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[Araph]

One that can possess/impersonate people

Actually, those two work off of each other quite well. One possesses a person and attempting to fight off that person can result in bodily harm or death to a team member, while the impersonation leaves fuel for attempting such harmful acts.

That's an interesting twist; maybe the players could have the option of either killing a teammate or engaging in a risky exorcism, which (if it's not actually your teammate, and is actually a construct of the monster) could get you killed.

[snip]

I really like the idea of environmental benefits, as well as the more visual scares (the Hidden stapling the dead to ceilings and walls). However, I think I'm going to steer clear of anything that lets the players kill the monster. That's the whole point of the altars, that the monster is basically invulnerable except by targeting its weak points.

A changeling that can shape itself into a normal prop on the stage (and doesn't do it out of place) would be a rather good jump.  Especially when you scryed that room, nothing's out of place, you go into and suddenly the table starts gnawing on your fresh corpse.  Somehow that reminded me of that piano out of Super Mario 64.  Table/Piano grows teeth and chomps on your character.

A monster with a completely different attack vector from the other monsters, i.e. the ceiling, under the floor, crawling on the walls, etc.  It'd throw off people scrying to get a look, and if you're not watching everywhere at once the thing's gonna sneak up on you.  I wouldn't even mind if that one had a one hit kill, especially if it mean there were a bunch of survivors going through the rooms and suddenly one in the middle of them all gets chomped.

That piano scared me so badly when I was little. I like this idea.

Also, a ceiling-crawling monster could be awesome. That's definitely an idea to consider.

One that can possess/impersonate people

I'm pretty sure teamspeak and mumble would render that one moot

How about one that doesn't attack directly, but drains health from others while concealed nearby?

There are ways to prevent this from being a problem. One make the game dark and have no name tags. And two is you will not know if the monster is by have the player models similar.

You could also rely on players playing fair.

There wasn't going to be any name tags from the start, but I think the main problem with voice chatting is that people will immediately go 'hey guys, monster impersonating me in <room>.' Even without name tags, it's still apparent who the monster is.

I think you should have a monster with a secondary ability to place a trap that teleports one player. After the trap is triggered, the monster can't attack for 30 seconds or something to prevent camping. Random teleportation with disorientation and isolation is scarier than a random quick and certain death.

Now that's another interesting idea. What if each teleportation screwed with the player's interface, too? For example, after the first one, you start seeing moving shadows. After the second one, you inanimate objects appear to attack you. After the third, the game devolves into madness, and, finally, the monster can kill you.

It's a kinda random idea, but I think the variety of deaths could be good. Also, it means that the player is randomly in a new location away from the monster, which delays the death a bit.

[Parsely]

A monster that can take away a player's "voice".

[coolio678]

Are these monster going to be visible? If yes for any of them, add something to discourage staring at it. The less you see of something, the scarier it is. Something like blurring, wibbly wobbly camera, etc.

Also, while I'm at it, a cool type of monster would be one that can cause hallucinations, like moving shadows and hearing noises. (I think someone already had this idea.)
edit: poltergeists. tossing potted plants around makes any game more enjoyable.

[itisnotlogical]

What about a monster that can disguise itself as a level prop and snatch people when they're close enough? Like a gargoyle that can turn into a statue, which can then grab a player from behind. Of course, if the gargoyle's spotted, they can be destroyed in statue form.

[Mech#4]

A monster which, once it hits a player, infects that player forcing them to stay within the light otherwise they turn into a monster. It could last across rounds and there could be an image creep (I mean... like how when you get hit in games the borders flash red. Or in Don't Starve where insanity reduces your vision) appear on that players screen if they're close to darkness.

The monster could hit one person like this, then switch to trying to extinguish the players light sources.

[mastahcheese]

I really like this.
I had an idea for a game like this co-op horror game where there was a single camera amongst all the players, and they had to record every room and escape to win.
Then you could watch the match from the camera's point of view afterwards.

Make a monster that can quickly shut doors and lock them remotely, to isolate players from each other. People panic more when they are alone. Combine this with hallucination powers for maximum effect.

[WealthyRadish]

I'd consider borrowing some monster types from NS2. They handled the control of a variety of the aliens very well, with surprisingly intuitive and smooth handling of aliens that can climb up walls/ceilings, fly at high speed, and one that can teleport around incredibly quickly. All of these would work well in a multiplayer horror game, assuming the level design accommodated the variety. That kind of animating work would probably be outside the scope of this project, though.

In my view, for something to be scary (or at least alarming) it needs to either move extremely quickly or be essentially unstoppable (and should still be faster than the player). Also make sure that the game punishes backpedaling with significantly reduced speed, so a player can't see what's chasing them.

I would also strongly recommend against any kind of paralysis or taking control away from the player. In a game, that might be scary for a few people the first time it happens, but every time afterward it'll just be a source of frustration. For a horror game's multiplayer to be interesting, it really can't rely on actually scaring anyone, as after a few games people will know what to expect and will need some other compellingly unique mechanic to keep playing. Horror movies have the advantage of being unpredictable (unless it's utter crap, I guess), while (multiplayer) games do not. So I would really focus more on the design aspect of making a good game than making it scary.

[JackOSpades]

You really want to make a monster scary, give it Meta-knowledge and have it address the player (person behind the keyboard) directly.

[rabidgam3r]

Two ideas: One, have it spawn as one of the props, and have it be pretty much a Weeping Angel. Second, one that could impersonate voices.

[EnigmaticHat]

From a balance perspective, the altars could be a problem.  I'd be concerned that the good guy team would stall a monster they know how to deal with and then position themselves around multiple altars and chain kill several monsters in a row.

I was going to suggest going the Amnesia route and making the it very difficult for the humans to fight back, but you seem to have gotten that.

There are two (free irrc) games I think you might want to imitate: The Hidden, and Morbus (or Gmod Trouble in Terrorist Town, which is similar but wackier and less horror based).  In the Hidden, 1-8 soldiers are hunted by an escaped lab experiment called the Hidden, who is near-invisible, has a knife and a few grenades, can leap around and cling to walls, and can attack bodies to regain health.  The thing worth imitating about the Hidden is that it let's the player do horror movie shit that has very little gameplay effects.  You can steal bodies and then throw them from the ceiling for jump scares, taunt the soldiers in a creepy voice, hide amongst them and attack without warning, or leap around near them to scare them.  With the console you can bind a key the lets you become visible, purely for jump scares.  Often trigger-happy or terrified soldiers will fire randomly into the air or spin around shooting and hit their friends.

Morbus spawns everyone into the game with a randomly generated name and gives them a 60 second grace period to pick up weapons and find a safe place.  Most players are humans, but a few are "brood aliens" that appear human but deal less damage with guns, and can throw off their human skin to become melee-only aliens that turn everyone they kill into brood aliens.  They can also re-assume their disguise.  The game also sends the humans off on missions, which usually means go here and sleep/eat/take a shower, or you die in a set amount of time.  This forces people to split up, and leaves them completely vulnerable for 8 seconds.  The result is that humans move around the in small clusters that sort of trust each other, as well as lone wolves, while the aliens try to pick the group apart.

Both Morbus and TTT feature players who are all superficially on the same "team", yet some of them are trying to kill the rest.  This creates serious paranoia, and I think could be the concept for a monster.  While its true that people can voice chat each other about what's going on, unless some asshole keeps talking after they're dead (which most people don't, and most servers don't allow) everyone is trying to convince everyone else that they're innocent, so no one really trusts anyone else.

One thing to emphasize about both games is speed.  The monsters and humans can both die in 1-3 hits (or about a million from a full-auto assault rifle) which adds tension to the game.

[Araph]

Okay, planned monsters to start coding:

• Ethereal monster that teleports players randomly when it attacks and induces insanity. It can only attack when the players are in darkness.
• Ethereal monster that can slowly drain a player's sanity be targeting him and staying in close proximity for a length of time. The monster is only visible in the player's peripheral vision, just for added paranoia.
• Physical monster that can impersonate a player. If another player suspects somebody is the monster, they can blast them with magic. If the target is the monster, his disguise is broken and he's temporarily crippled. If the target is another player, that player is temporarily slowed or otherwise inconvenienced.
• Physical monster that can teleport through lit candles and mirrors. Players can temporarily repel the monster with a magic shield, and the monster can be stopped by doors.
• Physical monster that can disguise as inanimate objects and attack from its disguise. This monster can use doors.

I think those five are a good place to start. Thanks for the suggestions and advice, everybody!

[LeoLeonardoIII]

How about giving players the ability to block the monster, such as putting down brick dust in a doorway to keep it from crossing the threshold? The limited resource means the players can try to create a larger safe area (multiple rooms means multiple exits you have to protect) which allows faster travel throughout the map and more exits to sally forth from (and the monster can't camp your single exit). But the brick dust is used for something else that the players want to do! Possibly light sources, weapons, communication, healing, some kind of timer, fueling an altar, etc. So the players need to gather the resource, and then make interesting choices as to how to use it. Because you can use the resource for more than just walling off doorways, there's not always an optimal territory strategy.

Add in randomized maps - such as 3D geomorphs or else just randomly-sealed doorways - and players will always have to scout a more or less unfamiliar environment and plan a sudden defense with limited and unknown quantity of resources. Being outside your known territory helps inspire discomfort. Also there's the chance someone will scout, plan a snap defense, get back to base, and realize after putting down brick dust that there's not quite enough to go around. Maybe someone used some already to heal a friend, or the planner didn't spot a door that now is going to be left open, or someone else started laying down dust using their own plan.

Then, give the monster the ability to break one dust-line every X minutes of gameplay, or as a limited resource he has to collect. The first gives the players a staggered timer where their base and available resources diminish as they spend time trying to defeat the monster. The second is unpredictable. The monster is standing across the dust line from you, just looking in. He walks right up to the line. Does he have a dust-breaker? No way to tell.

(I'm using things like "brick dust" as a placeholder of course. But I got the idea of brick dust blocking a doorway from that stupid movie Skeleton Key).

[scrdest]

Hmm, I have an idea for the changeling pair. A monster that looks human, possibly as one of the other good guys even, but not necessarily, with one small caveat. It has a completely monstrous face, and while it can talk normally while out of sight, its voice becomes distorted once someone looks directly at it.


Another idea: the main objective is to stay alive. Slaying the monster is secondary. Therefore, if a player knows half of his team is dead, he may decide 'screw it, I just want to live' and make a deal with the monster. In exchange, he helps the monster out - for extra paranoia.

[sjm9876]

A monster that is completely invisible except for direct eye contact at short range, but causes various hallucinations when it draws near to the player. They know it's nearby, but they have no idea whether it's just passing on the other side of the wall or is right behind them.