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Horror Adventures - What Works?

WesSchneiderWesSchneider Registered User regular
edited August 2009 in Critical Failures
So I plan to run a big ol' heavy on the horror adventure. The goal is for this thing to be really huge, starting at low level in the countryside and eventually heading into a massive multi-tier Castle Ravenloft/Castle Greyhawk/Castlevania style dungeon. But there's a distinction between beating up your PCs until they're scared of losing their last hit point and actually telling a story that creeps the players out. My question is, as storytellers and GMs, what have you found that works? Have you ever had an adventure that really spooks the players or has them honestly wanting to turn tail? I'm a big fan of the mood setting techniques discussed in a lot of the old Ravenloft product - but many of those are heavy handed. So what have you done to really make your players get honestly creeped out?

WesSchneider on

Posts

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    At the risk of sounding terrible, this is the horror game I'm running pbp here. While I don't quite know what's been effective there, I'm willing to discuss the techniques therein that are interesting for your uses.

    This is a retelling of my experiences with music in horror games (it's in SE++'s D&D thread, so be warned.)

    Arivia on
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  • WesSchneiderWesSchneider Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Oh very cool! And I love that old Lockwood piece from the cover of Children of the Night: The Created. Music is also a very, very strong element in my game - I feel like I'm going to wear out the Bram Stoker's Dracula Soundtrack and Midnight Syndicate's Gates of Delirium (the latter is especially cool if you're not familiar with M.S.). I'll have to read this though a bit later, but I really like that straight storytelling technique you're taking. It kind of makes me think that being a hardcore GM, who pretty much bans the Monty Python quotes and Cheetos from the table, has a much better chance of actually spooking players. Though there does seem to be the notion that "Serious Roleplaying" isn't as much fun...

    WesSchneider on
  • Silas BrownSilas Brown That's hobo style. Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    There's nothing as unfun as enforced roleplaying. Some people like drawing sessions out with long conversation, elaborate-yet-unimportant gestures, and accents. Other people just want to play. In the end, it's all different ways to play the same game with some friends.

    What I'm saying is, don't try to fit any image of a "hardcore DM" to make an effective horror adventure. Instead, do what you can to create the atmosphere and let the players react as they will. You'll be able to tell plainly whether or not its working.

    Silas Brown on
  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    There's nothing as unfun as enforced roleplaying. Some people like drawing sessions out with long conversation, elaborate-yet-unimportant gestures, and accents. Other people just want to play. In the end, it's all different ways to play the same game with some friends.

    What I'm saying is, don't try to fit any image of a "hardcore DM" to make an effective horror adventure. Instead, do what you can to create the atmosphere and let the players react as they will. You'll be able to tell plainly whether or not its working.

    The converse of that is that humor and especially levity basically ruin horror games. While being high-concepty isn't necessary, having the social contract go through to being serious about it is.

    The success of atmosphere is one thing, but the players really do have to agree about this first. Which is true: if you're going to do a horror game, tell people it's a horror game and stamp it out first.

    Arivia on
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  • Silas BrownSilas Brown That's hobo style. Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Personally, I'd love to play a game where the players all agree to submit to the fantasy of the game and leave the dumb-ass jokes at home. It would give me a lot more ability to control the atmosphere of the game.

    I can't imagine finding 5 people willing to do that. :(

    Silas Brown on
  • WesSchneiderWesSchneider Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Dude really. I've done the hardass GM thing and sometimes it feels a little like being a warden or middle school teacher. Which some folks are cool with, but then others seem to really take umbrage against. A few times, though, really getting people to concentrate and play its gone great and turned into something into something pretty memorable.

    WesSchneider on
  • RainfallRainfall Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    1. In a horror game, the characters have to be afraid of death. Make the challenges hard, the encounters difficult, the monsters tough. Fighting should never be something they jump into without thought. Force them to spend their resources wisely.

    2. In a horror game, atmosphere is everything. Don't go all-out creepy, but add weird little touches that make people wonder what the hell is going on. Arivia did/is doing a great job of that in Catalyst and Seed, linked above.

    3. Build tension between the players. Pass notes to one player that give him clues of what's ahead. Make another one hear strange whispers. If they stop trusting each other completely, they feel more alone, which helps them feel more frightened.

    Those are the big ones I can think of for running a horror game. Oh, and if you're running out of Gates of Delirium, Midnight Syndicate has a bunch of albums, and they're all pretty great.

    Rainfall on
  • delrolanddelroland Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Atmosphere is definitely the first step. The biggest trick in running a horror game, though, is to make the players feel powerless without frustrating them. You can't just make it super-hard though: fighting a +4 solo might TPK the group, but its not horror.

    One trick is to make it so defeat/death isn't the worst possible outcome. Another is to force the group to fight creatures they don't want to fight. For example, perhaps the denizens of their favorite tavern are now zombies or vampires or blobs of semi-sentient protoplasm and the party is forced to kill those they once called friends.

    The ending is another difficult issue. I personally use horror in my games to make the BBEG despised that much more by the players, so that when they eventually confront him, they fight with gusto and are that much more psyched up when they eventually win. The other type of horror ending is that of hopelessness, where the PC's can't defeat the cause of whatever evils are being perpetraded. This type of ending can be very emotional, but if it is done wrong, the players will hate it.

    As has been said before, the type of game you should run depends heavily on your players.

    delroland on
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  • WesSchneiderWesSchneider Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Ariva, that "Usual Suspects" loop is brilliant by the by. What's the name of the song so I can hunt it down? By the by, have any other favorite soundtracks? I try to avoid stuff with actual vocals, so bits like the Dracula soundtrack, Hannibal, and Castlevania can work really nicely, but any other favs?

    Rainfall also brings up the interesting topic of "note passing." How do ya'll handle getting privileged information to specific PCs in your more moody games? Do you say it in front of everyone and expect folks to distinguish between player and character knowledge? Literally pass notes? Or even drag folks out of the room?

    WesSchneider on
  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Ariva, that "Usual Suspects" loop is brilliant by the by. What's the name of the song so I can hunt it down? By the by, have any other favorite soundtracks? I try to avoid stuff with actual vocals, so bits like the Dracula soundtrack, Hannibal, and Castlevania can work really nicely, but any other favs?

    It's Delerium's "Fragments of Fear." There's another three minutes or so to add to the confusion. I can't comment much on specific horror soundtracks due to my own musical habits.
    Rainfall also brings up the interesting topic of "note passing." How do ya'll handle getting privileged information to specific PCs in your more moody games? Do you say it in front of everyone and expect folks to distinguish between player and character knowledge? Literally pass notes? Or even drag folks out of the room?

    I think it's less about ease and more about effect. Like, if a player passes you a note, which creates more/better outcome at the table - taking the player into another room and implying distrust, or saying it right out loud for confusion and horror's sake?

    Remember that horror games are really looking to act on the player, not the character, and you have a lot of social cues as table rules you can use to play with that.

    Arivia on
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  • WesSchneiderWesSchneider Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Arivia wrote:
    Remember that horror games are really looking to act on the player, not the character, and you have a lot of social cues as table rules you can use to play with that.
    Yeah, I think that's the most interesting part for me, that it's so meta, very game-within-a-game. I'm thinking I might need to track down some old Call of Cthulhu or even early World of Darkness accessories, I'd bet some of them have some pretty good discussions on this.

    WesSchneider on
  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Arivia wrote:
    Remember that horror games are really looking to act on the player, not the character, and you have a lot of social cues as table rules you can use to play with that.
    Yeah, I think that's the most interesting part for me, that it's so meta, very game-within-a-game. I'm thinking I might need to track down some old Call of Cthulhu or even early World of Darkness accessories, I'd bet some of them have some pretty good discussions on this.

    Check out D&D 3.5's Heroes of Horror. No, seriously, it's a fantastically written toolbox with not too much 3.5 splatbook crap.

    If you really want a non-D&D take, VtR's Requiem Chronicler's Guide is a great guide on running styled games, period.

    Arivia on
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  • sullijosullijo mid-level minion subterranean bunkerRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Don't fall into the metagaming trap. Keep them guessing about what exactly they're fighting. For instance, don't tell them they they're facing off against a wight; instead, just describe the twisted visage and foul stench of the creature shambling towards them, teeth dripping with black ichor. They'll freak out when its not obvious what tactics they should use or what powers the creature might have.

    If you really want to mess with them (and the players can handle it), keep things like perception checks hidden behind the DM screen, and don't immediately tell them if they passed or failed. Hiding the numbers creates a sense of powerlessness, especially if you throw in some red herring checks that don't actually mean anything ("Why did he just roll that d20? Did we just fail a check? Or crap, what's behind the next corner?!")

    Also, the suggestion above about passing notes to individual players is golden. Really makes them start to wonder who they can trust.

    sullijo on
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  • darksteeldarksteel Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    sullijo wrote: »
    If you really want to mess with them (and the players can handle it), keep things like perception checks hidden behind the DM screen, and don't immediately tell them if they passed or failed. Hiding the numbers creates a sense of powerlessness, especially if you throw in some red herring checks that don't actually mean anything ("Why did he just roll that d20? Did we just fail a check? Or crap, what's behind the next corner?!

    This. I've only recently started playing pen and paper RPGs with World of Darkness, but I've found that rolling dice behind your screen increases the tension noticeably. I have this view that the rolls in the game should be invisible anyway. The GM should just roll and inform the players of the results.

    darksteel on
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  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    The flipside of that is that rolling dice in the open can be quite effective, especially if you ham up the result. "Oh. An 8. Wasn't expecting that." *keeps narrating*

    Arivia on
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  • RainfallRainfall Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Oh, one other useful thing I've found in horror campaigns.

    Don't threaten the party members with death. They should be afraid of things much, much worse than death. Drive the point home by having friendly NPCs get taken down, and have them turn up later as experiments, mind-controlled slaves, etc, etc.
    If someone gets taken down, the bad guy/s should start dragging them away and getting them out of there rather than staying to fight. Try your damnedest to split the party up, so that they don't know what's going on.
    Consider something like Resident Evil 4, where the Ganados are trying to capture Ashley rather than just eat her, and Leon is running around fighting off the virus inside his own body. Things like that add to the tension rather than just a straight-up fear of death.

    Rainfall on
  • WesSchneiderWesSchneider Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Rainfall wrote: »
    Don't threaten the party members with death. They should be afraid of things much, much worse than death.
    I really really like this, it's a tricky proposition, though. I've seen several games where PCs don't even like making friends because the GM alway just ends up turning them against them in one way or another. It's a tricky proposition and can be a fine line to walk, but when it works it can be really fantastic. I really really like the running disease idea too - I think that could work really well with the game I'm starting up.

    WesSchneider on
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