I'd like to make a case for taking your game to the darkest places you can imagine. Not just with violence or carnage but the sort of horror that makes you question everything. This might sound complicated but it's actually very simple. You give your player characters no good choices.
I should start by saying if you are thinking of running something exceptionally dark or intense, make sure the whole group are on the same page with this. There are plenty of safety tools out there these days, so use them. Seriously. You might think you know your group pretty well, but you might not know them as well as you think. If the purpose of the game is going to the places most people will be uncomfortable with, make damn sure everyone is willing to go there and what their limits are.
So what am I talking about? Put simply I mean moral choices with no good answer. In a game like this players are constantly faced with situations where they have to make a decision between two options they'd never contemplate, and where doing nothing is just as bad. They might have to kill a friend to close a portal, otherwise demons will tear the world apart. They might have to decide who doesn't get to eat so there is enough food for everyone, and where sharing equally means everyone will die. If someone has to be sacrificed, will they lay down their life or choose someone else? Every path leads to something they will have trouble living with. There won't be an opportunity for them to kill a stranger or the bad guy to save the world, its going to have to be a friend, of someone who wants to live and has so much to live for. When faced with these choices, what is the right answer, and what bad things will they contemplate to find a different one?
Filling your game with these sort of no win situations might not sound fun, and that's understandable. But this level of horror can lead to very intense gaming sessions. You will get to see your characters at their absolute worse, and possibly their best, and in this way they live all the more. By uncovering the deepest and darkest parts of your character you will get to know them far better than if they just went down a dungeon. Putting a character through the wringer emotionally is often far more painful than doing so physically and far more revealing. It also allows players to consider some terrible choices in a safe environment. What would you do in that situation? Do you think you could choose more wisely?
Dark moral choices force a story to move in a very different direction. Usually, when faced with two bad options the protagonists insist they will find a third, better option. They are held up as heroes for not backing down, believing that if they just keep going and avoid making the choice they will be vindicated. But you can argue there is a certain cowardice to this, a refusal to accept the truth of a situation and face it. But what if they are wrong and (as they were told) there is no third option. Everything comes crashing down because they couldn't make a decision. Are their actions still laudable and heroic?
It can be a hard lesson for player characters to learn that they can do the best they can, and possibly achieve their goal, but not be hailed as heroes. You may have closed the portal to the demon realm and saved the Earth, but Richard isn't coming back, and neither is his family. It is hard to call it a win when your character may spend the rest of their lives wondering if they could have done something, anything, that would have turned out better. How long this haunts them, and how much will add layers to them, and create new dynamics in a character group. It's been a few months, but Bob still has nightmares, but why has Sarah seemed to forget about it, and where does Carl go at night and why won't he talk about it?
These choices need not always be big ones. Stories are full of people who did something they knew was bad, but didn't seem that bad, and it paid them well or got their mum the medicine she needed. The mysterious package that just needs delivering, or the door that they just have to leave unlocked seem no big deal. The money is too good to not do something so minor. But they know that no one would offer so much if it really wasn't that important. When the package turns out to spread a terrible virus, or the open door allows a killer to go on a rampage its already too late. But your mum got her meds, or you could pay off your brother's gambling debts before the mob killed him. So everything's ok, isn't it?
This sort of game isn't for everyone, or every game. It works best in horror and modern games, such as zombie apocalypse style games or cold war spy drama. You may like to keep your games heroic, and that's fine. But it can make for some very intense role playing sessions and truly memorable games. It is fun to play a heroes, but heroes aren't really that real. Real life offers hard choices, and making player characters face those choices makes them seem all the more real.
I should start by saying if you are thinking of running something exceptionally dark or intense, make sure the whole group are on the same page with this. There are plenty of safety tools out there these days, so use them. Seriously. You might think you know your group pretty well, but you might not know them as well as you think. If the purpose of the game is going to the places most people will be uncomfortable with, make damn sure everyone is willing to go there and what their limits are.
So what am I talking about? Put simply I mean moral choices with no good answer. In a game like this players are constantly faced with situations where they have to make a decision between two options they'd never contemplate, and where doing nothing is just as bad. They might have to kill a friend to close a portal, otherwise demons will tear the world apart. They might have to decide who doesn't get to eat so there is enough food for everyone, and where sharing equally means everyone will die. If someone has to be sacrificed, will they lay down their life or choose someone else? Every path leads to something they will have trouble living with. There won't be an opportunity for them to kill a stranger or the bad guy to save the world, its going to have to be a friend, of someone who wants to live and has so much to live for. When faced with these choices, what is the right answer, and what bad things will they contemplate to find a different one?
Filling your game with these sort of no win situations might not sound fun, and that's understandable. But this level of horror can lead to very intense gaming sessions. You will get to see your characters at their absolute worse, and possibly their best, and in this way they live all the more. By uncovering the deepest and darkest parts of your character you will get to know them far better than if they just went down a dungeon. Putting a character through the wringer emotionally is often far more painful than doing so physically and far more revealing. It also allows players to consider some terrible choices in a safe environment. What would you do in that situation? Do you think you could choose more wisely?
Dark moral choices force a story to move in a very different direction. Usually, when faced with two bad options the protagonists insist they will find a third, better option. They are held up as heroes for not backing down, believing that if they just keep going and avoid making the choice they will be vindicated. But you can argue there is a certain cowardice to this, a refusal to accept the truth of a situation and face it. But what if they are wrong and (as they were told) there is no third option. Everything comes crashing down because they couldn't make a decision. Are their actions still laudable and heroic?
It can be a hard lesson for player characters to learn that they can do the best they can, and possibly achieve their goal, but not be hailed as heroes. You may have closed the portal to the demon realm and saved the Earth, but Richard isn't coming back, and neither is his family. It is hard to call it a win when your character may spend the rest of their lives wondering if they could have done something, anything, that would have turned out better. How long this haunts them, and how much will add layers to them, and create new dynamics in a character group. It's been a few months, but Bob still has nightmares, but why has Sarah seemed to forget about it, and where does Carl go at night and why won't he talk about it?
These choices need not always be big ones. Stories are full of people who did something they knew was bad, but didn't seem that bad, and it paid them well or got their mum the medicine she needed. The mysterious package that just needs delivering, or the door that they just have to leave unlocked seem no big deal. The money is too good to not do something so minor. But they know that no one would offer so much if it really wasn't that important. When the package turns out to spread a terrible virus, or the open door allows a killer to go on a rampage its already too late. But your mum got her meds, or you could pay off your brother's gambling debts before the mob killed him. So everything's ok, isn't it?
This sort of game isn't for everyone, or every game. It works best in horror and modern games, such as zombie apocalypse style games or cold war spy drama. You may like to keep your games heroic, and that's fine. But it can make for some very intense role playing sessions and truly memorable games. It is fun to play a heroes, but heroes aren't really that real. Real life offers hard choices, and making player characters face those choices makes them seem all the more real.
