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Do you like horror with your fantasy?
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<blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 297015" data-attributes="member: 812"><p>Are you suggesting that it's fun to be Nice DM? Maybe I'll try that sometime. Heh.</p><p></p><p>I love to scare my players. The first trick to horror, and this holds true in every truly scary film ever made, is to yank the player's expectations out from under them. They have to feel like ANYTHING is possible, that nothing is going to play out the way they think it is.</p><p></p><p>In Psycho, Hitchcock kills the main character twenty minutes into the picture. The audience is shocked and suddenly feels like they have no idea what's going on. Panic sets in.</p><p></p><p>In Alien, the same thing applies -- the best-known actor in the film (when it was released) was John Hurt, and he's the first to die. In an incredibly graphic and horrifying way. After that, the audience feels like anything can happen. And so they spend the rest of the movie jumping at shadows.</p><p></p><p>You don't have to kill a PC but you do have to disorient them, make them think they don't know what's going on. Confusion will scare your players more than CR 15 monster every time.</p><p></p><p>Add to that urgency. They need to feel like the clock is ticking, so they can't just stand around arguing over every little detail. Remorselessness is crucial -- if they don't decide the ghouls are going to overrun the town and people will start dying.</p><p></p><p>Finally, you have to disturb them. There has to be at least suggestions of things the PLAYERS themselves will find not just repugnant but foul, not to be tolerated. Horror is at some level about violation of the natural order. You have to imagine truly horrible things for your bad guys to do -- whether it's explicitly stated or not. At the end of a good session my players are usually shaking their heads, asking me how I think this stuff up.</p><p></p><p>Okay, great. All done.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="barsoomcore, post: 297015, member: 812"] Are you suggesting that it's fun to be Nice DM? Maybe I'll try that sometime. Heh. I love to scare my players. The first trick to horror, and this holds true in every truly scary film ever made, is to yank the player's expectations out from under them. They have to feel like ANYTHING is possible, that nothing is going to play out the way they think it is. In Psycho, Hitchcock kills the main character twenty minutes into the picture. The audience is shocked and suddenly feels like they have no idea what's going on. Panic sets in. In Alien, the same thing applies -- the best-known actor in the film (when it was released) was John Hurt, and he's the first to die. In an incredibly graphic and horrifying way. After that, the audience feels like anything can happen. And so they spend the rest of the movie jumping at shadows. You don't have to kill a PC but you do have to disorient them, make them think they don't know what's going on. Confusion will scare your players more than CR 15 monster every time. Add to that urgency. They need to feel like the clock is ticking, so they can't just stand around arguing over every little detail. Remorselessness is crucial -- if they don't decide the ghouls are going to overrun the town and people will start dying. Finally, you have to disturb them. There has to be at least suggestions of things the PLAYERS themselves will find not just repugnant but foul, not to be tolerated. Horror is at some level about violation of the natural order. You have to imagine truly horrible things for your bad guys to do -- whether it's explicitly stated or not. At the end of a good session my players are usually shaking their heads, asking me how I think this stuff up. Okay, great. All done. [/QUOTE]
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