Scare Your Players! 😱 Horror in RPGs
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- GM Tips for Horror games, D&D or other Tabletop RPGs.
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I did a campaing using candles as light source, and when the lights in the game went out i blew the candle, my player got quite scared. It's all about timing in this case tho.
I love that idea.
I'm making a horror campaign and that is exactly what i was gonna do.
My scariest encounter was in a d20 Modern campaign; it was a modified YA Black Dragon. It was in Chicago, laired underground and ambushing humans bus the sewers. Instead of wings, it had modified limbs that have it a movement boost in tunnels. It used hit/snatch and run tactics, and basically operated like a far smarter Xenomorph. Got most of them on edge really well.
Started with clues like claw gouges in metal, acid burns, blood trails. A cop car was later found with the door opened, expended cartridges, claw marks and an off-kilter manhole.
Party had to go down after it, chasing shadows and spooked by echoes and noises, heading down into the old coal tunnels, even more filthy and claustrophobic.
Finally the techie used c4, scrap, and an RC car to make a mobile claymore that the dragon didn't recognize as a trap until it caught a snout full of shrapnel. That finally it got pissed enough to get reckless and go after them more directly, leading to a big fight and PC victory.
Players complimented me on atmosphere, one or two actually getting goosebumps, one getting trigger happy and shooting at shadows just because the player was creeped out. One player had fear resistance IRL but played his character well to not ruin the atmosphere. Good times.
Sounds great!
"one play had fear resistance"
Is that m
"But played his character well"
Nevermind
Eyeless things “staring” at them usually works
Instead of a fog machine it’s cheaper to do a chunk of dry ice in water with a Halloween cauldron something that is used for candy works well
It is also safer for people with issues with their lungs or allergies.
SPOILERS FOR CURSE OF STRAHD:
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Just a week ago I ran the Death House one-shot for few friends of mine. The most horrifying thing for them was not any monster, but "ghost" of the Walter Durst. I modified the story little bit in a way that Walter was not a stillborn, but sacrified by the mother of the family. The PC's encountered the nanny of the family in her room, killed the ghost and started to examine the room. I had hidden bluetooth speaker under the table, and I played a sound of a crying baby, first quietly, and the louder and louder, and hinted that the sound is coming from the nursery. The stormed in (still thinking that they are on a mission saving a baby) and found a small crying bundle wrapped in cloth. The started to unwrap it, while crying just got louder and louder, but there was nothing inside and the crying just stopped at same second I describeb this to them. Oh boy they were shaking on their chairs :D
The hidden speaker and few horror/fantasy sound boards did upgrade the experience for all of us.
Pathfinder 1e has a Horror Adventures book all about creating a horror game. It has both mechanical and thematic sections, with descriptions of different forms of horror.
When my friends and I tried Pathfinder (none of us that familiar with tabletop rpgs) we found the true horror was figuring out the rules or their maddening organisation :-P
samprastherabbit Trust me, it’s far less terrifying than trying to learn all the rules in DnD 3.5- it took them ~5 pages to cover grappling.
Planning a sci-fi horror one-shot for an upcoming game; this was quite timely for some added advice and inspiration. Thanks for the vid!
Nice! Have fun.
out of the abyss anyone?
I tell my players that they're starting from level 1 and we're doing realistic encumbrance and component pouches.
Never use a fog machine if any player has breathing difficulties or allergies. Experience from LARPing taught me that.
I play Call of Cthulu. Unfortunately my players are pretty jaded. We've all seen Young Frankenstein and The Addams Family, (and others) so my horror tends to be of the cliché variety. It's still a good game but when they see a trail of blood leading down to the torture chamber, I know they'll be cheerfully volunteering somebody else to go first.
Ten Candles is also an awesome system for horror and mainly tragic stories. Great video!
That’s a new one for me. I’ll check it out! Thanks.
When I'm trying to create rising tension I think of the movie "the Descent". Each success drives the characters deeper with the promise of greater danger to come and that promise MUST be fulfilled or suspense will be lost.
Yesssss. I'm planning a d&d horror session tonight, and I absolutely adore using sound design to spook my players. They've really asked me to try and scare them tonight, so this video was super helpful! And just well presented, in general.
Great! Hope it goes well!
@@WASD20 it went really well, and a friend came down to switch off the lights during one of my descriptions and bang on the door for a fun spook! 😁
@@CammieMile Lol. Nice!!! Well done. :)
I once did a murder mystery on a boat with a human eating doppelganger. It s VERY efficient. And also the doppleganger is a living pile of larvaes which is disgusting and terryfying. To add a bit of action and chaos in the middle of the story i scripted a pirate attack on the boat.
oh my god. brilliant idea
One that I've thought of using, and I don't know the name if it has one, is the fear one gets from realizing how deep into a situation they really are
nice video. Really helpful. Currently prepping to dm Vaesen for the first Time which is a swedish gothic mystery / horror rag set in 19 century Scandinavia where all the monsters of old legends are real
You could also subvert your players expectations. During a Curse of Strahd session my groups dm did this by taking an NPC who had previously wanted to kill the party and reintroducing him as an ally and a fiancé to my character in an arranged marriage. We naturally didn’t trust him and I actually made it clear that, at least for the moment we were not allies. A few hours later he shows up dead in the woods and we go to investigate. We learn that Strahd wants to settle a score with this guy and others because the NPC turned out to be helping the party. When emotions were high and some of us were overwhelmed who would show up but Strahd himself! It was like a perfect storm. We were trying to get out of the initial shock of the revelations the new ally NPC brought to us and trying to figure out what to do next when Strahd shows up in Vallaki during a festival and says “I look forward to seeing you all very soon.” Let’s just say the whole session was cathartic.
Be careful with a fog machine. It might leave a residue on everything at the table
Ooh. Good to know.
We ran a one-shot from Nerzugal's Tome of Horrifying Adventures... It was A-MAZING! Highly recommend. And, I think he has this listed on the DMs Guild for a Pay What You Want... Now through Halloween. Highly recommend.
Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation.
thanks for sharing it!
I'm running a Cthulu session this week for Halloween, thank you for this!
I was running Deadlands, a historical horror steampunk wild west game. In the area I was in we had this legendary bear Ole Ephraim. He was said to be 16 feet at the shoulders, mangled face, and almost human intelligence enough to find traps and destroy them. Perfect for a dread element.
Next, I started watching Jurrasic Park, particularly the entrance of the T-Rex. I didn't want shot for shot but I wanted to see how she was presented.
Game time: the players need to go into the woods so they hire a local guide. Before they even get close they can smell a foul odor (bears being infamously stinky.) They get into the area there's two hundred year old trees knocked over with claw marks the size of cavalry sabers and a tuft of fur. The guide just utters "Ole Ephraim!" I gave them a few seconds to take in that. But not long enough to break the dread.
That's when the smell got stronger and my fist strikes the bottom of the table making their drinks shake.
Suddenly some of the bad guys they were tracking burst out of the brush running as if their pants were on fire, missing parts. They collapse, bleeding out and the guide loses his courage and runs. I had a sound board and the T-Rex roar goes off.
Now up until this point the players were laughing, playing with horror tropes, it was basically an episode of Scream. My fault as usually I do comedy. But the moment they entered this thicket and realized what was going on, the laughs stopped. Leaned forward, they looked nervous as the drinks shaking but jumped at the roar. They had heard the stories of the monster bear, we all had.
Suddenly this 20 foot tall, parts of bone on the face showing, broken arrows sticking out of his hide, blood matted bear from hell shows up. And the players are standing right above his meal.
While they barely escaped from him, I got to use him so many times, each starting with a thump on the table. I didn't even need to describe him anymore, they knew, and even when he was attacking the bad guys and not them, (he was under no control, just an animal and force of nature. Figured that made him even scarier.) They nearly went into a panic every time.
Sometimes to crank the fear you need you need one good threat.
Good fond memories all the old school players know about the infamous Tomb of Horrors module circa 1982 featured a Lich King but word got out on the streets there was no internet that this one was a total complete character killer the DM and everyone had so much fun everyone dies in booby traps before the main event . 😂😂
This video is 13:37. VERY COOL. Gret video as always man!
It says 13:38 for me
Thumbs up for consent list. That a very helpful tool I think!!
Hey Nate, been a huge fan for some time and I love your content! Why you aren't at 1mill subs yet I do not know. This video has really helped me out. I'm currently writing a gothic, dark souls like campaign. I'm sure you get this a lot, but could you make a video with tips, ideas and good examples of dark medieval gothic-like campaigns? Thank you, keep up the great work.
Don't sleep on 'Chill' from back in the 80's. Fun stuff.
Call of Cthulu is probably the king in my personal experience with horror systems, although Shadows of Esteren is great! It's heavily inspired by Cthulu and has a sanity system as well. Lots (and I mean lots) of focus on mental trauma and both positive and negative aspects of the character's personality. Great game. Plus the world is Medieval with Gothic influence. So if the 1920s, or modern day idea for horror doesn't suit you (which Cthulu is) then try shadows of esteren
Oh I should Mention that the rule system is very light.. Where in my opinion cathulu is a pretty heavy rule system. A lot of things can be left up to the GM, So I think as a player you just have to trust your GM but if you favor a rules heavy game with tons of modifiers like Pathfinder then shadows of esteren and is not for you
Nice! I’ll have to look into that one.
Some great stuff here, I love the LED lights and fog machine suggestions! Thanks Nate. The best tips I've ever read for running a horror game were in the AD&D box that first introduced the Ravenloft campaign setting - I think it was called, "Ravenloft: Realm of Terror" (which you can buy online now as a PDF). Loads of advice in there about building dread and horror - it's possible some of it ended up in 5E Curse of Strahd too, though I haven't read that.
Also, I've always found that the "moral" element of gothic horror is far more effective in RPG sessions than "slasher" or "fear" based horror. The latter rely on a feeling of helplessness or threat to be effective, which is tricky when you have a bunch of players who can sling arrows and fireballs and see everything in terms of hit points. The former is more like a fear in the soul, and everyone can be touched by it. When Frankenstein raises his first monster, it's freaky and inhuman and threatening. When he raises his second monster, it's truly horrifying...because that was his wife :-)
nerdarchy seem like really cool dudes. dave and ted defi get thorough in their vids.
i just made a game where peter pan took a character hostage. one of my players was playing a twin who flip out when they cant see the other. they’re gonna go to neverland by boat with captain hook and jack sparrow and we actually got a bloodhunter so they get advantage on finding peter. he can however transform in a krokodile and throw sand that puts them to sleep so they’re gonna go walk through a jungle and need to find the twin in 3sessions or peter is gonna eat the child so he can live longer and get stronger.
I did the fog machine in my CoS game… set off the fire alarm.
Played a one shot from The Strain. Had a lot of fun with it, highly recommend!
11:40 fog machine? you know people these days Vape?
I swear, dread is mentioned in every video regarding horror. Strain and it’s setting Xas Irkalla is the scariest game I ever played. No one knows about it though lol
Palladium - Dead Reign series is fantastic.
I'm adapting a cross between an EU Star Wars story and Dishonored 2. This was such a great video.
I’m getting ready to have my campaign turn into a Bloodborne style horror where the Party is trapped inside a town full of beasts and fiends.
You can find a fog machine on eBay for around $30.
Kids on Bikes is also well suited to horror games! Very Twin Peaks/Stranger Things!
Where did you find the aninal crackers? Not in the Monster Manual (New to DnD)
Haha. No. That one is an RPG called, "No Thank You Evil". It's a whimsical kids RPG.
Oh ok. Thank you for the responce youtubers dont usually do that. Keep up the great work!
Planning on running a game with friends for my birthday, I've ordered the lost mines starter kit. The only thing is it comes with 4 pre-generated characters but there are going to be 6 of us I was wondering if you would be able to point me in the right direction to get my hands on a couple of other pre-generated characters to make things a little easier for myself and others as it'll be all of our first times playing. Hoping to get a game going every other week or so but this has to go well for that to happen. I've watched lots of your videos for some tips and am very excited! Tia for any help 😄
I think there should be some on the internet
"rpg consent checklist"
fucking lmao
I loved this video and the thumbnail was good!
Thanks Juce!
hey this is unrelated to ur video but i want to say thank you for helping me improve my would building skills. Because of u i’m actually considering a career in design fictional worlds. Obviously i still need a lot of practice but thanks to ur videos i actually got a lot better
Great video! Thanks for sharing your tips! ♥️♥️♥️
Gurps Horror FTW
Is playing with an adventure kit similar to playing with a setting guide?
After Season 8, "subvert your expectations" is triggering for me.
You're right though, that whole fiasco was a horror show.
It's as easy as telling your players: You have met a terrible fate, haven't you? And then say that god is coming (and not the kind of god you'll spect from a fantasy setting)
Great Video I’ll plan on using this information thanks so much Nate you help me with confidence and acting as a DM 👍🏻
I'm someone who wants and enjoys slow burning horror, but I find a lot of horror just doesn't hit for me. I've played a lot of horror video games and most are so arbitrarily restrictive in how the player can act within the world that it becomes a feeling of being railroad or passive experience. Outlast is a perfect example of a restrictive game that arbitrarily weakens the player and limits creativity and resourcefulness.
Curse of Strahd is something I really want to love, but Strahd himself is the weakest element of the module IMO. Having to capitulate with a sociopathic sun-allergic incel in unwanted social encounters is not tense, it's frustrating and the exact kind of social interaction I want to escape from when I play DnD. Games with insanity mechanics... not a fan.
The best example I've ever played for horror video games is Bloodborne. The game never weakens or disarms the player, but the game is still challenging, so the tension and threat feels earned and legitimate. The world lets you explore and piece the mystery together in a slow burn horror form. The insight mechanic that slowly changes the familiar to the unfamiliar and reveals things that have always been there is a masterful form of wordless storytelling.
Yeah, thanks Nate.
Really good info as always.
My biggest fear is myself.
What's the first book you showed? The one with the pink slug?
Faerie Fire
I've got a horror adventure upcoming that is set in a post apocalyptic setting and takes place in an old hospital. But it's via Discord which gives me quite the headache.
Anyone got any ideas how to draw my players in?
Beside the ones in this video.
Ideas: ask them to turn of the lights in their own space. :)
Find a way to share your music through Discord or another means - to set the mood.
Other than that - what are the "headaches"? I may have some suggestions.
Sadly I'm in a severe minority I tried getting into D&D 5th edition I just couldn't I played every Edition and forth was my favorite I know I'm in the minority there but I just can't get into 5th edition at all
Good tips
Slow build sounds good
Surprised you didn't mention monster of the week!
Ooh. Good suggestion. I don’t know much about that one, but I hear good things.
anyone else think this guy could be Rhykker's brother?
KULT is suited for horror :-)
so how was the convention? haha aaaah hindsight...
I love hp lovecraft
I feel like he spoke a lot and didn't say anything about the actual horror adventure.
RPG consent check list? Is that a real thing?
I wouldn't be surprised. I do get a consent confirmation from my players before playing.
@@Blitzwaffen consent for what? To play dnd?
Just kind of a checklist of what kind of content you are comfortable with in your games. Just a handy tool for some, but easy to ignore if it's not your thing.
The best thing about the RPG Consent Checklist: If a player shows up at my table with it, I can just remove them from the game and never have to worry about offending or triggering them. Truly a godsend.
I don’t see a player showing up with this. More of a tool for a gm.
I wanna know the nine people who disliked.
RPG consent? What kind of weak lamer would think that’s normal?
Ive learn nothing, thanks
Thanks for the feedback!