Alone in the dark

[wolfgang_fener]

One of the most used horror trick in literature and movies is loneliness. It is always easyer to make a lone character affraid than a whole group of PCs.

Unfortunately, most campaign are played by a group of PCs so those situations are difficult to manage simply because you can't always take players individually for hours while the others are waiting. Sure you can sometime do it once in a while by sceduling an extra solo gaming session but in most case it is not practical to do withing a busy campaign.

Thenm there's the size of the group that makes matters worse. I Dm with 6 players around the table and most of the time there's also at least 1 or 2 NPCs with them so it's a fairly large group.

Imagine the investigation of an hauted house by a lone character... and then by a marauding band of 8 confident PCs ! Not the same at all...

I wonder what to do about it. I don't want to miss the loneliness element of horror but most of the time, it is not practical and easy to make a large group of PCs feels "alone in the dark".

PS.: I already know a little travel in the sea of sorrow will be a good way to make such a large group feels like that but most of the time, it is not that easy.

[Mortepierre]

I most certainly agree with you.

Plus there is the issue of boredom. If you separate the PC, the players of those who have to "wait for their turn" at the table usually aren't too happy about it.

My solution was to split their team with the excuse that each subgroup would be going on a "special mission". Thus, I played three different sessions, each time with only 2 PC (from our group of 6).

One was about the haunted house, one about Delmunster (from the old Dungeon #38 ), and one about the Last Dance (Dungeon #64).

It worked beautifully because, in each case, the two PC were put in a scary environment where they had only each other to rely upon. The coolest part (for them anyway) was being able to tell the horrific tale of their adventure to their four companions when they were reunited.

Of course, it meant no play during two weeks (since we played only once per week) for each player but it was well worth it. That was more than 6 years ago and, to this day, the players involved are still talking about it.

[wolfgang_fener]

I also found out a few years ago the loneliness effect still works well with 2 characters.

Unfortunately our group have some availlability problems. Even if we play long sessions (8-10 hours long), we play only once every two weeks , which is the bare minimum if you don't want to lose track of the story. For this reason, I can't really split the group as you did.

I'll have to find other ways.

Actually one player often stepped on tiny hauted scenes simply because she plays a rogue-scout and she investigate most places before repporting back to the group (she's also the highest level character). With her it is easy because of her expertise but it is more difficult to grab the other pcs alone.

Another idea I have is to prepare a few tiny scenes of horror and have it ready for anyone who ends up alone in the game. Eventually the players will be affraid to let their character alone, which will be very nice. Those scenes must not take more than an hour to play, otherwise it will be too long for the other players. I may take some inspirations from the Kargatane net books.

Any other ideas you guys may have to share are welcome.

[Ail]

There are movies where a whole party is alone in a haunted house. The difference is that they are not as well equipped as PCs. I don't have much advice to give. When I had a haunted house in my campaign, the PCs were level 1, and it was their first ghost, so they did find it scary. Now, I suppose, it would be different.

But I've been thinking about it and I think that one trick that works beautifully is to use poltergeits, that is, ghosts without the manifestation ability. Now that works wonders, and if there are lots of them, they'll be afraid, even if they are in groups. They can be attacked at any time without knowing from where because the poltergeists can't even be seen, smelled, heard or detected by any means. I mean, they're not invisible, they're just not there (they're in the Near Ethereal, if I recall correctly).

What makes them so dangerous, if they can't hurt the PCs without manifesting? They can have Telekinesis!. They can manipulate objects to strike at PCs, make stairs turn into ugly ramps, make chandeliers fall and all the classic tricks of movies. I tell you, when my players return to a haunted house, there will be few ghosts to see, tragic or otherwise, but it will be teeming with unmanifesting-telekinesis-able Geists.

Alex

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Fostering suspicion of their fellow party-members can simulate the feeling of being "alone", even in a big group. If the players suspect that one or more of the PCs is actually an enemy -- be it an imposter, a victim of a villain's mind-control, or a plain old-fashioned traitor -- but they aren't sure which PC it is, they'll be reluctant to rely too strongly on any one companion, hence isolating themselves from each others' support. Even if there really isn't a ringer or traitor in the party, the belief that one of their own is against them can undermine group cohesion like nobody's business.

(Heh. Working on the doppelganger-book is doing twisted things to my head... )