Fantasy? Sci-Fi? Modern?
close to modern, 1920's to near future, setting closer to home, it gives players a closer idea of everything.
Agreed. Modern.
Although, the most successful horror adventure I ran was in 1E D&D. I think that had more to do with it being a solo game and the player taking it seriously, instead of wise-cracking, though.
For me it's not a setting specifically. It's a genre that I can do well. The fear of the unknown. Doesn't mater if it's a fantasy setting with some unknow horror stalking the group or a sci-fi setting with a seemingly unstoppable alien force. It's that level of certain doom that I like to keep hovering, yet untangible. I then use that to try and keep their paranoia up.
I use Modern. It allows me to concentrate on horror and gameplay without worrying about setting. Also, on those occasions where I do need to research the setting, it's just a wikipedia link away. :)
-O
Modern makes it easier to twist the familiar.
But pre-modern makes it easier to create isolation and helplessness. You don't need to make the phones stop working or the gun to jam because those don't exist. Travel and communication times are incredibly slow. Sending a rider to get help from the next village to get help would take hours or a day - that's harder to do in modern. Not impossible but hard to do repeatedly without feeling contrived (like Star Trek which has to continually invent reasons why transporters wouldn't help).
I'd really like to run Cthulhu Dark Ages some time.
Quote from: kryystFor me it's not a setting specifically. It's a genre that I can do well. The fear of the unknown.
I agree, the specific setting I don't find particularly important. The important thing is that the PCs don't have a lot of control over events and maybe aren't even sure what's going on. That can be modern, fantasy, 1920s, sci-fi, whatever. I've always thought of movies like Alien and Blair Witch Project as glorified CoC adventures, and they both work within their settings just fine.
Quote from: cranberryI agree, the specific setting I don't find particularly important. The important thing is that the PCs don't have a lot of control over events and maybe aren't even sure what's going on. That can be modern, fantasy, 1920s, sci-fi, whatever. I've always thought of movies like Alien and Blair Witch Project as glorified CoC adventures, and they both work within their settings just fine.
Precisely. It doesn't mater if you are in the past with swords or the future with guns. If something is out there and you don't know what the hell it is or how to stop it/them. That's what terror is. The 'it' doesn't even have to be a physical thing. It can just be an imagined circumstance that's also got to be stopped. Much of CoC horror isn't even based on killing the big bad the real obstacle is on preventing the big bad from even showing up.
Maybe I should have said.. "easiest" Which is easiest to keep your players involved with the horror and not cracking knights of nee jokes. personaly I think near modern settings are best. fewer elements to distract the players.
Quote from: Kyle VOlttiMaybe I should have said.. "easiest" Which is easiest to keep your players involved with the horror and not cracking knights of nee jokes. personaly I think near modern settings are best. fewer elements to distract the players.
Yes, I think the familiar tends to lull people into a false sense of security. MUHAHAHA.
Isolation works the best. If the players feel there is a more powerful organization or group that could/should take care of the horror that can be contacted it takes away from things. They must be cut off from alerting any significant amounts of military, police, etc...
I think any setting that feels "fantastic" in any sense runs a real risk of taking away from the suspense. So for my preference, modern or recent history. CoC picked out three good eras when they published material for 1890, 1920 and "now".
Quote from: Kyle VOlttiMaybe I should have said.. "easiest" Which is easiest to keep your players involved with the horror and not cracking knights of nee jokes. personaly I think near modern settings are best. fewer elements to distract the players.
I know what you are getting at but it wouldn't really change my position. The setting doesn't mater. It's about being comfortable in a genre. If you can make what is going on believable and engaging then the players are more likely to get caught up in the moment.
But I actually find modern to be the most difficult setting to do horror in. Players just expect too much of how things should work, they use real life logic more frequently in the game because, well the game is mimicing technology and settings that they are familiar.
So with that in mind if you take them out of their familiarity to a fantasy or future setting you've already introduced an 'alien' element. You can use their lack of knowledge with the time period to build the horror. One other bigger advantage to a fantasy setting is that they don't have guns. Sure they may have magic but the big bad is going to feel a lot more personal when you've got to get right up to it and stab it.
Sure you can do the same in modern, make something immune to bullets or set up specific circumstances. But that also gets old if every monster can't be shot or every encounter is in a space limiting situation etc..
I isolated the hell out of the characters in my modern CoC game a few times...
(1) An huge, Elder Thing complex a mile under the Sonora Desert. (One way in/out, and cell phones sure as hell don't work)
(2) Aulavik Park on Northern Banks Island.
(3) A temporal shift to a hidden shrine, only accessible under the light of Polaris.
Finally, they work for the "big guns" against supernatural threats. If I take out their bosses, or make them distrust their bosses, it's an effective degree of isolation even though they're in the middle of a city.
-O
Nothing beats the gothic style as seen in Ravenloft and old horror movies.
One that isn't horror.
Everyone expects horror with Ravenloft or Call of Cthulhu, so if you really want to bring across the feeling of horror during play you should use a setting or system that isn't known for horror. Make it an unexpected surprise for your Players.
I find that a sense of dread works well in pretty much anything. E.g. I used in Middle-Earth (and besides, Tolkien did too)
GW-based RPGs weren't bad. I had fun running horror-themed campaigns in both WFRP2e and Dark Heresy. I tried playing in a Black Crusade game, but it just didn't click and we dropped it after five or six sessions (depends on if a session 0 with about an hour of actual play counts as a session).
One setting I've always been intrigued to run a horror campaign within would be the colonial period (say, 1740 to Napoleon). There not much available for it but I can't help but think that a period that is sort of on the edge of the scientific era would be fertile ground for eldritch horror.
What setting works best? A message forum...where a thread dead for damn near twenty years ARISES FROM ITS GRAVE!
Fuggit, though. I have been digging space horror lately, a lot of Mothership stuff. Gradient Descent in particular.
Quote from: unclefes on December 19, 2024, 10:50:00 PMOne setting I've always been intrigued to run a horror campaign within would be the colonial period (say, 1740 to Napoleon). There not much available for it but I can't help but think that a period that is sort of on the edge of the scientific era would be fertile ground for eldritch horror.
Witch Hunter: The Invisible World comes close, but it's set in 1689.
I've always found the best horror comes from freaking out the players, not the characters, so whatever is most immersive for your players, usually modern.
Witch Hunter: The Invisible World comes close, but it's set in 1689.
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I'll check that out, thanks! There's also an RPG called Nations and Cannons set during the AWI, which could be a good source.
I don't think setting is really a major factor in what makes a horror game work. A big part of it is player buy-in. If the players are constantly undermining the atmosphere, then a horror game won't work regardless of setting. Horror games only work if the players want them to work. The rules are a big part too. It's hard to sell the horror if there's isn't much sense of danger. That's why Curse of Strahd winds up being more gothic tinged D&D fantasy that gothic horror. It's hard to maintain a horror atmosphere when you can get rid of a ghost by just stabbing it and there's almost no chance of your character actually dying.
Early modern is great for most Horror campaigns, but I agree that isolating your players is the best practice. That's why we have those horror tropes; the log cabin in the middle of nowhere, the eerie forest at night, a seemingly abandoned space station, the house in the corner of the neighborhood that no one dares to go near, a newly discovered cave system. Any scenario can become horror/mysterious if the players can feel that something is off on what should be a familiar place.
The sole thing against modern is that it's harder to isolate people, but that of course can be overcome. You either engineer a way to isolate the players, or make the threat itself one that no amount of technology/no amount of soldiers or cops/no amount of people around is going to make a difference. Examples of this can be seen in movies like "The Ring," "Hereditary" or "Smile." In "The Ring," modern technology itself was even used to add to the horror -- VHS tapes, telephones and televisions were all used to great effect.
Quote from: Thornhammer on December 19, 2024, 11:27:10 PMGradient Descent in particular.
I'm hoping to get this on the table soon!
IHMO - Sci-fi.
I understand that we are talking about TTRPG, but first I would like to tell about "Black Mirror". Although it is not exactly a horror, it is scary precisely because it is almost already in our lives.
Sci-fi TTRPG for Horror? Mothership. Why sci-fi may be most interesting for horror? Boundless worlds that may be different from the Earth. Space, frightening in nature. Other creatures alien to us. Artificial intelligence, not under the control of humanity. and much more. All these factors can only be imagined in the future.
So sci-fi may be not the ideal setting for horror. But it is the one with the largest room for scary ideas.
Quote from: Kyle VOltti on March 02, 2006, 08:51:38 PMFantasy? Sci-Fi? Modern?
Colonial America, pre-War of 1812.
I might be biased, however.
Quote from: unclefes on December 20, 2024, 02:14:36 AMWitch Hunter: The Invisible World comes close, but it's set in 1689.
I'll check that out, thanks! There's also an RPG called Nations and Cannons set during the AWI, which could be a good source.
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Well, there is Colonial Gothic...
Modern works best, at least for me. Something something makes it feel more tangible something.
Modern works best as it's more relatable. Can really psyche players out with current news stories escalating wildly. I also have to tip my hat to a criminally underused sub genre of horror which is the 'horror western'. With its desolate pockets of civilization, savage outlaws all around, exploring unknown lands, meeting indigenous people who view you as trespassers, god-fearing sermons and superstitions, the setting is perfectly ripe for it.
I think that a horror game needs to be in a place that is pretty familiar to the players. They have to be able to really empathize with their character and the more they can picture the situation the more immersive the experience. I think that fantasy or sci-fi settings can work if the players are tuned into those settings but everyone can relate to a modern situation.
Honestly, even though I am not a big WoD fan, Vampire: Dark Ages was pretty much one of the better horror games I've ever played. That said...
Quote from: jeff37923 on December 19, 2024, 09:46:52 PMOne that isn't horror.
Everyone expects horror with Ravenloft or Call of Cthulhu, so if you really want to bring across the feeling of horror during play you should use a setting or system that isn't known for horror. Make it an unexpected surprise for your Players.
I agree. I ran a Halloween game two years ago that was essentially SpecOps dudes trying to rescue some hostages, it turned into a horror game about halfway through and ended up with the PCs locked in essentially an inescapable hell. I ran it straight for as long as I could and the players bought into it just being a paramilitary exercise of hired mercs doing some dirty work, but when I started asking if they were taking the AKs of the fallen terrorists they got suspicious. About twenty minutes later they realized their badass rifles were useless against the supernatural and were wishing for some wooden stocks aka clubs. That was a fun game.
As others have said, isolation, track their resources. Strange sounds, eerie glows, unnatural darkness or bizarre shadows, odd mutations, any of these can unsettle a group. There is a bit of an art to keeping the fear from becoming paranoia and bogging the game down.
Quote from: Kyle VOltti on March 02, 2006, 08:51:38 PMFantasy? Sci-Fi? Modern?
I like Modern the most, for most players it lets you immerse without having to think "Would this be readily available?" or imagining how characters would be dressed or other things like that.
Horror can be done in any setting. Call of Cthulhu is a testament to that: modern, 1920s, Roman era, Dark Ages. It all works with the right system, GM, and setting the atmosphere/mood.
Any.
It is all a matter of the DM and the players.
And ANY can fail for the same factors. No amount of atmosphere and description is going to work if the players are running the Three Stooges through it and take nothing seriously.