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Help me freak out my players!
- Thread starter Whizbang Dustyboots
- Start date
If you really want to freak them out, take a note from eternal darkness sanities requiem,
When something starts messing with you in real life, it is so much more scary than having it randomly happen.
Logout for a second, even in real life, just shut down, and then after a second "wake up" and be like, what happened.
Ask did you hear that, even when nothing happened.
Jerk your head as though you see something out of the corner of your eye.
Be aware of every little noise in life, and focus on ones that normally you wouldnt, crickets chirping, except, not quite the normal chirp, or doors creaking, pipes banging, branches on windows etc.
Describe something slightly different to everyone
Have an immobile object seem to appear in every room, this can be even more creepy if it is like a teddy bear
Have the players hear the monks chanting, even though the monks have been dead forever.
Have the players witness an incorporeal funeral march through the monastary
Take adavantage of surprise, sudden sounds or sights can do a lot to freak people out.
Have one of the ghost attack, but the ghosts attacks have no effect, the players feel like they are getting weaker, but no effects happen. It is all an illusion, have the ghost grow more and more frustrated at its inability to harm the players.
Have a room completely different, in color or size or furnishings than the rest, like a room where all the light glows red or green, or in furnishings that have not been around for hundreds of years.
Have someone greet the party and guide them, and then disappear at their own grave.
have one room absolutely immaculate with no touch of decay the first time the player's enter, and the second time they enter, have everything be rotted and decaying.
hope that helps
John
When something starts messing with you in real life, it is so much more scary than having it randomly happen.
Logout for a second, even in real life, just shut down, and then after a second "wake up" and be like, what happened.
Ask did you hear that, even when nothing happened.
Jerk your head as though you see something out of the corner of your eye.
Be aware of every little noise in life, and focus on ones that normally you wouldnt, crickets chirping, except, not quite the normal chirp, or doors creaking, pipes banging, branches on windows etc.
Describe something slightly different to everyone
Have an immobile object seem to appear in every room, this can be even more creepy if it is like a teddy bear
Have the players hear the monks chanting, even though the monks have been dead forever.
Have the players witness an incorporeal funeral march through the monastary
Take adavantage of surprise, sudden sounds or sights can do a lot to freak people out.
Have one of the ghost attack, but the ghosts attacks have no effect, the players feel like they are getting weaker, but no effects happen. It is all an illusion, have the ghost grow more and more frustrated at its inability to harm the players.
Have a room completely different, in color or size or furnishings than the rest, like a room where all the light glows red or green, or in furnishings that have not been around for hundreds of years.
Have someone greet the party and guide them, and then disappear at their own grave.
have one room absolutely immaculate with no touch of decay the first time the player's enter, and the second time they enter, have everything be rotted and decaying.
hope that helps
John
Merkuri
Explorer
I'd have to go with the "keep it mysterious" theme. What scares people most is the unknown, and your players will have a greater ability to freak themselves out than you have to scare them. Give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves, as the saying goes. The scariest things are things that have no explanation, forcing the players to come up with their own ideas, which will scare them more than anything you could have thought of.
The best movie I've ever seen for this is The Mothman Prophesies. You don't really see anything scary going on, but you hear testimonials of people who've had freaky things happen to them. And nothing is ever really explained. It just... is.
This would be hard to use as-is in a game becaue it involves modern technology, but maybe you can derive some inspiration from it. The freakiest thing that ever happened to me in real life was in college. It was 3 in the morning and I couldn't sleep. I had a single, so I was all by myself in this little room with the shades drawn and just a small light on so I could read and hopefully tire myself out. The phone rang. I stared at it, wondering who knew I was awake, and just let it ring so the voice mail would get it. My window was actually on the ground floor behind a bush, so it would be very hard to see that my light was on, but I peeked out the shade anyway to see if there was somebody out on the quad who could have called me. No one. After waiting a few minutes my curiosity overcame me and I dialed into the voice mail system to hear the message. It was two, possibly more people, speaking over each other in either gibberish or another language. The only thing I could understand was my own name, spoken several times. I was so freaked out I slammed down the phone and crawled under my covers. After about a half-hour the phone rang again. I didn't answer it and didn't check my voice mail until the next day. I wanted to shut off the light so it looked like nobody was home, but I didn't wanna sit in the dark. I think I lay awake until 4 or 5 in the morning.
The next day I found out that a bunch of kids from town had gotten drunk and started making prank calls to numbers all across campus. They probably heard my name from my outgoing voice mail message ("Hi, this is Nicole, please leave a message!"), but at the time I was just so freaked out that this didn't occur to me.
Another lay-awake-all-night situation was linked to the movie The Ring. The premise is that there's a video with all these freaky images on it that causes people to die seven days to the minute after they've seen it. A girl climbs out of their TV and slaughters them. I saw it during winter break at college. The images on the video freaked me out more than the actual movie. I was freaked out and had trouble falling asleep the first two nights after watching the movie (which generally happens after I see movies like that), but then I got over it. I went back to school and lay down in my single to sleep my first night back. Then my eyes snapped open as I realized that it was nearly seven days to the minute that I had watched the movie. My TV was right next to my bed, and I went back and forth between pretending it wasn't there and staring at it with unblinking eyes.
And one more story that's related, but more funny than freaky. A college professor once told us in class that he was easily scared by movies and usually hated going to see scary ones. But somehow his friends had convinced him to go see Blair Witch Project. They sat at the very back of the theater. At one point during the movie (which keeps you tense, waiting for something to happen) his friend tapped him on the shoulder suddenly and said, "Boo!" My professor screamed. The guy in front of him screamed. The guy in front of HIM screamed... and it went down the rows all the way to the front of the movie like falling domonies.
The best movie I've ever seen for this is The Mothman Prophesies. You don't really see anything scary going on, but you hear testimonials of people who've had freaky things happen to them. And nothing is ever really explained. It just... is.
This would be hard to use as-is in a game becaue it involves modern technology, but maybe you can derive some inspiration from it. The freakiest thing that ever happened to me in real life was in college. It was 3 in the morning and I couldn't sleep. I had a single, so I was all by myself in this little room with the shades drawn and just a small light on so I could read and hopefully tire myself out. The phone rang. I stared at it, wondering who knew I was awake, and just let it ring so the voice mail would get it. My window was actually on the ground floor behind a bush, so it would be very hard to see that my light was on, but I peeked out the shade anyway to see if there was somebody out on the quad who could have called me. No one. After waiting a few minutes my curiosity overcame me and I dialed into the voice mail system to hear the message. It was two, possibly more people, speaking over each other in either gibberish or another language. The only thing I could understand was my own name, spoken several times. I was so freaked out I slammed down the phone and crawled under my covers. After about a half-hour the phone rang again. I didn't answer it and didn't check my voice mail until the next day. I wanted to shut off the light so it looked like nobody was home, but I didn't wanna sit in the dark. I think I lay awake until 4 or 5 in the morning.
The next day I found out that a bunch of kids from town had gotten drunk and started making prank calls to numbers all across campus. They probably heard my name from my outgoing voice mail message ("Hi, this is Nicole, please leave a message!"), but at the time I was just so freaked out that this didn't occur to me.
Another lay-awake-all-night situation was linked to the movie The Ring. The premise is that there's a video with all these freaky images on it that causes people to die seven days to the minute after they've seen it. A girl climbs out of their TV and slaughters them. I saw it during winter break at college. The images on the video freaked me out more than the actual movie. I was freaked out and had trouble falling asleep the first two nights after watching the movie (which generally happens after I see movies like that), but then I got over it. I went back to school and lay down in my single to sleep my first night back. Then my eyes snapped open as I realized that it was nearly seven days to the minute that I had watched the movie. My TV was right next to my bed, and I went back and forth between pretending it wasn't there and staring at it with unblinking eyes.
And one more story that's related, but more funny than freaky. A college professor once told us in class that he was easily scared by movies and usually hated going to see scary ones. But somehow his friends had convinced him to go see Blair Witch Project. They sat at the very back of the theater. At one point during the movie (which keeps you tense, waiting for something to happen) his friend tapped him on the shoulder suddenly and said, "Boo!" My professor screamed. The guy in front of him screamed. The guy in front of HIM screamed... and it went down the rows all the way to the front of the movie like falling domonies.
Sanackranib
First Post
I ran a dungeon magazine adventure for 1 player, who was a level 1 priest (which it was designed for in 2e so I made some conversions) the poltergiest REALLY got to him. it didnt dawn on him until later that the wand of enemy detection 4 ch. that he found, and his detect evil spell would have made combating it MUCH easier. it creeped him out. in another module (also from dungeon) there was an inn, all boarded up from the inside with lumps of wax everywhere (burned out candle nubs) and crosses all over. several recient graves and a bloodless body. naturally they figured vampires. they were level 1 or 2 so were naturally somewhat distressed. a storm was raging outside with snow falling and total white out conditions so the party HAD to seek shelter here. I had the wind making noises and a tree tapping a window. and I had them start rolling WILL saves, not from magical effects though they didnt know that but due to the characters growing unease. later I added FORT saves as they tried to "stay up all night" the general feeling was edgeiness and unease but once they figured out a vampire wasnt after them they all said it was well run and that they had a good time.
Lord Pendragon
First Post
I've found that creeping out the player with in-game descriptions is very difficult. It may be because I play with folks in the 30+ age bracket, or that most of them have been playing for quite some time, but merely describing scenes you might pick up from movies doesn't usually do it.
That said, I've had occasion to want to creep out my players, and found that the best way to do this is on a metagame level.
1. Background music. If you can, pick up the soundtrack to Bram Stoker's Dracula. The music alone creeped out one of my players after the first ten minutes or so.
2. Ask for random d20 rolls. When they give you the result, just nod to yourself. Maybe say "huh, well that can't be good" every so often.
3. Create your own monsters. Experienced players are comforted by their familiarity with their foes. They know what a beholder is, or a dragon, etc. Even if the challenge is tough, it isn't scary, because the players recognize what they're facing.
So you need to set them against something they can't predict. You don't necessarily have to create the monsters from scratch. Merely find a monster that has the mechanical guts you need, then scrap the description and create your own instead.
I've used Stirges as the basis for a group of porcelain dolls that came to life and attacked the party while they were exploring the attic of an old house. When they got close, they'd leap up onto the PCs and their jaws would distend to reveal hideously long fangs that they tried to sink into their prey.
I've used an Ettin as the basis for a group of miners whose bodies had been fused together by a tainted artifact into a grotesque multi-limbed, multi-headed monstrosity.
If the party doesn't know what they're facing, their nervousness will increase greatly.
Edit to add: Just re-read the OP and realized you're in a Play-By-Post game. That rules out suggestions 1 and 2. 3 should still be valid, though.
That said, I've had occasion to want to creep out my players, and found that the best way to do this is on a metagame level.
1. Background music. If you can, pick up the soundtrack to Bram Stoker's Dracula. The music alone creeped out one of my players after the first ten minutes or so.
2. Ask for random d20 rolls. When they give you the result, just nod to yourself. Maybe say "huh, well that can't be good" every so often.
3. Create your own monsters. Experienced players are comforted by their familiarity with their foes. They know what a beholder is, or a dragon, etc. Even if the challenge is tough, it isn't scary, because the players recognize what they're facing.
So you need to set them against something they can't predict. You don't necessarily have to create the monsters from scratch. Merely find a monster that has the mechanical guts you need, then scrap the description and create your own instead.
I've used Stirges as the basis for a group of porcelain dolls that came to life and attacked the party while they were exploring the attic of an old house. When they got close, they'd leap up onto the PCs and their jaws would distend to reveal hideously long fangs that they tried to sink into their prey.
I've used an Ettin as the basis for a group of miners whose bodies had been fused together by a tainted artifact into a grotesque multi-limbed, multi-headed monstrosity.
If the party doesn't know what they're facing, their nervousness will increase greatly.
Edit to add: Just re-read the OP and realized you're in a Play-By-Post game. That rules out suggestions 1 and 2. 3 should still be valid, though.
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