Horror and Terror: How to Instill and Distill

HorrOr And TerrOr

How to Distill and Instill

There’s an old saying and it goes,

“Bleeding Blood I Suppose”

When the candles flicker, and the lights go down

Laughter fades, the boat runs aground

The ice is outside, and ice hates man

It wants you falling, it hates when you stand

You may think you have it figured out, you may think you have a plan

But there is nothing here for you on this accursed land

Panic pounds and peril pounces

But then steady dread comes creeping

And when it emerges it always announces

“I’m here”

And those it reaps will be weeping

Making Factions Distinct-ly Scarifying

when the players encounter scarlet daughters, describe blood and injuries in excruciating detail

chopping slicing bleeding marrow and tendon and fat - entrails exposed to arctic air

splashing and spilling and dripping and spraying and dropping and pouring and gouting and oozing

have there be blood

for soul rapists have the slaves say things that make the fight harder/confusing ethically, and also just demonstrate how fearless and dangerous the actual soul rapists are

They will throw a slave to the dogs - the slaves will be freezing and bleeding - hoping to save themselves somehow - beaten and bruised and raped, damaged psyche and body

Make sure there are family members and old people and children - women are especially effective and disturbing to some, but make as wide a range as you can - or a disturbing specificity

Have constant reminders of groaning and wailing and drying and stumbling and moaning - chains clanking and the sound of bumping weapons

The soul rapist itself should be hideous and terrifying - ashy-grey, jet black, riddled with tumors or wrinkles in excess, they should have lanky forms and hair longer than them, or should be ponderously fat and slow, or they should be impossibly muscled impossibly hairless and smell like a river of dead - a key form and factor is the contrast

Both the slaves and the rapist should be terrifying and simple - but the interaction and implication is what makes them so disturbing

for barbaransi make their ability dangerous as hell, and have them be tactically interesting – each barbaransi should have a defined role

They should feel like murderous unkillable robots - just make them get down as hard and fast as possible to panic the players

They are also organized and strategic - this should be played up in as much simplicity as possible - please try to actually act strategically when you present their actions and movements

for Cannibals scare all allies and make them the most jangly and unpredictable – with hail mary and gambit style combat

these skinny bloodstained lunatics should be craven and fearless in equal measure, as likely to fight to the end as run upon contact - and making them feel really unpredictable and inhuman is key to making them scary

NOVEL METHODS FOR FREAKING PLAYERS OUT

Just suddenly announce: "Hey, Roll initiative"

Have them take actions in initiative order

After some amount of time, if they do nothing to prevent anything or flee or prepare – Introduce the creature

Do this in addition to having creatures show up and then initiative, and you will have players on their toes

Show them things: allow them to see things, but when they act on them, show them that some things were lies

Use Musical Cues!

Here are some I think are particularly powerful

A Bittersweet Victory

A Chasing Foe

A Great Revelation

A Lost World

A Massacre

A Sacrifice

Abandoned Camp

Anguish

Astray

Bloodletting Dungeon

Cannibal Feast

Cannibal Fight

Cannibal Kitchen

Changed on Return

Close to Collapse

Completely Mad

Converging Images

Court of the Vampire

Crawling Through Snow

Crevasses

Dangerous Bridge

Dead Friend

Dead People in Snowdrift

Dead Wind

Death Rides Forth

Dizzying Climb

Dreams

Drifting in the Red Sea

Elder’s Funeral

Entering a Dangerous Place

Entering a Sacred Place

Entering an Evil Place

Entering the Drowned House

Fighting a Polar Bear

Fighting in an Enclosed Space

Fighting in Deep Snow

Fighting Organized Foes

Fighting Undead

Fighting Wild Animals

Flee!

Flight Across the Ice

FROSTBITE

GANGRENE

Graveyard

Halls of Ice

Heinous Wound Descriptions

Horrible Trapped Chamber

Horrific Pipe Chamber

HYPOTHERMIA

Illusory Visions

Incoming Enemy Unnoticed

Incoming Enemy Seen

Juxtaposition

Like Everyone Just Up and Left

Lost in Snow

Many Dead Animals

Multiple People are Starving

Mysterious Circumstances

Narrow Path

Off in the Distance

One Party Member Standing

One Player Awake

One Way Through

Outside the Drowned House

Patterns in the Snow

Peering Into Madness

Player A

Player B

Player B Elaborate

Player B Entrance

Player C

Player C Elaborate

Player C Entrance

Player D

Player D Elaborate

Player D Entrance

Player E

Rippling and Shuddering in the Wind

Ruins in the Snow

Seeing People in the Distance

Separated

SNOWBLIND

Someone Dies During Combat

Something Bad Happenings at Night

Something Going Wrong We See

Something Going Wrong We Don’t See

Something is Trying to Get Into the House

Stuck in a Tent for Days on End

Stumbling Feet

Surrounded

The Birth of a Child

The Gates of Griddon

The Gates of Magpar

The Hour at Hand

The Machine

Through Great Effort

Tired March

Trapped with a Killer

Visions

Waking Up to Heavy Snow

Walking In Circles

We Must Escape

Wind Sounds

month of waxes

month of murmurs

month of sinew

month of life berries

month of long nights

month of icy travails

month of corpses

month of the skeleton

month of faith

month of the sun

month of winds

month of goats

month of the mother

Capturing FEAR

The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse.

- Devendra Varma

Details and ideas on how to instill and utilize fear

MECHANICAL FEAR FOR COMBAT

Panic- Random initiative-no modifier- repeated each start of round, <morale tests, failed rolls> = erratic random action

Dread- Any failure plunges whole party into bad time or hackmaster tables

Peril- All rolls become 50/50

LINE OF SIGHT COUNTS THROUGH PALANTIR

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Horror and Terror: How to Instill and Distill

HorrOr And TerrOr

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