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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MGibster" data-source="post: 9692680" data-attributes="member: 4534">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.</blockquote>

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