I might try some existential horror where they are literally the only people in the world. Everything looks normal, but there is no other person besides the players.
Creepy things lurking around every corner... did aliens destroy humans? Are they in hell? Perhaps this is some nightmarish coma? Or maybe this is the life we all live anyway. A lonely ass fucking existence with maybe a few people we blindly have to trust or it's nothing at all as we wander around trying to make sense of shit.
Yeah it's really hard to do horror when you're a nihilist.
A few tips.
>make them roll perception.
Never tell them why.
>Make something they can't kill but can escape chase them.
But never let them lose it.
>Use Fatigue effects and enforce them.
A tired adventurer is a weak adventurer.
>Conspire with one of them.
About nothing. Just convince the others that he's fucking with them on purpose or ruining their plans.
>Make the guy you're conspiring with fail.
In small ways, once in a while. To back up their paranoia.
>Make someone Crazy.
Don't tell them about it. Just ask everyone for will checks once in a while.
You could try making the world like some kind of pale shadow of the real thing, like everything has been drained from it. It's populated by near invisible monsters of fog or something. There could be implications that everyone was shaped into something else, something Other, but there aren't nearly enough of them for that. Maybe one person doesn't equal one monster?
Otherwise the place is simply empty, with the occasional attack by some shade of the world that was.
>>48119258
here this should help a bit
>>48119258
Tell us a little bit more about the kinds of setting your players like, a lot of the effectiveness of horror gaming is buy-in so twisting something you know that they like already is always a good start.
Good horror in gaming is rarely about gore and violence but the personification of ideas that are frightening as plot points. If you can work in something like that as a central point to the situation that the players are dealing with you'll be on your way.
>>48119258
Be subtle.
Make NPC's get torn to shreds or suffer gruesome unseen fates.
Make notes about specific things in the environment to try and misdirect them or make their imaginations go wild.
>>48119258
>Yeah it's really hard to do horror when you're a nihilist.
I don't get it. How is that?
Spook them by telling them each of them have a skeleton inside them
>>48119258
That's not horror, that's Dadaism.
Horror is all about tension.
You need an unknown threat that increases in increments, with a trail of clues explaining its mystery.
You also need players willing to play such a game. If they resist and keep trying to dominate the story with combat then killing the PCs is pretty much all you can do.
It's a huge topic that merits in depth consideration of story structure, player agency, pacing, and tension. Just putting in creepy shit won't do.
>>48119258
Never describe the "main" monster's form in much detail. Leave it to their imaginations.
>>48119258
atmosphere is important
>Slice fears into symbols.
Fear of spiders does not call for a spider attack, instead: too many eyes on a statue, too many legs on a shadow, a poison weapon, a webbed chandelier, a thing on the wall, sticky strings, a pulsating egg, a dark and dirty hole to venture into, an enemy who surprise attacks from above, being mummified or bound and helpless, being killed slowly over days, a crawling wave of probably ants, or unseen bites from the undergrowth...
Not one spider mentioned, but the arachnophobic in your group will be chewing their pencil.
>Withhold the horror
Never show your creature or whatever in full effect until the showdown, maybe not even then. Instead tease with small details deduced from its trail of destruction. These are usually clues in an investigation, but they don't have to be. They do have to be ominous and revealed in careful increments as they build the tension curve. This is especially effective if the characters are privy to information that NPCs don't get, like impossible paw prints washed away by rain, or prior information that puts the new events in a different context. A horror that is revealed becomes a challenge to roll dice against and nothing to fear. Eerie silence is always better than sustained panicked screaming.
Like >>48122003 stated.
>>48119258
Run a game of Dread.
>Establish a baseline first
Contrast is essential. Nothing is spooky if it wasn't normal first, there's just nothing to undermine. Stakes have to be established before they can matter to the players. So a horror scenario should take special care to introduce NPCs at a slice of life level, underline their hopes and fears however trivial to the party, and charge them emotionally with sacrifices they are ready to bring or hardships that they must suffer while remaining friendly and helpful to the PCs. That way it has an impact when they are later found mauled to a pulp, hung lifeless from branches, or burnt to cinders. Bonus points if the players promised to protect them. Meta points if they also used to provide some utility to the PCs.
>>48124358
Dead of Night is also great. But yeah, Dread teaches tension and is crazy fun for newbs and veterans.
>Immerse players with sensory descriptions
Presenting conclusions like "There's a corpse" in narration takes away immersion and invites meta play. Instead describing impressions like "The unmoving person looks pale and smells rotten" works better for horror. More than that. senses connect to memory and imagination. So a good preparation is to ready lists of how the 5 primary senses can be affected by locations, NPCs, or events. Describe how the suspect smells, what the victim's body sounds like when it is removed, how touching the old book feels in the hands, or how the air tastes.
>long hallways
>constant darkness
>battery life
>poltergeist
you're done
>Strange and coming closer
Take a mundane or low level threat and have it show up out of context, watching from beyond reach. The effect can be increased by having only the character see it. Don't have this be the main threat, more of a lingering worry that keeps coming back - maybe the result of a san fail. Then wait for the character to be alone and relaxed or vulnerable, and have it appear right behind them. Ideally this doesn't prompt combat but the character watching helplessly as the thing stares at them intently, looking ready to strike, but then it disappears again. It could come back any time.
>>48126084
You sound like a shitty horror GM. Would not RP with.
While we're posting reading material,
>>48131872
>>48131914
Heres the original op image.
>>48126032
>5 senses
this is good advice in any thing you do. Describe all the senses!
>>48119258
Do a Kafkian horror instead and make them the only sane people in a system that makes no sense.
Make the whole world like the inner universe of a paranoid or anxious person.
>>48132491
That's pure railroading which will frustrate players instantly: zero immersion. No fucks given.
Also: Kafkaesque?
>>48132553
On second thought I think I agree.
Horror should be about overcoming your fears, not giving up because they are final and inevitable.
>>48132823
I think the threat should be inevitable, otherwise the players are tempted to run. But you're getting ahead of yourself.
A horror adventure is not about revealing the threat, it is about the steps this takes. As soon as you reveal the tension is gone, no matter how powerful your threat. To invoke goosebumps you have to keep the players guessing. Suspecting maybe, possibly expecting, but never seeing the reveal until the showdown.
