Meta Gaming/Creating Fear
Contents |
The Basics
Fear is one the basic and most exciting elements of and role playing game.
Here are two basic methods to stir up fear in the players.
- Paranoia said it best: "Roll lots of dice, and look like you're consulting some chart of horrors." Make the PC's think that something is always happening, even when it isn't. It can be unnerving.
- Leave terra firma. If they know all the monsters, make them look different, or give things different abilities. Knowing the game's bad guys inside and out makes a player pretty lax, even when they're up against something kind of big-- at least they know how to defeat it. They may not care much about that one orc, but give him an innate breath weapon and see how they react to ten more. Those other ten don't even necessarily have to have the special ability, because the players will be on pins and needles waiting for one of them to belch up a fireball.
Additional Techniques
What techniques do you use to scare the living crap out of your players.
- Don't kill PCs. A dead character is fertilizer. A living character has so much more possibilities.
- Don't flinch. If you're going to hurt the PCs, then do so. If you're going to threaten to hurt then, you had better be prepared to actually do so, otherwise you'll soon be seen as a toothless tiger.
- Find the right moment. Some PCs, some players, some games, some settings are just not right for fright. Size up all factors involved and make sure to ask yourself, "Is this something that they will enjoy, once it's over?" If you have doubts, ask the players discreetly if they would mind something of the general nature of what you have in mind.
- Know your players. You are trying to entertain them, not the PCs. Try to build off what the players feel strongly about.
- RPGs are primarily literary works, not visual ones. Use situations where words are stronger than images. A fountain of blood is visceral in a movie, but lacks the same impact when merely narrated. Conversely, pain in movies doesn't carry well, but the narration of the searing agony does.
- Know your tools. Read a lot. Try to read horror, if you're going to try to scare people. Try to develop a mind for pacing, for foreshadowing and most of all, try to develop a vocabulary in that area. Players have this tendency to grow bored with the same word being used over and over.
- Go slow. You'll find that the players will torture themselves far better than you ever can if you just let them simmer in it for a while. Don't let something be known unless it's absolutely necessary. Instead, make sure everything is a "maybe" or a "perhaps." If they are as imaginative as you say, they'll be making up possibilities to fill in the blanks that may well be better than you ever expected.
- Forget about the rules. Most games are designed to be 'fair' and thus, the players will usually have an out. More than that, if the players are worry about rules, then they're not sharing their character's worries. Gradually move to being a "rules-light" GM and emphasize role playing and interaction and staying in character over rewarding players for knowing the rules and how to best optimize them.
- Case in point: combat. If the characters are fighting your horror, then they're not scared. Well, they may be scared, but not enough you'll know when the PCs are scared -- that's when they interrupt your description of the situation with announcements of flight. And, like point 8, if they're busying about their to-hit and whether or to attack all-out or to hold back some in reserve, they're doing math.
Some math may frighten you (I was that way with 2nd semester Statistics), but I'm sure most RPG math won't.
- Have stuff happen around the PCs more often than directly to them. Have their loved ones threatened, or their friends. Have them be the indirect cause of the horror, so they're obliged to try to stop it. Have them see the before and after - the effects of the horror. Give them a warm and vibrant NPC friend who encounters the horror and becomes withdrawn and scarred. Have a girlfriend be "chosen." Show the darkness by contrasting it with life and light. Show that it can be stronger. And show that it too is in the characters, however small.
Techniques for split groups
- If they're permanently split, run them every-other game session. It will give them incentive to re-join if nothing else.
- Co-GM them, if your group is already into troupe play. It depends on how much of a micro-GM you are. (think micro-manager)
- Put them in "cliffhanger" situations and tell them that you'll get back to them when you're done with the other group and they had better have an answer by them.
- Let the 'inactive' players play the part of NPCs if the scene calls for smarter opposition or non-combat interaction. Rotate positions when the 'inactive' group's turn comes up.
- Beat the tar out of one group and let them learn that they can't face the stuff alone, or split up. If you have to choose, make sure to pound the group with the person who first advocated the split. (Editor's note: yeah, yeah. I know. Railroading....)
Techniques for playing a party member as GM?
I don't. The rest of the PCs then tend to look to the GM/PC for answers and leadership too often. More than that, there is the specter of favoritism and nepotism that you'd have to worry about. Lastly, my hands and brain are full handling 3 to 6 other players, why should I have to worry about one more character without a player to give me feedback?
Comedy and Horror
Something else that works, but takes a lot of practice with is blending comedy and horror. Comedy and Horror are pretty much two sides of the same time and getting them to relax and laugh can throw them off guard and leave themselves wide open for the next assault. This is a variant on the time honored film technique of seeing the huge, looming shadow on the wall and having a small kitten dart out from behind a box. Blows the tension off real fast, they relax, and WHAMO! the big/ugly/nasty attacks. Even if they kill the big ugly nasty, you still win in the "I scared you olympics."
