Instilling fear in a table top RPG
 

I am running an exalted game, set in the underworld, and I wish to challenge myself by actually having the characters, and hopefully the players, experience legit fear and anxiety. This however is rather hard to pull off in a table top game, especially one where the characters are cthullu slaying demi-gods.

I do have a few things going for me with this goal. The players have, at best, a passing knowledge of the underworld. The other is I succeeded in getting rid of their sense of invulnerability. Thanks to a few well used NPC encounters they realize there are ways around perfect defences, and alot of things in the underworld 'attack' that way. To make sure I had a few test encounters to see how they'd react. Now everything is viewed with hesitation, showing I have atleast removed their sense of safety.

Anyone know of any ideas or strategies to bring some horror into the game?

My best trick was always to make dungeons massive but operating on timetables with guys running around and stuff. If the challenge is right, ie lots of little encounters to use up resources, the PCs will get worn down in spells etc and have to hide out in places praying noone will find them long enough tog et spells back etc. Never fails.

It sounds like he's looking more for Oh god what's happening am I going to die please don't let the darkness get me fear than Goddammit I haven't slept in three days and now this goblin's gonna stab me in the face because I ran out of spells fear. I'm not suite sure how to pull it off, though atmosphere setting might help. Music or somesuch. And avoiding direct "You see a huge insectoid beast with claws the size of Kansas" is good, too. Show hints of evil presence rather than just a lot of big monsters that want to eat you.

and I don't even like tabletop
 

Punish and reward curiosity. HARD. And make it seem random, yet, obligatory.

Guy is trapped in a room with 5 Treasure chests. One of the chests HAS to have the key to get out of there. But you can't use magic (or you have to use a LOT of it) to check them for danger... and you can't find any traps!

Guy open's treasure chest... finds a golden statue. He is happy!
Guy open's treasure chest... Gets a harpoon on HIS chest. He is scared.
Guy open's treasure chest... Poison gas.

There are 2 treasure chests left. Dude is freaking out...

That sort of stuff... if the players believe that they will be punished and rewarded at random, and that each time it will either make their lives easier or hellish, and that going trough that is the only way to progress... they will fear it. Because each mistake counts and each success becomes vital.

I actually did this when I ran a game of Dead Space lately, and my players really liked it. I'm going to tell you the things I did to make it more scary (and since I'm not aware of if these fit to your campaign just take what seems appropriate).

Limit ammunition and weaponry, for one thing. Make it so they have to constantly think about how much ammo each person has and keep checking, if possible.

Make the monsters powerful - by which I mean make them really devastating in combat, to the point of where the players really really really don't want them to get close.

When you introduce new enemies, make sure to emphasize that which they have unique. If you have a necromorph run into the room that's two bodies fused at the spine, both ends with gigantic powerful arms and claws, make sure you tell them about the claws and huge arms so that way your players go oh shit oh shit don't let it get close!

Occaisonally have moments where there's something scary that happens that has absolutely no bearing on the game. A loud noise off to the side like a scream, a rattling noise, garbled devil-speak, etc. When they go to investigate, nothing. Keep them on their toes, make them question what they're seeing and what they may or may not be hallucinating.

Make at least two or three areas that would be perfect for an encounter...and then don't do anything. A torn-up dead body, empty room, and an ajar door. They open the door, next room. Nothing. Make them at ease, just long enough to make them go Oh FUCK! when they get attacked next.

If you do it carefully, include puzzle rooms with fights. My personal favorite is a time limit - let's say, 20 rounds, maybe sand is filling a room, or water - three switches on the opposing wall that take a round to pull and must be pulled in a certain combination, and at that moment ghosts float into the room.

Many of these tips may not 'scare' the player but at least it will create a sense of vulnerability to the character, which achieves a similar result.

well I should explain abit more about what I mean. Its emersion. To make the character afraid isn't too hard if the player is a good role player, but I want it to translate to the player. I want him to be legitimately worried about whats going to happen next. Just as Mirai said I want not just the character, but the player going oh shit oh shit.

Exalted typically doesn't have dungeon crawls, though I do have a future one planned. Things like ammo and weapons aren't an issue, but essence, think MP, is. In the underworld they dont regain it naturally, and although I alotted them each an artificual means, if they were completely depleted it would take well over a day to recover.

Enemies, well they are suspicious, and so far I haven't let that concern be validated as I know if I punished them first time they might never try again. Last session we ended with them encountering a massive plasmic dragon. But it wasn't fear that hit them, it was mostly the realization that they couldn't fight it and less fear of it. We litterally ended with them seeing it and making immediate responces about it. Such as 'maybe that town can fight it off' and 'lets not pick a fight with it'. The dragon and what it does is still completely open

Oh and the dragon is made of seared flesh and twisted slag adorned with the flesh and half digested torsos of its victims. It isn't technically a dragon, just dragon shaped

Get creative. Set up paranoia by having a seemingly trustworthy NPC stab them in the back. Get mood music and set up mood lighting. Make your basement into a cave by putting brown tissue paper over the lights or something, or using UV bulbs (< $20 at your local ShopKo/Target/etc.). Have them know when the crap hits the turbine by suddenly blasting punk rock for battle music. Kill off a party member to show that they're not all indestructible (fairly, of course). Get a library of scary monster sounds on your laptop and play one at random just to freak them out.

Well like I said these were the things I did when we ran Dead Space, and I did everything I could to make it as much like the game as possible. I apparently succeeded cause the game scared the shit out of me and my players said it felt very very much like Dead Space. They're different but other than that I have no advice.

I think you mean 'immersion', and I wouldn't normally point this out but I had to stop a minute to figure out what you meant.

in exalted there is no resurrection, so killing off a party member means 'make a new one'. on the upside it makes it easier to get that survival instint