"Unconventional (read: supernatural) beings should be fought using unconventional (read: non-combat) methods...

"Unconventional (read: supernatural) beings should be fought using unconventional (read: non-combat) methods." Do you agree or disagree with this statement, Veeky Forums?

Followup: is this a good way to make a horror game truly scary, or does it just make the players feel too powerless?

Explicitly? No. But should pursuits of unconventional solutions be encouraged and rewarded? Absolutely.

If spells count as a 'conventional' method, I agree generally.
Ideally, demons of great power should be defeated by shining the light of the noonday sun reflected by a mirror of pure gold on them or something awfully specific like that.
You shouldn't have to use magic to do it, but it should be a real pain to accomplish. Like bringing together exactly a thousand grains of red sand or something.

My cleric threw a holy bauble at a ghost once.

No
punching things should be the solution to all problems

Its just a matter of punching hard enough

I don't answer questions that only have a simplistic binary choice.

It's not like you can fight them with normal weapons anyway, so what's the big deal?
Been running Slavic-themed game with my players for quite a while, the only thing that can be dealt with using weapons are other humans.

How do you deal with the other things, user?

>Implying there can't be unconventional combat

For me to agree you have to define first what do you mean by conventional and supernatural

That's fine but only if all the players are roughly equally capable of engaging with it. Spotlight balance is bad and boring.

I kind of figure that people should answer however they understand it and I'll filter the results into something useful myself. Giving a strict definition would be difficult and might restrict the topic too much. Basically, follow your heart, user.

Run the fuck away, I suppose?

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Not him, but real mythology is a pretty good inspiration here. All sorts of rituals and weird arbitrary weaknesses.

came here to post this

Luckily my kung fu is magic.

No Everything dies to repeated blasts in the face with a shotgun. If that doesn't work, you need a bigger shotgun.

How is this fun, again?

I don't play video games, but this is pretty much the plot of doom, which a lot of people seem to enjoy. So somebody must enjoy it.

Magic must defeat magic!

Me too. And then I did.

Apparently I need to read the thread before responding to op.

Original user here and pretty much what this guy said When 2/3 of this shit is unkillable by default, it's not about killing them, but making sure they won't try to kill you. So rather than being bunch of murder-hobos, the party consists of classic guile heroes. You know, guys that probably could kick your teeth in, but would rather not take the risk nad instead trick you to kick your own teeth in.

tl;dr - it requires player that know this stuff AND are good at creative thinking.

Not always but a solution to a issue that isn't just "Hit it until it can stop hitting us" would be a fucking breath of fresh air.

>shotgun
>Not flame thrower
You had one job, McCreedy. One job only

Fucking beat me to it.

...

This sounds fun. Any good stories you'd like to post?

>Vampire legends say you fucking behead or stake the fucker
>Zombies are killed by beheading
>Werewolves are killed with silver

OK I grant fae need to be beaten with cold iron, devils are easily tricked and sphinxes are rused with riddles, but there's a lot of horror shit you can just burn, behead or stab with the right weapon to deal with.

I like it when enemies have unconventional weaknesses that have to be puzzled out.

Flame throwers are literally the best anti-monster weapon ever. There is only a small fraction of shit they can't obliterate.

Disagree completely."And the LORD was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." If iron can defeat even God,why it shouldn't kill random monster #3630?

Only chariots of iron can defeat him. Not everything made out of iron, or any chariot, but the specific combination.

It's actually an example of what OP and other anons are talking about.

No. Methods being particularly weak to non-congenital methods are cool, but everything should be subject to the rule of overkill with obscene amounts of conventional methods (i.e. a Vampire who has a heavy machine gun go to town on him until he's a pile of chunky salsa should be as dead as if he was stabbed through the heart with a wooden stake).

Depends. Is the method to fight off the monster known to the player and at least somewhat achievable with a little scrounging or exploring? If so, then yes.

>Methods being particularly weak to non-congenital methods are cool

This is what I get for phone posting.

But why is a vampire scary scary if it's basically just a really tough human?

Ideally, under this concept, you would never allow the vampire to reach the chunky salsa stage in the first place.

>scary scary
Yeah, why is it DOUBLE scary?

Highlander got shot up by machine gun and survived just fine, don't see why vampire shouldn't. They are not living under any definition of the word, if you don't get rid of them properly (head cut off, filled with garlic, sealed in a cistern of holy water to be sure) they should rise up eventually. Yes, even if you burn them completely. Give a couple of years or so and they'll reform from the ashes.

Like fire-vampires, Deep ones, humans wearing fire-retardant clothing, The Fujoshi menace, devils and dragons.

Aiya!
OP must listen to these plainspoken anons!
Uncle says it best.

Compare it with all the creatures it can reliably kill or destroy.
And fire-retardant clothing won't protect you from this, you know? It would have the same effectivness as does soft bulletproof vest does against anti-material rifles.