Gothmog said:
I guess I was wondering how to keep things fresh for the players and prevent them from becoming jaded to it.
Ok- well I always am of the opinion that the foundation of most horror genres is that man is expendible (especially in man vs. the unknown .. commonly used in Mythos writings).
Are you willing to kill characters? That will be the most impacting way to keep horror fresh, but it does not lend itself to keeping campeigns going.
It will all depend on the type of horror your scenario will take, but the basic advice is probably the same.
Start small and don't even let the players understand the full impact of what is going on until the final few scenarios.
Example- man vs. nature
Specifics: Rats have turned against man
Area: A large city- about to face its monsoon season
Adventure #1:
Children are turning up missing in a city.
They all seem to disappear around sewer entrances.
The players descend into the sewers- find some old half-orc hag cooking children. The party will probably (the city will definitly) blame the hag for their deaths- though she claims her innocence on their deaths.. but admits to planning to eat the remains she found.
Through out descriptions- rats are present half the time. Spot checks on the children bones note markings from small animal bites.
Players "solve" the mystery- get a slap on the back, but might suspect something else is going on.
Adventure #2:
A disease starts to break out in the city- a quarentine of most of the city is declared. The disease is spreading too quickly for clerics to deal with, and no one is sure of the source.
The party gets involved with a general run-around session- the city is on the brink of a riot, the guards need help, the clerics need help, nobles are willing to pay for help.
While on some mission- they hear the local rat-catcher union (hey, modern india has them, heh) complaining about a big increase in the rat population.
Have them attacked by some aggressive rats in the alley way.
Players may or may not help find a way to fight the disease- but either way.. the disease is still present through out the city.
Adventure #3:
Food stops coming from the north. The city has sent a herald to find out what is going on, but he never returned. Someone the party helped in the last couple adventures suggest the city leadership send the party. They are hired to find out about the herald and the food.
They travel north.. where the monsoons have already hitting.
They find no animals on the way- the first farming community is a couple weeks to the north.
When arriving at the first town, they find it in chaos. The local leadership claims they have no food to send- rats have been into their crops.. and they are dealing with a huge influx of refugees from the north. Most nearly dead from a famliar disease. A few semi-coherent refugees are obviously a bit low on their sanity.. as they just ramble about rats.
Word is the herald travelled further north.
If they travel to the next community- they find it in the middle of a war with rats. The few people still alive are locked up inside their own homes- most of the area is flooded.. and the areas dry are covered in rats.
a local explains that with the rain- the rats came pouring out of their holes in the ground..
hopefully you don't have to slap your party in the head to get them thinking about the city and a flooded sewer..
Adventure #4+
A large city with little food, suffering from a disease, and now under assault by countless rats- you have many opportunities for adventures here.
Adventure finally:
This is the toughest- do you make some agent behind the rats, or just leave it as man versus nature.
If the latter, then your best bet is to have the rats wipe out the city.
Summary- your players may laugh at the idea of being afraid of a rat. They would be right, but when that rat has countless friends- then things get a bit different.
The key with starting small is not just in knowledge of the horror being faced, but in the consequences it brings. The party should barely suspect the horror, and if they do suspect it- it should seem largely inconsequential.
As the adventures go on, then the party should find themselves in a situation that is nearly beyond them. Why? Because this is horror- if it was within the pc's ability to handle, then they will just hack&slash their way to a solution.
Heh, sorry for such a long post.
I hope it made some sense.
FD