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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FentonGib" data-source="post: 4496883" data-attributes="member: 77527">I try to do the same, I've got markers for half hp and quarter hp and players get used to recognising the symptoms as a gauge of how they're doing. I do try to describe similarly with the antagonists. If the players knowhow many hp the villain has they tend to (imo) metagame, but when they don't know then they think twice about picking fights.Mind you, I've had players not pick a fight with a level 1 npc commoner just by having the commoner stand up to the players and be really cocky and confident, and the players go "oooh... this is obviously one of those characters the gm has put in to kick our butts" which is always funny (yet they pick fights with a oft-meek-seeming-but-deadly rogue)My game sessions are always done at night (though that's more a force of circumstance since we all work than anything) but when we play Ravenloft or Cthulhu my music playlist usually consists of mostly classical pieces like the Bram Stoker Dracula soundtrack, Tochwood and Dr Who soundtracks (the players scoffed when I mentioned I was adding them to the playlist, but later commented "this song is really good?" and it was often from those soundtracks) and the likes. It helps to set the mood nicely. When we played Cthulhu I darkened them even more, and prepared props to help add feel to the game (such as a final letter from someone they knew was dead). I remember in one game having a funeral scene and I played the songs "My Immortal" and "Hello" by Evanescence and it really hit well with the players, bringing the mood down. The opening score from Dracula (which starts slowly but builds menacingly) had the players jumping at rats when they were going through the caverns.Only problem with music is that unless you spend ages pre-preparing multiple playlists, it's a headache to handle, and often ends up with a song repeating a lot (when you don't have many songs for "that scene") or in the middle of a dark scene a "happy" song coming on unexpectedly. :SI agree, I rarely use book-stat monsters unless it's for a random encounter. I always make them along with a history (e.g. they were a succesful ranger before being bitten by a Lycanthrope they were hunting). I then try to make the players find out the history as well as meeting the monster. This means when they meet the monster, more than once, they've questioned whether they did the right think or not. e.g. killing a Paladin-turned-lycanthrope who runs around trying to do good, but during the full moon turns, and maybe doesn't even know he's a werewolf - can add to very interesting moral dilemma. I find one of the things my players enjoy about my horror games is the moral ambiguity. I like the players second-guessing whether the monster is really a monster, of if the evil ones are the players for hunting a poor, cursed, beast. My standard D&D games however have very "heroic" feels to them so the players know what they're getting into.Little better in a horror game than making one of the players realise a loved one is an afflicted lycanthrope, vampire or some other creature - will they still have the desire to kill the creatures?</blockquote>

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