Quote from: Reckall;702166I guess you need the right combination of story, players and atmosphere.

YES.

Horror requires lots of immersion. More than other genres of roleplaying. Immersion requires suspension of disbelief which only occurs when the GM sets up great atmosphere and a solid setting AND (far more importantly) gets the buy in from the players.

The big advantage of a Horror RPG is the players who sign up to play a Horror RPG want to be scared. They want the horror experience and thus they are the most likely to give you the suspension of disbelief.

There is no reason for people to be scared in a horror movie. A movie is just 24 frames per second of made up images synced to fictional sounds and actor's voices. Everyone knows whats up on the screen is not real, but just by the virtue of you buying a ticket to the movie and joining in the communal viewing experience, you give your permission to suspend your disbelief.

It's up to the filmmakers to take that gift of suspension and deepen immersion through good storytelling, acting and visuals. If you do it right, the audience grants you more and more suspension, eventually permitting the filmmakers to scare the audience.

I saw the Conjuring last night at a 2nd run theater with about 60 people. Plenty of them were scared, but only because we wanted to be.

Quote from: Spinachcat;702295YES.

Horror requires lots of immersion. More than other genres of roleplaying. Immersion requires suspension of disbelief which only occurs when the GM sets up great atmosphere and a solid setting AND (far more importantly) gets the buy in from the players.

The big advantage of a Horror RPG is the players who sign up to play a Horror RPG want to be scared. They want the horror experience and thus they are the most likely to give you the suspension of disbelief.

There is no reason for people to be scared in a horror movie. A movie is just 24 frames per second of made up images synced to fictional sounds and actor's voices. Everyone knows whats up on the screen is not real, but just by the virtue of you buying a ticket to the movie and joining in the communal viewing experience, you give your permission to suspend your disbelief.

It's up to the filmmakers to take that gift of suspension and deepen immersion through good storytelling, acting and visuals. If you do it right, the audience grants you more and more suspension, eventually permitting the filmmakers to scare the audience.

I saw the Conjuring last night at a 2nd run theater with about 60 people. Plenty of them were scared, but only because we wanted to be.

I want to be scared in a non horror swords and sorcery game.

Wanting to be scared does not make me scared.

I think its all about the gm and players, but I don't see how choosing to play CoC makes anyone scared.

Quote from: SpinachatPlenty of them were scared, but only because we wanted to be.

In a sense I agree with this idea - we suspend our disbelief in order to be scared when watching a horror movie - but I'm not sure we're always in conscious control of our suspension of disbelief.  It's something our brains seem wired to do, or perhaps that's accultured into us, but I think it's hard to just "stop being scared" of a movie (or video game or whatever).  You can remind yourself of the thing's fictionality in an attempt to break your own immersion to an extent but at a certain point a jump-scare is still a jump-scare, disgust is still disgust, and even something as subtle as suspense or dread is difficult to consciously "turn off."  If I see a close-up of a zombie's rotting flesh, I can remind myself that it's only makeup, but I still probably had a visceral spasm of revulsion upon seeing the zombie.  If something onscreen bursts out of a closet at the right time my heartbeat will still be accelerated even if I remind myself that it's just an actor.  At a certain point horror media is playing with some pretty raw, irrational affects that're hard to suppress entirely in some contexts.

A good example: the other day I was playing Outlast with headphones on.  My wife walked by just as an inmate burst out of a darkened hallway.  Just the sudden sight of the guy startled her pretty badly.  She wasn't playing the game, there was no sound for her, she wasn't "immersed," but she was still affected.  Her comment was something like "How the hell can you play games like this?"

Quote from: Bill;702529Wanting to be scared does not make me scared.

No, but actively NOT wanting to be scared might work against any atmosphere created to bring the scary... and if you give voice to your I'm not scared!' then it can drag others out of that mood as well.

QuoteI think its all about the gm and players, but I don't see how choosing to play CoC makes anyone scared.

It doesn't, but choosing that game implies a buy-in to the sort of game it's overtly designed to promote... vs. D&D which can be widely different things to different people (though the default I've most often experienced is not oriented towards horror at all). Also, the implied setting jumpstarts a general mood of parania & despair. If you wanted that in D&D you'd have to bring it... which isn't a big deal.

Quote from: Bill;702529I want to be scared in a non horror swords and sorcery game.

Wanting to be scared does not make me scared.

I think its all about the gm and players, but I don't see how choosing to play CoC makes anyone scared.

It is more about being open to being scared, lowring your defenses and not holding the horror at a safe distance (sort of like you can make a decision before watching a horror movie to laugh or let it do its thing). If you have your defenses up, even the most frightening movie probably wont scare you. If you drop your defenses, then you can be scared. But the thing still needs to be scary in the first place.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;702556. But the thing still needs to be scary in the first place.

Which sometimes doesn't take much... I've been quite scared in game situations where I'm pretty sure the GM wasn't even going for scares... but since I was in the mood for frights, and nothing was actively working against it (no shitty Terry Pratchett references from the other players) I interpreted the situation as horror.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;702556It is more about being open to being scared, lowring your defenses and not holding the horror at a safe distance (sort of like you can make a decision before watching a horror movie to laugh or let it do its thing). If you have your defenses up, even the most frightening movie probably wont scare you. If you drop your defenses, then you can be scared. But the thing still needs to be scary in the first place.

No.  No matter what attitude I go in with, horror movies don't scare me.

Quote from: Arduin;702566No.  No matter what attitude I go in with, horror movies don't scare me.

Some people aren't affected by horror movies. Me, i go in and out depending on my attitude. I have more fun if a movie scares me.

Easiest to spook out guy I ever met was a former Marine Force Recon guy I played with. He'd killed more men than cancer. Not a fearful bone in his body. And yet, a handprint on a pile of grave earth, a corridor filled with mist and the slight shape of a woman at the end, or an empty house filled with forgotten medical devices got to him. His combat ready warrior would start moving ever so slowly.
It's just about those few little details that get your imagination moving.

Of course, if you decide that 'spooky stuff is stupid kids stuff' it won't matter, but it says a lot more about you than it does about fear.

Quote from: ArduinNo. No matter what attitude I go in with, horror movies don't scare me.

Interesting.  Some people are very susceptible to horror movies, others not much, but I've never been convinced that anyone's "immune."  Have you seen The Descent?  It's on my short-list of actually-scary horror movies.

Quote from: Steerpike;702577Interesting.  Some people are very susceptible to horror movies, others not much, but I've never been convinced that anyone's "immune."  Have you seen The Descent?  It's on my short-list of actually-scary horror movies.

That cave movie?  Yes, at home with my wife.  I was never afraid of the dark as a child.  Maybe it is genetic.  I wasn't particularly afraid the 1st time I came under fire either.  Concerned would be a better descriptor.

Perhaps you're the exception that proves the rule.  Have you ever found any media (writing, movie, game) that scared or at least unnerved/disturbed you or do you seem pretty much impervious to the lot?

I think anyone claiming imperviousness to fear, probably isnt the norm for the purposes of gauging a movie's fear level.

The reason we need game rules at all is to allow a consistent approach to in-game situations that threaten the characters but not the players. Having a big blood-spattered guy with a whacking great chopper chase you and try to cut off your limbs would send all of us into screaming heebie-jeebie fits if it happened in real life. (At least it would me.) But that's just a melee session in a sword and sorcery game. So how do we make that exact event work as a horror encounter when the setting is no longer the streets of Lankhmar but is now the storage area under the British Museum? We use a game mechanism of Sanity or Fright checks to force the players to have their characters act as if it were really happening in a horrible way that has an effect on how the character can act.

And any game system that incorporates fear/sanity/humanity checks or measurements in its basic stats is by definition a horror game. And any game system that does not quantify this type of damage or inability to act is by definition unable of adequately governing play in a horror setting because it cannot account for the effects of terror on the player characters.

You may have a gentleman's agreement with your players to conduct their characters actions as if they are really being scared, but if you do not have a mechanism in the game structure to limit the characters abilities based on how frightened she is, it's not a horror game, it's just hack and slash in a modern setting.

Quote from: teagan;702610The reason we need game rules at all is to allow a consistent approach to in-game situations that threaten the characters but not the players. Having a big blood-spattered guy with a whacking great chopper chase you and try to cut off your limbs would send all of us into screaming heebie-jeebie fits if it happened in real life. (At least it would me.) But that's just a melee session in a sword and sorcery game. So how do we make that exact event work as a horror encounter when the setting is no longer the streets of Lankhmar but is now the storage area under the British Museum? We use a game mechanism of Sanity or Fright checks to force the players to have their characters act as if it were really happening in a horrible way that has an effect on how the character can act.

And any game system that incorporates fear/sanity/humanity checks or measurements in its basic stats is by definition a horror game. And any game system that does not quantify this type of damage or inability to act is by definition unable of adequately governing play in a horror setting because it cannot account for the effects of terror on the player characters.

You may have a gentleman's agreement with your players to conduct their characters actions as if they are really being scared, but if you do not have a mechanism in the game structure to limit the characters abilities based on how frightened she is, it's not a horror game, it's just hack and slash in a modern setting.

I am all for horror mechanica, but also the aim really should be scaring the players, not simlulating it through their charcters. Any mechanics ought to be in pursuit of that. I dont really care if Rob's character is spooked and acting like a character from a horror movie, I care that rob is spooked.