D&D 5E The popularity of horror adventures/settings for 5e

[Rystefn]

Horror is probably the only genre that has been hit harder than Sci-fi on the general public only seeing the aesthetics and thinking the aesthetic is the genre. If you look at horror as something invoking not just fear, but a particular type of fear, then D&D almost couldn't be worse at it. If you look at horror as something invoking any actual fear at all, then it's still pretty terrible at it, and always has been. Sure, people might be concerned that their character could die, but I've never seen or heard of a person actually sitting at a table, playing D&D, and actually feeling the emotion of fear for real like a well done film, nook, or whatever can make them do.

But if you want the aesthetic? D&D has you more than covered. What D&D does very well is put scary looking monsters in front of people. It can invoke horror tropes left and right. It can have all the vampires and zombies and blobs and serial killers and anything else of that nature you could ever want. It can have dim lighting and cloudy nights and blood splashed everywhere with the best of them. D&D can pull on those aesthetics all day, every day, and never suffer for it. If that's the aesthetic you want, and it's the aesthetic lots of people want, D&D can serve you endless helpings right out of the box. Leaning into that is not difficult, and it's not surprising that if you combine it with something at all resembling competent adventure design, you're going to get a popular book.

 

[GrimCo]

I had one session which we had to stop, cause it was too much for one of the players. Genuine fear, anxiety and uneasiness . It was unlucky coincidence that the theme of the session just hit it where it hurt. There wasn't graphic descriptions, no blood or violence of any kind. In hindsight, it was poor choice on my part as a DM.

Personally, i want for characters to feel afraid, uneasy, uncomfortable. Not the players.

 

[Hussar]

I have to admit that I struggle with 5e in this way. The party just has SO MANY recourses that they can draw on. So many utility spells/abilities and every time I think, "Aha! This is a good, scary challenge" the players basically say, "nope, we got this covered." D&D as "power fantasy" is a good descriptor IMO.

 

[GrimCo]

I have to admit that I struggle with 5e in this way. The party just has SO MANY recourses that they can draw on. So many utility spells/abilities and every time I think, "Aha! This is a good, scary challenge" the players basically say, "nope, we got this covered." D&D as "power fantasy" is a good descriptor IMO.

Yes. Out of box, characters are just too powerful by the end of Tier1, even first half of Tier2. I run mostly Ravenloft/CoC hybrid and have some house rules that slide the power scale down, but i give my players in universe explanation why things work differently or don't work at all. Also, at session 0 i give all players warning that not all encounters are fair, balanced or winnable and that running away is more often than not smart option.

 

[Zardnaar]

I had one session which we had to stop, cause it was too much for one of the players. Genuine fear, anxiety and uneasiness . It was unlucky coincidence that the theme of the session just hit it where it hurt. There wasn't graphic descriptions, no blood or violence of any kind. In hindsight, it was poor choice on my part as a DM.

Personally, i want for characters to feel afraid, uneasy, uncomfortable. Not the players.

Players afraid are fine as long as they've consented and DM has said that their game will involve horror or may be R16 or 18 if you dont want to spoil a surprise.

Horror doesn't offend me or interest me. CoS caused a bit of shock value as DM didn't know RL was horror so didn't inform the players.

I expected it it's Ravenloft everyone else didn't.

 

[Older Beholder]

One factor working against D&D is familiarity.

If you’re playing with a group who all take turns behind the screen, everyone has a fair idea of what the CR of each monster is and what it’s capable of. It’s one of the joys of playing with people that are new to the game.

That said, you can still use player experience to create fear, as an example you can feel the mood shift in the room among players that know the Monsters Manual when an intellect devourer shows up.

 

[wedgeski]

D&D is a solid platform for any genre but it can only do so much. My longest running campaign has had everything: fantasy, horror, pseudo-sci fi, gumshow detective work, intrigue. It works because it's a melting pot. Only the fantasy monster bashing/dice chucking genre really stands up to scrutiny, but as long as you move on to a new genre before the limitations of the system get in the way, it can do anything to some extent.

On topic, the horror sections of the campaign invariably linger in the players' memories (it helps that one particularly grim sequence ended with one of the PC's brains being sucked out the top of his head!).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Grimdark/horror content is certainly popular on Kickstarter.

Horror is easy. That's why so many horror movies come out every year, even when cinema is in decline.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

That's not a bad way to look at it. Although, I think it's a bit unnecessarily complicated. After all, horror is a speculative fiction story where you are trying to scare the audience. The only real difference between horror and, say, fantasy, is horror is trying to be scary and fantasy isn't. Nor is SF. I tend to look at it more like a triangle with each sub-genre at the points and most stories falling somewhere in between.

Not all horror stories are speculative fiction. Slasher movies for example are set in the present time and often don't have any supernatural elements.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

horror is trying to be scary and fantasy isn't.

I don't know about that. My partner has nightmares about the orc horde in The Two Towers.

But if we have a monster, it is supposed to be scary, irrespective of genre. If it's not scary it's not very heroic to kill it. The difference between D&D and horror is that horror protagonists lack the skills to fight monsters.

I mean, look at Die Hard. Hans Gruber is a scary mass-murderer who can kill any number of heavily armed cops. Only the player character can defeat him. Drop John McLane into Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it's "yippee ki yay Leatherface".