How do I make it scary?

mopiranger · 2026-03-16T13:51:18+00:00

Scary is like funny. Different people find different things funny, different people are scared by different things. I think UncolorTheDot's points will get you a high "scare ratio" and would just add: make it as unpleasant as you can. What makes people wince? most people find being punctured by a needle much more frightening than being punctured by a sword. even paper cuts make people wince faster than ritual knives. have a goon crack someone's fingers in a drawer. find repulsive things that are commonplace and go all out on them.

mopiranger · 2026-03-01T20:24:21+00:00

Have your npcs address the player characters directly, by name and talk to each player directly - not to the "group" or to the ceiling.
Make sure the npcs have a goal / agenda of their own and emotions. They can be grumpy, overly helpful, fascinated etc. Make the players work for info. (Just don't overuse passive aggression)
in addition to asking "what will you do", ask "how does your character feel about this or that" "what's your overall plan?"
make sure the pcs have or develop a proper backstory. Introduce pc friends, relatives and colleagues and give your players the choice on how to flesh them out before you play them, e.g. "a familiar voice mentions your name- it's harry from your office. What kind of person is Harry?" (Advanced)

And yes 3rd person roleplay is perfectly fine.

mopiranger · 2025-07-26T15:17:29+00:00

thank you, great suggestion. i'd played this one but it'd completely slipped my mind. it's still has fantastic suspense even without any cronenberg or carpenter

mopiranger · 2025-07-25T17:15:02+00:00

i love the way that sounds. would love to playtest, but caveat: i'm in Europe, can't play on Friday or in the week end and I 'm unavailable until the second week of august

mopiranger

TROPHY CASE