It's one thing to say a monster like the animate dream is a horrifying creature, but quite another to make your players actually FEEL the fear.
I'm looking for advice on making a horrifying monster actually seem, well horrifying. What kinds of descriptions, mood setters, etc. do you use? How do you give your players the goose flesh the encounter so desperately warrants?
I have this issue too. My Kingmaker game isn't meant to be horrifying, so it's alright. But my Council of Thieves game, the players are a bit too silly to really get creeped out by some of the goings-on.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Lie.
Yes, lie.
"The Hydra's many heads whip about seemingly a dozen strong."
"How many are there?"
"Are you going to take a round and count?"
"Nope."
Appeal to all the senses.
"You see nothing in the strange glowing mists, but the tang of the ocean fills your nostrils, you hear a faint thump like a waterlogged piece of driftwood striking stone. You hear it again, but it sounds closer as the cold air raises goosebumps on your skin."
Special Effects.
"I use detect evil on it."
"As you open your mind to read its aura you're" *makes meaningless die roll behind screen* almost overwhelmed by the aura rolling around the creature. Your detect evil reveals its true malevelence, its eyes, little more than red points of light, narrow as it stares at you, almost as if it is looking into you than you looking into it."
Lie with pointless mechanics
The large slime covered creature raises its eyestalks, it's alien expression unreadable. The humanoid like creature next to it says "My Master wishes to speak to you directly."
"Ok."
"Make a will save."
"What? Oh crap!" *rolls die, sweating*
*no matter the roll* The creature's alien thoughts swarm into your mind, leaving you with the feeling of being washed away by some great tidal wave of alien madness. Your psyche desperately clings to an eroding pillar of identity in your mind. "You stand before Abalatharaha" your mind finally comprehends from the alien language echoing in your head, "What do you dry ones seek in my domain?"
Lie with pointless mechanics
The large slime covered creature raises its eyestalks, it's alien expression unreadable. The humanoid like creature next to it says "My Master wishes to speak to you directly."
"Ok."
"Make a will save."
"What? Oh crap!" *rolls die, sweating*
*no matter the roll* The creature's alien thoughts swarm into your mind, leaving you with the feeling of being washed away by some great tidal wave of alien madness. Your psyche desperately clings to an eroding pillar of identity in your mind. "You stand before Abalatharaha" your mind finally comprehends from the alien language echoing in your head, "What do you dry ones seek in my domain?"
Better to ask "how high is your Will save?", roll it yourself behind your DM screen, because if the player rolls a 20 you're bluff is revealed. OR you let them roll themselves and declare a success, tell them you feel an alien mind entering theirs but they are able to keep the madness at bay as the creature speaks directly into their minds...
honestly, i love these types of games.
realistically, my gms dont like running games like this.
i do but its the attitude of the audience. right now i am running a story/rp heavy game and half the time the power gamers/rules lawyers argue with each other over game rules and how crafting works.
1st thing to understand, if you party doesnt want a game like that, it aint gonna work. not very many of our group get too into our games in the story and rp way. they are there for kick in the door style stuff. but we dont play that. we invite them anyways and they can deal with it, because they asked to join our group.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Better to ask "how high is your Will save?", roll it yourself behind your DM screen, because if the player rolls a 20 you're bluff is revealed. OR you let them roll themselves and declare a success, tell them you feel an alien mind entering theirs but they are able to keep the madness at bay as the creature speaks directly into their minds...
Lie with pointless mechanics
The large slime covered creature raises its eyestalks, it's alien expression unreadable. The humanoid like creature next to it says "My Master wishes to speak to you directly."
"Ok."
"Make a will save."
"What? Oh crap!" *rolls die, sweating*
*no matter the roll* The creature's alien thoughts swarm into your mind, leaving you with the feeling of being washed away by some great tidal wave of alien madness. Your psyche desperately clings to an eroding pillar of identity in your mind. "You stand before Abalatharaha" your mind finally comprehends from the alien language echoing in your head, "What do you dry ones seek in my domain?"
Either way. If they roll a 20 then they're *sure* they resisted something horrid. If they roll a 1, then the players are *sure* the've just lost the character to a 'sleeper' command. Paranoia is our friend.
Yeah dice fakes are one of my favorite tricks. Intersperse them with real dice rolls, of course -- like any other illusion, they work best if you mix them up with real versions, so the target audience never knows which are the fakes and which are the real threats.
Other tried and true techniques:
-- never refer to monsters by their statbook names. Two reasons: one, giving up a name establishes your threat as a known quantity, removing its mystique and letting the rules-monkeys start calculating the most efficient way of hacking it down; two, using a more IC-feeling unique name (or no name) helps with immersion and mystery. The Sandpoint Devil loses a lot if it's just Goblin Dog #23434 (or whatever). Monsters should be nameless or else referred to with unique titles (this has the added bonus of making rules-monkeys think it must be a specially advanced monster; for once, metagame logic plays out to your advantage).
-- emphasize sensory detail (like what cranewings said).
-- emphasize the effects the creature has on the world. Again, this goes toward immersion and mystery: it lets you establish that Creepy Monster X is really, really creepy, and it does so in a manner that does not allow the PCs to get distracted with a combat response because there is no direct confrontation. They're not encountering Creepy Monster X, they're encountering its aftereffects via Friendly NPC Y (or Unfriendly NPC Z, who the PCs can then opt to save or destroy -- without fully knowing whether their choice will have good or bad consequences).
-- if you're doing a high-level/high-magic campaign, switch to a low-magic/low- to mid-level one. High-level PCs in high-magic settings have so much power that it can be hard (although not impossible) to truly frighten and bewilder them. The weaker they are relative to the threat, the more you push the needle toward horror rather than action-adventure.
-- read some good horror and try to analyze what techniques work most effectively to creep you out, then tailor those toward your players. Early Stephen King is a good bet (Pet Sematary, It, The Shining). Dan Simmons has some great stuff (The Terror has some excellent ideas about how to use the environment to create a sense of inevitable doom -- personally I'll be revisiting that when I get to the mountain section of Spires of Xin-Shalast).
-- encourage roleplay. Lots of roleplay. Doesn't have to be scary roleplay. You just want your PCs to get invested in their characters and their standing in the fictional world, so that they'll open up and start revealing pressure points that you can then jab mercilessly.
It is true that different people are frightened of different things, and that knowing your audience is the best start.
But there are certain things to which most everybody universally has a visceral reaction. On its most elemental level, our greatest fear often comes from what we initially believe to be normal, which turns out not to be. Or, to put it another way, the safe or familiar becoming corrupt and alien.
Prime examples of this theory at work, in the sense of design or description of a monster, would be on great display in the first three Silent Hill video games. Now, I'm not saying you should cop the monsters from those games, but understanding them is a good start to understanding the concept.
In most cases, they are a corruption of something familiar. People and animals with unnatural movements, twisted out of shape, seemingly fused together at the wrong angles, and without faces. Just the image of a human being with a blank canvas where an expressive face should be is enough to unnerve most people, and is the basis of the design of most of those creatures.
The basic element of this concept can be applied even to a common, reptilian monster in Pathfinder. I think somebody mentioned the hydra earlier? Your description of the hydra could be couched in descriptions usually reserved for humans or more common creatures, or uncommon movements.
The necks become sinewy, finger-like projections, reaching out for the PCs. The faces twist up in near-human rage. The teeth grind together like fingernails on a chalkboard. The whole animal glides forward with reptilian grace, making it seem as if it is floating above the ground.
My players know the Bestiary like the back of their hand. I once pitted my players against a single erinyes (and her summoned minions) in the middle of their home village.
For three hours, they didn't realize it was an erinyes even when she used familiar abilities such as flaming arrows and her lasso.
Why? Because I creeped them out with unfamiliar flavor. None of them had Knowledge (planes) and so none could roll to reveal its secrets.
I started off by describing her as a giant flying cocoon made of twisted iron coils. Whenever they made attacks against it with weapon or spell, one or two coils would unwind and deflect the attack (via DR or SR).
Finally, when they did manage to deal damage to her, the coils unraveled to reveal a black-winged angel hidden inside (the coils being a kind of "hair." She would have been beautiful if it weren't for her ritual scarification making her look like a mockery of something otherwise holy. The most gruesome part though? Her eyes. Where her eyes should have been there were simply empty sockets, as if she had torn them out with her own claws. Nevertheless, she would look at the PCs through those empty sockets as though she could see into their minds, their souls.
Every time they failed to bypass her DR or SR (which was quite often) I would describe it as the iron coils from her scalp reacting reflexively to intercept the attack. She would also "lasso" them with the iron coils from time to time, flying high and then dropping them to great effect.
She never spoke to them in mere words, but instead filled their minds with disturbing images via telepathy. For example, rather than tell them she was going to kill a baby at the orphanage in hopes of luring them into a trap, she would simply force visions of her ripping an infant and its crib to shreds. Since the PCs lived in the town and knew it well, they immediately recognized the baby, crib, and nursery that they envisioned, and knew where to go when the erinyes teleported ahead of them to set up her trap.
I don't know that it was scary, but it certainly was nerve-wracking for them. The PCs, in game and out, couldn't begin to guess what it was they were fighting. Only that it was a horrible manifestation of evil that couldn't possibly be of this world.
if the monster captures the PC's, throws them into a dungeon and there will be a short "adventure" how to keep the rats from eating them alive while shackled, then most PC's are horrified.
Perhaps it's not really what you're looking for.
Alternative, give the group a very likeable NPC, childish stupid half-ogre, female gnome healer, you know the stuff. Then after some time explain how they hear a scream in the night and fight the body, and describe every mutilation.
Liane is right on - if you want to write horror you need to read horror (unless you are so good you can pull twilight out of nothing).
You can put Twilight out of nothing. Stephenie Mayer did.
Sorry, could not resist.
Back on topic - if you can get a coopy of an Ravenloft old boxed set, or Masque of the red death, go for it. It has a lot inside about how to do horror.
The only thing I've found that reliably horrifies players is use of the unknown, making even the familiar become unfamiliar.
As others have said, refluffing or totally homebrewing monsters, for the experienced gamer running into something they don't recognize is exciting/terrifying.
A lot of times, though, just entirely relying on the descriptions without giving it a name is enough to rattle players. Gamers tend to remember name/stats/pics a lot better than the descriptions, and even if they do recognize it by description if nobody calls it by its name it remains non-trivialized.
As in horror movies, the scariest stuff is NOT seeing the beasty, once it's revealed it's always disappointing. If done badly it can become too frustrating for the players and turn them apathetic antagonistic, but my players' most memorable encounters all involve drawn-out, stealthy, hit-and-run antics. Even if it ends with them absolutely trouncing their tormentors once they manage to force an open confrontation.
Of course, it's very difficult to be scary if the PCs are convinced of their own safety and superiority. They have to believe that the scary thing can actually hurt them or theirs if you're going to get their hearts going. If not overdone it can be the sacrificial red-shirted npc. Or, to contradict the stuff about keeping it unknown, they can recognize it as something they know has high relative CR. If their continued existence is not on the table, there's always a threat to their favored possessions. Regardless, the most important component is the PCs feel that the DM will not spare their characters at the expense of simulation and/or story.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I'd add one caveat about playing on your players' fears. It can blow up like a cement truck on Mythbusters.
I've a friend who is terrified of spiders. So scared that even Replicators will send her screaming from the room. She can'e even stand my Black Arachnia transfomer. I'd never pull spiders out on her, replacing them in adventures if need be.
Another story:
Another friend litterally dove across the table at me. She was an incest survivor (I knew this) and reacted to the phrase 'Daddy's little girl' differently, to put it mildly. I was thinking over protective father taken to an extreme (and accidental homicide). She, um, wasn't.
So be *very* careful when pushing player buttons.
I don't name the monsters. No "you are attacked by a ceustodaemon!" I always describe the beast, and seldom share pictures.
It's also in the things the creatures do, and say. If the monster is supposed to be sadistic, then claw/claw/bite isn't going to cut it. Make it say and do truly sadistic things.
One recent exception to my picture rule that worked out great: they were up against a prison warden who was effectively a drider, but not racially a drider. He was a mutant. I described his spidery body and botched face, then showed them a recent photograph of Al Davis. "Ugh!" was the unanimous chorus.
TL;DR When in doubt, Al Davis.
The only time I every really managed to scare my players was when I ran the Skinsaw Murders from Rise of the Runelords.
I opened the adventure with an attic whisperer. As the adventure was kicking off they noticed that one of the little girls that they had met previously was looking drained, frightened.
I think most of it was that I let them run wild with all of the horrible things that could be happening to the little girl, at night, in the foster home where she was. Then, when they decided on supernatural monster rather than a human one, and set a trap... They never did see the creature until it was dead.
And then from there you toss them into a haunted house... Picking the haunts that would affect each player best and only telling that one. Fun times.
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Don't forget the joy of meta-gaming. (It's not 'meta-gaming' when the GM does it!)
Fighter guy loves his new Sun Blade? Throw a few rust monsters into the mix, or have the custom big-bad-guy have some feathery tentacles lashing out from his shoulder-blades that lash out and destroy a metal item ten feet away from him, to demonstrate their power.
Wizard guy loves his scorching rays? Have a big bad guy that can reflect ray attacks, or something equally scary. Maybe it feeds off of magic, and when it is hit by a spell, it absorbs the spell, gains temporary hit points equal to 5 x the spell level, and can force the spellcaster to make an immediate Will save or lose *another* spell of lower level, as it uses the arcane connection temporarily formed between itself and the spellcaster to try and tear more magical energy directly from the spellcaster. Each round, another save must be made to shut down this connection, or lose another prepared spell, forcing the wizard, when he finally makes that save and stops losing spells, to stick to non-direct-effect spells, like grease on the floor, or summon monster, in an attempt to not be magic-drained again.
Lots of 1st edition monsters were all about mechanical effects designed to screw over the PCs, with oozes that split when you hit them, and nilbogs that gain hit points when you damage them, or undead that drain levels of experience permanantly with a touch, or disenchanters that devour magic items, or fire shield spells that do twice the damage to you that you inflicted to the target, etc. Such things may not be gruesomely scary to the characters, but their mechanics may well be scary to the *players.*
RPG Superstar 2013
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I dig fake dice. I also study my players AND my characters. My wife hates spiders, but her frist PC she claimed had no problems with them. SO I put them into the underdark, and there's a spider the size of our house, which they have to crawl just past. So I describe the hairy legs, thick as tree trunks curving over her head. I explina that the spiders joints give off a bizarre whine as they fill with fluid and move its girth. I make a point that spiders have terrible eyesite, but that doesn't provide much relief when it turns and you are no less than a hundred feet away from all ten of its eyes.
Mrs. Ancient Sensei can claim her fighter/cleric isn't afraid of spiders, but she'll never forget that night.
Also, consider things like collateral damage, or playing up the little details in the monster's description. The noxious breath of the nightmare reinforces its arrogant hate for mortals. Each claw of the tarrasque is longer than you are tall, and the grass huts endure a blast of wind every time it raises or lowers a powerful leg.
But as good as descriptive text, knowing your players and catching them by surprise can help you creep them out.
Keep the monster offscreen, and kill some NPCs. Especially NPCs they think will not die because of metaplot assumptions.
Or use the Lovecraft trick and have a gibbering madman survivor.
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I agree with the majority saying it is about how you set the mood and describe things. The only problems is, if your players won't take it seriously then no matter what you do, it won't work. The players have to invest for horror to work, but if they do, then just being descriptive etc will often work if done right.
One of the old ravenloft boxed sets had a whole section on how to do horror in gaming it was pretty well done.
It's one thing to say a monster like the animate dream is a horrifying creature, but quite another to make your players actually FEEL the fear.
I'm looking for advice on making a horrifying monster actually seem, well horrifying. What kinds of descriptions, mood setters, etc. do you use? How do you give your players the goose flesh the encounter so desperately warrants?
If you have some time and funds to invest, GURPS Horror has some system-independent advice for integrating horror elements with lots of different (and sometimes unexpected) genres. That will help go beyond just "the monster is very scary," it can make the monster the pinnacle of a scary chronicle. Heroes of Horror was by WoTC for 3.5 and wasn't half-bad, but is obviously more focused in scope than GURPS Horror. OGL Horror I haven't gotten an opportunity to own, but the excerpts I've had the chance to read from it were excellent.
It's very hard to generate any true sense of horror with today's jaded consumers of movies like "Saw" or "Friday the 13th" or whatever. Attempting to really create that sense can come off as contrived or even silly. I tend to be very careful about that because I'd generally rather have the players concerned about their situation with a fairly straightforward presentation than try to freak them out and only end up making them laugh.
But, on those cases I've made the effort, this is generally how I've done it:
1. I describe as little as possible about the creature or creatures, instead focusing on the effects they cause on the characters, with vague descriptions that allow the players to use their own imagination.
2. I use as much extraneous imagery as possible, describing nearby corpses as having died in agony, or from sheer fright.
3. I suggest or actually use effects on the players that directly affect their abilities. Blindness is good, even if it is only temporary.
4. I introduce effects that make the party feel trapped with no way out. A creepy green oozing mist that acts suspiciously alive is always good.
It's best to make them think the creature has some ability that they don't have an immediate and effective counter for. Back in the old days nothing would generate sheer player terror like a monster with level drain...
Joking and laughing is a defense mechanism. People do it in general, gamers even more so because most are trying to play badass heroes. Batman.
So unless they are epically immersive role-players your best bet would be to attack the very sheet in front o them. Have everyone roll dice and look at the sheets of the two lowest rollers. Write something on there, like a symbol or number. Then have that show up later on in the adventure. Another way to creep players out is to change one of their items into something else and then have them need that item. If they thank it (jokingly of course) have it reply thank you. Of course it's something sinister, and even the dumbest player will figure that out, but they won't get rid of the item. I guarantee it.
A word of warning though. An enemy that seems impossible to defeat will discourage players more than anything. Always let them think they're advancing in some way and only once in a great while reverse this on them. Remember too, trying to generate fear in another is a form of manipulation and most people are instinctively resistant to this. Only when you offer them the chance to allow themselves to be scared, will they be scared, and only if doing so seems fun.
Cheers!
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It's one thing to say a monster like the animate dream is a horrifying creature, but quite another to make your players actually FEEL the fear.
I'm looking for advice on making a horrifying monster actually seem, well horrifying. What kinds of descriptions, mood setters, etc. do you use? How do you give your players the goose flesh the encounter so desperately warrants?
Don't read a description of it to the players. hand each player the description as they see it. They will wonder WHY you're not reading it aloud and panic.
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There are several good ways to be just scary enough - not going overboard, but engaging the players and drawing them in.
1) What you did with the erinyes, that was PERFECT. You didn't say 'an erinyes stands before you'. You described her in detail, taking a new angle on a familiar creature. This makes the players uncertain, they need to attack the unknown. The unknown is always scary.
2) Handing out notes is always ominous. Even more ominous if one player fails a will save and gets a note saying something like "You have been charmed. _______ is now a friend to you." Make sure you get the note back so they don't show anybody else. If some of the notes are Bad, and others are just flavorful descriptions, it'll keep the party on their toes.
3) Scare the players with game rules. Ask for perception checks. Ask for saves. Roll dice every now and again. It won't work if you don't put in some real die rolls, but the fake perception check is one of my favorites. Naturally, scaring the players isn't always the best tactic, and it feels kind of cheap if that's all you do. But used sparingly, it can work quite well.
4) Engage the senses when you describe things. No sense in going overboard, but if you just say "it's a creepy bog" that's not enough. You need to describe the stench of decay, mingling with the mists and the sounds of frogs croaking. How the perceptive one (rogue, ranger, etc) sees a fleeting shape through the fog, but isn't quite sure what it was. How the magic one (wizard, cleric, paladin) is overcome with a sense of unease from an obviously evil magic source, but cannot tell whence it comes, and even the brave one (fighter, barbarian) feels like a sitting duck in the swampy terrain. Or something like that. Atmospheric descriptions can do a lot for any setting.
It's important to note: While you oughtn't ever tell a player HOW his or her character feels about anything, you should tell them what their characters feel. If they decide that Thryduulf the Champion dismisses this sense of unease, that's perfectly fine.
Is there something specific you wanted to make more scary? There's a certain skill in narration that you need to build (and nobody can give you that), but specific questions can yield specific results.
Techniques to use:
Tension and Surprise - The room is dark. A mist creeps in, obscuring even darkvision somewhat. The floors smell damp and you notice a large hole in the floor, where the boards have all been ripped away by something very strong. You look over the edge, and you momentarily see a hideous red eye, glowing in the dark! The owner of that eye grips the edge of the hole... roll for initiative!
Tension and Release - The hallway is dimly lit from the far end. Around you, the creaks of this old house, each one magnified to your straining ears, sound loud and cacophonous. If there is anything in that room, perhaps it has heard you already. You hear a skittering from that room, confirming your fears. You steel yourself for battle as you creep into the room... <perception roll> ... you see a cat, hunting for its meal. You appear to be safe for the moment.
Tension, Release, and Surprise - Water drips somewhere in this basement, though you can only tell by the stagnant puddle in the middle of the floor. <perception roll> You hear some noise as you enter, like some creature just ran across the puddle in the middle of the room. As you investigate, your light reveals that there is no such creature in the room. <pause for everyone to smile, sigh, and catch their breath> Roll for initiative. <pause for confused reactions> Looks like you're all surprised. In that surprise round, the puddle reaches out with a pseudopod and <attack roll> grapples the wizard. What's your CMD?
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Some players just will not get scared no matter what tricks you try - horror is really a bit of a consensual collaboration between the author and the audience. If they are not the kind of person to get into that head-space normally, you can't drag them to it. Well, there is one trick, but it requires special circumstances:
A GM I knew was running an open horror game at a convention as part of a competition. He wanted to make sure that the folks at his table were properly terrified, so he arranged for one of the PCs to be killed in the first ten minutes of the game - everyone sat up and took notice!
The trick was - the PC was a plant! The player who's character got axed early was a GM accomplice who was in on the gag.