Hey, sort of new DM here! As you can probably tell by the title, I'm running a horror game, which I've heard can be a bit of a tall order in DnD because of the way the game works.
I'm specifically interested in running either an online VC campaign, or a Play-by-Post on here (cause those seem cool) with some of my friends, so a lot of the tips I've seen from outside resources include things like atmosphere and jump scares, which isn't entirely possible in an online setting.
Does anyone have any tips? Anything relating to tension-building, plot, and how to make people more unnerved than outright frightened would be best but I'm open to anything and everything! And if you've run a horror game in an online format, tell me how it went. Thanks!
I've run VC horror campaigns for three years. A lot of the creepiness comes from how you describe what the party deals with, as well as the monsters you use, the ambiance you build, and the nature of the plot.
One trick I used to heighten tension was to lean into the players' expectations that something terrible was lurking/watching/following/waiting...and absolutely refuse to confirm or deny it right away. You get so much mileage out of players scaring themselves. Make them imagine what nasty monster is making that rattling breathing sound, and keep narrating it even after they continuously fail to identify the direction it's coming from. Give them disturbing visions that may or may not be happening. Make torches in an abandoned temple slowly start to burn green. Do weird stuff so they know something is off, and delay giving them the reasons why it's happening. Their imaginations will supply plenty of fear material for you.
Tropes are your friend, too. Creepy child. Disembodied laughter. Feeling of being watched. Statues weeping blood. Living dolls. Body swapping. This stuff lives in the collective consciousness, and if you introduce it in the right places, it can really add to the horror. If you play over voice chat, you can introduce ambient music to set the atmosphere. For PbP, you can post visuals to help players picture weird or scary creatures/NPCs/locales. Being an online DM doesn't have to limit you at all.
If you haven't already, read the introduction of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. It's got some fantastic advice about how to run horror, as well as what kinds of horror you can explore. Also, Tomb of Annihilation is a pretty horror-filled module that may also give you some inspiration. I played that twice, both as a PbP. It's absolutely possible to inject true horror and fear into online games, and I wish you luck as you start your own!
You could read Lovecraft. He doesn't rely on jump-scares, gore, etc. It's a type of psychological horror, based in existential dread on a cosmic scale. It may give you some ideas you can use in your game.
I've been working on a set of DM tools for running a horror game for a while, I hope to try and playtest it soon!
The premise I am working off of is that the players feel heroic in D&D, which is why horror games often fail - they will just try to kill the first monster which turns up, and if they were supposed to run, so endeth the game.
I think that the reason that players feel heroic, aside from having a heroic character, is that they feel in control. And the goal I have for a horror game is to remove some of their control, without removing their agency. And that's a fine line to walk.
One of the things I would like to do is make them feel lost. To that end I have a room full of fog which slows you down, so if you move 30ft. to cross the room, you don't make it to the other side of the room.
Another I am considering as a major mechanic is that they are not aware of the damage they have taken until after a combat. I will ask for their HP when the combat starts, and keep track of it for them, and then tell them after the fight. This way thye can heal between efficiently, but they have no way of knowing for certain how close to death they are during the fight, so will take less risks.
I'm also homebrewing a load of incredibly creepy monsters, which I hope will really freak them out!
ThorukDuckSlayer, can I nab that statblock for the Shadowstalker? Those seem really awesome and would fit really well with what I've got planned so far! If not that's alright.
How do I know if I'm taking away my players' agency when putting them in situations they have little to no control over? I obviously don't want to railroad, but I find I have a hard time making those calls cause I'm not a PC all that often.
ThorukDuckSlayer, can I nab that statblock for the Shadowstalker? Those seem really awesome and would fit really well with what I've got planned so far! If not that's alright.
How do I know if I'm taking away my players' agency when putting them in situations they have little to no control over? I obviously don't want to railroad, but I find I have a hard time making those calls cause I'm not a PC all that often.
As long as you let me know how the Shadowstalker works out!
The thing to remember is that Agency is the players ability to make meaningful decisions. As soon as you decide "It doesn't matter what they do, the floor will drop from under them in 3 rounds" or if you say "I want the big bad to do their thing, so they're going to succeed on every save against hold person" then you've removed the effect from the cause & effect loop - and you've railroaded them.
So examples of not removing agency would be to remove senses - which is what the shadowstalker is doing. The player still has every decision to make, but the information they are getting is being lost - they might be blinded or simply lost in the dark. Similarly with the Shadowstalkers, the party is aware that there is something in the darkness. When it slays a character, the shadowstalker also dies - but the party doesn't know that. Is it inside of them? Do they need to perform an exorcism?
The Fog Room is another example - they can see the room is 60ft. across, so they step down into the fog, and walk 60ft - and they're still in the fog. Every time they turn, you roll to see which way they end up facing. They aren't actually lost, they're just walking slowly around a fog-filled room. They just don't realise that every 30ft. of movement is only 10ft. of movement. That's a removal of knowledge, not agency.
The most important thing is that you don't get overly attached to your ideas - let the players plans stick. For example:
"I will put a scary mummy behind the door to make them turn around and run!"
Cleric: "Aah! a Mummy! I cast Turn Undead!".
Now, the temptation is to say "It doesn't flee", but players should be rewarded for using their abilities with the abilities still working as normal - roll the save and see if he does run. Deciding that he doesn't run is removing their agency, because the rules said the spell did something, so they used it expecting it to work.
I had a boss fight go south, which I just recovered thanks to the chaos around them. One player cast Hold Monster on the boss, and he failed. Then they were all set to just kill him, so the loose rhino happened to demolish the building below them and let him escape. It was tense, and if they had caught him then they would have killed him, but luckily for him, he knew his way around better than them, and they had just released loads of monsters. I could have said "he passes the save", but it was more rewarding for the Hold Monster to work like it was supposed to! And in the end, the dude still got away! (just!)
Will do! I'm leaning more into making this adventure a PbP, so you might be able to take a look yourself if I do!
I don't think I've ever heard the difference between agency and control phrased that way. So I can take away information and the players access to knowledge as much as I want (within reason), as long as they can still make the choices they want to and have it all work the way it should?
Will do! I'm leaning more into making this adventure a PbP, so you might be able to take a look yourself if I do!
I don't think I've ever heard the difference between agency and control phrased that way. So I can take away information and the players access to knowledge as much as I want (within reason), as long as they can still make the choices they want to and have it all work the way it should?
As long as it makes sense to do so, yes, I would say so.
For example, saying "the room is filled with thick fog, you don't see the trip wire before it's too late" is ok, because there's a reason for them to not see it. Saying "You walk into the room and you hit a tripwire" will result in players saying "I have passive perception of 18, would I have seen the tripwire?". You have to make sure that you narrate what they do see, rather than omit things you don't want them to see.
Make sure you don't just omit details, otherwise the players will not enjoy the experience!
Hey, sort of new DM here! As you can probably tell by the title, I'm running a horror game, which I've heard can be a bit of a tall order in DnD because of the way the game works.
I'm specifically interested in running either an online VC campaign, or a Play-by-Post on here (cause those seem cool) with some of my friends, so a lot of the tips I've seen from outside resources include things like atmosphere and jump scares, which isn't entirely possible in an online setting.
Does anyone have any tips? Anything relating to tension-building, plot, and how to make people more unnerved than outright frightened would be best but I'm open to anything and everything! And if you've run a horror game in an online format, tell me how it went. Thanks!
What's this do?
I've run VC horror campaigns for three years. A lot of the creepiness comes from how you describe what the party deals with, as well as the monsters you use, the ambiance you build, and the nature of the plot.
One trick I used to heighten tension was to lean into the players' expectations that something terrible was lurking/watching/following/waiting...and absolutely refuse to confirm or deny it right away. You get so much mileage out of players scaring themselves. Make them imagine what nasty monster is making that rattling breathing sound, and keep narrating it even after they continuously fail to identify the direction it's coming from. Give them disturbing visions that may or may not be happening. Make torches in an abandoned temple slowly start to burn green. Do weird stuff so they know something is off, and delay giving them the reasons why it's happening. Their imaginations will supply plenty of fear material for you.
Tropes are your friend, too. Creepy child. Disembodied laughter. Feeling of being watched. Statues weeping blood. Living dolls. Body swapping. This stuff lives in the collective consciousness, and if you introduce it in the right places, it can really add to the horror. If you play over voice chat, you can introduce ambient music to set the atmosphere. For PbP, you can post visuals to help players picture weird or scary creatures/NPCs/locales. Being an online DM doesn't have to limit you at all.
If you haven't already, read the introduction of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. It's got some fantastic advice about how to run horror, as well as what kinds of horror you can explore. Also, Tomb of Annihilation is a pretty horror-filled module that may also give you some inspiration. I played that twice, both as a PbP. It's absolutely possible to inject true horror and fear into online games, and I wish you luck as you start your own!
You could read Lovecraft. He doesn't rely on jump-scares, gore, etc. It's a type of psychological horror, based in existential dread on a cosmic scale. It may give you some ideas you can use in your game.
FayetteGamer - I was going to suggest that myself, Lovecraft works well in nearly any genre of game, be it Fantasy or science based.
Cats go Moo!
I've been working on a set of DM tools for running a horror game for a while, I hope to try and playtest it soon!
The premise I am working off of is that the players feel heroic in D&D, which is why horror games often fail - they will just try to kill the first monster which turns up, and if they were supposed to run, so endeth the game.
I think that the reason that players feel heroic, aside from having a heroic character, is that they feel in control. And the goal I have for a horror game is to remove some of their control, without removing their agency. And that's a fine line to walk.
One of the things I would like to do is make them feel lost. To that end I have a room full of fog which slows you down, so if you move 30ft. to cross the room, you don't make it to the other side of the room.
Another I am considering as a major mechanic is that they are not aware of the damage they have taken until after a combat. I will ask for their HP when the combat starts, and keep track of it for them, and then tell them after the fight. This way thye can heal between efficiently, but they have no way of knowing for certain how close to death they are during the fight, so will take less risks.
I'm also homebrewing a load of incredibly creepy monsters, which I hope will really freak them out!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Do share!
Well there's these, which start off as a bad pun but have capacity, in swarms to make the party really have to think hard about what to do!
Then there's these horrbile things in the dark:
which would give any players cause to flee.
And then there's something even worse, which I am keeping under my hat for now ;)
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
This is all super helpful, thanks!
ThorukDuckSlayer, can I nab that statblock for the Shadowstalker? Those seem really awesome and would fit really well with what I've got planned so far! If not that's alright.
How do I know if I'm taking away my players' agency when putting them in situations they have little to no control over? I obviously don't want to railroad, but I find I have a hard time making those calls cause I'm not a PC all that often.
What's this do?
As long as you let me know how the Shadowstalker works out!
The thing to remember is that Agency is the players ability to make meaningful decisions. As soon as you decide "It doesn't matter what they do, the floor will drop from under them in 3 rounds" or if you say "I want the big bad to do their thing, so they're going to succeed on every save against hold person" then you've removed the effect from the cause & effect loop - and you've railroaded them.
So examples of not removing agency would be to remove senses - which is what the shadowstalker is doing. The player still has every decision to make, but the information they are getting is being lost - they might be blinded or simply lost in the dark. Similarly with the Shadowstalkers, the party is aware that there is something in the darkness. When it slays a character, the shadowstalker also dies - but the party doesn't know that. Is it inside of them? Do they need to perform an exorcism?
The Fog Room is another example - they can see the room is 60ft. across, so they step down into the fog, and walk 60ft - and they're still in the fog. Every time they turn, you roll to see which way they end up facing. They aren't actually lost, they're just walking slowly around a fog-filled room. They just don't realise that every 30ft. of movement is only 10ft. of movement. That's a removal of knowledge, not agency.
The most important thing is that you don't get overly attached to your ideas - let the players plans stick. For example:
"I will put a scary mummy behind the door to make them turn around and run!"
Cleric: "Aah! a Mummy! I cast Turn Undead!".
Now, the temptation is to say "It doesn't flee", but players should be rewarded for using their abilities with the abilities still working as normal - roll the save and see if he does run. Deciding that he doesn't run is removing their agency, because the rules said the spell did something, so they used it expecting it to work.
I had a boss fight go south, which I just recovered thanks to the chaos around them. One player cast Hold Monster on the boss, and he failed. Then they were all set to just kill him, so the loose rhino happened to demolish the building below them and let him escape. It was tense, and if they had caught him then they would have killed him, but luckily for him, he knew his way around better than them, and they had just released loads of monsters. I could have said "he passes the save", but it was more rewarding for the Hold Monster to work like it was supposed to! And in the end, the dude still got away! (just!)
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Will do! I'm leaning more into making this adventure a PbP, so you might be able to take a look yourself if I do!
I don't think I've ever heard the difference between agency and control phrased that way. So I can take away information and the players access to knowledge as much as I want (within reason), as long as they can still make the choices they want to and have it all work the way it should?
What's this do?
As long as it makes sense to do so, yes, I would say so.
For example, saying "the room is filled with thick fog, you don't see the trip wire before it's too late" is ok, because there's a reason for them to not see it. Saying "You walk into the room and you hit a tripwire" will result in players saying "I have passive perception of 18, would I have seen the tripwire?". You have to make sure that you narrate what they do see, rather than omit things you don't want them to see.
Make sure you don't just omit details, otherwise the players will not enjoy the experience!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
That makes a lot of sense. And super helpful! Thanks!
What's this do?