Creepy...
- Thread starter demiurge1138
- Start date
Chimera
First Post
Last two sessions of a game in which I am the party Wizard.
Evil dude and his slaver allies attack a farm well known for it's hospitality as a sort of byway Inn. They kill the parents and one of the three girls. Slavers take off with the other two girls. When the party arrives, the farm pigs have been at the corpse of the dead girl. We capture the evil guy, kill one of his allies. We kill the pigs after what they've done.
We move on and intercept the slavers at a bridge, killing one, capturing the other and freeing the two girls. We take them back to the town to their relatives and turn the slaver and the evil guy over to the Wardenry. Wardenry guy decides to kill the slaver rather than take him back to justice, is half tempted to do the same to evil guy.
My wizard (Lawful Neutral), who pulled a scroll of Animate Dead off the evil guy, quietly suggests that they take the two back to the farm, animate the dead pigs and let them have at the two. (Of course, the offer was not completely serious, as the party Cleric would never stand for it.)
Shudders around the table.
The image of being eaten alive by Zombie Pigs.
Evil dude and his slaver allies attack a farm well known for it's hospitality as a sort of byway Inn. They kill the parents and one of the three girls. Slavers take off with the other two girls. When the party arrives, the farm pigs have been at the corpse of the dead girl. We capture the evil guy, kill one of his allies. We kill the pigs after what they've done.
We move on and intercept the slavers at a bridge, killing one, capturing the other and freeing the two girls. We take them back to the town to their relatives and turn the slaver and the evil guy over to the Wardenry. Wardenry guy decides to kill the slaver rather than take him back to justice, is half tempted to do the same to evil guy.
My wizard (Lawful Neutral), who pulled a scroll of Animate Dead off the evil guy, quietly suggests that they take the two back to the farm, animate the dead pigs and let them have at the two. (Of course, the offer was not completely serious, as the party Cleric would never stand for it.)
Shudders around the table.
The image of being eaten alive by Zombie Pigs.
Tuzenbach
First Post
No maggots or children, just plain 'ole darkness........
So the party is exploring some old tomb or temple complex deep underground. We're pretty far into the thing. All of a sudden, we realize that we DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TORCHES!!! Further to this, none of us have any light spells or tools to build more torches on the spot. No oil, tinderboxes, clubs, staves......NOTHING. Want to make it worse? None of the characters had either ultra- or infravision. Basically, once the light was gone, the DM's descriptions focused on things we "heard" rather than things we "saw". The only character unaffected by this debacle was my blind Duergar cleric.
Anyway, the point at which there was no more light found us almost in the exact middle of a room about 200x200, with a cobblestone floor and very high ceiling, I'm thinking 60 feet or so.
Now, I don't care if you're fighting freakin' Kobolds......fighting in complete darkness is frightening! The last thing I wanted was an encounter in the dark. We were only first level, very weak, you see. All of a sudden.......
"You hear these echoey clicking noises, almost like horse hooves, entering the 200x200 chamber and coming towards you. Whatever it is, it's going to make contact in about 40 seconds. What do you do?"
Be afraid. Be very very afraid.
So the party is exploring some old tomb or temple complex deep underground. We're pretty far into the thing. All of a sudden, we realize that we DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TORCHES!!! Further to this, none of us have any light spells or tools to build more torches on the spot. No oil, tinderboxes, clubs, staves......NOTHING. Want to make it worse? None of the characters had either ultra- or infravision. Basically, once the light was gone, the DM's descriptions focused on things we "heard" rather than things we "saw". The only character unaffected by this debacle was my blind Duergar cleric.
Anyway, the point at which there was no more light found us almost in the exact middle of a room about 200x200, with a cobblestone floor and very high ceiling, I'm thinking 60 feet or so.
Now, I don't care if you're fighting freakin' Kobolds......fighting in complete darkness is frightening! The last thing I wanted was an encounter in the dark. We were only first level, very weak, you see. All of a sudden.......
"You hear these echoey clicking noises, almost like horse hooves, entering the 200x200 chamber and coming towards you. Whatever it is, it's going to make contact in about 40 seconds. What do you do?"
Be afraid. Be very very afraid.
Andrew D. Gable
First Post
Some of the stuff on this thread is really sick and twisted. Sick and twisted in a good way, mind you. And while we're talking about creepy...
DungeonmasterCal's aye-aye avatar is pretty darn creepy.
DungeonmasterCal's aye-aye avatar is pretty darn creepy.
Desdichado
Hero
Yeah, what the hell is that thing, anyway? A fiendish opossum? A pseudo-natural sloth?Andrew D. Gable said:
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
Like he said, it's an aye-aye. They're a type of lemur. Active at night, eat grubs dug out from under bark with their crazy-long finger.
Demiurge out.
Demiurge out.
Here's one of the creepiest things I've done as a GM in my Horror game according to one of my players.
In the game she plays Jessica, a single mother, with a 5 year old girl named Amber. Now this happened shortly after Jessica and Amber had moved into a rather old and odd mansion that the party had inherited. The whole party had decided to take up residence in the mansion for one reason or another. So after maybe a week or two in the house Jessica realizes one night that Amber had disappeared. After a frantic search of the upstairs she found a fanciful fairytale door in the back of her bedroom closet. The door had never been there before. Amber's favorite doll sat just outside the partially open door.
Being the good mother that she is the player opened the door and went looking for Amber. The hallway began as a narrow unfinished attic hall, all bare plywood and exposed nails. Around a few turns though the whole charater of the place changed, tucked away into a small alcove lit under naked lightbulb was a pamphlet for an opera. She then went through a second door, this one much more elaborate and fanciful than the rest of the hall. This led her to a hallway that dead-ended with only a small cabinet sized door as an exit. By this time the player was pretty creeped out and kept figuring that the **** was about to hit the fan.
Regardless she plowed onward into a pitchblack open space. After stumbling about a bit she figured out she was backstage in some sort of theater. Once she got in front of the curtain she saw her daughter perched at the top of a rickety wooden set of bleacher seating playing on a large pile of pillows. Jessica ran to the top and grabbed her daughter ready to leave immediately. But that was when the music started. A simple melodic tune coming from a plain music box perched on top of a pillow. I pause for a few seconds and then described what the opera performers she saw descend onto the stage from the catwalks. One lady and a young girl sat a wide swing dressed in garish dresses, with pale white faces and clashing overdone makeup. An older man was on another swing hanging below the woman and just to the side dressed and made up in a similar manner, he was singing full tilt to the same song the music box was playing. As the man sang and Jessica watched the women on the swing began to slowly swing in a wide orbit above the man as they took up a harmony with him.
By the end of it the player was totally creeped out and thought I was insane. I described everything slightly menacingly but I think part of it was the player just kept expecting something horrible to happen. And you should have seen the player's face when she realized that the hallways and the forty foot high ceiling of the theater existed inside the halls of a mansion that only stood 2 stories high.
In the game she plays Jessica, a single mother, with a 5 year old girl named Amber. Now this happened shortly after Jessica and Amber had moved into a rather old and odd mansion that the party had inherited. The whole party had decided to take up residence in the mansion for one reason or another. So after maybe a week or two in the house Jessica realizes one night that Amber had disappeared. After a frantic search of the upstairs she found a fanciful fairytale door in the back of her bedroom closet. The door had never been there before. Amber's favorite doll sat just outside the partially open door.
Being the good mother that she is the player opened the door and went looking for Amber. The hallway began as a narrow unfinished attic hall, all bare plywood and exposed nails. Around a few turns though the whole charater of the place changed, tucked away into a small alcove lit under naked lightbulb was a pamphlet for an opera. She then went through a second door, this one much more elaborate and fanciful than the rest of the hall. This led her to a hallway that dead-ended with only a small cabinet sized door as an exit. By this time the player was pretty creeped out and kept figuring that the **** was about to hit the fan.
Regardless she plowed onward into a pitchblack open space. After stumbling about a bit she figured out she was backstage in some sort of theater. Once she got in front of the curtain she saw her daughter perched at the top of a rickety wooden set of bleacher seating playing on a large pile of pillows. Jessica ran to the top and grabbed her daughter ready to leave immediately. But that was when the music started. A simple melodic tune coming from a plain music box perched on top of a pillow. I pause for a few seconds and then described what the opera performers she saw descend onto the stage from the catwalks. One lady and a young girl sat a wide swing dressed in garish dresses, with pale white faces and clashing overdone makeup. An older man was on another swing hanging below the woman and just to the side dressed and made up in a similar manner, he was singing full tilt to the same song the music box was playing. As the man sang and Jessica watched the women on the swing began to slowly swing in a wide orbit above the man as they took up a harmony with him.
By the end of it the player was totally creeped out and thought I was insane. I described everything slightly menacingly but I think part of it was the player just kept expecting something horrible to happen. And you should have seen the player's face when she realized that the hallways and the forty foot high ceiling of the theater existed inside the halls of a mansion that only stood 2 stories high.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Keeper of Secrets
First Post
This is a really great thread. While this post is not directly related (in the sense of sharing stories) I had some thoughts.
There is some difficulty in doing horror in a fantasy game. Or at least a fantasy game where the characters are rather powerful. In some ways, horror is a lot like comedy - its pretty hard to pull off because what is scary to one person is not really scary to another. Also, like with comedy, a horror scenario has to be met half way by some of the players. They have to allow themselves to be creeped out.
In reality, if anyone was faced with actual members of the walking dead, we would be scared out of our minds. Fifth level D&D characters with a cleric may have something of a different view because players (in the back of their minds) often think in terms of 'hit points' and it is kind of hard not to.
In my experience, if you want to pull off horror correctly you have to establish a few things. First, you have to be able to establish that horror is 'real' and as a GM you ARE willing to kill characters. Second, you have to also establish that there is a fate worse than death (torture, maiming, very creepy villains). Third, and this is one of the most important elements, is the concept of 'what you can't see or what you don't know is terrifying.'
Remember the film Alien? I'm talking about the first one, not the subsequent ones. The first was actually a horror movie as opposed to the others which were really action films. The first was was so frightening because you did not see the creature much at all until close to the end. Also, the characters never knew what was happening once their friends disappeared. This same concept can be taken to an RPG. The players conjure up their own images of what it is they are facing (either due to darkness or evidence left behind or shattered sanities of the victims that survived). Sure, a GM can throw something in that actually scares the players from a mechanics stand point (like level draining) but it is not the same thing.
In short, kudos to everyone who is sharing moments of terror and horror as these are all great snippets of how to do horror in a fantasy setting (which is honestly pretty hard).
There is some difficulty in doing horror in a fantasy game. Or at least a fantasy game where the characters are rather powerful. In some ways, horror is a lot like comedy - its pretty hard to pull off because what is scary to one person is not really scary to another. Also, like with comedy, a horror scenario has to be met half way by some of the players. They have to allow themselves to be creeped out.
In reality, if anyone was faced with actual members of the walking dead, we would be scared out of our minds. Fifth level D&D characters with a cleric may have something of a different view because players (in the back of their minds) often think in terms of 'hit points' and it is kind of hard not to.
In my experience, if you want to pull off horror correctly you have to establish a few things. First, you have to be able to establish that horror is 'real' and as a GM you ARE willing to kill characters. Second, you have to also establish that there is a fate worse than death (torture, maiming, very creepy villains). Third, and this is one of the most important elements, is the concept of 'what you can't see or what you don't know is terrifying.'
Remember the film Alien? I'm talking about the first one, not the subsequent ones. The first was actually a horror movie as opposed to the others which were really action films. The first was was so frightening because you did not see the creature much at all until close to the end. Also, the characters never knew what was happening once their friends disappeared. This same concept can be taken to an RPG. The players conjure up their own images of what it is they are facing (either due to darkness or evidence left behind or shattered sanities of the victims that survived). Sure, a GM can throw something in that actually scares the players from a mechanics stand point (like level draining) but it is not the same thing.
In short, kudos to everyone who is sharing moments of terror and horror as these are all great snippets of how to do horror in a fantasy setting (which is honestly pretty hard).
Similar Threads
AD6_gamerati_skyscraper
Upcoming Releases
-
May 31 2024 -
June 3 2024 -
June 4 2024 -
June 18 2024 -
July 16 2024 -
September 17 2024 -
October 1 2024 -
November 12 2024 -
February 18 2025
