I run a weekly homebrew game for six players, and over the last month I've slowly been sliding the tone of the campaign more into the horror category, with weirder monsters and darker plots. Everyone seems to be enjoying the new direction, so I'm not worried about that, but despite my goals of getting an 'Evil Dead' style sense of dread, we seem to keep landing on 'Army of Darkness' wackiness.
Just to be clear, I'm not bothered by this; it's extremely funny, and everyone has a good time laughing a lot, but I was just wondering if a serious and scary game is something other people have managed to sustain? I've pre-ordered RotFM and I'm excited to get a 2nd group together to DM this new campaign, and I did want to deliver the module in the tone for which it was written.
I don't know the module so I won't address that but I can give some pointers that adhere to classic horror moves.
Less is more. Focus on building the atmosphere and don't show many monsters.
When I'm watching horrors, the best ones have excellent buildup. Everything seems normal but there is this one thing that's off. A door that shouldn't be locked. A mirror that seems to reflect the viewer but not quite the same way. A sound that is hard to explain. As soon as the monster appears and it turns out it's just a beast or something alike, the feeling fades.
Also, players will never be very afraid if their characters can handle the encounters easily. If you do introduce a monster, make sure they work for it. There is no way around it - they must be spent after fighting a single or duet of monsters and then realize that there is more to come. Their response to another encounter shouldn't be "yay, let's roll initiative" but "holy shit let's run". And they have to care about their characters because otherwise how will they be afraid.
Also music. Good, creepy music helps. And sometimes it stops, leaving absolute silence. Then shit goes down.
I've been in a good horror themed adventure. The important elements were as follows;
* Don't show what the "monster" is until at the end. The build-up is great when the party doesn't know what the threat is.
* This is the rare adventure where splitting the party is a good thing. Especially if there is even the brief moment where the party does not know if one of their group has died.
* Use classic horror movie cliches. Imagine doing a divination at night to find where a monster is and determining what you are looking for is within 100 feet of you!
* The misdirect is a great plot device. Allow the party to defeat what they think is the BBEG, only to find that they were wrong.
Unfortunately, if you're in mid-career Bruce Campbell territory, the only way back to early career Bruce Campbell territory is to kill a few characters.
If you're happy with where your campaign is at, and you feel no urge to switch tones, awesome.
If you want to start a second group off doing horror, not horror-comedy, there are a few things you can do. One, make sure your players know that a horror game is supposed to be a little more tense than a normal heroic game. They've all seen a scary movie before and they all know what that means. Two, make sure that the characters know that the monsters are going to try to kill them and you're not going to intervene on their behalf. Never be a bad DM, always give them a fair break, but whatever little gestures of kindness and comity you usually extend, limit them. Three, don't let table talk or decision-making paralysis take over your game time. Force the players to make decisions quickly. Four, separate them once in a while just to let paranoia sink in. Five, if someone dies, when someone dies, make it cool. This isn't Saving Private Ryan, and you're not supposed to get overwhelmed and numbed by the horror. You're supposed to ride the crest of the wave. In a horror game, every party member killed is a precious opportunity. It ought to be memorable. Not heroic, necessarily, but memorable. Like when the completely random girl gets bisected by falling glass in Suspiria.
In terms of RotFM, I gather it's sort of an Arctic isolation and paranoia thing with maybe a splash of Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness. Use descriptive language so that they feel the oppressive nature of an environment that is literally trying to suck away their life energy. Autumn is arriving in the Northern hemisphere and the shortening days always mess with peoples' heads. Ask them to consider a world where the days are four hours long. Maybe read an arctic survival story like Endurance as homework. Maybe throw them a curveball by being really strict about paying attention to rations as they travel through this endlessly brutal landscape.
A lot of horror is about atmosphere. Dim the lights, play creepy music, and use that low, just-above-a-whisper monotone narration voice. Remember, you can’t do jump scares in tabletop games, so don’t try. Focus on building tension.
Ultimately, though, it’s down to player buy-in. I’ve had at least one horror RPG where everyone was on the edge of their seat and a couple screamed...but that was because everyone chose to get into the creepy feel. If your players don’t want horror, you can’t create horror, so talk to them about the darker tone.
P.S. That game I mentioned was a one-shot using the Dread system. If you and your players are confident enough to work with a more freeform RPG, I literally can’t recommend it enough. It was the hardest game I’ve ever run, both prep-wise and emotionally, but it was worth it.
Give the players a look at what the [insert horror enemy] can do without letting them see the enemy itself. Let them come upon a crime scene or ruined inn. Perhaps everyone is simply missing but there are clues that something terrible happened. Or perhaps there is carnage everywhere but the clues as to whodunnit point in multiple or conflicting directions. Perhaps there were survivors... a child hidden under a bed, or a cowardly guard who locked himself in a wine cellar... let these NPCs provide eyewitness testimony, but feel free to color it with the fears and superstitions of the NPC. Perhaps the testimony will help or perhaps not... but it should let the players see how scared these people are and let that fear bleed into your players.
Perhaps the locals know better than to go out at night. Don't just tell the players that. If there is a friendly NPC, have them BEG the players not to venture out.
Let them see how the horror changes people. Perhaps an reoccurring NPC that the players know and like returns after encountering the horror. This person is changed by his/her experience...
The evil is not afraid of the heroes. Give them little clues that the horror is watching them... testing them... luring them. It wants them to find it... its waiting for just the right moment...
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PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM -(Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown *Red Dead Annihilation: ToA *Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
These are all really great suggestions from everyone, thanks! Some of the pieces if advice given I've tried out, and it's made a better gaming session already. However, I think if I want to successfully turn the ship around and go for a different mood with my current group I need to probably start a new campaign and let them know in session zero that we're not playing the same sort of game as we were before. The associations of what our 'D&D night' is all about has become fairly rooted in hi-jinks and absurdity, so I might just need to make peace with that.
As far as throwing scary (deadly) monsters at them, I did have a follow up question (which could probably be its own thread). I could use some advice on how to let my players know when they are supposed (or even able to) to flee from a fight they are not ready for. For better or worse (I think worse?), they've come to trust me in only throwing encounters at them that they're actually able to overcome. Probably because that's always what I've done so far. Reading over RotFM I'm a little bit nervous with some encounters which seem to require players to know when they're outmatched and make the judgement call to run. So far we've only played LMoP and home-brew, where every encounter is balanced for their levels, so pulling a fast one with an overpowered monster for the first time will feel like something of a betrayal of their trust.
While I've been avoidant of killing my players characters in the past I'd like to start easing off with the kid gloves going forward, but I really don't want to do that by giving them a TPK, or actually telling them "you should honestly run away". One weakness I feel the game has is that its extremely difficult for inexperienced players to correctly gauge how much of a threat a foe might be, and the heroic nature of both this game and RPGs in general tends to only mean 'bigger foreboding = greater glory', rather than existential danger. I can't really blame players for not knowing when they're destined for a stomping.
I'm guessing that this just needs to be an out-of-game conversation with them where I'll say 'going forward you're likelier to encounter things you'll want to escape from instead of fight, but I'm interested in what red flags others throw up to their players when they're trying to signal that they are outmatched.
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I run a weekly homebrew game for six players, and over the last month I've slowly been sliding the tone of the campaign more into the horror category, with weirder monsters and darker plots. Everyone seems to be enjoying the new direction, so I'm not worried about that, but despite my goals of getting an 'Evil Dead' style sense of dread, we seem to keep landing on 'Army of Darkness' wackiness.
Just to be clear, I'm not bothered by this; it's extremely funny, and everyone has a good time laughing a lot, but I was just wondering if a serious and scary game is something other people have managed to sustain? I've pre-ordered RotFM and I'm excited to get a 2nd group together to DM this new campaign, and I did want to deliver the module in the tone for which it was written.
I don't know the module so I won't address that but I can give some pointers that adhere to classic horror moves.
Less is more. Focus on building the atmosphere and don't show many monsters.
When I'm watching horrors, the best ones have excellent buildup. Everything seems normal but there is this one thing that's off. A door that shouldn't be locked. A mirror that seems to reflect the viewer but not quite the same way. A sound that is hard to explain. As soon as the monster appears and it turns out it's just a beast or something alike, the feeling fades.
Also, players will never be very afraid if their characters can handle the encounters easily. If you do introduce a monster, make sure they work for it. There is no way around it - they must be spent after fighting a single or duet of monsters and then realize that there is more to come. Their response to another encounter shouldn't be "yay, let's roll initiative" but "holy shit let's run". And they have to care about their characters because otherwise how will they be afraid.
Also music. Good, creepy music helps. And sometimes it stops, leaving absolute silence. Then shit goes down.
This is how I would do it.
I've been in a good horror themed adventure. The important elements were as follows;
* Don't show what the "monster" is until at the end. The build-up is great when the party doesn't know what the threat is.
* This is the rare adventure where splitting the party is a good thing. Especially if there is even the brief moment where the party does not know if one of their group has died.
* Use classic horror movie cliches. Imagine doing a divination at night to find where a monster is and determining what you are looking for is within 100 feet of you!
* The misdirect is a great plot device. Allow the party to defeat what they think is the BBEG, only to find that they were wrong.
Unfortunately, if you're in mid-career Bruce Campbell territory, the only way back to early career Bruce Campbell territory is to kill a few characters.
If you're happy with where your campaign is at, and you feel no urge to switch tones, awesome.
If you want to start a second group off doing horror, not horror-comedy, there are a few things you can do. One, make sure your players know that a horror game is supposed to be a little more tense than a normal heroic game. They've all seen a scary movie before and they all know what that means. Two, make sure that the characters know that the monsters are going to try to kill them and you're not going to intervene on their behalf. Never be a bad DM, always give them a fair break, but whatever little gestures of kindness and comity you usually extend, limit them. Three, don't let table talk or decision-making paralysis take over your game time. Force the players to make decisions quickly. Four, separate them once in a while just to let paranoia sink in. Five, if someone dies, when someone dies, make it cool. This isn't Saving Private Ryan, and you're not supposed to get overwhelmed and numbed by the horror. You're supposed to ride the crest of the wave. In a horror game, every party member killed is a precious opportunity. It ought to be memorable. Not heroic, necessarily, but memorable. Like when the completely random girl gets bisected by falling glass in Suspiria.
In terms of RotFM, I gather it's sort of an Arctic isolation and paranoia thing with maybe a splash of Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness. Use descriptive language so that they feel the oppressive nature of an environment that is literally trying to suck away their life energy. Autumn is arriving in the Northern hemisphere and the shortening days always mess with peoples' heads. Ask them to consider a world where the days are four hours long. Maybe read an arctic survival story like Endurance as homework. Maybe throw them a curveball by being really strict about paying attention to rations as they travel through this endlessly brutal landscape.
I can not recommend this enough.
https://petersengames.com/the-games-shop/cthulhu-mythos-for-5e-pdf/
...cryptographic randomness!
A lot of horror is about atmosphere. Dim the lights, play creepy music, and use that low, just-above-a-whisper monotone narration voice. Remember, you can’t do jump scares in tabletop games, so don’t try. Focus on building tension.
Ultimately, though, it’s down to player buy-in. I’ve had at least one horror RPG where everyone was on the edge of their seat and a couple screamed...but that was because everyone chose to get into the creepy feel. If your players don’t want horror, you can’t create horror, so talk to them about the darker tone.
P.S. That game I mentioned was a one-shot using the Dread system. If you and your players are confident enough to work with a more freeform RPG, I literally can’t recommend it enough. It was the hardest game I’ve ever run, both prep-wise and emotionally, but it was worth it.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Give the players a look at what the [insert horror enemy] can do without letting them see the enemy itself. Let them come upon a crime scene or ruined inn. Perhaps everyone is simply missing but there are clues that something terrible happened. Or perhaps there is carnage everywhere but the clues as to whodunnit point in multiple or conflicting directions. Perhaps there were survivors... a child hidden under a bed, or a cowardly guard who locked himself in a wine cellar... let these NPCs provide eyewitness testimony, but feel free to color it with the fears and superstitions of the NPC. Perhaps the testimony will help or perhaps not... but it should let the players see how scared these people are and let that fear bleed into your players.
Perhaps the locals know better than to go out at night. Don't just tell the players that. If there is a friendly NPC, have them BEG the players not to venture out.
Let them see how the horror changes people. Perhaps an reoccurring NPC that the players know and like returns after encountering the horror. This person is changed by his/her experience...
The evil is not afraid of the heroes. Give them little clues that the horror is watching them... testing them... luring them. It wants them to find it... its waiting for just the right moment...
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM - (Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown * Red Dead Annihilation: ToA * Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
These are all really great suggestions from everyone, thanks! Some of the pieces if advice given I've tried out, and it's made a better gaming session already. However, I think if I want to successfully turn the ship around and go for a different mood with my current group I need to probably start a new campaign and let them know in session zero that we're not playing the same sort of game as we were before. The associations of what our 'D&D night' is all about has become fairly rooted in hi-jinks and absurdity, so I might just need to make peace with that.
As far as throwing scary (deadly) monsters at them, I did have a follow up question (which could probably be its own thread). I could use some advice on how to let my players know when they are supposed (or even able to) to flee from a fight they are not ready for. For better or worse (I think worse?), they've come to trust me in only throwing encounters at them that they're actually able to overcome. Probably because that's always what I've done so far. Reading over RotFM I'm a little bit nervous with some encounters which seem to require players to know when they're outmatched and make the judgement call to run. So far we've only played LMoP and home-brew, where every encounter is balanced for their levels, so pulling a fast one with an overpowered monster for the first time will feel like something of a betrayal of their trust.
While I've been avoidant of killing my players characters in the past I'd like to start easing off with the kid gloves going forward, but I really don't want to do that by giving them a TPK, or actually telling them "you should honestly run away". One weakness I feel the game has is that its extremely difficult for inexperienced players to correctly gauge how much of a threat a foe might be, and the heroic nature of both this game and RPGs in general tends to only mean 'bigger foreboding = greater glory', rather than existential danger. I can't really blame players for not knowing when they're destined for a stomping.
I'm guessing that this just needs to be an out-of-game conversation with them where I'll say 'going forward you're likelier to encounter things you'll want to escape from instead of fight, but I'm interested in what red flags others throw up to their players when they're trying to signal that they are outmatched.