Gamemastering a Horror Story

Introduction

This article outlines my thoughts on how to GM a good horror scenario in a role-playing game. This article can assist you in running scenarios of varying length, from a convention game clocking in at a lean three and a half hours, to longer scenarios and campaigns. I will begin by discussing how to run what I feel are the two main types of good horror scenarios. I call these two types “confrontation with the unknown” and “bait and switch.” I will conclude this article with my thoughts on how such principles apply to a horror investigation, the most common vehicle for taking characters through a horror scenario.

What makes a good horror scenario?

Players seem to enjoy a good horror scenario for the same visceral reasons that people enjoy watching a well-crafted horror film or reading a good horror story. Prominent among these reasons is the catharsis that comes with a final release of tension. This article can help you to capture that lightning in the bottle of your game. To begin with, I feel that there are two main patterns for a good horror scenario. I call these “confrontation with the unknown” and “bait and switch.” Speaking generally, a good horror scenario:

How does “confrontation with the unknown” work?

This scenario has three main elements:

(1) Isolate the players. The players and any non-player characters (NPCs) that you wish to have in the scenario must be the only people that the players can rely upon to aid them in their immediate conflict. As a general rule of thumb, the more complete the players’ physical and social isolation, the more effective your scenario will be. The levels of isolation, from most isolated to least isolated, are:

(A) Total physical and social isolation. For the greatest effect, you would physically and socially isolate the players from all contact with human society. Put them alone on an island; in the depths of space; in an undersea facility; in a remote wilderness area; etc. This is your ideal setting, making the players truly alone against the unknown.

(B) As (A), above, but with some remote communication with human society. You may wish to allow the players some limited interaction with human society, but without its physical presence. You could, for example, allow physically isolated characters some social contact through remote communications, such as email; cellular phones; or satellite communications. This still means that the players can only rely upon each other for immediate survival. You should arrange things so that the remote society cannot come to the players’ physical aid.

(C) You could also place the characters in isolation from larger human society but allow them to interact with unhelpful or hostile human locals. For example, the players may be near a small settlement of degenerate squatters or in an isolated community that dark forces dominate or have corrupted. So long as the players can expect no help from anyone but themselves, they are isolated enough for this element.

(D) As (C), above, but with some remote communication with human society. Again, this still means that the players can only rely upon each other for immediate survival.

(E) No social or physical isolation from human society. Here, the scenario takes place in normal human society, even megacities such as Chicago or New York City. In this setting, the players are physically and socially integrated into society. However, you can still socially isolate the players during their conflict with the unknown. One of the ways that you can do this is through the very unnaturalness of what the players are encountering. Nobody will want to believe that unnatural things exist in the world, so society will reject the players’ attempts to pull it into the players’ conflict with the unknown.

In actual practice, the players will foresee this resistance, at least subconsciously. As a result, they will not mention to others the increasing levels of unnatural threat that they face. In other words, the players will actually isolate themselves and arrange things so that they face the unknown alone. However, if you choose this least isolated setting, you have the ultimate responsibility to physically and socially isolate the players during their actual confrontations with the unknown or its minions. You must find ways to keep the players from gaining society’s aid, including the intervention of military, law enforcement or other authorities, during actual confrontations with the unknown or its minions.

(2) Slowly build the tension. As the scenario progresses, the players should be aware of unnatural things happening and should experience increasing levels of unease, tension and fear. First, however, you must let the players game for a short period in a safe and normal world. A solid rule of horror storytelling is that disorientation can only occur after orientation. This rule applies to all aspects of your scenario, from the characters themselves to more obvious elements such as plot, location and supernatural premises. The insanity that a character develops from her experiences, or the desperate measures that a character must take to survive, have a more chilling impact if you have established the character first in a normal, civilized setting. The fact that unspeakable monsters dwell in the shadows of civilization is more horrifying to players if they have first experienced the bright, sunny world that their characters believed they were living in.

Once you have established the safe and cheerful mundanity of the game world, you can subvert it for horrific effect. To subvert reality, slowly craft and build the tension. A progression that I like is:

(A) Begin with the mundane. Some examples of this subversion are through a description of the players’ surroundings; the weather; how the locals are acting toward them, etc. Describe these things in a manner that is foreboding but still plausible or natural. Toy with the players’ senses without throwing anything actually unusual at them.

(B) Move up to coincidences. Use small things that will build unease but could still be explained away. Branches scratching on a windowpane; doors or windows blowing open in a storm; crashing sounds or strange cries in the woods at night; the mysterious flapping of leathery wings outside at night; a figure that is seen in the shadows but vanishes when approached and may have been imagination, or turns out to be just a tree stump; an animal that gets into the house and leaps out suddenly, startling one of the players, these are all good things.

(C) Move next to unnatural things. Use more viscerally disturbing things, but still reveal nothing of what the players are facing. This includes gutted animals in the woods; strange mobiles hanging from trees or in rooms in an abandoned house; occult symbols spray-painted on walls or floors; the certain and persistent feeling that one is being watched; definitely seeing moving figures in the distant shadows that disappear when you get closer; strange contacts on radar or remote sensing devices; scattered animal? bones; unnatural silence in a forest, etc.

(D) Move next to the footprints of the unknown. These include unmistakable signs that the players are the focus of unnatural attention. This includes vehicles or equipment mysteriously sabotaged; NPCs attacked, killed or disappearing; players attacked by low-level minions of the unknown; homes or vehicles broken into; a road barricaded by debris; glimpses of unnatural beings; strange weather patterns; spell effects, etc.

(3) Confront the unknown. When you have the players frightened and panicked, then it is time for the final horror -- the unknown reveals itself, its very existence an insult to the players’ known order of the universe. Remember, only fully reveal the unknown in the final encounters of the scenario. If you reveal too much too soon, your scenario will lose its force. Once the players confront the unknown, unnatural or supernatural things should come thick and fast, sweeping the players away with a continuing assault on their sanity. Keep piling it on higher and higher as the players try to resolve the scenario. Those that survive should be scarred by what they have experienced.

The best horror stories follow this pattern. Lovecraft’s great stories did. Great horror movies such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien and The Blair Witch Project did as well. In fact, what was so special and seemed so unusual about The Blair Witch Project was that it was a textbook example of the above progression.

General thoughts: A good confrontation with the unknown scenario may emphasize the various stages of (2) and (3), above, differently, or may skip back and forth among the stages of (2), above. However, it should generally follow the above progression. As an example of shifting emphasis, the players may be called upon to investigate a horrific and unnatural-seeming event. Such a scenario would begin with unnatural things, stage (2)(C), above. However, even as the players investigate the horrific event, in the background you should start with the players living in a mundane world, then build the progression as if from ground zero as the scenario continues.

A shocking sight at the beginning of a scenario is shocking, not frightening. However, an opening shock is a legitimate tool and can, for example, give you a jump start to unease that will pervade and set the tone for the entire scenario. However, a shock at the beginning of a scenario is more often the cheap thrill of a hack than the powerful opening of a master. This is a horror scenario, not an action scenario. You do not need to open with a bang to get the players’ interest. Therefore, use opening shocks carefully and make sure that your progression stays at an appropriate pace.

Final thought: the trick to GM’ing a good confrontation with the unknown scenario is in slowly building the tension to an unbearable point, then releasing it in a blast of horror.

How does “bait and switch” work?

This type of scenario relies for its effect on an ending that contains both horror and surprise. This scenario is like the better episodes of The Twilight Zone and Tales From the Crypt. For the entire scenario, the players work toward a conclusion that they believe they know. When they reach the conclusion, they realize in shock and horror that their assumption about what the ending was, indeed about the reality of the game world, was grievously, tragically wrong.

The steps followed are something like this:

(1) Cast out your line. This scenario requires the players to believe that they have a clear understanding of where they are heading. They should believe that they know what their roles are and where their experiences are leading them. Establish a bait plotline early on and make it obvious. Unlike confrontation with the unknown, here the players need not be isolated. They may even think that their characters are in little danger despite the unnerving occurrences – until the very end.

(2) Slowly reel in the bait as the players trail after it. Lead the players down a primrose path that seems like a predictable storyline. Take them through stage (2) of confrontation with the unknown, above. However, make it seem obvious to them what the unknown should be. Focus more on the story and its mechanics, less on building unease and tension. The undermining of the story at the end will provide the scenario with its punch, more than the unease that you have been building.

(3) Hook and bag the players. When the end comes, you should have totally deceived the players about what was coming. They should almost be more shocked by how wrong they were, than by what is about to happen to them. Almost.

Final thought: the trick to GM’ing a good bait and switch scenario is in crafting a good story, from start to finish. The unease and tension that you build is necessary, but auxiliary to this.

How do the above principles apply to a horror investigation?

The horror investigation is the most common vehicle for taking characters through a horror scenario. In a horror investigation, the players begin by investigating an unusual occurrence. Their investigation draws them deeper into a web of unnatural events, culminating in a confrontation with the unknown or a shocking twist ending. Generally, the players move from location to location in a horror investigation, finding clues and encountering minions of the unknown.

These scenarios present challenges to building a mood of unease and tension. They generally involve a series of tension-building moments with waiting periods in between, rather than total immersion in a gradually crumbling reality. This is because in a horror investigation, the players are purposefully initiating encounters with the unknown, rather than the other way around. When the players are between encounters, they usually feel safe. This is because the unknown lurks on the fringes of society, where the players seek it at their leisure.

I leave it to your creativity as a GM to make horror investigations more tense. In practice, the players will want to move from one encounter to the next as quickly as possible, so you should have few problems resulting from long waiting periods. More general problems with pacing are beyond the scope of this article. However, I have these suggestions for horror investigations:

(1) Remember to isolate the players during their actual confrontations with the unknown or its minions. As explained in (1)(E) of confrontation with the unknown, above, you must find ways to keep the players from gaining society’s aid, including the intervention of military, law enforcement or other authorities, during actual confrontations with the unknown or its minions. As always, the more isolation, the better.
(2) Take the fight to the players. Have the unknown begin to bleed into the players’ waiting periods, when appropriate. This lets you more easily and continuously take the players through stage (2) of confrontation with the unknown, above. Be careful when using this tool, however; having the unknown seek out the players is a clichéd method of adding excitement to a scenario.
(3) Build tension at each location that the players investigate. In an investigation scenario, the players visit a series of locations in search of clues. Some of these locations will have unnatural elements, such as a forbidden book, unusual symbols, or even minions of the unknown. At all locations as appropriate, and especially at locations with unnatural elements, take the players through stage (2) of confrontation with the unknown, above. These locations are, in fact, your primary tools to move the players through stage (2) of confrontation with the unknown, above.

Conclusion

GMing a good horror scenario is like telling a good horror story. Using effective horror story patterns -- familiar to you through movies, television and literature -- will see you a long way toward GMing a good horror scenario. Beyond this, your art as a GM will make the difference and give your players something to remember for a long time.