D&D General How do you do horror when running D&D?

[Rechan]

This isn’t how to run a spooky game but how to do so with the D20 system itself.

Edit: I do not need tips on how to run a horror game, I am struggling with the rules getting in the way.

I want to run a horror campaign, and I feel like D&D is my only Real option because finding players for any other system is Tough. And horror is a small genre so I need all the chances I can.

But I feel that D&D is a poor system for horror because characters are so powerful. Even 1st level PCs have a lot of strength on their side, with spells and damage that can put a hurt on what they’re dealing with. Part of horror is feeling like you are at incredible risk, that you don’t have much of a chance of survival, but characters are hard to kill, and I think I’d be. To kill someone to demonstrate that fighting is risky as hell. It is the difference between dropping Joe Schmo into a horror movie vs trained soldiers. And then there s magic. Undead are just no as scary if you have a cleric, etc.

Also some mechanics feel clunky. The grapple rules for instance.

 

[Quickleaf]

I think it depends on the genre of horror. Gothic horror and Body horror are definitely possible, for instance.

The only horror genre I think is terribly ill-suited to D&D is Cosmic horror, just because the genre assumptions (humans as inconsequential) are at odds with the zero-to-hero of D&D.

It sounds like for you a horror game should inspire an enjoyable sense of anxiety in the players that their PCs are going to die. In that case, I think your move is easy: Design really hard asymmetric encounters & use nasty monsters like shadows which circumvent HP or boneclaws which lurk in the darkness and can kill on an ambush.

EDIT: Just remembered, I once incorporated a version of the Jenga tower (as used in the Dread RPG) in a one-shot 5e Halloween game, and it worked great to build suspense. Basically any time a player said "I open" or "I check it out" or "I explore", and so forth, I had them draw from the tower. If they drew without incident, then they found a clue. If the tower wobbled but stayed intact, I introduced ominous foreshadowing. And if the tower collapsed, then I sprung the monster on them.

 

[iserith]

I agree that D&D 5e isn't good for horror. The PCs are too heroic and the implied setting too gonzo. I'd look to other systems for this.

Now if you want to do a B-horror movie kind of game that doesn't take itself too seriously, D&D 5e works great. I've run Ravenloft in that style before and it's great fun.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Since PCs in D&D are supposed to be empowered, I find that horror works best as a sprinkling in and not the main attraction or for only short bits at a time. I'll include body horror elements into the descriptions of custom monsters, or have NPCs describe monster attacks as horror stories. But I don't try to go all the way to make the players feel helpless. At least not on purpose anyway...

 

[Nebulous]

This isn’t how to run a spooky game but how to do so with the D20 system itself.

I want to run a horror campaign, and I feel like D&D is my only Real option because finding players for any other system is Tough. And horror is a small genre so I need all the chances I can.

But I feel that D&D is a poor system for horror because characters are so powerful. Even 1st level PCs have a lot of strength on their side, with spells and damage that can put a hurt on what they’re dealing with. Part of horror is feeling like you are at incredible risk, that you don’t have much of a chance of survival, but characters are hard to kill, and I think I’d be. To kill someone to demonstrate that fighting is risky as hell. It is the difference between dropping Joe Schmo into a horror movie vs trained soldiers. And then there s magic. Undead are just no as scary if you have a cleric, etc.

Also some mechanics feel clunky. The grapple rules for instance.

Have you looked at Call of Cthulhu? It's probably the second most popular RPG out there, second only to D&D, and it handles horror pretty damn perfectly. It's not d20 but in many ways it is better than d20, especially when it comes to the skill system, which frankly, i think is botched in 5e.

Or were you looking specifically for d20 FANTASY horror? Shadow of the Demon Lord is a game of dark fantasy that might do that.

 

[generic]

Have you looked at Call of Cthulhu? It's probably the second most popular RPG out there, second only to D&D, and it handles horror pretty damn perfectly. It's not d20 but in many ways it is better than d20, especially when it comes to the skill system, which frankly, i think is botched in 5e.

Or were you looking specifically for d20 FANTASY horror? Shadow of the Demon Lord is a game of dark fantasy that might do that.

Isn't Pathfinder 1E the second most popular?

 

[Nebulous]

Isn't Pathfinder 1E the second most popular?

Hard to say exactly, but I think I saw on Roll20 statistics that Cthulhu was higher than Pathfinder as far as online games. But both PF and CoC are high up there.

 

[generic]

Hard to say exactly, but I think I saw on Roll20 statistics that Cthulhu was higher than Pathfinder as far as online games.

That makes sense to me, as far as game distribution.

I have found that games which are less played in person, especially more niche games, do much better on Roll20. D&D is the exception.

If you look at raw player numbers, I suspect that Pathfinder 1E was a bit higher.

 

[Nebulous]

If you look at raw player numbers, I suspect that Pathfinder 1E was a bit higher.

All I can find is this 2019 Q3 specs:

http://blog.roll20.net/posts/the-orr-group-industry-report-q3-2019-here/

As for actual PnP games, who knows, I don't think that can be accurately measured.

 

[generic]

All I can find is this 2019 Q3 specs:

http://blog.roll20.net/posts/the-orr-group-industry-report-q3-2019-here/

As for actual PnP games, who knows, I don't think that can be accurately measured.

Yes, of course, the PnP games can't really be measured.

Actually, I'm elated to learn that an original system ranked higher than a game which began as a 3.5 clone.