I'm making a short Dnd campaign that's horror themed. I titled it 'Salem' because it's heavily inspired. Though instead of witches, there's going to be a plague that's turning the inhabitants of a small religious town mental and violent.
I wanted to do a short horror themed dnd campaign, both because I love horror, and because I wanted to do a shorter campaign to work harder on my skills as a dm when it comes to mechanics and challenges over story. (I focus on story a lot more, which I want to fix)
So, does anyone have any tips about making a game where I talk and can't reply on jump scares, actually scary? Go wild with creativity, I don't mind doing voices or acting things out but that may just seem funny rather than scary. I have seriously been tempted to mess with the circuit breaker to make the lights shut off too. But some of my players will be over voice call only.
It would also be a great help for tips or ideas about challenges they could face, I love making puzzles but my players don't like solving them. So I'm trying to think of things other than fights that they could go against, without having to think super hard.
Read as many horror stories as you can, there is no better way to learn how to describe something than to learn from a master. Pick books you like, pick books that scared you. Here is a link with some tips on writing horror. https://www.nownovel.com/blog/how-to-write-horror-story-tips/
Something I learned a while back is that the imagination of the players will often be WAY more brutal than whatever you have planned for them.
In this respect, delay them actually seeing the bad guy for as long as possible. Not in a way that messes with them, but allow them to think they are utterly outmatched.
As an example, I had a group of 2nd level characters stop for the night in a village that seemed really friendly, but insight checks allowed some of the characters to realise they were being lied to, so they investigated the rest of the inn they were staying in and found the cellar, where there were dried bloody handprints on the wall, with scratch marks and then faint tracks that the expert tracker noticed were bare human feet, then something that was halfway towards a giant wolf print. Immediately, they're "omg werewolf - we can't fight that" and start making their way out of the cellar, but a good perception check catches the sound of heavy breathing outside. Players are now, "omg we've not even rested yet and are out of spells and no way we can fight a werewolf...."
Reality check - the tracks were from a druid shapechange, but the clues led them in a different direction.
Anyway, hopefully you get the idea - the unknown is often scarier than a large monster.
Fog can be scary.
Knowing that you can't escape can be scary (one of the things about Ravenloft).
Mood music sound fx and lighting can help. I scared my players once by slamming my hand on the table when something smashed into the ground in front of them. They were all startled because nothing like that had happened before. But you can't do things like that all the time or they will look for it.
Here's a site I started with. Look at the soundpads there, they have some music too but mostly for music I use my spotify account. There's a lot of ambient realms stuff there as well as many others. Have fun!
I actually have 3 apps on my phone for sounds of creatures and objects to add to the feeling when their PCs do not know what it is. It makes them think and sometimes we create more fear for ourselves when our minds wander. Plus I get into deep detail of locations, I make some sound affects myself, and look into movies and books. Plus you like puzzles, so think simplistic puzzles. Perhaps they have a key but the see no key hole, just a decent hand sized hole. As they reach in, the sounds of cogs or stones moving begin to echo through the wall, you feel dust fall upon your hand as this room has been untouched for so long, as you turn the key, a few clicks sound off and you feel the hole closing ever so slowly onto your hand. Do you keep turning, do you remove the key and your hand?? Or perhaps when you first reached in you felt something poking out from it and as you pull it out, you discover bones from a hand were locked in there with a key that looks faintly similar to yours, but with minor differences. You could also try and set a bag beside your leg with a few items to reach under the table to touch certain PCs or things of the sort.
Use your descriptions to make normal things (goblins, for example) sound scarier, such they maybe they aren't even sure they're goblins. Don't tell them they see a goblin, tell them they see small, beady red eyes in a round face of pock-marked green skin stretched over sharp cheekbones, and then the face ducks back behind a tree before they are surrounded by the sounds of chattering teeth from all sides.
There is a good intro section in Curse of Strahd that talks about how to add horror ambience to a game.
You might also consider checking out the 3rd edition book Heroes of Horror.
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"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
1. Our heroes have to care about the NPCs who suffer
2. Contrast. Horror is stronger when it exists in a story line that is varied in tone. e.g. for full effect, have a comedic scene degenerate suddenly into a horror scene There is no delight without despair, etc, etc.
3. Build tension. Hurt the ones they love. Then make them feel guilty about it. And make any victory the prelude to tragedy. ;-)
In a recent game in which I was a player, the GM did a great job of making a scary encounter by doing two things:
1) He had us encounter a creature that was clearly too powerful for us to face... and then had it choose not to attack us.
2) He focused on the ways that the creature's body was... off.
The creature in question was a rakshasa; he appeared in the middle of our camp while we were resting. Out of character I was already freaking out because I knew that we were not high enough level to face it and live. The DM also did a good job of giving players unfamiliar with rakshasas the impression that this creature was very very powerful. So we were all on pins and needles as we waited for the rakshasa to attack... but he didn't. He chatted with us. Unsure of what else to do, I offered him a cup of tea, which he accepted. The entire time, we were all wondering, why is he here? Is he going to kill us? What does he want? Not knowing the answer to those questions was terrifying!
The DM also spent time describing the rakshasa's hands. For those unfamiliar, imagine if you took your right and left hand and swapped them so your right hand was on your left arm, and vice versa. So, when his arms were relaxed at his sides, the rakshasa's palms faced outward, and his fingers curled backwards (from our perspective). That's a nice bit of body horror that isn't actually gory, and it did a great job of freaking everyone out.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
I definitely think body horror is a good way to freak out players! Describing limbs bending in ways they're not supposed to, or humanoids moving in very non-human ways (e.g. the ghosts in Ju-On) - perhaps with a bit of demonstration by the GM if you're able - is very unsettling.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Nat_30 That's a really good point. Every good horror story I've encountered has had something pertaining to body horror. Another aspect I think is good to scare players is making them feel guilty, and making body horror apply to someone they consider a friend (friendly npc or something of the sort) would place the unsettling fact that someone they know of is suffering.
I once played a game of the original version of Deadlands using poker chips and playing cards. The DM was amazing in that he really managed to convey a sense of terror and horror. I've tried to replicate that many, many times and yet I've always failed at it. I wish I knew the secret but whatever it is, it eludes me to this day.
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
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I'm making a short Dnd campaign that's horror themed. I titled it 'Salem' because it's heavily inspired. Though instead of witches, there's going to be a plague that's turning the inhabitants of a small religious town mental and violent.
I wanted to do a short horror themed dnd campaign, both because I love horror, and because I wanted to do a shorter campaign to work harder on my skills as a dm when it comes to mechanics and challenges over story. (I focus on story a lot more, which I want to fix)
So, does anyone have any tips about making a game where I talk and can't reply on jump scares, actually scary? Go wild with creativity, I don't mind doing voices or acting things out but that may just seem funny rather than scary. I have seriously been tempted to mess with the circuit breaker to make the lights shut off too. But some of my players will be over voice call only.
It would also be a great help for tips or ideas about challenges they could face, I love making puzzles but my players don't like solving them. So I'm trying to think of things other than fights that they could go against, without having to think super hard.
Read as many horror stories as you can, there is no better way to learn how to describe something than to learn from a master. Pick books you like, pick books that scared you. Here is a link with some tips on writing horror. https://www.nownovel.com/blog/how-to-write-horror-story-tips/
Cool idea. Totally agree to Omega_Dave, read as many as you can and let it inspire you. There was also an article from James Haeck about Horror Adventures with some tips here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/175-how-to-play-a-mind-flayer-like-an-eldritch-horror
I hope it will be really scary. Would be nice if you could tell us if it worked and what worked.
Then play at night in a dark room.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Something I learned a while back is that the imagination of the players will often be WAY more brutal than whatever you have planned for them.
In this respect, delay them actually seeing the bad guy for as long as possible. Not in a way that messes with them, but allow them to think they are utterly outmatched.
As an example, I had a group of 2nd level characters stop for the night in a village that seemed really friendly, but insight checks allowed some of the characters to realise they were being lied to, so they investigated the rest of the inn they were staying in and found the cellar, where there were dried bloody handprints on the wall, with scratch marks and then faint tracks that the expert tracker noticed were bare human feet, then something that was halfway towards a giant wolf print. Immediately, they're "omg werewolf - we can't fight that" and start making their way out of the cellar, but a good perception check catches the sound of heavy breathing outside. Players are now, "omg we've not even rested yet and are out of spells and no way we can fight a werewolf...."
Reality check - the tracks were from a druid shapechange, but the clues led them in a different direction.
Anyway, hopefully you get the idea - the unknown is often scarier than a large monster.
Fog can be scary.
Knowing that you can't escape can be scary (one of the things about Ravenloft).
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If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
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Mood music sound fx and lighting can help. I scared my players once by slamming my hand on the table when something smashed into the ground in front of them. They were all startled because nothing like that had happened before. But you can't do things like that all the time or they will look for it.
Mike
You and @Omega_Dave thought of something I didn't even think about! Appreciated. Everyone's so damn cool on this website.
Maybe I will :)
The hand slam is such a good one, maybe Ill download some sound effects!
That's a really good tip, made me think a lot
Here's a site I started with. Look at the soundpads there, they have some music too but mostly for music I use my spotify account. There's a lot of ambient realms stuff there as well as many others. Have fun!
https://tabletopaudio.com
Thanks dude! I'll check it out
I actually have 3 apps on my phone for sounds of creatures and objects to add to the feeling when their PCs do not know what it is. It makes them think and sometimes we create more fear for ourselves when our minds wander. Plus I get into deep detail of locations, I make some sound affects myself, and look into movies and books. Plus you like puzzles, so think simplistic puzzles. Perhaps they have a key but the see no key hole, just a decent hand sized hole. As they reach in, the sounds of cogs or stones moving begin to echo through the wall, you feel dust fall upon your hand as this room has been untouched for so long, as you turn the key, a few clicks sound off and you feel the hole closing ever so slowly onto your hand. Do you keep turning, do you remove the key and your hand?? Or perhaps when you first reached in you felt something poking out from it and as you pull it out, you discover bones from a hand were locked in there with a key that looks faintly similar to yours, but with minor differences. You could also try and set a bag beside your leg with a few items to reach under the table to touch certain PCs or things of the sort.
Use your descriptions to make normal things (goblins, for example) sound scarier, such they maybe they aren't even sure they're goblins. Don't tell them they see a goblin, tell them they see small, beady red eyes in a round face of pock-marked green skin stretched over sharp cheekbones, and then the face ducks back behind a tree before they are surrounded by the sounds of chattering teeth from all sides.
There is a good intro section in Curse of Strahd that talks about how to add horror ambience to a game.
You might also consider checking out the 3rd edition book Heroes of Horror.
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
1. Our heroes have to care about the NPCs who suffer
2. Contrast. Horror is stronger when it exists in a story line that is varied in tone. e.g. for full effect, have a comedic scene degenerate suddenly into a horror scene There is no delight without despair, etc, etc.
3. Build tension. Hurt the ones they love. Then make them feel guilty about it. And make any victory the prelude to tragedy. ;-)
Is me
In a recent game in which I was a player, the GM did a great job of making a scary encounter by doing two things:
1) He had us encounter a creature that was clearly too powerful for us to face... and then had it choose not to attack us.
2) He focused on the ways that the creature's body was... off.
The creature in question was a rakshasa; he appeared in the middle of our camp while we were resting. Out of character I was already freaking out because I knew that we were not high enough level to face it and live. The DM also did a good job of giving players unfamiliar with rakshasas the impression that this creature was very very powerful. So we were all on pins and needles as we waited for the rakshasa to attack... but he didn't. He chatted with us. Unsure of what else to do, I offered him a cup of tea, which he accepted. The entire time, we were all wondering, why is he here? Is he going to kill us? What does he want? Not knowing the answer to those questions was terrifying!
The DM also spent time describing the rakshasa's hands. For those unfamiliar, imagine if you took your right and left hand and swapped them so your right hand was on your left arm, and vice versa. So, when his arms were relaxed at his sides, the rakshasa's palms faced outward, and his fingers curled backwards (from our perspective). That's a nice bit of body horror that isn't actually gory, and it did a great job of freaking everyone out.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
I like the way you think
It's great to hear this advice from a player who witnessed it, thanks! I love body horror so hearing that got me excited to write it lol
I definitely think body horror is a good way to freak out players! Describing limbs bending in ways they're not supposed to, or humanoids moving in very non-human ways (e.g. the ghosts in Ju-On) - perhaps with a bit of demonstration by the GM if you're able - is very unsettling.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
Nat_30 That's a really good point. Every good horror story I've encountered has had something pertaining to body horror. Another aspect I think is good to scare players is making them feel guilty, and making body horror apply to someone they consider a friend (friendly npc or something of the sort) would place the unsettling fact that someone they know of is suffering.
hello
I once played a game of the original version of Deadlands using poker chips and playing cards. The DM was amazing in that he really managed to convey a sense of terror and horror. I've tried to replicate that many, many times and yet I've always failed at it. I wish I knew the secret but whatever it is, it eludes me to this day.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.