How to run a horror scenario?

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all

Thought it would be fun to run a scenario in a larger game around halloween time, tie it in to the worlds version of halloween. So probably an undead based thing.

But how on earth do you actually make it horrifying? I am not the sort of DM who uses background music and mood lighting. But I dont really see how to make it horrifying when the players are all safely in my kitchen, and their characters are level 5 or so, prepared to beat the **** out of anything.

Have any of you run something scary before? What tips can you give?

[Heliomance]

I attempted to run a horror game once, it roundly failed to be horrific. Everyone had fun, and it's probably the best campaign I've ever run, but it was decidedly not horror. The PCs felt like superheroes, as D&D characters are wont to do, and while I did manage to get in a couple of moments of horror (realising they were inside a mist elemental was a good one, as was the enemy that simply refused to stay dead), the overall tone ended up quite upbeat and cheerful.

[Randomthom]

To start with, don't let them be level 5. Start at level 1 and give them a very stingy point-buy. Explain to them beforehand that, depending on their choices, there will be some encounters where their best option will be to avoid a fight.

Now, start to roll out the horror tropes.

Start them off alone, maybe even create a random roll table of possible locations. A dusty church. A creaky Inn. A dank wine cellar. Have them roll to determine their starting locations.

Next, deny them starting gear. Force them to improvise their weapons & tactics.

Now hit them with something that initially looks like a winnable fight e.g 1 skeleton or maybe a zombie if they're a particularly tough character, then let it escalate. 2nd round another zombie comes crashing through the window and their chair-leg weapon breaks. etc. Ramp it up the the point of hopelessness then give them hope.

You hear the town hall bell ringing and a loud voice shouting "TO ARMS, THE UNDEAD ARE AMONG US".

This gives them a rallying spot but for some it might be some way across an undead-infested town. Maybe the rooftops or the sewers could provide cover. Perhaps they could create a distraction then make a break for it? Leave it up to them but don't be afraid to offer suggestions. You can also make them fear you & your suggestions... The sewers might have carrion crawlers. The church rooftop gargoyles might actually be (weak) gargoyles... Reward them with less obstacles if they come up with their own methods. This rewards innovative gameplay and creates that survival horror feel.

There's lots more you can do with this but use your horror movie memories to good effect.

Once they get to the town hall, you can continue with the action/adventure theme or go for the humanist conundrum of putting down people who have been bitten (I know PF/D&D zombies don't actually have infected bites but maybe cook up a special rule for yours). Depending on the maturity level of your group and how squeamish they are, you can give them anything from the old man who is understanding and willing to be killed before he turns (maybe even offering his own hatchet to do the job), to the child who doesn't understand what is going on...

[Albions_Angel]

Sorry I didnt explain, it would be part of the larger campaign I will be running this year, it would just be the session closest to halloween. I estimate their chars will be about level 5 by then.

[Gildedragon]

A horror 1off with existing characters...
Go spooky go gory
It's all in the details.
Go for unrelenting swarms that don't let them rest
Go for fear and fatigue rules
Use disease and curses
And go for rich description

[AnimeTheCat]

I feel that if you want to make this truly successful, you need to know what makes your players scared, not what makes their characters scared. Then, you're going to have to push some boundaries. Nobody goes to a horror movie and is perfectly at home with everything that happens, otherwise it would be a comedy because most of the stuff that happens in horror movies is comical when you apply it to a comfort zone. After you've gotten everybody's comfort zone assessed, you need to talk to them above everything else. Make sure they know that their comfort zones will be pushed and that it will be uncomfortable, otherwise you'll have people getting upset and leaving and that's certainly not the idea. You'll have to sink to a certain level of depravity I'm sure, but make sure it doesn't go too far for you or anyone at your table.

After all of the pre-planning-planning has happened and everyone is on the same page, you begin to construct your adventure. I'm a big fan of mysteries, but you could also have plagues or kidnappings by a certain powerful undead or something to fuel his/her/it's undeath. If you go with a mystery, you can still have a plague or a kidnapping. Second, you'll probably want to put them on some kind of time constraint. Example: when they arrive, have them get exposed to some kind of disease or spell plague. have it eat away at their abilities slowly, but progressively during the scenario. Either have it fully resistant to healing spells or have it only work for 1dx hours/minutes/seconds/etc. Now you've got them progressively getting weaker, they need to find the cure, you're pushing their personal boundaries and making them "Uncomfortable" (not truly uncomfortable, but enough to make them a little outside of their comfort box. this is why talking to them is so freaking important. if you don't, you're likely to lose friends or players), and they have a time limit that this needs to get solved within the confines of the game. Depending on how long, real world time, your games last I would recommend anywhere from 10 in game days to 15 in game days.

Last part would be resolution. Do you want them coming out feeling like champions or do you want them coming out with their character's scarred (please... for the love of all of your players, DON'T SCAR YOUR PLAYERS!)? If you want them coming out of it feeling good about themselves, let them vanquish the evil and restore light to a darkened land, you know, all fairy princess style. If you want their characters to be scarred and potentially keep the plot open for future endeavors, let the BBEG get away, and give everyone minor flaws as a part of the plot. Have part of them getting cured of their blight incur some very small penalty. Some ideas for this could be adding scarring to the cleric's face that causes NPC Clerics to look at him in disdain at first because they believe he's demonically possessed, but he really just got it from the spell plague. Have the rogue take a -1 penalty on open lock checks because when he opened a lock in the BBEG's fortress/hideout he got pulled in to the chest and had to face his worst nightmares. have the fighter take a -1 penalty on intimidate checks and opposed checks when someone tries to intimidate him because part of facing his worst fears was to be made a mockery of and that always lingers in the back of his mind. Now, those penalties don't have to last forever, in fact they could just have to last for that one game and then they're gone once they have their confidence back or they can get some magic healing from a proper temple, but make it so that it puts something of a small burden on them and makes them remember the nonsense that BBEG brought on them. They should be mad, upset, and a little afraid of running in to him again because, after all, they did foil his plans and they should absolutely be scared.

That's the formula I used when I made my "Horror" scenario for a one-off and everyone really enjoyed it (especially when it was over). I'll be making "part-2" this Halloween, but it will be harder because now everyone in the party is evil Now I realize just how much work I have to do for it...

[Red Fel]

Hi all

Thought it would be fun to run a scenario in a larger game around halloween time, tie it in to the worlds version of halloween. So probably an undead based thing.

But how on earth do you actually make it horrifying? I am not the sort of DM who uses background music and mood lighting. But I dont really see how to make it horrifying when the players are all safely in my kitchen, and their characters are level 5 or so, prepared to beat the **** out of anything.

Have any of you run something scary before? What tips can you give?

Oh, sweet summer child. Have you not attended one of my classes?

Take a seat. Red Fel gonna school ya.

The first thing you must do before starting a horror campaign is to clear it with the players. A proper horror campaign plays very differently from standard D&D; failing to inform the players means that they will feel a bit betrayed by the switch. Also, some players may not have the stomach for proper horror; be sure they're all on board before you begin.

The first rule of horror campaigns is that the mechanics don't matter. Let the PCs be immune to whatever you please - your goal isn't to frighten them. It's to frighten the players. This requires the right blend of ambiance, narrative, tension and misdirection.

Ambiance: Set the room up properly. Dim the lights a bit. Have creepy music. If the table usually has snacks or distractions around, put them away. Make sure the only place they're looking is at the game; the only sounds they hear are the narrative and the ambient noise (provided, likely, by a computer).

Narrative: The story must be gripping and immersive. You want the players on the edge of their seats, wondering, desperate to know what comes next, what's coming next, tell them! And you don't tell them until you're ready. Mechanics should take a back seat - if this turns into another combat grind, the illusion is ruined.

Tension: A good horror campaign requires a source of tension. Come up with a reason why the players must face this peril, rather than walk away. Why they won't be able to simply blast it like they usually do. In some ways, this is railroading, but it doesn't have to feel it. A recent thread, for example, centered around the idea of a keep under siege by an army. The army, however, wasn't the real threat; it was merely what kept the players in place to face the horror inside the walls with them.

Misdirection: Once the players think they have a bead on everything, they'll try to play the story like an ordinary campaign. You can't give them that comfort. Keep throwing them off, keeping them off their balance. That discomfort becomes fear and paranoia. Make them roll random spot and listen checks, even when there's nothing there. Show them suspicious happenings, and then reveal that what they saw was totally mundane. Or don't explain it at all. The less they trust their senses, the more everything becomes a source of terror.

These are just some basic ideas. There have been several recent posts on this subject, and I advise you to go look them up. You could learn a lot, and if your players are willing, you'll all have a lot of fun scaring the pants off yourselves.

In my mind, horror is less about the events themselves, and more about how they are played out. Take the original Haunting movie. No bleeding walls, no ghosts or wails, no special effects. Everything that happened was totally explicable - lights would flicker, a person would wander off and vanish (but not vanish into thin air, just go missing). It was the use of mundane events with a disturbing atmosphere that created a sense of terror.

Your goal shouldn't be to overwhelm your players with death and gore. Rather, it should be to create a mood. Start with lighting, with sounds, with smells and sensory input. Next have things happen. For example, "Say... wasn't Random Villager 13 right behind us?" Simple things. "Say, wasn't that book on the table a moment ago?" "Oh, that window was open... it was probably just the wind." Feed the idea that these events are completely mundane - give plenty of evidence that nothing is out of the ordinary, that everything is as it seems.

This will make your players paranoid as hell.

Eventually, one too many coincidences will utterly terrify them. They'll be afraid to turn corners, afraid to leave the room. (At least, that's if you're doing it right.)

So step away from bleak and hopeless, and explore another vein of horror - the Unknown.

The key to such a campaign, first and foremost, is atmosphere. The mood should be tense. There should be pressure, and a keen sense that something is amiss. Don't rely on monsters or blatantly supernatural phenomena, however; mundane means are far more effective. For example, torches blowing in a sudden gust of wind at a key point. The distant rumble of thunder. Shadows around a corner.

Put your players in an uncomfortable situation from which they cannot simply walk away. Then start dropping perfectly explainable coincidences, like the ones above, on them. Have them make random spot and listen checks, most of which reveal absolutely nothing. Make them paranoid.

Then, slowly, start revealing real things. Blood stains. Distant screams. Some of these will have perfectly explainable causes - for example, a butcher cut himself on a knife. Harmless. Others may have no explanation at all - when the players arrive, there's nobody there.

Ultimately, there must be something. Make it something sinister, but something that can be, if not completely destroyed, at least sealed/delayed. Give the players a victory. But not before scaring them out of their wits.

Any adventure where the players will never trust another little girl / shadowy merchant / puppy / jovial baker is a successful horror story.

Here's the bottom line. In an established campaign, you can't simply take the PCs' powers or toys away from them. They'll never forgive that insult. Instead, you make them irrelevant. Introduce things that cannot be fought - environmental effects, creepy coincidences, and so forth. There'll be a battle eventually, and that will mark the decompression part of the session, but until then it needs to be experiential.

Mechanics put a wall between the player and the character. With that wall up, even if the character is scared, the player feels fine. You want to tear that wall down, cram the player into the character, and force the player to feel fear. You do that by creating scenarios that are scary - not monsters, not spells, nothing that can be mechanically meddled with. Just scenarios. When the player can't roll the dice - because there's nothing to roll - they can't separate themselves from the fear.

And that's it. You simply build that terror over the course of the session. Release it with a climactic battle, of course, but otherwise it should build until then. You don't need illusions, or monsters, or spells for that. Just narrative skill and a massive pile of creepy atmospheric coincidences.

[AnimeTheCat]

Did I do bad, great master Red Fel?

[Red Fel]

Did I do bad, great master Red Fel?

Talking to your players upfront is a good call, you caught that one.

Your idea for an undead or plague is nice, it's creepy, but it's mechanics. Undead are a known quantity, they can be Turned or destroyed. Plagues and spells can be cured with a high enough check; making it arbitrarily high will feel a bit railroad-y, although it could work. Mechanical penalties tell the player that a character is frightened, but don't show it; they're a crutch. I prefer to avoid blatantly supernatural stuff from the get-go, instead to let it build gradually in volume.

Also, I disagree with one of your points: If they're up for it, do scar your players. A truly terrifying film shouldn't have you walking out of the theater with your head held high, it should leave you jumping at shadows for the rest of the night. This experience should leave scars on the PCs, and the best way to do that is to rattle the players. Now, obviously, don't do anything genuinely traumatic, but make it something that will put them on edge about your games for a long time to come. The next time they see a giggling little girl or a friendly priest, they should strongly consider running, screaming, into the hills.

But yeah. Overall, a strong start, ATC. Give yourself a cookie.

[dascarletm]

I've successfully ran horror in games before, and I will tell you 2 things are required. One is fairly well known, and the other may be a bit controversial.

1. It is all about the mood. You need to make the mood through your descriptions, your voice etc. Don't let the players break tension with jokes (as best you can) etc. Keep them focused and keep them enticed. Breaking away from the action will pull them back to reality and out of the horror.

2. Don't give the monster stats. I know that this goes against most of those in this subforum, but once something has stats, it can be killed. It is similar to any movie where the monster is revealed. It becomes less frightening because you own mind will create something scarier.
Have you ever seen It? The monster was far scarier before the reveal. Never reveal the threat, never let them defeat it. Let them succeed by escaping or saving someone, but the threat it perhaps still lingers if only sealed below ground... for now.

[Flickerdart]

Nah, it's totally possible to scare players during the course of a regular adventure, without atmospheric shenanigans. Especially if their dudes are level 5.

Fear of the unknown
Ye olde D&D encounter goes like this - the PCs look at themselves, look at the goblins they want to murder, and now have a decent idea about how the fight is going to go down. The goblins will attack them with axes, they will try and flank, the PCs can use the terrain to make up for their lack in numbers, and so on. The PCs will take some hit point damage, but otherwise they're ok.

Suddenly, the PCs encounter goblins that have no axes, and also no arms. The goblins don't feel like normal goblins, and once combat is joined, the PCs can't treat it like an everyday thing.

A goblin reaches the party rogue? He bites the rogue on the arm, leaving behind an inflamed wound. Is it just a bite wound, or some kind of curse, the PCs ask? Say you don't know. The fighter is next, he lops the goblin's head off. After the fight, he notices that his sword is strangely discolored from the creature's blood, even after he wipes it off. Is it just a stain, or something else? Say you don't know.

It doesn't matter what it ends up being in the end, because it's this tension between it happening and it becoming understood is where the terror lies.

The "mysterious little girl" is not an unknown. Everyone knows children are secretly demons, or ghosts, or demon ghosts. It's a cliche, avoid cliches, because they say "oh yeah this is the horror genre" and now you're prepared.


Fear of the known
The PCs just defeated an encounter of 5 goblins. They open the next door, and it leads to a massive vault with 5000 goblins. The PCs know goblins. They know that this many goblins will eat them alive. But these goblins aren't attacking them. They could, and they would win. And the PCs know this. Whatever happens next, they act in fear of provoking this goblin horde. Is it a negotiation with the chief? Are they here to retrieve some artifact? Because they don't know what might set off their inevitable demise, they have to tread carefully.

This works especially well if your players like Knowledge checks. Yes, your wizard recognizes this creature. Yes, it's a pseudonatural paragon atropal. Yes, its CR exceeds your ECL by something like 100 points. Try not to provoke it.

This can seriously change the dynamic of other, unrelated encounters. Taking 20 to disarm that trap? Better not take that long, because of the murderthreat behind you. Do you even have time to search for traps? Rest to recover spells? Use your less-good arrows when dealing with this giant rat fight, instead of the expensive +5 ones?

You can also use the permanent loss boogeymen - level drain, ability drain, various body horror like amputation. Could a cleric cure this, eventually? Maybe. But not this cleric right in front of them, because he was flayed and de-boned, and then his skeleton rose as a wight to inflict those negative levels on the PCs in the first place. The divine has no power in the dungeon of terror.

Or they did go to a cleric, and instead of casting restoration he tried to hit them with lesser geas and now he's dead and the village is unhappy their priest was killed by strangers...

[Albions_Angel]

Was hoping Red Fel and Flickerdart would weigh in.

I can do description (very well if i do say so, descriptive writing is a hobby of mine), but I do rely on the mechanics a lot. Im thinking of throwing in some spirit or other. Possibly something they arnt supposed to defeat, but send on? I dont know really. But I thought having the spirit attack them some times, and illusions attack them at others might help, but I can also see that turning into a situation of them just ignoring it. Horror isnt something I tend to do. I dont really even watch horror movies. Either they just gross me out and dont scare me, or they terrify me and I get 0 pleasure out of it.

Several anime series and books have given me a mind screwing which messed me up for a few days, but even that I have no idea how to do.

Thanks for the ideas, please keep them coming.

[dascarletm]

Was hoping Red Fel and Flickerdart would weigh in.

I can do description (very well if i do say so, descriptive writing is a hobby of mine), but I do rely on the mechanics a lot. Im thinking of throwing in some spirit or other. Possibly something they arnt supposed to defeat, but send on? I dont know really. But I thought having the spirit attack them some times, and illusions attack them at others might help, but I can also see that turning into a situation of them just ignoring it. Horror isnt something I tend to do. I dont really even watch horror movies. Either they just gross me out and dont scare me, or they terrify me and I get 0 pleasure out of it.

Several anime series and books have given me a mind screwing which messed me up for a few days, but even that I have no idea how to do.

Thanks for the ideas, please keep them coming.

From my experience if you are rolling initiative for combat, you've brought the players out of the horror mindset. I would keep combat to a minimum.

[AnimeTheCat]

Also, I disagree with one of your points: If they're up for it, do scar your players. A truly terrifying film shouldn't have you walking out of the theater with your head held high, it should leave you jumping at shadows for the rest of the night. This experience should leave scars on the PCs, and the best way to do that is to rattle the players. Now, obviously, don't do anything genuinely traumatic, but make it something that will put them on edge about your games for a long time to come. The next time they see a giggling little girl or a friendly priest, they should strongly consider running, screaming, into the hills.

But yeah. Overall, a strong start, ATC. Give yourself a cookie.

YES! A Cookie!

And I see what you mean with scarring the players if they're up for it. I was thinking more along the lines of genuine trauma when I was thinking scarring the players, not making the players fear your DM ability. Thanks Red Fel!

[Red Fel]

Was hoping Red Fel and Flickerdart would weigh in.

If you wanted me to chip in sooner, you should have followed the rules.

Now, you mention throwing in "some spirit or other," but again, that's missing the point. Don't look at the adventure in terms of the monsters. Monsters are a bag of stats; if it exists, it can be labeled, and if it can be labeled, we can learn how to kill it. Instead, look at the adventure in terms of atmospheric features. These are things that can't be fought. Have people behaving oddly. Have things - noises, lights, etc. - happen, which in any other context could be totally explicable.

These things are pressure. They're lots of little units of pressure that keep building. Shadows on the wall. Children laughing. People turning a corner and disappearing once out of sight. Keep applying layer after layer of pressure, and it builds.

No fighting needed. No skill checks. They want to search for traps? There aren't any. Disbelieve illusions? There aren't any. Everything is perfectly mundane, and that's the scariest part of all.

Before you introduce the monster, the players will make up their own explanations for what's going on. If you play your cards right, each player will put together in his head that which most scares him. But once you introduce the monster, you've taken that away. You point to the monster, "Yup, that's it, that's what scares you, right?" It's almost a let-down. So save the big reveal for as long as you can.

From my experience if you are rolling initiative for combat, you've brought the players out of the horror mindset. I would keep combat to a minimum.

Strongly this. As I've said, mechanics are a barrier between player and character; if you remove that barrier by taking dice rolls (including and especially combat) down to a minimum, the experience becomes substantially more immersive. And terrifying.

Avoiding combat in particular is important, because PCs are powerful. Even by level 5, you're looking at people who can hit hard and take a few blows. Rolling initiative reminds them that they are powerful. You don't want them thinking about how strong they are; you want them feeling powerless.

Nah, it's totally possible to scare players during the course of a regular adventure, without atmospheric shenanigans. Especially if their dudes are level 5.

Fear of the unknown

*SNIP*

Fear of the known

This, too. Fear comes when things are not as they should be. We fear what we don't know, what we don't understand, or what makes no sense. Goblins should act like goblins. The town Cleric should act like the town Cleric. Normal injuries should behave like normal injuries. When they don't, it jars us, forces us outside of our comfortable definitions of reality, and sets us off of our suppers. It freaks us out.

Have a village where everyone is constantly smiling. All the time. No reason, just smiles. Have all of the animals the PCs encounter just stare at them. No attacking, no growling, but staring with the same dead-eyed, intense look. Have every child they pass giggle and run away, as if aware of some unknown joke on the PCs. Things happen that the PCs - and the players - don't know, and don't understand.

Comfort comes when the world operates as we expect. Unease comes when it doesn't. Fear comes when we begin to suspect that there's a reason that it doesn't.

[Aegis013]

Understanding that you're not a music/lighting DM, I have had one attempt (and one success) at a semi-horror thing. My PCs were level 9 or 10, and I knew they'd trounce most monsters and with my players, they'd figure "If it exists we can beat it and we can beat it now." and die, despite numerous (at least 7) obvious in game hints, with attention called to them again out of character, that this isn't a winnable battle.

So instead I just did spooky/mysterious. In a decrepit dungeon but you find well maintained house with a single candle lit. You find a corpse, but every time you move it, if you take your eyes off of it, it returns to its original position. Numerous candles are in the house, and lighting them sometimes causes others to be extinguished, with no pattern or explanation. I had my players running around confused and concerned for an hour before I dropped the reward for messing with it long enough to do something interesting (lit all of the candles and the hearth at once).

Spoiler: Reward

Show

The characters were visited by Vecna, the only remaining god in that setting, as the others had all been hunted down and slain to either obtain components for Ice Assassin or prevent others from getting it. Vecna was the only one who managed to avoid the culling due to being god of secrets.

For being entertained for the first time in millennia, he offered to let each character know one secret, but they couldn't discuss in OR out of character what they wanted to ask. They just had to decide and the first person to ask got the answer. The answer was only provided to the character who asked. It was a nice way to allow the characters to learn more about the game world that would've been otherwise too difficult or out of the way to access. Some asked about NPC's, some about long forgotten history, etc.

The other thing is simply a brilliant mood setting thing that you might want to use/adapt if you decide to take that route that I read someone else used with great success.

For the horror session, turn out all the lights. Each player and the DM have a single candle, which is lit as their only light source. Have the session progress as creepily as possible. Other people have given excellent advice on that front. Eventually, do something to split up the party. Then begin communicating what happens in notes to the players. Any time a certain condition is met, PC goes down, or something (usually this is death), have the player extinguish their candle, but tell the other players nothing.

One by one, the players extinguish their candles, while the remaining players don't know why, or what happened. Until all the candles are extinguished, then the DM gives the wrap up blurb and extinguishes the final candle.

Then turn on the lights so nobody accidentally steps on the d4 that fell off of the table.