I have GMed for most of my life, almost 32 years now and never had a table react the way it did last Saturday night. I enjoy creating an atmosphere or scene to make the expierience surreal for my players,acting out my NPCs and using strong narrative as I read text from the book as an actor on stage would do. I employ cut-scenes if you will for the players to get a full perspective of the story, mostly after things have transpired to curtail metagaming. Hook Mountain Massacre uses more macabe, gore and grotesque evil than a standard dungeon crawl.
What I have come to realize after my last session, even if an encounter is equal CR or less than the PCs, the paranoia, terror, and fear factor instilled in the players mind by roleplaying may cause your players to react very diffrently than expected...running for their very lives...leaving the dungeon, even going so far as to hide in the inn, waaaaaaay back at Turtleback ferry.
I am not sure if the mental picture was just so vivid in the players mind but I had one player downright refuse to investigate the Graul farmstead and stayed at the game table the whole evening saying "nope, I'm fine, you guys go ahead". Both of my female players were obviously ill with the descriptions of the rooms contents and one decidedly stopped eating at the table. I had a conversation with another player yesterday who asked me if the rest of the AP was this going to continue through the rest of the game.
I loved it.
You can't have a game about swords and murder without someone getting murdered now and then.
Personally, I would love to see Pathfinder go back to the edge like that.
|
I'm right at the spot where the party is about to travel from Magnimar to Turtleback. Very psyched. My only compliant is that the Graul's are introduced in a way - with the first brother and the five dogs and the bear - that doesn't seem very scary/creepy. Any ideas on how to up the horror factor on the first encounter?
My only compliant is that the Graul's are introduced in a way - with the first brother and the five dogs and the bear - that doesn't seem very scary/creepy. Any ideas on how to up the horror factor on the first encounter?
Did you watch the recommended movies list to prep for that section? I'm not anywhere near HMM yet (my group just wrapped up Burnt Offerings, starting Skinsaw Murders next week), but I've been going through the movies for the past month or two. '70s horror is full of slack-jawed inbred grotesquery.
I really think it's going to play out more as sick comedy than horror in my campaign, but that starting encounter is straight out of the '70s backwoods playbook -- a deranged yokel in patched-up pants, running wild with his pack of mangy mutts. Play up the idiot-savage angle, make their behavior as bizarre as it is menacing, and you should be good to go.
As for the bear, I'd really play up its desperation (there's something inherently frightening about a creature so large and powerful being reduced to raw terror; it shows that its attackers are not just idiots, but scary idiots) and oddly intelligent behavior. Make it sympathetic. Animals are generally more sympathetic victims than people anyway, especially on the heels of Skinsaw Murders, when your group may well be numb to horrors inflicted on humans.
I loved it.
You can't have a game about swords and murder without someone getting murdered now and then.
Personally, I would love to see Pathfinder go back to the edge like that.
EL, keep your eye out for Feast of Ravenmoor. It was written just to bring PCs back to that edge. I believe you'll approve. =-)
|
EL, keep your eye out for Feast of Ravenmoor. It was written just to bring PCs back to that edge. I believe you'll approve. =-)I loved it.
You can't have a game about swords and murder without someone getting murdered now and then.
Personally, I would love to see Pathfinder go back to the edge like that.
Hell yes!
Both of my female players were obviously ill with the descriptions of the rooms contents and one decidedly stopped eating at the table. I had a conversation with another player yesterday who asked me if the rest of the AP was this going to continue through the rest of the game.
The level of graphic violence in this module was much to high for my taste, I downgraded it heavily to a level that was still creepy but bearable. I am pretty sure if the board for child protection over here in germany would have got hold of it, it would get a adult only rating.
We are very touchy about violence over here
The level of graphic violence in this module was much to high for my taste, I downgraded it heavily to a level that was still creepy but bearable. I am pretty sure if the board for child protection over here in germany would have got hold of it, it would get a adult only rating.
We are very touchy about violence over here
I should clarify that the upcoming Feast of Ravenmoor doesn't get into that same realm of gratuitous violence or over-the-top gore as HMM (it plays with different themes), but it does have the creep factor and outright freakiness in spades. It is a very scary and atmospheric adventure that really throws PCs for a loop (as my playtester will attest) but it doesn't devolve into "really, dude? You made me read that?" territory. It is a fine balance to strike, and I hope you'll agree that I pulled it off when it hits shelves.
*Cue creepy banjo music*
Let me just quote the foreword of the adventure.
Nick went a little… over the top, shall we say, in places. A few of the scenes in his original draft were things I can never unread. They’ve scarred parts of my mind that I thought, after growing up on a steady diet of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and John Carpenter, had been as traumatized as they could get. I was wrong. [...] I suspect I let a lot more of the warped and twisted stuff stay in the final adventure than I thought I would. The Grauls, for example… well… you’ll see.
See? It could have been worse.
EL, keep your eye out for Feast of Ravenmoor. It was written just to bring PCs back to that edge. I believe you'll approve. =-)I loved it.
You can't have a game about swords and murder without someone getting murdered now and then.
Personally, I would love to see Pathfinder go back to the edge like that.
It's coming as part of my modules sub.
Now I'm looking forward to this one! Even though in my campaign Ravenmoor is now a smouldering ruin after the giants got through with it.
Then again, that's true for much of Varisia. :)
I had a conversation with another player yesterday who asked me if the rest of the AP was this going to continue through the rest of the game.
It won't. HMM is by far the most graphic AP issue so far. The rest of RotRL is generic fantasy.
I suppose your group's reaction is the reason James Jacobs toned down the original manuscript to what made it into print. Be happy you didn't run the "director's cut" version (which does exist out there, for those who wish to read it) :)
I should clarify that the upcoming Feast of Ravenmoor doesn't get into that same realm of gratuitous violence or over-the-top gore as HMM (it plays with different themes), but it does have the creep factor and outright freakiness in spades. It is a very scary and atmospheric adventure that really throws PCs for a loop (as my playtester will attest) but it doesn't devolve into "really, dude? You made me read that?" territory. It is a fine balance to strike, and I hope you'll agree that I pulled it off when it hits shelves.sounds good :-)
my groups had great fun with skinsaw murders
I'm looking forward to reading it Brandon
|
|
I suppose your group's reaction is the reason James Jacobs toned down the original manuscript to what made it into print. Be happy you didn't run the "director's cut" version (which does exist out there, for those who wish to read it)Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! How do I get ahold of such a copy?
+1. I doubt I would run it. Im just curious as to the differences.
I found it via this thread, but unfortunately the link posted there to the author's blog is now dead.
You could try emailing the author and ask him for it.
I'm right at the spot where the party is about to travel from Magnimar to Turtleback. Very psyched. My only compliant is that the Graul's are introduced in a way - with the first brother and the five dogs and the bear - that doesn't seem very scary/creepy. Any ideas on how to up the horror factor on the first encounter?
My group caught the deliverance vibe pretty quickly on the approach to the farmhouse proper...
They cut down Ruckus pretty quickly and followed his trail back to the farmstead. They didn't think too much Ruckus' deformity until they saw Crowfood. Now they're freaking themselves out wondering how deep the rabbit-hole goes...
muhahahahaha!
I think it's good of the overall plot that the freaky-deaky builds up over a few encounters, rather than come right at you full blast from the git-go...