Dead Reign Campaign: THe Beginning

[Severus Snape]

First off, where in NV are you? I'm located in Vegas, and am dying to game.

Secondly, why would you want to undermine their confidence? If they are doing great, they should be rewarded. Cultivate their feelings of being secure. Sooner or later they'll get cocky, and some plan that they have will backfire. When PCs get cocky, they get stupid. And stupidity only begets near-death experiences.

[RoadWarriorFWaNK]

somebody needs to die. nothing puts the fear of the setting back in the players like a good PC death.

[Severus Snape]

Yeah, that's an 8 hour drive. And not one I'd be willing to make just to game for a couple hours.

[Arnie100]

YOu SHOULD read the Walking Dead graphic novels! There's a storyline where the characters hole up in a prison and it doesn't end well.

[Hound]

I'd suggest a disease outbreak among the 20 or so noncombatant survivors. Nothing says desperation and survival horror like struggling to find antibiotics or a bunch of preschoolers will die from cholera....

[RoadWarriorFWaNK]

In response to somebody needing to die, as a GM I don't believe in killing the characters off on purpose, but if it happens as a result of bad rolling/bad decisions, then that is acceptable. THat doesn't make it fun for the players, and the whole idea is for the players (and me) to have fun.

I do want it to be tougher for the players, and I can believe the scare factor can be upped without trying to kill the players. IF death happens, it just does.

that's why you use Difficulty Fluctuation. Start things out pretty hard, then switch to nightmare mode, then ease off when someone bites it. Or set things up so that the group needs a human sacrifice to save everyone. Point is, players become lazy and complacent if they think they can just walk around and do whatever they want.