• 1. The meaning of fear

• 2. The players scare themselves

TIP: Be vague with sensory details. Let creatures, effects, the evidence of violence or madness, the trappings and costs of magic, and so on all be left up to the imaginations of the players. Suggest things, do not determine or mandate things. If a sacrifice was made and some human parts are left in a bowl, suggest it's shape, or colour, or size, or smell... and let them fill in the blanks. DO NOT be vague with empirical details of location. Denying information about the appearance of horrific things empowers players to create the details which matter to and lead them to horror. Denying information about distances, entrances and exits, stability of the floor, etc interferes with player ability to make choices and that is a barrier to generating fear as it leads to a loss of immersion and an increase of frustration.

Performance Skills

While play itself will be varied, strike different chords in the players, and follow your creepingly increasing pace toward terror, players need to be able to divorce themselves from the outside world and clean their mental slate before embarking on the journey. Have a little sequence of events that signal the start of the game and have it be long enough that players can get into character, recap events if necessary, and consciously choose to shift their mood. This might involve the use of a theme song for the story, or a series of news reports, the setting of the initial light level, the taking of specific seats, and the presentation of the first scene. With the comfort of this familiar starting ritual, the new and interesting events of the evening more easily are seen as the part of a the story's thread, connected but different.

Conclusion:

1. The meaning of fear

2. The players scare themselves

TIP: Be vague with sensory details. Let creatures, effects, the evidence of violence or madness, the trappings and costs of magic, and so on all be left up to the imaginations of the players. Suggest things, do not determine or mandate things. If a sacrifice was made and some human parts are left in a bowl, suggest it's shape, or colour, or size, or smell... and let them fill in the blanks. DO NOT be vague with empirical details of location. Denying information about the appearance of horrific things empowers players to create the details which matter to and lead them to horror. Denying information about distances, entrances and exits, stability of the floor, etc interferes with player ability to make choices and that is a barrier to generating fear as it leads to a loss of immersion and an increase of frustration.

Performance Skills

• While play itself will be varied, strike different chords in the players, and follow your creepingly increasing pace toward terror, players need to be able to divorce themselves from the outside world and clean their mental slate before embarking on the journey. Have a little sequence of events that signal the start of the game and have it be long enough that players can get into character, recap events if necessary, and consciously choose to shift their mood. This might involve the use of a theme song for the story, or a series of news reports, the setting of the initial light level, the taking of specific seats, and the presentation of the first scene. With the comfort of this familiar starting ritual, the new and interesting events of the evening more easily are seen as the part of a the story's thread, connected but different.

Conclusion

A horror game requires a certain degree of acceptance on the part of the players. All the efforts in the world to create mood will not counteract the person who opts to destroy the mood. It is far, far easier to destroy than to create. This acceptance does not require that the players want to be scared by the GM, it just requires that they want their characters to accomplish a goal or goals within the scenario despite the obstacles in their way. As the players are really in control of their own fear, leading them to it, also works to prevent boredom or desensitization.

• Players scare themselves by making choices that neither they as players nor their characters as people would want to make. The obvious solution from a horror movie viewer's perspective when the heroine goes down into the basement to see what is making all of that creepy noise is to NOT go down into the basement. That is a meta-reason for not going. The character must have a compelling reason to push on into uncomfortable mental and physical territory knowing full well that something awful will befall them, and the player must have a goal to accomplish with and as that character in order to place themselves at risk of that fate... neither of them knowing when that fearfully anticipated fate will come.

• Players scare themselves through realizing the consequences of actions and choices. As fear comes from many sources, so too does it have many shapes. Building fear through recognizing the fate of others, (first strangers, then friends, then loved ones, then finally themselves) helps the player and the character move from concern, to sympathy, to fear, to empathy and finally horror or terror. It is best if these realizations come a little too late as you near the end of a scenario or story, but that is not something you can always influence. Thinking needs to occupy two courses, starting with 'What do I have to do?' and ending with 'What have I done?' It doesn't matter if the characters survive, stay sane, lose their minds, or perish. A campaign does not have to be deadly to be frightening, and it does not need physical perils to cause fear. All it needs are choices and time to recognize the result of those choices before the consequences arrive.

• Players scare themselves through attachment, and fostering attachment to the characters' contacts, family, friends, companions, and their own ongoing ability to operate against the horrors of the campaign are essential in maintaining that campaign. Not all games enable character longevity, which means that you may have to encourage the player to adopt a group of characters to connect with, but in all cases, creating attachment within the gameworld gives players something to lose, something to protect, and that again leads to them to a place where fear of one kind or another can begin to grow. As the threats of madness or peril slowly expand to affect those around the characters, so too do the ramifications of their experience, and that ensures that the story and its effects are evolving, not just being more of the same.

• The GM's voice is the players' primary access point to the game world and it needs to facilitate the development of the emotions and responses you hope to inspire in the players. It needs to facilitate, not create. It needs to suggest enough with tone, pacing, empahsis, and emotion that the players can project their own ideas onto it and ride that combination in the direction you want them to go. Words and ideas are your weapons, aided by volume and pitch. At times you will be the little voice in the back of their minds offering incomplete ideas and suppositions. At other times your voice will be a hammer, driving in the reinforcement of their own conclusions like nails in the lids of their coffins. You cannot tell them what to think, or what to feel. You cannot tell them what their character thinks or feels, but you can lay out the landscape of terror and watch those thoughts and feelings grow as the group steps out upon it.

• People can tune anything out with focus and investment in a good story. You can help this by including small props like matchbooks, newspaper clippings, tickets, and the like, that help increase immersion.

• Music gets in the way as often as it helps so consider its use carefully, particularly if it is familiar. Music you choose for a session will become tied to that session or story, so it might not work in the next one. Using music as a bit of realia works well to help with the necessary immersion. Looping a soundtrack can easily become a distraction or annoyance, and over long periods leads to a lackof reaction.

• Being able to control rather than set the light level is nice, especially if you can arrange to have the players in a small pool of light, such as with candles on a table and the rest of the room in adjustable amounts of darkness, but this can interfere with the players' ability to take notes, read dice, examine clues and handouts, and check their sheets. Anything which can create frustration in the player should be monitored closely. Fear leads to anger and all that... We want fear to lead to more fear.

• The goal is to help the players create an enjoyable experience of fear within themselves and that requires removing or not tripping over any of the barriers and obstacles to that creation of mood. Outside of the obvious planning of the campaign, it is important to get a sense of what enjoyable scares your players and what is off-limits. One might enjoy the idea of exploring maiming as a horrific story device, another might enjoy the threat of disease, but for another spides might be 'no-go' territory; the line not to cross. Fear is not rational, and even the little things might cause a player to leave rather than have fun being afraid.

• Once the players are displaying the physical cues of agitation, or unease, it is time to let things take their course. Do not try for a specific time limit, just let things build as they will toward the big scare, and the more horrifying aftermath. As you work to inspire fear, pay careful attention to the players to note the signs of your efforts bearing fruit. You are not giving them fear, you are trying to sell it, so you have to be accutely aware of when your fish snatch the hooks~

A horror game requires a certain degree of acceptance on the part of the players. All the efforts in the world to create mood will not counteract the person who opts to destroy the mood. It is far, far easier to destroy than to create. This acceptance does not require that the players want to be scared by the GM, it just requires that they want their characters to accomplish a goal or goals within the scenario despite the obstacles in their way. As the players are really in control of their own fear, leading them to it also works to prevent boredom or desensitization.

• Players scare themselves by making choices that neither they as players nor their characters as people would want to make. The obvious solution from a horror movie viewer's perspective when the heroine goes down into the basement to see what is making all of that creepy noise is to NOT go down into the basement. That is a meta-reason for not going. The character must have a compelling reason to push on into uncomfortable mental and physical territory knowing full well that something awful will befall them, and the player must have a goal to accomplish with and as that character in order to place themselves at risk of that fate... neither of them knowing when that fearfully anticipated fate will come.

• Players scare themselves through realizing the consequences of actions and choices. As fear comes from many sources, so too does it have many shapes. Building fear through recognizing the fate of others, (first strangers, then friends, then loved ones, then finally themselves) helps the player and the character move from concern, to sympathy, to fear, to empathy and finally horror or terror. It is best if these realizations come a little too late as you near the end of a scenario or story, but that is not something you can always influence. Thinking needs to occupy two courses, starting with 'What do I have to do?' and ending with 'What have I done?' It doesn't matter if the characters survive, stay sane, lose their minds, or perish. A campaign does not have to be deadly to be frightening, and it does not need physical perils to cause fear. All it needs are choices and time to recognize the result of those choices before the consequences arrive.

• Players scare themselves through attachment, and fostering attachment to the characters' contacts, family, friends, companions, and their own ongoing ability to operate against the horrors of the campaign are essential in maintaining that campaign. Not all games enable character longevity, which means that you may have to encourage the player to adopt a group of characters to connect with, but in all cases, creating attachment within the game world gives players something to lose, something to protect, and that again leads to them to a place where fear of one kind or another can begin to grow. As the threats of madness or peril slowly expand to affect those around the characters, so too do the ramifications of their experience, and that ensures that the story and its effects are evolving, not just being more of the same.

• The GM's voice is the players' primary access point to the game world and it needs to facilitate the development of the emotions and responses you hope to inspire in the players. It needs to facilitate, not create. It needs to suggest enough with tone, pacing, emphasis, and emotion that the players can project their own ideas onto it and ride that combination in the direction you want them to go. Words and ideas are your weapons, aided by volume and pitch. At times you will be the little voice in the back of their minds offering incomplete ideas and suppositions. At other times your voice will be a hammer, driving in the reinforcement of their own conclusions like nails in the lids of their coffins. You cannot tell them what to think, or what to feel. You cannot tell them what their character thinks or feels, but you can lay out the landscape of terror and watch those thoughts and feelings grow as the group steps out upon it.

• People can tune anything out with focus and investment in a good story. You can help this by including small props like matchbooks, newspaper clippings, tickets, and the like, that help increase immersion.

• Music gets in the way as often as it helps so consider its use carefully, particularly if it is familiar. Music you choose for a session will become tied to that session or story, so it might not work in the next one. Using music as a bit of realia works well to help with the necessary immersion. Looping a soundtrack can easily become a distraction or annoyance, and over long periods leads to a lack of reaction.

• Being able to control rather than set the light level is nice, especially if you can arrange to have the players in a small pool of light, such as with candles on a table and the rest of the room in adjustable amounts of darkness, but this can interfere with the players' ability to take notes, read dice, examine clues and handouts, and check their sheets if it gets too dark, or stays dark too long. Anything which can create frustration in the player should be monitored closely. Fear leads to anger and all that... We want fear to lead to more fear.

• The goal is to help the players create an enjoyable experience of fear within themselves and that requires removing or not tripping over any of the barriers and obstacles to that creation of mood. Outside of the obvious planning of the campaign, it is important to get a sense of what enjoyably scares your players and what is off-limits. One might enjoy the idea of exploring maiming as a horrific story device, another might enjoy the threat of disease, but for another spiders might be 'no-go' territory; the line not to cross. Fear is not rational, and even the little things might cause a player to leave rather than have fun being afraid.

• Once the players are displaying the physical cues of agitation, or unease, it is time to let things take their course. Do not try for a specific time limit, just let things build as they will toward the big scare, and the more horrifying aftermath. As you work to inspire fear, pay careful attention to the players to note the signs of your efforts bearing fruit. You are not giving them fear, you are trying to sell it, so you have to be acutely aware of when your fish snatch the hooks~

Any sensation, experience in full without stop will eventually allow or force those who experience it to adjust to or move away from it. For a 'horror' campaign to be effective, memorable, and successful over a good duration it is necessary to have a good understanding of two things, everything else is secondary and depends on your performance skills. If you understand the two things, then your campaign can rise above poor performance skills. If your performance skills are solid, then you have a chance to go for a legendary campaign the players will discuss for decades.

• The meaning of fear

• The players scare themselves

TIP: Be vague with sensory details. Let creatures, effects, the evidence of violence or madness, the trappings and costs of magic, and so on all be left up to the imaginations of the players. Suggest things, do not determine or mandate things. If a sacrifice was made and some human parts are left in a bowl, suggest it's shape, or colour, or size, or smell... and let them fill in the blanks. DO NOT be vague with empirical details of location. Denying information about the appearance of horrific things empowers players to create the details which matter to and lead them to horror. Denying information about distances, entrances and exits, stability of the floor, etc interferes with player ability to make choices and that is a barrier to generating fear as it leads to a loss of immersion and an increase of frustration.

Your voice

The environment

Fear breeds fear

Any sensation, experienced in full without stop will eventually allow or force those who experience it to adjust to or move away from it. For a 'horror' campaign to be effective, memorable, and successful for a good duration of time it is necessary to have a solid understanding of two things, everything else is secondary and dependent on your performance skills. If you understand the two things, then your campaign can rise above poor performance skills. If your performance skills are solid, then you have a chance to go for a legendary campaign the players will discuss for decades.

• 1. The meaning of fear

• 2. The players scare themselves

TIP: Be vague with sensory details. Let creatures, effects, the evidence of violence or madness, the trappings and costs of magic, and so on all be left up to the imaginations of the players. Suggest things, do not determine or mandate things. If a sacrifice was made and some human parts are left in a bowl, suggest it's shape, or colour, or size, or smell... and let them fill in the blanks. DO NOT be vague with empirical details of location. Denying information about the appearance of horrific things empowers players to create the details which matter to and lead them to horror. Denying information about distances, entrances and exits, stability of the floor, etc interferes with player ability to make choices and that is a barrier to generating fear as it leads to a loss of immersion and an increase of frustration.

Your Voice

The Environment

Fear Breeds Fear