A while ago there was this awesome horror thread about running a one shot about an elevator. I ended up fleshing one out and running one for my group over roll20 and they loved it. Had elevator music playing non stop when they were in the elevator and they ended up associating it with safety so had alot of fun messing with it , adding whispers and some such. I'm currently planning another one but this time Im thinking the theme should be a library. So /tg/ what are the freakiest and most un nerving things you can think of to happen in a library?
Bumb, interesting idea
>>36985467
I love visiting libraries but man they creep me out. They're one of the only places that make me feel claustrophobic.
>Horrific entities that can only be seen through gaps in the bookshelves
>A librarian that demands SILENCE at all times, even if it means cutting out your tongue
>The forbidden section is larger than the library itself
>Rows of shelves that seem to go on forever both forward and upward
>The Dewey Decimal System
>>36985467
Silence. Constant, unbreakable silence.
>Books that change titles as you glance away, messages appear as you run down the corridors.
>Books filled with the PCs darkest secrets lying open on the tables
>An entire area dedicated to Twilight
>>36985467
>After hours
>Door is locked, it doesn't seem like there is any way out of this library.
>Sometimes you think that you see the lady that runs the library through the shelves, but she isn't there.
>Hear her saying "shhh" often. Or so it seems...
>Some books seem out of place. They might be notebooks or diaries, or just books that seem to pop out.
>Their text seems to contain riddles, cryptic messages... Hints of a way out.
>They might point you towards an old book shelf, where you come across a new riddle.
>If you consult the book about it again, their text have changed.
>They offer you a way out, but at the same time, they warn you
>They aren't just books
>They were once just like you, wandering the closed library. They are trapped for ever.
>...
>...
>...
>*shhhhhhh*
is this any good?
>>36986768
Not OP but I'm gonna have to steal this.
>>36986768
thats awesome , definitely going to use that , nothing quite like a mousy librarian for a bloodthirsty killer
>>36986816
>>36986872
Glad you like it, perhaps I should try a horror setting myself once.
Upon further thought, I think it would be cool if you also plan in some 'normal' events. Maybe you find a telephone and the phone number of an 'Elizabeth' at some point, with whom you have a short conversation before the line breaks. You can pull the fire alarm and hope that someone hears it. You might even catch a girls attention through a window, talk to her for a bit through the glass until she agrees to get help...
And then you find more books... A novel based upon the life of 'Elizabeth'... Or a childrens story with illustrations of the same girl you just talked to through the window...
Just to give your players the feeling that they have some grip on the situation, before you remind them that they can't trust anything.
You can pull them in an unnatural world bit by bit. You can even make it more and more surreal at some point, when suddenly Napoleon Bonnaparte sillently roams the halls. It all depends on what kind of scary mood you wish to create I think.
Hey guys, thought this would be a good thread to ask, so, here we go. How does one exactly scare their players? It seems like a hard task to do, with spoken word. Is there anything else that can be used to unnerve them a bit more?
>>36986550
>Dewey Decimal System.
Wat?
Also archive of said thread OP?
>>36987914
See, here's the thing about horror games - the players have to be into it. That's absolutely, above all else, THE most important thing about it. They have to be explicitly wanting to do horror, do it seriously and play it straight - you can't have one guy who wants to do Shawn of the Dead, or one guy who wants to be a monster hunter, because otherwise everything's going to lose seriousness fast. For that reason, you should probably keep the group small.
Next, given that they probably want to be scared, your job ISN'T to scare them. Your job is to give them tools with which they scare THEMSELVES. Anything you can think of is not going to be as scary as the stuff they worry might be coming. Leave gaps in the information they get IC so they have room to wonder and hypothesize and freak themselves out with "what if?" Leave questions answered, leave things like loyalty uncertain and murky.
Avoid describing horrible things directly. Hold off showing the monsters for as long as possible - but show them the TRAIL of the monster, the EVIDENCE. Give them a locked room, a frustratingly vague note and a severed head. That is way more scary than your scorpion monster.
Absolutely do things to add to the local atmosphere, of course. Music can add to that so long as it's low volume and ambient. Keep the lights just high enough to see the dice, read the paper etc. Shut out all reminders of the outside world - hide clocks, close curtains, narrow their world-view down to just this room, this table.
>Trapped in a spoopy library
>Key is hidden in one of the books
>Every book has the same text: a gradual narrative of each of them dieing horribly intermixed with hints about the book that contains the keys.
>As they read it, the things happen, Neverending Story style.
>Books pick up from where the last one read left off.
>Each time a book is read it randomly picks one of the player's death narratives to continue.
>Players need to read as little of the books as possible to get the hints to direct them to the right book with the key in it.
>Players feel less incentive to take it easy on the books that aren't about their deaths and end up killing each other with them.
Or something.
>>36988048
>Leave questions UN-answered
Fuck, pretty major typo there, sorry.
>>36988048
>>36985467
Not quite related, but this is a great example of forced method-acting and atmospheric horror in a campaign.
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12130366/
>>36987982
>Thread about freaky and unnerving things in libraries
Either you didn't get the joke or you're crazy enough to be able to understand that damned thing.
The library is usually a place of respite, where the players withdraw to and gather wisdom to aid them in their endeavor. It's a great trope to break.
People are willing to follow strict rules when in a library. Most libraries are pretty lax. Many demand silence. A few have collections of antiquities which are only handed to supervised professionals to study in a climate controlled room with velvet gloves. The point is people tend to do what they're told by authorities without asking questions. This is very exploitable by any number of entities, cults, possessions, incarnations, and conspiracies. They can hide there, keep precious things under strict supervision without raising suspicion, maybe even use the visitors of the library to sinister ends covertly.
I always found university libraries intriguing. They can be elaborate affairs of ancient wood and marble with a Century of tradition, or they can be makeshift book repositories grown to inhabit entire floors of departments with neon lit corridors and tiny rooms never meant to store books in. There is a certain efficiency to them, and a large group of insiders who come by regularly or spend hour upon hours there in their studies. The front is pretty busy for a library. Most of the current materials are kept there. Many have a hand library where students find their own books and a desk where one can order up pieces from the catalog. And there are countless corners that are disregarded. No one ever goes there because nothing of interest is kept there. But a university library can't just throw things out. Old dissertations have to be kept for virtually ever. Many are bound, but just as many come in folders or boxes, some are just sewn or stapled together. You can find things that haven't been touched by a person in 25 years. And if you drop dead in a place like this it will be a week before they find your body if the last librarian out at night is lazy.
The Librarians might be related. It's NOT Warehouse 13.
There is a CoC book about old books. Not sure if it's just available in German, or what it's called. But it's great.
Also at some point, Launet's Goomicronicon should make an appearance.
