D&D General Unpopular Opinion?: D&D is a terrible venue for horror

[cmad1977]

I agree with you. In truth, I don't find it very useful to quibble overly much over whether or not something fits into a specific genre and that is especially true when we're talking about something so broad as science fiction, fantasy, or horror. And we've all been around that guy who insists Star Wars is science fantasy and gets bent out of shape whenever someone says sci-fi instead of science fiction. I am perfectly comfortable with labeling Ravenloft and its derivatives and adaptations as horror.

And Curse of Strahd did have at least one terrible encounter that made some of my players uncomfortable.

Spoiler

The priest who trapped his son in the basement of the church after Strahd turned him into a vampire hoping to find a cure. When I ran the game, I had the son pleading with his father to set him free, asking what he had done to deserve such abuse, and complaining that he was so hungry. The son wasn't at all hostile until the PCs went into the basement to kill him. If anyone doesn't react with horror to a situation where you're killing someone's son in front of them you've got ice in your veins.

Jeez. Not to mention the child stealing/baking witches who serve kid muffins to barovia. Among other things!

 

[MGibster]

Jeez. Not to mention the child stealing/baking witches who serve kid muffins to barovia. Among other things!

Don't cannibal-shame me. If you know of a better way to serve brunch I'd sure like to hear it!

 

[Aldarc]

Most of games that people have mentioned having exposure to in this thread (including games like Vampire, Mutants and Masterminds, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun and Savage Worlds) are what I would call kissing cousins to Modern D&D (late 2e going forward). They share incredibly play loops, GM and player priorities, and structural organization.

Do not get me wrong. The technical details of mainstream games absolutely matter, but structurally they are so similar that many people feel they do not get enough of a different experience for the juice to be worth the squeeze. I think this where most people's sense of system not mattering comes from. Most experiences of roleplaying games come from games where system matters in exactly the same way.

I would also be interested in reading a post where you compare and contrast TTRPGs that lie outside of this normative form of play.

 

[Remathilis]

Jeez. Not to mention the child stealing/baking witches who serve kid muffins to barovia. Among other things!

Actually, I don't find that to be all that remarkable. It's shocking, but all it does in game is give PCs carte blanche to destroy them. The only true horror is off a PC partakes in eating one before knowing the truth.

Now, if the witches were perhaps the only source of meat to a starving village and the PCs had to face the consequences of killing the witches and watching the village starve to death, you have some bonafide horror going on. As it is, it's just a good excuse for the paladin to smite for right!

 

[Voadam]

The only true horror is off a PC partakes in eating one before knowing the truth.

Half the party in my group before I joined.

 

[TheSword]

Actually, I don't find that to be all that remarkable. It's shocking, but all it does in game is give PCs carte blanche to destroy them. The only true horror is off a PC partakes in eating one before knowing the truth.

Now, if the witches were perhaps the only source of meat to a starving village and the PCs had to face the consequences of killing the witches and watching the village starve to death, you have some bonafide horror going on. As it is, it's just a good excuse for the paladin to smite for right!

Most adventures arrive at a village at the start of an adventure and get given a quest to help them out. In this campaign the villagers are selling their children for addictive dream pies if it’s played properly it’s a great backdrop. We had eerie music box music playing as she pushed the cart. Anyone who finds the situation unremarkable is very jaded.

 

[Remathilis]

Half the party in my group before I joined.

My group are full of twitchy mother gooses; only one was crazy enough to buy a meat pie in Barovia.

 

[Voadam]

Also had one PC get werewolf infected without knowing it. The reveal as relayed to me later was fantastic. "What do you mean I wake up covered in blood?"