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General Tabletop Discussion
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Call of Cthulhu as a Horror Game
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<blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7540079" data-attributes="member: 6785785"><p>I don’t think the point is to actually scare the players. It’s more about letting then experience their characters being scared. It may seem like a subtle distinction, but it’s pretty significant.</p><p></p><p>If your players can ever feel whattheir characteds feel....if they feel a sense of accomplishment after the characters achieve a long fought for goal, if they feel satisfaction when the characters catch the recurring villain, if they get mad when a villain kills a party member or an NPC ally and then escapes....then they can feel horror for their characters.</p><p></p><p>I don’t think it’s easy to achieve, though. Most players won’t allow themselves to feel such negative emotions. They kind of “parachute” out mentally.</p><p></p><p>But if you have players who are willing to buy in, and you do a good job of portraying the situation the characters find themselves in, and it’s one that’s weird or scary or uncomfortable, then the players can definitely catch the right vibe.</p><p></p><p>I’ve done it in my D&D game, and horror’s not even a preferred genre of mine, nor one my players would typically respond to. But it happened. All I really had to do was convey the scenario in such a way that it impressed the veteran players that their characters were in over their head, and that weird stuff was happening. I didn’t use any typical D&D tropes or creatures....I didn’t make it so that the players could say to themselves “oh it’s a wight” or anything like that. </p><p></p><p>I think that you have to work at it to achieve that effect, and the players have to be willing to go alongb for the ride. Just as a movie or a book or any other kind of story can scare people, so can a RPG.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hawkeyefan, post: 7540079, member: 6785785"] I don’t think the point is to actually scare the players. It’s more about letting then experience their characters being scared. It may seem like a subtle distinction, but it’s pretty significant. If your players can ever feel whattheir characteds feel....if they feel a sense of accomplishment after the characters achieve a long fought for goal, if they feel satisfaction when the characters catch the recurring villain, if they get mad when a villain kills a party member or an NPC ally and then escapes....then they can feel horror for their characters. I don’t think it’s easy to achieve, though. Most players won’t allow themselves to feel such negative emotions. They kind of “parachute” out mentally. But if you have players who are willing to buy in, and you do a good job of portraying the situation the characters find themselves in, and it’s one that’s weird or scary or uncomfortable, then the players can definitely catch the right vibe. I’ve done it in my D&D game, and horror’s not even a preferred genre of mine, nor one my players would typically respond to. But it happened. All I really had to do was convey the scenario in such a way that it impressed the veteran players that their characters were in over their head, and that weird stuff was happening. I didn’t use any typical D&D tropes or creatures....I didn’t make it so that the players could say to themselves “oh it’s a wight” or anything like that. I think that you have to work at it to achieve that effect, and the players have to be willing to go alongb for the ride. Just as a movie or a book or any other kind of story can scare people, so can a RPG. [/QUOTE]
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