Tension and Suspense?

What things can I do to ramp up tension and suspense in my games? I'm running Numenera now but I'm really looking for general advice.

Egg timer - action to be performed 30 seconds, just having the sound of a tick down will add tension.

Descriptive adjectives; think about the environment the players are going into, choose your words carefully to describe what they smell, see, hear.

Change of voice and sound FX; learn to change your voice reflection, speak softly to make the players listen more closely, then slap the table. environments seem to do this naturally, people seem to lower their voices in dark confined spaces, noisy places they are louder, use this.

Set up the game as a game. Have actions occur within a system where players can reasonably have expectations of discerning what is going on and what is likely to happen next.

"This baseball is flying towards my skull. What do I think is likely to happen next?"

EDIT:
Tracking time and positioning is a good start.

PenBoy99 said:

What things can I do to ramp up tension and suspense in my games? I'm running Numenera now but I'm really looking for general advice.

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What kinds of adventures are you running?

The greatest tension & suspense is that which comes organically from the players. This will be generated naturally if actions have real consequences and the players know it. In that type of game doing anything adventure related generates risk which should in turn produce tension & suspense.

I'm running Numenera now, mostly reskinned purchased adventures.

In it's most basic form dramatic tension is created when: the hero(es) wants a thing. There are barriers to getting the thing. The hero(es) attempts to overcome those barriers. They may OR may not succeed. This last is important.

If a thing will definitely happen or definitely not happen there will be no tension. Both options have to have a believable chance of happening. It's the pulling between the two poles that creates the tension in the audience (and by audience, I mean players.) There are huge amounts written about how to achieve this in various writing guides. When writing a story it all comes down to getting the audience to care about the hero.


RPGs are different. In a RPG one gets the heroes to care about the story.


So, let's apply this.


Step 1. You start with a plot. Eg: An assassin is going to try to kill the king as part of the evil baron's plot to take over the kingdom and marry the princess.


Step 2. You need to get your players to care about this story. Not just because “it's tonight's game.” You want them to care because elements of the story are important to them. To do this you need some history between the characters and the thing that is threatened. You do this by introducing certain elements before the actual plot kicks off. Maybe even a long time before. I shall call doing this creating back story.


Step 2a. Back story needs to create a link between the heroes and the thing that is threatened. Do this in an emotive way. You want the players to hate or love some thing. The more they care about the thing under threat the more tension you will get. Using my assassination example: At the end of a previous adventure the king praised the heroes for their heroic acts. He threw a feast in their honour and even took some time out to have a few gracious words with them. The princess flirted with one of the heroes. Or the Baron might even decide to insult the heroes in the middle of the feast. Careful with this last one: many players will simply throw down then and there and try to kill the baron in the middle of the feast.


Step 2b. Back Story can (and I think should) also contain elements of foreshadowing. Foreshadowing gives hints of what is to come. This gives the players the chance to build up their own worries and suspicions. In my example: at the feast the Evil Baron argues with the king. The characters may not even be close enough to hear what the argument is about, they can simply see the argument happening in the distance. Some other NPCs may drop hints about the Baron being very powerful and ambitious. The heroes might see him trying to charm the princess and failing.


Step 3. Kick off the plot. The heroes learn about the plot somehow. For my example I'll say they hear a rumour from a friend in the thieves' guild: a notorious assassin has come to town. The assassin is known as “The Death of Tyrants,” is a master of disguise and is known to have killed several monarchs. He or she must be here to kill the king! Hopefully, given their positive history with the king, this is enough to get the heroes trying to save the king.


Step 4. Barriers. The heroes should be moving by this point. This is where they should start hitting barriers. Although perhaps I should refer to “speed bumps” instead of “barriers.” The types of barriers depend on the type of game you're running. They might be combat or mystery or social or a mix of types. The important thing is they are challenging; not too easy, not hard. A little frustration is a good thing. Don't hand them things on a platter if you can avoid it, they will appreciate things more if they have to work for them. But remember the heroes NEED to make headway, especially early in the scenario where they still be finding their way with the story.


Eg: Maybe the heroes go straight to the palace with a warning. Suspicious palace guards won't let them in (Have they already heard rumours and are being cautious or have they been suborned by the baron?) The heroes will have to sneak into the palace! Maybe they decide to track the assassin down. Their usual underworld contacts are scared and require extra “persuasion.”


Foreshadowing the barriers after the plot kicks off can also help build tension.


Step 4. Pacing. A handy concept I heard last year when discussing building tension was “squeeze and release.” This means there are moments of high tension followed by moments of relief where the players get a chance to breathe and think. These relief moments may be after the end of a scene or within a scene. What they do is allow the players to take stock of what's going on and what's at risk and what they need to do. By giving these moments you are getting the players to help create the tension themselves.


Step 4b. Change pace within a scene. Eg: the heroes track down a hidden informant with a judicious use of bribery and beatings. It's all calm and quiet, the informant is playing ball then: The door is kicked in! Bad guys! They're here to kill the informant. (that's a squeeze, release, sudden big squeeze!)


Step 4c. Change the pacing between the scenes. Eg: One scene is over quickly and the heroes got a nice clue pretty easily. The next scene is more complex, requires more work, and success is much more in doubt. (A quick squeeze, release in one scene followed by a long slow squeeze before finally getting the release in the next scene.)


Step 5. Climax. As you near the climax it's a lot more squeeze and a lot less release. In effect you're saving up all that release for after the climax.


Step 6. The denouement. It's after the fight. The assassin has been killed and the king is safe. The king once again applauds the heroes and the princess has got a big crush on one of them. Time to foreshadow the next episode. Maybe the baron was implicated and it's time to take him out. Or (in a cut scene) the baron swears revenge on the heroes.


Wow, that's a small essay there. Barely scratched the surface too.

hope it helps.
cheers.

DrunkonDuty said:

Foreshadowing

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This.

Also, powerlessness creates tension/fear. Too many hit points are the bane of this tension-builder.

And fear of the unknown, which was mentioned above. When you KNOW something will happen - not a lot of tension. When something's outcome is in doubt, and you really want it, or really don't want it, you'll feel tense.

in combat, the techniques I use to speed it up also tend to add tension.

talk faster
give limited time to make decisions to the players or they "hold their action" or equivalent.
don't allow the party to take time between rounds to discuss strategy.

Make things look worse than they are (you don't need encounters/wounds/etc to be deadly, buyt the players need to think they are)

Make the situation worse, part way through. Perhaps environmental like flooding, roof cave in, bridger collapse, etc. Or bring in re-inforcements. Or the enemy finishes a step in their goal right in front of the PCs. Don't over-use it, and mix it up. But raising the stakes, making it harder, or through in a complication or set back will make the players more tense.

If the party is split up (even into 2 teams), run a few rounds at a time for each group, and cut to the other after revealing some new problem, or when they are about to resolve something. The will be anxious for game play to return to them to find out what happens next.

Mystery

To face the unknown is alway a good way to bring tension.
To be chase by unseen creature work well. The best exemple I have for this is the movie Alien (the first one). Or it can be a strange illness with no know origine, a serie of gruesom murder closing on the players .
Mystery,the lack of details or explanation, the absence of apparent logic and the sense of the clock ticking will generate a tension, a build up if you will.

Real quick reply to everyone in no particular order: Great points all. The ones that I like most:

too many hit points = bad.
To face the unknown = good.
Cutting away at a climax/ to create a cliffhanger = good.
increase the pressure at a crucial moment = good.

sorry for brevity, work calls.