Post subtle but creepy encounters I can throw at my players playing as film students producing a documentary in the woods.
>>47314752
A little bit of backstory:
>while studying google maps aerial photos of a local forest players discover a pyramid-like structure in the center of it; a discovery of such building could change the known history of the region and could make a great material for a documentary and be their ticket to fame
Kind of magical realm but we played a spoopy innawoods sort of game and the group at one point while fleeing a stalker beast found refuge with some forest living people who were friendly and welcomed us in.
Turned out to be a hills have eyes sort of situation where we slowly discovered they were inbred cannibals, and tried to play it ignorant. When it became obvious we tried to escape, and one player was snared while fleeing. We couldn't free him in time, and he was taken back by them, imprisoned and shotgun married into the family to thin out the bloodline. Ironically while he didn't die like some of the group did in the game. His epilogue was really messed up.
Leading up to it though it was pretty creepy and great, wondering what they were trying to feed us, noticing how deformed some of them were, how eerily friendly they were, and when we started to look around, finding clues of the truth till actually looking in the basement and finding all the hanging butchering tools and leftovers of past victims, as well as the worst and most inbred of them.
>>47315077
Was his inbred cannibal wife cute at least?
>>47314752
If there isn't any artificial lights nearby, they look up to notice an obviously clear sky, but there's no stars. It doesn't sound like much but it definitely seems unnatural, and would freak the hell out of me.
>>47314752
Gotta come across the remains of someone who comitted suicide in the woods. Doesn't have to actually be related to the plot at all.
>>47315176
No not at all. He was married to the Big Mama sort of matriarch who was the most messed up one of all.
I guess some small consolation that years down the road when she wasn't able to have kids anymore, he was switched to one of the younger ladies who was less messed up, but by then he was a shell of his former self and a mutilated wretch.
>>47315077
boy, this would make a nice one-shot game, thanks for sharing!
>>47315214
or,
>stars aligning into a line
>some stars are visibly albeit slowly moving in relation to the other stars
>>47315229
It's a must. Maybe subtler, like abandoned camping tents with hangman's noose ona nearby tree, no corpse in sight
Another thing you could do is have one of the players "marked" but not realized it, which allows them/the group to keep being followed.
Like when we played, one of the characters got bitten by what none of us realized was a werewolf. She was thereafter marked, but it subtly worked out because the game wasn't taking place over a time period long enough for the disease to really manifest or become obvious in her. Like she had it, and the werewolf could track her and as a result the group because of it, but none of us were aware she had it because the game only lasted a few weeks in terms of in-game time.
Play this game, steal everything from it.
>>47315313
It's been years since I've played it. Eternal Darkness wasn't so subtle though
>>47314752
Every once in awhile roll the dice for no reason at all (but don't let them know there's no reason behind it), then make a grimace.
>>47316337
perfect, thank you
>>47314752
Previous maps of the area don't show the Pyramid. Neither does GoogleEarth or any other real-time sources.
This is a ducking amazing thread
>houses with no handles on the inside
>>47316663
I hate you so much
>>47314812
That looks familiar. What movie is it from?
Every time they encounter a dead thing (dead wildlife, one of the group dies somehow, they stumble across someone's corpse) they are followed by a goose. It doesn't attack or come any closer than 20 meters, but they can see it following them around making its annoying goose honks occasionally.
Eventually they are followed by a whole herd of Geese, honking, flapping their wings, being general assholes.
Then one of them realises the awful truth just before the Geese descend and being tearing them apart with razor sharp teeth. Their pillow has goose feathers in it.
>One or more of the characters have a disturbing dream in which they witness a seemingly endless procession of shadowy figures shuffling single-file through the forest in the direction of the pyramid.
>The crew hear an 80s pop song some distance out in the forest. It's scratchy and tinny, as if being played on an old boombox, and follows them all day.
>Several times over the course of their hike, the characters stumble upon a pond with a large, obelisk-like stone sticking crookedly out of the middle, despite heading never doubling back.
Have your PCs check out a closed off on-ramp. Any attempt to look up information on that particular part of the road and where it goes/went yields little to nothing and even Google Maps/Earth doesn't have anything on it
>>47317020
>no portraits, only windows
After they have gone close to the house, animals start dying near to the house, or actively travelling towards the house to die. It starts small, with a shrike living in the garden making a grisly "larder"of dead reatures. Then, a rat dies in the wall and stinks up the place. When the players open the windows, they find they're gummed up by the bodies of insects, which have forced themselves into the window's mechanisms.
Soon, birds fly repeatedly into one corner of the house (closest to the pyramid) until they split their own skulls open. Neighbourhood cats show up on their doorstep, torn apart by large predators.
After that, children start to go missing..
>>47317119
The Taking of Deborah Logan, bretty gud for a found footage flick
>>47316337
>>47316416
This is a cheap trick and for any experienced gamer, they will either ignore it or treat it as perverse encouragement
If the players go to a town several times, each time they go back, remove one of the buildings they visited. From any maps, from the notes, everything. If the players call you on it, deny it. They'll show up and suddenly the blacksmith is just gone. Then the inn, then the church. If they leave for a long while and say for whatever reason they want to come back again, act confused, you have no idea what town they're talking about.
>>47314752
Describe the various wildlife noises whenever they make a spot/perception/whatever check. Occasionally, describe the noises of some animals wrong, like a "whispering" from birdsong or the "singing" of crickets.
Also, if they make any identifying marks on trees, rocks, anything, have them find similar marks as they continue along, in almost the same places, but not quite.
>>47320622
Another idea, do little rhythmic tapping things with your foot in precise patterns, or hum little bridges of music. Make sure the pattern and music is always the same, but not always at the same speed.
Also, write things down a lot, whenever they do some actions or anything. It doesn't have to be actually important writing, but it'll make them paranoid that their actions are causing something big.
>>47320622
>>47318595
This is cool
>>47323069
>Also, write things down a lot, whenever they do some actions or anything. It doesn't have to be actually important writing, but it'll make them paranoid that their actions are causing something big.
The next step up from there is occasionally rolling dice for no reasons. Players'll sweat like crazy.
A short, skinny, long limbed humanoid creature walking on all fours
>>47323069
>>47326106
As an addition to this, bring a bunch of notes. Most of them should be blank, or covered in nonsense that looks like code, or be for entirely different games. As long as they see a big pile of DM papers and think OH SHIT.
>>47318520
Thanks, now I've got a movie to watch on the weekend.
>>47314752
>Goodnight Mommy
solid movie. not what i was expecting at all but damn.
>>47315214
Even better: none of the constellations are remotely familiar.
>>47317131
And then, in the innermost sealed chamber of the pyramid...
>>47318520
That ones from VHS though. Which is also pretty good, but kind of inconsistent because it's anthology.
>>47326483
A sergal?
>The corpses of various boss enemies such as a bandit leader or a goblin chief will disappear.
>Later on PCs might explore dungeons with no loot, and only a medium sized statue of a boss enemy they killed.
>The statues are well crafted, and occasionally make a slight vibration.
>When asked about the statues no one will know shit about it.
Just a pool of blood that will not congeal no matter how long it sits. Attempts to identify said blood will fail.
A dead washed up shark corpse with an alligator hiding in it in a lake that's also hissing in a log
One PC feels a consistent itch, either in their eye or on the back of their neck. Leave it at that or have them roll to resist scratching their neck raw and bloody. In the case of an eye have a different PC roll to examine the affected eye. They might see something moving in their eyeball
>>47315313
A series of related time-jumping one-shots set in the Eternal Darkness universe is my fucking dream.
>>47327236
That's terrifying for totally different reasons
They find tapes close to the pyramid of footage timestamped a year or two ago that suggest this documentary isn't their first attempt despite no memory of it.
Find a way to subvert a player wothout anyone, even the player knowing how they are working against the others.
In one game i ran one player had sold his soul to a waifu deamonette and the other had a body share with a tzeentch minion going.
Both thought these were something completely different and on the level, when in reality i was setting them up to summon all the demons and shank the inquisitor with a daemon weapon respectively.
>>47331945
Oh shit, love this
>>47332801
That one reminds me of that paranoia module... one of the wmds i think
I had a bugbear, which are essentially goblinoid serial killer follow the party, and drop glass beads which makes loud bangs. Too add to the effect I had glass breaking sounds coming from my phone.
