So you've got some players for your horror game. The only drawback is that they are tough enough to bite the head off a rabid bear and openly laugh at anything Lovecraftian.
How would you go about scaring them during your scenario?

Announce:

 "WE're out of Mountain Dew !!! ""  

OR :

 "Thats the last cheetos bag!!"


- Ed C.

Quote from: AnthrobotSo you've got some players for your horror game. The only drawback is that they are tough enough to bite the head off a rabid bear and openly laugh at anything Lovecraftian.
How would you go about scaring them during your scenario?

That's a damned good question. I run across this problem from time to time. In my experience:

1. Players must want to feel the tension;
2. the apprehension is a result of uncertainty; and
3. utility breeds attachment.

First, if your group doesn't want participate in a horror game, there's not much you can do. They might play the game, but that's not the same as participation. But, if they're on board with a horror game, and they're willing to 'get into it' (by which I mean, they'll play characters that are creeped out or terrified, even if the players themselves aren't), then you can build the tension through uncertainty.

It's a lot easier to build dread when the characters don't know what's going on. In fact, one problem I've had with Call of Cthulhu is that my gaming group were very familiar with Lovecraft's writings, so I wound up inventing all kinds of additions to the Mythos in order to throw them off. By keeping the players guessing, you can build tension. Rather than tell them what they're up against, you can give them small pieces of a puzzle that gradually build up to something more threatening.

Third, I find that utility breeds attachment, and fear can be a result of losing something that one is attached to (a loved one, a body part, one's life). By creating utilitarian NPCs, which are valuable to the group because they represent something good and helpful, you can threaten the group's security by later removing those NPCs at inopportune times. For example, the group is working with an Army captain who accompanies them to the site, and says that he will provide backup. He radios his unit and requests reinforcements and additional weapons. Heavy stuff, like machineguns. However, when the group emerges from the cave, he's been killed and partially eaten. There's no sign of the promised reinforcements, and the jeep is gone.

The same tactic can be employed with assets and resources; if the players manage to get their hands on a book of forbidden knowledge, and attempt to use it in the heat of battle, they may then realize that essential pages are missing. It's particularly useful if there was some clue to this beforehand -- that realization that one has missed some crucial piece of information can be a real blow.

These days, most of the demons in my games are tied to the human condition; they prey on human innocence, or vice; they feed on suffering; they reflect the brutality and degradation that humans inflict on one another. This can also be a useful tool for building horror in your game, provided that it doesn't cross any lines for your group.

Good luck!

Just a few ideas from when I ran some horror scenarios for Exalted. I quickly found the golden rule was to keep the major threat 'off screen' for as long as I could.

In the meantime:

Keep throwing things at them that are slightly off key -- A woman who starts  screaming uncontrollably in the street for no reason. A flock of bird caracasses all mutilated in the same way. Recurring symbols graffitied in unusual locations. Anything where otherwise familiar people, places and things are behaving in abnormal way. The sort of disturbances you can't fight your way out of.

Attack what they know. Have the threat suborn, possess or seduce their friends and loved ones. Let them return to their HQ only to find it ransacked, maybe with the defiled corpse of one of their minor enemies left as a 'gift.'

Keep the motives unclear. It might seem as though the threat doesn't want to kill them, but in facts loves one of them. Alternatively it's plans could be unknowable, or only decipherable with vital clues and items. Keep them guessing, let the threat be known via the impact it's actions have on the game world rather than via an expositional dusty tome.

As the threat closes in keep the characters off balance. Deplete their resources with minion encounters. Never give them a chance to fully recover. Continually erode their health, wealth and sanity until the final confrontation, which they should face in a state of exhaustion. Never let up on the pressure.
By the time the showdown does occur they'll be fighting like rabid dogs just to stay in one piece.

Somebody asked a similar question a few weeks back, and there were some pretty good reponses. Check it out:

http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8615

Quote from: AnthrobotHow would you go about scaring them during your scenario?

Never explain, never apologize.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: AnthrobotSo you've got some players for your horror game. The only drawback is that they are tough enough to bite the head off a rabid bear and openly laugh at anything Lovecraftian.
How would you go about scaring them during your scenario?

I take a lesson from good horror movies, never show the beast - just give hints of its presence and its effect on the environment that the characters are in.

Quote from: AnthrobotHow would you go about scaring them during your scenario?

Give them the sense that they are out of control and in over their head.  For example, have them meet and travel with an NPC (so that they'll like them) that's as good as or as better than the PCs and then, taking a lesson from the Star Trek red shirts, have the PCs find that NPC mauled with a horrified look on their face or have them hear the screams before they find the body or even see the mauling take place (depending on what's doing the mauling -- I agree that it's best to not give them a clear look at the enemy).  An idea used by some GMs in my group, is to get one of the PCs to buy into helping the GM and have them get killed or otherwise taken control of at the beginning or middle of the game.  Nothing scares players like an unexpectedly dead PC, especially if they die quickly and can't do much about it.

WARNING: Some players may not enjoy this so make sure your players want to experience that sort of game.  So I second the caveat that the players need to want to play horror.

A few rounds from my Glock fired past their ears usually works...  

Oh, you mean IN GAME!

Ummm....

Announcing that only one character will survive the adventure, come hell or high water.  

No, seriously.  I wouldn't do that.  

Announce it, that is.

I'd let them feel it, though.

Quote from: RChandlerSomebody asked a similar question a few weeks back, and there were some pretty good reponses. Check it out:

http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8615

Thanks for the link, I can't have made my observation roll. There is are some excellent posts in the thread.

Thanks to everyone that responded to this question. There is much to think about and put into action the next time I run Shaded Veil.

Just pull out a shotgun, chamber a round, stick it in one player's face and pull the trigger. Then you pump and say "Who's next?" I guarantee there won't be a clean pair of underpants in the house.

Or did you mean characters? :O

-clash

It's impossible for me to get and really sense of fear in an RPG. That said, bad chicken tends to work.

This isn't really in the horror genre, but here's a method I use to scare players when we play D&D:

Have the party encounter a strange new monster they've never seen before rampaging across the countryside - say a green metal humanoid with a flame for a head, weilding a blazing halberd. Make the monster tough enough that the combined party has a serious fight taking it down. They have to use some of their best spells, the fighters take a lot of damage, etc.

Then let the party find its lair - where there are 7 or 10 of the creatures. That invariably inspires an 'oh shit' from the players.