Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[darjr]

I have never in my 40 year gaming history seen genuinely "scared" players. I have sent them disturbed and perplexed and even tense, but never scared. The medium just doesn't support it IME.

Level drain.

 

[zakael19]

You also don’t need to like, jump scare players to have a good horror game with plenty of “oh screw you” moments and shudder inducing imagery.

 

[overgeeked]

You also don’t need to like, jump scare players to have a good horror game with plenty of “oh screw you” moments and shudder inducing imagery.

Yeah. It’s far more about tone and mood and punishing mechanics than actually, honestly scared players sitting at your table. You don’t want people at your dining room table to be scared. Creeped out, unsettled, etc yes absolutely. People do weird, stupid, and potentially dangerous things when they’re scared. You don’t want to be in close proximity to that.

 

[aramis erak]

And I'm going to disagree hard. Daggerheart's mechanics with a couple of fairly simple rules in the campaign frame do more to support horror than Call of Cthulhu does. Losing (maximum) hope is far more impactful than losing Sanity because it's not such a restricted resource - and With Fear results are great for horror.

My players noted a horror edge to the QP module.
I doubled down on it in my follow-on.
I set up a buffed wraiths encounter (Tier 2 wraiths), with the questions:
"What hell does this section of woods make you think of?"
and "Who from it does that tree there remind you of?"
Then the wraiths having their shapes and memories...
This did change my intent for one of them... as he was an old schoolchum at the chaos cult they both were trained as sorcerers in. He wasn't dead; he was a fragment from exposure to raw chaos... and a violent and desperate shade.
The others... the Giant, Kara, mentioned a former compatriot, lost in the Crystal Caves... who turned out to be a would-be lover, too... Litwyn pleaded with Kara to turn back.
Barnacle picked a cave in that took his friend Horus, a Fungril, and smashed him. Horus reluctantly used his new powers, as a warning.

they had to destroy their friends... and Kara couldn't. But Kara convinced Litwyn to let them pass... a deal signed with a (literally) searingly painful kiss. Litwyn guided them to a potion before fleeing into the Sablewood.

At the end, there was a poigniant scene where Litwyn tells Kara to live her life, then be buried back here, so they could be together in their unlife...

It can do some kinds of horror just fine, without much intent. Age of Umbra is a touch of horror as well...

 

[Retros_x]

I have never in my 40 year gaming history seen genuinely "scared" players. I have sent them disturbed and perplexed and even tense, but never scared. The medium just doesn't support it IME.

Really I have seen scared players all the time. Not even in horror games, just regular D&D. Afraid of their PC dying, afraid of NPCs dying, afraid of the enemies I described in disgusting detail.

I mean obviously never a REAL fear, but that is quite hard even for a horror movie. At the end we all know its fiction.

 

[aramis erak]

Really I have seen scared players all the time. Not even in horror games, just regular D&D. Afraid of their PC dying, afraid of NPCs dying, afraid of the enemies I described in disgusting detail.

I mean obviously never a REAL fear, but that is quite hard even for a horror movie. At the end we all know its fiction.

fear of loss of characters is a real fear. Some players get attached quick.

 

[Tanek]

In some ways, I think that your immediate environment can have a big effect on player fear levels. Two examples that I was personally involved in;

About 40 years ago we were playing Call of Cthulhu one night. We were up in Maine, on the coast, in a relatively small, converted boat house. There were neighbors, but definitely not anywhere near. It was dark and rainy. The GM was fantastic and, I must admit, I had moments were my heart rate was definitely faster than it should have been.

The second instance was at a Dundracon in the mid-90s. We were players in a Cthulhu LARP event. One of the event co-ordinators had received permission to hold the event in a Masonic Lodge. The lodge was relatively old and we were allowed to actually use some of their ceremonial stuff as props. That was a night to remember.

Point is that the immediate environment definitely helped up the fear factor, so to speak. Granted, not everyone is going to have the coast of Maine or a Masonic Lodge readily available.

 

[Faolyn]

I have never in my 40 year gaming history seen genuinely "scared" players. I have sent them disturbed and perplexed and even tense, but never scared. The medium just doesn't support it IME.

It's all in the description, really, and not the mechanics. Apparently I'm just good at giving scary descriptions.

 

[Scribe]

It's all in the description, really, and not the mechanics. Apparently I'm just good at giving scary descriptions.

I'd argue if one gets into the mechanics, that is going to pull the players right out of being 'scared' (for ones definition of scared) anyway.

 

[Faolyn]

I'd argue if one gets into the mechanics, that is going to pull the players right out of being 'scared' (for ones definition of scared) anyway.

I'll have to wait and see. When I actually get to run this game, it probably won't be a horror game--my players want a continuation of a different, non-horror setting I have.