tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727301007280965202.post8523074688153021237..comments2024-02-25T08:15:34.559-05:00Comments on The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope: First Time FrightMichael Curtishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13217338828086458862noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727301007280965202.post-16317369839015848532009-05-08T10:55:00.000-04:002009-05-08T10:55:00.000-04:00Thanks Mike! Nice that you granted my request.
It...Thanks Mike! Nice that you granted my request.<br /><br />It do sound like a session to remember. <br /><br />I've found that player buy-in is the most important thing in a horror game, and taking the game "home" like that must be a very good way to get some buy-in almost at once. Cool!<br /><br />In my latest <A HREF="http://theomnipotenteye.blogspot.com/2009/05/playing-dungeon-of-voorand-lure-of.html" REL="nofollow">session</A> I managed to invoke a sense of dread and wariness just by describing skeletal guardians of a tomb. I didn't expect the players to be scared, or do anything but a well planned attack (it is a S&S game after all, and plundering graves is part of that). But, <I>player expectations</I> did the work for me and put images in their heads of a danger far worse than I could have conjured. I only wish it had been intentional, and that I might recreate that when actually playing a horror game.AndreasDavourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17170806742393291962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727301007280965202.post-88484638366953255462009-05-07T12:41:00.000-04:002009-05-07T12:41:00.000-04:00Inspired by your post, I put a dark pit at the bac...Inspired by your post, I put a dark pit at the back of a brigands' hideaway cavern in a D&D game last night. Shortly before the party arrived, ghouls had come up through the pit and killed and ate some of the brigands, dragged some others down the pit, and left two of them wandering around the caverns mad. <br /><br />After the characters encountered the babbling brigands and turned two feasting ghouls away from a corpse, I was surprised to see the party become so creeped out by the whole scene they had no desire go into the pit. They left the cavern and went back to town without following the bloody drag marks into the humid stench below. Wow!Bob Reedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12073807225519106277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727301007280965202.post-45048351569602773562009-05-07T11:45:00.000-04:002009-05-07T11:45:00.000-04:00Thanks for the story. :D Your post reminds me of s...Thanks for the story. :D Your post reminds me of several horror game sessions I've been in over the years. The best ones always kept the game setting and environment very close to home, so to speak: people and places that seemed familiar (if not lifted directly from our experiences), weather in-game being very similar to that right outside the window, etc. (And a few were even played in locations that were believed to be haunted. I'm a <I>huge</I> skeptic when it comes to that sort of thing, but I'm quite sure there was something freaky going on at a couple of them - and that sort of unsettling atmosphere makes for a great horror game.)<br /><br />As I said in a comment on your "Quiet Fear" post, there are a lot of how-to's with good tips for running horror games (tease the players, isolate the PC's, endanger friendly NPC's, make the familiar seem strange, etc.) but sometimes it's the little touches - like playing on a windy night in a fairly remote location, for example - that really make a game creepy enough to be worth remembering...<br /><br />[BTW Joseph: There are some good GMing tips, IIRC, in <I>Call of Cthulhu</I> fifth edition, Mayfair's edition of <I>Chill</I>, <I>GURPS Horror</I> (both second and third editions, I think - but third edition, definitely). There was also a great thread on the RPG.net forum, which seems to be down at the moment - I had it bookmarked as <A HREF="http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=59266" REL="nofollow">being here</A> though.]Christopher Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17368794259249607299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727301007280965202.post-21174427682797969262009-05-06T22:45:00.000-04:002009-05-06T22:45:00.000-04:00That's really an awesome story. Took me back to my...That's really an awesome story. Took me back to my pre-RPG days and that "stick a knife in the grave" story that we all heard as kids.<br /><br />I would love to hear how you distill that experience down into practical DMing advice.Josephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01355324231111953098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727301007280965202.post-51445600818626070302009-05-06T18:01:00.000-04:002009-05-06T18:01:00.000-04:00Call of Cthulhu is my game of choice, and the firs...<I>Call of Cthulhu</I> is my game of choice, and the first time I played it was in a small, old, house out in the country, far from any street lights and other signs of urban life. The scenario was, of course, "The Haunting" and it really got to my fifteen-year-old self.<br /><br />Nowadays, I'm running the game after a long time away, and my current campaign has been made up of original creatures, exactly so no one falls into the "nightgaunt syndrome" you describe.<br /><br />Great post, great story. Thanks!thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4727301007280965202.post-53253661849401336852009-05-06T15:47:00.000-04:002009-05-06T15:47:00.000-04:00That's a really good story. Thanks for sharing it....That's a really good story. Thanks for sharing it. Definitely took me along with you for the ride, and I think I would have been running past that house. :DMichael S/Chgowizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052820400496340137noreply@blogger.com