Too scary?

[pblackcrow]

I am like Hichcock, build the subspence, then when it is time add the twists and describe things in gorry detale. But play tricks with their mind.

[Cranus]

Don't run it like a slasher flick with the PC's as the victims. Otherwise, follow the advice of the previous posts. Also try to study the works of Hitchcock as well as "horror" works where the protagonist can accomplish tasks.

[pblackcrow]

Hard to explane really, without going into personal background. I like to get reactions from people, first. Get inside the players head, then use that knowledge to scare the bejezzes out of them. Like, currently, I had a player who's affrade of rats. Well...they had to go into a sewer to kill a mage who has a magickal artifact that controls rats. NYC sewer rats, langth 3-4 +/- feet; thousands of them. The player is still playing, minus her fear of rats.

[pblackcrow]

Part of the point in the posts your reading is that the characters in BTS are monster-busters. They possess abillities far in excess of ordinary mortals. Control of powers like Psychometry and Pyrokinesis means that the slow building of suspense is unlikely. If these guys walk into an area of supernatural activity, they are going to know something is going on (they won't wander around like in a horror movie and gradually realize something unnatural is afoot).

Oh brother, are you ever WRONG! It can make it more subspenceful.

Trust me, attempts to make snappy one liners and stupid jokes during the most 'serious' moments are going to be frequent.

But of course!!! That's what makes it fun.

[Lazlo Kid]

I've been running BTS since it first came out and I've run numerous campaigns in table top and online forums. Currently, I've been running an online BTS game for over two years and when I gave them the option of stopping, all of the players wanted to keep going. So I guess I can say I'm pretty successful.

Here's some things I keep in mind:

1. Don't "try" to scare the players. As soon as you find yourself thinking, "This is gonna scare the bejezuz out of them". Stop. If you try to scare them, you're going to end up sounding like a cheesy haunted house. Most fans of horror laugh through haunted houses. That's the response you'll get from players.

2. Entertain, entertain, entertain. A GM has to be a performer, a storyteller. Every time you open your mouth to describe something, make it entertaining. Really get into the descriptions of what their seeing. Talk with energy, but don't always talk with a creepy voice (that goes back to #1). Palladium gave lots of examples of how to do this in the book. Use them.

3. Master the art of subtlety. This goes back to what other people have been saying here. Don't just throw monsters at the characters. Build a mystery, keep the unknown going for as long as possible. Give them clues in normal conversation without them seeming like clues. When you have developed the art of subtely, players will hang on every word you say in an effort to outwit the GM.

4. Just when they think they know what's going on, twist it. You have to keep the players guessing. Most players (at least that I play with) are experienced and have become jaded. Inevitably, one player always speaks up shortly into the game and says something to the effect of "I know what's going on, here's what we're fighting and how we can kill it." Cocky know-it-alls are fun! Cuz the moment they open their mouth like that, ya prove them wrong (even if their guess was right). This is why I create my own monsters that have things that resemble the monsters published in the games, but they are entirely different. The moment they realize they're wrong and don't know what's going on, they get scared cuz their character might actually die. I once freaked a player out cuz he knew they were going up against ghosts and how "weak" they were in the game. Then one of those "weak" ghosts nearly cut his character in half by using telekinesis to shut the window he was trying to crawl through. Big buff cocky player character with lots of guns nearly died cuz he underestimated his opponents.

5. Death is your friend. Ultimately, a GM does what their players to be successful and defeat the horrors they face. If they don't, the players won't come back for more. But...and I can't stress this enough...players have to believe there is a chance for failure! If you're always pulling them out of the fire that they got themselves into, they'll know you're on their side and that they can't possibly fail. Sometimes, you just have to kill a character or an NPC to let them know that death is a possibility.

And finally....

6. Just because the characters are powerful, doesn't mean they can stop the big bad by themselves. I don't care how many spells or psi-powers a character has, it isn't enough. I study the players skills and powers (along with the players' different styles of play) and intentionally create an opponent that plays to their own weaknesses. To succeed, they have to figure out the secret to stop the big bad. They have to find one particular spell, item, person...whatever, to meet it head on. If they going charging into battle, whup 'em. Let a few of them walk away bleeding and limping with their tails between their legs. They'll have to regroup and find the "secret" to win. That doesn't mean you keep their powers or spells from working (although that is a technique that can work), but just that those powers and spells aren't going to work fast enough for them to survive.

Those are some of my more basic tricks. I have others, but those are the things that I find keep my players coming back for more. I won't even claim that I can do it all the time (I have my off days too), but as long as they keep wanting to play, I'll keep giving them what they want.

[gaby]

What are the Original Monsters you have come-up with your game Lazlo Kid?

[pblackcrow]

1. Don't "try" to scare the players. As soon as you find yourself thinking, "This is gonna scare the bejezuz out of them". Stop. If you try to scare them, you're going to end up sounding like a cheesy haunted house. Most fans of horror laugh through haunted houses. That's the response you'll get from players.

I disagree with you there.

2. Entertain, entertain, entertain. A GM has to be a performer, a storyteller. Every time you open your mouth to describe something, make it entertaining. Really get into the descriptions of what their seeing. Talk with energy, but don't always talk with a creepy voice (that goes back to #1). Palladium gave lots of examples of how to do this in the book. Use them.

True...

3. Master the art of subtlety. This goes back to what other people have been saying here. Don't just throw monsters at the characters. Build a mystery, keep the unknown going for as long as possible. Give them clues in normal conversation without them seeming like clues. When you have developed the art of subtely, players will hang on every word you say in an effort to outwit the GM.

EXACTLY!!!

4. Just when they think they know what's going on, twist it. You have to keep the players guessing. Most players (at least that I play with) are experienced and have become jaded. Inevitably, one player always speaks up shortly into the game and says something to the effect of "I know what's going on, here's what we're fighting and how we can kill it." Cocky know-it-alls are fun! Cuz the moment they open their mouth like that, ya prove them wrong (even if their guess was right). This is why I create my own monsters that have things that resemble the monsters published in the games, but they are entirely different. The moment they realize they're wrong and don't know what's going on, they get scared cuz their character might actually die. I once freaked a player out cuz he knew they were going up against ghosts and how "weak" they were in the game. Then one of those "weak" ghosts nearly cut his character in half by using telekinesis to shut the window he was trying to crawl through. Big buff cocky player character with lots of guns nearly died cuz he underestimated his opponents.

Yeah, and a mage's ghost can be fun!

5. Death is your friend. Ultimately, a GM does what their players to be successful and defeat the horrors they face. If they don't, the players won't come back for more. But...and I can't stress this enough...players have to believe there is a chance for failure! If you're always pulling them out of the fire that they got themselves into, they'll know you're on their side and that they can't possibly fail. Sometimes, you just have to kill a character or an NPC to let them know that death is a possibility.

Oh hell yes!

And finally....

6. Just because the characters are powerful, doesn't mean they can stop the big bad by themselves. I don't care how many spells or psi-powers a character has, it isn't enough. I study the players skills and powers (along with the players' different styles of play) and intentionally create an opponent that plays to their own weaknesses. To succeed, they have to figure out the secret to stop the big bad. They have to find one particular spell, item, person...whatever, to meet it head on. If they going charging into battle, whup 'em. Let a few of them walk away bleeding and limping with their tails between their legs. They'll have to regroup and find the "secret" to win. That doesn't mean you keep their powers or spells from working (although that is a technique that can work), but just that those powers and spells aren't going to work fast enough for them to survive.

Yes, like the lamp of the Jinn I put into the game. An person wished for all the magical artifacts (including texts) in the state of CA, minus any and all tracking devices. Let's just say that several guilds, shamans, book shops, organizations, practically all of the churches, etc want him dead! He has threatened to dump all them into a volcano if his demands are not met. But he plans on doing much wrose than that if he is killed. Namely have the Jinn teleport all of them into a blue sun; in a dead system trillions of light years away.

[pblackcrow]

[color=blue]I don't tens to get much of that sort of response from my players. I guess part of it is the type of people in the game and how into the moment they get. I have had that type of thing on occassion but it is usually the sort of natural "break tthe tension" response more than an interruption. I find that if I really make efforts to control the mood, ensure I send the players against real threats to their characters, and create a sequence that has the players liking their characters, I can get legit responses...I have had tears, nail biting, and even players who couldn't sleep/dreampt about the events afterward.

Yes, exactly. Heck, Johnny (My GM and mate) scared the **** out of us, in the last game he ran.

I have had players pester and bribe me to immediately, the next day, do another session because they cannot wait to see how things turn out.

I get bribed with food, cash, house plants, CDs, movies, massages, etc. Though, never with sex...of course 75% most of my players are men and all of the women are their g/f. Anyway, back to work.

[Specter]

I love it when a GM manages to scare me...

[Sanctu]

'Twas asked, "What experiences have any of you had?"

I ran Call of Cthulhu a while back. I was told by a friend's boyfriend that I ran it extremely well, as evidenced by the fact that his grilfriend has nightmares each and every time I ran my game. That was both heartening and disappointing to hear at the same time.

I ran a Beyond the Supernatural / Call of Cthulhu game at a con once. Basically, it was Call of Cthulhu rules for stats and such, but the characters were all phsychic investigators with converted stuff from Beyond the Supernatural. I made sure the monsters, when the characters finally encountered them, were not standard out-of-the-book ones. I was told by someone who was at least as big a fan of the genre as I that that was one of the things that made it for her. She said it made things far creepier because I had made an attempt at something different.

Inspirationally to this thread, someone said that Beyond the Supernatural isn't a horror game. This can be true. The game could very much run like Ghost Busters, which while having horror elements is more of a modern fantasy. But it can still easily be horror. Look at, say, Friday the 13th, the TV series. The characters are, in their own way, professionals at dealing with the things they deal with. But it's still fits the horror genre -- at least, I think so.

Having abilities beyond the norm makes it trickier sometimes to convey the feeling of horror, but it also sets the stage for other, odder things to happen. The characters will accept far more readily that something supernatural is going on, and this knowledge itself -- usually tied to the fact that no one would ever believe them -- can itself be used to aid making your horror game... well, horror. You can't realistically run Beyond the Supernatural, even in Victim mode, and expect the _players_ not to be expecting something. This doesn't have to be a disadvantage, though, and doesn't mean you can't run a horror game. It does mean that you need to taylor your plots to account for this, though.

[Sentinel]

Having gotten the new edition, I think that some of the scare factor will be back, as the monsters and spirits are as tough as ever, but BtS characters will be a lot less powerful than, say, the characters of Nightbane. With this character frgility, the players will come to recall Fear.