Looking to Scare the $#!+ Out of My Players

[Dantilla]

I have been running a Ravenloft game since March. However, I seem to be having mixed success on being able to scare my players.

My biggest issues are:

1. The meta-gamer with way too many ranks in several Knowledge skills that uses ALL of these to try to figure out what they are fighting against. He has a bad habit of rolling high, too. :\ I've been trying to counteract this by sending him against things he wouldn't know about as a Ravenloft non-native, or by giving him extra little clues or observations about the creatures, without actually saying "its ____."

2. My PC's are powerful. I have five of them in the party, and over the course of the campaign they have learned to work together and use their greatest strengths so efficiently that I can send something several EL's higher than them at them and they wipe it out in two rounds tops. I have tried to beef up some things, but again, I have had mixed success.

3. Lost in translation: I am running a few 2nd modules interspersed with stuff I myself am writing. I have tried to use the converstion stuff to update the chars and creatures, but I have found that this SERIOUSLY underpowers the bad guys. Therefore, I am building them up myself, using the stats given in the module as a guide, and thus coming up with something more realistic. However, see also #2. Plus, I am a bit afraid of "cheating" by making these NPCS more powerful than they are supposed to be.

If anyone has any input/suggestions to help fix these issues, i'd appreciate it.

However, everything does not suck. I find that I am very good at coming up with my own flavor text, as well as embellishing that which comes with the modules. More than once have I freaked out my players in my descriptions of places, and more than once one or more of my PC's have refused to enter a place because of it.

I also have some talent with the Tarokka deck--besides making up minor on the fly quick fortunes related to the current adventures, I was also able to make a longer more detailed fortune for a beloved NPC. I stacked the deck, but due to my own slight of hand skill and the fact that my other players also shuffled the deck before the fortune, I was able to fool all but one of them. It was also a particularly bleak fortune for said beloved NPC, and has added a new urgency to trying to find him.

One of my funnest moments of all, tho, was last session. My PC's were camping the night in a graveyard on the advice of a tree (feel free to ask if you want), and although they had a canine ally in the area (a grim [Denizens of Dread]), they were attacked by something very strange to them--a cinderspawn (Libris Mortis). They were able to defeat it without too much blood lost, and were just settling down again when the dog started growling softly in the other direction, and they could hear the roar of something in the distance, moving parellel to their location. Even worse, little tendrils of mist were snaking thru the trees and wrapping around their ankles. The thing, whatever it was, was coming closer. The dog stopped growling, and looked up at the PC's, glaring whenever they tried to ask it anything or talked amongst themselves. Eventually, someone threw out the suggestion that the dog wanted them to be quiet.

NOT ONE PLAYER said a word or moved a muscle for the next five minutes. It was great.

 

[Diremede]

I have been running a Ravenloft game since March. However, I seem to be having mixed success on being able to scare my players.

1. The meta-gamer with way too many ranks in several Knowledge skills that uses ALL of these to try to figure out what they are fighting against. He has a bad habit of rolling high, too. :\ I've been trying to counteract this by sending him against things he wouldn't know about as a Ravenloft non-native, or by giving him extra little clues or observations about the creatures, without actually saying "its ____."

Metagamers are the worst thing to ever happen to gaming. The trouble is that most of them are DM/players so they know what most of the little things are to look for in monsters to identify them without really even trying, in fact I think most of them metagame without even realizing it. Anyway this is an easy solution, just mix up some details to throw the uber metagamer off. Change the DR of a creature from whatever it is to something else. My favorite thing is when I started using devils in my game and the PC's kept trying to fight them with silver weapons and couldn't understand why it took so long to kill them hehe cold iron suckers, thats right I simply switched the DR types around it drove them nuts. The metagamer had assured them that they were devils and silver defeats their DR. Well the character had never encountered a devil up to that point, had no knowledge skill on devils or demons or extraplanar creatures, and would have no idea what the difference between a devil or demon even is. So his conclusion of silver beats their DR was purely metagame, so I changed it since I was purely the DM. Now of course if a character actually had any knowledge of these types of creatures and made checks about them, then I would have told them.

If your metagamers character actually knows about these monsters and such, well you will have to get more creative and change monster descriptions, names, or perhaps leave them nameless and just call it "a monster you have never heard of or seen before". Perhaps exchange monster stats and abilities with another monster using the physical description of the one monster will throw off a metagamer.

As for scaring them well, the graveyard thing sounded pretty cool and in ravenloft descriptions have to be fluffed up quite a bit to add to the creepy creepy of the dark and dank places found there.

 

[frankthedm]

I was going to mention this but Crothian beat me to it.

Seriously this book is amazing when it comes to setting tone. After reading it, I ran a modern game where the players played themselves and mysterious stuff started to happen. You could actually feel the tension in the air.

And of course after the session, all the players begged me to run another one.

Nightmares of mine is an AWSOME book. It ranks right up there With the Bygone Bestiary IMO.

 

[Tatsukun]

I've always found that in 3.5 the best way to really scare a PC is with something that damages equipment, rather than people. A big bad Paladin will wade into a mosh-pit of evil, but he will run like a wee lass from a single rust monster.

-Tatsu

 

[DMH]

If you really want horror game, then go out and find Nightmares of Mine. It is a book all about horror RPGs and running them. It is about 7 years old now, so might be hard to find but wirth it.

Ken Hite also wrote GURPS Horror 3rd ed. and incorporated some of his earlier material. I never read Nightmares of Mine, but I have Horror 2nd and 3rd eds. and they are both great resources on atmosphere.

 

[noretoc]

You just need to set up the right ambiance for the game. part of this is making sure your players are in the mood for a horror game. it's ok to joke around a bit, but it shouldnt get so out of control that it is distracting.

A few things you can do to help get them paranoid:
Turn the lights out and use candles. In the past, I've set up a bunch of tea candles in the center of the table. these were great because, they were cheap and they only last about as long as the session. As we got further into the night, they started burning out one by one with a little hiss. of course hte room also kept getting a little darker each time.

Also, don't sit behind your screen, or in a chair all night. Get up and walk around behind the players. Move around behind them and don't let htem track you. An occasional hand on a shoulder or a thud on teh table or wall next to them might help stir them up.

Fluxuate your voice through the night. I generally let my voice get very soft so they have to pay close attention to what I am saying. I'll speak in calm tones, which helps ease their nerves. Of course, this sets up places where you can begin talking in anxious or nervous tones, or yelling and screaming. after lulling them into that security, this will help jerk their emotions around a bit.

If possible, sit them with their backs to a window or doorway or something. When talking to them, use eye contact, but occassionally look up beyond htem to that opening as if something is going on behind hte group. Doing this at various times will make them a bit paranoid as well.

Use props. give them things they can hold in their hands and get into the atmoshpere of the game. the more you can pull them away from the game stats and tabletalk and into their characters and the game, the better reactions you will get.

Spread paranoia amongst the group. pass notes out to players. Perhaps one character makes another nervous. Perhaps the note says smile and don't tell anyone what this says. Stirring the unknown into the group will help isolate them and spread a bit more paranoia.

Perfect advice! This is how you get them worried and scared. One of my best moments, was describing a old woman (a hag, though cloaked) shambling past them. The way she walked, and I got up and kinda stooped over, and starting talking low. They though it was just a old lady, till I jumped toward them, screaming. They jumped, a drink was spilled, dice went flying. It was great. The little giggle after was best. when I did a similar thing five mins later it took them by surprise again. If they have no idea what is coming, and you take away the stuff they are used to (you sitting behind the screen, etc) it gets the heart racing.

 

[Warden]

Anyone know where I can get a hold of Nightmare of Mine?

 

[Visceris]

I found music and lighting and the such as a distraction. They simpler do not work.

What I do is set the scene. Imagen a deserted house with an emaculately clean living room and hallway, with a skummy kitchen and a locked from the inside basement. One the second floor you have an emaculate clean bathroom and bedroom, but on the side room it is one of macabre statues crafted from human flesh and bone. As you turn to leave you hear a wheezing sound and footsteps leading up the stairs with a rhythmic heavy thump following.

Or set up a encounter with some well known beasties like trolls and such but have them act "differently." Such as an encounter that I used in a fantasy campaign I had the party face a group of trolls which two trolls always stay back and just watch. If they are threatened they run away, but if not they watch till the encounter is over then leave. Do this repeatedly in several encounters, then mix the critters a bit. It will most certainly creep out the players.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Excellent thread! I am looking to do a fantasy horror game starting around December/January after my current Greyhawk campaign ends (and I do some construction work on it, during which I plan on having one of the other players run a game). I have seen an increasing number of threads about horror campaigns and how to do them and it is encouraging. Most of my players are rules junkies and tacticians, but they seemed interested when I pitched my concept. I am just looking for ways to suck them in and keep them scared. I can't wait until Heroes of Horror comes out and I can find a copy of Nightmares of Mine (that I can afford). I have run modern horror recently, but the last fantasy horror I ran was Ravenloft (the adventure, the world hadn't been published yet, though I did run Ship of Horror when it came out) in high school.

Keep the ideas coming.

DM

 

[BluWolf]

My best advise in freaking out players is take a hint from Hitchcock or even Speilberg in "Jaws".

You don't see the best, you just see its handy work.

Accent teh unknown and the unseen.