I've fallen behind with the RPGaDay Challenge because of work and other aspects of Real Life TM and for that I apologize. Let me try to catch up...
Horror isn't where I go when I want to talk about scary games.
What creates real fear in the hearts and minds of RPG players isn't B-Movie Slashers, Vampires, or even Nameless Horrors from Beyond...though it could feature any of those. What truly freezes the blood is when you are concerned for the safety and well-being of a character you've invested emotion in.
As my Sunday Group discussed just last night, player buy-in is the key to making any RPG frightening. If the players aren't deeply connected to their PCs, NPC friends and family, and the world they're living in, there's no way they'll be afraid of losing everything.
The last time I responded to this prompt in 2014 it was as a player and my answer involved our old Champions: Age of Chaos campaign. Check it out here. This year I'm recalling a scary moment as a GM, one that took place in a old session of FASA Star Trek.
The Miranda Class USS Odyssey (the PC vessel), detects a weak distress call from a much older Starfleet Science Ship, the USS Endurance. The Endurance is found adrift in space, suffering from both internal and external damage as well as being desperately low on any and all consumable resources. After securing the science ship, USS Odyssey proceeds to tow the craft via tractor beam to the closest Starbase.
The Captain and crew of the Odyssey see to accommodations for the surviving crewmembers of the Endurance and answers as to what happened to them. After conversations with the NPCs, investigations into the conditions of the science vessel, and observations by the Odyssey's Caitian Science Officer, it was the opinion of the Odyssey's Captain and First Officer that the crew of the Endurance had been possessed or mind controlled by some sort of outside source. They believed it likely to be someone with Psionic Abilities or a God-Like Entity.
Not quite right but on the right track...
Instead, the Endurance's Crew were being controlled by variants of the Flying Parasites first encountered at the Deneva Colony by the colonists there and later Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise (in the episode Operation: Annihilate). In addition to Parasites attached to the surviving crew of the Endurance, there were hundreds of them stored in the science ship's cargo hold. Using the transporters aboard the Odyssey, the Endurance's infected Captain was able to connect with the cargo transporter on her ship to beam over the creatures in massive numbers.
The big twist was that the Flying Parasites seemed unaffected by their documented weakness, exposure to Ultraviolet Light. Previously that killed them but when the Odyssey crew tried that here it seemed ineffective.
The PCs fought valiantly against the hivemind of killer pancakes (as the PC Captain referred to them) and possessed shipmates but were drastically outnumbered. They had to fall back, eventually making a last stand in the Odyssey's Sickbay. The Doctor was particularly badass when covering the rest of the group, firing his Phaser three times and hitting with each shot, one being a critical strike.
Once 'safely' in Sickbay, the Doctor and Science Officer analyzed an injured but living Parasite to find out why Ultraviolet Light didn't effect them. They discovered the creatures were actually affected, just very mildly. These Parasites were different from those previously encountered, having built up a resistance to UV Light over time. Very likely they did this during the years the Endurance was lost.
Using the Odyssey's Ventilation System, the PCs were able flood the ship with a biochemical agent that weakened this resistance. Once that happened, the ship's interior was bathed in Ultraviolet Light and the Captain was able to marshal the crew to retake their vessel.
The end of 'Act Two' - after the Flying Parasites were revealed but before the PCs reached Sickbay - was intense! The PCs were on the run and a step behind the Parasites and infected Endurance personnel at every turn. The PC Engineer wasn't with the rest of the group, taking to the ship's Jefferies Tubes as a way to hide and get to important systems (he was vital to activating the Ventilation System without access to the Bridge). The characters were desperate but not for their own safety, focused more on their NPC crew and each other.
It was the SCARIEST game because, quite simply put, my players and I weren't guaranteed it would have a happy ending. At many points we were thinking it wouldn't. It was only through smart planning, creative use of knowledge and skills, and a little luck that things turned out OK.*
AD
Barking Alien
*There were some NPCs losses and PC injuries but the crew succeeded in the end.
