Good Horror Role-Playing

[CRKrueger]

They are too well known and the modern assumption is that the universe is indifferent and uncaring. People aren't religious enough for that to work these days. The notion that heaven and hell are real is more terrifying to the modern audience.

That is a great observation...

I also agree that once you get together to say "Let's play a Horror game" and you put the genre in everyone's head, you may as well go home, because no one who's thinking in the 3rd person about genre is going to be scared. Suck them into their characters, get them in full 1st person, then you can scare them.

 

[CRKrueger]

RQ players still don't react the way their character would, emotionally or mentally, to losing a leg or being severely injured.

How would someone who lost a leg react emotionally or mentally in your opinion? Short-term (ie. while still in a dangerous situation) and long-term?

 

[TristramEvans]

You mean it cheats by using the physiological effects of adrenaline to mimic emotional response. EDIT: Ok, you agree it cheats. I wouldn't even necessarily call that effect Horror either, it's more suspense/surprise like the "Gotcha" moments in a slasher flick or something.

Its interesting you mention that, because I was going to say that adrenaline can be a natural enemy to a good Horror game, because it makes a person hyper-attuned to their environment and whats going on around them, counteracting immersion. But yeah, when I discuss horror, I really dont mean surprises or shocks, but dread and a lasting feeling of unease that continues for s sustained period, sometimes even after the game is over.

 

[TristramEvans]

That is a great observation...

I also agree that once you get together to say "Let's play a Horror game" and you put the genre in everyone's head, you may as well go home, because no one who's thinking in the 3rd person about genre is going to be scared. Suck them into their characters, get them in full 1st person, then you can scare them.

Perhaps surprisingly, thats never been an issue for me. But my gaming group is not the sort to discuss genres or tropes at all, so its not something my players are likely to "keep in mind". That seems like a horrible idea to me.

In the same manner, I dont give in-game or system "rewards" for players acting like characters in a horror film typically would.

 

[daniel_ream]

How would someone who lost a leg react emotionally or mentally in your opinion? Short-term (ie. while still in a dangerous situation) and long-term?

Well, I've been on an ambulance ridealong that had to respond to a devastating car accident, and I volunteer down the Legion on occasion. You really want me to answer that?

(HINT: not the way gamers do, by marking off a couple more hit points and going "shit, there's the leg. I guess I'll roll up a new character next session")

 

[TristramEvans]

Most of my horror games haven't really been scary. In most cases, I really am not even trying to be scary. I have run genuinely scary games though, mostly in my late teens and early 20s. That was a point where I was beginning to be a competent enough GM to pull it off, and I and my friends were still young enough that I was willing to really try to get under their skin. I wouldn't be comfortable with using the kind of content that I played with back then at the gaming table now, except maybe with a very select group of people.

Yeah, I understand that. I have absolutely no filters in that regard. I was raised on a steady diet of horror films, and I find that almost none of them scrape the surface of what I bring to the table in a horror game. I was always frustrated with horror films, actually, because I find they way too frequently "chicken out". I don't mean in regards to gore. I'm not particularly interested in gore, and I find its mostly used as an excuse or patch for people who arent talented enough to be scary (or, in recent times, loud clanging noises, which to me are the equivalent of a horror film laugh track telling the audience "hey you're supposed to be scared here." This was ever-present and incredibly intrusive in the new "It" film). Anyways, when I say they chicken out, I mean they create this incredibly tense situation and just as its hitting a crescendo, they back out. The killer chasing them disappears, they wake up from a nightmare, etc.

Anyways, thats a personal gripe.

Before you have horror pierce the veil of reality, it helps to have spent some time building that reality.

Absolutely. this is why I tend to either run very researched historical horror or modern day horror in a location my players are familar with, or close enough to. The majority of my game planning is building relationships.

You also need to have ways to reinforce a sense of reality in other ways. Call of Cthulhu has always been very generous with player handouts: news clippings, letters, photos. These kind of things build a sense of reality. On top of that, they allow players to draw connections on their own. If you tell the players the vital clue that reveals the nature of the monster, it might be scary. If the players are looking over their handouts and the realization comes from them, it is more likely to be scary. You've made them imagine the possibility on their own.

This, very much so. Big fan of handouts, reading materials, maps, photographs, tangible items, etc.

 

[opaopajr]

I also agree that once you get together to say "Let's play a Horror game" and you put the genre in everyone's head, you may as well go home, because no one who's thinking in the 3rd person about genre is going to be scared. Suck them into their characters, get them in full 1st person, then you can scare them.

I hate doing Bait 'n Switch, as I've had so little success with it, (and more than a bit of player resentment). I absolutely get where you're coming from, but that'd be a technique where I knew my players were heavily not-immersive AND I got their consent to one day "spring it on them" to give 'em a taste. And then I'd let it marinate over a few campaigns until I thought they're unguarded. But they have to have that mental block(?) and want to buy in to try it.

Often it's just easier to recommend that player to play a different game I'm running. I'd rather go for the immersive players who wanna buy in from the get-go.

Its interesting you mention that, because I was going to say that adrenaline can be a natural enemy to a good Horror game, because it makes a person hyper-attuned to their environment and whats going on around them, counteracting immersion. But yeah, when I discuss horror, I really dont mean surprises or shocks, but dread and a lasting feeling of unease that continues for [a] sustained period, sometimes even after the game is over.

I gave a player's wife nightmares for a few days, who was just overhearing our game. She even went to bed early because she was being creeped out. I did not think much of the description at the time, but did feel bad once I learned of its effects on a bystander.

And it was mostly everyday description, with an uncomfortable suggestion at the end. Like witnessing a bad driver with a busted carburator smoke screening people, and later hearing on the radio of a fatal accident with the same car description fingered as the cause that got away. Or seeing headlights following you home at night, and then realizing at some point those same lights had to have been coming from inside your vehicle. Little things, y'know?

Yeah, I understand that. I have absolutely no filters in that regard. I was raised on a steady diet of horror films, and I find that almost none of them scrape the surface of what I bring to the table in a horror game. I was always frustrated with horror films, actually, because I find they way too frequently "chicken out". I don't mean in regards to gore. I'm not particularly interested in gore, and I find its mostly used as an excuse or patch for people who arent talented enough to be scary (or, in recent times, loud clanging noises, which to me are the equivalent of a horror film laugh track telling the audience "hey you're supposed to be scared here." This was ever-present and incredibly intrusive in the new "It" film). Anyways, when I say they chicken out, I mean they create this incredibly tense situation and just as its hitting a crescendo, they back out. The killer chasing them disappears, they wake up from a nightmare, etc.

Anyways, thats a personal gripe.

Yes, lack of sustained pressure bugs me, too. I also definitely prefer implicit over explicit horror, for the smothering effect removes all mental avenues of rationalization to escape. Movies that can do that, close off all avenues of excuses and lean in hard and steady, they have a warm place in my heart. Horror is not interested in your permission or convenience, just your struggle.

Absolutely. this is why I tend to either run very researched historical horror or modern day horror in a location my players are familar with, or close enough to. The majority of my game planning is building relationships.

This is a fantastic shortcut for covering Safety. "It's just like home! Except it's not anymore..."

This, very much so. Big fan of handouts, reading materials, maps, photographs, tangible items, etc.

Another nod to the often overlooked necessity of the Safety of everyday. Tangible props help mood so much because it works to build a new normal. That strengthens the bridge to amble into an immersive viewpoint, which quite a few people need to finally Buy In. Letting go of control, even for a few moments, isn't easy for some.

 

[Necrozius]

I think that a key element is the loss of control.

Your guns don't work for some reason. You try to run away, but you're moving in slow motion. You can't shake off the slime as it dissolves your arm to a bloody stump. As you lie there, paralysed, the vampire's face opens up into a crimson lamprey tangle of toothed worms which squirm about your belly. Etc...

Flipping expectations and the usual tropes. To some, that's removing player agency (a cardinal sin in some online cliques), but oh so integral to the horror genre.

It's not about the gore itself: it's about the helpless inability to do anything about it. You can try, though. This isn't just about the GM narrating scenes.

 

[Stevethulhu]

Its meant to be funny, not scary, but Twilight's message isnt anything new to specifically infest this generation, its typical lady porn. Older man meets Mary Sue character, theres a love triangle with her having to decide between two super guys who are interested in her boring shit because in her heart she believes she's special and they constantly confirm this despite never doing anything to show this to the audience. Cue familydrama. Cue rape fantasy metaphors. Its the same thing one can find in a thousand romance novels.


I dont find people's atypical sex fantasies scary, just boring.

That's not Twilight's message. The message of those books is much more insidious and in some ways, much scarier.

First up we have the no sex, I mean biting, before marriage. Good girls don't do that sort of thing! Secondly, we have the really harmful message. Girls don't need an education, they just need to be pretty enough to catch a rich husband and start making babies.

The other stuff is plot, with the usual romance tropes thrown in there. But the real message is, like I said, deeply disturbing.

 

[TristramEvans]

That's not Twilight's message. The message of those books is much more insidious and in some ways, much scarier.

First up we have the no sex, I mean biting, before marriage. Good girls don't do that sort of thing! Secondly, we have the really harmful message. Girls don't need an education, they just need to be pretty enough to catch a rich husband and start making babies.

I don't think I can comment before getting into politics, and I claim no sort of authority in regards to Twilight, having only struggled through one film adaptation and absorbed the rest of my information via internet osmosis, so I'll accede your point, I suppose. But with the caveat that I don't ascribe to the messages behind media being as big an influence over behaviour as worried parents and concerned moralists tend to think. As I said earlier in the thread, I was raised on a steady diet of horror. It doesn't mean I ascribe to any of the pernicious fundamentalist tropes that have wormed their way into that genre over the years.

 

[Stevethulhu]

I don't think I can comment before getting into politics, and I claim no sort of authority in regards to Twilight, having only struggled through one film adaptation and absorbed the rest of my information via internet osmosis, so I'll accede your point, I suppose. But with the caveat that I don't ascribe to the messages behind media being as big an influence over behaviour as worried parents and concerned moralists tend to think. As I said earlier in the thread, I was raised on a steady diet of horror. It doesn't mean I ascribe to any of the pernicious fundamentalist tropes that have wormed their way into that genre over the years.

I read them while I was in hospital for a week and needed something, anything, to keep my mind off the fact that I'd had a heart attack. And my wife had a nice looking gift set of the four books. So I ploughed through them. Being someone who was raised on early Stephen King, James Herbert and Dean Koontz, I found Twilight to be utterly horrifying. But in ways the writer probably intended to be wholesome and positive.

I have to say, it saddens me to see classic horror creatures like vampires and werewolves reduced to the role of the boyfriend who seems dangerous until you get to know the sweet and loving person behind the angry facade.

 

[The Butcher]

(and before anyone asks, no, I don't consider CoC a horror game).

Why not?

Player buy-in is everything in horror

Yes. You're not getting anything out of the players they don't want you to have, be it fear, excitement, joy... every GMing trick in the book will fail when deployed on players who don't engage the premise of the game, regardless of genre.

Safety. Secrets. Suspense. Surprise.

Nailed it. This is how I usually do it.

Incidentally this is also why high-lethality dungeon crawls make great survival horror (OD&D, I am looking at you). You can cycle through all four in a single turn!

Absolutely. this is why I tend to either run very researched historical horror or modern day horror in a location my players are familar with, or close enough to. The majority of my game planning is building relationships.

Same here. Helps a lot with the normalcy ("safety" above) set-up.

 

[Necrozius]

Blood in the Chocolate has a body horror element to it that I found truly effective.

I think that body horror hits close to home for many folks. Challenging to make that work with imaginary characters. But I'm sure that any player with a Charisma 18 babe character would squirm at him or her getting permanently disfigured.

 

[Baulderstone]

That's why I'm not a big fan of taking away the guns. Let the fools have their security blankets. Let them accidentally shoot innocents. Let them think they killed the monster and have it hit them at home at the victory celebration. Let them have the dynamite and atom bombs but let the enemy get the detonator. All the weapons are just the security Opaopajr's talking about, let them feel powerful then show them they're naked.

Another element the is common in horror is having both human and supernatural horrors present. If the players want to load up on tommy guns and dynamite, let them start cutting deals with gangsters to get them, Gangsters are always a great way to add an extra layer of brutal ugliness to a game. Then again, I don't see that dynamite trope coming up that often. If the horror your players are facing is a bag of hit points that can be taken down with dynamite, it is probably not that great a horror setup in the first place.

 

[David Johansen]

Nah, but the corrosive goo left over when the big bad explodes becomes a worse problem as it clings, absorbs, and starts to pool together. Green slime in D&D is a great little bit of body horror.

 

[Necrozius]

This image forever altered how I think of D&D slimes (spoilered just in case)

Spoiler: NSFW for gore

 

[opaopajr]

Another element [that] is common in horror is having both human and supernatural horrors present. If the players want to load up on tommy guns and dynamite, let them start cutting deals with gangsters to get them, Gangsters are always a great way to add an extra layer of brutal ugliness to a game[...]

Humans make fantastic foes, in just about every genre. It's almost a bit weird how so many Adventures (modules) eschewed using them for another monster of the week. Horror has the added advantage where human foes are easier to get into their (NPC) head space so as to pull less punches. Mankind's mind is a dark place indeed! o_O

 

[BedrockBrendan]

Horror is everywhere in role-playing. Heck it always has. Even before Call of Cthulhu took the minotaur by the horns and wove a way through the maze of how to do terror yarns on the tabletop, our sword and sorcery/post nuclear war settings were skewed with vampires, wraiths, ghouls, and goblins. In the big 90s, if an RPG didn't have a ton of space marine miniatures it had better have vampires werewolves, ghosts, angels, and demons as super-heroic figures in lurid tales of urban fantasy to sell. Since this time, many of us GMs have been honing our craft of scary storytelling. A lot of us have been getting pretty good at it. Over the past six years, I've witnessed a lot of pretty good, what I'd call up and comers, as well. Often their inspiration comes from some places I've never heard of, but their GM work is quality.

For fun, I'd like to read GMs describe their approaches to doing successful horror RPG session. Anybody got any they'd be willing to share?

What I tend to do now is have a lingering horror presence that crops up occasionally in my regular game. I find for me, that allows me to do horror more when the mood strikes and I feel inspired. It also tends to work better as well because it contrasts with the more regular sessions where horror isn't as much of a factor.

 

[BedrockBrendan]

Most of my horror games haven't really been scary. In most cases, I really am not even trying to be scary. I have run genuinely scary games though, mostly in my late teens and early 20s. That was a point where I was beginning to be a competent enough GM to pull it off, and I and my friends were still young enough that I was willing to really try to get under their skin. I wouldn't be comfortable with using the kind of content that I played with back then at the gaming table now, except maybe with a very select group of people. That aside, I have some general pointers that don't involve getting personal.
.

Blood in the Chocolate has a body horror element to it that I found truly effective.

I think that body horror hits close to home for many folks. Challenging to make that work with imaginary characters. But I'm sure that any player with a Charisma 18 babe character would squirm at him or her getting permanently disfigured.

I am personally a big fan of body horror. That can definitely work with the right group.

 

[daniel_ream]

Why not?

If the horror your players are facing is a bag of hit points that can be taken down with dynamite, it is probably not that great a horror setup in the first place.

That's why.

 

[BedrockBrendan]

That is a great observation...

I also agree that once you get together to say "Let's play a Horror game" and you put the genre in everyone's head, you may as well go home, because no one who's thinking in the 3rd person about genre is going to be scared. Suck them into their characters, get them in full 1st person, then you can scare them.

"Let's play a fantasy game" is also going to get people thinking in genre in the third person by that logic though. I don't think deliberately going for horror is a problem. I've sat down to play horror intentionally (whether it was running Call of Cthulu, an extended Ravenloft Campaign, or some one-shot horror hack) and its all fine in play. I do think people sometimes let their expectations get too lofty or are not on the same page with everyone and that leads to some of the complaints people are making. I think you can do horror in a number of different ways and there is also a difference between trying to emulate the fear and tension of horror in a movie and just wanting to game in a horror world. With the latter, I am usually more concerned about feeling like I've been dropped in a place that is ripped out of a hammer or universal horror movie, and I'm just as happy if things get corny or scary. Expecting a game to feel 100% like a film or book, where the director has so much control of your senses, is where I think folks sometimes miss the point of playing horror.

For some reason people get really bent out of shape over horror in ways they tend not to with other genres. Worst case scenario, you have a session where you are not spooked.

That said, for all the talk I here about mechanics to emulate horror the best one I've found is making sure players can die in 1-2 hits like any NPCs in the world. In most horror the protagonists are not supermen and the threat is scary because a knife is enough to kill them. Doing that can go a long way to toward making players afraid. But it doesn't have to be at the HP level. There is room to be Ash from Evil dead and still have things be scary. Anything that makes players worry about their character's safety can be effective (this is why I think old school level drain is great for undead). something as simple as giving the monsters potent, one hit kill abilities works wonders. A monster with that ability doesn't even have to show up that much to be frightening.

 

[daniel_ream]

Anything that makes players worry about their character's safety can be effective (this is why I think old school level drain is great for undead). something as simple as giving the monsters potent, one hit kill abilities works wonders.

I remember reading an interesting article on horror that claimed that the distinction between "horror" and "any other genre" (like fantasy, action, SF, whatever) was loss. The protagonists have to lose something important, whether it's their lives, loved ones, sanity, sense of innocence, bodily integrity, whatever. I think most players see a lost level as more of a loss than a lost character, paradoxically enough. Perhaps it's because it's the same character, but gimped, as compared to "I think I'll try a ranger this time".

 

[Baulderstone]

That's why.

Hey, don't use my quote to back that point up. There are many, many CoC adventures that can't be solved by dynamite.

 

[BedrockBrendan]

Hey, don't use my quote to back that point up. There are many, many CoC adventures that can't be solved by dynamite.

The cool thing about CoC is you can run it different ways. I've been in adventures where the players hold up in a church and blew stuff up with dynamite (which felt a little more like Evil Dead style) and I've been in adventures where they feel pretty close to a lovecraft story (generally I'd say Lovecraft is kind of easier to pull from because a lot of the stories are just incidents where someone discovers something they shouldn't know like a group of cultists before going mad).

 

[Stevethulhu]

The cool thing about CoC is you can run it different ways. I've been in adventures where the players hold up in a church and blew stuff up with dynamite (which felt a little more like Evil Dead style) and I've been in adventures where they feel pretty close to a lovecraft story (generally I'd say Lovecraft is kind of easier to pull from because a lot of the stories are just incidents where someone discovers something they shouldn't know like a group of cultists before going mad).

And yet in Lovecraft, people regularly read books like the Necrotelecomnicon or Unappreciative Kulten or whatever unpronounceable this tale is based around. And they do this without going mad and sometimes even come away from the experience with both relevant and useful information. The idea that Lovecraft stories all end with insanity and gibbering incoherently seems to come from the game, rather than the literature.

And I can totally see the purpose behind and the issues with what are essentially Mental Health Hit Points.

 

[Spartan]

I can't do horror worth a damn. I've known gms who could really nail it, and to this day I'm not sure how they did it. One was CoC, the other WoD. I can't put my finger on why it was good horror, it just was.

 

[BedrockBrendan]

And yet in Lovecraft, people regularly read books like the Necrotelecomnicon or Unappreciative Kulten or whatever unpronounceable this tale is based around. And they do this without going mad and sometimes even come away from the experience with both relevant and useful information. The idea that Lovecraft stories all end with insanity and gibbering incoherently seems to come from the game, rather than the literature.

And I can totally see the purpose behind and the issues with what are essentially Mental Health Hit Points.

I don't particularly care if his stories ended with madness that much or not. That wasn't really my point (I used to read Lovecraft a lot in highschool but haven't read him recently enough to weigh in on the quantity of insanity endings to his stories). I was just trying to make the point that Cthulu was enjoyable horror for me whether the GM is trying to emulate the feel of a lovecraft story or if we are blowing up stuff with dynamite. I see that as a cool part of the game's versatility.

 

[Stevethulhu]

I don't particularly care if his stories ended with madness that much or not. That wasn't really my point (I used to read Lovecraft a lot in highschool but haven't read him recently enough to weigh in on the quantity of insanity endings to his stories). I was just trying to make the point that Cthulu was enjoyable horror for me whether the GM is trying to emulate the feel of a lovecraft story or if we are blowing up stuff with dynamite. I see that as a cool part of the game's versatility.

I couldn't agree more. The fact that you can go from The Untouchables to eldritch horror and to all kinds of other places is one of the reasons CoC has survived some 30 years or more.

 

[The Butcher]

That's why.

Don't know about that. More than one good horror movie ends with a bang. But I see how YMMV.

 

[CRKrueger]

Well, I've been on an ambulance ridealong that had to respond to a devastating car accident, and I volunteer down the Legion on occasion. You really want me to answer that?

Yeah, I really want you to answer that.

(HINT: not the way gamers do, by marking off a couple more hit points and going "shit, there's the leg. I guess I'll roll up a new character next session")

Do you have any idea how ridiculously broad your assumptions about what "gamers do" are?
Hint: Broad enough to be absolutely meaningless, not to mention downright idiotic.

 

[daniel_ream]

one of the reasons CoC has survived some 30 years or more.

I would argue that the real reason for that is that it's just RuneQuest/BRP with "mental health hit points". It's a serviceable, attributes-and-skills physics emulation system, like a few hundred others. There are reasons that design paradigm has lasted for 30 years, and one of them is that it's good enough for most people.

 

[daniel_ream]

Do you have any idea how ridiculously broad your assumptions about what "gamers do" are? Hint: Broad enough to be absolutely meaningless, not to mention downright idiotic.

Well, I've never seen any gamer - "immersive", "narrative" or purple with pink polka dots - roleplay falling over, going into shock, and expiring quietly over the next few minutes as he bleeds out through the femoral artery, which is what generally happens when a leg gets severed. Have you?

 

[TristramEvans]

I would argue that the real reason for that is that it's just RuneQuest/BRP with "mental health hit points". It's a serviceable, attributes-and-skills physics emulation system, like a few hundred others. There are reasons that design paradigm has lasted for 30 years, and one of them is that it's good enough for most people.

I think thats incredibly reductionist. Call of Cthulhu has provided a vast amount of high quality adventures, supplements and support. It has, at its core, a very strong premise and well-realized setting that provides an alternative to pseudo-medieval fantasy roleplaying while at the same time a fantastical genre that instantly appeals to a large portion of the geek population. Its open enough to handle a variety of playstyles while maintaining its core conceits. The system of Call of Cthulhu I would say is the least significant nor important part of the game's legacy.

 

[TristramEvans]

Well, I've never seen any gamer - "immersive", "narrative" or purple with pink polka dots - roleplay falling over, going into shock, and expiring quietly over the next few minutes as he bleeds out through the femoral artery, which is what generally happens when a leg gets severed. Have you?

Yes. But then I play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying.

 

[CRKrueger]

Well, I've never seen any gamer - "immersive", "narrative" or purple with pink polka dots - roleplay falling over, going into shock, and expiring quietly over the next few minutes as he bleeds out through the femoral artery, which is what generally happens when a leg gets severed. Have you?

So we're shifting the goalposts away from "emotional response", I guess, huh?

 

[Spinachcat]

Safety. Secrets. Suspense. Surprise.

Done. Unpack those words and you got yourself horror in its manifold forms.

Agreed.

Messing with Safety is incredibly important.

You shot the monster with your revolver? Roll (clatter clatter). You hit? For 5 damage? Great. You watch yourself fire again and again. In fact, you fire seven shots this round. The beast is bleeding all over the place. Blood's everywhere. Floors, ceiling, walls, all over you, all over everyone. Do you keep shooting? How? The gun feels loaded. There are plenty of bullets in the chamber. Do you keep shooting? Please say yes.

Suck them into their characters, get them in full 1st person, then you can scare them.

Absolutely.

My trick is to talk to the player about their PC doing mundane shit.

ME: So Tim, you're at home. What are you doing?
Tim: Just reading.
ME: What are you reading?
Tim: Local newspaper. Looking for anything weird or interesting.
ME: There was a murder last week. Army veteran named Tommy Algers killed his wife Erma and fled the scene.
Tim: I read more about that.
ME: It continues on page 12, lower left. There is an advertisement for a new type of soap flake. Doctors recommend it for the body and the hair. The veteran was from the same company as you, but you don't remember his name. But the article goes into some details about him, hometown, jobs, family and he seems very familiar. Maybe he used another name back then? Oh, and a neighbor says they saw someone else hanging around the Algers house that night.
Tim: I lean back and try to think about everyone I knew back then.
ME: Hey Pete, how far do you live from Tim?
Pete: A couple blocks. We live in the same neighborhood.
ME: If you knew Tim was in terrible danger, how long would it take you to get to him?
Pete: I could probably run there in 5 minutes.
ME: Five minutes is a long time. A lot can happen in 5 minutes. So Tim, you are leaning back and thinking about old times, trying to remember the real name of this Army veteran.
Tim: Yeah. I have an Idea of 60%
ME: (clatter dice) It's been 6 years since the war and half your company died in France, but you run through a lot of old memories, thinking about names and faces and past histories. You mentioned you have a cat. You have a small apartment. One bedroom probably. Where is kitty right now?
Tim: Sitting in my lap. Just sleeping.
ME: Is he? You look down. Kitty is staring at you, shaking.
Tim: What's wrong kitty?
ME (jumping at the player and scraping my nails on his hand as his cat) "Meow, meow. She was your wife and you know why Tim killed her!"
Tim and Pete: (freaking the fuck out)
ME: Kitty goes back to grooming himself. Wow, its warm this summer. Good you have that window open. The article continues, and it says turn to page 23 for a pictures. Do you turn the page?
Tim: Uh, I don't know. I put down the paper.
ME: Pete, there's a knock on the door. It's Tim. He says he wants to talk to you about something.
Tim: What? I'm not there.
ME: Sure you are. And you're putting down the paper at home. Pete, are you going to answer the door? It's your old friend Tim...

 

[Spinachcat]

Incidentally this is also why high-lethality dungeon crawls make great survival horror (OD&D, I am looking at you).

Hell yeah!!

I almost always run OD&D as fantasy horror. That's generally my view of Swords & Sorcery.

Humans make fantastic foes, in just about every genre. It's almost a bit weird how so many Adventures (modules) eschewed using them for another monster of the week.

Monsters are safer. And RPGs are escapism and I've noticed lots of players are less inclined to want to kill human beings in their RPG time. Even the same people who like historical wargames where its all about butchery of your fellow man.

I can't do horror worth a damn. I've known gms who could really nail it, and to this day I'm not sure how they did it.

GMing different genres requires different talents. I love Star Wars and Super Heroes and I can't GM either of them within their own genre expectations to save my ass. My Star Wars games go creepy dark way too fast and my Supers games become soap opera tragedies where the heroes go bad sooner than later.

 

[The Butcher]

my Supers games become soap opera tragedies where the heroes go bad sooner than later.

Chris Claremont, is that you? Big fan of your work, sir. ;)

 

[Stevethulhu]

I would argue that the real reason for that is that it's just RuneQuest/BRP with "mental health hit points". It's a serviceable, attributes-and-skills physics emulation system, like a few hundred others. There are reasons that design paradigm has lasted for 30 years, and one of them is that it's good enough for most people.

The system design is only part of the equation.

The reason the system has survived 30 years with relatively little in the way of change isn't because' it's "good enough". That's an incredibly dismissive attitude to take towards one of the most successful systems of all time. The fact is, the game system gets out of your way in play and lets you get on with what your characters are doing, while being simple and intuitive enough that you can be up and running in minutes. Even as a complete beginner. It's one of the most robust and pressure tested systems on the market.

Combine that with an incredible amount of backwards compatibility, so you can use material for any edition with any other edition. And the fact that Call of Cthulhu has been an award winning game since it came out, with supplements and campaigns that are regarded as not just industry standards, but as the pinnacle of what can be done with an RPG and you start to get close to seeing why the game has been so popular for so long.

And then add in the fact that it's set in the 1920s, which is an amazingly evocative and rich period for RPGs. With prohibition, gangsters and all that good stuff as a veneer over the monsters, which have an incredibly well developed pantheon of their own.

So yeah, you can dismiss it as a serviceable system like a few hundred others. Or you can recognise it for the defining original that has seen off all challengers over the decades. And you dont even have to like it to recognise the achievements of the game.

 

[Baulderstone]

I think thats incredibly reductionist. Call of Cthulhu has provided a vast amount of high quality adventures, supplements and support.

I think Daniel has established he is largely unfamiliar with the CoC line with his claim that any CoC adventure can simply be solved with dynamite.