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GMs: How do you create a feeling of horror (in an heroic fantasy game)?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6162683" data-attributes="member: 17106"><p>Often, but not necessarily. In many cases, directing threats towards or from one character and then switching suddenly for surprise is highly effective. Dread is a part of horror as well, so sometimes having the players know what is going to happen and dragging it out and subduing their efforts to avoid it can create a sense of helplessness that is also archetypal to horror.</p><p></p><p>One element I've used successfully is to introduce the veneer of a procedural. I had some CoC players investigating a murder only to become targets themselves. They start to feel like they might get somewhere investigating the murder; so there's a positive expectation to undermine there.</p><p></p><p>Another example is one that I haven't used yet is about a character getting a terminal medical diagnosis (sets up an expectation of death), going through various healthcare options (still expecting death), and then after a couple of hours, introducing a new PC with magical abilities to try and help (creates a new meta-level expectation that maybe the PC can do something, albeit perhaps at heavy cost), only to ultimately snatch that hope away.</p><p></p><p>Red herrings are pretty self-explanatory, but I think it's important to make them big ideological ones. For example, I ran a CoC game set during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and in the buildup I introduced some elements of mysticism that suggested there might be witchcraft at work. When the floods came I had them feel a bump underwater or hear a noise that suggested perhaps the Deep Ones were rising up. At the end of the day, however, I had no intention of using any supernatural elements; these elements were all red herrings to divert from the actual plot which was pretty much straight-up historical fiction.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ahnehnois, post: 6162683, member: 17106"] Often, but not necessarily. In many cases, directing threats towards or from one character and then switching suddenly for surprise is highly effective. Dread is a part of horror as well, so sometimes having the players know what is going to happen and dragging it out and subduing their efforts to avoid it can create a sense of helplessness that is also archetypal to horror. One element I've used successfully is to introduce the veneer of a procedural. I had some CoC players investigating a murder only to become targets themselves. They start to feel like they might get somewhere investigating the murder; so there's a positive expectation to undermine there. Another example is one that I haven't used yet is about a character getting a terminal medical diagnosis (sets up an expectation of death), going through various healthcare options (still expecting death), and then after a couple of hours, introducing a new PC with magical abilities to try and help (creates a new meta-level expectation that maybe the PC can do something, albeit perhaps at heavy cost), only to ultimately snatch that hope away. Red herrings are pretty self-explanatory, but I think it's important to make them big ideological ones. For example, I ran a CoC game set during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and in the buildup I introduced some elements of mysticism that suggested there might be witchcraft at work. When the floods came I had them feel a bump underwater or hear a noise that suggested perhaps the Deep Ones were rising up. At the end of the day, however, I had no intention of using any supernatural elements; these elements were all red herrings to divert from the actual plot which was pretty much straight-up historical fiction. [/QUOTE]
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GMs: How do you create a feeling of horror (in an heroic fantasy game)?
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