Gecko*

>They see copies of themselves walking both in front and behind them about 20 yards away, mirroring them exactly, then having aweful things happen to the copies.

HAHAHA- you are fucked up, man. So that would make me shit my pants.

Avoid something generic like will saves to overcome your fear.

Maybe they have to prevent the thing in their visions from happening? Like that one PC would have to stop 'himself' from killing his wife.

>>6307019
Firstly, I think this is better done as a CoC game.
As for ending the fog, that's really simple. On one hand, the fog could just leave after eating enough of their fear. On the other hand, the PCs could murder each other to escape - only to wake up in the town. Provide as little explanation as possible, just induce paranoia.

1. Find solid stone anchored to ground.
2. Tie a rope around stone
3. Tie rope around self
4. Walk in a straight line

Ifeel that if they are able to directly intervene in the illusions it sort of does in the horror aspect, making it kinda lame.

''You see someone about to execute a woman in the middle of the road"

" I stop him hurr"

" IT WAS YOU, AND THE WOMAN IS YOUR DEAD WIFE WHO WAS PHONE"

>setient fog THAT EATS FEAR

See, this is why I would suck as a DM

I can't come up with this kind of shit that seems like you'd have to be on every kind of drug imaginable to think it up.

Not to say it's bad, but that's probably one of the strangest damned things I've ever heard.

For me, scary is just big bad monsters coming for you in the dark.

>>6307019
Okay, ideas here:

>A way for them to get out of the fog and loop
First you must decide what the source of the fog is. Is the fog itself a sentient entity or is the thing controlling it the ultimate decider? Skill checks to recognize or see through illusions (and not just Arcana! Nature, Insight, etc. of varying DCs), dropping hints that if they try something they can trick the fog somehow, like making it think they are somewhere else or maybe just setting up camp, cooking food, laughing, drinking, telling stories like everything is normal and making the fog lose interest in them or spend some of its power in creating actual, physical threats to them (combat encounter! Ideas: mist/fog elementals, insubstantial and weak against fire, resistant to normal weapons)

>>6307138

>Ideas for the town
Depends on where you want to go with it. Was this fog an outside threat or did it originate in the town? Maybe somebody summoned it in a bid to gain power and they fucked up the ritual so it got loose. Maybe some wizard or something wanted something that was hidden in the town, perhaps a McGuffin important to your storyplot somehow. Ripe for further adventure hooks that way.

Given the malevolent nature of the fog, I'd say it's most likely that all the townsfolk would have either locked themselves up in their homes and lived on what stores of food they had for a while now (cabin fever, starvation, pants-shitting paranoia) or they tried to escape and got lost in the fog, only to die of exposure and starvation; alternatively only to get home just in time to get food and rest so they could recuperate and continue to be scared shitless by the fog. Depends on how smart the fog is. What to do with the town itself: Find the source of the fog, if it is a person or a monster or a portal or whatever. More fog fucking with them. Named NPC is found dead. They're not sure if it's really him or if it's just an illusion created by the fog. Whatever they find out, named NPC is seen later alive and well and they will probably react negatively to him. Again, they're not sure if he's an illusion or the real McCoy. Eventually though, something will have to give and they'll need an out. Make them work for it.

>>6307128
Eh. Scary is not knowing what is going to come up, or knowing you are about to lose something you care about. horror and terror, I never remember which is which.

The problem with doing that in games is that you need immersion to have it affect you. If you can think, nah, I can just turn away and do something else, you will not fear it. It helps if you have been playing for long enough in a session, if the scenario is good enough, or if you care enough about your character.

>>6307127
I STOP HIM

Yes you stop him successfully but in the shuffle you have lost track of the woman

I GO TO FIND THE WOMAN

There is no trace of her. The man falls over dead, foaming blood oozing from his mouth. He faces down.

OH GOD I LOOK AT MANS

You can't see him. As you move to disturb the corpse the clothes fall limp. There's no body, no blood, nothing.

WAT

Bumping because I want this guy to get more ideas. I want a clusterfuck of brainstorming in here, a sort of idea bukkake that leaves everyone covered in inspiration.

So nobody wear anything that's dry-clean only.

>>6307128
No, you don't have to take drugs to be creative. Philip K. Dick only took amphetamines so he could stay up for several days straight while he wrote enough stories to pay the rent for another month.

All you really have to do is take something and ask the right questions about it. Let shit percolate in your brain and twist things around. Make something completely retarded and then ask serious questions about it until you get something plausible.

These ideas are really good, I like the thought of the fog spilling over from the town. However this would indicate that they would walk through the fog into stronger fog, due to the presence of more food.
Have the PCs finally get to town they see the streets lined with aged bloated corpses, ritualistic mass suicide in churches, children hung from playground swing sets, merchants found dead trying to eat various things (swords, poison, jewlery)...

Good lord I am twisted

Some things for when they are on the road:

Early stages:
Drow Assasin hears Undercommon (is that what drow speak?) in the bushes, Possibly the assassins that are hunting him as per his background, there is nothing there

Fighter sees the love intrest Shamen just up ahead, only he can see her, glancing back at the illusion he now sees her lopping her own head off with an executioner's axe, the body falls limp but the head remains staring at him, then desolves.

The Shamen hears voices immediatly behind her and feels hot breath on the back of her neck
Sky is overcast, thunder and light fog

Mid stages:

The copies and strech of road

light rain, loud thunder

Late stage:

OH GOD WHAT THE FUCK

Downpour, thunder and lightning, dense fog

>>6307266
Subtlety, fa/tg/uy, subtlety. That shit's just a bit over the top, I think. Remember the three basic fear types: dread (what's about to happen), terror (what's happening right now), and horror (what has happened already). Fear of the unknown is the strongest type of fear. It's good to lead with that, especially in an environment where your players' imaginations will be the only source of fear, and you can't rely on cheap jump scares and visual horror.

if the PC's have fleshed out backstories have old sins come back to haunt them. Have one of the children hanging from the swim set with a fresh joker esque smile slashed into his cheeks turn out to be his or her dead son/daughter. When they pull it down in a shock and pull away it is most certainly not their child. Alternatively have it take a chunk out of them. However leaving it dead induces some paranoia that the person is nuts. Have them hear voices coming from the sewer main. A childs, help me help me im stuck. Have them chase down an entrance bash their way inside, fight off some ghouls, nasties, or just roll some sanity checks. They find the grate all thats left is the rotting remains of some carcass. You cant even tell if it was a child or a small dog. Or something. When they leave, they hear the voice again, except screamingscreamingscreaming in agony as if a thousand needles are being plunged into its nerves. Make papa/mama roll san check or go nuts because they think its their kid.

Maybe have the fog stick low to the ground to avoid the obvious link to silent hill. A grey day with some low lying ground fog that moves in ways it shouldnt, sometimes against the wind, or around the PC's ankles as if in a caress winding up their body to fall back and dissipate. Have them reach the church and find bodies (or body parts) nailed all over the exterior. The interior is spotless however, absolutely clean. As if the parishioners were to come in at any moment and kneel for prayer... The priest comes over and speaks with them. How fares the day my children? Naturally they will freak out at this normality, and may even lash out at the priest. If they do he falls down and dies. Normally. If they continue to speak to him they slowly disappear depending on who does the most talking. Finally its one person and they realize theyre alone. Tell the others that they still see the priest, still hear him, and still see who ever was talking. Yet its like time delayed. They keep jabbering and eventually stop HEARING whats being said. Like a static image.

Hopefully they wander off to discover whats up. Have someone fall down into the pit in front of the altar. Or not a pit crumbly ass stone. Like a bad repair job. They find a charnel house of horrors. Living people with their flesh flayed, limbs shattered and twisted into caricatures of whole beings. A man crucified to the wall with his genitals cut off, cauterized, and sown into his mouth. The flesh on his legs has been removed bit by bit. He sees them and begins thrashing around eyes rolling into the back of his head froth oozing between the poor, wide stitches. Blood everywhere the smell of rotting, diseased meat overwhelming, vomit, piss, shit. The very walls feel of the walls offending their senses. In the centre of this macabre second altar is a table.

On that table is a pristine tea set with tiny delicate china laid out. Napkins, a tiny pitcher of milk, or cream if you prefer. Bowl of sugar, spoons to match, piping hot tea. Some dolls are in place too, beautiful china dolls with painted faces. Theres also a covered plate with a little steam wisping from underneath. A little brown haired girl sits facing you on the opposite end of the table. She offers the PC a seat silently gesturing with her delicate little hands. She is in a blue dress, if she lived in the village it would be her church day best. She is all smiles and dimples. If they refuse then she gestures again more forcefully and they should make a moderate will check to resist. If they fail they sit down. She smiles prettily and pours everyone a drink starting with the bears, ending with the PC. In the back round the PC can hear the crucified man sobbing hysterically.

Dead silence. Nothing freaks characters out like noises that should be there NOt being there. No clucking chickens, no rattling wagons, no creaking shutters, no shouting merchants, no loling children.
Absence of people. Same principle - the absence of familiar things.
Startle your players. This especially. Put on some creepy music. Get really into a description, so that the players are hanging on to your every word. Right at the climax, as your voice builds in intensity, and when you have eye contact with at least one (preferably all) of your players, BAM say a loud noise, smack the table, and then "oh lol it was just a cat."
Upon closer inspection, the cat is standing over the corpse of a dead dog, horse, or loli, happily chewing on its ear.
Isolate your players, and forbid table-talk for this session. Get them to split up; the smaller the groups the better. Don't let them recoup, make sure they don't share in-character stories OOC. I normally don't mind table-talk, but if you're trying to scare the piss out of your players, don't let them know what's up.
Leave them on cliffhangers. If you're talking two of them through their exploration of an abandoned church, have them open the door to the altar chamber, then suddenly - oh, shit, time to go to the other group.

If they move to cast a spell to make sure the tea is not poisoned then the little girl gets angry, she starts banging her fists on the table, et cetera and perhaps for a moment the PC's vision swaps with the crucified man, seeing some strange person sit down with the badbabdbababdbadbthing nogoodpainpainhurtsstopit then swap back. The closer they put the tea to their mouth the more the man shrieks and freaks out. Thrashingthrashingthrashing. only way not to drink is to ask about the plate with steam coming from it. She smiles, and pulls the plate its full of sweetmeats and tiny delicacies such as one might find in a merchants house or minor princes court. Very fine food.

The moment they drink or eat anything everything blinks out. Theyre in the basement. The smells the same, worse even. More rot. Theyre sitting at a dessicated table, on a pile of kindling for what might have been a chair at one point. They have a small moldy tin cup full o some vile coagulated liquid. The sweetmeats are bits of unidentifiable rotting meat. Maybe roll a fort check to save on poison now.

Oh wow I got carried away... Nothing really useful in there just me rambling on. The previous anon's made good points though. Quiet and forbidding table talk would make everything seem more ominous. If you have some good, low key ambient dungeon music now is the time to whip it out.

>>6307611

scratch that ambient music would ruin the effect. Still good luck with this senore OP, it sounds like it would be awesome to play.

>>6307616
No, ambient music is GREAT, juts don't turn it up much. Make it quiet, and make the room dark. Sensory deprivation is the way to go. Speak quietly until the exciting bits happen.

>>6307637

Also learn to accentuate certain words without sounding like a railroading douche. Its like speaking to children. Say key words you want noticed slightly louder or out of rythm. Word gets noticed. Takes practice to do so without sounding like an idiot.

"The low lying fog seems to move of its *own* volition, *climbing* your leg when you stand still to get your bearings"

its s small thread, but this should be saved for future reference. I mean, the way the OP presented it made the concept sound rather novel.

I fucking love you Franky. How do we archive this thread?

What I might do is have the road and fog be the whole session and save the town for holloween

Wheel of Time, anyone?

Shadar Logoth?

>>6307746

Cant say i've read either of those. Details?

Bamp

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/6307019/
Archived

>>6307574
The isolating the players is a good one, especially if they stumble into each other - don't describe them normally take their fears and warp what they see for a few rounds.

I love you /tg/. I've been trying to work out something for a late-night, last minute halloween session. Hope you don't mind me stealing some of this.