Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Why don't you want your players doing dumb things (within the game, I assume)?
If players never did dumb things RPGing would be a lot less fun.
On Running a Horror Game
If players never did dumb things RPGing would be a lot less fun.
overgeeked
B/X Known World
The characters doing dumb things in the game because they’re scared is great. The players at your table doing dumb things because they’re scared is dangerous.
loverdrive
Prophet of the profane (She/Her)
My first advice would be: there's only so much GM can do. Horror is everyone's job, and if the players don't actively want to be scared, they won't be.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Some really good advice I once picked up from the internet was to write each scene using a Four categories model of:
Hope -> Dread -> Horror -> Terror -> Hope
Then you can change things up
Terror -> Hope -> Horror (something grabs you in the dark, you manage to kill it, then when the lights go on you see that you've murdered a child.)
Dread -> Hope (You are approaching the spooky hut of the local witch, covered in demonic symbols and grisly trinkets. Inside the Witch is a kind, helpful woman whose trinkets are protective, she wants to stop the antagonist too and is willing to help.)
Hope -> Terror (You are back in the school house, with your teacher Miss Annie patting your hair, you turn and see Miss Annie staring down hungrily with blackened shattered eyes)
- DREAD: Dread is anticipation. It is the distant howl in the night, the scratching at the door, the eerie lights, the bloody hand print. Its about atmosphere and feeling, cues that lay in the subtle feeling of wrongness and rising paranoia in players
- HORROR: Horror is a realization. Reading the ‘truth’ in the skin-covered book, walking into the house and seeing that something has brutally dismembered your family pet, discovering the room with the corpses, seeing the creature.
- TERROR: Terror is a confrontation. Its when the thing bursts through the door, chases you down the long narrow corridor and leaps on your back. Terror is the hardest to do with friends sitting around a table rolling dice.
- HOPE: Hope is relief. It's the release valve to prevent players from getting fatigued. Getting into the safe room, seeing the light of the sunrise, Killing the monster and finding your family barricaded in the closet is hope.
Hope -> Dread -> Horror -> Terror -> Hope
Then you can change things up
Terror -> Hope -> Horror (something grabs you in the dark, you manage to kill it, then when the lights go on you see that you've murdered a child.)
Dread -> Hope (You are approaching the spooky hut of the local witch, covered in demonic symbols and grisly trinkets. Inside the Witch is a kind, helpful woman whose trinkets are protective, she wants to stop the antagonist too and is willing to help.)
Hope -> Terror (You are back in the school house, with your teacher Miss Annie patting your hair, you turn and see Miss Annie staring down hungrily with blackened shattered eyes)
overgeeked
B/X Known World
That sounds like a summary of Orson Scott Card’s essay, but I don’t remember the hope angle being there. Still, good advice.
This is a pretty solid summation/framework, and plausibly useful for people writing horror.
"There is no delight the equal of dread." -- Clive Barker
And...
I'd agree with Umbran here. The player's don't have to go looking for danger, the danger will come looking for them whether they want it to or not. In fact, that makes it more frightening because despite the characters best intentions, where they thought they were safe, they were in fact not.
Horror is about survival first and foremost, and if that means killing/defeating the bad guy to do it (if possible) then so be it. Horror is one of the few genres left where PC's should be regular humans without any kind of extra powers. Maybe they might be some bad hombre ex-Spec Ops type, but against the horror that may barely be enough. To be frightening, mortality of the characters must be ever-present.
It’s only been touched on a little bit, but manipulating the gaming environment can accentuate the vibe, and sometimes, that pays dividends.
So, removing something like a plushie Cthulhu from the room takes away a visual reassuring cue. Dimming the lights (a little) if possible can ratchet up unease…especially if you can do so by remote control.
My fave? Appropriate music and/or SFX. I own some natural sound CDs with things like swamp sounds or thunderstorms that came in handy for helping set the tone. And once, Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave” came on just as the D&D party hit a graveyard- completely coincidentally, but it still made the players a bit more on edge.
That experience led me to use Kodo’s “The Hunted”* as background music to an encounter where the party (D&D again) had been stripped naked and told they were going to be hunted for sport as a reward for being brave and capable warriors when their ship was attacked ad they were taken hostage…unlike the crew. They were captured and rotisseried. Their only hope for survival was making it to the other side of the island hunting preserve. To spice the hunt up a bit, their gear was scattered around the jungle for them to find.
The party was released and given a head start. Kodo’s song signaled the beginning of the hunting. When I pressed “Play” and the music started, one player noticed the change, “Does my character hear that?”
“Yes, you ALL do.”
“That’s the signal the hunt has begun?”
“Yes.”
The players’ reactions were better than I could have imagined: voice pitch & volume went up, people talked more rapidly, people talked over each other and even got testy. It was a genuine stress reaction.
*
Doing it again, I might use this instead:
So, removing something like a plushie Cthulhu from the room takes away a visual reassuring cue. Dimming the lights (a little) if possible can ratchet up unease…especially if you can do so by remote control.
My fave? Appropriate music and/or SFX. I own some natural sound CDs with things like swamp sounds or thunderstorms that came in handy for helping set the tone. And once, Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave” came on just as the D&D party hit a graveyard- completely coincidentally, but it still made the players a bit more on edge.
That experience led me to use Kodo’s “The Hunted”* as background music to an encounter where the party (D&D again) had been stripped naked and told they were going to be hunted for sport as a reward for being brave and capable warriors when their ship was attacked ad they were taken hostage…unlike the crew. They were captured and rotisseried. Their only hope for survival was making it to the other side of the island hunting preserve. To spice the hunt up a bit, their gear was scattered around the jungle for them to find.
The party was released and given a head start. Kodo’s song signaled the beginning of the hunting. When I pressed “Play” and the music started, one player noticed the change, “Does my character hear that?”
“Yes, you ALL do.”
“That’s the signal the hunt has begun?”
“Yes.”
The players’ reactions were better than I could have imagined: voice pitch & volume went up, people talked more rapidly, people talked over each other and even got testy. It was a genuine stress reaction.
*
Doing it again, I might use this instead:
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This type of game is quite enjoyable to players that can let go and let themselves be immersed in the horror.
I don't see how it's "Dangerous" , It can be quite fun and enjoyable...
Japanese Taiko music has the exact opposite effect on me. Like bagpipe music, it makes me want to go out and beat on something
And as a total aside, if you're into Japanese Taiko, check out Yamato. Like Kodo, they live in a little commune and eat, sleep, and practice taiko basically 24/7. Unlike Kodo, they are a bit more "modern" I guess is the best word. I have had the great fortune of seeing both groups perform live, and I liked Yamato more.
When you hear them perform live, you don't just hear the drums...you feel them. I can totally see why the Japanese would use them as battle music.
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