Horror Plot

[Miss Rigi]

Continuing off of Hirnwirbel, you could always pick a phobia from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_phobias and go from there. Sure, there are strange ones like hylophobia, the fear of trees, but there's also chronophobia, the fear of time marching forward. The latter would make for a very interesting, more psychological game.

Alternatively, find other ways to introduce tragedy into your story. That's the main function of death, anyway. Timorem knows that well, given some of our holiday maps. Have a particularly endearing character who makes a horrible decision that the player is helpless to stop, even when presented the chance to do so. Betrayal is a good thing to use in this fashion, too.