Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

[kilamanjaro]

I'd be interested in learning how you do it. Permanent damage to their characters is about the only way I know to scare players. Mord's Disjunction might bring about the same feel, but that's not something you can (or should) use often. Perhaps mood lighting and music would work, but I don't really have time to set that kind of stuff up.

There's an old book by ICE called Nightmares of Mine that is an excellent guide to creating and playing horror scenarios and different flavors of horror. It's a completely statistic free and setting less book. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in scaring their players.

 

[Klaus]

Best advice on running scary games comes from the first Ravenloft boxed set, the Black Box.

I had players scared of going to the bathroom alone when I DMed 2e Masque of the Red Death.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Ah, I see. Older-edition level drain offered no chance of defense, and moreover had an effect that was wildly disproportionate to the level of monster that was using it, to the reward attained by defeating said monster, and to the level of the remedy for it.

In other words, this indictment of "lameness" against 3e's version of level-draining is that it's not a complete load of BS, and likewise you attest that it's "very, very hard" for a DM to scare players without a BS gimmick.

Gotta wonder how many times as a player Mr. Neiklot got nailed with level drain love-tap and was set back a few hundred thou XP, and how cool he thought it was.

I got nailed plenty of times. And I thought it sucked. But instead of whining about how unfair it was for my poor character, I came up with ways to avoid it. Use range attacks, hide behind the cleric, and just plain not stick my nose where it didn't belong. Undead WERE scary, now it's like "Yawn, undead again, whoopee." There's no denying 3e is way easier on the players in a number of areas, but I fail to see why some people get so defensive when someone points it out. You'd think I slapped your damn mother.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Fear is best engendered through creating an atmosphere of dread, not by relying exclusively upon the threat of some monster jumping out and irrevocably damaging the characters with an easily-delivered no-save cheeseball gimmick. :\

Sounds like this style of DM'ing is more based on aggrivating players than scaring them.

No saves are not a gimmick. A non save situation is not screwing the players, any save at all is a gift from the gods, and is in no way required, or at least it didn't use to be. I suppose I should whine if my character dives head first into an active volcano b=ecause I don't get a save? I don't believe Gollum got one.

 

[Felon]

I got nailed plenty of times. And I thought it sucked. But instead of whining about how unfair it was for my poor character, I came up with ways to avoid it. Use range attacks, hide behind the cleric, and just plain not stick my nose where it didn't belong. Undead WERE scary, now it's like "Yawn, undead again, whoopee." There's no denying 3e is way easier on the players in a number of areas, but I fail to see why some people get so defensive when someone points it out. You'd think I slapped your damn mother.

It's not defensiveness, it's aggrivation that there are folks out there who think this way.

You want the threat of some virtually irrevocable consequence to send a ripple of fear through characters? No harm no foul there. Many folks think restorative magic is a little too easy to come by in 3e. That you think it should be induced by minor rank-and-file monsters with a straight attack roll and allow no save, that's rather bizarre, but not exactly infuriating.

That you'll go so far as to claim that such a BS gimmick must be at a DM's disposal in order to make for a scary encounter, that it's "very, very hard" to make for players to be creeped out without them--well, that's pretty outrageous.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

It's not defensiveness, it's aggrivation that there are folks out there who think this way.

I'm very sorry. I'll be sure and ask the thought police how I should think next time.

 

[Thurbane]

I'm always worried that any adventure with "Expedition" in the title will feature crashed spaceships, alien critters and kung-fu androids!

 

[Kesh]

No saves are not a gimmick. A non save situation is not screwing the players, any save at all is a gift from the gods, and is in no way required, or at least it didn't use to be. I suppose I should whine if my character dives head first into an active volcano b=ecause I don't get a save? I don't believe Gollum got one.

... man, what?

 

[MetalBard]

... man, what?

Gotta agree, a non-save situation is NOT a situation. If there is no recourse for the player, why is there even a situation? You might as well narrate the character's death in the scene where there was a resolution mechanic that lead to the demise.

Robbing a player character of choice or recourse sucks.

Anybody read Perdido Street Station? ... :\

 

[Shemeska]

Robbing a player character of choice or recourse sucks.

Anybody read Perdido Street Station? ... :\

*grin* Mmm... choice-theft.

But I think it's probably a safe bet to hope that most campaigns end on a less depressive note.