Making Modern Communication Work in Horror Games

[Autumnal]

Modern technology is great for horror. See Mike Flanagan’s movie Oculus for a laundry list of swipable moments. Phone calls and web searches that gradually reveal themselves to be all wrong are favorite effects of mine. Characters can experience right in the middle of a familiar city, and even more so if the geometry starts getting weird.

 

[bloodtide]

The big thing about a phone call is that you might not want help. If the characters are anything other then say teenagers at summer camp, then calling for help is not at the top of the list. Even if they "need" help.

For example if the characters are Cryptoid Bounty Hunters, the last thing they want to do is call the cops/FBI/whatever and have them take the bounty.

This is also true of a basic revenge plot. If the character wants to kill the werewolf that killed his wife, he sure does not want to get that werewolf arrested.

In a general sense, if the world has any Men in Black or Supernatural Hunters or other such secret group....they likely monitor things like phone calls for when people say things like "I saw an Alien at Crystal Lake".

From the meta game side, calling for help also ends the game. Like some creature is in the woods. So a character calls the cops and like 100 cops show up...zzzzzz. Ok, game over, well who wants to play some UNO?

Of course, also the typical "local cop help" can't always help all that much. When a Terminator T-Z28 blows up your house...you call 911 sure. And when they show up the Terminator can kill them too.....
-----
Information does not really end a game or a plot. It is normal for it to be the first step to a climax.

Some sort of 'ghost wolf' attacks your home. You have no idea what it is. But then in Act 2, you run in to the Local Oracle....er...I mean Old Man Farmer McGee, who just happens to know everything about the Gholf...... But, ok, in 2025 you just read it on the internet and don't have to "somehow bump into an oracle".

Also the "good stuff" is often not on-line.

And worse...are the anti-experts. The characters type in 'ghost wolf' in a search and find the United Society of Ghost Wolf Boys. Wow, they have pages of information........................................that is all made up. They just write random articles to get clicks and try to ride on the local legend.

Information can be quite dangerous.....worse as the average player thinks "whatever random information my character hears is 100% true". But that is just silly.......

 

[MGibster]

You know what's scary? A computer virus. Any number of bad things could come from it.

Again with Delta Green, there's a scenario that involves someone programming a device with some code derived from "spells" which wreaks havoc. The device didn't have a conscience or anything, but when it read that code bad things would happen.

There are some games that do take into account devices. In Vampire 5th edition, the Second Inquisition has made good use of the internet and cellphones to kill a good number of vampires. Schrecknet, the dark web network run by the Nosferatu, was compromised and it cost many vampires dearly. A lot of older vamps are terrified of cellphones and computers and they've gone back to old school spy techniques like dead drops for communication. My players didn't concern themselves and continued to use cellphones, I had the 2nd Inquisition use those phones to track them down.

 

[MGibster]

From the meta game side, calling for help also ends the game. Like some creature is in the woods. So a character calls the cops and like 100 cops show up...zzzzzz. Ok, game over, well who wants to play some UNO?

So I'll bring up Delta Green again. The prime directives for a DG agent are to avoid being caught and contain the threat. Coming into contact with "hypergeometry" is known to spread the problem around. Calling in the proper authorities who are ill equipped to deal with the threat might just widen the scope of the threat. Your characters need to handle this.

Information does not really end a game or a plot. It is normal for it to be the first step to a climax.

Bingo. That's why I think it's a great tool to propel the plot forward. I do think some people view computers as magical devices from which you can learn everything, but that just isn't the case, and shouldn't be used to circumvent the plot.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In older movies, you’d occasionally have a situation where one person would try to call the authorities, only to have them show up and be antagonistic to the protagonists. Not just in terms of disbelief or possible arrest, but actually compromised by the threat. See Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Empire of the Ants. More than one time, someone would even warn, “HANG UP! They’re tracing you!”

Well, that possibility STILL exists with cellphones, and it’s even more accurate. Instead of tracing a number to a building or street corner, they’re reading the cell tower pings to track the individual caller in real time.

 

[payn]

There is a lot of ways to make cell phones unreliable or faulty. The PC calls the cops and two things are likely to have happened. Either the horror manifests and kills the character and the cops are too late, or the cops show up and there isnt a shred of evidence anything is out of place. "Maybe you were wrong." "Perhaps you are just under a lot of stress". Nothing is afoul and the character looks like a fool.

Alternatively, the cell phone becomes a liability. Character is being tracked by the phone and continued use is going to get them caught.