Organization: University of Maine System
Date: Friday, 8 Jan 1993 12:50:25 EST
From: <IO01255@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Newsgroups: alt.horror.cthulhu
Subject: Re: conversion of players to CoC

In article <cesnyd01.726496713@starbase.spd.louisville.edu>,
cesnyd01@starbase.spd.louisville.edu (Cris Snyder) says:
>
>Ok, I have a Dnd group, and they said they would play a game of Cthulhu with
>me
>as GM.  No problem.  They are a good Dnd group, used to all sorts of nastys.
>Problem.
>
>How does one take a person who has fought deamons and ghoulies and (literaly!)
>had lunch with dieties go to a game system where part of the goal of the GM is
>to scare the socks off of him?  I don't think these folks are going to be
>impressed when a Bakee (Sp?) come fluttering down the hall way - they'll
>laugh!
>
>What do I do?
>
>I'm already planning to use physical eliments - low lights, candles, dark     s
>color
>etc. maybe even some spooky music in the background - I think this will
>deffinetely help.
>
>Another big problem is how do you get it thru their heads that taking a week
>(game time) and living in a library can almost be expected of them?  We're
>talking about Fantasy gamers who are used to obliterating anything they dont
>understand with the exception to the fact that it's trying to eat them!
>
>Any other thoughts?
>
>                                        AlberCrombie.
>-

I had a similar problem with having a number of players that had been role
playing for years ond years. They had experienced everything from the
darkest pits in Mordor, to the swirling nothingness of deep space...
I found that I had a challenge frightening my players at first, but I
soon learned a few tricks..
One of my favorite things to do is as a adventure goes along, and various
nastinesses are mentioned or whatnot, I look for the suttle hints that
the players showed of fear.  Say I was talking about something that had
to do with spiders... I would notice that one or two of the players would
give a shudder at the thought of some of the images I was showing them.
After you find out what scares the players, then suddenly you know what
you can do to make the adventure more frightening.  If you work on
making just one or two of the characters feel uneasy, you'll find that
fear is contagious.  Everyone will be more on the edge of their seat.
Also, use more classic horror elements.. (bodies, blood, undead, etc...)
You'll find that if you keep putting in a lot of the CoC Mythos creatures
the characters won't be disturbed half as much as when you set up an
encounter with a nasty with classic elements of horror.  If you're
not sure where to start, try starting with something that scares YOU.
Some of the most effective games I have had has come from something
that deeply disturbs ME, and tends to make my handling of the game
more intense as I am describing things that make me shiver...
Something else that I have found to work is in the character generation.
If you, when walking the player throught the character generation,
make sure to guide the player into making a character that would not
be preparing for battle, but instead is made to the specs of a normal
person that would have lived in the 1920's, the player is more likely
to think that the character is a real person, and would act as that real
person would......
That's all I have time to write.  Good luck in your game.  If you
have any questions about the finer points of the game, please send
some e-mail about it.  I am very willing to help new Keepers....  ;)
Newsgroups: alt.horror.cthulhu