The Game Wizards What you don’t know will scare you in RAVENLOFT™ campaigns by Bruce Nesmith Dungeon Master:*You are walking through the tunnel of bones whem the spot beneath you erupts and [ehecking a die roll knocks you off your feet. Over a ‘dozen large, undulating, inseclike eres. ‘ures pour out, snapping and erushing the dry bones like twigs. Each monster is as Jong as your arm, with a sickly yellow fluld dripping from its mandibles. As you lay there, ane slithers over your leg and ‘goes for your jaca! Player: “Quick! Let's got out of here! 1 attempt to fling the thing off of me and run back down the tunnel. We need a plan and some heavy firepower to deal with these things. ‘This isa short rendition, loosely trans Jated, from @ RAVENLOFT™ game demon. stration run st the 1990 GEN CON game fair this year. The players were seared out of their minds by—yes, folks—giant cent pedes, Bach was a double sized (2" lon) jiant centipede, with hp, doing 2 hp. damage per bite (plus « weak avid) There ‘were 10 of them. A single blow from most ‘weapons could kill ono of those ravening {errors of the tunnel of bones How could the players have been fooled by such an encounter? Actually, it was ‘easy, The GM lied. Yes, he intentionally deceived the party; He described the cent: ppedes as being as long as the player’ arm ‘about long, instead of giving their real length of 2 And he said that there were ‘over a dozen of thom, when in fact there were just under a dozen, Deception is just one of several methods that can be used to frighten the plavers in ‘Your RAVENLOFT campaign. Chapter XV of the RAVENLOFT rules set describes several techniques of terror Most of those are on the grand scale, usaful when do signing an adventure or eampaiga, This article will address the specific wlements of hhow to run a single encounter to scare the players, lease notice hat I am not concerned ‘with scaring the eharaeters, but rather the players. Characters are easy to soare. The DM merely rolls some dice and announces “the charaoters are terrified? and the players have to roleplay being scared ‘Keep in mind that the players are the Important element in the game. Ifthe players are frightened, they will eutomat tally roleplay their characters as being frightened. The specie elements you novd are as follows Description: This is the most impor. tant element to horror role-playing of any variety. Never tell the players the name of the monster they are facing or the techn cal definitions of scenes or items, Dont be afraid to use lots of colorful descriptions like horrid” or “bloodeardling" I even keep a shortlist of such words handy as a reference too or example: "The huge dog slowly ‘warps and shifts until it s « horrid man: beast towering over the tallest of you: Now that i seary! I ie much better thar The werewalt shapechanges into its hall: ‘man, halt-wolf form, Hy using the terms werewolf” and "shapechange)’ the mon: stor is now comfortably pigeor-holed and is not the east bit frightening, They play ‘ers know right off if they can beat it or if they should retreat ‘Whenever possible, compare the en- countered monster to the players. Roe playing isa very personal experience, and horror role-playing is even moro so, Tel DRAGON 79ing the player that the monster is “tower: ing over the tallest of you is much more [personal and frightening than saying that the werewolf is six and a half feet tll: ‘Your adventures will take longer when ‘you have to deserihe every encounter and Scone in this detalled fashion, but iti well worth it Deception: In the heat of the moment, ‘most of us tend to exaggerate what we 00. In the centipede example above, the DM was merely making that a part ofthe igatne. Like all good DMs, he did not ‘overdo it, He did not say thet the centi pedes were 20" long or that there were hundreds of them. Nobody would be that far off in his judgment. good rale of thumb isto exaggerate by no more than double or devalue by one-half. Tall them that what they face is one-half the size of X or is tvioe as large as X. Tol them its bite hurts tviee as bad as it really does If the players declare that they’ are tak {ng a quick hoad count or that they want 10 look closely at the scone, then the DM should give them more aceurate descrip tions. The kind of exaggeration described above only applies to first impressions in lense situations. Ifthe players remain calm ‘enough to ask the questions, reward them by giving them accurate information. Play upon similarities to safe and ordi- rary things. For example, describe wolves ‘as dogs. To the undiseerning eye, one could easly be mistaken forthe other: For ‘most people, a dog isa friendly creature, and that makes it all he more horrifying ‘when st suddenly becomes « ravenous ‘mansbeast. Tt ean be quite 4 shock? ‘Suspense: Keep your players waiting Build the scene a itile ata time. Give the players time to worry about what might happen. Their fertile imaginations will probably seare them mare than the actual fencounter In a recent playtest of the RAVENLOFT adventure, IAI Feast ar Goblyns, ane party wes sleeping on the second story of an inn. "The thief awoke in the middle ofthe night to the soft sounds (of something trving to slowly open the ‘door As he woke the others and armed ‘himself, he saw the handle stop as it hit the sturdy bolt. From the other side he heard faint shuffling noises and some sort ‘of animal sniffing at the base of the door, By this time, exch of the players has had fae too much time to think about what ‘might be on the other side of the door. ‘When the werewolves erashed through the walls, ignoring the door, the PCS leaped out of the windows, crashed through tho outer walls themselves, and Dasically did everything in their power to ‘escape Irom a menace they could have easily defeated. They were more than ‘willing to take the falling damage rather than face the monsters! ‘The unexpected: Your players know all of the standard monsters and plots. ‘you give them an encounter that Follows this welltrod path, they ean hardly be expected to be frightened by I. In the ‘example above, with the werewolves in the inn, the routine outeome would have been for the werewolves to break down the door infact, I dave say that a PC or tivo was standing to either side of the door, waiting o sworl-stiek whatever poked its snout through: Instead the ‘werewolves burst through the very walls ff the characters! rooms, Great hairy arms shot through the thin plaster and grabbed the helpless characters pressed against the wall In order to make the unexpected wark, ‘sometimes you must cheat. I dont care What anybody says all great DMs cheat Since the DM is not truly all-seeing or all- ‘powerful, he needs something on his side, So he cheats, Wait ta see what the party is doing to prepare for an encounter: Then Ihave the encounter actin such a way as to ‘maximize the unexpected, as ifthe beasts had been planning i that way all along. However always allow the charaeters 3 vay out. 118 much more fun to watch them run away in terror than it isto kill them, "This technique should be applied spar- Ingly, ur run-of hes encounters should actin predictable ways, allowing the players the satisfaction of dfeating ‘them with a wellexeeuted plan. Only the special encounters should have the advan: tage of the unexpected, Quest GAMES P.O. 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When Lrun a RAVENLOFT adventure, the players roll theie own attack dice and damage dice, land thats it roll all the saving throws, all the undeadturning attempts, ete, Some- times T even keep track of the PCs! hit points and wounds, Under no circum Stancos will I reveal the rolls or numbers involved in my end of the game. if the players ask, they get a narrative descrip: tion of what happened. A player is more ‘mid if he is told that his character is sorely wounded than he is f told ls ehar- acter has 15 hp let. When the player rolls a die, he ean blame his failures on the die roll. If a roll that should have succoeded fails, he learns that there is something at wrk here that ‘i out of the ordinary: These kinds of things conflict with a good horror acivens ture. This s not to say that the player shouldn't get any feedback on his actions Or die rolls. As the DM, when you take away a diewolling mechanie from the players, you must replace it with a verbal ‘description of the action, For example, a priest attempts to turn an ‘undead legion of skeletons, and you roll that be fails. The player gets to hear some: ‘thing like this: "As you hold forth the symbol of your faith, demanding that the undead creatures turn back, your voice Dreaks, Your convietions seem to weaken. as the horror of the situation mounts. The skeletal legion marches toward you with: tout breaking stride’ Now the player Knows he failed is turning attempt, but hhe does not know exactly why. Was it his ‘own lack of faith, or was it the powerful and dark forovs that animated the skelo tons? Is it worth trying again or not? This ‘unknown element Is quite frightening Final notes: It is hard to seare players ‘who are roleplaying fantasy heroes, Their ‘characters come well equipped and armed ‘with powers beyond the scope of norraal ‘men. They are used to being in control ‘You will have to work hard to frighten tem, but the techniques from the RAVENLOFT boxed set and from this article should do the trick for most play fers. Once you have scared them, always reward them. That may sound funny, but remember that your players are just peo- pile out to have an evenings fun with role playing. Ifthey spend the whole game Session being scared and unable to suc- ‘eed at any task or defeat a single mon. sien they will hecome frustrated. Their characters may be stuck in the RAVENLOFT universe, but the players ean ‘walk away from the gaming table at any time. Give them an eneounter they can defeat. Let them find or decipher a clue to the solution ofthe adventure, As the DM, ‘you must lead them from susponse, 0 ‘error, to release, anc—yes=t0 success. “Then you get to start the whole process over again. - Q