How to GM Horror Games
There is always a very fine balance between an actual “horror game” and “just another RPG with more gore and/or phobia triggers.” A horror game isn’t about making your players retch, or scaring them away from the table. After all, you want them to keep playing, hopefully. Instead, it’s about changing the defining emotion of the game from the usual focus (greed, heroism, curiosity, etc.) to Fear. To make the characters, and perhaps even the players, truly afraid. The means by which this is accomplished are less important, and often have to be tuned to the people in question anyway. What is important is the goal.
There are any number of ways to achieve this end, many of which are very well documented. Anticipation, lack of useful information, lack of control... The biggest challenge, in using these tried and true methods, is to maintain the interactive aspect of the RPG. Remove too much control, and you’re simply railroading, telling a story to people instead of letting them participate in it. Remove too much information and the plot stagnates. Hold the group too long in suspense and the edge fades, the fear discarded because there is nothing to actually be afraid of. Likewise, using the “blunt force” approaches of gore or phobia-triggers is a tricky proposition; either the players are too brutalized and can’t cope, or they become inured to the shocks and startles, passing them off with the equivalent of “oh dear, more blood, someone get a mop.”
I find that the best, the surest way to achieve a “true” horror game is through atmosphere. You don’t need blood splatters, giant spiders, or screaming wraiths. You need to craft the setting in such a way that makes the people within it uncomfortable and anxious. Again, this must be carefully crafted towards those involved: one person may think nothing at all of a gloomy and overcast day, while another might find it oppressive and become nervous. On the other hand, the “breadcrumb” method tends to be very effective most of the time: provide just enough information (a strange animal sound, a single abandoned boot, a cryptic note) to lead the party along, the whole while making them wonder just what they’re getting into...
Another useful tool is the false choice. Leave the players “in control” in that they can choose what their characters do, where they go, but have the situation arranged so that the only viable choice is the one you want. Certainly, the party could all elect to stand outside and dance during an oncoming storm known to strip the flesh from a man’s bones in seconds, but it’s unlikely. Instead, they are almost certain to bolt for whatever cover readily presents itself, and thus play directly into you-the-GM’s hands. Likewise, lures can be employed to the same end. Leave something shiny and important-looking out, and someone is going to reach for it. Employ this tactic well, and you quickly have a party that takes nothing for granted, jumps at unexpected noises, and knows in the very depths of their soul that something horrible is going to happen the instant they let their guard down.
In the end, all the strategies and suggested tactics are just that, suggestions. Properly GMing true horror is not a series of steps to follow, or a list of items to check off. It is an art, not a science, with the masterpiece being that shuddering, terrified feeling deep in your stomach when he GM turns to you, smiles, and asks you to make a Perception check. And, if you’ve done your job as a GM well, they won’t even be sure if they /want/ to roll well...
Original Dreamwidth entry here. Comment on either.
There are any number of ways to achieve this end, many of which are very well documented. Anticipation, lack of useful information, lack of control... The biggest challenge, in using these tried and true methods, is to maintain the interactive aspect of the RPG. Remove too much control, and you’re simply railroading, telling a story to people instead of letting them participate in it. Remove too much information and the plot stagnates. Hold the group too long in suspense and the edge fades, the fear discarded because there is nothing to actually be afraid of. Likewise, using the “blunt force” approaches of gore or phobia-triggers is a tricky proposition; either the players are too brutalized and can’t cope, or they become inured to the shocks and startles, passing them off with the equivalent of “oh dear, more blood, someone get a mop.”
I find that the best, the surest way to achieve a “true” horror game is through atmosphere. You don’t need blood splatters, giant spiders, or screaming wraiths. You need to craft the setting in such a way that makes the people within it uncomfortable and anxious. Again, this must be carefully crafted towards those involved: one person may think nothing at all of a gloomy and overcast day, while another might find it oppressive and become nervous. On the other hand, the “breadcrumb” method tends to be very effective most of the time: provide just enough information (a strange animal sound, a single abandoned boot, a cryptic note) to lead the party along, the whole while making them wonder just what they’re getting into...
Another useful tool is the false choice. Leave the players “in control” in that they can choose what their characters do, where they go, but have the situation arranged so that the only viable choice is the one you want. Certainly, the party could all elect to stand outside and dance during an oncoming storm known to strip the flesh from a man’s bones in seconds, but it’s unlikely. Instead, they are almost certain to bolt for whatever cover readily presents itself, and thus play directly into you-the-GM’s hands. Likewise, lures can be employed to the same end. Leave something shiny and important-looking out, and someone is going to reach for it. Employ this tactic well, and you quickly have a party that takes nothing for granted, jumps at unexpected noises, and knows in the very depths of their soul that something horrible is going to happen the instant they let their guard down.
In the end, all the strategies and suggested tactics are just that, suggestions. Properly GMing true horror is not a series of steps to follow, or a list of items to check off. It is an art, not a science, with the masterpiece being that shuddering, terrified feeling deep in your stomach when he GM turns to you, smiles, and asks you to make a Perception check. And, if you’ve done your job as a GM well, they won’t even be sure if they /want/ to roll well...
Original Dreamwidth entry here. Comment on either.