Horror - Putting the Theory into Practice

[grandexperiment]

So I ran the Hanging Tree. It was a strange, difficult yet ultimately rewarding game. I must admit running spooky ghost story style horror is one of the hardest styles to run simply as it relies so heavily on the player buy in, as I theorised about previously. As a result, I found myself as GM to be strangely weaponless. With the style the GM must

Comments

[grandexperiment]

"So where you'd play the early part delicately, so as not to ruin it with cheap scares, I might aim for a more hands-on frighterific opening, relying on player buy-in and carefully established boundaries to prevent massive sceanrio melt-down."

This works for many types of horror and is particular good for slasher or monster horror (including Call of Cthulhu). Generally, this type of horror is easier to accomplish in an RPG (after all the fear for the death of your PC is something you feel OOC and helps for buy in) and I agree with all your suggestions for this type of game.

As an aside, I think that Dread will be excellent at this type of RPG as it makes the fear of character death even stronger by adding Jenga.

However, it tends not to work for ghost horror or horror revolving more around the concept of non-physical terror. The build up and use of player imagination adds a lot to this type much as it does in a good horror movie. As an RPG, this type is harder to run and as a result is much less common. However, all of the my favourite horror games that I have been in were of this second kind - Night Floors, Joy & Sorrow and Jail Break. All had the terror elements that built up slowly and culminate at the end.

They also all had an element of player/PC choice about being involved. I think this is important but I am not sure why entirely.

[mr_orgue]

They also all had an element of player/PC choice about being involved. I think this is important but I am not sure why entirely.

Maybe because it dips into the ideas of curiousity and fear more directly? Good question...

[grandexperiment]

Yeah, I think deciding to subject yourself to horror is a powerful thing for a player to accomplish. It is sort of a ultimate "buy in". Interestingly enough, most people's reaction to playing in horror RPGs for the first time is one of denial and running away. I think a lot of this arises from it being in contrast with regular RPGing. As a result, it makes subtle horror a real challenge to pull off.

As I have said before, I am interesting in exploring the mechanic in Dread further. The mechanic doesn't determine success of failure but really pits the player's fear of being eliminated against the fear of being helpless in game. In general terms, a player has no story control unless they pull from the Jenga tower and risk death. I have heard of games where people were too scared to pull from the tower and so were helpless in game, which only made them more scared. This sounds like a much better way to approaching horror gaming than a traditional RPG in many ways.

[mattcowens]

Even in a ghost horror scenario, I would be likely to up the number of chills at the start of the game. This is, of course, entirely a question of taste and style. I think for me it's about the 'plausible deniability' stance that exists at the start of a ghostly one-off. If the characters can reasonably say "I was just seeing things" or "it was just a rat under the floorboards", this allows a layer of apparent safety. Even though the players know it's a horror game, and the spooky stuff is most likely supernatural (leaving red herrings to one side), the characters can deny that anything's really wrong.

I like games where that disbelief is challenged or eroded from relatively early on.

For me, the single event that was most spooky and best got me and my character into a creeped out frame of mind was when the invisible force started choking my character. That was the event which made the ending tense for me, and which propelled me into action (other than hiding).

The inexplicable is a powerful tool for creeping people out. I think in Night Floors that was one of the best things. That, and having active, invetigation focussed characters who would get themselves caught up in the spookiness.

[grandexperiment]

This actually dovetails into another discussion I was reading recently. The people involved were exploring the creation of fear by building protection and then taking it away. To give an example, the PCs think they are able to rely on something such as "it was just my imagination" or "I can just call for help" then they reach a scene when it is suddenly changed and removed. A good example of this was the Ring where the audience became comfortable with the fact that the ghost stayed in the TV but when it exited the TV, the terror ramped right up.

Some of the best RPG scenarios I have been in used this. Night Floors used it with the expansion of the house just when the players thought that they were getting a grip on the situation.

Another related point to be made is for horror RPGs you are looking to constantly ramp up the terror. Each layer should build on the next and be more terrifying. In Hanging Treet, I quite liked the shifts - seeing Lenore in an odd moment, finding Lenore missing, discovering Lenore's dead, and finally trying to not get killed by Lenore. If you start with something quite violent, subtle moments are very difficult to then pull off.

So I think early violent scares can be a dangerous gambit for a GM to get an easy visceral reaction in a less physical horror scenario. I agree that the strangling sequence was a scary moment but it was also a culmination of events. If it had been at the start, I am not sure if it would have worked.

[mattcowens]

Yeah, I agree that violent scares at the start wouldn't work well. I like undeniably supernatural but not necessarily life threatening spooks at the start of a scenario. Examples from the few horror games I've run would be:

Seeing a ghost shoot itself in the head.
Witnessing a suicide, where the victim was obviously being tormented by something the PCs couldn't see.
The good old cliche of shared bad dreams.
Inexplicable sleep walking.
Objects moving when you're not looking.
Freaky stuff showing up in photographs or on TV, often only for a few seconds.
Inexplicable changes in temperature.
The natural world not behaving normally (hundreds of crows all staring at the PCs)

When starting off a scenario, I like to have a bunch of these up my sleeve, and will tend to lead off with several of them in the first hour of the game, to get the characters doubting whether what's going on is on the level. This is no different to what you were doing with the Hanging Tree - I'd just show my hand a little earlier as a GM. Then of course, I'd also probably be heading for a big special effects laden ending, often with monsters of one kind or another, which is, as you say, a slightly different kettle of Innsmouth fishmen.

[grandexperiment]

All cool. The Hanging Tree was really an experiment in the non-physical and it had some roadbumps and some interesting lessons. I do think the start needs to be beefed up at least in terms of establishing the NPCs. I had a thought about the PCs hearing Lenore's murder in the woods and assuming that it was a franterity prank. Using the waiting idea of having the PCs tied to a tree, it would have been interesting as to how long the screams could have gone on for before it went from funny to awkward :) The idea was quite chilling and may have the same effect of what you are getting at here.