Dirty GM Tricks

[Samloyal23]

I may be forced to co-gm an espionage game soon, so I want my part to be something that will stand out. Basically, the players are in a Call of Cthulhu game, but they do not know it. They think it is going to be straight espionage/political intrigue in the Cold War. {Evil Laugh}

I am not real talented at things like voices or characterization, so to make my villain stand out and scare the hooey out of my players I want to do something different, by having the character I am playing appear to do a really creepy magic tragic, something that will make the players momentarily freak out. Just a thought, I have done some card and coin tricks in the past, but I am looking for something icky and scary but not too hard to learn that I can pull off in front of the players with a minimum of preparation. Thoughts? Suggestions? Tricks?

 

[DnD_Dad]

Do the old scouts campfire trick. Just when you get the mood just right and the tension is high; you and the co-gm scream and grab the people your next to. While you building tension. Turn the lights low(candle light with the most light on the center of the table,) pace around the group, every once in a while pause and act like you hear something( but just look around real quick and don't say anything about it.)

 

[Nytmare]

How much time and money do you have to throw at this?

Also, are you looking for "shock" scary, and then laughter, or "eerie" scary followed by "That's not how the trick was supposed to work, and I don't know why that happened?"

Penn and Teller are probably a great place to start looking. Their old "poking out your eye with a fork" trick unsettled many a restaurant table in my day.

 

[Rune]

Saw one of the players in half, and then "forget" how to put him/her back together again.

 

[Samloyal23]

I am just looking for them to be scared and creeped out, wondering "wtf just happened?" I have no budget, whatever props I use will have to be improvised from things around the house...

 

[Iron Dragon]

If you want some inspiration, look up the short story " A Colder War" the stuff in there can be good for having documents explain cthuloid entities as advanced tech and the like. Should also be good for when you want them to slowly realize it.