Horror Roleplaying Part 1. Setting the Mood.

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In my opinion, horror roleplaying is some of the most visceral, engaging gaming you can indulge in. Horror games have contributed the heights of my gaming experience. And yet they are some of the most difficult games to get right. And when they don’t hit the mark, the fail horribly. Believe me. I’ve seen it. And I’ve GM’ed (or Keepered… or DM’ed… Whatever) my share of aweful games, let me tell you. So I thought it might be helpful to put down some thoughts on how best to create an engaging and successful horror game. Now, I don’t think I can do it justice in just one post, so I intend to write a few exploring my thoughts on this genre. For this initial post, we’ll be looking at setting the mood.

At its base, a sense of horror is an emotion felt by the player. It is best to always keep this in mind. In order to have a successful horror game, it is necessary to scare the players, not just the characters. The keeper (I shall use the moniker suggested by my favourite horror game, Call of Cthulhu) therefore needs to consider how they’ll engage the player’s emotions. There are a number of ways of approaching this, and we’ll have a look at them one by one.

1. Playing environment. This is all important. I know it’s nice to all be gathered around a warmly lit table in a nice warm dining room with nice comfortable chairs, but that’s hardly horrible, is it? All these things usually associated with a communal event centre around comfort and safety. Getting rid of some of these staples really helps create a sense of horror. Our gaming group had the opportunity to see this at work when we were forced to use my old, musty garage as a venue in the dead of winter. We all gathered around an old card table, seated on uncomfortable chairs, surrounded by the spiders, the dark and the dust, barely protected from the elements. The visceral experience of dis-ease created by the environment lent a suitably awful tone to our games. A few months into the campaign (we were playing through Day of the Beast for Call of Cthulhu) we were able to move to a nice cozy house. Strangely enough, the mood didn’t come with us, and it proved exceedingly difficult to recapture the magic of those first sessions.
2. Lighting. I suggest dim lighting – fire, if possible. Candles. Turn off the big lights. Yes, your players will complain that they can’t see their character sheets. Too bad. The experience of not being able to get enough information is one of the basic building blocks of a sense of horror. It harks back to our primitive selves, huddled around a fire to keep out the dark, the unknown dangers of the night looming just beyond perception. At night, with nothing but a small fire, that perception is restricted, and the unknown dangers draw closer. It is this sense which must be leveraged by your choice of lighting.
3. Narrative. The restriction of information also needs to be a consideration of your narrative style – don’t ever let your players think they have all the answers. No great exposition at the end, no great revelations. This is not the stuff of horror. Consider the difference between the original 1963 version of The Haunting and its modern hollywood remake of the same name. In the 1963 version, (Spoiler alert! Although if you haven’t seen it by now, Shame On You!) whereas there is enough exposition to understand the background of the haunting and the motivation behind the malevolent spirits which haunt Hill House, the contact with this world of spirits is utterly beyond human comprehension or control and invariably leads to the demise of those who would seek to cross the barrier. In the modern version, Eleanor (the main character) eventually stands up to the (now somehow corporal) ghost and calls him a naughty boy, tells him to go away and emerges triumphant. My verdict: Not Horrible. (Well, kind of horrible -  the kind that earns the DVD a transition to “Coaster” status.) The lesson: Don’t let the players in on the real story! Whereas your players may initially like the sense of accomplishment that comes with completion and final exposition, you’ve just neutered your horror game. They will look back at the campaign and think “Meh.” Instead, keep them guessing. Keep the horror mysterious, other-worldly, just beyond human comprehension.
4. Danger. A sense of danger must be present in a horror game. I know some people don’t like character death. Those people shouldn’t be playing a horror game. There is no horror without an imminent sense of danger, and if there is even an inkling of an idea that you’re going to let the characters live, no matter the outcome of the dice or a slew of stupid decisions, then you’ve just created a schlock-horror comedy game. Use all the horrible descriptive words you like, describe tentacles, blood, gore, awfulness, if there is not a significant chance of character death, you haven’t achieved a sense of horror.
5. Discomfort. Creating a sense of horror relies on the players sensing discomfort. Here I don’t just mean making them sit on uncomfortable chairs and getting cold; I mean making the in-game experience uncomfortable. Everything must be twisted a little. Have nasty things happen to the PC’s – lost limbs, nasty scars. Make these affect their stat blocks. (Nothing gets the attention of a player like taking a couple of points off a stat. Nothing.) Have unpleasant things happen to their in-game friends and relations. The NPC’s they meet need to have unpleasant habits, strange mannerisms, worrisome back stories. Once again let me talk about our own recent experience. One of the characters, a young lady, wanted some information from a police officer. He seemed reluctant to give that information out in the station, and so suggested meeting at the bar. He gave some useful clues there, then pressed his intentions. When the character politely refused, he became angry, eventually chasing her out and down the street, into the back alleys. Eventually the character entered a darkened alley, turned around and waited for her pursuer with a derringer… “Do I really shoot a police officer?” was the question… She waited tensely for him to appear… Now, this was taking the game down some dark corners I had not previously envisioned, and it was a judgement call on how far to go. The sense of horror created by this episode, however, was significant. From this episode you can see that a sense of horror can be created by pushing the envelope, so to speak. Take the game to places others fear to tread. But do it lightly. If you go completely over the top then it becomes schlocky. In my experience, gore-dripping horror is hardly ever “horrible.” Taking the care to establish a slowly growing sense of discomfort, however, does the job brilliantly. Use your own judgment to see how far to take it with your own group.

These are just a few thoughts on creating a suitable mood of horror. Over the next few weeks I’ll explore some other considerations for planning, writing and running a horror game. Feel free to let me know your thoughts – the aim of this exercise is to explore some methods of creating a truly horrifying game (in a good way!), and as such it is somewhat of a thought experiment. Your thoughts would be appreciated, and I look forward to them.

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