[UA] Horror (was Something Under the Stairs)

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

--- James O'Rance <jorance at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> UA seems to mostly use terror - "oh my God, that
> lunatic is gonna kill us 
> all with an axe!" is terror - and terror is a lot of
> fun :). It's also 
> easier to produce. Horror is much harder, and has
> only worked in games that 
> I've played when the GM empathically understands
> what the players are 
> feeling (and there are no idiots to break the mood).
> I don't rely on scary 
> images to make it work. It's more intense and
> memorable, I guess.


There are a couple factors you need to produce horror.
 Most people seem to have a vague to middling sense of
what's horrific in general, anyway.  But you need
cooperative players, players who really want to feel
repulsed and attracted, creepy and scared all at the
same time.  It takes a little bit of willing.

I'm not dissing on players or terror, by the way. 
Terror is tons of fun.  I, personally, am a big fan of
terror.  I went to Knott's Scary Farm for my honeymoon
I'm so fond of it.  And there's nothing wrong with
players not wanting to feel horrified.  It's not a
nice feeling.  You gotta be in a weird kinda mood to
seek it out.

There's a concept a couple of my friends (who are Sci
Fi authors) told me about. I forget the name for it. 
Basically, you create a contract with your audience in
any performance or presentation you make, whether it's
a movie, a short story or an rpg.  You can advertise
or just tell some friends the name of your game and
people come to it with certain expectations.  Within a
few minutes of beginning play, you have established a
set of unwritten rules -ways of acting, the kinds of
exchanges you will accept, etc. etc.

But, most importantly, you establish -well, I guess
the rulebook calls it mood.  The thing is, though,
players do not have to agree with this mood.  They do
not have to cooperate.  They will try and have fun in
any way they feel like.  If a player doesn't want to
feel gitchy, the player won't.  Players, in an RPG,
are more in control of themselves than any other
audience imagineable, partly because they're part of
the performance and they Know What They Are Doing.

You call a guy out of the audience for a hypnosis act
or a hula dance and you've automatically got them
off-balance.  As a performer, you control the
environment of the stage.  As a GM, however, what you
are really doing is OFFERING an environment and
relying on the joint imaginative efforts of everyone
involved.  They will use their imaginations however
they see fit.

So, don't feel to bad if you can't rustle up that ol'
feeling of horror in your games.  You may not be doing
anything wrong.  And don't be too hard on your
players, either.  When was the last time you felt like
playing an shallow, self-righteous supernatural being
who's afraid to act for fear you might not look cool
anymore.  Wait! Don't answer that!

=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

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