How to Frighten Your D&D Players in Time for Halloween! | Grim Hollow

[@STORMB999]

I once did a quest from the starter set where the party had to take back a lighthouse from a priest whose heart was powering the lighthouse and was conjuring a storm. I had an ambient thunderstorm track in the background and very faintly a heartbeat as well since the beating heart was audible from afar. At first nobody noticed, but after an hour, one of my players suddenly goes silent, shushes the others and then freaks out about the heartbeat. Some others hear it as well and they point it out, while others can't hear it over the ambience. Their reactions were priceless when they started wondering how long the heartbeat had been playing!

[@sambro6657]

The moment you kill the village dog your monsters already dead

[@HazzardousEco]

I once had a DM that used nothing but ambience music, the occasional sound bytes such a lowkey growl or scream, and his narration, but never used any jump scares; and despite that, my group were on edge the entire time

[@GhostfireGaming]

That's what some folks call a pro GM move.

[@DreamerNumber3]

this was a fantastic video and Ben is great at description but I wish i hadn't decided to watch this over breakfast

[@Its_steve1217]

A great way to start the spooky season 😂

[@Cassapphic]

1:51 no way Ben Byrne jumpscare

[@kotic79]

That got me too

[@samuelshirley369]

Write that down, write that down!

[@TheGenericavatar]

One game master called Horror the "Art of Inducing Sweet, Sweet Paranoia" or something along those lines.

[@Sir_Lorekeep]

Had an Among Us/Mafia inspired one shot that I ran similar to the type of one shot you mentioned in the last segment. Players knew one of them could be the monster. Turned out one was turning into a vampire. He successfully killed everyone except the druid, who noped out when the timing was convenient.

[@FaraelHikari]

And should that one-shot ever get a sequel or be expanded into a campaign, beyond the obvious vampire villain, the druid is perfectly set up to become that one NPC who's probably got the best intell on the threat, but wouldn't hear about anyone going anywhere near it ever again - or, who's ever since spent their life preparing their vengeance, but never quite felt like they had all they need to go for it...

[@logankadrlik6766]

10/10 ideas

[@Grimlore82]

Been running dark fantasy/horror for a long time. Some things I have found to be very helpful... Before running Curse of Strahd, I studied as many subgenres of horror as I could. That way I could apply them as needed for encounters, NPC interactions, etc. Some are better fitted than others for the table, for sure. Anecdote I read from a comment in one of Runehammer 's horror at your table vids... "Horror is about disempowerment, heroic fantasy is about empowerment. This dichotomy has to be addressed." Hence why my CoS campaign was PHB classes, human species, and my Sanity System I created. You HAVE to make them fear the dark, and the unknown. To

[@spooderous]

Neat.

[@markt7177]

Love ❤️ this

[@keithulhu]

Midnight Syndicate, great music for this

[@grejny0843]

All of my players chose two general phobias. I am using them to give them disadvantages, when they encounter their phobia so the characters are scared in game and players outside, because there is bigger chance they will die.

[@dantherpghero2885]

I prefer campy horror. So hordes of zombies, alien spider infestation, gremlins, etc. Have the encounter take place in a familiar setting: gas station, supermarket, aquarium, etc.

[@gregorygreenwood-nimmo4954]

Session zero discussions about what kinds of horror imagery are of interest to the group and which ones are, for whatever reason, off limits are absolutely essential, and it is very bad form to use that knowledge to deliberately employ imagery that you know will cross the line for some of the players. With all that said, the players also need to be honest and open in those discussions too. Don't present yourself as laid back and unconcerned only to later change your tune and suddenly say you have an issue with something you signed off on earlier unless you genuinely are experiencing significant anxiety. Most important of all, never claim to have an issue with something the GM worked on for probably a not insignificant period of time just to amuse yourself by throwing a spanner in the works or because it gives you a sense of power and control to be able to make the GM dance to your transitory whims. Narcissistic, wilfully disruptive players can be as much of a problem as GM's who don't pay attention to the group's needs and limits.

[@scasimir1000]

What if you make a scenario when the party saves and protects a little girl assuming that she is in danger, but the truth is that so-called little girl is actually a full grown woman who had a disability. That individual is actually the villain of the story and by the end of the campaign you can sprinkle throughout it telling their players that this individual is dangerous and they figure it out they can stop it if they don't then murder.

[@ilovecheese3339]

Peekaabooo

[@jayteepodcast]

Play Dread. 5e doesnt work

[@gregorygreenwood-nimmo4954]

I like the idea of encouraging players to consider what their character's phobias are. Not their own fears unless that is something they especially want to explore, but specifically that of their characters. They can steer clear of things that bother them too much and other pre-discussed subjects that are red lines for other group members, while still having a hook for roleplaying a character with, say, a fear of darkness, abandonment, loss of control of one's body or mind, or whatever other fear(s) they have established for their character. Perhaps each character's fears are initially known only to that player and the GM, and must be discovered by the other players. Perhaps some villains must similarly learn of the character's fears, but other, supernatural foes might already know those deepest, darkest terrors by some mystical means and be able to us them against the Party from the off. You could have secret saving throws - perhaps for Wisdom - as a party member exposed to a secret fear struggles to hold it together and maintain a brave face to their companions, but failed saving throws could make their behaviour increasingly erratic as panic sets in. You could also have a system of psychological trauma for characters who experience something particularly horrific over the course of a session that might trigger a newly emerged phobia, such as being unable to escape in a confined, shrinking space after triggering a trap and nearly being killed resulting in extreme claustrophobia, and equally confronting such a fear might give the character the opportunity to overcome it or at least mitigate its effect on them.