Need horror gaming advice.

[Atrelegis]

On a more serious topic, I have recently began a low magic medieval based campaign with a small party. Though the first session went rather well (the adventurers had to investigate a murder case), I felt like there was something missing.

How do you deal with the problem of forming and maintaining the tension and anticipation of horror in a game? How do you handle descriptions? What about monsters? Are they an element of the world or are they things alien and cruel?

Personally, I've been going through some of the Monster Manuals and Van Richten's Guides to spice up the monsters. Call of Cthulhu d20 seems like a good source, but the monster mechanics spoil the horror of the critters (imagine pitting a color out of space vs a party of advanturers, only to discover it slain a few rounds later. Damn!)

Any suggestions?

[NeoTiamat]

Not having nearly as much experience with this as I should, I won't comment on personal experience before others, but I believe the RLPHB has a section at the back on horror gaming, and the RLDMG goes into far more depth.

[CorvusCornix]

How do you deal with the problem of forming and maintaining the tension and anticipation of horror in a game? How do you handle descriptions? What about monsters? Are they an element of the world or are they things alien and cruel?

How do I maintain the tension? I don't. I don't believe it's possible to keep up the tension for hours straight, nor should you try to do so. If you try to make every single step of your players horrifying, it will quickly get boring. I believe it's much more important to let your players relax a bit, enjoy themselves, then build up tension at the appropriate times, try to frighten the players for a few minutes, and then let them relax again.

As for the monsters: I like to imagine that the lands of Ravenloft on the surface seem no different than anything you might have found here in our world in the middle ages. Sure, there are lots of legends about vampires, werewolves and ghosts, but nobody has ever really seen any of them. That is, until you get forced to dig deeper... Furthermore, for me the worst monsters are those that are (almost) human, humans are as capable of being scary and cruel as any monster. I believe the "monster" my players found scariest so far is a little boy - a little boy that had been driven mad when he was nearly killed by the scissor man (a bogeyman, he drove needles into the boys flesh and thereby pinned him to his bed and cut his tongue out). The child developed a penchant for playing with needles afterwards, like sticking them into his own flesh while grinning madly or torturing animals with them.

[wolfgang_fener]

It is very hard to teach this in a short text but I'll do my best.

Trick #1 : it is all a psychological game. Terror comes from the dark recess of the mind, not from outside. Yes you have to provide many details, make (sometimes useless) descriptions, play voices, play appropriate music in the background and all to make it feal real but in the end, it is what they can't see or understand that will make them affraid.

Trick #2 : planning. You must slowly plant the seeds of terror before reaching the final horrifying climax. When you plan an horrible scene, ask yourself what would make it more horrible, what would set or improve the psycological ground for a nervous breakdown of the PCs. Sometimes a scene is much more powerful if the pc have other good reasons to be even more affraid.

Trick #3: anticipation. Eventually the players will discover your tricks. They will feel it when a serie of events may be the DM planting seeds... They will anticipate horror coming from every corner, they will slowly sink in the deep stale dark waters of paranoia and madness. At this point, you won't even need to do much to keep the mood going.

Trick #4: punishment. When you notice the players are getting less attentive and their character have been feeling too safe for more than a short time, throw a monster or a trap or at least a false alarm at them. In Ravenloft, bad things always happen to the unwary. Usually, false alarms are enough (and less time consuming than an actual random encounter).

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Here's for exemple...

Actually, my problem is the opposite... Last 2 game sessions were so hard on their nerves everybody felt drained and depressed.

Seed #1: The main PC in the story lost her father a few days ago (killed by the darklord ghost in my campaign, prematurately aged).

During the main event I'll talk about, they lost Don, my girlfriend's character henchmen (he was devored by ghoul while she was looking, standing paralysed by fear/horror). He was a favorite npc everybody loved. The horror of the scene (described in full visual, audio and even olfactive horribles details) coupled with a well chosen soundtrack did bring tears to her eyes (and the other players where not far from crying too). Actually, *I* was almost crying myself when I put on Mozart Requiem to match their long day of travel, carrying corpses of fallen companions up to the monastery for proper burial...

It was also my favorite NPC but I really let the dices do their job, he's dead, too bad, so be it. Now my players KNOW their character can die anytime and they can't even trust themselves (thanks to the fear/horror check system...ho well, lets call it nervous breakdown). Why was it so tragic to my girlfrien'd character ? Because she knew Don was in love with her but even if she loved him as a friend, she had no romantic interest in this big, extremely kind but hugly guy. I knew there was a risk coming soon so I previously introduced a very charming npc, doing my best to make her interested and she was slowly about to get involved with this new beautifull spanish/toreador kind of guy... She knew it would hurt Don if he knew and since Don was so kind and often saved her life, she was feeling cheap. By doibng this, I had set the ground for the upcoming horror scene. I expected Don to have a fair chance to survive and I expected her only to get affraid but this all turned into a tragic event.

Ho, and there was also a small previous encounter set as a primer to the upcomming main event... It was with the hanging man my girlfriend's scout found while investigating an abandoned farm just before getting to a tiny village. Then hiding in the basement there was the ghost of a little girl who didn't know she and her parents were dead. Her skeleton and her mother's was hiden in the backyard, their skull broken. It was fun to talk with this little girl's voice...and see the effect when My girlfriend found out about what happened (while finding out the little girl was actually a ghost). It was played as a spooky but not really dangerous event. It cranked up the emotional level of the pcs and players... The mood was set. for the incomming showdown.

Then later on on the road, I put a run of the mill pair of trolls under a bridge. My players should know better than simply accepting such an archetypal enconter from me. They defeated the trolls easily as expected (they where not alone, a mercenary unit of 10 trained warriors where with them at this point). The goal was to make them feel good , invincible and overconfident which always have the same effect of making them make mistakes afterward *evil grin*. Now the setting was just perfect for the real horror scene. The seeds of terror had germinated.

Actually, better decisions on the part of the party would have saved the life of Don so they also all feal bad with remorses. Of course visiting the church AND the graveyard of this small recently abandoned village ...AT NIGHT was not the best idea they ever had, whatever the "making sure the area is safe before getting to bed" justifications . The weight of the destiny of a whole land also weight on their frail shoulders and at this point, I'm affraid I pushed a bit too much on some player's nerves. Of course my gaming sessions last a good 8-9 hours in a row, this may count in the balance. I don't know. Maybe I overdid it these recent sessions.

At this point, I feal I really have to lighten the mood for a while and let them go on a more traditional AD&D fantastic quest kind of mood for a while otherwise my girlfriend will most likely quit the game soon. She already feel it's hopeless, that her character have no goal in life anymore and that she's so desperate she could very well quit adventuring. I must also specified she have very little gaming experience and she feels this is getting really depressing. Maybe more experienced players make a better job of separating fiction from reality... Of course she could retire the character and make another one (she's only a 17 years old but very fast learning scout level4, for information purpose, the player is 30 years old).

It was almost funny to hear her ask the most experienced player " This was just an NPC, It must be terrible to lose your own character !?". DHU! OF course this can and do happen and yes it can be hard but normal gamers gets over it... The poor little thing just found out ad&d character are not immortals !

Anyway, the point is everything can't always go bad and dark. You need to let the sun shine a little bit once in a while to let your player believe there's still some hope, otherwise, past a given limit, you'll lose them. It is all about contrasts.

Maybe the priest in the monastery will ofer to raise Don from the dead since he was a very nice and young lawful-good character. Of course, I'll have to set an almost prohibitive cost . It could be that Charline the scout should forget about her past live and join the clergy (including the many penitence of the Ilmater's faith). That would imply the dual classing of her pc + losing precious months of learning, which would make her miss most of the upcomming gaming session...maybe not the best idea. Maybe she will only need to follow a whole set of penitences (or otherwise he would not recover and would die again)... Maybe Don will be raised and will have to recover for many months at the monastery while Charline follow the hard and difficult pennitences imposed by the priests. For a rogue, it could include giving up all monetary posessions (and she own a whole lot of gems, often purloigned from other players and even fast talked out of Don's hands... I'll think about it before the next session but something must be done to lighten up the mood, otherwise I won't be able to push them back down the path of madness once again

[wolfgang_fener]

I believe the "monster" my players found scariest so far is a little boy - a little boy that had been driven mad when he was nearly killed by the scissor man (a bogeyman, he drove needles into the boys flesh and thereby pinned him to his bed and cut his tongue out). The child developed a penchant for playing with needles afterwards, like sticking them into his own flesh while grinning madly or torturing animals with them.

Madness is my favorite tool (and I'm not talking about madness checks here). Most people if not all are so affraid of madness that the mere mention of it make them shiver. Mental illness is one of the biggest taboo on earth.

did I mention I like Dementlieu ?

ps.: I may borrow your bogeyman idea for inspiration one day. 2 of my players are women so everything related to children have an increased effect on them Credit will be given in general terms as I dont' want my player to end up on this site.

[Jester of the FoS]

Don't just amp up the monster and expect it to be scary. Slowly hint at its existance. See the results of its actions, hear it in the distance, build it up in their minds.
Never call the creatures by their monster names, rely on description and atmosphere.
Don't be afraid to use hit and run tactics. Have the creature strike suddenly and then flee.

[Desertrising]

I found that in my campaigns the difference between horror and comedy comes from the DM. If I take the game seriously and I work towards creating a frightening atmoshphere, then my games seem to naturally gain the tension of a horror scenario. Wherehas if I am unfocused and not really "into" the game, it tends to break into a mock horror story.

My two cents.

[Adam]

It's always the little things that work the best, and I don't just mean children.

A mansion I had built inspired loosely from the Rose Red (Winchester Mansion) story was filled with horrible traps, vile monsters, and malevolent ghosts. You know what scared my pcs the most? When a little girl's ball rolled down the stairs. Why? Because whenever this particular pc happened to wander off on her own, this little girl showed up (she decided she liked the character) and tried to hide from her mother (portrayed as a simple malevolent voice screaming in the background to stop playing with that #$@#$ ball.) The girl/ghost wasn't even a villain, but the sheer look of wide eyed terror I saw the second or third time she showed up, heralded simply by that ball rolling one step at a time down the mansion's grand staircase, is something I have struggled to replicate since. I came close later on, when the PCs found their way into a secret passage which led them past a 2 way mirror (they had previously been on the other side, and merely seen the mirror) and, upon looking through the glass, saw the ghosts of all the party guests that had murdered since they arrived, beckoning for them to come join them.

And, to paraphrase Lovecraft, the strongest fear is fear of the unknown. Early on in that same campaign, I had used the swarm template to create a new monster type, a swarm of stirges (which should put a shiver down any experienced PCs back just thinking about it.) Their first encounter with them came as they were crossing the blasted wasteland the creatures called home in the middle of the night. They had no equipment other than a few scavenged weapons. They huddled in the dark because they didn't dare light a fire. And suddenly, in the darkness overhead, they heard a loud buzzing sound coming from the west, passing over them, and heading east. Then a few hours later they heard it again, going the other direction. That was it. They woke up the next morning and moved on, but that buzzing sound was enough to cease any side conversations that may have been happening from then on, I can assure you.

[wolfgang_fener]

That was a good exemple of my "punishment trick" using a simple false alarm. It works even better if you previously (a few game session ago) described that buzing sound the same way and actually send a few stirge at the party. Now, you don't even need to make an actual attack.

I also like the ball rolling down the stairs thingy. It shows that simple things can be really spooky if properly described at the right time.

Actually, we are not rally inventing much, we're just using all the basic horror trick used in good horror literature and movies .

[wolfgang_fener]

I found that in my campaigns the difference between horror and comedy comes from the DM.
My two cents.

Of course the DM must be well prepared and focused but it really helps if you play with good roleplayers. Actually you need at least one good roleplayer to lead the group by his exemple.

[Igor the Henchman]

Food for thought: The scariest villain is the one you don't see. And the scariest situation you can find yourself in is when you are completely alone. Hence - the most fear-inspiring thing of all is: Nothing at All.

Try it out. Feature nothing outright scary for the most of the adventure, with the exception of just a few tiny hints: one moment, someone's breathing hard on the back of your neck - you turn around, and there's nothing. The lights go out, there's a single flickering light down the hallway, when you arrive there - nothing. A couple of blood drops drip from the ceiling - you look up and... well, you guessed it. Do it well enough and the players will beg you to stop. No need to overdo it, but its a fun trick to have in your sleeve.

[Desertrising]

Of course the DM must be well prepared and focused but it really helps if you play with good roleplayers. Actually you need at least one good roleplayer to lead the group by his exemple.

I definantly concur! I have experienced that if I am somewhat selective of my players in a Ravenloft game, and those players get the theme we are working collectively towards. Generally it can happen.

Group cohesion is needed for any theme to be felt, most specially in Ravenloft.