BOO!!! Horror effect in a game...
[VO: Vincent Price ]
There are things that go bump in the night. Things that will unnerve you. Things you should never meet. These are the things you are gaming.
Boo! Fear in a game
Cue Vincent Price Voice Over
What is Fear? Actually knowing fear is nearly impossible, but you can see its results. It is that BOO! startle that we have all seen (and sometimes experienced) while watching horror films. It is that racing pulse and tension we get when reading a good horror novel. Fear is the key to horror, and horror gaming. We all want to generate it in horror games, but it is so intangible. Understanding fear is the first step to generating it.
Fear's job is to prepare the body for action: attacking or retreating . Blood flow is concentrated internally to the muscles and brain, instead of at the skin and extremities, and blood increases its tendency to coagulate, to prevent blood loss in case of an injury. The amount of lymphocytes (special blood cells that repair tissue damage) also increase. The lungs dilate, to take in more oxygen, which the increased heart rate and blood cells released by the spleen can distribute throughout the body rapidly. The liver releases stored sugars, to energize the muscles. The pupils dilate, to better view the danger and any possible escape routes. All of this takes place in a few seconds. By applying these results to a character, you can express elements of its fear.
The purpose of fear, the fight-or-flight reflex, as it is often called, has long been accepted, if not completely understood. Fear is recognized as a necessity, for the only fearless man is a fool. But just what is scary? What stimuli trigger fear in their troupe? That is what the GM of a Horror game must determine.
Monsters do not make a horror game, but they help. The monsters of a horror game are more powerful than the PCs and must be out tricked or outwitted, rather than out fought. If you could just 'fight the monsters', you might as well be crawling around a dungeon.
To make fears believable in a character, the player and the GM we need to discover what character is afraid of, understand why the character is afraid of it, and then apply it to the campaign.
You might want to find out what the players are scared of as well.
For someone to care about the scare, they first have to care about the character. Make sure the player is invested in the character via roleplaying or conception work. Only then can you get a Boo! effect
There is, unfortunately, no psychological textbook list of 'top ten fears' to pull from, since the intensity of fears is so subjective, and only the unusual fears are studied as a rule. Some of the most common fears include the fear of: spiders, snakes, or other animals, death, public speaking, commitment, the dark, heights, pain, and failure. There are countless others.
There is only one thing that any of us, and any character is afraid of: Pain. There are many kinds of pain beyond mere physical pain (Physical Injury, Death, Disability, Gore, Critters who inflict), Emotional (Heartbreak, Loneliness), Mental (Insanity, Sensory Deprivation), Social Failure (Rejection, People, Speeches, Intimacy, Stares, Exile/Prison). Finding the right kind of pain that will motivate and horrify a character (or player) is a requirement for horror.
What's even scarier than a monster in front of you? A monster behind you. The potential for pain is more frightening than actual pain. That's why the threat of force is scarier than actual force. The unknown is scarier than the known. The scariest aspect of pain is loss. Long-term disability is scarier than death. Insanity is scarier than unconsciousness. Commitment is scarier than loneliness.
Scaring your players works best when the horror is implied, rather than stated outright. People’s individual imaginations are filled with images much more disturbing than any GM or writer could dream up. These primal, hidden fears just need to be stirred a bit with some subtle suggestions. What's scarier, the sound of a twig snapping behind you as you walk down a dark path, and wondering what might have caused it? Or seeing a stranger step out in front of your path?
Always describe the results rather than the cause. Allowing players (and their lovely imaginations) to fill in the blanks will result in more horror atmosphere than simply describing what caused it. Besides, once the cause is known (be it monster or whatever), the horror transforms into action, as the characters now have a known threat to deal with.
Horror scenarios and campaign all have elements of
the unnatural (or uncanny). The sense of 'things not right' is a powerful trigger for nervousness, just one step away from fear (and so much easier to induce). Things are too dark, or too light, or too quiet, or too wet, are simple descriptions that will put the players on edge.
Horror is not about the monsters. A standard run of the mill werewolf can generate much more 'terror' than a Cthulic thing depending on how it is presented to the players. It is in the descriptions and the mystery.
Horror antagonists never play by the rules. They are always unnatural (or uncanny). If the players and the world has known magik (your average fantasy world), then the enemy or Evil plays by a different set of rules. The accepted rules and what the characters/ player believe is tossed out the window.
In a Horror game, the enemy are stronger and more focused on the characters than your average fantasy monster or roleplaying antagonist. The enemy is out there, waiting for just the right moment, stalking and hunting the characters, not just sitting around waiting for you to come to it.
Once the players discover what the horror is and believe in its existence, the game shifts from a horror game to a fantasy action game. Keep the horror mysterious for as long as possible to keep up the horror aspect.
Remember, Gore is what some people think of as horror. Liberal applications of blood and viscera can make for great descriptions in the narration, but it only sets the stage for the dread or terror. As a general rule, gore does not scare gamers, so you will need to apply others techniques to bring the horror to them.
A classic horror trope is the 'bad place', the geographic focus of Evil, it's home ground so to speak. In the confines of the 'bad place' things do not work normally and the Evil is strongest. The GM should consider the 'bad place' an NPC that must be worked out before game begins. By defining the bad place properly and knowing what little effects will occur there, the GM frees themselves up to be creative with the descriptions and the narration of the evil effects.
Often to make a horror scenario work, the players must 'walk into the trap'. The trap ends up being the bad place, the lost tomb, the back road that leads to this little vampire infested town, etc. Players who work with the GM in this way should be rewarded. Players who refuse to 'walk into the trap' and are unwilling to work with the GM can simply avoid the adventure entirely, spending the next few sessions playing out their mundane daily routine in grinding detail, while the others adventure.
Tension, conflict, release, repeat as necessary. This simple formula will help you create a horror game. Build up the tension in the scene. Have an event occur. Everyone breaths easier for a moment. Each time the process is repeated, the stakes go up. The first time is just the cat, the second time is the wind, the third time you don't know what it is, the fourth time it is the monster.
A tool to build tension in the players is to give out of character knowledge. There characters sense nothing, but you give the 'audience' (made up of your players) the knowledge that the horror is near by, stalking, waiting. Good gamers won't use the out of character knowledge. Bad gamers will, but then find out that it was all imaginary (and there characters are now paranoid).
One of the most effective ways to generate tension and nervousness in characters (and players) is to take them out of their normal environment and place them somewhere else. For characters this means getting the characters somewhere unexpected. For players, this means making them sit in places they don't normally sit in.
Horror scenarios are best set up as a single session (be it short or long). It is hard to sustain the 'fear' mood over the time between sessions. The week (or time between) will dull the effects of the game and allow the players a different perspective when they come back to it.
When running a horror game, try to prevent breaks or time outs from happening. This keeps everyone concentrated on the mood at hand and does not give them a chance to break the mood of the game.
If the games go for longer than one sessions, players in horror games should always write down their current 'state of mind' at the end of the game session. This 'note to self' will be handy for the player to pick up where they left off.
GMs, there are a couple of random things I want you to keep in mind.
The best way to get players into a horror campaign is to not tell them that it is a horror campaign. This is called the 'bait and switch'. Have the players set up characters for a campaign in the same setting (be it a spy or street level pulp, or medieval court). Give them basic materials for that kind of campaign. Then give them the unexpected in the second or third adventure.
Also, many players will insist on injecting humor and zaniness into a horror campaign. The humor insulates them from the terror. It also destroys the feel of the horror game. A great way to cut this down is to institute a 'humor tax'. Each infraction will cost the characters experience points, skill checks, a soda, or time out of game (where the GM runs your character). The players will either quickly get into the feel of the horror game, or find themselves at a severe disadvantage (and very thirsty).
I hope this little discussion will help you understand fear and horror in a game. Crafting horror takes dedicated and concentrated effort from the GM. The players have to be willing to 'go along' for the bumpy thrill ride you, the GM, are about to take them on. Once everything is in place... things will go along swimmingly. That is until something JUMPS OUT at you.
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? Responses (16)
This has been seen over 4250 times since 08/19/03 on Strolen v1.0
I have done some additional updates on this article.
I discovered that I heard Vincent Price's voice when reading the article. I guess, in my mind, his voice is permanently linked to the horror genre. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I often evoke his spooky voice and mannerisms when running a horror segment of a game. It is almost more effective than my tip on using the 'narrative voice' of your favorite author, because it includes motions and tone and inflection.
I think I am going to try to be Rod Sterling the next time I am running an 'out there game'.
Hmmmm. Hitchcock. What an interest -*BANG*- thud.
'Mother? Where are you Mother?'
Once again, nice job, Master Moon.
By the way, my horror adventure ('Forest of the Old Ones') worked great! Thanks or the tips!
There is a distinction between terror and horror this is quite easy to confuse, but they are quite different reactions to different sets of stimuli.
Horror, according to H.P. Lovecraft is the cerebral and rational feeling of absolute helplessness. The fear that erduces us to quivering jelly, that doesnt send the adrenaline screaming through the body is horror. When facing the deadly unknown, that doesnt have any seeming sort of weakness is horror. You cant fight it, you cant run from it, you can try to escape or survive, but the odds say you are going to die. The Ring is a good example of this type of fear. You cant unload a clip from a machine gun into the ghost, nor can you fight her. You cant outrun her, or escape her as her realm is governed by the supernatural and ours is governed by the physical. You can try to understand the horror, deconstruct it and discover how to safe yourself, but...well...good luck.
Terror is a basic visceral reaction, often caused by gore, or exposure to things that we are scared of. This terror evokes the fight or flight reaction from the body. We attack, crushing the offedning spider underfoot, or faced with more than we can handle we seek to escape. Things that cause terror can be faced, can be fought, can be killed. The Alien movie blurred the line between Horror and Terror as it savaged the crew of the Nostromo until the last crewmember thought to suck the critter out of the ship with a pressure breach. The alien could not be fought, could not be escaped, it seemingly knew the ship better than they did, ducts and all. The second Aliens movie was very much terror. Machine guns roar, aliens and marines die by the bucketful, but after the pulse pounding is slowed, they have excaped after blowing all of the aliens to kingdom come.
Fantast is a difficult milieu to set horror in as fantasy is basically an extension of playing something that is more than what we are. Spells and swordplay suddenly seem pointless in the horror campaign, most times we are epic, or at least heroic characters not destined to die in a disturbing fashion. The majority of horrors are set at our level of experience, with no magic (easy way out) and access to tech greatly limited (also another easy way out) Most successful horror games are set in a nitty gritty format where dying is easy, and we realize the frail nature of our mortal shells.
A MoonHunter classic!
I will never play Call of Cthulhu the same again. Even the comments on this one are good.
I've never played in a horror campaign or adventure, so that makes this a little hard for me to evaluate. But maybe some day I'll be able to give it a try.
Had to give this one a smack considering the holiday coming up. :)
Not quite as awesome as More Boo!, though that was the additional notes which pushed it over the top for me, but this one here is definately worth a 4.5/5 for me.
Muhuhhahah. Need to start using some of these :)
I am preparing a horror dungeon with my brother this Halloween and was looking for some tips on making one when I found this. It's well written, helpful, and has many ideas that I am sure I shall use in ten weeks.
This article has made me entirely rethink a level of the dungeon I'm planning on running my players through next week. While not a horror campaign, I can still use some of these points to amp up the atmosphere at the table. Thanks for the tips!
I find this far superior to your Boo! article which seemed cheesy. I have to disagree with you on the point of not informing your players it is a horror game. Bait and switch is illegal for a reason. If the players did not want to play a horror game, then they have no choice but to leave or have you entirely change the game. Additionally, if they don't realize it is a horror game they will be far less cooperative in creating the mood because a fair portion of D&D is often in the out of game experience.
Luckily, I don't play D&D (much). CoC and other horror games emphasize the in character experience.
There are no rules in any game about Bait and Switch being illegal. In fact it is often used in any number of adventure or thriller books or movies which have inspired games. You shouldn't argue too much with your source material.
Players who know they are running in a horror game tend to design characters that are optimized for horror games. STrangely enough they are all 'immune to fear', have high will power, able to fight the specialized monsters they think they are going to fight, etc. etc. There is no horror there. It is a game with supernatural elements.
Thus the characters need to be made for a 'neutral' setting and thrust in a horror run. (The same thing happens in Zombie Appocolypse setting).
You would never run such a game if your players might not be interested in it. If your players were sort of interested, you could set things up. (Thus negating your issue with players having to up and leave). The players might be interested, but they don't need to know 'this is' the game. The bait and switch creates the suprise and degree of powerless that is part and parcel to horror. (Again, horror being very different from a supernatural game or game with supernatural elements).
I've never run a horror game but I must admit that I would like to. I've just never felt confident with the genre. I think this will help.
"Monsters do not make a horror game, but they help. The monsters of a horror game are more powerful than the PCs and must be out tricked or outwitted, rather than out fought. If you could just “fight the monsters”, you might as well be crawling around a dungeon." — Reading it, that makes so much sense. And yet it never occurred to me. Doh!
"For someone to care about the scare, they first have to care about the character. Make sure the player is invested in the character via roleplaying or conception work. Only then can you get a Boo! effect" — I think this is good advice about any genre.
This is going in my favorites. So many good points are hit here that this is a definite 5/5 for me.