I want Scary Monsters!

[Raven Crowking]

The character is terrifying, yes. But that's in part because he can rather easily pass for human, where most of your other monsters cannot, even on a good day, be mistaken for human.

I don't think that your point and Hobo's point are actually in opposition to each other. Yes, Dracula can (and does) pass for human. But also, yes, the reader is given obvious clues as to the wrongness of the thing that is passing for human.

(The best film rendition of this effect that I am aware of is in Shadow of the Vampire. It is so very obvious what the vampire is, but their film-maker's sensibilities -- not unlike the Victorian sensibilities of Dracula prevent them from seeing/admitting what is going on until real evil has been done. Part of the scariness of Dracula is realizing how oblivious the characters are to an obvious monster in their midst!)

RC

 

[Herschel]

Vampiric, Four-armed, Albino Gnomes with Syphalis should do the trick.

Klaus hits on a good point: The original Ravenloft box set was good.

Aside from lighting and music, a good stelth ability and artillery capability with complex terrain can be fun.

 

[Umbran]

I don't think that your point and Hobo's point are actually in opposition to each other. Yes, Dracula can (and does) pass for human. But also, yes, the reader is given obvious clues as to the wrongness of the thing that is passing for human.

I agree that the wrongness was telegraphed from a mile away. I was merely remarking that the archetype for pretty much all the vampires in the game was not always outright monstrous. The werewolf would set you to sprinting the other way, but you can sit at Dracula's table and have a meal.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I wasn't arguing with you Umbran; I think that you are both correct, and that your opinions are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Umbran]

I wasn't arguing with you Umbran; I think that you are both correct, and that your opinions are not mutually exclusive.

Yes. I'm agreeing with you.

 

[Quickleaf]

Actually, the more human-like a monster is, in some ways the more terrifying it can be. That's the same principle behind the uncanny valley, to a certain extent.

The greater the divide between a creature and player knowledge/player agency over its actions (both of which happen as a result of PC-ing a creature), the greater its potential to really seem scary.

These two insights are crucial to making your monsters scary.

Completely unknowable and inhuman monsters have little for the PCs to touch base with - there is no hope of understanding them - they are an unsolvable mystery. I think a scary monster is scary because there is the potential to (at least partly) understand its motives, its reason for being, how it came to be. And something about that agenda, drive, or background has to be astoundingly terrible.

The players may never have a full picture of how the monster works rules-wise, even after its dead. In fact, it's probably best if the monster's death is ambiguous, leaving behind no trace of a body, or even if it is clearly killed the terrible effects of its predations are long-lasting / game-changing.

 

[Herschel]

Then you're intarwebbing wrong.

 

[Celebrim]

Completely unknowable and inhuman monsters have little for the PCs to touch base with - there is no hope of understanding them - they are an unsolvable mystery. I think a scary monster is scary because there is the potential to (at least partly) understand its motives, its reason for being, how it came to be. And something about that agenda, drive, or background has to be astoundingly terrible.

I'm going to have to at least partially disagree. The less the PC's have to touch base with, the better.

By your argument, none of the following should be particularly scary:

1) Jaws
2) The alien in Alien
3) The alien in Thing
4) The monster in Cloverfield
5) The terminator in Terminator
6) The spiders in Arachnophobia.
7) The blob.
8) The zombies in '28 days latter', etc.

None of these are knowable or understandable. There is no understanding them. There is nothing to sympathize with (or nothing left to sympathize with). They have an understandable terrible drive, but it is utterly inhuman and generally is no more complex than the understanding, "They want to eat me."

They get significantly less creepy the more they are explored and humanized. The Aliens in Aliens are less scarely than the singular one, because the Hive Queen is given a human motivation and something like a personality we can empathize with. It still wants to eat you, but its less monsterous. Once a terminator is humanized in T2, none of the terminators thereafter seem as scary. And humanizing zombies has even created a lesser version of zombie fetish in the goth culture now that vampires have been taken by a wider audience.

I think there is a role for psychological horror but usually then the best result is from getting the audience to empathize and then pulling the rug out from under them to reveal that the monster is truly hideous and that there attempts at empathy were utterly misplaced.

I think there is a role for tragic villains that you can truly empathize with, but I don't think they are particularly scary.

 

[Doug McCrae]

There's something about the walking dead that humans find particularly scary. I believe we have an innate fear of human corpses, which has evolved because of the risk of disease. The greatest horror writer ever imo, MR James, invariably uses humanoid terrors, often undead. But he never humanises them, we have no insight into their thought processes, if any, so they are always somewhat alien.

It's possible the many European folk stories about trolls, 'little people' and the like ultimately derive from memories of neanderthals. The 'Uncanny Valley' unease may stem from the same source.

That's not to say we don't also have a fear of other things, such as snakes, spiders and the unknown.

 

[The Shaman]

I dunno know 'bout anyone else, but anything that can permanently drain levels/attribute points/years of life usually scares the crap out of my characters.

And if they can walk through walls, too, then all bets are off.

Btw, my favorite vampires in fiction are from 30 Days of Night. Bestial and malevolent. Definitely not sparkle-boyz'n'girlz.