Any good BTS horror stories to share?

[mrloucifer]

I looked through the forum but I didnt see a topic based of sharing some of your best BTS moments you've had as a player or GM.

Do you have any good horror stories or moments to share?

[mrloucifer]

A few weeks ago I had my group searching through maintenance tunnels in a very old building. In the middle of the complex they find a lowered pit half filled with water from the dripping steam pipes above. In the green moldy water it’s full of bugs, big hungry rats and debris from over the years, including the bones, bodies and items of the monsters victims they they’ve been hunting and tracked down to this point. It was a really horrible scene to witness and disgusting smelling place to be (I had the group roll for a low horror factor and all succeeded).

The Diviner in the group spotted a roach running along side the cement wall twords the soup below and saw a sign that said they were in trouble. Farther back the demon they were hunting busted a gas pipe and set fire to the gas, sending a giant ball of fire down the maintenance access crawl space… directly at the player characters!

The players had time to see it rounding the corner and coming at them, with no other choice the gang hopped over the railing and into the muck below! What happened next was a barrage of biting rats, bugs crawling on them as they surfaced the water, bloated corpses became entangled with them, and a few failed horror factor rolls (including a natural 1, which requires a save vs. insanity in my game; the player failed that roll badly as well.)

By the time the group had swam to the other end of the goop and had climbed the ladder, one character developed a phobia of rats and another (the natural one roller) developed a really horrible fascination of the dead and dead bodies due to his getting caught in all the bodies and bones and paniced to the point of near drowning in them.

It was a good night for playing a horror game.

[Lord Z]

I like that rule!

[Sir Neil]

We had several adventures and recurring villains based on the Alannah Myles song, Black Velvet.

The Southern Church, a faux-Christian cult that worships the Lord of the Deep, was trying to expand into other regions. If a church wouldn't sell, they had an arcanist ally burn them down. They also had a knife-wielding simpleton (retconned into a berzerker) on payroll. They would bind their victims with black velvet ribbons and drown them in salt water.

They clashed with the PC's agency several times.

[mrloucifer]

We had several adventures and recurring villains based on the Alannah Myles song, Black Velvet.

The Southern Church, a faux-Christian cult that worships the Lord of the Deep, was trying to expand into other regions. If a church wouldn't sell, they had an arcanist ally burn them down. They also had a knife-wielding simpleton (retconned into a berzerker) on payroll. They would bind their victims with black velvet ribbons and drown them in salt water.

They clashed with the PC's agency several times.

This is wickedly cool!!

I had a serial killer who always left their victims home playing a purchased Blue Oyster Cult CD specifically playing "Dont Fear the Reaper" on repeat in their CD player. It became his signature feature and eventually helped the players find him.

While they hunted his trail, this song got to the point of haunting the players as I'd start that song on my player when they'd enter a victims home too late to save them. I think it ruined the enjoyment of the song for one of my players.

[Lord Z]

Sir and Mr, did you actually play the songs at the gaming table? It seems like music would be a cool prop, but I've found that it distracts my players too much.

[Sir Neil]

Um . . . I don't think so. (It's been over a decade.) IIRC, during the infiltration I told them they heard an organ playing Black Velvet. My wife is a good singer, so she sang some of it for my sister, who didn't remember it. Another player thought that Alannah Myles was dead, and the party became convinced that the Southern Cult killed her for putting the cult's song into the public.

I did play the opening music to Star Wars the few times I ran it. They really enjoyed it.

[mrloucifer]

Sir and Mr, did you actually play the songs at the gaming table? It seems like music would be a cool prop, but I've found that it distracts my players too much.

This is actually a new topic I planned to start the next chance I have time to do so. I LOVE to use music in my gaming, but you have to be careful what it is your playing.

I agree, just playing the radio or putting in songs in the player is distracting, especially when most of your players enjoy that song.

I'm short handing this as I plan to start the topic, I am a sound track collector by naturue so I use a LOT of soundtracks for background ambience in my games, and they work wonders, especially when you pick the music ahead of time.

That being said, yes I played the reaper song during each of discoveries of the victims. I even adjust the volume to represent distance... it made for good creepy ambience