Capturing the Mood/Help Me Scare the PC's

[Rl'Halsinor]

I second Corsair here. He is playing a human Ranger. Think of that "hulking brute" in very low light in an enraged frenzy. As a human his vision is significantly impaired in such an environment. Even with torches the shadows will be all over the place. Therefore, there is absolutely no way if he is engaged in battle that he can ask logical questions while trying to determine what kind of monster he is fighting. It sounds like this guy really needs to control and deep inside controllers are fearful people. Time to bring this player some unknown fear.

I also agree with the advice of getting other manuals with creatures he has never memorized or seen before. There are some tremendous resources other than the core books. And if you do I wouldn't bring those manuals with me. I'd have the very monsters I wanted already notated somewhere. This way he can't memorize the new monster resource's cover and go out and buy it!

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Then I would drop a few monsters on him from other books. There is a lot on he market. What he doesn't know cannot be figured out.

Not a way to deal with the problem permanently. But it will get all the players attention.

The permanent solution would be more along the lines of an old fasion heart-to-heart talk.

Working on the heart to heart talk... I have told him my concerns and am hoping that he realizes I am not just being a jerk.

DM

 

[Gothmog]

I've wrestled with how to scare/absorb the players in the game for years now, and the best and most effective tactic is this: don't let the players see stats or numbers. You, as the DM, keep track of HP, AC, saves, skills, BAB, etc. The more the players know about the game world and the probabilities, the more they can manipulate that world to their desired ends. This makes it very hard to really scare players, because only the unknown is frightening. I've used this tactic in fantasy games, sci-fi, horror, etc- and its been a great boon to my group. Not only do they start playing their characters better, but they identify with their characters more and treat the world and NPCs are more than just something to manipulate and quantify. The other big thing to do is never describe anything in absolutes. Don't say "There are no traps on the chest", say "you check the chest, probing your fingers along all the seams and lock mechanism, and don't find any traps." A subtle difference, but an important one from horror.

Also, decribe things through the PCs sensory modalities- what they see, smell, hear, feel, and taste. Try to include at least 2 or 3 of these sense in each description you give out. Try to imagine what it might actually be like to be there, and make it personal to the PC and his point of view. For example when describing a gargoyle say "A beast of nightmare emerges from the shadows, its joints creaking like stones grinding together and smelling of turned earth. Viscous saliva drips from its fanged maw, and its batlike wings beat several times as it propels itself towards you, knocking the torch from its sconce on the wall, causing the room to be dimly illuminated in a nightmarish display of dancing shadows."

Finally, don't allow direct combat to be an option to deal with all threats. Things like nightmares, diseases, curses are good, and have monsters make hit-and-run attacks, feeling the PCs out, draining resources, and freaking them out. And when you do manage to scare or freak out your players doing this, it can be very rewarding, both for the DM and the players.


Note: these tactics will drive rules lawyers/metagamers nuts, which is part of the appeal. One of my players used to be the worst metagamer/rules lawyer/min-maxer, but I managed to break him of it doing this for a year or so.

 

[Endur]

Are you playing D&D 3x? If so, this should not be a problem.

Just use the descriptions in the Monster Manual rather than calling it a creature of X.

i.e. even if the Player has memorized all the creature descriptions in the Monster Manual, he won't know how many levels that Ogre has or whether that Basilisk is advanced.

Some characters like to have knowledge of "standard defenses", i.e. using Silence to defeat Sonic attacks, staking vampires, etc.

If the character is into this, encourage the Player to take ranks in the appropriate knowledge skills to represent his character's vast knowledge of monsters and magic.

Even better if the character is playing a Bard or a Loremaster, because then you can use various stories that the character may have heard to back up the player's personal knowledge.

 

[Ulrick]

Have a bunch of "familiar" monsters use horde tactics against the characters. Have the monster come in from all sides. Then have one or two of these monster have special powers and abilities that can really beat on the characters from a distance. The characters have to hack their way through all the "normal" monsters to get at the special monster.

Like in Diablo.