Question: In a horror themed campaign with a Lovecraftian feeling, a big part of the game is a constant feeling of threat, but without any visual stimuli other than glimpses, or sounds vaguely heard of things seething in darkness, and with investigation a big part of the game, contrary to fighting.

Having read *Heroes of Horror*, I am searching for ideas on how to actually motivate players to assume the role of investigator rather than executioner, and how to instil the horror of the unknown, of something that threatens but is not substantial, that cannot be seen or heard, but is there, and has malevolent intent.

I am thinking of D&D 3.5 as a system, but I am interested in answers that cover any system (Call of Cthulhu is unfortunately out of the question), more as role-playing and storytelling techniques rather than mechanical ones.

Answer: 
**Cthonic entities always have a bigger hammer**

The essence of a D&D game nominally goes: "Kill things to get loot to kill things to get better loot to get levels to kill things." Part of this philosophy is that the heroes will be going up against things that they have a chance of killing.

Remember the ancient quote: "Cthulhu, driving 1d4 investigators per round insane." In a horror game, the enemy has an overwhelmingly bigger hammer. Direct confrontation, even in the most epic fights, will lead to player death and high odds of a total party kill. Make it quite clear to your players that you won't be pulling punches. 

The second thing to do is to play in "Theatre of the Mind" (taken from Monte Cook talking about D&D Next of all things). Battlemaps give concrete control of the world over to an objective reality. While this is good for tactical games, giving players this kind of knowledge gives them the impression that they'll be able to succeed in a combat. If you play mostly in theatre of the mind, you'll be far better off when combat does happen.

For that matter: never ever describe the ultimate BBEGs. The unknown is always scarier than the known. Players should engage with its cultists and hints of the BBEG, rather than the thing itself. (Contrast: Lovecraft with Ringo's Princess of Wands.) 

By making it clear that the players need to engage guile and subtlety because they lack a bigger hammer and by letting most of the game be imagination-driven (have props if you want, mind. A nice leatherbound tome is a fantastic player-trap. Anyone who is silly enough to read the book has his character driven insane. 

Hints, allusion, and cowering like roaches against unknown entities who may accidentally step on them. Your players are roaches who are unable to understand the sentences acting for their own ends. Players can strike against their cultists, not the entities themselves. At the same time, make it clear that the players can be hugely effective against the cultists... if only they know where to strike. Combats are easy, finding the targets is hard.

The threat is simple. Unfortunate coincidences are the act of conspiracy. Cultists love conspiracies and are working to achieve their own ends. When their objectives intersect the players, the players may suspect that there are ulterior motives at work. Otherwise... well, stuff just keeps getting worse as the cults get closer to their win state: "May I be eaten first"
Horror often comes from feelings of **alienation**, **isolation** and **powerlessness**. 

**Alienation** has to do with lack of knowledge, understanding and empathy. There should be no logic, no way to reach an understanding or compromise. How do you fight something you do not understand? How to you oppose something those goals are unfathomable but includes eating your brains? The more you understand it, the more you use magic (say), the less like normal people you are. First animals run away from you, then people start moving away from you. You fail to see emotions, you are losing yourself. All your NPCs speak in a bland and toneless tone... They are not really doing it: the PC just cannot tell the difference between joy and sadness, calm and anger, pleasure and pain. You are alone.

Thus **isolation** which has to do with lonelessness and lovelessness. You are isolated form those around you. No one trust you, nor can you trust them -- after all, they are going to eat you given the right time. More so, the easiest way to deal with this one is physical isolation. Fear is greater if you are alone rather than if there are hundreds of armoured troops with ranks and guns around you. The lone cabin in the woods is a better setting than a New York flat. Or is it? There are noises at the locked and barricaded door, but you know it's closed. IT cannot get in. You bring some light towards the door. The clawing stops, followed just by dripping sounds of wet viscous liquid pooling. The door is still locked. The claw marks on the inside. IT's in here, with you.

Which bring me neatly to **powerlessness**. Weapons are ineffective, it's too big, too strong, too fast, too oozing, too many tentacles. Spells are useless, all they do is attract more servants to it or worst, just power it up. That "bind" spell was a lie, all the minions that were fighting for you are now IT's minions. Kiss your arse goodbye. Time to flee. No matter what you do, you have no hope. No hope for yourself, no hope for mankind, no hope at all. Not even a quick (or a long and painful) death will release you. 

As a final note, you as the referee, are the players interface to the world. You can mess with their perception of it as much as you like. Make the players not sure what they characters are seeing and you're going to combine a lot of powerlessness feeling due to isolation.

If you are truly evil, find out what the player (yes **player**) is afraid of and use that. Girl/boy friend, friends, siblings, may all help you there. However, be careful not to cross the line between fun scary and "Whoops, he just passed out better call 999".