How do you make the PC's feel the pressure?

[cornholioprime]

I'm trying to figure out a way to put the pressure onto my players surviving in the zombie appoc. How do some of you similate the terror or pressure in your games?

Pardon me for speaking as a non-GM dude......but I don't understand what you are asking for here.

Doesn't the post-apocalyptic/effectively low-tech setting itself, combined with the powers and abilities of the undead in the setting, combined with the dog-eat-dog nature of the surviving humans, combined with a near-total lack of modern technology, provide most of the pressure for your players all by itself without you having to lift a finger?

I've personally never yet played a game in this setting, but already -looking in from the outside -I find myself 'intellectually terrified' by the world this game is in when I try to put myself in a player character's shoes.


You want to terrify your players? Then start them out as a bunch of people at the beginning of the timeline, with no 'safe place' put together yet, on foot because all the roads are backed up and the gas pumps have stopped working, and (hopefully) not aware of just how hard these zombies are to kill with 'current day' weapons when you don't nerf them; seems to me that the setting will do the rest of the work for you.

[asbjorn]

As both a former GM and Player, help the players create their favorite characters and tell them Survival or death of their characters solely depends on them. In this game setting the GM wont fudge dice rolls or send in the cavalry at the last minute. If their characters die you wont save them.
That is the nature of a horror setting. Games like Paranoia and Call of Cuthulu all had dark, low character survivability. And they were fun.

[asbjorn]

Ah, is see.
Don't let them start out as the specialized O.C.C.'s. Have them start out as ordinary people "Survivor O.C.C." at the beginning of the apocalypse. That produces the atmosphere of terror when you don't have the gear, when you are alone and don't know what is going on.
The players can have the opportunity to switch O.C.C's later when they find or establish their first safe .
That's how I would do it. Also, take advantage of the insanity tables.
As characters are witnessing the horror of the beginning of the apocalypse some will develop inanities, that will add to the tension of the game.
That's how I would do it.

[jedi078]

Ah, is see.
Don't let them start out as the specialized O.C.C.'s. Have them start out as ordinary people "Survivor O.C.C." at the beginning of the apocalypse. That produces the atmosphere of terror when you don't have the gear, when you are alone and don't know what is going on.
The players can have the opportunity to switch O.C.C's later when they find or establish their first safe .
That's how I would do it. Also, take advantage of the insanity tables.
As characters are witnessing the horror of the beginning of the apocalypse some will develop inanities, that will add to the tension of the game.
That's how I would do it.

Doing most of the above with my currently running PbP Dead Reign game on rpol.net. http://rpol.net/gameinfo.php?gi=59184&date=1410144284

It's worked out quite well.

[asbjorn]

Good Luck with your game, it looks good from what I saw. Insanity I think is a important aspect of the game. Seeing a friend or loved one being eaten by flesh eaters will traumatize anyone to one degree or another. It help with character development and give players more to worry about than S.D.C. and experience.

[dargo83]

2 of my PCs have insanities of eather freaks out and goes into a rage or shuts down completly when ever he sees a particular type of zombie, the other has the compulsion to check under everything from beds to cars, ect. the first one saw his wife get ripped apart over and over again do to a pshycic and the other got attacked by a zed from under a car and was in a coma for 3 days and then attacked by a zombie baby from under a bed one time and a couch another time. Or u can run a few sessions with them only able to use melee weapons and ranged weapons like bows and crossbows. but keep the numbers low and and in an area where the PCs would have the tacital advatage if they use the space around them correctly.

[filo_clarke]

So, as I understand it you would like to evoke a sense of terror and stress in the players of your Dead Reign campaign? An admirable goal and I approve wholeheartedly. So let’s take a look at some of the things that you can control (as the GM) that can induce these feelings. In my opinion you can use three major motivators to help build emotional connections in a game: Environment, Health, and Personal Responsibility. Some elements cross over into several of these topics, and I will endeavour to highlight some examples.

At their core, these three elements are all within the purview of the GM, and need to be managed by the players in order to survive and thrive. Environment generally refers to the physical world about them, Health refers to the physical world within them, and Personal Responsibility refers to the social/mental priorities that connect the player to other PCs/NPCs.

Terror in the Environment: This is the most basic, primal area to draw upon when setting up a game. The human mind is instinctually terrified of things outside of its control, and nature is the element most easily harnessed by the GM. Put your characters in situations where they are outside their comfort area; so much so, that they must struggle to make any sort of positive headway and merely eking out a meagre existence is difficult. Two things that I like to spring on unsuspecting players are DARKNESS and FIRE.

DARKNESS: Looking into the other rule books will give you Abilities, Spells and Psionic powers that detail what the penalties are for being Blind/Semi-Blind (often -8 to combat bonuses, and a % chance of trip/falling). Think about exploring an abandoned building with no lights, and little outside illumination (perhaps doing so at night). The group may have flashlights, but these run out of batteries (which may be hard to replace, especially for the new generation of “tactical” lights that take exotic cells like CR123 and others). Remember, the more high-powered a flashlight is, the shorter its battery life tends to be. Crank flashlights exist, but tend to be low-powered and not ideal for pitch-black exploration. So, you have the group in an environment with little/no light. They are at significant combat penalties, and have a risk of tripping/falling, add to this that Perception checks are likely to require a very high number to be successful, and you have the makings of a difficult situation. Now add little details, things scattered on the floor to slip on/kick accidentally. Highlight the absolute silence in the environment, with no electrical appliances humming, no cars driving by, and no other LIVING beings to make noise.

"Your group enters the filthy apartment building hallway. With no windows to let in ambient light, everyone’s sight follows the weakening yellow beam of the flashlight you carry. Finally, as if it were an exhausted runner at the end of its race, the light dies and the world fades to black. The silence thumps at your eardrums as you become acutely aware of the sound of your own breathing echoing down the rubbish-strewn hallway. But it isn’t the only sound in here, a distance away; there is a groaning, growling, and animalistic sound just barely audible. Taking a cautious step forward your foot strikes something large made of light metal (an empty jerry-can, an empty can of cooking oil, a tv-tray…) and the dull drum beat that bursts forth assails your hearing. Somewhere in the pitch blackness, the growling becomes more urgent, and approaches…”

You have set up a dangerous set of conditions: 1. The hallway is narrow, long, low, and strewn with detritus from the terrified past inhabitants. 2. The darkness is pervasive, and there is no immediate means of getting a light source (crafty players might kick an apartment door open in the hopes of letting in some outsold light, but this would only serve to blind them temporarily, and shed a slim slice of hallway in light while leaving the rest in shadow). 3. Their own actions make noise that alerts anything on the floor of their presence, so what steps to they take (in the next few seconds) to prevent further sound? 4. The guttural growling might be a zombie (or five), but it might also be an emaciated dog or raccoon desperately trying to get out.

FIRE: After Darkness, this is perhaps our most basic of fears; a consuming, destructive force that seeks to kill everything in its path; unstoppable, unpredictable, and lethal. Out in the wilderness a wildfire can rapidly overtake even a well prepared group and cut off escape routes and planned trails. Fire indoors can turn a familiar building into an other-worldly environment of terror and pain. Other books have the penalties for smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion/damage (Warlock spells, APS Super Powers, Burster abilities…), these often involve blindness, damage per melee, combat penalties, skill penalties and other unpleasant things. Whereas the darkness scenario involved silence, highlight the roaring, popping, crackling noise created by an inferno.

"You awaken from peaceful oblivion with a choking, hacking cough and pain in your lungs. The camp is lit red-orange, and smoke obscures the forms of your companions laying less than ten feet away. Whoever was on watch succumbed to exhaustion, and slumbered while the campfire caught some dry vegetation and encircled your sandy-floored site. Pain shoots into your foot as you realize that your sleeping bag has caught alight. Instinctively you pull your feet back towards your chest, but this only serves to bring the flaming end closer, and invoke another coughing fit. To your left, through the roaring, crackling din, you hear another of your companions, desperately slapping his wrapped feet on the ground, but you barely make out his form in the dense smoke and ash. The pain is extreme now, as the skin of your face feels like it is being baked off, and your eyes sting with salty tears. “

You have set up another set of dangerous conditions: 1. The fire is damaging everyone per round, and then again with every touch (from the sleeping bag?), combat and skill performance penalties are extreme. 2. The urgency is IMMEDIATE. The players have only a few melees to react before they are all dead. Some may be unconscious already thanks to failed rolls while sleeping, and must be rescued. 3. Loss of life is bad, but loss of gear might be equally terrible. What do they have time to take? What were they wearing while asleep? Do they save a dying companion, or grab a backpack full of supplies? 4. Burn damage is nasty, and requires medical attention, even for just light wounds. If the players take too long, or go back into the inferno to gather more supplies, or are just generally reckless, leaping through the flames, make sure that infection and permanent penalties follow.

[filo_clarke]

Terror from Health: In the modern age we forget just how frail the human body is. Grocery stores don’t usually sell meat/produce that is rotten, and even if it were there have been pesticides and preservatives sprayed/injected into them to knock down many of the harmful parasites that would have cut down our great-grandparents. The common cold or flu are inconveniences that require you to stay home from work, and not debilitating illnesses with potentially deadly outcomes. And broken bones and pulled muscles are healed through rest and elevation, instead of permanent crippling injuries that must be managed when danger is about. Many of the books detail different physical ailments and the penalties associated with them, but what you must consider is that the recovery times listed for them is frequently based on BED REST, not slogging through a frozen forest with a 60-pound rucksack and Zombies chasing you. A torn muscle could take months to fully recover under harsh conditions, and a broken bone might set improperly, resulting in a limp, or permanent pain, or a disabled hand…

"You awake to a clear, cold dawn. Looking out over the valley from your hillside camp you see a white mist that bleaches the colour out of the grass, and seems to pull the golden rays of sunlight down into a cold, foggy prison. But it is the cold that grips you today. Like waking up in the dead of winter, your body feels like all of the warmth has been sucked from it. The dame air clings to your face, and you shiver violently as you put your hands between your thighs to warm your fingers. The sleeping bag feels like a damp cocoon and your clothes are soaked, either with sweat, or the pervasive morning mist. Your companions begin to eat a thin breakfast, but your stomach turns at the smell and you vomit last night’s food into a puddle, half drenching the hood of your sleeping bag in a sour-smelling viscous liquid. Your head pounds and your eyes squint against the painful rays of light seemingly trying to pierce your eyelids. All you want to do is sleep, but the smell of sweat and vomit in your sleeping bag is too strong and you crawl free just in time to throw-up again in the wet grass. Suddenly there is a crashing through the nearby thicket and the heavy sounds of urgent footsteps coming your way. You prop yourself to your feet, but dizziness makes running all but impossible, and aiming a rifle outside your capacity.”

Yet again a good set of conditions for panic. 1. The unhealthy state may be within the PC’s ability to treat, or it may not (in this case is might be simple food poisoning, or perhaps a parasitic infection). But the penalties from such things (found in Dead Reign, Rifts: Dinosaur Swamp, PFRPG herbs/poisons, etc.) are immediate and potentially devastating. 2. How long do the penalties last? Food poisoning might last a day or two, but the flu could be a couple of weeks to recover. 3. Is he contagious? Is it something they all ate? Basically how many of the group are in danger of coming down with this in the next few hours/days?

If you are unwilling/unable to use the disease effects, think about the recovery from injury. Has the PC been in combat lately where he was injured? Many of the core books have supplemental rules that provide penalties based on continuous physical impairment from HP injury. There are also rules for wounds being closed when there is still a piece of shrapnel/bullet left under the skin, and the penalties for this. The players are playing mortals, with no super powers/spells/psionics ( I assume), remind them of how frail this condition truly is. When they get into combat, remind them that every scar, sprain, and break will heal with time, but maybe not without consequence. All of a sudden their hero is suffering lingering pain, a limp, and some stiffness from a few too many Zombie encounters… and none of it will EVER go away. This revelation alone might make them more empathetic towards their character, as it will begin to take on a living, breathing quality.

A side note about hygiene: There are a couple of books, notably Rifts: Dinosaur Swamp and Yin Sloth Jungles that outline what happens to a PC who wears clothing/armour day-in, day-out without changing or cleaning themselves/their clothes. Unpleasant physical conditions like rashes, sores, and fungal infections are likely, combined with fleas, ticks, bed bugs and other infestations from the Dead Reign books. Characters should be “reminded” that even if they have three sets of clothes with them, they actually need to wash them (and themselves) regularly to avoid even more unpleasant penalties and side effects.

[filo_clarke]

Terror from Personal Responsibility: This one is the most difficult to enforce, from the GM’s point of view, but can be the most poignant in terms of role playing. First off, let me explain what I mean by Personal Responsibility: This is the mental condition associated with taking personal charge of a particular situation or effect. It can mean something as emotional as caring for the upbringing of a child, the protection of an invalid, or even a pet. It can also mean taking personal responsibility for one’s own supplies, equipment, and environment (maintaining weapons, preparing food, cleaning/securing a safe house…). These present their own stress factors, and also have their own rewards, but are difficult to enforce by the GM. Let’s begin with property.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: PROPERTY: Left to their own devices in a world of zombie survival, the PCs are going to take whatever tools, equipment, food and shelter that they can in order to make their lives easier. Often they will begin the game with implausibly good gear, because it was within their power as a player to choose such starting items. As a GM you should encourage this as much as possible. If the PC wants a really good weapon, or vehicle, or body armour, or really anything, you should consider letting them have it, so long as it conforms to the rules of character creation. The reason I say this, is because the dearer to the player the piece of equipment may be, the more emotionally relevant it will become when you take it away. Weapons, flashlights, night-vision goggles, gasoline-powered vehicles… all these and more rely on consumables to function. Sure, the PC might have a tricked out AR-15, but it doesn’t take much combat to empty its ammo supply. As I’ve pointed out before, flashlights seem to run out of batteries at EXACTLY the wrong moment, and vehicles are only as fast as their dwindling petrol supply will allow. When you tell the player, up-front, that you won’t allow him to have a particular weapon, you create conflict with the player that is unnecessary. When you allow him to take the item, and become secure because he has that item, you sow in a sort of cancerous seed. They will look at their sheet, and see this miracle piece of gear, confident that it will aid them when they need it most, when in reality all it is, is a painful reminder of how easy life in the old world used to be, when you could run to a grocery store and buy batteries, or get replacement bandages for your first aid kit at the drug store, or replace a firing pin at a hardware store. Now all of these things are one-off items that you may never see again. Books like Rifts: Dinosaur Swamp and Rifts: Australia contain rules for equipment degradation and the need to clean and maintain weapons. Dead Reign talks about the viability of gasoline storage but it really is worse than the books make it out to be. Without a stabilizing agent, Gasoline will go stale in weeks to months. But even with a Stabilizing agent, this will only preserve it about twice that length of time. Gasoline is highly refined, and within a year, every gas-powered vehicle will be a useless relic of a sweeter time. Batteries drain over time, and even canned goods don’t last forever. The PCs aren’t just fighting a war against zombies; they are fighting a war against time and decay.

Remember, too, the vast number of different ammunition types and weapons in circulation. If the player wants an UZI, perhaps they have one chambered in .41AE (an uncommon ammo type before the wave). The next gun that the PC finds might be a Beretta 92 chambered in 9x21mm IMI. These rounds are extremely close in appearance to a 9x19 Parabellum, and a quick visual inspection might not notice the difference, but a gun chambered in 9x21mm is designed NOT TO FIRE a 9x19mm. This means that if he fires off the rest of the magazine, it will work flawlessly, but if he then loads his own 9mm rounds into it, they won’t work.

"BANG! Another round from your Bushmaster cuts through the air towards the target, but it continues to advance. In desperation, or an act of bravado, you change tactics and let the bump stock free. Your weapon starts to spit out ammo in fully automatic sprays, controlled to three or four rounds, until the magazine is empty. Quickly you fish around your waist for your final mag, and jam it into the hot receiver. Pulling back the charging handle, a round is chambered, but to your shock it immediately fires wild into the ground ahead of you. Then another fires, and another. The heat in the barrel is cooking off your supply of rounds, and before you even know what has happened, you’ve lost eight or nine of your precious supply before you can get the magazine back out. All the while, your enemy has moved closer. Reacting to the movement ahead, you draw your newly found 9mm pistol. You draw the weapon and line up the sights with the target, squeeze the trigger, and… CLICK! How is that possible?!? You just reloaded it this morning, from a box of 9mm rounds that you have been using for a week?!?”

You don’t need to set up this scenario for it to be terrifying, you only need to offer the player pieces of gear that are not exactly what he expects. He wants a weapon that will fire flawlessly in any circumstance, with minimal repair or maintenance required, but you gave him something that might fail under pressure, or might be deceivingly ordinary with a flaw that makes it totally useless. Cars and trucks and motorcycles and helicopters all need precious gas, which is not just becoming scarcer because of survivors raiding for it, but also because it is a disintegrating resource that will eventually turn itself unusable. And by “eventually” I really mean “quickly”.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: DUTY: The hardest things for a GM to influence are the motivations of the character. Try as much as you like, if a PC wants to be a complete douche-sociopath, there is little the GM can do or say about it. But finding a piece of emotional baggage to use against a player is immensely satisfying, both from a storytelling standpoint, but also from a role playing standpoint. The problem is, as a rule few players want their character to be vulnerable in any way, much less an emotional one. Placing the PC in a position of responsibility for one or more NPCs is a way to reinforce the fact that he is not Rambo, and cannot exist as a solitary being in this new world. Computer Gaming calls this sort of thing “Escort Missions” but when properly executed they aren’t as noticeable as one of those. Making an NPC important is a simple as him/her having a useful skill, piece of gear, or even piece of information that is vital to their survival. Then a GM can put the PC “in charge” of this person, adding tension and danger as you see fit.

Taking a PC out of his comfort zone is also as easy as introducing a real-life stress element, in an already terrible situation. Finding a baby is a great one, as it requires players to ditch their self-absorbed natures, and think about someone else completely. Finding food, medicine, clean clothing, shelter, warmth, etc. all becomes more difficult with an infant, or a toddler. All of a sudden, the easiest of plans becomes a complicated series of contingencies and careful calculating.

"You only found her a few hours ago, howling in labour pain and bleeding on the dirty factory floor. She was in mid childbirth when you arrived, and the baby came quickly. Now she is dead, probably from blood loss and infection, but you didn’t have the time or inclination to check, as the noise she made attracted more than just your group. The little girl is crying… probably hungry, but what do you feed her? That was the thought on your mind as you rounded a corner of the hallway and encountered ten of them, moving towards you. Holding the child in one arm and your pistol in the other you squeeze off three shots. BANG! BANG! BANG! The baby wails again, but this time the sound is more urgent and shrill. Blood pours from her ears, as the rapport of the forearm burst her eardrums.”

Side Note: Insanity: I notice a number of posters mentioning insanity and I personally love the insanity options in Palladium, but I tend to only use them during character creation, and only with the express permission of the Player. I never use them as a punishment, because that is a decision that the Player should make regarding his character, and not the GM. I absolutely NEVER use a random roll to determine insanity. These are wonderful role playing aids, and character-building traits, but under no circumstance should they be used as a weapon to wield against a player.

I hope my incredibly long rambling helped in at least some small way. The tension and terror of a zombie survival game is not easy to achieve, but with the cooperation of the players and a good set-up beforehand, so that you know what all of the effects are going to be, the effect can be breathtaking and panic-inducing.

Then again, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.

[Alrik Vas]

One thing you can do to stress people out is not let them have sufficient time to make decisions. Put a timer on everything, make all danger go from some dark, nebulous thing that goes bump in the night to SUDDENLY TRYING TO EAT YOUR FACE...or something.

[Illendaver]

Truthfully, it is pretty hard to keep a horror feel to a game that you are playing when you are sitting back on a comfy couch and sucking down a soda while your character is sloughing through knee high god only knows what in a sewer. Mostly you need a group that understands how to really connect with their characters and can still be focused on thinking in a near panicked survival mindset, even when they themselves really aren't. If you can find a whole group that is dedicated to that, you can tell one heck of a story in your game.

[Razzinold]

I know this thread is over two months old but every time I see the gasoline comments I have to weigh in on the subject.

I'm not saying gasoline lasts forever, but it's also not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I have repeated the following process for the last 18 years, and my father even longer than that.

At the end of every summer, as early as end of August or as late as end of September (weather depending) we park our classic cars in the garage. Those cars are not driven again until the long weekend in May. So depending on how good, or bad, the weather is those cars sit in the garage anywhere between 7 - 10 months, with the norm being 9 months.

Come on the long weekend I fire up my car and fly down the road. Modern cars should have even less problems, not forever mind you but longer than a few months, then my car for two reasons. First I already have one strike against my car because I am already running unleaded fuel in an engine designed for leaded fuel (and most pumps don't have a high enough Octane rating) and it has a massive motor with a ton of HP and it's from 1969. The slightest thing can give an older car problems and those beasts need proper fuel to run without issues, some of my dad's classics with larger motors require Octane booster to be added to the fuel every second or third fill.

Oh and we don't add any kind of stabilizing agent before putting the cars in the garage for the winter, just park them and unhook the battery.

[SittingBull]

Could do like my gm. Had me ditch my equipment and on foot running from 7 walkers in the middle of a city... For a character who would never had entered the city.

[SittingBull]

Searching for food, water (half gallon per person per day minimum), shelter, heat, safety just for starters is enough to make the more prepared character shift into overdrive.

[Maull3r]

You could have the atmosphere in the room more eerie, like instead of having lights on in your gaming area light it with candles and play some ominous back ground music that can barely be heard.

With keeping do something like perma death oppps you got cocky and wanted to do something cool and died sorry your sitting out for a bit, make it so they have to keep their characters alive.

And make it more scarce for food and water, safe havens and everything that can keep them alive. Ohhh no we only have 3 M.R.E's and agallon of water with 4 ppl that means we have to spend the next day or 2 looking for rations and not moving ot another haven. And make some encounters unwinnable like very unwinnable, the scene in walking dead when they are on the highway and hundreds of Zed's walk by and they have to hide or be eaten, that can also put pressure on ppl.

Lastly make conflict in the grp, after seeing Player 1 not help a man that gave them some clean water Player 2 now is untrusting and have the paranoia in the insanity table. This will keep players guessing on themselves and now they have to protect themselves from the gm and other players.

Im all honestly its the GM's story telling that makes a game laid back or nail biting terror. they way you play and run it dictates how the players feel about it .

[SittingBull]

Maull3r knows. Also, if the PCs are not the best of areas, they could be force to stay on the move for long periods; with little or no rest.

[SittingBull]

Having the game during the late of nite would help also. If play around a table, walking dead theme music at times might help.