This topic might be long overdue for these forums, as Horror roleplaying lends itself well to Dark Heresy, and constantly comes up in discussion. In my opinion, horror roleplaying is one of the most difficult types of games to run successfully. I've learned quite a few things about horror gaming, and I've managed to pull it off occasionally, but I feel like there's always more for me to learn about Horror gaming, and game mastering in general.

Personally, I have a difficult situation: I run a game at a FLGS, I bring my laptop to provide background music, and I have no way to lower the lights, or set the mood appropriately. But somehow, I've still managed to scare my players on occasion.

One example was in Xicarph, after the Widower's keystone was destroyed. They left Gabriel Chase to find that the entire populace had clawed out their eyes and ripped themselves to pieces. Shredded flesh lied all around the empty and silent streets, I took a few minutes simply describing everything they were seeing, smelling, and hearing. Then, one of the players heard gaseous moans coming from all directions… they decided to start moving, when raindrops began falling. From where the droplets hit the ground, small white spherical objects started popping up. When closely observed, it turned out to be an eyeball staring back at them. The rain started to fall harder, and more eyeballs started spawning from the rain. They ran into the nearest building, freaking out asking each other if there were any eyeballs on them. Spending a few moments in the building, they saw that there was a leak in the roof, and that water was trickling in. Outside the building, something massive just moved - it sounded fleshy. Looking through the window, nothing could be seen at first, but just as they were about to look away, something passed in front of the window quickly. At this point, the players are begging for death, looking for any way out, including suicide. One of the players decided to go outside and make a run for it. But as he stepped outside, a shower of gore erupted from his location, covering the other players in his blood and guts. They never saw what actually killed him, but they didn't want to find out. Instead, they decided to wait inside until the rain ended. As the rain continued to get stronger and stronger, the ground outside started breaking and collapsing, until they eventually fell, along with the building, back into the Red Cages… where beasts were loose without masters.

As for why any of this happened, they were really just cruel tricks by myself to scare the players. It could be explained, but never will be.

As practiced in the above example, here are some horror tips that a fellow DM briefly worded better than I could..
"Start with something very familiar and ordinary, then build up the horror elements slowly. Make the players question themselves, introduce doubt, so that they're not sure if the horror is real or a trick of the mind. You'll want things to be combat-light; combat is something that takes the fear away, because it's familiar. When you do introduce combat with the horror element, you want to include a feeling of helplessness, like in nightmares, but you also want to give the players an outlet to use their combat abilities effectively."

There are plenty of more tricks and techniques that could be added, so I ask you all.. What experiences have you had with horror roleplaying, and what advice do you give for horror game mastering?

Hey!

Great topic- and you're quite right, its just as important as the "Running an Investigation" Topic, I find, because the Horror is really what separates Dark Heresy from the other games in the line.

I try, and I've successful with it a few times, to get that vibe going during the game- a Lovecraft Fan and a previous of Cthulhu Player, my references during the game (and style) is somewhat recognizable but still fun. I try to generate as much Paranoia as possible, fueling the players own perceptions of things. As Noctivant and his Unnamed friends have said, the trick is to keep the players guessing. Failing perception test could mean the players hear nothing or, he could hear a faint moaning sound (that's very likely only the wind.) This gives off the impression that succeeding the test would have granted more details, a clearer insight into the nature of "the perceived threat."

Early in the game, color their results with mundane explanations- a player will almost always cast these aside in favor of a more wilder theory. Later in the game, fuel these theories (assuming the players have gained a number of insanity points or are in the process of gaining them.) Personalizing experiences by taking players aside and telling them separate things, even if its just a small detail, gets them to obsess on these details which can play to you're advantage.

Two examples of the situation- The first, when one player went down to a small farming village by himself and had a psychedelic encounter with living shadows in a dark alley, he returned to the group to inform them of it, transferring his paranoia onto the rest of them: the entire group kept a steady watch on the shadows instead of dismissing the man as insane [Granted, that they were on Dusk and that they had all suffered some trauma did play a part into it]. Afterwards, three players were about to enter a room where they could hear the noble they were investigating and his maid getting it on- with a bit of subtle encouraging, they peered into the keyhole instead, and each of them saw the scene with a different twist: the first saw the maid being raped, with the noble ready to kill her. The second saw the maid getting ready to stab the noble behind his back and the third saw them both quite enjoying themselves. When they broke into the room only to find the maid all by herself, they weren't sure who to trust or what to make of it- Wild theories began to develop fueling the paranoia.

The atmosphere in that game was just perfect, with the combination of Dusk's warp-thin atmosphere, sorcery and hallucinogenic poisons taking a toll on both characters and players who no longer knew who to trust, including each other.

About combat- Keeping a monster's stats hidden is imperative in a Horror Game. Never mention the words "Wounds" or "It takes this much damage…" In a game like mine, where everything is rolled in the open, it becomes even more imperative to focus on the description. How the monster shrugs off shot-gun hits point blank or how, despite losing several tentacles to that Plasma Gun it still lurches forward, its hundred mouths opening and closing in anticipation of its inevitable future meal. That players should only ever defeat the monster after great struggles, an important sacrifice and the use of their brains. [Keeping in mind that were discussing the Horror Game here- If the Las Cannon can solve the problem that the creature represents, then you're past the horror point of the game and far beyond the Climax and the horror part should come during the struggle to reach the cannon.]

My players' favorite game threw them against impossible odds. The Climax of Blood Red Rains, with the Bloodthister splitting the sky, about to entire the material world, had an apocalyptic feel to it [showers of gore included] that one of the players threw his Eviscirator at the window to break it before jumping out, leaving the weapon behind, rather then take a few moments to break the window himself and escape with the weapon. The players had still manage to put their combat skills at use when fighting a blood letter earlier in the mission- but when three more showed up, together, blocking two players path out of the church, survival instincts took over and it was every man (and woman) for himself. To save himself, the Group's adept, a Sorcerer who had signed his soul off to an Avatar of Slaanesh, summoned the latter - paying a heavy, heavy price.

In Conclusion, and I am sure people will add to this considerably- perhaps I will be posting again when I can gather up my thoughts more effectively- Horror is about never giving too much away and keeping the players guessing. Its about fueling their paranoia and building up the realisation until they realize they were right- but for the wrong reasons. When they start to fear for their characters not for their items or accumulated wealth, but just their immediate survival as an individual.

Though Combat can often destroy the atmosphere of a Horror Game, when done right- (and quickly) it can just as much add to it. If they beat a monster (after some struggling)- they should find out there's a bigger, badder one coming. Like they say about Cthulhu- Nuke him, and he'll come back Radioactive.

This thread is amazing why are there so few views?

Thank you both fort the posts they are very enlightening

Thanks for the feedback Guards!

I want to expand on what Saldre said about explanations of the mundane and player theories. Keeping the players guessing and letting them scare themselves through implication.

Implication is one of the GM's best tools in horror gaming. By letting the players formulate ideas about what's really going on, they might think of something worse than what actually happened. Nothing the GM says will be as scary as the ideas the players have themselves. Implication is a way to make the players scare themselves, all the GM needs to do is place seemingly mundane clues and let the players find a horrific pattern between them.

An example of implication: During an investigation, the acolytes have finally tracked down their target, Lucan Ornite, but come across a recently deceased armored corpse, bearing symbols of the inquisition, and an Inquisitorial rosette. On his body is a partially damaged data-slate with an Inquisitorial report stating(in summary) that one Inquisitor Vikas had already killed the heretic, Lucan Ornite, 7 years ago .

Now, the players are most likely going to start formulating ideas, listen to them and play on them. One of the players says "Maybe the Inquisitor covered it up, and Lucan Ornite is still alive." Another player feeds on that, saying "That means he's powerful enough to kill an Inquisitor." They are starting to scare themselves, and all you had to do was place clues that don't actually state what's really going on.

Mind you, for any of this to work--For Horror in general to work, the players need to be immersed. If the players are not immersed, there's a strong chance that they won't care about the clues, and will just expect you to spell out the story for them. This expectation can largely be attributed to video games, but it can be remedied by then overloading the players with clues, but still leaving that gap between the heart of the story. This is, of course, assuming that you have done everything in your power as a GM to make the game entertaining.

Regardless, implication does not have to be exclusive to investigation missions, even though horror games are usually centered on that type. It can be applied to survival horror, action horror, or even non-horror. In any use of implication, simply avoid linear plots, and have multiple clues related to one single event, but with enough of a void between the clues for the players to create their own fear.

Another example of player paranoia: One of my players(an assassin) was sent on a mission in a hive city to eliminate a bureaucrat of useless title in a noble's banquet. His mission was to take the target's head, and then leave the banquet impersonating him. The assassination was successful.. he left looking just like the target, carrying the target's head in a satchel. But when an enforcer stopped him in the middle hive, he became nervous. The guard told him that the area ahead is quarantined, to which the assassin used his guise of authority to garner information about why - finding out that some infection has caused people to become ravenous and hostile.
On edge now, the assassin travels down a dark detour, encountering the occasional enforcer patrol. He makes a wrong turn and finds himself at a dead-end, turns around and sees a human figure shambling towards him slowly. The figure moans, and gets close enough to lay a hand on the assassin. As the figure does so, the assassin stabs him. The man falls, clutching himself, revealing that it was just an unfortunate drunkard.

On another note, I was looking at Daemonhosts and the Daemonic Phenomena surrounding them… there are some really useful creepy effects there in table 12-8 on page 357 of the core rulebook.

Really useful information thank you once again.

I will again state that RPGs can cater towards some silent hill like enviroments that i think you would be able to make good use of through implications. Here is what i will try and contribute to the thread.

Friend or Foe?

This ties in with implication, you need to know your players well for psychological warfare to be effective. These types of tactics are good in horror settings. If the warp is just numbers and chances to fail it's only a misc modifer like element of the game. If insanity points just mean how they are advised to roleplay and how the GM might make them why be afraid of it? So what if he shakes a bit and supposedly hears voices doesn't affect my combat skills! But if you let these points mean something more it really can flesh things out.

I will say right now for alot of my techniques to work you really need to have GM controlled NPCs in the player party, they need to be apart of the cell and they need to be useful. One on one discussions with each person can be used to deliver false information hidden in truths and create an unhealthy distrust for the rest of the cell (both pcs and npcs). "All warfare is based upon deception"- Sun Tzu Art of War

Tyler Durden

If someone has enough insanity points give him a contact (and by the emperor don't let him or her know thats why). Have this contact let's call him Roy deal discrete and usually good actionable intelligence to that character only let's call him Jensen. Have this contact be friendly and loyal but have him try to influence the players in game personality, have them meet away from the group at a bar or in a club, by the street in an alley somewhere discrete and suspicious. Make sure no player charecter ever sees them together and if they do only let that happen in one on one sessions. If they are seen "together" then have the other party member see Jensen talking to himself. Anything Roy does Jensen did because Roy is Jensen. Jensen sees Roy as an actual person when in actuality he is an alter ego brought on by mental trauma and natural psychosis. Don't let anyone know for a long while, not even Jensen's player. Let the big reveal come as a shock hell even have the group TRACK Roy to no avail. A good way to reveal this while still inviting implication is DNA found from Roys blood being an exact match to Jensen's. Or have a party NPC quistion him intently on his contanct and about his continual lengthy solo trips.

Warp Time

The warp exists outside of time, so one person (Jack) could rush down a hall to help an ally in need (Jill) and take 10 seconds. Meanwhile Jill would hear jacks yelling and have to hold out or just survive for ten minutes. Messages sent by psykers can be recieved before they are sent or many years later. Life isn't fair and the Warp is supposed to be chaotic

One Warped Distress Call

Let the party hear a heavy static distress call from a panicked guardsmen "Unit *Static* need back up *Static* *Gunfire* Alpha*Static* *Static* *Shriek* *Gunfire* sition", it can help if this guardsmen turns out to be likable by the party and seems shaken but still sane. Have the party respond and go in with a guard unit of the same company etc leading you to fallback position alpha. Have them arrive to alot of dead guardsmen and enemies (probably chaos since we are dealing with warp) same company as the ones who are arriving. The shacken guardsmen with a vox is relieved to see you saying he/she was expecting reinforcements. After you meld the guardsmen into the unit proceed into what you want the warp horror segment of you campaign to be. Wether that be a Resident Evil style mansion where you intend to seperate and pick of the NPC's/party members, or maybe a Silent Hill town style of personal hell both can be introduced through this. Now have the party eventually get pinned down and most of the guard unit killed in leu of losing actual player charecters. The players will then hear the panicked guardsmen they met earlier make a distress call. "Unit shattered need back up, warp storm and chaos alpha legion must protect Inquisition" When your party realizes that THEY are the responders to that call they will think that no help is coming and there is no way out.

These are some suggestions that i have they could be used effectively if you are careful and have a good poker face. These made to be changed and adapted. Hope that i could help.