libranchylde
Suggestions? I am planning a one shot game with my group. it will be a horror/zombie apocalypse type game with some tower defense. basically I will just have the PCs holed up in a three or four level tower with a massive hoard of zombies just outside the gates. that's the gist of it. any suggestions for flavor/ambiance?
Comments
Lighting is another factor that I consider fundamental, especially for a horror atmosphere. If you can light the room in just candle light it would make a huge difference compared to 100 watt light bulbs. If you dont have candle light try very low light or even color light bulbs- red would be a good choice.
Another thing to keep in mind about creating a an atmophere is your own speech. Talk slowly and softly while building the tension and when the dice start rolling and the undead are biting for their flesh talk very loud and fast and try to give the players less time to answer questions about their responses, it really builds the feeling of pace.
Good luck and have fun!
DarkMagus
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You have to have a feeling of powerlessness. This can be something as simple as a hostage situation, where the hero is still physically capable of doing everything, but they just shouldn't. But it's better if they are outside of their realms of comfort. Require strong characters to think - require thinking character to fight - require healing characters to harm.
If they always feel in control, they'll never feel horror.
Ideally you'd want them all to feel that anyone can die, permanently - especially themselves. So don't just bump off NPCs.
Perhaps you could create some hazardous locations (a rooftop, an old staircase with no railing, etc.) and tie in a hallucination effect that could cause the players to act irrationally.
Just a thought.
In a superhero campaign, a lot of us got mind-trapped into a shared hallucination. We had to wrap up that session before too much time elapsed, but I quietly got with the DM afterward and told her that I wanted to play it as if my character truly believed she'd been sent into an alternate universe...especially because she fit in better there!
The character was eventually brought out of the mind trap, but her compatriots are *still* leery of her sanity. Tee-hee!
most of all, have some fun with it. Horror and comedy are a fine line, and nervous laughter is a good way to break the tension during a tough moment. Gallows humor I believe they used to call it.
For sheer terror though, insanity cant be beat (temporary or permanent). see : call of cthulu. But you dont have to go that far, just a touch is often enough. And a character driven insane is still a lot more playable than a dead one under most circumstances.
A good way to use this split between player and character knowledge to set up some player paranoia would be to use thematic elements that a character may not know of. FOR EXAMPLE: Maybe there are no vampires in your world, but a familiar NPC is exhibiting traits we associate with vampires -doesn't come out at night, no reflection, stays away from garlic.. any number of things. Then you set up a situation where the players are very afraid, but if they are good roleplayers they won't let their characters act on this knowledge. Then you set up a trap for them, or make them think you are setting up a trap. Watch them squirm!! It can be great.