Making a 'horror' arc...

It seems like CoH is really the proper medium to write a horror arc. Other than storytelling through the contact, it seems rather hard to create the sense of suspence and fear.

Anyone got any ideas?

Multiple AVs?

Kidding aside, horror is pretty much about atmosphere, so that means you have to set it up in the writing, because that's about all we have the power to work on. The game has shown us a number of monstrosities already, from Vahz on up, so just "OMG a scary-looking thing!" doesn't really cut it here... unless it's a well-written scary thing.

That said, being able to defeat a scary-looking thing sort of cuts down the horror factor ("Pff, I one-shotted Frankenstein's monster, lol!"), so you might consider taking a Lovecraftian path of perhaps not showing us the real scary-thing, or not the biggest scary-looking thing, just it's minions.

Or something. Hopefully this doesn't come across as too much of a ramble.

Maybe you can make an all Elite boss/AV Patrol that isn't ment to be killed... I dunno how well that'd play out in gameplay though.

Abandoned offices and warehouses. Arachnoid caves. The Ruladak caves as a last resort.

Ambushes. Ninjutsu for Hide.

Creepy-lookin' custom enemies present as "allies" in frozen poses.

Contacts that aren't people with any kind of information but an inanimate object that you return to (or that follows you) to present you the periodic opportunity to reflect on what's going on.

See also "Astoria in D Minor", "The Beating Heart of Astoria", and "Signal:Noise".

One thing you'll have to deal with is that horror is a genre about powerlessness. That means that if your audience is playing powerful beings, you have to get creative. Put them up against something they can't blast or punch, or something so much bigger that they can't face it head on.

Do we still have access to the Mother Mayhem map? I recall using it a while back.