Gaming sessions are also less creepy/scary for veteran CoC players, players who can guess what Mythos being it is just by a brief description, maybe a buzzing sound ("Aha, Mi-go"). The best thing is to be rather vague, break the usual mold or create some entirely different abomination (custom made for that scenario). There's also moments that can destroy something potentially creepy, like if the scenario ends up with shotguns/tommy guns vs the Mythos in the end. A different era, like the fur trapping era of the early 19th century with muskets and Arkansas Toothpicks could make the horror seem more intense, or if the setting is such that Investigators aren't packing enough weapons to star in Commando 2. An NPC, a grizzled old guide with a hunting rifle in an antarctic milieu who gets dragged down by some unnamable thing beneath the pack ice when out hunting seal one day - leaving behind only a bloody trail, his Remington .30-06 with just three shots left and the memory of his old dirty jokes...well, that would be a different story.

As a side note, I find Stephen King's "N" to be a fantastic story. He has said that his main inspiration was Machen, but the story is very Lovecraftian imo.

Does anybody here follow Sandy Petersen's rules?

https://youtu.be/_B5kd05_hqY

Quote from: Cave Bear;1106736Does anybody here follow Sandy Petersen's rules?

https://youtu.be/_B5kd05_hqY

Well, I have seen the video before and it's pretty solid advice. It's also good to check out Q&A:s with famous horror writers and directors. You can always pick something up.

It can be difficult to create a scary experience through GM skill alone. I do think that if the players care about their characters the limited SAN points and highly lethal combat help to make it scary.

One good ol boy with a shotgun is scarier than most things in D&D as a PC is unlikely to survive one hit.

For my group I don't think we ever really aimed for "scary" in our CoC games. Some combination of mystery/investigation and tentacles & tommyguns was more our speed.

Quote from: Conanist;1106758It can be difficult to create a scary experience through GM skill alone. I do think that if the players care about their characters the limited SAN points and highly lethal combat help to make it scary.

One good ol boy with a shotgun is scarier than most things in D&D as a PC is unlikely to survive one hit.

Yeah, the shotgun seems to be the ultimate weapon of mass destruction in CoC. That and dynamite. There's this forum post about shotguns in CoC, and how effective they are against Mythos creatures.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=10197

A lot of my CoC play experience has suffered from a sense of distancing because other players don't want to be there. But I like horror, and once I have a critical mass of fellows who buy-in we can have a great time! They tend to be either horror fans, and/or good at "unclenching" their needs for control, and/or enjoy immersion most.

You cannot make someone enjoy what they don't want to do. So I find the best thing to do is weed out the disinterested immediately, and make it comfortably permissable to back out of a game they would not enjoy. That's my first and perhaps most important advice on how to make CoC scary.

The rest is an artfulness of having "safety and comfort" and then removing them, first through doubt, then physicality, and finally existentially. And it's a vacillating loss, sometimes that "safety and comfort" returns, goes, returns again changed, goes again permanently in some way, etc. It's a sweet, slow torture of melting the old coherency away into a new coherency, where you have to relearn to survive it.

Biggest advice after that, scale down threats to what you desire to explore. i.e. Want more mind-explodey circumstantial evidence, yet need to tone down the gun-play security blanket? Introduce confined spaces, darkness, incorporality, pierce immunity, high numbers, resurrection, etc. But you still have to "re-arm" your Investigators, because without any sense of hope, any adaption to pursue safety, people tend to shut down & go limp until the pain is over. So play up the power of Archaology, Accounting, Credit Rating, etc. whatever you see feeds into your desired mind-explodey revelations. Answer what sort of conflicts and solutions you prefer then work back into how to phrase the setups and questions -- like working a maze from the goal back out to the entrance.

So: Know Your Audience. Scale you Setup to Reflect your Desired Playstyle. and From Safety Ebb into Madness, While Still Leaving Hope. :cool:

It's not just RPGs where Cthulhu isn't scary. All those Arkham games from FFG, while often well written, aren't the slightest bit scary. The entire Mythos is so over exposed that it's about a threatening as Skeletor.

For RPGs, the game is further removed from actual fear when you start creating RPG characters; how they found out about Chthulhu, why they are fighting them, what secrets or weapons they have. You end up playing where instead of the GM making the players scared, the players are deciding if their character is scared. You have a bunch of players pretending to be scared which destroys any possibility of actual fear.

Quote from: GIMME SOME SUGAR;1106777Yeah, the shotgun seems to be the ultimate weapon of mass destruction in CoC. That and dynamite. There's this forum post about shotguns in CoC, and how effective they are against Mythos creatures.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=10197

Solution: Mythos creatures armed with shotguns.

Quote from: hedgehobbit;1106782It's not just RPGs where Cthulhu isn't scary. All those Arkham games from FFG, while often well written, aren't the slightest bit scary. The entire Mythos is so over exposed that it's about a threatening as Skeletor.

  I know Skeletor, I love Skeletor ... but I have to agree that he's rarely been threatening. And the Mythos is not only overexposed, but most of the people in the hobby think the described advent of the Great Old Ones something to be anticipated.

Quote from: danskmacabre;1106591For a CoC game to REALLY work and be kind of "Scary", both the Players and GM have to buy into it and immerse themselves into the RPG and situation.
I did play not that long ago in a CoC mini campaign and we all got right into it.
We refrained from the usual cracking of jokes you see in Dnd sessions and tried to stay in character and react as if it was real.

It was a lot of fun and whilst it was never truly "Scary" as in any of us as players "Scared", we were immersed in the game and felt the sense of urgency and RP of character fear.

It was a lot of fun.

I think this is a really good balance. I wouldn't want my horror games to actually be horrifying, because the players are no longer in full control of themselves, and thus no longer fully connected to the game.

I'm more on the Pulp side myself, with plenty of OOC nonsense allowed, but would definitely buy in fully to your kind of game, for a one-shot at least.

Quote from: Cave Bear;1106785Solution: Mythos creatures armed with shotguns.

Quote from: Opaopajr;1106781A lot of my CoC play experience has suffered from a sense of distancing because other players don't want to be there. But I like horror, and once I have a critical mass of fellows who buy-in we can have a great time! They tend to be either horror fans, and/or good at "unclenching" their needs for control, and/or enjoy immersion most.

I have a player who refuses to play CoC and horror gaming in general, although we played some Kult 1st edition back in the early 90's, but that was mostly because he loved his veteran cop character who didn't play by the rules, sort of a cross between an old George C Scott and Dirty Harry.

He also refuses to watch horror movies. I think it's because he actually gets scared. So I'm thinking, ideally, he would be a great horror rpg player, someone who could actually find scenarios a bit scary for real with the right ambience. But I would never sucker him into a horror scenario or try to convince him to play one. After all, roleplaying is about having fun in the end. But there have been moments in our fantasy gaming sessions where there have been some horror crossover moments, which has worked out ok for him. Maybe upcoming Swedish Chill can become his gateway to horror if it's more in the Hammer horror vein like the Pacesetter version was in the 80's. I don't think he would have too much problem playing some kind of capable Van Helsing character.

I can do weird, twisted and creepy pretty good as a GM/Keeper, but downright scary has never been achieved during a gaming session of mine I believe. It's hard now when we're all in our late 40's. But having ambient SFX and dark ambient, low key horror music has helped me these days to create a more immersive feeling. Back when we were young such tools weren't available really.

Quote from: hedgehobbit;1106782The entire Mythos is so over exposed that it's about a threatening as Skeletor.

Agreed. That's another reason I like Sine Nomine's SILENT LEGIONS. It includes interesting tools and ideas for creating your own unique "Mythos".

GIMME SOME SUGAR, that is very thoughtful to let your friend gracefully bow out without having to expose his discomfort. It is an important reminder that our insight and fluid social contract can tend for those we care about without "explicit confessionals," a la X Card or Consent Forms. Sometimes the explicit is helpful, but sometimes the implicit is helpful; there is no singular right answer when it comes to the form of shaping social dynamics.

Quote from: danskmacabre;1106591For a CoC game to REALLY work and be kind of "Scary", both the Players and GM have to buy into it and immerse themselves into the RPG and situation.

Yes.

Usually the DM works hard to build up dramatic tension. Then someone cracks a joke.