D&D 5E The popularity of horror adventures/settings for 5e

[Minigiant]

See, this is rather the genre hair splitting I was talking about. There are lots of stories solidly in the horror genre that are a dread of what is coming story. So, it's not like calling some versions of D&D horror is really wrong. But, genre discussions can get pretty lost in the weeds pretty quickly.

My point was that the core of D&D and a priority of 5e is that you don't fear the monster and take the flee, freeze, or fawn to the trauma, you fight it bravely with all the tools given.

What makes CoS different is that Players come in or learn early that they can't beat the vampire for most of the adventure if not all of it without Massive DM assistance. Not fighting him is the gimmick.

 

[Hussar]

Not all horror stories are speculative fiction. Slasher movies for example are set in the present time and often don't have any supernatural elements.

Of course that runs up against the difference between horror and thriller.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Of course that runs up against the difference between horror and thriller.

Thriller is definitely on the supernatural side, with all the zombies and vampires in the music video. One of Michael Jackson's best works!

 

[Hussar]

Honestly though, D&D horror tends to be more Supernatural and a lot less Exorcist, IMO. Lots of the tropes and on occasion very honestly scarey, but, far, far more dick jokes and bad puns than would normally be found in horror.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

It's hard to be scared when your party is the scariest thing in the room. D&D is perhaps a horror story... for the monsters!

 

[jgsugden]

People gravitate to horror because they are attracted to actual storytelling and horror inherently invokes the idea of a story incredibly efficiently.

This is not me claiming everything horror has a meaningful story. That is obviously not true. A lot of horror movies are just excuses to be gross and titillate. In truth, horror has a tendency to be the least story driven genre out there next to porn. However, like porn, the simplicity of the story and obvious direction it might take draws you in faster and breeds faster interest. It is easier to get to the point of investment.

When you hear the start of most horror premises you instantly have a pretty good idea of where that story will likely go. You might be right - or in a good story you're probably wrong - but you get the idea instantly. Whether I tell you about the kids that go to a cabin in the woods, the family that gets stranded when their car breaks down in the back country, or the people that find a blood soaked machete outside the prison ... most people will instantly have an idea for where they think the story will go. That gives you something to be drawn into right away - a hook.

Contrast that to being told that the adventurers walk into a bar, the mayor calls on the adventurers to come and see him, or the adventurers meet a cheerful gnome at the edge of town. Do you have any idea what will happen in those stories? Likely not. You have to wait to see where it goes. That means you're waiting for the other shoe to drop without having anything to care about.

When selling these stories to garner interest and get people to buy in, it is easier when people quickly have something to follow rather than taking longer to grab them. They sell better and get more interest because the hook is more obvious.

In a way, it is similar to the difference between starting a blind date with confident rizz ... or starting it by reading your resume. Horror catches the attention faster.

This is not to say that it is impossible to grab people with non-horror premises, either. Rather, it is saying that it is easier to do it in horror than in most other genres. I actually spend quite a bit thinking about the first sentence I'll tell players when describing an adventure or campaign when I invite them to make sure I can grab them within a few seconds.

 

[Tonguez]

Horror is fun because it combines a bit of mystery and investigation with the excitement/fear of confronting a villain that can challenge players both physically and intellectually - Strahd is exemplary in this regard, Strahd is a constant dominant force that drives PCs to engage across all the pillars of play - Social RP, Exploration and Combat and moreover the setting is interesting so PCs are happy to revisit places and interact with the denizens of Barovia.
Being Gothic it also allows the writers to use some evocative imagery and prose too, which is probably also a factor when it comes to the popularity of creating and publishing horror themed material.

 

[Rystefn]

Yes. Out of box, characters are just too powerful by the end of Tier1, even first half of Tier2. I run mostly Ravenloft/CoC hybrid and have some house rules that slide the power scale down, but i give my players in universe explanation why things work differently or don't work at all. Also, at session 0 i give all players warning that not all encounters are fair, balanced or winnable and that running away is more often than not smart option.

Speaking of ways 5e is terrible at horror: Unless you have some fairly significant house rules about it, running is almost never a smart option in 5e.

Most of the monsters have the same movement speed as players, and the turn-based nature of that movement means that if you start in melee and run away, then as soon as the monster gets a turn, you're in melee again. If you disengage, then you make no attack and move 30, then the monster moves 30 and makes an attack. You lose. If you don't disengage, then you try to move, the monster attacks, you move 60, then the monster moves 60. You lose. In both cases, you're giving the monster free damage to move the fight to a slightly different location. Unless you have somewhere to run to that's very close by, a special movement mode it can't answer, or a higher movement speed than the enemy, you just get wrecked.

If you do have a higher movement speed than the monster, or flight when it doesn't, or something like that, and the party has a ranged option, then you can just move out of range and shoot, move out of range and shoot, repeat until you win. Even against the most terrifying monsters the game as to throw at you, this works. It's a been a major criticism of the 5e tarrasque since the MM came out that a low level PC can solo the thing this way. Kiting enemies is literally the opposite of horror.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Speaking of ways 5e is terrible at horror: Unless you have some fairly significant house rules about it, running is almost never a smart option in 5e.

Most of the monsters have the same movement speed as players, and the turn-based nature of that movement means that if you start in melee and run away, then as soon as the monster gets a turn, you're in melee again. If you disengage, then you make no attack and move 30, then the monster moves 30 and makes an attack. You lose. If you don't disengage, then you try to move, the monster attacks, you move 60, then the monster moves 60. You lose. In both cases, you're giving the monster free damage to move the fight to a slightly different location. Unless you have somewhere to run to that's very close by, a special movement mode it can't answer, or a higher movement speed than the enemy, you just get wrecked.

If you do have a higher movement speed than the monster, or flight when it doesn't, or something like that, and the party has a ranged option, then you can just move out of range and shoot, move out of range and shoot, repeat until you win. Even against the most terrifying monsters the game as to throw at you, this works. It's a been a major criticism of the 5e tarrasque since the MM came out that a low level PC can solo the thing this way. Kiting enemies is literally the opposite of horror.

There are chase rules in the DMG for resolving running away, you don't have to treat it as a combat encounter.

 

[GrimCo]

I do have some house rules that impact mostly spell casters.

As for monsters. I run them like intelligent creatures with their own agendas. They use covers. Close doors. Run away if they are injured. Try to ambush PC-s when they are unprepared and when they feel safe. Those are kind of monster based horror games.

When i run horror, i run adult themes. Very dark adult themes (including traficking, organ harvesting, slavery and all kind of nastiness human mind can think of). One of the scariest monsters i ran was modified commoner. Regular human. Average to below average attributes, except 18 int and 16 wis. No spells or special abilities. It's base on Garland Green from movie Con Air. It started with the simple case of finding missing child. Then they found out that there is string of missing children. Then it started to turn dark. They find hints, but they don't really know what happened with those kids. Trust me, playing with group of dads with young children, missing kid scenario creates real horror. And the horror is in the unknown. They don't know what really happened. Other thing is sense of helplessness. They can't stop it. Not until they find out. And every so often, another case. Another cryptic clue. As i said, first time i ran it, one of the players asked to stop the game. It hit too close. Never used graphic violence, or gore or something like that. Urgency, losing hope, feeling helpless.