Things That Follow

There is a primal fear that lives with all of us. It's been rooted in our subconscious since we first began and was probably a driving motivation behind our slick and ugly ancestors dragging themselves out of the primordial sludge. The fear of being followed especially if you cannot see what it is. Perhaps it goes back to the fear of being pursued and devoured. If you are chased, followed or haunted... you are likely to die. Nowadays it is unlikely that you would be hunted or followed unless you are very unlucky or live near bear country. Yet that prickle on the back of your neck and the knowledge that eyes are on you still panics us.

Being followed is something that stirs up all manner of emotions from confusion and frustration, to anxiety, paranoia, and terror. Being followed slowly, with no idea when you will be attacked or killed feeds that paranoid and fear.

What makes being stalked even worse is that you might not be believed. This can wound a person as they feel it is unjust, and it is unjust. Not only does it mean you are helpless with no support, but your survival is made ever more of a challenge. Just look at The Babadook's effect on the protagonist when she goes for help. You are alone. 

Being chased or followed is a great basis for a scary game or an element to add into a game as an encounter or deviation. I like the idea of having it in the back of the players mind the whole time. Perhaps it is not their main goal to escape but it is part of a larger plot.

Below are the different ways this raw fear can manifest and be placed into any game or even add in some theatrics to give your game a little extra punch but these are entirely optional and sometimes a bit gimmicky. Rely on a tense and paced narrative and your players ability to drum up their own paranoia.

Beast

It has your scent. It tracks your every move. It can be anywhere, at any time and its senses are superior to yours in every way. The beast is the iconic pursuer, the thing that follows from the foliage or the shadows that is scarily tangible. The terror here is that it is definitely real, physical and because it is real and physical it can, and will, kill you. The beast can be a fast running swarm of monsters or it can be that one, deadly assassin that can destroy you with an ease that screams unfair. The success of the first Alien film and Jaws when it comes to Monsters stalking inferior human beings was the slow build and the fact that the monster were never shown until the finale.

Depending on your player group, the sudden reveal of any monstrous creature that is hell-bent on the pursuit of one or all of the characters might be enough to delight and terrify but sometimes most of the enjoyment comes from that slowly burning anxiety as it stalks its prey.

If you place a Beast type in your game think about how you can make it more than just a five minute encounter. Think about the idea of having it unseen, its marks left on the walls or small signs that the creature has been where the player have. Give evidence in drips and drabs of what kind of beast or monster is chasing them and when the players know, make it bigger and scarier with shadows on the walls or breath on the back of their necks. If you want it to go to the very end of comfort, have it grab a player dragging them into the shadow or leave them mutilated (depending on how they roll of course).

Then there is the Thing. I don't need to really explain the terrifying nature of a creature stalking its prey in plain sight... sort of. 

Theatrics: For effect, maybe slam the table or describe a scene and then sneakily poke a player (unless you have no touching rules), drag your nails along the wood of the table, add sound effects using your phone, because there is nothing like a good monster scare and atmosphere is just as important as narrative.

Death

Either a more humorous stalker or this can be done in a very sinister way; if you want examples, have a look at Final Destination for your fun and Donnie Darko for your very loose interpretation (getting stalked by an alternative dimension criminal death rabbit) and... weird.

Have death as the pursuer. This could be over the course of one game or many. The player may be aware or unaware that as they walk through their adventures death has marked them and is chasing them down. This could be through dark omens, perhaps an old witch or fortune-teller tries to swindle them out of coin only to suddenly be crippled in terror as they realise there is indeed a darkness following along behind them. They might see the figure of death when they open doors or down a long corridor. Your player may have cheated death once and is only just keeping it at bay, but needs to complete a ritual or hold onto a hard to maintain object to keep death from grabbing them. But regardless of what they do it is always watching, always there.

A session of your campaign could even be dedicated to how the players cheat death itself, if it is even possible. It might be worth establishing this with your player at the start though; as some players are not keen on character death and this is a tricky one to avoid if being pursued. Done right, this could be very creepy or hilarious if you take the black comic approach

Theatrics: Depending on if the player knows, depends on your theatrics. You could pass the player notes or even mock up a newsletter (depending on your setting) or future obituary for your player to find as they muddle alone. Draw a black spot on their palm, mark them for death.

Mind

[Spoilers: Fight Club and Misery] 

There is nothing worse than being chased down by your own mind because that thing is inside you, it is you... you can't separate from it. When you are trying to destroy yourself you tend to succeed.  You are your own worst enemy.

Your own delusions and fantasies are pursuing you and every time you put distance between yourself and the inevitable madness you feel it chasing you... running you down. Just look at Fight Club and Black Swan, both films where the protagonist's own mind is the antagonist.

This can be a hard one to do and probably isn't suited to your dungeon crawler scenarios, unless the dungeon is the inside of one of the player's characters head. The thing chasing your players is their own destructive self loathing or an alien entity hell bent on possession; which could be fun if it hops from player to player a bit like a mind-fucking Scooby Doo chase scene.

You can exploit your player characters fears. The mind can bring dreams and strange realities to life. You could even have a player be a secret antagonist, to give the other players the run around, revealing at the end that the antagonist is in the party the whole time (although I would be careful with this and really trust the player you pick).

It might be that there is no antagonist at all. It really is just the players past coming back to follow them around. Like at the end of Misery where the protagonist Paul Sheldon, during his traumatic rehabilitation, constantly sees and hears Annie Wilkes, expecting her to appear with a chainsaw in his cupboard or kitchen.

This one is a little more open to interpretation and it is not as easy to convey that feeling of being followed or hunted but it is one that can be played fantastically.

Theatrics: Notes passed to players so only they can hear whispers, players can only see something and others cannot, players can only feel something and other cannot. Statements like: You think that door is unlocked. You think that chest is not trapped.

Spirit

Ghosts, Poltergeists, Spirits of your ancestors are intangible evils that plague players. They begin their haunting slowly with dreams and moving small objects then as they escalate their pursuit they throw you across the room or chase you down corridors. These are the icons of that creepy thing that follows you around and the absolute pants wetting horror of being followed around chased by a ghost has never been better shown in the Playable Teaser (PT) of Silent Hill or in the very promising looking Alison Road. Then there are the hundred upon hundred of ghost and spirit based movies which you can rip tropes from by the dozen. 

Your players may have a haunted item, desecrated a corpse (if you have players like mine, they will definitely have desecrated a corpse) or maybe their ancestors are disappointed by their life choices. The haunting can be your cheesy lights off and on, strange noises like whistling wind haunting or it can be one where the players are in real danger of being injured of possessed.

What should really be driven home here as a Game Master is that the players are being followed and pursued. You should make it feel like they are being stalked. Here, mirrors can be used. Reflections not quite responding in time, or they see something out of the corner of their eye. They go to open a slightly ajar door and see a pair of eyes in the dark crack before they open it. They should feel shivers down their spines and this is a great case of the Alien and Jaws effect, their stalker cannot be seen. 

Theatrics: Darkness and candles. Flicking the lights is always a good default if this is something you can control. Strings on objects, pulling them over or along the table can be fun.  If you want to be cruel, and no one in your party is prone to heart attacks, why not draw the curtains or put a drape over a nearby mirror and attach a string or fishing line, at a tense point pull the string and reveal something staring through the mirror or window.

Finally, you could always take ideas from the above and create your own creepy "followings". Films, books and games are excellent fodder and can really help you get in the mood for your game.