A how-to for aspiring DM's for writing horror campaigns in any roleplaying system. This is a classic piece of advice from a long out of print gaming magazine.
A how-to for aspiring DM's for writing horror campaigns in any roleplaying system. This is a classic piece of advice from a long out of print gaming magazine.
A how-to for aspiring DM's for writing horror campaigns in any roleplaying system. This is a classic piece of advice from a long out of print gaming magazine.
The Game Wizards
What you don’t know will scare you in RAVENLOFT™ campaigns
by Bruce Nesmith
Dungeon Master:*You are walking
through the tunnel of bones whem the
spot beneath you erupts and [ehecking a
die roll knocks you off your feet. Over a
‘dozen large, undulating, inseclike eres.
‘ures pour out, snapping and erushing the
dry bones like twigs. Each monster is as
Jong as your arm, with a sickly yellow
fluld dripping from its mandibles. As you
lay there, ane slithers over your leg and
‘goes for your jaca!
Player: “Quick! Let's got out of here! 1
attempt to fling the thing off of me and
run back down the tunnel. We need a plan
and some heavy firepower to deal with
these things.
‘This isa short rendition, loosely trans
Jated, from @ RAVENLOFT™ game demon.
stration run st the 1990 GEN CON game
fair this year. The players were seared out
of their minds by—yes, folks—giant cent
pedes, Bach was a double sized (2" lon)
jiant centipede, with hp, doing 2 hp.
damage per bite (plus « weak avid) There
‘were 10 of them. A single blow from most
‘weapons could kill ono of those ravening
{errors of the tunnel of bones
How could the players have been fooled
by such an encounter? Actually, it was
‘easy, The GM lied. Yes, he intentionally
deceived the party; He described the cent:
ppedes as being as long as the player’ arm
‘about long, instead of giving their real
length of 2 And he said that there were
‘over a dozen of thom, when in fact there
were just under a dozen,
Deception is just one of several methods
that can be used to frighten the plavers in
‘Your RAVENLOFT campaign. Chapter XV
of the RAVENLOFT rules set describes
several techniques of terror Most of those
are on the grand scale, usaful when do
signing an adventure or eampaiga, This
article will address the specific wlements of
hhow to run a single encounter to scare the
players,
lease notice hat I am not concerned
‘with scaring the eharaeters, but rather the
players. Characters are easy to soare. The
DM merely rolls some dice and announces
“the charaoters are terrified? and the
players have to roleplay being scared
‘Keep in mind that the players are the
Important element in the game. Ifthe
players are frightened, they will eutomat
tally roleplay their characters as being
frightened.
The specie elements you novd are as
follows
Description: This is the most impor.
tant element to horror role-playing of any
variety. Never tell the players the name of
the monster they are facing or the techn
cal definitions of scenes or items, Dont be
afraid to use lots of colorful descriptions
like horrid” or “bloodeardling" I even
keep a shortlist of such words handy as a
reference too
or example: "The huge dog slowly
‘warps and shifts until it s « horrid man:
beast towering over the tallest of you:
Now that i seary! I ie much better thar
The werewalt shapechanges into its hall:
‘man, halt-wolf form, Hy using the terms
werewolf” and "shapechange)’ the mon:
stor is now comfortably pigeor-holed and
is not the east bit frightening, They play
‘ers know right off if they can beat it or if
they should retreat
‘Whenever possible, compare the en-
countered monster to the players. Roe
playing isa very personal experience, and
horror role-playing is even moro so, Tel
DRAGON 79ing the player that the monster is “tower:
ing over the tallest of you is much more
[personal and frightening than saying that
the werewolf is six and a half feet tll:
‘Your adventures will take longer when
‘you have to deserihe every encounter and
Scone in this detalled fashion, but iti well
worth it
Deception: In the heat of the moment,
‘most of us tend to exaggerate what we
00. In the centipede example above, the
DM was merely making that a part ofthe
igatne. Like all good DMs, he did not
‘overdo it, He did not say thet the centi
pedes were 20" long or that there were
hundreds of them. Nobody would be that
far off in his judgment. good rale of
thumb isto exaggerate by no more than
double or devalue by one-half. Tall them
that what they face is one-half the size of
X or is tvioe as large as X. Tol them its
bite hurts tviee as bad as it really does
If the players declare that they’ are tak
{ng a quick hoad count or that they want
10 look closely at the scone, then the DM
should give them more aceurate descrip
tions. The kind of exaggeration described
above only applies to first impressions in
lense situations. Ifthe players remain calm
‘enough to ask the questions, reward them
by giving them accurate information.
Play upon similarities to safe and ordi-
rary things. For example, describe wolves
‘as dogs. To the undiseerning eye, one
could easly be mistaken forthe other: For
‘most people, a dog isa friendly creature,
and that makes it all he more horrifying
‘when st suddenly becomes « ravenous
‘mansbeast. Tt ean be quite 4 shock?
‘Suspense: Keep your players waiting
Build the scene a itile ata time. Give the
players time to worry about what might
happen. Their fertile imaginations will
probably seare them mare than the actual
fencounter In a recent playtest of the
RAVENLOFT adventure, IAI Feast ar
Goblyns, ane party wes sleeping on the
second story of an inn. "The thief awoke in
the middle ofthe night to the soft sounds
(of something trving to slowly open the
‘door As he woke the others and armed
‘himself, he saw the handle stop as it hit
the sturdy bolt. From the other side he
heard faint shuffling noises and some sort
‘of animal sniffing at the base of the door,
By this time, exch of the players has had
fae too much time to think about what
‘might be on the other side of the door.
‘When the werewolves erashed through
the walls, ignoring the door, the PCS
leaped out of the windows, crashed
through tho outer walls themselves, and
Dasically did everything in their power to
‘escape Irom a menace they could have
easily defeated. They were more than
‘willing to take the falling damage rather
than face the monsters!
‘The unexpected: Your players know
all of the standard monsters and plots.
‘you give them an encounter that Follows
this welltrod path, they ean hardly be
expected to be frightened by I. In the
‘example above, with the werewolves in
the inn, the routine outeome would have
been for the werewolves to break down
the door infact, I dave say that a PC or
tivo was standing to either side of the
door, waiting o sworl-stiek whatever
poked its snout through: Instead the
‘werewolves burst through the very walls
ff the characters! rooms, Great hairy arms
shot through the thin plaster and grabbed
the helpless characters pressed against the
wall
In order to make the unexpected wark,
‘sometimes you must cheat. I dont care
What anybody says all great DMs cheat
Since the DM is not truly all-seeing or all-
‘powerful, he needs something on his side,
So he cheats, Wait ta see what the party is
doing to prepare for an encounter: Then
Ihave the encounter actin such a way as to
‘maximize the unexpected, as ifthe beasts
had been planning i that way all along.
However always allow the charaeters 3
vay out. 118 much more fun to watch
them run away in terror than it isto kill
them,
"This technique should be applied spar-
Ingly, ur run-of hes encounters
should actin predictable ways, allowing
the players the satisfaction of dfeating
‘them with a wellexeeuted plan. Only the
special encounters should have the advan:
tage of the unexpected,
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Hidden information: The DM should
keop as much game information hidden
from the players as possible. When Lrun a
RAVENLOFT adventure, the players roll
theie own attack dice and damage dice,
land thats it roll all the saving throws, all
the undeadturning attempts, ete, Some-
times T even keep track of the PCs! hit
points and wounds, Under no circum
Stancos will I reveal the rolls or numbers
involved in my end of the game. if the
players ask, they get a narrative descrip:
tion of what happened. A player is more
‘mid if he is told that his character is
sorely wounded than he is f told ls ehar-
acter has 15 hp let.
When the player rolls a die, he ean
blame his failures on the die roll. If a roll
that should have succoeded fails, he learns
that there is something at wrk here that
‘i out of the ordinary: These kinds of
things conflict with a good horror acivens
ture. This s not to say that the player
shouldn't get any feedback on his actions
Or die rolls. As the DM, when you take
away a diewolling mechanie from the
players, you must replace it with a verbal
‘description of the action,
For example, a priest attempts to turn an
‘undead legion of skeletons, and you roll
that be fails. The player gets to hear some:
‘thing like this: "As you hold forth the
symbol of your faith, demanding that the
undead creatures turn back, your voice
Dreaks, Your convietions seem to weaken.
as the horror of the situation mounts. The
skeletal legion marches toward you with:
tout breaking stride’ Now the player
Knows he failed is turning attempt, but
hhe does not know exactly why. Was it his
‘own lack of faith, or was it the powerful
and dark forovs that animated the skelo
tons? Is it worth trying again or not? This
‘unknown element Is quite frightening
Final notes: It is hard to seare players
‘who are roleplaying fantasy heroes, Their
‘characters come well equipped and armed
‘with powers beyond the scope of norraal
‘men. They are used to being in control
‘You will have to work hard to frighten
tem, but the techniques from the
RAVENLOFT boxed set and from this
article should do the trick for most play
fers. Once you have scared them, always
reward them. That may sound funny, but
remember that your players are just peo-
pile out to have an evenings fun with role
playing. Ifthey spend the whole game
Session being scared and unable to suc-
‘eed at any task or defeat a single mon.
sien they will hecome frustrated. Their
characters may be stuck in the
RAVENLOFT universe, but the players ean
‘walk away from the gaming table at any
time. Give them an eneounter they can
defeat. Let them find or decipher a clue to
the solution ofthe adventure, As the DM,
‘you must lead them from susponse, 0
‘error, to release, anc—yes=t0 success.
“Then you get to start the whole process
over again. - Q