What makes a successful horror game?
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Ruin Explorer
Legend
MGibster
Legend
This is a really big question because there are so many different types of horror stories. Let's start with actually trying to define horror as a genre. A horror story seeks to induce fear, dread, or even disgust in its audience by tapping into their anxieties. When it comes to genre, whether we're talking science fiction, romance, fantasy, etc., etc., I tend to take a very broad view, largely because it's not worth anyone's time to debate whether something really should be classified in that particular genre. (Those of you who have argued with someone who insists Alien or Star Wars aren't science fiction will understand where I'm coming from.)
Tension is the number one ingredient for a good horror game and I'm not talking about rules for sanity or even scaring the players themselves (trying to scare your players is a sucker's game). There are a lot of ways to build tension including adding time constraints, subverting expectations, and of course having the players deal with the unknown. I participated in a Night's Black Agents campaign, The Dracula Dossier, and we never quite knew the extend of a particular vampire's abilities nor could we be sure we when we were dealing with vampire thralls or regular humans. It really meant we agonized over a lot of our choices. Do we go in and try to kill the vampire now or wait until we have more information? What about all these innocent people dying while we gather information?
There is a world of difference between playing Call of Cthulhu with new people who don't know what a Deep One is and someone who has played the game for years.
Tension is the number one ingredient for a good horror game and I'm not talking about rules for sanity or even scaring the players themselves (trying to scare your players is a sucker's game). There are a lot of ways to build tension including adding time constraints, subverting expectations, and of course having the players deal with the unknown. I participated in a Night's Black Agents campaign, The Dracula Dossier, and we never quite knew the extend of a particular vampire's abilities nor could we be sure we when we were dealing with vampire thralls or regular humans. It really meant we agonized over a lot of our choices. Do we go in and try to kill the vampire now or wait until we have more information? What about all these innocent people dying while we gather information?
There is a world of difference between playing Call of Cthulhu with new people who don't know what a Deep One is and someone who has played the game for years.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
Yes this. This is what I would say is indeed the main factor, based on having played in a number of much more successful horror games recently.
Indeed, and this is also why I was pushing back on powerlessness a bit, because my experience is that unless "powerlessness" is very carefully managed, it can easily deflate tension in a TTRPG in a way it wouldn't necessarily in a horror movie or book. Part of what maintains tension is the perception of the possibility of success, the possibility of escape.
That's one of the reasons why I find like, non-specific-mythos horror games often are more effective as horror than ones with a specific mythos/lore. Mothership again, does well here because the horror could be basically any wild sci-fi thing (in sci-fantasy potentially), you just don't know before you get into it.
nyvinter
Adventurer
I'm very much in the player buy-in, tension, and atmosphere camp. Lethality? No, then meatgrinders would be horrific but as they've shown, you can just make a new character so after a while you (read: I) stop caring.
Sanity? Almost all of them are about removing agency from the players and it gets very camp fast if players are told to "act mad." I do really like the gauges in Unknown Armies because it's just not one so it's multifaceted, and even when you're broken you don't turn into an NPC You maintain your agency, everything just get harder until you get therapy. And it's also why the loss of pillars of stability in Gumshoe feels worse than the sanity loss.
Which ties into the other thing: common people. Playing common people is not a necessity but it does help buy-in. Which is why luck in CoC 7 gives more tension than sanity loss, and why the skills help you stay grounded and buy into the horror. Calling CoC a mystery game isn't wrong though, both it and Chill are period Hammer Horrors first.
Sanity? Almost all of them are about removing agency from the players and it gets very camp fast if players are told to "act mad." I do really like the gauges in Unknown Armies because it's just not one so it's multifaceted, and even when you're broken you don't turn into an NPC You maintain your agency, everything just get harder until you get therapy. And it's also why the loss of pillars of stability in Gumshoe feels worse than the sanity loss.
Which ties into the other thing: common people. Playing common people is not a necessity but it does help buy-in. Which is why luck in CoC 7 gives more tension than sanity loss, and why the skills help you stay grounded and buy into the horror. Calling CoC a mystery game isn't wrong though, both it and Chill are period Hammer Horrors first.
Autumnal
Bruce Baugh, Writer of Fortune
My arguing with Fred Hicks about powerlessness was a substantial part of the Fate Horror Toolkit existing, so count me as another voice against it as being essential. I follow author, editor, and critic David Hartwell as thinking of horror not as a genre of its own but as a mode you can use when telling stories in any genre.
One crucial element is the presence of a transgression, a thing that ought not be. It might be supernatural, but it can also be a moral transgression - a serial killer, a polluter and destroyer of water supplies, someone who uses their command of some essential resource to make others their dependent subjects. It’s how you approach the subject.
One crucial element is the presence of a transgression, a thing that ought not be. It might be supernatural, but it can also be a moral transgression - a serial killer, a polluter and destroyer of water supplies, someone who uses their command of some essential resource to make others their dependent subjects. It’s how you approach the subject.
Hmmmm. This will be an unpopular opinion, perhaps, but here it is.
What makes a successful horror game is the GM and players. Especially the GM.
The mechanics of the game? They can help. I've run Ten Candles several times (and once had an IRON DM entry based on it) and the mechanics of the game are perfect for certain types of horror. But all the mechanical support in the world mean nothing if you don't have the right GM and, to a necessary but lesser extent, players. Let me explain-
TTRPGs are a game. Horror doesn't work well with an emphasis on the gamified parts. Because it's about mood and tension. There are mechanics that can support it (the jenga tower in dread, insanity points, the candles in Ten Candles, etc.). But to get and sustain the proper mood, you need a GM who uses description (story) and pacing to evoke horror. That's a requirement. And not every GM is equally willing or able to do that.
If that's abstract, let me be specific. Take D&D. If you encounter zombies, what happens can be horrific, or it can be a "alright, time to roll initiative" encounter. And that will depend on the DM- the narrative, the pacing, the atmosphere that has nothing to do with the mechanics. Mechanics can support horror, but in the end, the GM must deliver.
But while that is necessary, it is never sufficient. You also need players that have buy-in. The players have to want to believe. They have to suspend their disbelief that this is just a game, and really invest in the horror. If the players aren't willing or able to buy in, it isn't going to work.
What makes a successful horror game is the GM and players. Especially the GM.
The mechanics of the game? They can help. I've run Ten Candles several times (and once had an IRON DM entry based on it) and the mechanics of the game are perfect for certain types of horror. But all the mechanical support in the world mean nothing if you don't have the right GM and, to a necessary but lesser extent, players. Let me explain-
TTRPGs are a game. Horror doesn't work well with an emphasis on the gamified parts. Because it's about mood and tension. There are mechanics that can support it (the jenga tower in dread, insanity points, the candles in Ten Candles, etc.). But to get and sustain the proper mood, you need a GM who uses description (story) and pacing to evoke horror. That's a requirement. And not every GM is equally willing or able to do that.
If that's abstract, let me be specific. Take D&D. If you encounter zombies, what happens can be horrific, or it can be a "alright, time to roll initiative" encounter. And that will depend on the DM- the narrative, the pacing, the atmosphere that has nothing to do with the mechanics. Mechanics can support horror, but in the end, the GM must deliver.
But while that is necessary, it is never sufficient. You also need players that have buy-in. The players have to want to believe. They have to suspend their disbelief that this is just a game, and really invest in the horror. If the players aren't willing or able to buy in, it isn't going to work.
MGibster
Legend
Oh, yeah. If you're just going to die or fail there's no tension and most horror scenarios are designed so your characters have a chance of success.
I was going to mention something about being in the right mindset. How many of us played Vampire in the 90s as a bunch of angsty teenagers running around in black trench coats armed with Desert Eagles and katanas? That totally killed any horror vibe.
Player buy-in is usually the most difficult part though I've had good luck these last few years. I've seen players in investigative horror games do everything they can not to participate. The type of person who won't read tomes and their first reaction to finding a haunted house is to burn it down. We had an Esoterrorist campaign end poorly because the player just didn't want to treat a situation involving the spirit of his brother seriously, treating it with flippant disinterest.
Thondor
I run Compose Dream Games RPG Marketplace
I've seen some mechanic's that specifically represent/gameify tension in RPGs:
Dread's Jenga Tower -- you pull when you need to do something it falls, you probably die, and the tension resets for everyone else. This one didn't work particularly well for me when I got to play it, but it is interesting (I think it can be hard for the GM to adjudicate good times to make you pull.)
SHIVER (Parable Games) has a "doom clock" that ticks up, and spawns "doom events" at certain thresholds. I've found this pretty effective when I have run it. Players have some agency to tick back the clock too. (It also has fear checks -- any PC failing ticks up the doom clock, and moves them from "stable" into "afraid" or "terrified.")
The doom clock is a nice visual representation of tension -- the "Director's Screen" has a clock along the top that you can move a marker along.
Free Spacer (Random Alien Games) -- not typically a horror game, but you can run it that way. It has a complication pool that the GM can use to increase the threat against the players. Just representing that pool with a stack of poker chips and having it slowly grow towards the climax of the game can be quite effective in providing tension.
These all have a visual element that shows the tension during play.
Weirdly adjacent thought -- The Warren -- a pbta game of "normal" rabbits who can just talk to other animals, has a panic mechanic that works great. I never felt like it was a horror game though. Probably down to the style of how it tends to be run. I mean if you were humans who had been turned into rabbits . . .
Dread's Jenga Tower -- you pull when you need to do something it falls, you probably die, and the tension resets for everyone else. This one didn't work particularly well for me when I got to play it, but it is interesting (I think it can be hard for the GM to adjudicate good times to make you pull.)
SHIVER (Parable Games) has a "doom clock" that ticks up, and spawns "doom events" at certain thresholds. I've found this pretty effective when I have run it. Players have some agency to tick back the clock too. (It also has fear checks -- any PC failing ticks up the doom clock, and moves them from "stable" into "afraid" or "terrified.")
The doom clock is a nice visual representation of tension -- the "Director's Screen" has a clock along the top that you can move a marker along.
Free Spacer (Random Alien Games) -- not typically a horror game, but you can run it that way. It has a complication pool that the GM can use to increase the threat against the players. Just representing that pool with a stack of poker chips and having it slowly grow towards the climax of the game can be quite effective in providing tension.
These all have a visual element that shows the tension during play.
Weirdly adjacent thought -- The Warren -- a pbta game of "normal" rabbits who can just talk to other animals, has a panic mechanic that works great. I never felt like it was a horror game though. Probably down to the style of how it tends to be run. I mean if you were humans who had been turned into rabbits . . .
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