Share your Keeper methods of setting the Cthulhu Mood...

[Piratecat]

By the way: CoC threads belong over in d20 games, but this thread applies to all good horror games, so it stays here in General. Just in case you were curious!

Henry, by the way, has the right idea: smell, and taste, are incredibly evocative. They're very effective at scaring PCs.

 

[Cold Beer]

Mood...

When I run or play in any horor game, I insist on dim or alternate lighting. I do this for two reasons.

Firstly it can generate a sense of unease or disorientation within the group that helps the mood. This works best when all bright yellow/white light is removed from the room and replaced with either red or blue bulbs or a single small lamp in the middle of the gaming table. Red light tends to evoke hostile and closterphobic feelings....

Secondly, it evokes a "campfire" effect that focuses the attention of the group on the game. I've noticed that groups become more introverted in dimly lit gameing rooms...

Anyhoo... Yes, mood lighting can be really goofy, but it can work well in certian situations...


As for mood music, I tend not to use it... although I used the X-COM computer game background muic once in a CoC game.

Annother good tactic for creating mood is to play the game in an "unfamilliar" location. Try to arrange the game in a place that isn't the regular gaming space. The best game of CoC I ever played in was run on a dreary overcaast afternoon in a large nearly empty public library...

 

[mmadsen]

Re: Mood...

This works best when all bright yellow/white light is removed from the room and replaced with either red or blue bulbs or a single small lamp in the middle of the gaming table. Red light tends to evoke hostile and closterphobic feelings....

Aren't flickering candles the standard? Just don't get overzealous with your dead PC's character sheet...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Wow...I Spit On Your Grave...very cool reference. Anyone else remember that, around the same time period, they had double features of I Eat Your Flesh and I Drink Your Blood?

 

[SonOfLilith]

First, thank you for making this thread, I was going to soon anyway.

Second, one thing i was thinking of trying is playing with the lights turned of right after you watch a scary movie, like the exorsist or something. Give the players flashligts to use. I havn't tried this yet, but I think it migt work well.

And for music, whats some good music for that? Like just horror movie soundtrack stuff?

 

[Krug]

How about a tubful of raw calamari at the center of the table...

 

[SonOfLilith]

Speaking of sound effects, anyone know where I could download some Silent Hill 2 sound effects? That game scared the hell outa me, and it was mostly because of the sound. Just the random clanks and howls every one and a while, it would be cool to get like an hour long clip of all that and just repeat it through the session, or , even better, make ones for different locations (Inside houses, the forest, ect.) If no one knows where to get stuff like this, how could I extract the music from the game my self?

 

[gregweller]

'I spit on your grave' is a very disturbing movie--one of my favorites from the golden age of splatter. And I think it has something to do with the fact that it is a *very* low budget movie. Here's something important to keep in mind about horror: your nightmares are not produced and directed by George Lucas or Steven Spielburg. They are produced and directed by a very twisted director with one foot in the asylum and one foot in the breadline. And nightmares are scary because the director knows what scares *you*.

 

[Arthur Tealeaf]

Speaking of sound effects, anyone know where I could download some Silent Hill 2 sound effects? That game scared the hell outa me, and it was mostly because of the sound. Just the random clanks and howls every one and a while, it would be cool to get like an hour long clip of all that and just repeat it through the session, or , even better, make ones for different locations (Inside houses, the forest, ect.) If no one knows where to get stuff like this, how could I extract the music from the game my self?

Hear, Hear!

 

[Deadguy]

Cthulhu By Candelight

Aren't flickering candles the standard? Just don't get overzealous with your dead PC's character sheet...

Candles are good for all fantasy and horror role-playing...period. They tend to make rooms much smaller, as the corners sink into shadow and darkness. There is a womblike quality to a room that's not overlit by candlelight.

However, I really think you need to put them where players can't easily reach them from where they sit! Having played this way with several groups I have noticed a strong tendency for the candle flames to firstly draw their attaention from you as the DM, and then they sit there playing with the flames and/or the running wax! I've seen a session completely devolve as people sit their entranced by, and playing with, the candles.

So Candlelight = Good. But Candles + Players = Bad.