes of Horror book, and these two are similar to ones in there.  I'd strongly recommend reading that just for ideas if nothing else.


I also don't like using just 1 type of entity. Though I applaud you use of contagion zombies. MY self I typically use wights. . .
Or abberations.
Yeah, it was a unique idea for me at the time.  All in all I was fairly pleased with the execution of it all.  I might change some things in the future if I used it on new players.


......... but my truest desire was to run a horror campaign I liked to entitle "Against the fey"
Another nice thing from Heroes of Horror are some of the new monsters.  I can think of at least two new fey introduced in that book (the grey jester and the bog imp).  I really like the bog imp, in that they remind me of gremlins and goblins from various types of folklore.  They aren't intimidating combatants in their own right, but they can be terrifying by simply making a PC start sinking into the ground or water, and eventually drowning.  This can be made worse if it's done from hiding, where the players don't know what's happening, and they might not know to look for an imp and try to drive it out of range.
My balancing 3.5 compendium
Elemental mage test game

Quotes
[spoiler]
Quote from: Cafiend
It is a shame stupidity isn't painful.
Quote from: StormKnight
Totally true.  Historians believe that most past civilizations would have endured for centuries longer if they had successfully determined Batman's alignment.
Quote from: Grand Theft Otto
Why are so many posts on the board the equivalent of " Dear Dr. Crotch, I keep punching myself in the crotch, and my groin hurts... what should I do? How can I make my groin stop hurting?"
Quote from: CryoSilver
I suggest carving "Don't be a dick" into him with a knife.  A dull, rusty knife.  A dull, rusty, bent, flaming knife.
Quote from: Seerow
Fluffy: It's over Steve! I've got the high ground!
Steve: You underestimate my power!
Fluffy: Don't try it, Steve!
Steve: *charges*
Fluffy: *three critical strikes*
Steve: ****
Quote from: claypigeons
I don't even stat out commoners. Commoner = corpse that just isn't a zombie. Yet.
Quote from: CryoSilver
When I think "Old Testament Boots of Peace" I think of a paladin curb-stomping an orc and screaming "Your death brings peace to this land!"
Quote from: Orville_Oaksong
Buy a small country. Or Pelor. Both are good investments.
[/spoiler]