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>>46369213
>What are your favorite ways to unsettle players?

Music is key, https://youtu.be/oWTC7P1Dprw

>The small Transport Starship you have docked with contains bodies, (it looks like it will be a salvage after all) the poor sods seem to have suffocated inside of their spacesuits but the Atmospheric systems are online and charged, incoherent scribbling’s speaking of a Plague cover the walls. The air-work comes back clean.

>The Nobles Mansion seems rather homey, it certainly can't be worse than sleeping at the Inn, and he did offer it. Upon closer inspection however the party realize that the suits of armour decorating the mainhall are occupied, the poor sods inside have had their faces removed through brutal surgery.

>The Farmstead have been ruined, it seems the tribal savages have gone to town, their gruesome displays are there for all to see: Heads mounted on pikes, bodies thrown into piles of rotting food and slaughtered farm-Animals a small shrine have been built out of the detritus outside, a perfectly cleaned skull sits at the center, picking it up and the muscle begins to re-grow, eyes rotting back into existence as a shrill scream echoes from the head.

>A trip to the dwarf-planet to collect a sample for the researchers, the quasi-organic substance is not hard to find at all as it covers a large chunk of the asteroid, once inside the air of the ship the thing seems to wilt and die, even better. That night the airlock begins acting up and they discover a tiny sliver of the material have found its way into the circuitry, suitable reprimanded about its dead nature the captain doubles up on the quarantine, later the same day it turns up in the ships mess growing on a wall. A thorough search of the ship reveals nothing, but the surveillance shows tampering and the material keeps showing up in unexpected places.

A plumbing accident reveals the inside of the water pipes are coated in the substance.

The crew has been drinking the water for days.

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>>46369213
>>What are your favorite ways to unsettle players?
>>What are some things that sends you shivering as a player?

>your team is still in the supermarket, scavenging for food, you hear them hurry in the talkie.
>the fog is coming back quickly, quicker than you would've thought.
>the father tells you to hurry and prep the car, your group took too long this time.
>you shiver thinking the fog might catch you up this time and that They might be near.
>at last, you manage to start the car and the group hurry inside, you feel relieved when the supermarket disappear in the mirror.
>then the talkie crackles.. you pick up to hear your group leader scream.

"what the hell? Where are you? Where is the car?!"

In the mirror, They are all smiling at you from ear to ear...


I think that the unknown is the scary stuff, uncertainty, doubt and darkness. Also twists.

>>46369366
You read the cataloged mars horror campaign I take it?

But I agree sound and music really sets the tone

>>46370549
The unknown, being lost and confused, having the feeling of safety yanked way from under you

>>46370600

yeah, lovecraft, poe and king all understand that, if it works in books why not in RP?!
When i threw that story at my player this time she went pale all of a sudden...that was quite funny.

>>46370817
>>46370600
Sorry what Mars campaign?

>>46369213
Can you even do horror campaigns? I've run horror one-shots, I don't really see how the horror could be sustained for multiple sessions.

Maybe by not keeping it intense? Ups and downs, like in a TV series? I'd like to hear how this could be done.

>>46371026
Yes, breath time is a big part of a horror story, you need dosage and operate with care. (not OP here)

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>>46369213
Don't show the monsters, don't let the players have the situation under control.

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>>46370600
I´ve took some inspiration from it, particularly the audio - that OP really had a feeling for it.

>>46371026
The idea is to build up the creep factor over a longer time, give out the horror in small intense doses and let player character handle the fallout afterwards; I´ve learned that players easily get themselves spooked once you start the bandwagon.

For instance: There was this that song they found in small pieces over a few weeks as the deranged scribbling’s of an Astronaut, just a line here or there written on a wall or carved into a knife handle as they trekked through the abandoned colony, I also recorded myself playing the tune and would weave it into their Audio-logs and occasionally when they listened to the radio or otherwise, no words just the tune, they´d start hearing it even when I was not playing it – if anyone said the words of the song they´d flare up thinking something was fucking with them.

Then in the finale I hit them with the song in full, https://youtu.be/MGo2yqcUYaY when they started connecting the dots about what the song was referencing pants where shat across the table.

>>46371358
I get that you can't give out details of the horror or keep the suspense at 100% all the time, but what do you do when there's no scary things going? Preparing? Waiting? Sleeping it off? I figure these sorts of things can be handled in half an hour (playing time) and then there's plenty of time to explore the mansion / space station / whatever hellhole the scary stuff happens in.
So how to keep the campaign as a horror campaign instead of mundain stuff with horror sections?

>>46370838
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12130366/
just.... read.

>>46372037
Thanks for the link, I knew the story but couldn't connect the dots. Doh!

Start with the proviso that there might be disturbing content in your game, that you're all adults, and as a GM you have a free rein to include what you see fit in order to enhance the horror. If they don't agree, they shouldn't play.

Next, ask players for any topics that might trigger them so you can exclude those from the game, e.g. if they've been in war or have some kind of phobia.

Finally, include those themes in your game.

I hook up my computer to my 72 in tv and drop giant nightmare fuel with sound effects on them

>>46373650
Such as? I use my TV when plaing too, but I mostly play music and sound effects from it. Maps on the TV usually.