Thoughts On Horror & Terror In Games

I just saw (and LOVED) the Resident Evil movie. It is making me think about horror in RPGs.

What do I mean by horror? And what is terror? And how does tension fit in?

As literary critic Devendra Varma summarized, if terror is the smell of death in an old house, horror is stumbling over the savaged corpse. Terror is thus affective, emotional response, how your imagination runs wild at the thought of what you'll find, versus the horror of actually finding the blood and gore and the physical reactions of shock they entail. Between these two, Tension is the anticipation or stress between feeling terror and finding the horror, and amplifies the shock.

For example, in the Resident Evil movie (SPOILERS), when the protagonist moves through a winnebago blocking a tunnel, there is a burst of terror when a washroom door rattles and a plaintive female voice whispers "Help me..." from the other side. There is a splash of horror when we see that it is a mutated girl hiding, which shifts to unease then mounting horror as the hero sees to what extent she is infected.

Emulating horror is tough in movies, and is equally a sticky wicket in RPGs. From my Call of Cthulhu, Ravenloft, and CHILL experience, I can say games do horror passably well, but often lose the plot with terror.

D&D  

Old D&D (up to 2E) did horror well enough. Hit points were low and only the DM had read the monster manual, so there was palpable terror and tension with what you would find in the dungeon and what they would do to you. Creatures like green slime also embodied the horror as they were not only revolting in description, their ultimate horror was that they could infect you and turn you into one of them. The fear of the unknown and fear of death were the pillars of OD&D horror.

The last time I played was a 4E game, and the game had 0 tension in the fight after fight we were dragged through and the 4 page character sheet of kewl powers I had to evade any sense of danger.

As I discussed on the Breakfast in the Ruins podcast, the real horror of OD&D was level drain, a purely existential dread considering level advancement was the impetus of gaming back then. The fact that newer editions have nerfed this threat points to their prioritizing heroism over horror.

Call of Cthulhu

Like D&D, CoC has the low hitpoints and strange creatures that hardwire in the fear of death. Yet the main horror is the unkillable nature of the enemies, in keeping with the source material. Yes, you can get a bazooka and destroy Cthulhu, but in 24 hours he just coalesces again, and some power mad or just plain mad humans will help him. That said, lots of my games have been closer to black comedy as the easy of death and futility of fighting cosmic forces kick in.

Dead of Night

DoN Starts out like a trad RPG with its stats, but its Survival Points and Tension score take it off the rails into darker territory. Survival Points bring you closer to death as they are spent, while Tension warps the world as it builds up. Having Survival Points as basically spendable hit points really works to build tension and terror from player actions instead of GM fiat. The game is rules light and built to emulate horror genre films.

Ten Candles

This game is fittingly described as 'tragic horror.' You sit in a darkened room, each player having a candle before them, which goes out if their character dies. Character creation is shared between players and partially randomized, and this ceding of power contributes to the fear of the unknown and loss of control over who you play. Ditto the enemy, which is also randomized between player suggestions, so you never know what is coming. Finally, control of the narrative switches between the GM and players depending on dice rolls, amping up helplessness and the terror that accompanies it.

There are elements of LARP and gothic horror here, and they work well.

Dread

Like Ten Candles, this game externalizes the terror to a physical mechanic, in this case Jenga. Also like Ten Candles, it is rules light and focuses on minimal characterization so as not to distract from the game or make overcompetent / unkillable characters. The use of Jenga hardwires tension into the game, but can be derailed if players are too good or bad at taking blocks. Neither Dread nor Ten Candles are suited for longterm play, which is in keeping with a game where death is always at your elbow.

Conclusion

In traditional games, horror was based on fear of death and disempowerment of heroic characters. In more modern horror games, players cede power to create flawed everyday characters, while games have added externalities that either reflect the atmosphere or mechanically create tension.

I have no intent on making a horror game, but the above considerations are useful to any horror fans who want to.