How do you scare your players?

[Archade]

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

My players were terrified of the Nightwalker mini - I had it for about a year and would occassionally goof around by throwing the nightwalker and balor on the table in an intimidating fashion.

Of course, one session I did use both miniatures - I used the balor for a nycaloth demon, and then had them fight a nightwalker in the next room. It was very memorable.

 

[Bonzi]

My players were terrified of the Nightwalker mini - I had it for about a year and would occassionally goof around by throwing the nightwalker and balor on the table in an intimidating fashion.

Of course, one session I did use both miniatures - I used the balor for a nycaloth demon, and then had them fight a nightwalker in the next room. It was very memorable.

Our DM has a cabinet in which he keeps all the minis. If he spends more than a few seconds over there after telling us to roll initiative, I start getting nervous. If he asks for help carrying the minis to the table, I start getting terrified.

 

[Cor Azer]

I tend to build tension by requesting frequent Spot and Listen checks, but it only works occasionally because the players learn pretty quickly that's why you're doing it.

To make them feel jumpy - describe torchlit shadows as seemign to move. Call for initiative checks when they enter certain rooms (even though its just the shadow of a tree they see).

This mainly just build unease and tension, but used appropriately can set the tone for other actions.

I do however have a nice raspy voice I make that absolutely sends shivers down a couple of my players' spines - like nails on a chalkboard raspy, so they tell me. Its how all my incorporeal undead talk, which is enough to make them feared/despised.

 

[kenobi65]

"What's your Will save modifier?"

::roll dice behind screen::

"Oh, that's not good."

Don't say a thing more.

Talk about your "fear of the unknown."

 

[Stalker0]

The unknown.

We had a game last week where there was a dimensional portal that led...somewhere. We agonized it for half an hour. It could have been filled with treasure or a horrible end.

 

[Crothian]

Try to build suspense through out the night. Just keep the players interested in what is going on and don't go for the cheap scare to often.

 

[Nyaricus]

Wow, great suggestions here all around. That's why I love EN World; there's no end to all the great ideas I get and there's no telling how much better it has made me as a DM, in regards to knowledge of the game

In any case, Heroes of Horror is a great book and more than worthwhile investment (it should be #1 on you list right now ), and has some great ideas in it for Horror Campaigns. Libris Mortis is a top-of-the-line book about undead, and will also greatly enhance a horror-based game (esp. if used with HoH). I don't own Lords of Madness, but it would be a runner-up for horror-based campaigns, I am sure

I'm a CS, so I have the search function, and looked up a few things for you here

Creepy.... - possibly the best thread on EN World, there are pages and pages of advice here on how to throw creepy stuff into your campaign. And a lot of it has to do with little dead girls
Game-Related Music Threads and Links - the first one is "Scary Music"; I think it'd help you
Need horror campaign idea - soem more good advice and ideas, even in the first post
What Makes A Horror Campaign Scary? - I didn't read this one through (it seems more centered on d20 Modern) but you can likely apply the info in it for D&D in general
Best system for horror... Thoughts? - This thread is a bit OT, but you might be able to glean some ideas from it, like what works in Call of Cthulu, and maybe you could try to incorperate it into D&D
So... what do you do with fairies? - this thread, while about fairies, has a lot of good suggestions to make them creepy, micheivous backstabbers, which could work
Article on Scary Monsters - this thread has a link to the MSN site about creepy monsters. Might be able to get some feel for it rubbing off on you.

Hope those help!!

cheers,
--N

 

[Slife]

Staple the cover from F.A.T.A.L. onto your notes. Leave it in a conspicuous place before the game.






There's also the creepiest person you've ever gamed with thread. I'm sure it can be mined for ideas...

 

[greywulf]

Ooo! Good thread, all solid ideas and tricks. I second the recommendation for Heroes of Horror too.

I've GM'd Call of Cthulhu for the at least a decade, and used lots of icky tricks:

- keep the players Hit Points secret, so they don't know just how close to death they are. This works especially well in claustrophobic, violent areas. I used that for a Call of Cthulhu -in-space game set in an almost abandoned asteroid mine. Almost, that is, except for the Star Vampire. Old White Dwarf scenario, and a classic
- emphasize the senses other than sight. Describe the smells, sounds and the fetid touch of invisible fingers clawing at their flesh. Only use sight as a last resort.
- foreshadow. Have them find a body. Then the head. Then the eyes........
- twist the rules (but keep the twists internally consistent). Dampen magic, have cleric spells stop working. Just make sure that the twists also apply to the bad guys too, so the players can (eventually) exploit it
- Isolate the players. Make it clear that they are the Last Men Standing. Split them up. Put two teams in different rooms while gaming and have them need to find each other to piece together the clues. If they heard the sound of distant screams, it /could/ have come from the other team-members!
- Darken the room, light candles, consider mood music. I set a game in a carnival ater dark, and played "What's new pussycat" by Tom Jones on loop, over and over and....... by the end of the game, we were /all/ insane! Nothing is scarier than Tom Jones. Nothing.
- Have an expected evil be swept aside casually by a greater evil. Remember Bishop from Alien?
- Have the first encounter go Really Really Badly for the players. Don't kill 'em (ok, maybe just one....), but shake them up and make them realise that their weapons are useless. Just as they're after your blood, have one of them find a body clutching a Clue. Maybe they need a Book. There's always a Book.
- Oh, and make sure you've got a Carrot. There has to be a motivation to carry on, and enough clues to keep them going. Otherwise, horror adventures can be all just Sticks hitting the players, and all sticks and no carrots ain't fun gaming.

Hope that helps!