Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stumblewyk" data-source="post: 5962169" data-attributes="member: 67606">I cannot recommend enough the subtle psychological tension of playing the game in *near* dark.  Illuminate ONLY the table, leave darkness everywhere else, so that the player's backs (as many of them are possible) are to a dark, open area.  The rest of them should be staring into the darkness in front of them.It seems simple, but it works.  I've had players tell me that one of the most terrifying aspects of a particular session was that even though they *knew* there was nothing behind them to afraid of, the fact that they couldn't see anything clearly beyond a few feet from the table truly unnerved them.  And that feeds back into the game, which feeds back into their irrational fear of the darkness around them.  It's a closed loop, and it's effective.Toss some well-timed, and handpicked music into the mix, and you've got your players right where you want them.  I've made excellent use of <a href="http://softrope.net/" target="_blank">Softrope</a> for timing up specific noises, and creating mixes of swamp sounds, cityscape noises, and throwing in disquieting calliope music with creepy kid laughs for a particular module I ran.</blockquote>