Overall I agree with most points, but some of your theories don't fly for me. Space Stations with horrible monsters are less scary than forests? Have you watched a playthrough of Dead Space?
I have Dead Space right here, and it doesn't scare me quite as much as a game like Fatal Frame does. When the game builds suspense, it works. But when it is throwing gruesome stuff at the screen, it stops being scary. And because a space station is not a relatable setting, it has to try harder to be scary than other games.
The point is not that a space station can't be scary. It can be. But the parts of it that are scary, are emotions that we can relate to in real life, such as fear of the dark, claustrophobia, etc. As soon as the game starts looking like it is trying to be a horror film, it is a lot less scary. Nothing is more scary, than how the player scares himself. And so, the less obvious the scares, the bigger the suspense.
Take for example a game like the classic Resident Evil. Its not the zombies or the dogs that are scary. Its the walking around in a big house, and hearing creepy sounds from off screen that is mildly scary, mixed with the anticipation of a jump scare. In fact, you very quickly get desensitized to the monsters, and when you reach the underground lab, most of the suspense is gone. Because an underground lab is very much a staple of horror movies, and not relatable in the slightest.
And then take a game like Fatal Frame. They'll have you walk through some creepy hallway, with a human-sized box in it. And every single time you have to pass the box, expecting something might happen. And quite often it never does. They'll have you opening a door, and have a kimono hanging right behind the door, and the more paranoid you get, the easier you end up scaring yourself with stuff like that. I think it's because you're not always feeling everything is scripted. The rules are unclear, and anything could happen. And yet you are in a setting that is some what relatable. Additionally, because Fatal Frame is all about ghosts, the 'monsters' all look humanoid, making them extra disturbing.
I think a horror game might be even scarier if it's not inside a creepy old house, or a creepy space station. Put the game in just a normal house at night, and I think you could scare the pants off the players. And I think this works for tabletop role playing too.
That is a good spooky read.
Thanks, hope you enjoyed it.
- Did you have characters pre-roll their saving throws or sanity checks?
As soon as they came face to face with something scary or disturbing, that is when they would roll their check. The outcome would then affect how they'd role play the scene, and what information I would give them.
- How often did you bring out the battlemat during this adventure?
Never. Call of Cthulhu is more about storytelling, and not so much about combat. We didn't use any battle grid or miniatures. I simply described the scene, often with a simple drawing of the house, and we rolled checks. I tried to keep the maps simple and not too detailed, because I wanted the players to picture my description in their head, not the drawing of the map. The map was purely there to lend clarity to the lay out, and the locations of rooms and doors.
- How often did you "announce facts as the DM" versus telling the players what they perceive
I'm not exactly sure what you mean with "announcing facts as a DM". When I describe a scene to the whole group, it's always from their collective point of view. I would sometimes describe what their character felt, without taking control of their character away from them. I always want to make sure that I'm not dictating how their character reacts. That is up to them to decide.
But when it came to personal experiences, then I would get more into their psyche. Since I knew the secrets they had chosen for their characters, I would know which things their character would relate to. So the description would contain references to things that they would understand, but the rest of the players would not.
I try not to describe any parts of the story from an outside perspective, like for example a narrator in a book would. They do not know what they cannot see. I think such narration is best reserved for the ending of the campaign, when the players have a right to know what the outcome of their actions is. But during the game itself, they do not know more than what they witnessed. So they have no idea what happened to Angela after they escaped on their motorbike. They also don't know what became of Robert Blake. But they did visit the cemetery later on in the campaign, and opened his family crypt, where they found the urns containing all his previous attempts at conceiving a child with his ghoul bride. Ewww!
Communicating with individual players is a good goal. It's one of those things that seems hard to do at the table, but really worthwhile when it works. Did you make other attempts to give individual information after character creation, maybe during a session?
Yes. Often I'd make cryptic references to things that only one particular player would understand. If however the information was too difficult to convey through innuendo, then I could always take the player aside, or hand him a note.
It's fun when only one player knows what's up. However, I try not to let this interrupt the session too much. I want all of the players to still remain involved. And its fun for them as players to hear some of the puzzle pieces, but not seeing the whole picture yet. So I think if you can clue one player in, without taking him aside, that is more fun for everyone involved.
For example, one player had a personal secret that he had seen a silver Mercedes at a traumatic event in his life, a long time ago. But throughout his life he kept thinking he'd see the same car in the distance every now and again. So when the car showed up in the story, I simply said:
"You see what looks like a silver Mercedes, and to one of you it looks very familiar."
And the one player would go:
"Oooooh craaaap!", while everyone else around the table looked at him with astonishment, wishing they knew what he did.
So design your horror rules with these ideas in mind.
