How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

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Nox
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How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Nox »

I know, it's not a simple topic to answer, but how do you set the mood at the table,
and how do you set the atmosphere during the session?

Let me clarify the second point:
How do you take care of adding atmosphere to the session in a way that it make the players feel they are actually on ravenloft and that is not a random fantasy adventure like any other?
I still struggle with this. Sometimes i can set up the mood and build a decent atmosphere, but usually i fail at it.
Often i find my self describing things like i would do in a fantasy setting like faerun or dragonlance.
I read some post around the forum in which is described a situation, a place, or a monster and they look so damn good. I also read some campaign journal.
My campaign runs fine, but I feel it lacks the atmosphere.
I dont know how to add that dark-gothic-esque look to things and places, and I look forward for your kind advice on that topic.

Thanks in advance!
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Xararion »

Since my table has out of necessity of player locations moved onto the wild world of internet instead of being all of us around single physical table I can only give some things as opinions and advice and they might not hold out to you in practice.

I tend to use music and descriptions as my chosen tools to aid my players in getting into the mood for the gothic. I also have a small thing I do for my own campaigns that probably isn't that useful for groups at large. So firstly, music, or rather ambiance. When I run I tend to link or play ambient sounds suitable for the locale the scene happens for the players, creeping stairs and floorboards for shady inn, sound of howling wind for wilderness. Along with this you can use silence to your advantage. When situation gets particularly tense or creepy, fade the music out or cut it entirely, letting your players notice that oppressive silence.

For descriptions I tend to think that the things you describe in ravenloft or any gothic game are bit different than what I'd focus on in more high morale fantasy scenario. Focus on minutia, sounds, imperfections in the surroundings, and anything that would give a sense of dread or bleakness. Of course your weather isn't always going to be suitable iron grey monotone clouds with rustle of leaves, but think about what in the surroundings would call back to the cold, the dark and the bleak. But don't forget to sometimes break the trend, remember to also pay attention to descriptions of hope spots, the warmth of hearthfire after long adventure, the first sunrise after the vampire is slain.

Lastly one thing I personally use to get people into the mood at the start of session. I create a framing device for my gothic games. In the last story I ran, the framing device was a scene of group of adventurers arriving to a mysterious old hut where an ancient man in raven feather cloak reads the story of the game from an equally ancient book. At the beginning of each session the adventurers would find the hut wherever they were adventuring, appearing as from nothing from the mist when they needed a sanctuary against the darkness. At the end of each session the old man would leave them to sleep their fatigue off in the hut, disappearing into the mists outside. Eventually these framing device characters became characters in their own right, but they were never given names or classes, they were the ones who heard the story, proxies for the players. The setup of describing the scents, sights and other details in the framing device at beginning of session helped my players get into the mood, and then let them know when it was time to relax and return.

No clue if any of this will be helpful, but that's how I do it.
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Igor the Henchman »

I think maybe this thread hasn't gotten many replies so far because it's a good question, but hard to answer simply. Ravenloft books have entire chapters on how to instill mood. And to be honest, it's something I'm still struggling with.

My philosophy is this. First, not stress too much about it. I make sure the players have fun and leave satisfied first, worry about mood second. I've sometimes had session where nothing too horrific has happened, usually because the players spent all the time chatting up background NPCs instead of plunging into the adventure right away. Other times, the mood just... happens. I'm trying to help things along by instilling a rule that you must use an agreed-upon signal (raising a hand in our case) to speak out-of-character, this helps minimize the idle table chit-chat.

Scary background music definitely helps too, so I recommend using that. Other than this, I don't have much tricks that weren't explained to death in the books. Set the mood through colorful description of mundane elements. Don't limit yourself to what is seen, make sure to involve at least one additional sense. Things that look beautiful by day become menacing by night. Make sure you imply horrific elements more than you show them. Let their imagination do the work. Take away the players' feeling of control, while always leaving a path that promises to lead them back toward control. Take time to rehearse NPC interactions. The usual stuff.

One of my 'techniques', if I can call it that, is similar to Xararion's 'framing devices'. I start an adventure by spending 5 minutes to tell a scary fairy tale the PCs had heard as children, which foreshadows the events of the adventure (a werewolf story for lycanthrope adventure, etc). This quickly gets everyone in the spirit of things. It's a good thing that I have been able to find several books of scary stories that fit the mood my games.
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

For some earlier ruminations on this topic, check out the section "Evil DM Tricks" here:

http://fraternityofshadows.com/TheVault.html

There's been a lot of advice on this subject over the years, and we've collected much of it there.
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Hamiclar »

My group has multiple locations so I take my pc and run music I need or use youtube to run the tracks I need. I make it a point never to say the creatures name until after the group has identified it or think they have. I couple players mentioned they have had bad dreams from the first adventure NOTWD. I had described the inside of plantation and what they found there regarding how the missing people were being eaten. It comes down to you, I have used terrain and tried a session without which the players really enjoyed as when I played with Terrain and minitures. I tend to set my terrain in the center of table but have it separated and gradually put it together as the group goes through it. I never have them move their minitures, I always give descriptions and as they run into an encounter or trap I'll have them look over their minitures. We tend to lose track of time playing. We currently took a week off but are picking up Saturday. My group is going to start TOD this weekend. I have been playing my Egyption soundtrack on youtube touch of death. Music is key I have found when playing it sets the mood and puts the players on edge when using it. I have been getting ready for FOG and expedition to castle Ravenloft which are next if the party lives.

In TOD are you going to use the Vistani reading? I have the cards and terrot matt I'm going to use. The reading are real cool I ran the deck as described with Darklord, the Innocent, the beast and the other relevant cards for the night of Hoth. I have done trials even the vague readings help in TOD.
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Nox »

Hamiclar wrote:My group has multiple locations so I take my pc and run music I need or use youtube to run the tracks I need. I make it a point never to say the creatures name until after the group has identified it or think they have. I couple players mentioned they have had bad dreams from the first adventure NOTWD. I had described the inside of plantation and what they found there regarding how the missing people were being eaten. It comes down to you, I have used terrain and tried a session without which the players really enjoyed as when I played with Terrain and minitures. I tend to set my terrain in the center of table but have it separated and gradually put it together as the group goes through it. I never have them move their minitures, I always give descriptions and as they run into an encounter or trap I'll have them look over their minitures. We tend to lose track of time playing. We currently took a week off but are picking up Saturday. My group is going to start TOD this weekend. I have been playing my Egyption soundtrack on youtube touch of death. Music is key I have found when playing it sets the mood and puts the players on edge when using it. I have been getting ready for FOG and expedition to castle Ravenloft which are next if the party lives.

In TOD are you going to use the Vistani reading? I have the cards and terrot matt I'm going to use. The reading are real cool I ran the deck as described with Darklord, the Innocent, the beast and the other relevant cards for the night of Hoth. I have done trials even the vague readings help in TOD.
Yes I do have a tarot deck. Even if it doesn't fit the one described in the adventure (there are no numbers). Anyway I will use it
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Hamiclar »

Tarot do have number for example three of cups, stars etc
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Lord Loren Soth »

I mostly use music, candles and theatricality. I found out, that through my years of role playing, one of the things that I have obtained (if not anything else) is the ability of not feeling awkward towards any new or old players, and use gestures and different voices and such.

On the music part, I use the amazing ambient soundtrack from NASA called "Symphony of the Planets" that has a lot of space sounds recorded through a spectrum analyzer to a sound. It is quite creepy.
I have also found a youtube channel that helps me with ambient music and the guy(s) who's making the music must be at least involved in rpgs (send PM if you're interested - I don't know if I'm allowed to post something like this here).

The last few years I'm not using candles anymore, I find it difficult to make combat/battles in candlelight, but I do tend to lower the lights and bring them back up when needed.
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Lord Loren Soth wrote: I have also found a youtube channel that helps me with ambient music and the guy(s) who's making the music must be at least involved in rpgs (send PM if you're interested - I don't know if I'm allowed to post something like this here).
Please feel free to post it here!
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Lord Loren Soth »

Hey thank you! So the channel is called Cryochamber, and he uses theme names like Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, Atrium Carceri, and what I can see, he has some collaborative works with a collective called Dronnie Darko. His collective works can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVHOgH ... ZEaya1XqCQ

I have also found that, in specific moments, works from Pertubator, an ex black metal musician, who makes ambient 80's electronic music. He doesn't have an official channel, but his works can be found throughout youtube. Enjoy.
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by The Lesser Evil »

The first step to a problem well solved is correctly defining the problem, so you're looking at not what Ravenloft is or isn't, but what is Ravenloft to you and your group?

Ravenloft has something of an inherent identity crisis in that it suggests to players to be three roles at once, none of which are naturally inclusive:
1) be heroes- do the right thing, don't compromise your morals, walk the road less traveled, your actions matter.
2) be real people/victims- act scared like ordinary people would in the circumstances. Don't expect things like a genre savvy person would. Have flaws and complications. Let plot events/triggers happen to make the situation more atmospheric/dramatic (follow the railroad).
3) be smart- use guile, wit, and investigation to solve problems, as you won't be able to win the day by brute force alone.

1 and 3 imply your actions matter, though for different sorts of reasons and for different sorts of actions. #2 is where your actions don't matter, as you're opening yourself up to things you might otherwise be able to prevent or design an end run around with clever play (thus going against 1 and 3 on actions mattering). Your task will be to find your list of priorities to fit with your group and bringing them on board with it.

Your second task will be to develop a tool-belt of methods that works for you and your group. At the same time, you will want avoid using them too often, because then your players will become desensitized. I find it's more important to run the game with a velvet glove rather than an iron fist. Plausibility and naturalism are important because they foster both player immersion and give you something to contrast against with the unnatural. The paradoxical thing is that many Ravenloft gimmicks (border closure, the Mists grabbing you and dumping you elsewhere, the Dark Powers version of a "A wizard did it" ) go against plausibility and naturalism, so they should be used with discretion.

Some people will tell you that in Ravenloft, you should be lucky just to survive rather than have anything beyond that. That isn't how I envision Ravenloft, as D&D in hard mode doesn't need Ravenloft. If you're worrying all the time about mere survival, then by nature that tends to preempt thoughts of other things like morality or sentimentality. The latter is especially important to me, that sentimental attachment to the smaller things, like personal relationships. An NPC might take a liking and admiration to PCs unusual compared to other realms because those who stand agains the grain are less common, and PCs might take a liking to an NPC because of the increased need for support (emotional, practical, or some combination) for a world that is at face value more hostile and alien to them. Ravenloft is a world of the dark and the unknown, but that doesn't mean that it always has to be evil or scary. If it were, that would lend itself in my mind to despair or black comedy, not to horror or fear.
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Re: How do you set the mood and set atmosphere in your game?

Post by Rathbone »

I think the ability of a DM to tell a story - and to tell it well - is as important in Ravenloft as it is any other setting. And, like any other talent, it needs to be practised. Some people are naturally gifted storytellers and some just aren't.

When I first started roleplaying, I automatically assumed the role of DM because, for one, I knew that I could do it well and, for another, nobody else wanted to do it. The task of learning all the rules, preparing modules and/or writing one's own adventures seemed too great a burden for the others to take on. Personally, I loved the idea and I ran all of our games from that point on*.

I think if you love telling stories, then the words will just flow. But a great aid, I think, is to prepare stock descriptions ahead of each session to which you can refer when the muse desserts you. These can cover everything from the surrounding flora and fauna to the weather and the colour of the sky. Write out one-sentence descriptions for each of the monsters and creatures that your party will encounter. You'll be surprised at how much your confidence improves when you have these little tools at your disposal, all neatly hidden behind your DM screen.

Words have such power and I think they are the most useful tools at the DM's discretion. Candles and moody music are all well and good but really they're just props that are used as a substitute for good storytelling. Indeed, they are all too often a distraction (especially candles which are a damned hazard when you've got bits of paper all over the place).

*That remained the status quo for all of our D&D games. We got older, moved onto AD&D, and - as will happen - egos started to get the better of some players. A decision was made that everyone should have a crack of the whip. I wasn't really into this idea because I just knew that sometimes there are players who can never be good DMs just as sometimes there are DMs who will never be good players. And I was proven right.

We had the DM who had the players roll dice for every action and every decision their characters made. And then we had the DM who didn't prepare ahead of the game and had nothing written down ("I have the whole adventure all in my head," he would say, which is fine but players need that security of seeing a DM with copious notes at their disposal). And there was the DM who just wasn't very good at describing anything, be it the surrounding areas or the creatures we faced - he'd rifle through the Monstrous Compendium and just show us a picture of whatever it was our party had been confronted with. Oh, and let's not forget the DM that we've all encountered, the one who abuses their position in order to carry out petty vendettas against players that they don't get on with.
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