GREATGM: How to run a horror setting in your roleplaying game
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- Опубліковано 25 вер 2024
- How to run a horror setting in your roleplaying game
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I've played in some horror games, and the best had the following:
Hopelessness - there must be an element that the thing (whatever it is) removes hope. Whether it's a virus, a man-eating swarm of insects, a shape-shifting alien creature, whatever - it has to be able to generate a sense of being confined. If you have a dimmer switch to control the lighting in your gaming area, dim the lights very very slightly. Enough so that it's noticeable to the perceptive, but not so much as to be obvious. If it's pointed out, shrug and say things look normal to you. Lighting has a strong effect on emotion. Use it.
Paranoia - relating to the emotion above, there has to be a prevalent feeling that the foe could be anywhere. Including the person next to you. If you can describe the onset of a disease that turns your fellow player into a zombie with an itch - just wait - someone will scratch. Then your players will go nuts.
Doubt - The players need to question themselves. Only the truly heroic or truly obtuse never question themselves. Everyone else has doubt. The GM needs to use words like "maybe", "perhaps" or "possibly" when asked questions.
Disgust - Whatever brings "the end" to a player must generate an instant feeling of disgust and revulsion. Descriptions have to be accurate - but it's also important that it's not overdone. Over-description just numbs the players to it.
Bait and Switch - Make danger look like it comes from somewhere obvious. When the players investigate, nothing is out of the normal. Then, when they leave the room, the "monster" is standing right outside the door out of sight, or is the kindly matron who was claiming to be the victim of the monster in the first place. Again, over-use is dangerous. The players will just avoid or kill everything after that.
Awesome comment! Thank you - love the clarity of it.
How to be a Great Game Master Thank you for that. It means a lot.
Well it is :)
Also have some humor and hope so when the horror comes the players dread for it
Wow thanks
(Call Of Cthulhu) I once created the feeling of paranoia by having the party watched by the “pet” of an NPC.
I introduced the pet to each of the characters...always while they were alone. Every one of the characters missed the first few perception checks. I would roll my die and ask for a perception check. I just shrugged, “Never mind. What are you doing?” This went on for several sessions until some were paranoid and others were “Meh. Whatever”.
The first time one of them saw it (nat 20), I described it.
I pulled the player away from the others.
Me: “Across the street in the darkness between the street lights, right at the mouth of an ally, you see what appears to be a statue of a small, black dog sitting, about a foot tall facing directly at you. You can see only the faintest outline of its silhouette. It’s ears are triangular and pointed straight up and open towards you. It’s muzzle is long, narrow and ends in a sharp nose. It’s front legs are thin and spindly. It’s tiny little eyes glint red as the last of the street light reflects off of them.
Player: “ I walk towards it.”
Me: “Watching the statue intently, you take a step out into the street. It is then that you realize there is a growing light coming from your left. Roll a reflex save. A car swerves around you. You hear the driver yelling as the car drives off past you. You look back at the ally. The statue is gone.”
A couple of sessions later they had all seen the pet individually. None of the PCs spoke of it to any of the others. I finally allowed all of them to see it sitting under a street light when they were all together. As one of them approached it, it sprinted off and vanished into the shadows.
And that was one of the “good guys” watching/evaluating the PCs. Soon after they garnered the attention of the “bad guys” who they sent their “pet” to watch them. It was not so mundane in its appearance.
But, that’s another story.
The best thing about running horror, is that even if the PCs DO goof off a bit (especially with gallows humor) the horror can actually still creep in with the mirth, and tension will often still ramp up and catch them unawares. So don't freak out if some humor does creep into your horror game! One liners from players can often also suggest they are nervous and you're doing a good job.
I find that describing some of the 5 senses while avoiding using the words see, hear, smell, feel, touch can make for a more immersive description. Not that I'm great at illustrating a scene, but here's what I mean.
As you enter the cave, you could almost choke on the humid air. Drops of water falling on cold stone pierce the quietness as you descend. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you find yourself in an open chamber.
That at least has a couple senses. You feel the humidity and coldness, hear the drops of water and see darkness of the cave.
these need more views, the production quality is excellent
Why thank you! It's been a long journey let me too you. A LONG journey to get to here!
This channel is criminally under-noticed. Quality/content is way above whats out there.
1:10 so everytime I look into a mirror?
Something just as important as adding those senses to a horror game, is making a point of their absence. You enter a clearing in the field of corn, the once tall stalks flattened in a strange circular pattern. Upon setting foot in the clearning, the usual sounds of the country-side, the wind, the river and the nearby town fall deathly quiet. You turn and see birds in the trees but can't hear their song.
I found this video at the time I needed it, as I am preparing to DM Curse of Strahd as we speak. Thank you!
I beg your pardon, that was the Chinese from just now. Ha ha ha.
Hehehehe - glad you like the humour!
Didn’t age well
Very scary 😟 Chinese food can be very scary after the fact
I disagree with your description of Horror. I tend to follow Stephen King's breakdown of the 3 types of terror:
The Gross-out (what you set up the premise talking about, needs no further description).
Horror: The unnatural. Spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm.
And Terror (imo, the best): when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact replica. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around there's nothing there.
As a GM I always try to err towards the last one, with some of the second. I find the former - the gross out - to be cheap thrills and not really... effective in maintaining a feeling of true horror.
Personal preference, though.
Big agree! Gore/revulsion is the easiest way to create horror but definitely not the only way nor always the most effective.
King knows his stuff.
The gross-out stuff really only works if your name is David Cronenberg or Clive Barker, where abstract body horror doesn't require buckets of blood and guts spraying round the room. I think it may be the first Hellraiser movie, when the guy who played Garak in Deep Space 9 gets his skin stolen by his brother...there's one moment where he looks in the mirror, fiddles with the skin below his eye and there's a tiny, perfect, "squish" sound that turns my stomach every time I watch that movie. It grosses me out far more than all the "bodies being torn apart by hooks and chains".
In Fantasy RPG that stuff is what the characters generally live on a day to day basis, so it needs upping to ridiculous levels to have any impact, and that's usually when it goes too far and becomes silly.
One of the keys to good horror is a sense of helplessness, and again in RPGs that aren't genre focused on Horror, stripping players of their "stuff" is almost always going to upset at least ONE player...
I don't try to "Out C'thulhu C'thulhu" by trying to do too much specific Horror in other types of game. In CoC players understand that their characters are meat pinatas for the Eldritch beasts they may encounter, but D&D usually has characters more akin to superheroes, and its a hard sell in those situations.
It's not impossible, but so much in a Horror session in a broader Fantasy game depends on eager buy in from the players.
C'thulhu esque "Dreamlands" stuff is probably one of the most accessible styles that you could dump them into, setting up your own "Plane of Darkest Nightmares" that you throw at them occasionally can work.
Trust me, when the HIgh Priest of whoever tells them they must "Journey to the Plane of Darkest Nightmares" to defeat the bad guy... they will generally sit up and take notice.
The best way to use the gross out, at least in my opinion, is to use it very little. You can have piles of corpses, or intense descriptions of flesh tearing open. But do it to much and it becomes...boring.
Typically it’s best combined with other forms of horror as well.
Of course, as a particular fan of horror personally, scripting and writing an appropriate horror story is also about understanding what kind of horror you want to convey. Horror is a fascinating genre, as it is very rich in it's development and the interesting angles people have taken with it.
My personal favorite is the Classical horror setup. One that is less horrific and visceral, but more moody, eerie and sort of a cross-breed of drama and thriller. You look at alot of older horror stories like Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man or even War of the Worlds to an extent, the idea is reflection. We use the horrific creatures and the grotesque displays to explore the human condition, painting humanity in a dark light. Sorta using inhumanity as a message of the faults of humanity. Vampires are not just bloodsucking half-bats, they are an allegory for unrestricted hedonism and the predatory nature of how people will use others for their own gain, hurting them and destroying them as they go, then discarding them aside when they've outlived their use.
With classic horror, however, using an excess in gore and overtly disturbing situations can end up hurting you, because the idea is an unsettled mood as opposed to an oppressively panic-inducing mood. Classic horror relies on foggy cemetaries and the hypnotizing gaze of a killer paralyzing you as he goes for the kill. Not "The rotting, rancid corpse begins to boil under it's skin, before erupting in a stream of blood and maggots, spraying each of you with scalding blood as maggots begin biting on your skin."
Another great one is Lovecraftian horror, because this is where the horrific get's to shine brightest. In it's simplest terms, Lovecraftian horror is all about the realization that you are insignificant and truly helpless against forces alien and beyond you. It doesn't have to rely on sci-fi, although the pricipals are best served by a sci-fi setting. Lovecraftian horror is simply about taking all hope away from your players, as even trying to comprehend the situation you've found yourself in is enough to drive one to suicide. Here's where you really get to flaunt some gore and horrific concepts, as it's all about being oppressively dark and dismal next to the subtly brooding and eerie classic horror.
Of course, horror elements can also be spliced into many genres. From Dusk Till Dawn, American Psycho, Brain Dead, Resident Evil, there is proof across most media that there is room for horror being fun as well. An almost comedic engine for how fucked you can end up in life, drawing upon miserable things in the world and cranking them so far into lunacy that they become entertainment.
For a Horror-orientated Campaign, I actually have my players make multiple characters... and then had the party locked in a Mansion (Giant Mimic) that changes room interiors to subtly begin to digest the party...
"The roof begins to slowly drip with a warm liquid. A loud hiss and warmth on your arm is felt as an acrid smell fills the air... A tendril juts out of the floor and *rolls die* ensnares (PC) before *rolls die* trying to drag them down within the floor..."
That is truly awesome! No where to hide because even the cupboards are trying to eat you! Love it! Thank you for sharing!
Precisely! the rooms also morph and shift as the vict- I mean party explore, meaning they become more disorientated as they explore...
In theory, all you have to do is kill it's brain... but where is it?
It should be some old witch who meets the party in the village the beginning. She grew the fungus from her own body... don't ask... and now controls it...
How to be a Great Game Master
Is the witch the same one who lured the party in to help 'clean out her late husband's estate' and promised them a share of the magical items...
That needs to be run...
MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I wrote a module once where a Vampire runs a school for other vampires. The PC's enter the castle with EVERY ITEM used for killing Vampires, and he plays with them to demonstrate how to survive a staking, how to avoid holy water etc... this sounds like an excellent addition to that!
Story time.
note: I don't enjoy killing party members.
The party of five had just climbed up the side of a mountain (nearly dying in the process) and found a protruding ledge to a cave entrance.
Their informant from the village (few days travel from the mountain) had said that cave was the way to the Ancient Cartographer.
Nature check revealed that the cave was old, unstable, and shouldn't be traversed by anyone.
Wisdom saves revealed that if they didn't go through the cave slowly, it would collapse on top of them.
They camped that night outside the mouth of the cave; in the morning they went in single file (lead by a person with dark vision).
I dimmed the lights and turned on dripping cave sounds.
As they've been walking through, a smell like that of a dying thing began to linger in the air, getting more and more potent as they continued.
Eventually their torches began dying as the damp air of the cave snuffed them out slowly.
They had two people who could use light, but it was still very dim.
I had the leader roll perception.
16
I had the player leave the room with me. I showed him a fraction of the thing stalking them.
He came back.
"Guys, we need to get out of here NOW"
I quieted the sound of the dripping caves and played a new sound. Grotesque breathing.
"We gotta move faster."
I gave them my best guttural scream.
"Roll initiative".
They swung in the dark at the creatures, I showed the ones that could see the creatures what they were fighting.
Their horrified reactions made the other three party members concerned since they were not really being sure as to what they were fighting.
There were only two that they fought but I made their movement speed 50 and made them very powerful, so it seemed like more.
Nearly TPKing them, three of the five party members went unconscious, they finally killed the creatures and found out there were only two.
Upon inspection of the corpses, I showed them a picture. (google necromorph slasher)
None of them had seen those creatures before and were appalled.
After the battle I had them all roll Wisdom saves. (That will come into play later)
They found a latter and climbed it.
It leads to an old door with light pouring through it.
They opened it to find a bunch of monks training on top of the mountain; their master was the powerful Ancient Cartographer.
The Cartographer, dressed as a monk, gave them the map they sought after.
They asked about the creatures in the cave.
He explained that long ago, there was a plague that transformed people into abominations, even more so than the most infamous necromancers had accomplished. It had been able to nearly wiped out all life on the planet and so the Cartographer and his people came up to this mountain to escape it's devouring power. When the plague had been banished by ancient great heroes, the Cartographer and his followers decided to stay up there and start a martial arts school.
They asked to stay and rest before returning.
The Cartographer declined because his senses revealed that some of the party had become infected with a plague.
The party left and returned to the cave.
They continued through the cave again in single file.
Another perception check by the member in the back.
14
"You hear it behind you and above you too".
"Above us?"
He sends a light Cantrip above the party.
There was a fissure in the ceiling of the cave.
They start seriously considering running through the cave.
As they talked it over something happened:
Another one of the creatures swooped down from the ceiling, and attempted to grapple the person in the middle of the party.
He contested but rolled a critical fail.
His torso was impaled by both its' claws and it attempted pulling him into the ceiling.
I kid you not, it rolled a nat 20 for strength to pull him into the hole in the ceiling of the cave.
The creature was now pulling him through an extremely narrow tunnel in the ceiling of the cave.
He tried fighting it but rolled poorly.
The creature rolled really well.
It killed him.
Everyone was shocked.
I explained to them, "You watch through the dim light as one of the creatures swoops down, impales Norrak, and pulls him into the ceiling. You hear him screaming and struggling but then he goes quiet".
"Alright we're getting the f**k out of here". -- Paladin
They ran to the exit, those things chasing them and the cave collapsing behind them.
They narrowly escaped as the cave entrance crumbled behind them.
@@kevinsullivan3448 I know right? We still talk about that situation to this day
Wow! That was great!
Ho...lee..shit that was tense! Just reading this made me go like wuuuuuuuuut?! Very nice!
Oohh
This was amazing
I don't know what you were feeling, but I was definitly horrorfied by the alien.
I'm currently writing a "Gothic - Victorian" horror for my group, using the World of Darkness rules. Over the last week I've been slowly leaking them information about the world in which they are soon to set foot in. Really keen to start!
Thanks for this channel! The content is great and really inspiring.
If you are trying to create gothic horror look at settings like Ravenloft for inspiration.
why stop at the 5.
6 sense of pain. the difference to a sense of pain and the sense of touch is you feel pain after the knife has touched you
7 sense of temperature, different nerve endings. and you don't need something to touch you to feel heat
8 sense of time. this can be fun if you know what you're doing
9 sense of balance
Bo-jivan Parker the other senses are hard to do and isn’t possible even with description but if you play with them in person some of this can change.
I think most of these are generally considered to be under Touch
@@ondras5241 even though they have nothing to do with touch.
You can feel pain without anything touching you.
You can feel heat without anything touching you.
Your sense of balance and sense of time have nothing to do with you touching anything.
@@leftistadvocate9718 You literally can't feel heat if something is not touching you...
@@ondras5241 fever
Very useful tips. The time I felt I used horror the best was recently in a game.
I currently DM a party and one of the players characters is a warlock. I introduced his patron to him. It was always present through out his lifespan but after a really bloody battle. The fighter had been rolling like a god and his once red beard was now even more red and wet from blood. I thought, ok this is a perfect time to give the warlock an introduction to his patron.
I said something in the fashion of:
Shan Khalid, you finally get a moments rest in these dimly lit halls now full of misery and despair. Children crying over lost parents and friends, wives weeping over lost husbands.
Suddenly you get this eerie feeling of someone watching you from the darkness. You've felt this in your past a couple of times and you never got used to it.
The air around you grows colder, colder... and colder.
Time slows down and impossible shadows begin dancing on the walls - and as you try to focus on them they evaporate, new ones emit in your peripheral.
This feeling of someone observing you grows stronger, stronger... and stronger, you have never felt it this strongly before.
A faint whisper emits, sorceless yet all around you.
"Shaaaan...Khaaliiiihhd... a tasssste.... of poowaaah"
This force of cold travels through your body and everything is excatly like it was five seconds ago.
Wonderful. The evocative wording, the timing. Must have sent shivers down the players spine! Thank you for sharing and demonstrating excellent use of words to evoke a sense of impending dread!
Wow, that was a good read.
I will say this; THANK YOU! This video was a massive help. I was writing a writing a horror campaign for 5.0 Dungeons and Dragons using 18th century Europe as the setting with my players being exorcists trained by the Catholic Church to deal with whatever goes bump in the night. So again, this was a massive help in terms of getting the overall scene of horror I wanted for this game. Though I am planning on mixing in a lot of thriller and mystery elements in it.
But with all that said, you have definitely earned a sub.
Most useful! currently running an Only War campaign were my PC's are running a Guerrilla resistance against a Dark Eldar controlled starship, and the creations of the flesh pits of Cammoragh give many an opportunity for horror.
Oh yes indeed. and with DE you have such a varied amount of horror too! Sexual, sadistic, painful, sinful, aweful... gosh the mind boggles! Sounds like a lot of fun. Let us know how it goes and if any of these tips helped make it better!
will do sir, will do
Well I got through my incredibly horror laden part, My PC's had to form a ragtag guerrilla force hidden far into the depths of the Dauntless class warship that the Dark Eldar had commandeered. There they decided the best course of action was to first reload and refit, then free the captive catachan that were being held in the ships brigg. They basically dungeon crawled through the sewer sections of the ship long abandoned millenia ago allowing many blind, enormous, and possibly warp enhanced creatures to thrive. After fighting off many an aberration, they found their way to an exposed access hatch and snuck into the brigg quickly dispatch what little resistance they met...But the true horror wasn't discovered until they entered the cells and discovered that a Heamonculus was using it as his own experimentation room. He then unleashed his newest creation upon them, a massive monstrosity that fused the parts of their dead comrades together yet let one characters head still speak, aware of what it was doing but unable to stop itself. They were eventually able to put it down but, it did bring the harsh realities that only the dead have seen the end of war in the 41st Millennium.
"Hey man you want a glass of water?"
"Nah man, your tap water taste like jizz."
The problem I've always had with horror is the element of disempowerment. Horror is about helplessness; the protagonists must feel that they cannot overcome the evil ultimately. It is key to the genre, and almost all successful horror movies deal with individuals that slowly realize that they are incapable when it comes to dealing with whatever is after them.
The problem with this is that players do not WANT to be disempowered. They do not want to feel helpless. They want to overcome, they want to defeat the evil. They want to WIN. Even the ones that agree that the game is about stories and there is no real winner want to WIN. They want to be the big powerful hero against the evil. They don't mind starting
powerless, but they want to ultimately want to gain a super amount of power and be the gods they see themselves as. And when you take that from them, they bitch and moan and decide to go play a game of 40k.
I'm not saying that all players are like this, but all the ones I've dealt with are. I would love to hear suggestions about dealing with this problem.
Well, how about following the "climax"-advise: Have them start powerless, let them be powerless for as long as possible, but give them the chance to fight it out with the big bad omnipotent ghost/demon/demigod/tentaclemonster or whatever your "final boss" is, not through them gaining power equal to the monster, but through their wits.
Give them hints on how to overcome the evil being, lure them into situations they would never want if it weren´t for that one missing clue or item they need to kill the enemy for good or at least escape alive.
Or make them pay for every power they obtain. Give them the choice: gain some, lose some (a limb for example) or stay as powerless as you are right now. And make sure they die veeeery often on their path to "winning" ;)
If I may suggest something, is to look at The Ring in comparison with Alien.
You got a ghost who will call anyone who watches it's tapes, and that will inevitably appear in 3 weeks and kill it's victims. Having weapons or trying to escape are useless options, as you're dealing with an immaterial being whose range of attack is pretty much everywhere near a TV. The Alien, however, is a material being, that is containable and even killable under the right circumstances, it is just that it is dangerous to do any of those without guns.
I translate this to RPG this way: the threat you're exposing your PCs to should be something virtually limitless: something that can't be easily contained or escapable. It doesn't necessarily has to be a ghost: It can be a natural disaster, a freddy-krueger-like thing that attacks you in your dreams, an immortal monster, etc. Once a situation comes when the PCs are going to give an end to the thing, make it so the resolution is unclear: You sealed shut that monster back to it's dephs, but what if it manages to escape? The elder gods came back to their sleep, but what will happen when they awake again? The books that summoned that demon were burned, but what if there is another one out in the world?
This is how I tackle the things...coupled with the content of this video.
+xBieux I like this. The sealing/banishing vs killing method I think allows you a lot more freedom with the entity the main characters must go against.
I’m planning a campaign where the players have complete control until the final (and ONLY) encounter with the actual villain of the game; an entity from Lovecraftian/Bill Cipher planes of existence, and during the final battle they essentially all only get 3 chances each to kill the creature, or die, but it’s going to be spanning over the course of 5-10 sessions. I’m not going to tell them about the last session’s concept. It’s my sort of way to create that level of helplessness. As if they’ve been screwed the whole time and just didn’t know it.
Distracting them with the plot at hand will create levels of control for them, like a shipwreck or a group of people attempting to capture them. Hell even give them the task of creating a wagon or a boat or finding a key to get the hell out of dodge. Nobody in a horror movie is resigned to the fate that they’re inherently going to die, until they’re being killed. Films like Scream and As Above So Below have the characters fight tooth and nail using their heads to make it alive, they have complete control in these scenarios, while also gaining a sense of fear and frustration; small spaces, dumb cops, useless friends and family that aren’t helping, and the dread that someone or something is, or might not, be watching them.
Not everyone wants to watch LotR, someone like to watch Alien
I'm actually GMing for the first time and I've had a lot of horror influences in it
im preparing my first Horror scenario and your tipps helped a lot to get a focus how to bring that "horror" to my players :) Thanks!
Excellent video and I love your insight. You help me come up with ideas and settings every time I watch you. However if you don't think Alien is horrifying, you may be dead inside. Like I said, love your work and you're awesome.
I disagree with your definition of horror. I think that to have a good horror story you also must have tension or else it is just a dark and bloody environment
He is talking about the actual meaning of the word horror, not the implied meaning we have on it.
That tension is called terror. It's something that audiences often conflate with horror, but the two are distinct genres.
I am running a campaign based in the MTG Innistrad universe and this video has helped me so much. I keep falling into the pitfall of mistaking horror for thriller and scary. I want to incorporate all of these themes, of course, but your description has truly helped me to focus on the grimy and disgusting setting that is Innistrad. The increased risk of PC death is also something I will be incorporating as that will really set my group on edge. Could you maybe do a video on the pros and cons of a complete open world vs. a more linear "goal-based" adventure? I like the idea of a true open world, but I feel as though it takes away from some of the depth of a goal-based adventure. Love your content! Thank you.
I write horror as a hobby. Differentiating between horrifying and scaring is very important to me. To me, horror is about telling stories in that environment. I'm amazed to see it covered in this video. Bravo.
I personally find it's more disgusting if it somehow makes it inside your body.
Worms under your skin, parasites in your intestines, the food you ate was people..etc.
The slime got into your mouth... or it got under your clothes...
The creature crawled into your ear...
Getting personally violated by the horror is way worse.
Especially if it's your own fault. (I ate the food.. oops)
Just gotta keep in mind that there are limits to this. GMs have taken the 'violated' thing too far, particularly as it relates to things that can be construed as sexual... or are outright actually sexual. And they will absolutely get put on blast all over social media, and banned from conventions and gaming venues for doing that. Doesn't matter if you give warnings, because in most cases they actually did warn that there was severe or disturbing content. So yeah, just don't do it. Be very careful with how you approach the bodily violation angle. Parasites under the skin or the intestines, etc, are probably fine. Parasites that live in ladies' hoohahs, tentacle rape scenes, human centipedes, etc, etc, straight up aren't. Doesn't matter how plausible it is in the setting. You have to remember that you're always walking the line between discomfort and disgust that your players can handle, and a level of dismay that makes them walk away and talk about what a freak you are.
@@pawssum panseys
@@chaosmastermind unless people have had actual trauma and an insensitive GM causes real life pain because of their lack of empathy.
Body horror is very cool imo
“Naked women” I’m sorry what
Yeah this has a lot of fantastic info and production quality but... seriously? Going from the dope sink scenario to that? Is he seriously suggesting having specifically big tiddied (love the specification by the way, cuz the horror is clearly proportional with how big the naked boobs are /s) running around with somehow magically just their clothes torn off adds to an actual horror atmosphere? Cmon man. Not to mention that some groups and players would be down with that but the percent of groups that a) wouldn’t make the women in the group uncomfortable by asking b) would run the scene in a way that wouldn’t make things uncomfortable and c) actually do it in a horror inducing way is so tiny. We already have to deal with so much of this shit from all sides from premade nerdy content, PLEASE don’t even suggest this to your players without already being pretty damn sure that they would all not only be ok with it, but ENJOY it.
@@adrienne4399 Id like to disagree! (If you have a group that doesn't make this super uncomfortable) Nakedness is the ultimate form of vulnerability. Down to a point where even just glances are "harmful". If you picture a woman stumbling through the woods naked vs a woman stumbling through the woods with normal clothes on, which one is more terrifying? You are reduced to the animal that you are (in some way) which can ramp up the terror. If you pair "nakedness" with "lost memories", you lost all ties to yourself because you don't even look like "a businessman" or "a craftsman"
So, nakedness can be a strong tool if you do it right
@@CookieMonster-nt8hh yeah no, maybe if it had been "nakedness" by itself, but specifically "naked women"? Dude's just a misogynist, and I'd never play at anyone's table ever again if they ever suggested one of the female characters be naked. That's creepy.
@@blukitsune true. if a gm just said," oh btw all females are naked". bruh. not cool. id say its very case by case
"10:40" *I'm sorry what*
You've really helped me out with my "True" Heroic campaign. Horror, sacrifice, and the willingness to fight even if you know you'll perish with the big bad. Beautiful
I'm writing a campaign setting in the Resident Evil Universe with my mom and brother as the players both of which are heavily invested in that univerese although my brother knows more than my mother does but even with knowing a lot about it irl I'm hoping I can still capture that sense of hopelessness a lot of players felt the first time they played the original Resi games such as 1-3 and your video reminded me of many moments in the games such as in RE 2 where the player is met by the Tyrant an unstoppable monster that no matter how much you hurt it, it finds you and is constantly pursuing you. And now I'm wanting to go back and all the horrific senses that you described because the PCs have never encountered zombies before so getting to hear the zombies chewing into human flesh and bone and seeing the blood dripping from their mouths as they notice the players then that slow staggered walk towards them ever hungry for more flesh and being able to withstand several shots to the body despite what logic dictates should be reasonable for the human body to endure. I've been having a bit of writer's block recently and this has definitely inspired me thank you, even though this video has been out for a while it obviously is still of great use today lol
Great video, as usual. Going to be running Curse of Strahd this summer so will definitely be using some of these ideas.
I'm running one on the side for some friends of mine. We should compare notes!
Definitely. I usually don't do modules, but thought it would be a nice break.
I hate modules and although it hasn't been a great module experience the setting allows for a lot of fun.
+How to be a Great Game Master I have not actually run one straight from a book, will be a new experience.
Thanks for being the best non filler youtuber!
There is a card organizing algorithm that allows you to procedurally generate an einstein puzzle based on a fixed number of attributes every time you run it. This is not just like having clue tokens, but having the actual context-sensitive clues to help solve the mystery.
Another great video, lots of ideas! Thanks for the content, always entertaining.
Glad it could be of use!
I've just been studying the elements of Silent Hill that made it so terrifying- mainly the body Horror, an environment that is foreign and does not react well to you (which keeps you frantically on your toes at any given point due to paranoia), and the psychological horror used by evoking grotesque and phallic monstrosities that express some aspects of those viewing it in a disturbed and twisted fashion.
I used an Oblex from mordenkainens last week on my players. I described it sliding across the floor towards them and made mouth noises, as well as telling them how it pulsated and undulated when it attacked.
Word choice can be incredible. Undulated. Throb. Pulsate. Moist.
I used all your tricks and they were so freaked! Thanks broski! ^_^
Gibbering Mouther's got their well due!
Use the extended senses range....much more to play with, especially if a horrific effect is warping a character's senses....loss of sense of balance, warped sense of time, jumbled sense of body location, .....
Description and 5 senses game building is something you should already be doing. Incremental escalation via tension and release of tension is key to horror scenarios. Do not be “that guy” by adding sexual violence or sexually graphic scenes. It’s cheap and shows someone doesn’t know how to truly scare players. It’s the difference between sexploitation rape shock value bullshit and something truly fun and frightening.
thank you this is quite brilliant for inspiration :) - i'm sending my players into a shadow realm to defeat a demon that has been hunting them for a while - now is the time to introduce them to a world of horror even if it will only be for a few sessions :)
Sounds like an excellent adventure! Let us know how it goes
Great video!. I'm starting to run CoC 6th so this will improve my games. Regards from Mexico!
Hello Mexico! I was in Loredo for a day - and still proudly showoff the Sherape? Sharape? wool hand woven carpet I bought there! Let us know how it goes and remember just because it's Cthulu doesn't mean its insanity at the start. i wrote a Chtulu module for a Convension that was a musical. The players got - sanity and health back if they sang their song. Happy to say listening to a hall full of role-players singing 'Hakuna Matata' was amazing... and oddly more disturbing than the tank driving nuns who were the demons in the game!
+How to be a Great Game Master Oh, it's call Zarape (Sara-pe). And LoLs to the convention singing, must be a epic moment!. I'll be keeping an eye on your videos, they really improve my games. Keep the good work :)
Awesome and yes. It was! Sara-pe. That's the word. So glad you finding them useful! If you have any topics you want to cover - just let us know! :)
Perception Checks to get some of these sensory clues is a great way to increase the unknown factor ... if they succeed they get a waft of a smell, or the faint sound of chains scraping along the floor, or a hint of movement out the corner of their eye, but when they turn to see what it was, it's gone ... and if they fail the roll, at least they know that they failed ... there is _something_ out there, and they have no idea what it is, because they failed their roll. And that can sometimes be even better.
You should however link many of these smells, sights, and sounds ... and especially touch and taste, to mechanical effects in the game. The smell makes them nauseated, giving them disadvantage on their next roll. The water churns in their gut, giving them a level of exhaustion ... and so on, and so forth. That way, they are not just descriptively turned off by these things, they are fearful of them from a mechanical point of view as well. And if the *environment* can cause them such ill effects, then what is going to happen if they come face to face with whatever lives here?
Those 3 Settings leave out pure investigative horror stories
You ate a Chinese!? You horrific monster...
Kkkkk
I'm really enjoying these videos as someone who has only played rpg videogames. I'd love to play a tabletop sometime.
Thank you for the tips. For me, the term “horror” in it of itself is a very subjective term, and is triggered by an event that affects one or all of the five senses you mentioned in your video, but in a way that is contrary to what they perceive as being acceptable to their reality. Ultimately horror is triggered by something that causes the character or player to feel revulsion, anguish, or repugnance. I believe that perception is a key factor in this, and thus the trigger or event that creates that horror will vary from player to player, or character to character, yet in ALL cases, that trigger or event, at least in their mind, will be contrary to what they believe is acceptable to any or all of their senses or what they believe to be right and true in reality. So really, many of the examples of “horror” you gave in your video, are actually examples of “triggers” that might create a horrific event or scene, and not necessarily an example of “horror.” If we take this even further, one could say that horror is really nothing more than emotional response to those triggers.
This is just how I’ve approached “horror” in my games over the years. For over twenty years I have and continue to run tabletop RPGs in a “horror type setting and I still have a great time spinning tales of intrigue, and terror. You give some very sound advice with regard to “storytelling,” and I try to employ many of the same tactics in my game. Thanks again for your video, and I hope I was able to contribute something of use for you and your viewers based on my own experience.
I'm five years late to the show, but this video will be so helpful to creating a more "visceral" experience...muahaha...! Thank you!
to be fair any of my player group running around naked would truly be horrific!
Thank you for this video!
I'm running a dread game at the weekend and this is very timely. :^)
Glad to hear it! Let us know how the game goes!
The Erebus and the Terror really lit up my imagination on this.
great way to run a horror adventure without killing the players, make it a fever dream created by the thing that they're hunting, or that's hunting them. It feeds on the horror and adrenaline of people, so it puts them into a sleep, and it bends what they perceive as reality to terrorize them. just an idea. :)
Horror is anything scary with supernatural elements.
Thrillers are anything scary without supernatural elements.
Fantastic video! This helped me a ton! Thank you so much for making this.
Luckily, heroforge allows me to build a busty naked woman to run around naked in a horror D&D campaign. so thanks for giving me a reason to create it 🤣
I've always found Horror Games shackled by a catch-22. As you describe, in horror, people need to die gruesome deaths or at least be brutally maimed. If it's story in an ongoing campaign, where the players are nicely invested in their characters and their capabilities, said players will not enjoy a little lollipop girl removing their character's heart and skipping away. Not enjoy it one teensy bit.
However, if it is made into a one-shot weekend game, the players don't have that emotional attachment to their newly created characters. The heart is ripped out and it's "Ah, c'est le guerre. Easy come, easy go." It's more playing a board game than RPG. Fun is being had, but not on any "horror" level.
Anyhow, that's what I've experienced.
Agreed. Sorry I only saw this now. One-shots are... problematic for that.
but, is there a way to overcome that problem?
One-shots can be planned for - heavily planned for. Through heavily planning, lots of music prep, props, and control of the lighting I think you can make it feel really atmospheric. Then if you have an awesome story then it will work. Also if your players have really build good characters (backgrounds and histories) it will help.
Great video, it gave me an excellent view of what I need to do. I had already started to deviate too much from the essentials.
I know most people may disagree with me, and I want to make sure you don't think I'm criticizing the quality of your script, but I do wish you weren't afraid to make cuts in some places, to shorten the length of your videos. It's a problem I have with Endless Jess's videos as well (of which I've seen very few of for that reason).
I think the burp and pause around 2:20 got to me too much is all. :S
But I do love your CONTENT and intend to continue watching. :) Keep up the good work.
It's a funny thing because we have also had the exact opposite comments from other viewers where they prefer to see the real rather than the edited. But point taken and we will be vigilant in future for bodily noises :) Thanks for watching and the feedback.
Endless Jess sounds appropriate then, at least.
I thought the burp was in keeping with the horror theme. What did he eat? Chinese? But what did he REALLY eat? It's unknown!
I don't find anything wrong with them they help quite a bit
Don't listen to this guy. I am one of the ones who likes your videos just as they are. you doing it RIGHT.
Or another thing you could do for a horror scenario is the walls oozing green slime
We love green slime!
No, wait, they always do that...
I hope the PC's have darkvision because the light keeps going out and on...
5:33 or an invisible force that won't stop tickling you until you die due to exhaustion and sleep deprivation.
I remember one time I ran a session where the players where locked in a massive magical tower that had anti magic properties. This tower was corrupted by something and housed many abominations of biomechanical beings things with flesh wrapped around metals and birthing pods which were creating these terrible monstrosities. As they climbed the tower they were each more and more terrified as they were only lv 5 I had restricted magic and the way the enimes looked and their surrounding deterred them from fighting head on forcing a more run from everything strategy. One player who was very smart but was completely weak from because they were a wizard decided to use oil and mat hed to deal damage I decided to make the creatures have a vulnerability to fire from then on the players rather than fearing the machines learned to easily defeat them and when they got to the boss they barely killed it. I feel like giving them a very strong and reliable way to kill the enimes destroyed the atmosphere and the fear but I felt that I would be a unfaithful dm if I didnt allow it. Did i make the right choice? Please tell me as the sessions was a blast overall and everyone enjoyed it but I have tried to replicate that sort of mood but never got close
One thing I would argue here is that "naked woman" and in fact nudity as a whole may be the wrong way to look at it. Rather you want as many of the players as possible to feel naked in the original sense of the word. Ie. exposed, unprotected, and vulnerable.
This. It’s fine if your players are okay with their pcs being nude, but generally speaking just make them feel powerlessness
I live in Massachusetts, and I know why Lovecraft made it the setting of all his books. It has a lot of history, unlike other parts of America. It has a history of religious fanaticism and witch burning, as well as horror stories about Satan living in the wilderness. It is dark and cold a lot of the year. Ghost stories were common during the winter months, to pass time and to scare children into acting right. When I go to the coasts, and see the old, desolate, grey shingled houses, as well as the grey sky and stormy sea, I feel it is the perfect horror setting. I also understand why Steven King was inspired to write horror by living in isolation in Maine. The sense of isolation lends to the idea that if something were to happen to you, no one would know and you couldn't get help. How many horror movies take place in an abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere?
Then again, a lot of Gothic horror stories take place in Europe, in castles or manor houses. This house can hide secret doors, or have a sinister past kept secret in the family for generations. This has even more history than America to draw from. Maybe your ancestors made a pact with heather gods, or another family swore a vendetta against your family, so now they haunt you.
Really, just go for cliches in a horror setting. There is no point in trying to change things too much, especially if you are storytelling. Throw in an insane asylum for good measure. Some horror movies do well in a modern apartment setting, but it doesn't translate well to a story. You need to make everything old and haunted.
+ How to be a Great Game Master I agree with some of your concepts and have my own ideas about others. I have successfully combined gore with psychological horror, even to where I had a party cowering and panicking in encounters that should have been easily handled by a party of their level with their balance of characters and their abilities, their weaponry, armor, spells, experience at gaming, etc... if they had seen what they were actually fighting. I used the fear of an unknown and unseen enemy to cause the characters to panic and barricade themselves in, with their weapons and spells that would be more than enough to easily accomplish their goals. As you said, the use of the unknown, and the knowledge of how to fully exploit it, is key in good horror. Effective use of descriptive language is a good way to accomplish this. H.P. Lovecraft (at his best) was a master of this, his use of language and imagery (Lovecraft often laid the framework, allowing the reader to use their imagination to create images a lot more creepy than anything the author could describe).
Allowing players to use a lot of imagination is crucial. I would describe sounds in a more general way than "you hear the scalpel as it slices into flesh" (how many people can identify that sound and be sure that's what the sound is?), there are lots of ways to more effectively describe that sound and let imaginations run wild, producing all sorts of vivid scenes in the mind's eye. I could write a book here, but I will more generally sum up with saying that combinations of gore and the "gross out factor", atmosphere, psychology, descriptive language, foreshadowing, the unknown, and hosts of factors combine to make it successful. Good horror is a truly immersive experience.
The atair creaks beneath your step with the laughter of rotting wood.
This video is amazing, thanks alot!
When it comes to PC deaths in horror or dark fantasy I usually have my players get a grievous wound instead of dying. This can be quite the burden depending on the role. It only allows for the PCs to die 1-3 times before their character actually dies or is so disfigured or inhibited that they need to retire to a quiet life.
I know this is an old video, but please answer a question: In what way does Escape and Trapped plots differ ? They seem really/too similar
Probably the difference between running away from Michael Meyers/Jason vs. breaking free of a haunted house/saw trap.
Great tips! gonna be watching more of your vids!
That's awesome! Glad they help!
Yet another great video. Thank you for doing this.
Bizarre horror, maybe? Like that clover field paradox movie on Netflix. Its horrific, but not because its gorish, but because its something you cant understand and is very bizarre.
Isn't "Escape" and "Trapped" one and the same thing? What about "liftig the curse/posession"- or "Redeem yourself"-plots?
what is most suitable spooky genre for roleplaying games? Horror, thriller, or something else?
The gross kind of body horror ist the easiest to pull off. Similar in ease is the Horror-kind with giant spiders and zombies. They are so easy because you can literally describe them and let the imagination do the rest. However, IMO the most rewarding type ist the thriller or Terror. The unsettling creep that lurks just behind the next corner. It's also the hardest to pull off because a GM has to describe an idea and a mood rather than a picture. It needs to hit the sixth sense instead of the first five. But the reward is so high because a player has no clue what is going on either and their own fear of the unknown kicks in. Its harder to take a step back and relax. Its spoopy beyond the table. So, TL;DR, Thriller is the hardest, but most rewarding.
@@CookieMonster-nt8hh thanks for the reply, and DOUBLE thanks for the DETAILED reply! :D you are a gentleman and a scholar! XP
@@wolfyboy Thanks a lot but im just a dude talking his mind. Glad I could help though :)
@@CookieMonster-nt8hh that doesn't mean it didn't help. ;P
@@wolfyboy I appreciate it!
I ran an AVP game once. Turns out that a group of skilled marines that are equipped and armed work quite well against xenomorphs and even predators lol.
10:43 - Um... WTF? Are you trying to tell us something?
I'm running a "mutant hunter" type game right now and I find it hard to have a sense of tension when all my players have grenades and flamethrowers. I've been relying on making the battles difficult which forces the players to act very carefully because tactical mistakes can be costly. The advise to use lots of descriptive language will be really helpful!
Very good video, very interesting, as always, I look forward to what comes next :)
Many thanks! I'm not sure what setting is next... is there a demand for Westerns? For Modern? Apocalypse?
+How to be a Great Game Master Out of those options, I think there is the most demand for apocalyptic settings.
And though there are probably niche groups for them, I don't think modern and western settings have very much demand or traffic.
I think you've mostly exhausted the popular settings we would consider, I would reccomend either merging some setting, or specializing within settings.
Such as sci-fi/horror, and fantasy/horror.
Perhaps even trying to merge something like the dark souls universe or bloodborn universe in a common setting like fantasy or sci-fi.
There definitely aren't any videos on merging a universe like bloodborn/dark souls with common dnd fantasy or classic sci-fi
Thrills are best made when you make the characters feel very much alone. There's no Ally casting healing word to save you when you fall. I left one character on a horror cliff hanger last session. I need to make sure that he feels like it's all up to him to survive the bander hobber. Even his magical sword, soulberg, isnt going to save him, the druidic powers he has from plants and animals, won't save him, his weapons won't. He has to think, and that's what this player does best
You inspire me, thanks :D
Never ever has a gay person made me feel uncomfortable in any way. Never. And then I saw this video and this guy made me shiver and want to leave the room. Awesome work. Thank you so much.
im planing on running a short dnd campaign where the players are being hunted by a false hydra i wanna start it off where the players all of a sudden they dont know where they are the last thing they remember was going to a small town because some people had reported somthing but they cant remember what that was either and absicaly they are being hunted by it and that is the premise (might change it a bit still working in the idea)
The Cthulhu mythos is horror without internals most of the time, but more of the ghosts of the past coming back to the surface slowly driving those who see them insane slowly. There is few evils, the creatures aren’t considered evil, but uncomprehendable.
The only evil things are other humans, everything else are somewhat misunderstood and monstrous.
Stuff about the senses is genius. Liquifed cucumber, ugh.
I personally prefer the more lovecraftian type of horror for me creating fear distrust and unreliability is what makes or breaks horror setting, can they trust this NPC? Is it safe? and as a GM you have to play with this and balance it give them friendly trust worthy NPCs BUT when they get attached give the players a cheeky smirk make them go paranoid, Is the GM gonna kill this NPC? are they going to be turned by the creture, ARE they the creature? Let yours player imagination do the work for you
In one of my campaigns I had my party encountering the beast from the go, which wasn't the real danger. A tree-looking monster that was terrorizing the small town and the surrounding homes, leaving people and animals dried on blood. To keep suspension they only saw the beast from a distance, at first, and encountered It's minions soon after trying to drag them away. To throw off their expectations I mixed in a local power struggle between the church and the local ruling family and issues with banditry. The fact that the land was dying from the activity of a god punishing the family over a family member that fell in love with a devil was realized after some investigation. The monster was only an sadistic opportunist guided to the place which twarted the party from noticing that the real danger was the curse put on the land to lure in twisted predatores to force the family to repent by slaying the devil. The reason why the son refused was because he would be forced to also kill his unborn child and the devil was genuine in wanting to change her ways but had done terrible evil she didn't have the means to make undone.
Excellent work! I love this!
What? *Player* death is expected?? 5:21
death to the players!
Horror, in RPG's, IMO, is near impossible to run, because GOOD horror, is about hopelessness, and powerlessness. It is not just that the Campers do not know who/what is killing them, but that they have no means of countering it; that homicidal killer, in the hockey mask, is just too strong, and kills anyone he can reach. People mysteriously dying, in their sleep. Players want to be empowered, that they can do something, but that rarely happens in horror. Yes, the monster/demon/killer is stopped, in the end, but it is usually a last ditch effort, not some successful, drawn out plan. You can START your campaign in a horror setting, but at some point, it will have to be something else, because the players will be empowered, with either knowledge, or they acquired the mcguffin, to stop the monster/demon/killer; they have become empowered.
i love your delivery. great videos and channel! Move over Matt Coville. I have a new favorite
i was captured with two teammates. my mates broke me out of the dungeon. we encountered a boss before i got my gear back. thankfully my teammate let me borrow a dagger. i helped beat a boss in a dagger and loincloth.
CHAD character
10:00 Are you describing the Vampire Sac scene in Van Helsing?
Since I'm usually bringing people into DND - and it's a process we all know - how I...attune them to horror is a bit of extra legwork on my part but I just give them spooky scenarios:
They're traveling and they see something. They warn the others...but it's gone. The next time someone else sees something...and it's gone.
Then they "meet" the "thing" that carves them up...and realise they had a nightmare while they dosed off on watch. But there is a bloody dagger next to them, or a spattering of blood where they were "killed" in the nightmare.
Just...spook them out it can do wonders. Also mood music, have it only occur a few times in the begining and more and more after...just fuck with the players psychologically :D now back to the vid @0:50
I'm currently trying to develop a lovecraftian cyberpunk story and I'm just at a lost because it isn't my forte. I'm currently researching horror and Eldritch horror
I tried using the Call of Cthulu system online but I haven’t found a good website.
21:00 Alien is still one real horrific movie. Granted we've seen pleny more gore nowadays and productions are seemingly in some kind of contest of who can put the most blood and intestines in a scene... but the creepy hulking black monstrosity what is the Alien never ceases to scare me.
Fun Fact: The only ones knowing what was going to happen during the famous chest-bursting-scene were the director and John Hurt (the guy who had the alien inside).
You can imagine, the acting of the others was really really genuine...
Edit:
23:45 - Why? I just lock the doors. Aaah. those sweet screams, thos fingernails stuck in the wooden frame and panel...
*I really want to see your cute little demons ( Dogs ) .*
The comment "few horror scenes happen in brightly lit areas" feels a *tiny* bit like a challenge. Now I want to have my pc's have a nice long chat with the villain in a grandly lit palace hall, maybe during a party, where he psychologicaly tortures them before mysteriously vanishing before their eyes. 😏 Perhaps not very horrific, but fun at least.
So I'm considering building a one-shot horror session and I wanted some opinions on what would be the centerpiece: The players have no weapons or class abilities (this is in D&D 5e) and the only way to hurt the creature hunting them is through improvised weapons or the environment. I'm going for a sense of terror and helplessness. Does this sound viable?
I know I'm a bit late here and maybe you already did that, but anyway here's my opinion.
I recently started a campaign in a gothic horror setting and that was pretty much how the first session went for us (I'm a player in that campaign). it started with a dream sequence and the characters waking up with memory loss as prisoners - so no class skills and only improvised weapons. It was a good start, but for my character (a witch) having no access to spells or ranged weapons was kinda tough, so if you're going for something like this make sure you have environmental stuff ready that PC's can figure out by being observant. Also if you're going for a one-shot I guess this won't be that much of a problem, but make sure you have a bit of a progression on the weaponry available - running around with broken scissors as a weapon for 3-5 hours can get tiresome.
I think a oneshot like that can totally work out, though I'm not sure if D&D 5e is the perfect system for that kind of gameplay, since D&D heavily focusses on classes and combat and everyone playing peasants kinda defeats the purpose of that system, doesn't it? Then again maybe that further diminishes the perceived powerlevel the players have, so the inefficient way of fighting might contribute greatly to the horror. I'd say that would be up for testing. Have you already done the one-shot? If so do tell how it went, if not keep us posted :)
Wonderful! Thank you!
Good luck getting a table with no one who's going to ask, "how do you know what jiz tastes like?"
Who cares if he has tasted semen?