Really good article. I tend to think about horror like noise. If everything is loud, it can be a lot, but you know what’s going on, a least a bit. When things are quiet your mind can wander, and explore all those unpleasant possibilities. The other metaphor is that horror is like gardening. You’ve got to plant your flowers, nurture them and let them grow at a gentle pace. Then when they suddenly blossom everyone is surprised and confused 😂
Do you find that these environmental horror moments work best when sprinkled in on an improvisational basis based on the needs of the session or do you find a ratio of dread, dread, payoff in how you layout how information is being given to players?
I tend to work heavily in improv at the table and am trying to reassess how much work I do in planning to keep my stories tight while maintaining the narrative punch that can come from tailoring a situation to what’s happening at the table.
That’s a great question. When I wrote this I was thinking about keyed adventures. About prep and writing. But I think there’s a good lesson for improv as well.
If you do a lot of improv I think a lot of people can feel the pressure of the spotlight and feel forced into action. To always keep things moving forward. “Yes and”-ing. But I think this can move counter to what you want to achieve in horror if you’re constantly attempting to increase momentum.
So my takeaway for people who run games that are more improvised is that it’s okay to ask a question and leave it unanswered. For awhile.
I feel like where the pacing tension of a lot of DND-likes is the management of resources in a high risk/high reward setting, for horror games the pacing tension is instilling a sense of dread and closely cultivating it through play. I want to say it's more important than getting the rules 100%.
Two of my favorite moments in horror gaming came from the same session of Gradient Descent I ran, where a player playing a scientist legitimately fell into the "are you a human" issue and actually started freaking out IRL and then 30 minutes later the dread got so bad they started believing the android player had spoken to me privately about betraying them (they didn't).
All of that comes from what you mentioned, environmental horror, because it builds up dread. You start to think something is WAY worse than it may actually be.
And yeah you nailed it. This is like letting a steak rest before you cut it. Or letting wine breath before you drink it. Things just need time to build in horror games.
Really good article. I tend to think about horror like noise. If everything is loud, it can be a lot, but you know what’s going on, a least a bit. When things are quiet your mind can wander, and explore all those unpleasant possibilities. The other metaphor is that horror is like gardening. You’ve got to plant your flowers, nurture them and let them grow at a gentle pace. Then when they suddenly blossom everyone is surprised and confused 😂
Do you find that these environmental horror moments work best when sprinkled in on an improvisational basis based on the needs of the session or do you find a ratio of dread, dread, payoff in how you layout how information is being given to players?
I tend to work heavily in improv at the table and am trying to reassess how much work I do in planning to keep my stories tight while maintaining the narrative punch that can come from tailoring a situation to what’s happening at the table.
That’s a great question. When I wrote this I was thinking about keyed adventures. About prep and writing. But I think there’s a good lesson for improv as well.
If you do a lot of improv I think a lot of people can feel the pressure of the spotlight and feel forced into action. To always keep things moving forward. “Yes and”-ing. But I think this can move counter to what you want to achieve in horror if you’re constantly attempting to increase momentum.
So my takeaway for people who run games that are more improvised is that it’s okay to ask a question and leave it unanswered. For awhile.
I feel like where the pacing tension of a lot of DND-likes is the management of resources in a high risk/high reward setting, for horror games the pacing tension is instilling a sense of dread and closely cultivating it through play. I want to say it's more important than getting the rules 100%.
Two of my favorite moments in horror gaming came from the same session of Gradient Descent I ran, where a player playing a scientist legitimately fell into the "are you a human" issue and actually started freaking out IRL and then 30 minutes later the dread got so bad they started believing the android player had spoken to me privately about betraying them (they didn't).
All of that comes from what you mentioned, environmental horror, because it builds up dread. You start to think something is WAY worse than it may actually be.
That sounds like an awesome game!
And yeah you nailed it. This is like letting a steak rest before you cut it. Or letting wine breath before you drink it. Things just need time to build in horror games.