How do you scare your players?

[shilsen]

I scare my players by feigning ignorance of how the rules actually work, except in the cases where I scare them with my actual ignorance of how the rules work.

Dammit! I was going to say Mallus scares the group (okay, you royally amuse me, but I never count anyway) by going, "Oh - so that's how it works?"

As for me, I do it by smiling. Really.

More precisely, players generally fear situations where they can't understand what is going on and/or can't work out how to affect it. Put your PCs in such positions and watch the players squirm.

 

[Archade]

I've given this a bit of thought. At the time my players were 4th level, I wanted to throw them at a cave of goblin 1st level rogues with gantries and scaffolding, and at the end their own pet gray render. Pretty standard stuff.

At the time (this was a while ago), Jurassic Park II came out, and I saw it in the theatre. And I was on edge through the whole 'velociraptors chasing them through the long grass and into the abandoned office complex'. And what I realized is it isn't the monster that's scary or creates a sense of fear, it's the environment and the sense of the unknown.

So, when it came to the gray render encounter, I emphazied the environment - I had the goblins slam a porticullis down and laugh at them mockingly. A couple of rounds later, I desribed the heavy dull thuds of footsteps coming from around the corner. When the gray render came around the corner I gave it a rousing and fearsome description (as it ripped a poor NPC in half). The players nearly wet themselves, and were afraid to engage the creature.

So, to scare players:
- create foreshadowing
- describe a foreboding environment in detail
- make the PCs feel 'out of control'
- describe the monster
- if possible, kill an NPC in a horrible nasty way

 

[Bonzi]

Pulling out one of those gigantic dragon minis would do it to me.

 

[Lanefan]

Level drainers.

None of this namby-pamby new-age negative-level-save-later-to-see-if-it-wears-off stuff, I mean good old-fashioned level *drainers*: you get hit, you lose a level. Period. Or, if you're really lucky, you lose two.

Scares 'em every time...

Lanefan

 

[Gothmog]

Fear of the unknown is the biggest thing you can do, and the best way to do this in an RPG is to take their character sheets away. The players don't get to see any of their stats, know how many HPs they have left, know their saves, AC- nothing. They get a list of skills they have, and their equipment, but thats it. When you begin to quantify the unknown, it loses its bite. Thinking "I have 32/85 hp left, and this thing only did 17 in its last attack, so I am safe for another attack" takes a LOT of the fear and uncertainty out of the situation. Wheras the DM saying "you're already battered and fatigued, and the great beast swipes at you with its claws digging deep furrows into your chest that bleed freely and make you lightheaded" puts the fear of the gawds into players. I've run three D&D games where players get NO stats (including one 10+ year game), and horrific/scary situations are MUCH easier to have work in those games. Its a little more work for the DM, but its worth every second of it. Try it, you'll like it.

 

[deltadave]

there has to be a real fear of loss. Loss of the character, loss of something valuable, loss of some sort or other. Shock scares, like in the movies where something jumps out at you unexpectedly, rarely work. Stay away from cliches. Use the unexpected, change monsters or situations so they are not what your players have come to expect.

Horror also needs a horrible villian - for a good example of one read the original version of Dracula. That is one of my favorite setups for horror scenarios - the slow reveal. Slowly disclose to the characters that the NPC that they thought was their friend/mentor is, in reality, an awful monster and they are the only ones who know it.

 

[Kularian]

Something else that my friend likes to use when he, on occasion, DM's, is a bit of misdirection, to make a baddie appear far more powerful than he is.

In game, we had just returned from some dragonslaying, and were feeling pretty cocky. Going into the local inn, we were met with the Kingsworn, who were the King's personal bodyguards (could flatten us without thinking.) While we're partying and enjoying the merriment, a sudden cry from outside causes the party to come grinding to a halt. A mangled body bursts through the door, followed by a half-demahl (Demahl's were very scary monsters, my friend's creation). This guy tears apart the Kingsworn, until the wizard, impaled into a wall, uses the last of his energy to knock the monster down and yell "Run!" Well, we ran, tails between our legs.

Turns out those weren't the 'real' Kingsworn, and just body doubles for 'celebrity' effect. We then sought out and killed the half-demahl, feeling justified. But just as we were about to leave, the forest around us erupted into the wardrums of the Demahls.

Take each situation and always seem to move them from the frying pan back to the fire. It's quite scary, and works well.

Another fun thing to do is to take any 'stupid' things the party does and turn it against them. In one of my games, they ran into a haunted town that only appeared at night, and vanished in the daytime. Each night, there was a big party in the townhall, celebrating the death of the evil wizard. Well, one of my players got one of the females quite drunk, and...eloped. We all thought this was entertaining, and got a good laugh out of it, because she was a ghost, and that was just weird.

So later, I have the PC's protecting the crown prince, escorting him somewhere, when a warrior seemingly appears out of nowhere and cuts down the prince before they can do anything. The young man is Wraith, a half-undead abomination created from my player and the NPC from three sessions ago. That confused everyone and constantly put everyone on edge, as Wraith could pop up at any time. Made the game much more serious,

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Slime, organs, and unknown freaky creatures.

I wish I could explain more, but my players come to these boards.

Last session I went a little too far and had them ready to abandon the adventure and run back to safety.

An abandoned city, with plenty of signs of fighting but no bodies.
In the center of the city they find a large ring of trash & decaying bodies and have to make fortitude saves or be sickened when the wind blows the right way (and it always does).

Then on another side of town they find an organic looking tube that spreads hundreds of feeet in either direction which branches occasionally, pulsing as if it had a heartbeat.
And it is protected by some alien looking creatures that can communicate through high-pitched screams throughout the city.

And I'm just letting their imagination fill in what I haven't told them.

 

[Gregor]

An abandoned city, with plenty of signs of fighting but no bodies.
In the center of the city they find a large ring of trash & decaying bodies and have to make fortitude saves or be sickened when the wind blows the right way (and it always does).

Then on another side of town they find an organic looking tube that spreads hundreds of feeet in either direction which branches occasionally, pulsing as if it had a heartbeat.
And it is protected by some alien looking creatures that can communicate through high-pitched screams throughout the city.

That is pretty awesome - at least the visual I am getting in my mind is awesome.

So, to scare players:
- create foreshadowing
- describe a foreboding environment in detail
- make the PCs feel 'out of control'
- describe the monster
- if possible, kill an NPC in a horrible nasty way

These are really good solid tips, thanks!

Im thinking of trapping the PCs in some site-based adventure, like an old monestary, cathedral, crypt or even a small farm community (think resident evil 4) and have them be forced to figure their way out how to escape. I have never really run an adventure where running was the way to win, but it might be fun.

I always found the "idea" of the Reavers from Serenity to be scary, the execution in the show wasnt as violent as I envisioned, but some seriously deranged, psychopathic cannibal barbarian humanoids, dressed in the stretched, stitched and stained skins of humans and wielding rusty axes, picks and clubs overwhelming and chasing the PCs to be pretty awesome. Maybe have a scene where they are chased into a small farmhouse or barn and then have to defend it against the horde outside - coming in through the windows, trying to break down the door, etc. Give them the feeling that they are overwhelmed and locked inside a rotten old barn with blood-soaked hay and the rotting and maggot covered corpses of horses and cows.

Keep your ideas coming!

 

[diaglo]

i command the heavens to open up. lightning strikes nearby and the power goes out.