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So, I've been kind of pleased with myself and how my last game went. Probably too pleased, considering that it went good considering that I'm rusty and poorly prepared. Still, the hesitation in my thoughts, the catching of my breath, looking too hard into the darkness to catch a hint of movement and most of all, the wonder and supposition that goes into the stories that I find frightening are what drives me to try to instill those feelings into my writing or god hep us all, a role-playing session.
You know what's really terrifying about that last sentence though? The commas. I actually took some out before I decided it was done. I should work on economy of word.
Have I talked about horror in rpgs on here yet? I don't think I have. So. There are a couple of things that I know about fear in myself because I've thought about it quite a lot. In real life, it's enough just to be put in a situation you don't know how to act in where there are ramifications to your actions or where you stand a chance of being acted upon by someone else. Anything from meeting new people to being stalked by a knife-wielding psycho in an ally way. Fear in movies and books are different. Movies tend to rely on the easy visual scares, sudden movements, gore. These things really are frightening, you know? Or they can be. But they're intellectually easy, and once we become visually inured to the sight of blood on a screen, filmmakers have to continue to escalate the violence before we react.
My speculation is that this is because horror is based on empathy for others in media. The more disassociated we become, the less anxious we become. A book will build up for some time, letting us get to know the characters, letting us sympathize with them, before killing them off or targeting them with the terrifying scenerio. You might think that role-playing games are a terrific fodder for fear, but I don't think this is the case most of the time. That's because there are other ingrediants then giving a shit, and besides, many people don't put themselves in their characters shoes all that strongly. There are situations in your most garden-variety rpgs that should have a non-hardened soul sweating in terror that their characters cool-headedly navigate. It's easy to disassociate oneself with ones character. Plus, some of the things that are genuinely frightening just make for shitty games.
Like, I dunno, helplessness. It's terrifying, the prospect of walking down your hallway late at night, and hearing a sound. You know it's nothing, but in the back of your mind, you envision it. As soon as you turn the corner, a face, and an inky black and spidery body. It won't be there, but you still hesitate at the corner, the cold glass of milk warming slowly in your grip. But you only hesitate a second, and grinning at your silliness, you turn the corner.
But it's there. Looking back at you, with its curiously placid expression, it looks into your eyes and opens its mouth... well, that'd be bad enough, wouldn't it? But it's a fucking spirit. Sadly, even a good swing of the baseball bat is going to do jack and shit, and it's going to run you down if it wants to. And that helplessness is even worse, but in an rpg, it's boring. Maybe, just maybe my description is enough to make someone uneasy if they're playing along but once the player realizes that they can't do anything, they're likely just to get up and walk off.
And I'd be a dick storyteller if I did that to my PCs. But, on the flip side, it's even worse if they're a potent archmage that can just point at the bastard and say "Fuck it. I've got Spirit 5. I'm just going to wipe it off the face of the planet." And that's even in character. So you have to strike a balance. Give the PCs tools to use, but don't make it so easy. The player can't know who's going to win that confrontation, and that confrontation is the heart of the game. You have to hit that moment of tension, and you can't let go until it's over. Maybe give the line some slack, and maybe pull tight, but if you let go, the mood is over and you have to rebuild it again.
So, what do I think the ingredients are that make a fun rpg? Tension, I guess. And the players have to want to be scared. They have to be scared in character, and that bleeds over into an experience for the player. But I've seen and heard it go wrong so much, that it's kind of cliche for me by now. Like Call of Cthulu games, or how a lot of people don't find Vampire harrowing when it could be. That's another discussion, though.
I guess the other aspect is mystery. It's more fun and more interesting if the horror game is also a detective story. Especially since a horror game can't be a complete combat fest, since you have to let up in order to let the magnitude set in. Otherwise, it's just another Quake or Diablo clone. That's fun, but not scary. And personally, I don't find an endless clatter of dice rolls scary, unless it's G. Gygax haunting my house for preferring 3.x to 1st ed D&D.
You know what's really terrifying about that last sentence though? The commas. I actually took some out before I decided it was done. I should work on economy of word.
Have I talked about horror in rpgs on here yet? I don't think I have. So. There are a couple of things that I know about fear in myself because I've thought about it quite a lot. In real life, it's enough just to be put in a situation you don't know how to act in where there are ramifications to your actions or where you stand a chance of being acted upon by someone else. Anything from meeting new people to being stalked by a knife-wielding psycho in an ally way. Fear in movies and books are different. Movies tend to rely on the easy visual scares, sudden movements, gore. These things really are frightening, you know? Or they can be. But they're intellectually easy, and once we become visually inured to the sight of blood on a screen, filmmakers have to continue to escalate the violence before we react.
My speculation is that this is because horror is based on empathy for others in media. The more disassociated we become, the less anxious we become. A book will build up for some time, letting us get to know the characters, letting us sympathize with them, before killing them off or targeting them with the terrifying scenerio. You might think that role-playing games are a terrific fodder for fear, but I don't think this is the case most of the time. That's because there are other ingrediants then giving a shit, and besides, many people don't put themselves in their characters shoes all that strongly. There are situations in your most garden-variety rpgs that should have a non-hardened soul sweating in terror that their characters cool-headedly navigate. It's easy to disassociate oneself with ones character. Plus, some of the things that are genuinely frightening just make for shitty games.
Like, I dunno, helplessness. It's terrifying, the prospect of walking down your hallway late at night, and hearing a sound. You know it's nothing, but in the back of your mind, you envision it. As soon as you turn the corner, a face, and an inky black and spidery body. It won't be there, but you still hesitate at the corner, the cold glass of milk warming slowly in your grip. But you only hesitate a second, and grinning at your silliness, you turn the corner.
But it's there. Looking back at you, with its curiously placid expression, it looks into your eyes and opens its mouth... well, that'd be bad enough, wouldn't it? But it's a fucking spirit. Sadly, even a good swing of the baseball bat is going to do jack and shit, and it's going to run you down if it wants to. And that helplessness is even worse, but in an rpg, it's boring. Maybe, just maybe my description is enough to make someone uneasy if they're playing along but once the player realizes that they can't do anything, they're likely just to get up and walk off.
And I'd be a dick storyteller if I did that to my PCs. But, on the flip side, it's even worse if they're a potent archmage that can just point at the bastard and say "Fuck it. I've got Spirit 5. I'm just going to wipe it off the face of the planet." And that's even in character. So you have to strike a balance. Give the PCs tools to use, but don't make it so easy. The player can't know who's going to win that confrontation, and that confrontation is the heart of the game. You have to hit that moment of tension, and you can't let go until it's over. Maybe give the line some slack, and maybe pull tight, but if you let go, the mood is over and you have to rebuild it again.
So, what do I think the ingredients are that make a fun rpg? Tension, I guess. And the players have to want to be scared. They have to be scared in character, and that bleeds over into an experience for the player. But I've seen and heard it go wrong so much, that it's kind of cliche for me by now. Like Call of Cthulu games, or how a lot of people don't find Vampire harrowing when it could be. That's another discussion, though.
I guess the other aspect is mystery. It's more fun and more interesting if the horror game is also a detective story. Especially since a horror game can't be a complete combat fest, since you have to let up in order to let the magnitude set in. Otherwise, it's just another Quake or Diablo clone. That's fun, but not scary. And personally, I don't find an endless clatter of dice rolls scary, unless it's G. Gygax haunting my house for preferring 3.x to 1st ed D&D.
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