What is the scariest game you've played or DM'nd?

[Darth Shoju]

The scariest adventures I've ever played in have all been CoC. It depends on how long of an adventure you want to run. For very long adventures I'd recommend Masks of Nyarlathotep or Horror on the Orient Express. For shorter adventures I'm a little more hazy. I remember one that I played in where you go to this "haunted house" that turns out to be not just haunted but more possesed. It has a lot of really good and creepy red herrings and a great ending. Unfortuneatly I can't remember the name, but I think it was in a book of haunted house adventures for CoC. There was also A Happy Family although I've never played that one, just read it. But it is really creepy and has some great elements. My friends played through it and had a blast.

I'm not sure about D&D adventures, as we don't run a lot of modules and we usually leave the horror to CoC. My friends swear by a Dungeon adventure called Jacob's Well, although I've never played it. You might have some luck with Ravenloft adventures although I've never played those myself. There's another Dungeon adventure I just remembered but I can't remember the name. I'm going to my friend's house tonight so I'll check all this missing info and provide it tomorrow.

 

[shadowlight]

Although I've had some creepy CoC adventures, the only game I've ever played that got scary was Beyond the Supernatural (by Palladium). Great setting/ideas, bad RPG system.

 

[Wraithdrit]

The scariest game I ran in a long while (I have run other scary games, but this is the latest one to come to mind) had the party holed up in a room trying to rest for the night in a big nasty haunted mansion. Outside they hear scrape, clink, scrape clink, scrape, clink, over and over again. As they were trying to puzzle out what the sound could be, I just that there making the same noise over and over again. Scrape, clink, scrape, clink. The party tried to ignore it, and then after a long while the noise got slower and slower. A soft grinding was heard and the party noticed the walls were starting to close in. They threw open the door to escape...

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Only to see that someone had been bricking up the door all along. Scraaaaaaping mortar down, then clinking a new brick in place. Scrape, clink. Scrape, clink. They could only see a few bricks were left to put in place and they saw a rotting hand placing another brick in place. Luckily the mortar had not set yet, so they smashed through it and killed the zombie worker on the other side.

Haunted mansions are always fun... ghostly visages, strange sounds. Things that move on their own, etc.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

CoC is responsible for my scariest moment in gaming ever, too. No surprises there.

We were sent up to a Scottish castle to investigate a disappearance, and after a lot of shifting around, plenty of skill rolls and so forth we eventually settled down for the night in our wonderfully rustic little pub.

In the middle of the night, someone bursts into our room looking slightly scorched and smelling of smoke, and in short order we find ourselves in some sort of hidden room, staring at an ornate mirror, wondering what's up.

DM: "It feels really warm in here. Really, really warm. In fact, you all suddenly realise you can feel heat...directly onto your skin."

4 experienced PC's run screaming back out into the night...

 

[Praeco]

I ran 'The Haunted House' Call of Cthulu adventure in an old house with a big cellar. It was pretty scary - scary enough my wife's PC absolutely _refused_ to go into the cellar.

Was this the one in the back of the BRP version? I have always had a soft spot for that one.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I have very fond memories of two RPGA Living Death modules. I have not played in any "long term" horror campaign except for Living Death. All of my horror rpg experience (Call of Cthulhu, Little Fears, etc.) is in one-shots at Game Days and cons.

The first Living Death module, Insomnia was set in a small Illinois town. I played it at a con, at noon, in a brightly lit room. The adventure took place during daylight hours. And yet, the DM did a great job of creeping us all out. Since it's still available to order, I won't spoil it here. But, the devil is in the details.

The second was called Strange Brew. What really added to that game was the setting: the Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I had just toured the mansion a few months before so the setting really was fresh in my mind. Also, in the mod, my group missed a vital clue and could not really "solve" the module, which added to the tension considerably, as events spun out of control and we were helpless to stop them.

 

[S'mon]

Was this the one in the back of the BRP version? I have always had a soft spot for that one.

Yep - under 3 pages long but a real classic.

 

[Norfleet]

The most "scary" game moment I've orchestrated was the "sniper" moment. Conspiring with a fellow player and a non-playing accomplice, I arranged for, at the exact moment I was mentioning the revealed presence of the sniper, in the form of a dead PC, the accomplice to discharge a rifle and the accomplice player to fall over as if shot.

Everyone hit the deck.

 

[Darth Shoju]

the Cthulhu adventure I couldn't remember was This Cracked and Crooked Manse . My friend couldn't remember the name of the other Dungeon adventure, but he says it wasn't that scary anyway, just mournful. But I definately recommend that Cthulhu adventure, it's great for scare-factor.