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Unpopular Opinion?: D&D is a terrible venue for horror
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8100006" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>Horror and terror are different things, though. I agree with most of what you're saying re: terror, but horror needs more of a realization of how screwed you are, rather than just "AHHHH I DONT KNOW WHATS GOING ON AND ITS BAD!!!!" which is basically what terror amounts to (I love terror, of course). Horror is more "I know what's going on, approximately, but I don't like it, and I don't know how to deal with it, and it keeps getting worse".</p><p></p><p>Like, I once managed to evoke tremendous horror just by describing a giant's castle in a lot of detail, and emphasizing how much bigger everything was than the PCs. They weren't confused, I wasn't delaying reveals, or even making them wonder what was around the corner - they knew what was going on and were relatively safe in their invisible exploring, but it was sufficiently upsetting that they became horrified anyway, and had things gone pear-shaped (which was unlikely but possible), they knew they were totally stuffed, which helped reinforce the horror.</p><p></p><p>Whereas terror is more like this tomb they were exploring once where bizarre things kept happening and they couldn't make sense of it, and whilst they didn't die or take damage or anything, it was just perplexing and threatening. And it all derailed and went to 0 terror the moment they worked out how it was all working.</p><p></p><p>Mechanics can rarely support terror, but they can definitely support horror, because knowing the potential consequences and being concerned they will occur is a big part of horror.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 8100006, member: 18"] Horror and terror are different things, though. I agree with most of what you're saying re: terror, but horror needs more of a realization of how screwed you are, rather than just "AHHHH I DONT KNOW WHATS GOING ON AND ITS BAD!!!!" which is basically what terror amounts to (I love terror, of course). Horror is more "I know what's going on, approximately, but I don't like it, and I don't know how to deal with it, and it keeps getting worse". Like, I once managed to evoke tremendous horror just by describing a giant's castle in a lot of detail, and emphasizing how much bigger everything was than the PCs. They weren't confused, I wasn't delaying reveals, or even making them wonder what was around the corner - they knew what was going on and were relatively safe in their invisible exploring, but it was sufficiently upsetting that they became horrified anyway, and had things gone pear-shaped (which was unlikely but possible), they knew they were totally stuffed, which helped reinforce the horror. Whereas terror is more like this tomb they were exploring once where bizarre things kept happening and they couldn't make sense of it, and whilst they didn't die or take damage or anything, it was just perplexing and threatening. And it all derailed and went to 0 terror the moment they worked out how it was all working. Mechanics can rarely support terror, but they can definitely support horror, because knowing the potential consequences and being concerned they will occur is a big part of horror. [/QUOTE]
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