When, What, Where, and How to Horror

[Werefoowolf]

So I've been thinking of peculiar phenomena I can trigger in my upcoming horror adventure, and wanted to see suggestions and/or feedback on things to play around with and perhaps when it makes sense to implement them.

For starters, maybe telling a player that their PC's hands are involuntarily shaking, or that their nose has started to bleed without cause. With this example, in what occasion would this have maximum effect?

Also, interesting idea is to describe objects/surroundings to a PC who just observed them (Perception check not always required) differently than to others who repeat the action. Player A: "Is there something on that table?" Me: "The book on the table is bound by what appears to be Orc flesh, and you can hear whispers emonating from the book." Player B: "Hey, what's on that table? I wasn't paying attention." Me: "Just an ordinary book."

Or *player Perception checks long and dark corridor* "You hear footsteps" *goes further to investigate, to find nothing* "You can hear the footsteps still, closer than before" *sees nothing* "You can now hear the sound of footsteps of something RUNNING"

[Diachronos]

I did something similar in Curse of the Crimson Throne, when the players were going through Scarwall Keep's halls. The random encounter roll was "supernatural phenomena", so I had what looked like purple candlelight appear around a corner. The party ended up frantically searching the hallway for signs of incorporeal or invisible creatures, which was made even more frantic because they'd already discovered just how bad of an idea it is to use detect evil/detect undead in Scarwall.

They got sidetracked by a haunt that triggered two cinder ghouls to spawn, but I get the feeling they'll still be on edge when the next session starts :3

[Rub-Eta]

If players can find no cause to the shaking and the bleeding, they'll just not care. It's just something that happens. Telling them what disease they'll die from within a week will probably invoke much more fear.

Giving players different information isn't scary. And you shouldn't rely upon your players to not paying attention to tell a scary story anyway.

Running people aren't scary either.

[Werefoowolf]

Well that was the point of THAT example, was when might bringing something like that up come off as relevantly creepy?

The different information thing is just an add-on when one player has ANY excuse to reexamine something another player did previously, if the scene calls for it.

I believe they would be if the creature running is heard, not seen.

[Rub-Eta]

But running people aren't scary, even if you can't see them. It all seems more like fake-outs than actual threats. You need to connect danger to their suspicion, otherwise it's not scary to them.

[NenkotaMoon]

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