Heyhey
I need creative help. I am currently thinking about some creepy effects to spice up a horror themed adventure. Like those listed in the "Heroes of Horror". It is about minor strange events that do not deal real damage but are... well strange and creepy. Like one character grows funghi on his skin or something like that...
Any ideas?
Also, do not underestimate how much dim lighting and a playlist of creepy music can contribute to this effect.
We tried out the Call of Cthulu RPG for the first time recently, and the music, lights, and the simple anticipation of something terrible happening had my skin crawling.
Combining the playing environment with some of the in-game touches suggested above could definitely add up to one creepy session.
....
/sign
But the most important part is that your party also want this. I tried it with one of my groups which totaly failed, because it was a "beer and brezzel" group, with a lot of slapstick action, so no horror here.
Also, do not underestimate how much dim lighting and a playlist of creepy music can contribute to this effect.
iTunes Radio's "Ambient" section has some cool stations that are very atmospheric, as does somafm.com.
Here are a few minor things off the top of my head that I have used in the past-
Of course no mechanical value unless you decide to attach one or make them part of a haunt.
Auditory/Noises:
-Far off faint screaming or moaning
-Far off sound of children crying or laughing
-Far of sound of baby crying (or could it be some kind of animal?)
-Far off Chime or bell ringing
-Far off low-frequency sound (steady drone, or pulse). Sounds like...silence but very perceptive characters may detect it (and "feel it")
-Close and abrupt and very loud: crash, slam, or scream in ear (only one player in party hears it)
-Close and slow: building or structure shifting/moving/rumbling/making noise
-Close growling, scratching or whimpering (animal). Source cannot be found.
-Far off or close: foot falls - slow footsteps ahead/behind party, sound of running ahead/behind party.
-Far off or close: Thumps, sound of dragging, sound of something hitting the ground hard (like a sack). If in a building sounds could be coming from above/below.
Olfactory/Smells (One or more people may detect these but it is nice if it is just one person is singled out):
-Faint/Strong odor of something burnt (meat, wood, other strange burnt smell)
-Faint/Strong odor of incense
-Faint/Strong odor musk
-Faint/Strong odor rot/decay
-Faint/Strong odor blood/metallic scent
Visual:
-Figure in distance/corner of eye: Solid white figure/solid black figure
-Figure in distance/corner of eye: Old man or old woman (w/black dog, holding hand of small child, holding something in arms close to chest)
-Disappearing dead body(s) - This is best used for the forward guy (alone) to spot and in combination with other things to distract his focus. Dead body: fresh bloody kill, mutilated, animal, child, multiple bodies. Once attention is removed it (they) disappear.
-Corpse: fresh bloody kill, mutilated, animal, child, multiple bodies.
-Fresh/Old grave(s): marked/unmarked, holy/unholy symbol marker, old/fresh flowers, child’s toy on top, empty (dug up/freshly made) grave(s), skeletal hand clawed out of top, ruptured grave and coffin
-Wall scratches: claw marks (with blood, with blood and broken fingernails), strange writing (dead tongue, warning, characters name), incomplete spell or ritual
-Footprints (boot, bare humanoid (adult, child), bare humanoid skeletal, deformed humanoid, dragging foot, dragging heavy weight): Wet, muddy, bloody, dust/stain
Taste:
-Metallic/bloody taste
-Bad taste in mouth
-Dry mouth
-Nausea/vomiting: Food with maggots, broken glass, strange food/animal parts, blood
You can great creative but best only used with players who will want to go this far and will play up the part.
Touch/General Perception:
-Unexpectedly icy cold or very hot (no damage) to the touch.
-Temperature gets very cold or hot as party moves from one spot to another (and back)
-One player gets very cold or hot
-Temperature suddenly gets very cold or hot (stays, or just passes)
-Pressure increases in area (feel constrained)
-Pressure decreases in area (feel light headed)
-Feel things on skin (on or more players): hand/face/neck/up leg - Crawling things, slime
-Sleeping (could all be part of dreams): Pressure on chest (something sitting on chest, constraining pressure), Sleep paralysis, Loud noise waking character (no noise), Sensation of being touched on hand, feet, face or hand or legs being pulled.
-Sensation of: being watched, unease, nausea (passing), foreboding/something very bad about to happen (may or may not be true)
-Minor ailment: headaches, pressure in ears, aches and pains. May be associated with an area and passes as soon as area is left or even occurs.
As a general warning to any and all DMs who use these tricks be careful
First Warning: Some mechanically oriented players will want to know the hows and whys of what is going on. They may want to defeat these effects or features since they may feel that they are tied to an evil source. These are dressings, not red herrings (unless you want them to serve as a set of distraction) but they can also be tied to greater evils or parts of haunts so they can (as a bag of effects as you assign them) be defeated. Even if some of the effects don't follow the rules a good idea would still give them a chance to put this stuff to rest - one way or another.
Second warning: Know your players; do not use these on the most vulnerable players but on those willing to go along and who want to play along. Some of these are very invasive, personal and unheroic – you need to know your players and how far they are willing to go. Be prepared to reward them for their tolerance and diligence.
Do not use these as toolsto embarrass or humiliate people; these ideas are not here to punish players but to illustrate moods and associate their environment with the evil they are dealing with. Do not abuse these ideas in overuse and do not use them as an invasive tool to punish or affect behavior.
Your third and final warning: do not use these randomly. Players want answers and while answers are not always forthcoming there still should be some sense of cohesive reason, even if not evident at first. Here are a few examples of combined choices:
-Faint/Strong odor blood/metallic scent
-Close and slow: structure shifting
-Metallic/bloody taste
-Bad taste in mouth
-Nausea/vomiting: blood
-Minor ailment: stomach pains
-Cold spots
So we have a series of evens occurring as the party explores a ruined tower in an abandoned part of town. The figure of the old man is seen, at first it is very fleeting (corner of eye, etc) but as the party investigates more they see him more clearly, then with other figures (usually leading small children or aiding injured bloody figures)
Periodically various party members will have a bad taste in their mouth, develop stomach pains and one may even vomit blood (again, depends on how long this runs and how far you want to push it).
The cold spots, the structure shifting are tied to other things in the background :
As the party finds out (from their explorations) the old tower was used by the town wizard and sanctioned defender. When it was later found out that the wizard was practicing the black arts and was poisoning people (symptoms would include stomach pains, vomiting blood) for unknown reasons. His preferred victim of choice would be children from the nearby orphanage but he would also occasionally snatch up a drunk townsperson or guardsman. After some time and more than a few witnesses he was charged and convicted for his crimes. His tongue was removed he was also was maimed and then walled away inside his tower. After this disgrace and several years the section of town that housed his tower fell upon ill rumor and disrepair. After many more decades stories begin to surface that when they originally sealed up the wizard and confiscated his goods he had a secret cache of treasure which was never found. So hidden treasure in spooky tower, no one wants to even hit that part of town let alone the closed off tower chasing after rumors.
So as our heroes explore the breached tower some of these events can occur or they can be aspects of Haunts tied to the tower (victims, the wizard).
With mood effects the idea is to start small and not give away too much early on, maybe not even till the end.
The situation in the sample scenario could be from 60 years prior, with the reputation of wizard at the time of his charges all the sensitive information may not have been released (due to the embarrassment to the king, etc). So the common perception could be that the wizard was charged with treason and sent to prison -not actually walled up in the tower. Also the abductions may have been wholly forgotten and not associated with the wizard and his treason to the crown. All these details would be revealed as the party explores the prison/tomb finding documents and being exposed to the effects of the haunting. There may even be people alive who don't want them going in for fear of exposing the truth (and subsequent embarrassment to the royal line) and may make efforts to discourage the PCs from undertaking their exploration of the tower.