Epidiah Ravachol
First Post
That's excellent advice there.Piratecat said:I try to follow the classic rule of suspense that says "never let the players know exactly where the villain is." I make sure not to put all my eggs in one basket for exactly this reason. If the players still have something to be nervous about other than the tower, I think the pacing concern is at least partially mitigated.
It has been my experience that combining a dangerous situation with the live pre-pulls after the tower has fallen is enough to get hearts racing again. If the tower has just been rebuilt and you have a group of armed PCs squaring off with a roomful of crazed cultists, it is time to kick things into high gear. The first frothing cultist charges in with a strength and swiftness of action only found in madness. He is brandishing a stained knife, and you are going to have to pull to avoid an egregious chest wound. In fact, even if you prevent such a wound, the horrible blade will still cut deep enough into your defending arm to make you think twice about using it again (that is, unless you pull). It'll also be a pull to react in any way other than a defensively before he bowls through you and starts attacking your partner. If you do react in time, it will be a pull to hit him in such a way that he can't just ignore it in his mad fervor. And one more pull to do it without panicking and emptying half of your clip into him.
That's a possible five pulls to deal with just the first cultist (not including the pre-pulls which were at least three, but possibly more). That should be enough to hint to the players it might be time to retreat and regroup after their ally's death. Sort of the GM's way of saying, "This is a horror story and things at this very moment are pretty damn horrific."