Horror - Putting the Theory into Practice
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
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"Is there any way to help the players "buy in" do you think?"
There are a number but this also depends from person to person.
I think the first thing is to make it clear to the players from the start that this is a horror scenario and all that entails. If the players don't want to play in such scenario they should consider another game they wish to play.
Of all the horror conventions, a player's fear of character death is the best when translated to RPGs. So if you strike a hard group, threatening danger is always a good fall back. The player will feel anxious about their PC and so should buy in to the horror. This is one reason why horror RPGs like Cthulhu do very well. You can loose your PC to violence as well as insanity. This makes even non-physical things potentially scare.
Of all the horror conventions, a player's fear of something that is merely spooky like a ghost story is hardest to translate to RPGs. It is almost 100% reliant on the players buy-in as a player can simply remove himself from the situation by detaching himself from the PC's situation.
So my advice is be upfront, stay focussed and, as a fall back, threaten the PC physically and mentally (if the ruleset allows for that).
Other options include trying out something like Dread (which I mention before) which removes the option to simply "buy out" by focussing on the central dilemma of risking your PC against having your PC be helpless.
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