Widow's Bay and Horror Campaigns

[nyvinter]

Oh, since Fate Accelerated was mentioned: perhaps a Cortex Prime variant. Approaches, relationships, and distinctions as prime. Specialities and stress hooked onto approaches.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, if you want to put fear and tension in the game and are willing to off the players one by one, the Dread is your game. Nothing else makes people nervous as when the Jenga tower starts getting iffy and your character's life is on the line. But that is more survival horror.

No. Widows Bay is a comedy horror with a low body count and plot armor for the main characters.

And it’s not his own life that the main protagonist is concerned for.

 

[Reynard]

No. Widows Bay is a comedy horror with a low body count and plot armor for the main characters.

And it’s not his own life that the main protagonist is concerned for.

emphasis mine

Widow's Bay is funny at times, and its characters are quirky, but I don't think it qualifies as a comedy: the stakes are (literally) deadly serious, and the real power is in deep tragedy suffered by the characters.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

emphasis mine

Widow's Bay is funny at times, and its characters are quirky, but I don't think it qualifies as a comedy: the stakes are (literally) deadly serious, and the real power is in deep tragedy suffered by the characters.

It’s listed as a comedy in the listings. All the reviewers describe it as a comedy. Something doesn’t have to be constant pratfalls or without stakes to be a comedy.

 

[Sossij]

It’s listed as a comedy in the listings. All the reviewers describe it as a comedy. Something doesn’t have to be constant pratfalls or without stakes to be a comedy.

Yes, but you know, I'm past episode 8 and it very frequently just plain isn't comedy. It has deliberate comedic moments but they are very far from the norm as the show progresses. Some episodes (like 6) don't have a single moment I would describe as comedic. If you and the whole village tell me something is an apple, but it's clearly an orange, you will have to excuse me if I ignore you.

I mean, I just watched the Boroughs and it has plenty of comedic moments, but nobody is saying that's a comedy.

 

[Maxperson]

I would dispute the idea that Widows Bay is only psychological horror. The back half of the season makes it clear that the monsters are very real and a physical threat. Indeed, you can find a sea hag and a relentless slasher in the D&D rules.

And D&D handles comedy horror much better than CoC and any other horror RPG I’m familiar with, which tend to be seriously humourless.

The humor doesn't have to be in the system, but rather in the presentation during gameplay. CoC would be a good system for representing the threats we see in Widow's Bay. The humor would come in how those threats interact with the populace and PCs, and between the populace and PCs themselves.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes, but you know, I'm past episode 8 and it very frequently just plain isn't comedy. It has deliberate comedic moments but they are very far from the norm as the show progresses. Some episodes (like 6) don't have a single moment I would describe as comedic. If you and the whole village tell me something is an apple, but it's clearly an orange, you will have to excuse me if I ignore you.

I mean, I just watched the Boroughs and it has plenty of comedic moments, but nobody is saying that's a comedy.

There is plenty of comedy, all the way through to the final episode. Episode 8 is a straight slasher parody, the joke being that the “final girl” is a middle aged woman who totters around town in a very slow chase. Just because you don’t get the joke doesn’t mean it’s not a comedy.

 

[payn]

I havent seen Widows Bay yet, but I did see Shining Vale which is great and been compared as similar. Shining Vale has a lot of psychological horror, but its also comedic at times and dramatic at others. Id say it contains multitudes. I've had zero issue running games like that in Monster of the week, CoC, etc.. Even though I could maybe kinda shoehorn D&D into it, I absolutely wouldn't.

 

[VashVet]

This exclusive categorization thing (It’s a comedy! No, it isn’t!) is just weird.

 

[Sossij]

There is plenty of comedy, all the way through to the final episode. Episode 8 is a straight slasher parody, the joke being that the “final girl” is a middle aged woman who totters around town in a very slow chase.

Oh yes. I agree on Episode 8. I also, while acknowledging it is comedy A) didn't think it was very funny (just my opinion), and B) felt that not only is not standard for the series, but in fact straight up felt out of place compared to most of what I saw.

Just because you don’t get the joke doesn’t mean it’s not a comedy.

As I even mentioned in my post you quoted, I acknowledge there is some deliberate comedy. But it's not consistent. There's some very good black humor especially in the beginning that I enjoyed very much, but it dropped off quickly. And there's, as you point out, the slasher episode. But I feel like the majority of the show is straight up horror, although with a fair amount of comedy mixed in. Insulting me isn't really conducive to having a discussion.

Maybe I should just go with VashVet above and not try to pigeonhole it. I think the mix is way more comedy than horror, but we can agree to disagree.

EDIT: And I haven't seen the last two episodes so maybe there's stuff that will change my opinion.