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Hey,
Im creating a murder mystery and am highly inspired by gothic London. I want to create a Jack the Ripper inspired setting full of mist, darkness and madness. It is forgotten realms in a major city with lots of canals and mist.
What i seek here is ideas as how to create this scary/uncanny feeling? Any advice is very welcome.
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If you're playing near a bathroom or kitchen, leave the tap on just a bit so it drips. I know this one sounds weird, but it gets a little unsettling for some. It can play on their nerves.
Play in a room where the players have their backs to a darkened room. Every once in a while peer into that room over their shoulders like you saw something but couldn't make it out. Squint, then shrug.
Since it's getting near Halloween, there's plenty of CDs for eerie sound effects as well (creaking doors, chains, etc.)
To surprise the players: when they're hunched together discussing something, slam your hand on the table to startle them and describe a loud noise nearby. When the characters investigate the noise, they only find a stray cat that's knocked something over.
Check out some of the old tricks psychic mediums used to use at about that time period. Adapt them for your own game. If you can find some kind of telescoping device (like an old antenna for a portable radio), use it to poke (or lightly stroke) players in the leg under the table. Quickly move it to the underside of the table before you're caught.
you could look at fallen london for inspiration.
Pure Steam Campaign Setting may help with some aesthetic details. Also look to the Shattered Star adventure paths for ideas of "gothic horror."
The Inquisitor, Investigator, Gunslinger, Slayer, Brawler, and Alchemist work very well in a Gothic Victorian setting as-is. Most of the Martials fit relatively well, but would probably be aesthetically updated to completely fit. Sorcerer, Wizard, Arcanist, Cleric, Druid, Oracle all work well enough, but would be extremely rare; Magic, Divine or Arcane, would be very much an "open secret" that everyone is aware of, but very few have seen it first-hand and even fewer are able to do. Half-casters like the Bard, Warpriest, etc. would be more common, but still in the extreme minority.
Races that work well: Human (obviously), Dhampir, Aasimar, Tiefling, Changeling, Vishkanya, Kitsune, Fetchling, Gillmen, Half-Elves.
Specific Monsters that work are Spring-Heeled Jack, Vampire, Werewolf, Mummy, Flesh Golem, Alchemical Golem, Clockwork Reliquary, Dullahan.
Monster types that work well: Undead (mummies, ghosts), Abberations (Lovecraftian stuff, obviously, especially) with special mention going to Great Old Ones, Clockwork Constructs, Devils, Demons.
Early Firearms should be the bulk of firearms available, and fairly commonplace, with Modern Firearms such as Revolvers and Rifles being extremely scarce (that wasn't the case, but they weren't QUITE as good in the 1890s as they were in WWI or II, and for game balance you don't want to make Modern Firearms widely available, if available at all).
The upcoming Psionics book for Pathfinder (which apparently is more like Psychic-Noir, ala The Shadow), will add a bunch of options that thematically fit well into such a setting.