CharlesRyan
Adventurer
In my game session Friday night I tried something a little different that seemed to work out well.
This particular scenario is very horror-oriented, and I was keen to build and maintain a sense of unease among the players. I wanted the monsters' abilities to contribute to the tension and dread as much as create a tactical challenge.
In the encounter in question, the attacking creature created fog. Targets within 5 feet gain concealment; those further away gain total concealment and can't be located visually (this particular game is OGL, so we're talking 3.5 fog here)--in other words, anything further than 5 feet away can't be seen. Additionally, this was at night, so it was a very dark fog.
The characters and terrain were all on the battlemat. As the fog started to rise (the attacking creature had not yet been seen), I gave the players one round to take an action.
Then I had them blindfold themselves. I made a note of the location of all of the characters (and attackers), and removed all the miniatures from the battlemat.
Each player, on his or her turn, got to lift his or her blindfold. I put the miniatures on the map representing that character and any other creatures within 5 feet. For any creature--friend or foe--just a square or two further away, I put a "generic" black miniature (a selection of DDM commons that I'd spraypainted black), to indicate forms or movement the PC could just make out in the dark fog. Once that player was done, back on went the blindfold, and the minis came off the map before the next player's turn.
It wasn't a long encounter (I think it would have bogged the game down too much to run a long encounter that way), but the feedback I got from the players later was that it was very creepy and effective. A great way to create a sense of isolation and confusion while still knowing your companions are near. Not the sort of thing I'd do every session, for I'll definitely keep it in mind for occasional use.
This particular scenario is very horror-oriented, and I was keen to build and maintain a sense of unease among the players. I wanted the monsters' abilities to contribute to the tension and dread as much as create a tactical challenge.
In the encounter in question, the attacking creature created fog. Targets within 5 feet gain concealment; those further away gain total concealment and can't be located visually (this particular game is OGL, so we're talking 3.5 fog here)--in other words, anything further than 5 feet away can't be seen. Additionally, this was at night, so it was a very dark fog.
The characters and terrain were all on the battlemat. As the fog started to rise (the attacking creature had not yet been seen), I gave the players one round to take an action.
Then I had them blindfold themselves. I made a note of the location of all of the characters (and attackers), and removed all the miniatures from the battlemat.
Each player, on his or her turn, got to lift his or her blindfold. I put the miniatures on the map representing that character and any other creatures within 5 feet. For any creature--friend or foe--just a square or two further away, I put a "generic" black miniature (a selection of DDM commons that I'd spraypainted black), to indicate forms or movement the PC could just make out in the dark fog. Once that player was done, back on went the blindfold, and the minis came off the map before the next player's turn.
It wasn't a long encounter (I think it would have bogged the game down too much to run a long encounter that way), but the feedback I got from the players later was that it was very creepy and effective. A great way to create a sense of isolation and confusion while still knowing your companions are near. Not the sort of thing I'd do every session, for I'll definitely keep it in mind for occasional use.
Actually if I ever do my idea for a D&D rip-off of "The Mist" I might have to try that.
