I'm trying to create my own Stranger Things mini-campaign/one-shot (original, I know), and I want to tease the Demogorgon, but not outright show it.
Something similar in the early episodes of the show, where you can only catch glimpses of the creature, or that you only see the havoc it's caused, or only hearing the sounds it makes. Something that would make the creature known, scary, but also unseen. What are some good ways to do that without railroading my players?
I don't want to do the obligatory, 'Oh, but your spell fizzles out before it would reach the creature as it scurries away' or something akin to that. I want genuine impossibility, something that would just have the players at a loss. Like, detect magic? There's nothing magical. Detect life? Nothing. I don't want to make it invulnerable to magic either, I want it to be defeatable, but I also want it to be feared before the players encounter it.
For example, if you're descending into Hell, you know eventually you'll have to deal with Lucifer once you get to it, but you see everything that he's done, everything that he's created on the way down, and it makes you even more afraid to fight the son of a gun. Each level of Hell has been increasing in difficulty and you know Lucifer is going to be the hardest, but you nearly TPK'd on the last fight. Will you even be able to make it to Him, nonetheless fight Him? That kind of tension, that unknown factor, the gaping, obvious possibility of defeat, what's the best way to encapsulate my players into that?
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I'm trying to create my own Stranger Things mini-campaign/one-shot (original, I know), and I want to tease the Demogorgon, but not outright show it.
Something similar in the early episodes of the show, where you can only catch glimpses of the creature, or that you only see the havoc it's caused, or only hearing the sounds it makes. Something that would make the creature known, scary, but also unseen. What are some good ways to do that without railroading my players?
I don't want to do the obligatory, 'Oh, but your spell fizzles out before it would reach the creature as it scurries away' or something akin to that. I want genuine impossibility, something that would just have the players at a loss. Like, detect magic? There's nothing magical. Detect life? Nothing. I don't want to make it invulnerable to magic either, I want it to be defeatable, but I also want it to be feared before the players encounter it.
For example, if you're descending into Hell, you know eventually you'll have to deal with Lucifer once you get to it, but you see everything that he's done, everything that he's created on the way down, and it makes you even more afraid to fight the son of a gun. Each level of Hell has been increasing in difficulty and you know Lucifer is going to be the hardest, but you nearly TPK'd on the last fight. Will you even be able to make it to Him, nonetheless fight Him? That kind of tension, that unknown factor, the gaping, obvious possibility of defeat, what's the best way to encapsulate my players into that?