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scaring the players?

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FoxBoy

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« Reply #15 on: <11-16-10/1205:18> »
Well.. right now I'm running the players through an re-activated ACHE facility... and they're finding out how much they /didn't/ take out of the building.

Sometimes half the fun is seeing the players prepare for hell when they open the door only to find nothing, it was cleaned out.. and then it's seeing them being casual about it and opening the next door to be looking at a biodrone that was just decanted... and hungry.

The_Gun_Nut

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« Reply #16 on: <11-16-10/1425:42> »
I like it, if only for step 3.
I thought step 3 was "profit."
There is no overkill.

Only "Open fire" and "I need to reload."

Kot

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« Reply #17 on: <11-16-10/1657:10> »
Nomad, that was brilliant. You'd do a good Horror, cause that's the way they operate. :P
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voydangel

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« Reply #18 on: <11-16-10/1707:51> »
Yea, the horrible innocent is a wonderful horror trope. I prefer using dolls. I've used dolls as creepy antagonists in a number of games over the past couple decades, always to good effect. And emotitoys are the perfect shadowrun equivalent. so - Kudos. :)

edit: wow, I'm bad at typing.
« Last Edit: <11-16-10/2024:53> by voydangel »
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Chaemera

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« Reply #19 on: <11-16-10/1747:11> »
I like it, if only for step 3.
I thought step 3 was "profit."

Not in this case, step three involves rats with chainsaws. . . I like rats with chainsaws.  ;D
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Nomad Zophiel

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« Reply #20 on: <11-16-10/1807:23> »
Of course YMMV. Some players like having super-jaded characters who are flippant in the face of even the most mind bending horrors. Others enjoy a little horror in their games. The scary little girl may get a pat on the head or (as in the game I'm currently in), Humanis knocking on the door late at night while a character is sleeping might be enough to scare the character. Someone wrote a really great book on horror in RPG's, but I've forgotten the title.

Bradd

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« Reply #21 on: <11-16-10/1851:41> »
I like mixing horror and sex. In the movies, it's a big cliche, with the slasher taking out "sinful" characters during the act. That's not horror, it's villainous righteousness. I avoid that trap and make it about the vulnerability instead. It's especially nasty if you include the horrible innocent idea, or a betrayal of trust. The fear comes from turning perfectly ordinary things into mortal weaknesses.

Lots of players will respond to this with hypervigilance. Is it unsafe to be naked? Well then let's sleep in our armor and swear celibacy until the threat has passed. The next step is to play a Xanatos Gambit: You're expecting them to turtle up, and stage 2 plays directly to that reaction. Sabotage the protective gear, perhaps. Or even better, now that they know just how dangerous it is to be vulnerable, put them in a situation where they want to do it anyway.

Nomad Zophiel

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« Reply #22 on: <11-16-10/1913:29> »
Nice. I appreciate Xanatos Chess since my PC is pretty good at it. If you want a simpler, combat oriented, visceral fear, use Mike Pondsmith's answer to power monkeys.

First, have three goons for every PC. Nothing superhuman, just the kind of people that the PC's are used to slaughtering wholesale, all with Supersquirts. When the shots hit, nothing seems to happen immediately. (Perception rolls may apply to later rounds). About the time all of those guys go down, the acid rounds will really be doing a number on your PCs' armor. That alone should have everyone who doesn't have armor in their body getting ready to run. The next wave can use whatever you want but if you want fear, use gas. More accurately, use boxed text like this:

"Your armor is all but demolished. Wet drippy shreds hang from your shoulders but it doesn't look like it would stop a spitball, let alone a bullet. Anything that was previously sealed clearly isn't now. From around the corner you hear a distinct *FOOMP*, followed by several clangs as a grenade ricochets off the walls headed towards you. When the thick yellow gas starts spewing out of it, who is not running?"

Nomad Zophiel

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« Reply #23 on: <11-16-10/1934:36> »
Yea, the horrible innocent is a wonderful horror trope. I prefer using dolls. I've ysed dolls as creepy antagonists in a number og games over the past couple decades, always to good effect. And emotitoys are the perfect shadowrun equivalent. so - Kudos. :)

And everyone despises them, either secretly or openly. I thought it would be a fun play on that. Let them be cheap, common and provide a ridiculous bonus so that everyone wants one. Then reveal that they're cheap because they're Evil. Its a more plausible variation of the conspiracy that everyone but the PC's is in on. In this case no one's in on it except the PC's. No one would believe them because the Emotitoys are so innocent and useful (and get +6 to convinve their owners of this). So no one will believe you and they're all carrying around an evil robot on their shoulder. . .I really should expand this into a full Mission pack.

Bradd

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« Reply #24 on: <11-16-10/2117:00> »
One caution regarding putting fear into your players: It's often a fine line between scaring them and humiliating them. Tons of GMs love stuff like Tucker's Kobolds where you challenge the players with foes who would ordinarily be beneath them. However, when you do that there's a big risk that they'll feel you're just setting them up to fail against chumps. Same thing goes for the scary toys: With the right tone it's creepy, with the wrong tone it's mockery.

Angelone

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« Reply #25 on: <11-17-10/0131:30> »
I had a thought involving emotoys or drones in general that kinda freaked me out. I read a book that featured an AI that became obsessed with a woman and trapped her in her house and was trying to be born in a flesh body through her and would then take her as a lover.

Anyway my thought is kinda a scaled back version of that. An AI or Ghost in the Machine for some reason becomes obsessed with a character. If the character has drones they watch the character while he/she sleeps, cameras always seem to point in the characters direction as they pass, the character always feels like they are being watched by something.

You could take it further and have the AI/GitM build itself a body to be with the character, but I feel that goes too far, best have the "admirer" in the background.
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larskrygan

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« Reply #26 on: <11-17-10/0246:14> »
If you're having trouble directly challenging the players (they aren't scared when confronted by much of anything in a head-on fight), start going after their friends, loved ones, contacts, etc, that aren't protected by Force 8 friendly spirits. 


in my game, one of my pc has the ennemy negative qualities for 8 BP, he took his brother as his nemesis who is in japan, him bieng in seattle he tought no worries he wont get me ...

what i did ? i sent assassins out for his skin : not to kill him but to make his life miserable : the place he stays most of the time  burned to the ground, the people he cared about dead , the people he is working with aka the other pc  are thinking twice before helping him, and he cant do a thing because the assassins arent dumb to show themselves; they operate form afar.

nothing more frustating to a pc than that.
on the other end he is not so bright, and wants to do everything by himself
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larskrygan

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« Reply #27 on: <11-17-10/0258:46> »
i had this idea of a johnson who would give the pc the worst jobs ever, underpayed full of risks, and completely closed for negotiation. and the only one they can get jobs out.
i would push them to the edge to kill said johnson , with these last words : " we will meet again and i'll make you regret it ... "

next meeting for a run in a public place ( cafe or a bar ) ,said johnson appears with the same suit they gunned/stabbed him down with all the wounds still here for all to see ...
" arent you happy to see me again ? my master was not pleased with your past performance and ask you to step up your game , here is your misson... "

now , if that doesnt scare them...

ooc : J = shedim :p
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Chaemera

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« Reply #28 on: <11-17-10/0632:24> »
i had this idea of a johnson who would give the pc the worst jobs ever, underpayed full of risks, and completely closed for negotiation. and the only one they can get jobs out.
i would push them to the edge to kill said johnson , with these last words : " we will meet again and i'll make you regret it ... "

next meeting for a run in a public place ( cafe or a bar ) ,said johnson appears with the same suit they gunned/stabbed him down with all the wounds still here for all to see ...
" arent you happy to see me again ? my master was not pleased with your past performance and ask you to step up your game , here is your misson... "

now , if that doesnt scare them...

ooc : J = shedim :p

I could see this being fun, if you had already established a rapport as a good GM and we went into the game knowing that we were going to get yanked around at first. Otherwise, I'd probably walk away from your table after the third under-paid, over-risk, rail-roaded mission if I thought my options were to keep playing with the J that gave the jobs that weren't fun to play or to keep playing with the J that gave the jobs that weren't fun to play.

No offense, I guess I could see how that would be scary, but in a world like Shadowrun where my character has a Fixer I should be able to pull better jobs from, grinding the players with frustrating, crappy runs doesn't set the stage for scary. It sets the stage for bored & frustrated. Scary comes in when the tables are turned for the worse.
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Kot

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« Reply #29 on: <11-17-10/1036:28> »
As an old ED player and GM i would use Horrors. Not exactly in person, nor indirect influence. The very possibility, or suggestion they are involved can do wonders. :)
Mariusz "Kot" Butrykowski
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