Horror in Gaming – Comments

We return to the question about horror in gaming.  As the custom is here, you’ve spoken, and now I respond to / make fun of you.

FTL says:

Hmmm…I wonder if players and their characters are always as far removed as one might think? Even if a character is completely unlike who the person “really” is, the traits a person chooses for his/her character can often give a good GM insight into how to influence that player.

Of course, that has the potential to be emotionally manipulative and mean, which is generally Not Good. Unless said player is also bogarting the food.

I disagree, largely because I’m the one bogarting the food.   Still, I’d have to admit that players and characters are much closer than we usually think.  In fact, back in anthro grad school, I taped a game session for a paper and was stunned at how often the roles conflate – referring to the character by the player’s name, using “I” to describe the character’s actions, etc.

I think a GM should certainly follow the player cues – if something seems to scare them, give them more of it.  I think it’s best to give it slowly, not only to avoid an unexpected and unfortunate action from the players, but also to let the dread play out more.

Niflungr agrees with me (and I with him on Kult), but says:

But the absolute best (i.e., frightening) time I’ve ever had with and RPG was running John Tyne’s In Media Res from The Unspeakable Oath (#10? I just remember it was the first magazine size issue). The players I had got wonderfully into character and the spirit of the game and a couple of them actually scared me at one point.

I do recall “In Media Res”, which was reprinted in Pagan Publishing’s Resurrected Volume III (along with all of Resurrected Volume II – go figure).  As a teaser, the characters wake up in prison uniforms, someone’s wearing human skin, and the situation goes downhill from there.

Niflungr cites this as an example of an RPG trumping LARPs in terms of terror, and I won’t say this doesn’t happen.  Nonetheless, it’s worth pointing out that this scenario was set up to be played as both a LARP and a RPG session, and that even the RPG session includes a good bit of staging.  This is basic proof of my concept, as is another Pagan scenario with elaborate staging and a great track record, Grace under Pressure.  (You can’t get that any more, unless you can find Resurrected Volume I.)

Terje says:

I really recommend looking at “Nightmares of mine” (Iron Crown Enterprises) a book on how to achive horror in roleplaying. The book is not relying on any specific set of rules and is ment to be used with any rpg. It is very thorough and practically oriented and examines several types of horror and how to achieve them in different types of adventures.

I considered recommending this book in my original post, but it’s long OOP so I decided against it.  Nonetheless, as it’s been brought up, I’ll point out that it’s by Papers favorite Kenneth Hite.   His revision of GURPS Horror is said to have more along these lines, but I haven’t checked it out yet.

I think we’ve tapped out this topic, so we’ll turn to Lairs of the Hidden Gods next.  Well, maybe after a post or two.

~ by danharms on September 1, 2007.