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How to Scare your Players' Pants Off
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<blockquote data-quote="Karak" data-source="post: 6038161" data-attributes="member: 6700170"><p>Most of those sort of seem like stuff that should be done all the time. Especially descriptions, random rolls, possible dying, players doing what they want and so forth. That should not be saved for unique times in my opinion. It seems like many of those are based around fear of losing something, doing something strange versus environmental fear. And sadly everything there we do on a daily basis as I don't really protect players, stop them from trying things or stop them from splitting up. </p><p></p><p>If we are talking about Halloween style fear and not mechanical fear then I have found that actually making a place, environment scary takes a far different set of skills that just killing some people or taking away something.</p><p></p><p>Randomly asking a player if their character locked a door, or some other safety environment question and then just nodding can work well. Especially if you do nothing with it. Lack of knowledge breeds fear pretty easily and does so even more easily if false cues are given for a bit of time. </p><p></p><p>As well as describing small random things like disturbing smells or things that don't fit in mundane settings. Specific things rarely done during normal game-play helps. If you don't explain smells often, by doing so it can really cause the players to feel a freshness that is rare and you can then use that to your advantage.</p><p></p><p>Also, though we do this all the time, I rarely talk in a way that causes me to say, "You hear a blank."</p><p></p><p>Usually I just speak in a unique voice randomly or make a sound as often as possible with no narrative stuff clogging up the pipes. As often as I can I introduce an item, enemy, and so forth then if I want interaction I speak as them, make a sound as them, and so forth versus saying, "You hear a cat screech."</p><p></p><p>In fact, if you aren't good at voices, or sounds, sometimes that can work in your advantage. Especially if you try to make a cat sound and it sounds weird. Players may say, "That doesn't sound like a normal damn cat to me." Mundane things that become alien are the things that true horror comes from.</p><p></p><p>I try to never say the horrid lines of <em>You see a</em>, <em>you hear a,</em> <em>you smell a</em>, kind of things. Those break players out of the environment easily. Just changing the structure works to keep players invested in a 1st person kind of way. "A hint of copper and salt hits your nose." Is better than "You smell copper and salt." Other characters and NPC's can help with that by saying things aloud too, "Smells like...copper or something." From an NPC is better than "you smell copper." A dog sniffing at the corner of a room works better than, "You see something in the corner."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Karak, post: 6038161, member: 6700170"] Most of those sort of seem like stuff that should be done all the time. Especially descriptions, random rolls, possible dying, players doing what they want and so forth. That should not be saved for unique times in my opinion. It seems like many of those are based around fear of losing something, doing something strange versus environmental fear. And sadly everything there we do on a daily basis as I don't really protect players, stop them from trying things or stop them from splitting up. If we are talking about Halloween style fear and not mechanical fear then I have found that actually making a place, environment scary takes a far different set of skills that just killing some people or taking away something. Randomly asking a player if their character locked a door, or some other safety environment question and then just nodding can work well. Especially if you do nothing with it. Lack of knowledge breeds fear pretty easily and does so even more easily if false cues are given for a bit of time. As well as describing small random things like disturbing smells or things that don't fit in mundane settings. Specific things rarely done during normal game-play helps. If you don't explain smells often, by doing so it can really cause the players to feel a freshness that is rare and you can then use that to your advantage. Also, though we do this all the time, I rarely talk in a way that causes me to say, "You hear a blank." Usually I just speak in a unique voice randomly or make a sound as often as possible with no narrative stuff clogging up the pipes. As often as I can I introduce an item, enemy, and so forth then if I want interaction I speak as them, make a sound as them, and so forth versus saying, "You hear a cat screech." In fact, if you aren't good at voices, or sounds, sometimes that can work in your advantage. Especially if you try to make a cat sound and it sounds weird. Players may say, "That doesn't sound like a normal damn cat to me." Mundane things that become alien are the things that true horror comes from. I try to never say the horrid lines of [I]You see a[/I], [I]you hear a,[/I] [I]you smell a[/I], kind of things. Those break players out of the environment easily. Just changing the structure works to keep players invested in a 1st person kind of way. "A hint of copper and salt hits your nose." Is better than "You smell copper and salt." Other characters and NPC's can help with that by saying things aloud too, "Smells like...copper or something." From an NPC is better than "you smell copper." A dog sniffing at the corner of a room works better than, "You see something in the corner." [/QUOTE]
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