Information imbalance at the heart of horror?

[macmoyer]

I loves me some Trail of Cthulhu. I ran a one-shot for Halloween that I think was pretty successful. I'm thinkin' of writing up the scenario for some form of publication, I liked it so much. But that's not what this post is about.

Comments

[pjack]

Well, when I'm playing a character in a well-run horror RPG, I often feel a sense of "dreadful inevitability". It's not that I choose for my hapless investigator to walk directly into the nightmare, but more the sense that no matter what my character does, the nightmare is waiting at the end.

In a less well-run horror RPG, that sense of dread is often lacking. Such games often turn into an action movie.

Aweseome Halloween game, by the way!

[gwyd]

I'm with Pjack here. In a good horror rpg, one does get a sense of dreadful inevitability. The best Chuthulu game I even played* in culminated with our characters trapped in a house with something that was going to eat us. The Priest had confined it to a room. There were things outside, but we had faith in that Priest. He went to the door, looked out, and collapsed, saying calmly, "We are all going to die." It was chilling, it really was. The being trapped, the relief, and then the horror of the collapse of the Priest.

*A one shot run by Dave Plunket.

[macmoyer]

Really, I am, too. I do think horror RPGs can capture threat, suspense... horror. But that particular kind of interplay between audience knowledge and character knowledge that Lovecraft is so good at is one particular source of suspense that can't be enjoyed in quite the same way in an RPG as it can be enjoyed in literature and film. Calling that the definition of horror is surely not right, but it's an important little engine of suspense we can't use in quite the same way.
I think RPG players can enjoy that interplay in a different way (I know I have), and I think it's a valuable thing to consider on the endless path to running a better game. I think roleplaying is in many respects a better way to enjoy fiction than literature and film... and in many respects worse. I'm constantly making an effort to understand what mechanically works in literature and film, how it can be borrowed, how it can't, and what's unique about RPGs that I can use to make fiction that's enjoyed in a new and interesting way.
I just haven't run much horror myself

[gwyd]

Well, in situations where the characters can't get out, for one reason or another, I think you get something mighty close. For example CofC characters on a remote archaeological dig don't know they are in jeopardy, but we do. The effect is similar to the first act of Quarantine where they are messing around at the firehouse.