D&D General Fostering an appropriate sense of dread

[Shiroiken]

You've forgotten the most basic rule of role-playing - that players can only act on information available to them. Your little show should be meaningless, since any half-way decent player will disregard it as irrelevant.

It depends on the goal of the DM. Inspiring dread in characters is easy, but in players is hard. A good roleplayer won't need the jar, as the in-game description should be sufficient to bring dread to the character. However, since the player is never in danger, it's hard for many players to feel the sense of dread that their character probably does. This is mostly found if you try to run a horror based adventure/campaign.

If the DM wants to bring a sense of dread to the players, normally something out of game needs to be done. Many DMs use various techniques to create an ambiance (using lighting, mood music, etc.), and the jar would be a useful tool along the same vein.

 

[Umbran]

Very simple - don't use giant rats. Use swarms of rats. These are scary.

Note: Swarm of Rats has resistance to piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing, and so have twice the challenge rating of a Giant Rat. And, if they keep swarming, they'll get the idea that there's no end to them....

 

[Nevvur]

You have two things going on.

1) Theatricality and props
2) A framework for handling large numbers of opponents.

Neither is essential for instilling dread. The only essential thing is knowing what makes your players tick, so you can exploit their perceptions and foster that dread. Whether your idea works at your table, or anyone else's, is going to depend on how the players respond to that sort of gameplay. That said, I think what you suggest should hit some key tension points for a variety of player types, so give it a shot and let us know how it goes!

 

[Oofta]

I've done basically the same thing, except I use plastic spiders I got cheap at a halloween store and dump them out on the side of the mat.

But there are a lot of other things I've done. Like roll a die, ask a player to come with me to the other room with a D20 and character sheet. I tell them absolutely nothing is wrong and we chat about the weather for a couple of minutes. Go back and everyone is paranoid. If anyone asks, nothing happened. Ask the player to roll a D20 now and then. Works best with someone I know will play along.

I've also set minis to the side that I'll be using later. So I'll find my biggest mini or three and set them to the side even though I have no plan to use them. Works best with a low level party.

That's just a couple of meta-game things I do for paranoia. Players shouldn't pay attention to it but they do.

 

[jasper]

Nice bit of theatre. But as Saelorn said, it will depend on the group, and DM.