User Blog:
Holy Crap! We Have a Game This Weekend? - Dracula

Today, we offer a play variant. On the surface, it's simple. But you really have to try it in order to evaluate it.

Turn off the Lights

Thriller games aren't usually very thrilling, are they? Everything takes description. It can't jump out at you, the way it can in a movie. Imagination doesn't really work well when you're staring at photocopied sheets and dice. This is an inherent limitation in most games. Let's toss it out the window.
Turn off the lights.
Scary, right? Not really. In fact, you can't see your dice or your drink. That sucks. You could go for a 100% diceless game, and while that would be interesting, that's a dramatic step. We're talking about baby steps, here.

Now that we have that out of the way, go to your local dollar store. Buy a bag of tea lights. A single bag has between 20-100 lights in it, and each light will suffice for a single player for a whole average night of gaming. If you're using miniatures, a tea light at every corner of the map is a good rule of thumb.
Next step, everyone should have a t-shirt, sheet, or even a mousepad if push comes to shove. This item serves as a rolling space. Without the telltale rattle of rolling dice, the game gains a certain tenor it didn't have before.

Most importantly, the GM has to be intimately familiar with the scenario. Note checking should be kept to an absolute minimum. The goal is immersion, a full dedication to the narrative.

Third and final step is music. By music, I mean backing sound. Go with the sounds of rain if your game is primarily set outdoors. If it's indoors, find ambient noise to compliment. You want soft sounds that'll help keep the players' imaginations in the narrative, while helping to buffer background sounds and the remaining vestiges of dice noise.

Do this. Let us know how it went.

Also: Dracula

Referential to the post title, the kindly folks at White Wolf Publishing have put up a wonderful and free PDF of a character called Count F***ing Dracula. He's not Dracula like you know Dracula. He's young, brash, covered in leather and tattoos, and doesn't put up with whiners. He's statted for Vampire: The Requiem, but he could fit well as an antagonist in any World of Darkness game. I'd even venture to say you could mine the ideas in this superb little PDF for most any modern urban fantasy/horror setting.