Games of FEAR

[Gauntlet]

What games have you played in the past that were truly creepy and could even bring about a little fun fear into you?

[Lord Liaden]

Top of the list for me is Allen Varney's classic adventure, ANOPHELES: Atrocities From Beyond, originally published as "Horror World" in the 4E Champions supplement, Champions in 3-D. This is the purest translation of Lovecraftian cosmic horror I've ever seen for the supers genre. It's generally tough to scare supers -- they're more likely to punch monsters in the face than run from them.   The genius of this adventure is that the overall threat is of a kind that can't be beaten by brute force.

 

Allen generously put the whole adventure and character sheets on his personal website (link above), with Hero Games' permission. I'm not normally a fan of horror, but I admire how well crafted this adventure is. Be warned, it's not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Seriously, I mean it.

Edited September 5, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Lord Liaden]

As long as I'm on the subject of Champions, I also want to give honorable mention to "What Rough Beast," an adventure by John Sullivan originally published in Adventurers Club #3. Patric L. Rogers reprinted and updated the adventure for HERO 4E, with character sheets and maps, and put it on his website, where it's very well laid out and easy to navigate. You can access it here.

 

IMHO this is the best "dungeon crawl" adventure ever published for Champions, with a very effectively set up creepy mood and tone. It also has notes to convert it to GURPS and Villains and Vigilantes.

Edited September 5, 2023 by Lord Liaden

[Gauntlet]

When the Danger International book came out, I started a horror game. The characters were investigators of a multitude of backgrounds dealing from the standard monster to lovecraftian issues. Game is still going on using 5th edition Hero.

[Sketchpad]

For Hero? Not much. I did run a Champions adventure where the heroes battled spellcasters looking to bring elder things to Earth. It was a bit darker than my usual games, but everyone had some fun. Most of the horror games I've ran were either in GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, or Chill.

[Khymeria]

The upcoming Victorian Hero has a lot of horror, both fictional and reality, meshed altogether if that’s what you like. The Anopheles: Atrocities From Beyond mentioned by @Lord Liadenand a couple other adventures in that style, is what led to the invention of a Madness mechanic. One way to create fear is to have characters lose pieces of their mind bit by bit. It’s that whole Lovecraft vibe, only you are involved through your character and not just reading it. Some wounds take longer to heal than others. 

[Gauntlet]

But what would a GM do to make his gave actually fearful. Is it in the way he/she describes things, the players themselves, or what?

[Khymeria]

9 hours ago, Gauntlet said:

But what would a GM do to make his gave actually fearful. Is it in the way he/she describes things, the players themselves, or what?

This is going to differ for each group. If you are trying to strike fear in players, it helps to set a mood. Cultivate a Pandora channel or set up a playlist of appropriate mood music. Lighting is good in person (fear is super challenging to cultivate through mood online in my opinion). Description is next, the more the better, the more shocking, disturbing, and chilling the better. Imminent danger to characters works well if the players have investment in the characters. But mileage may vary based on players. 

[Steve]

I run an occasional game of Delta Green Hero, and it is difficult to generate fear in players unless the setting for where you play supports it. Sitting around a table in a brightly lit room makes it hard to generate fear, but my players do roleplay their characters being afraid.

[Khymeria]

1 hour ago, Steve said:Sitting around a table in a brightly lit room makes it hard to generate fear, but my players do roleplay their characters being afraid.

There is definitely a level of player buy-in that needs to exist that no amount of challenge, setting, or ambience is going to overcome if it isn’t there. Excellent point! 

[Lord Liaden]

A little mood lighting and evocative music helps a lot.

[assault]

Playing in a dimly lit farmhouse in the middle of nowhere helps. Add a touch of LARPing if you are keen.

The game I am remembering was Call of Cthulhu. The scenario was loosely based on Robert E Howard's "Dig Me No Grave".

[tkdguy]

The players also have to be willing to at least roleplay being scared. Otherwise, any horror game will fail.

[Gauntlet]

12 hours ago, tkdguy said:

The players also have to be willing to at least roleplay being scared. Otherwise, any horror game will fail.

 

That's definitely true. There are many players who feel that if their character fears something they have lost.

[tkdguy]

One thing you can do if the characters are dealing with a supernatural being on its own turf is that all the characters' special abilities are ineffective there. Only the supernatural being's power works. Be prepared for some pushback from the players, though.

[Gauntlet]

2 minutes ago, tkdguy said:

One thing you can do if the characters are dealing with a supernatural being on its own turf is that all the characters' special abilities are ineffective there. Only the supernatural being's power works. Be prepared for some pushback from the players, though.

 

Just goes to show that if you want to run a good horror game you need to choose your players wisely.

[tkdguy]

21 minutes ago, Gauntlet said:

 

Just goes to show that if you want to run a good horror game you need to choose your players wisely.

 

That is quite true. Of course, if the characters are mere mortals who choose to mess with the gods, they shouldn't be surprised to find themselves outclassed.

[MrAgdesh]

Delta Green. 

[Gauntlet]

On 9/13/2023 at 2:53 PM, tkdguy said:

That is quite true. Of course, if the characters are mere mortals who choose to mess with the gods, they shouldn't be surprised to find themselves outclassed.

 

Yea, but sometimes they still win...

[tkdguy]

9 hours ago, Gauntlet said:

 

Yea, but sometimes they still win...

 

Not much fun for them if they don't have a chance. The odds of them prevailing should be very slim, very slim but not impossible.

Edited September 21, 2023 by tkdguy

[Lord Liaden]

"Prevailing" in a horror game is often very different from fantasy or supers. The threat usually isn't something the protagonists can defeat with brute force. They need to just survive until they can devise or discover a method for them to win, if they can. In Lovecraftian horror, for example, stopping the unspeakable alien monstrosity is most often a matter of preventing whatever ritual/ceremony will bring it to this world, rather than fighting it directly. With Stephen King's writing the protagonists usually need to uncover the threat's hidden weakness or vulnerability.

[Gauntlet]

1 hour ago, tkdguy said:

 

Not much fun for them if they don't have a chance. The odds of them prevailing should be very slim, very slim but not impossible.

 

I definitely don't disagree with you. Many times in those type of situations the players need to think their way through, not just attack and assume they are powerful enough to win. I have found that many times players will say something is impossible because they do assume that a direct conflict is the only way to go. Part of the GMs job in this case is give them a good chance to understand that there are other ways to win then just direct combat.

[Khymeria]

16 minutes ago, Gauntlet said:

 

I definitely don't disagree with you. Many times in those type of situations the players need to think their way through, not just attack and assume they are powerful enough to win. I have found that many times players will say something is impossible because they do assume that a direct conflict is the only way to go. Part of the GMs job in this case is give them a good chance to understand that there are other ways to win then just direct combat.

Sometimes I will dig deep and come up with some strange ways that to defeat the threat that the characters can discover through investigation. This is where skills like Journalism, Research, Antiquities, and such can really start coming in handy. Like the characters finding out the key to stopping Dorian Gray from terrorizing one of their DNPCs is to find his portrait and destroy it. That sort of thing can be a lot of fun for the right group of players.

Edited September 21, 2023 by Khymeria

[Gauntlet]

Whan any of you do run a fear based game, do any of you try to setup the gaming area for it? Such as diming the lights, not allowing laptops, strange music, etc..

[Lord Liaden]

If everyone knows in advance that's what we're doing, and they're all on board with it, absolutely. Otherwise, e.g. for a change-of-pace scenario, doing that just telegraphs what's coming and spoils the surprise.

 

But as I mentioned earlier, I don't care for the horror genre, so I personally rarely run it.