Need some simple, yet effective to unnerve my players. Little

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>>50536505
This is more a variant of your hour glass one. but if you want to scare the players rather than harm them, perhaps a water trap/puzzle based on the self draining cup. Seal the players in a room which the water level is slowly rising, give them some sort of way of slowly emptying the water, but never enough to stem the tide. But when the water reaches a certain level it all drains out, activating a hidden mechanism opening the door/activating something in the dungeon.

Not really simple, but I'm not great at coming up with these sorts of things.

Other things you could do off the top of my head (probably stupid but whatever)

Have booby-traps triggers (pressure plates, tripwires, whatever) that do absolutely nothing but perhaps make a noise deeper into the dungeon or does something otherwise mundane but lends illusion to the idea that they might have just done something very bad. You can also tie this to stuff like false walls and such that lead to the illusion that the layout of the dungeon is changing.

If your players are observant types have things change, if they go through the dungeon leaving every door open maybe have them come back to find that the door is closed or something of that nature that suggests something else has been this way.

Also check out this random encounter table, seems like a few of the ideas might work . >>>50507990 https://is.4chan.org/tg/1480742278928.pdf

>>50537127
oh yeah... I forgot that children are creepy as fuck

Anything with animals they can identify. Put a dog in the dungeon. They will flip their shit if the dog starts behaving oddly.

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>>50536505
For a halloween session I ran this year, one of the best scares I got out of the players was doing two things.

For background, the PCs were a pair of cops with a warrent to search the house of a physiologist who recently went missing. Said doctor was also from a well to do family, and was currently stewarding a family estate until his brother came of age. Enter the NOT!Spenser manor.

So when the buddy cops open the front door and begin the look around, I make note that the door closes behind them with a dull thud without their influence, which kickstarted them feeling a bit off about the place. The main entrance hall opens with the double doors they entered, followed by a grand hall with several doors and a grand staircase leading up to the second floor. After a little bit of looking around the main entrance hall/foyer, one of the party members note that they left something in their cruiser and they go to open the front door - only to see a set of steps going down into some dark nothing. DMs note, the staircase would have just thrown them down the grand staircase without any proper indication of how or why. The house had pulled several "Scooby doo" moments like that where they were teleported to different parts of the house. Really set the hairs on the back of their necks.

ctd'

>>50538014
The second thing I did was absolutely nothing.

To explain, after several small touches of doors closing on their own, no people in a manor that should have servants/gardeners/attendants, or residents, and a staircase to NOPE; the party had to start looking around the mansion itself. One tense moment that happened was that they went down a long hallway with all the windows covered with curtains (upon looking out the curtains they saw simply black on the other side - despite having arrived at the house around midday). Following that, they took out their guns and continued walking down the hall, only the sounds of their footfalls and their own breathing to accompany them.

When your party is expecting something to jump out and oogabooga at them, the longer they go without a threat, the more suspicious/unnerved they get. Use that against them. Describe the sounds of water dripping on the tiles, the wind travelling, minor minutia to add to the "stillness" of your scene.

ctd

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>>50538079
And additional addendum to this setup - if you want one of your monsters to be super spoopy, a good way to indicate the threat of it is to have other things run from it. For example, after about 2 hours of no monsters and pure investigation with the party in the spooky mansion, I had noted a spirit in the house that had been watching the party several times throughout the adventure. It didn't do anything aside from "point up" cryptically and then vanish. However, there was one ocassion where the spirit had appeared, did it's clue pointing again, only to be interrupted by a noise down the hall. This thing caused the spirit to do the pantomiming equivalent of "oh shit!" and then disappeared.

Playing up your potential encounters by having them affect the enviornment, such as a group of small animals/insects/vermin running out of nooks and crannies in your dungeon, can really set off an alarm bell for your players that whatever is coming is super big and scary. Spooky shit is all about presentation and execution moreso than the horror itself (though it does help).

Furthermore, spookiness can also be done in the uncanny/breaks from normalcy. A normally populated area is now empty, the sounds of animals in the woods suddenly stopping, small cues like that can be more than enough to scare players.

Hope any of this helps!

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>>50536505

The guy who made West Marches had a great example.

PCs are sneaking into a mi-go city (replace with whatever). Give them some rolls occasionally, have some close calls, build up the tension, but let them get very deep inside without being spotted. When they're starting to feel good about their chances, sneaking through a deep ravine, one of the PCs glances up and in the darkness above are hundreds of Mi-Go, silently watching them.

They knew they were there the whole time.

>>50538401
Continuing this post because I'm an idiot:

Big scary whatsit isn't actually scary. The players aren't in danger so they're not going to be scared by the monster's power or danger.

The way to scare the players is to make them think they're in control of a situation and then yank the rug out from under them.

Angler fish monsters.
Part of the monster is a familiar small animal and that's all they see.
At first.
>the odd little squirrel continues to watch you, remaining completely still except to rotate to face you as you move across the room

A wolf howls in the distance.
The torches/fire/lanterns flicker and almost die, despite the lack of any breeze.
A PC awakens to chewing noises beside her bed or bedroll, with no sign of what might have made them.
A PC finds blood on his clothes or blankets, with no obvious source.
A PC finds an old ivory pipe; whether she keeps it or throws it away, she keeps finding it again and again in new places.
The PCs wake up one day without shadows; their shadows return without explanation 24 hours later.
All background animal noises, such as insects churring or birds chirping, abruptly cease.
Random patterns - frost forming on a window, ripples in the water, dark clouds in the sky, spilled ale - form the symbol of an evil entity, the face of dead loved one, or the like.
Every mirror a specific PC looks at suddenly cracks, always in the same pattern.
A storm brews up switfly out of an empty, open sky.
Animals (even domestic or even-tempered ones) suddenly grow hostile at the PCs' approach. Flocks of crow or other birds start to attack them; horses kick, cats scratch, and dogs bite. Small creatures perch on nearby trees or ledges or in rat holes, glowering at the PCs as they wake up or pass by.
Spiders (or some other innocuous vermin) are attracted to a particular PC; they act like overfond pets who nestle into his clothing, attempt to share his bed, bring him tiny gifts of food (web-wrapped living flies), and the like.
The PCs discover that perfectly preserved and fresh rations have rotted overnight.
A PC's reflection in a mirror is out of sync with her actions, delayed by a split second as if it had to wait to see what she did before mimicking her.
A PC discovers a piece of the last monster or person he killed mixed in with his rations.
A portrait, statue, or mosaic seems to have changed slightly each time the PCs pass by it. (Such as they always seem to follow them with their gaze)
Footsteps echo through a house or hallway, with no apparent source.

>>50539858

A PC has a sudden premonition of doom for the peaceful village her group is currently passing through.
Somewhere in the distance, a baby cries. In a matter of minutes, the sound changes to a young child shrieking, then a young woman screaming, then an old woman choking, then silence.
A priest in the midst of an important religious ceremony suddenly becomes unable to speak his god's name.
A PC hears a voice scream in the distance; it sounds like her own.
A character eating a piece of fruit discovers that the seeds he spits out are in fact human teeth.
A PC encased in heavy armor feels the touch of something that feels like cold, wet, blind mice sqiurming between his armor and skin; removing the armor reveals nothing amiss.
Curtains or furnishings move as though soemthing brushed against them, yet nobody is in position to have done so and no breeze blows.
No nonmagical attempt at creating fire - be it with flint and steel, tindertwigs, or even rubbing sticks together - will ignite even the driest piece of wood or scrap of parchment.
A PC awakens and looks around; everything around him seems two-dimensional and artificial for half a second before the world revets to normal.
For a single long moment, a PC cannot remember her own name nor what she looks like. She is filled with a conviction that her real name, whatever it is, is quite different.
A character hears the soft giggling of a little girl, or distant music; nobody else can hear it.
A PC's holy symbol begins to weep blood or to bleed from nonexistent wounds.
The PCs awaken after camping or resting for a night; one PC has bite wounds on her neck, arms, and legs, while another feels far too full to eat breakfast.
The smote of a torch or campfire coils around a specific individual as though embracing or entrapping him.

>>50539870

Screams, calls for help, or moans of exstasy come from beneath the ground of a cemetery.
An item - perhaps a well-loved toy, or a parent's favorite neclase - turns up in the bottom of a character's backpack; the character hasn't seen this item since she was a child.
A PC feels suddenly nauseous and vomits; mixed in with the half-digested food are recognizable humanoid parts.
The PCs awaken after camping one night to find extra horse, saddled and ready to go, tied with theirs; it travels with the PCs if not prevented but is gone after they camp the next night.
A character begins to dream of his companions each dying horribly; as the dreams progress night after night he realizes that he's the one slaying them.
A character begins to hear a whispering voice that none of her companions can hear. Sometimes it repeats everything she says in mocking tones; sometimes it warns her against treachery from other party members.
A PC's horse abruptly turns carnivorous. Its personality has not changed; it simply will no longer eat anything, but meat, preferably raw.
Everyone in town stops what he or she is doing, stares intently at the passing party, and hisses softly. They then resume their normal business, continuing conversations broken off in mid-word. If questioned, the townsfolk have no memory of the incidence.
A PC coming home, or returning to a safe refuge such as an ally's home or a concealed cave, finds footprints leading into her room or area. Investigation reveals nobody present, but the footprints only go in, not out.
A character opens his canteen and finds it brimming with blood.
The sound of a whetstone sharpening a blade can be clearly heard not far off, yet neither the direction nor location can be determined.
A strange moss grows somewhere it shouldn't, such as along the blade of a Pc's favorite weapon, or on her tongue.

>>50539876

Something scuttles across the floor just behind the last PC in line; when he turns it's gone.
Rats are either being driven away from a certain place or fleeing on their own; no one knows why.
The PCs see a vast sailing ship, shrouded in mist, crossing a landlocked meadow as it sails toward them, passes through them, and dissipates.
Each time a PC glances into a mirror, her peripheral vision picks up someone else's reflection; when she turns for a second glance, she sees only herself.
Characters who make knowledge (history) or (nature) checks realize that the wood of the floorboards in one particular room is ancient, far older than the rest of the house.
The PCs keep hearing what sounds like muffled sobbing, but there's nobody around.
After entering a long-sealed tomb or abandoned house, the PCs find a bowl full of fresh fruit.
The wind seems to whistle a nursery rhyme to one of the PCs.
The PCs hear a door with a squeaky hinge; when they reach it, it swings silently.
The PCs seem to age at an accelerated rate (about one year per ten minutes) while they stay in a certain area; they revert back to their normal age after leaving the area.
A small, elaborate, highly decorated door has been built into the corner of a closet pantry.
The eyes of a portrait on the wall track a specific PC.
The PCs stumble across an area so dark that light spells have no effect, but it does not radiate any magic.
A doorknocker, when touched, triggers a mgaic mouth full of bloody shark teeth.
A single window of a fine house has been boarded up for no discernible reason.
A succesful search or spot check reveals that all the furniture in a particular room was recently moved around, then meticulously put back in place.
All the clothes in the closet are stained with blood, but there's no blood anywhere else.
The only door to the cellar is reinforced with iron bars and locked from the inside.

>>50539883

While a PC is looking at herself in a small round mirror, her image is suddenly attacked from behind. She sees her reflection die in agony only inches away on the other side of the mirror, leaving behind only a blood-splattered surface, without ever seeing what attacked her image. Thereafter she casts no reflection for three days, after which her image appears as normal.
A PC's touch suddenly withers and blackens living plants, then the effect ceases as suddenly as it began.
A cleric awakens to find he's gripped his holy symbol so tightly that his hands are cut.
A rogue awakens to find that her fingers have been stained an inky black while she slept and her forehead branded with odd mark that qiuckly fades.
A fighter awakens to find himself panting and sweating, his blade covered in gore, although he's fought no enemies.
A wizard opens her spellbook to find pages covered in ramblings in a foreign language, all written in blood in her own handwriting; after a minute the strange writing fades and the pages resume their normal appearance.
The PCs find that all their rope has sprouted leaves and thorns.
A PC wakes gasping for breath and finds he's throttling himself with his left hand while his right hand lies numb and inert; it takes a round or two for his numb right hand to pry the left hand off, whereupon both return to normal.
At the stroke of midnight, all animals in a small town begin to shake uncontrollably, howl, and attempt to hide.
The PCs enter a valley where it never gets brighter than dusk, even at midday.
One (or more) of the PCs hears the soft but insistent buzzing of flies over carrion.
After a night of troubled sleep, one of the PCs wakes to find himself in a strange place - an alleyway, swimming in the middle of a lake, embracing a long-dead corpse on a slab in a mausoleum.)
One part of a house or town has an unpleasant, not quite identifiable smell.