I would not play a horror rpg with a player who "does not want to be scared". That's just not buying into the premise from the get-go. Thats like playing D&D with a player who doesn't want to go on adventures. Why the hell did they show up then? To ruin everyone else's fun? Screw that.

Quote from: TristramEvans;795993I would not play a horror rpg with a player who "does not want to be scared". That's just not buying into the premise from the get-go. Thats like playing D&D with a player who doesn't want to go on adventures. Why the hell did they show up then? To ruin everyone else's fun? Screw that.

If someone says to me "I like horror movies, except for xxxxx it hits too close to home and reminds me of 'Nam--can I play in your game?" I am not going to be like "WELL THEN GOOD DAY TO YOU, SIR!"

Quote from: Zak S;795994If someone says to me "I like horror movies, except for xxxxx it hits too close to home and reminds me of 'Nam" I am not going to be like "WELL THEN GOOD DAY TO YOU, SIR!"

No... but there are people who, when asked, will flat out tell you they dislike anything horror related... but will still show up for a Call of Cthulhu game and subvert the whole thing with lame jokes and chatter because... I don't know why... they didn't expect it to actually be a horror game?

Again, it's all the more reason to have 'The Talk' before the game and make sure everyone's on the same starting line. 'Nam Flashback Guy's concerns will be taken into consideration... as long as he brings it up and doesn't just assume stuff.

Quote from: Zak S;795994If someone says to me "I like horror movies, except for xxxxx it hits too close to home and reminds me of 'Nam--can I play in your game?" I am not going to be like "WELL THEN GOOD DAY TO YOU, SIR!"

Depends what xxxxx is; I might very well be like that. I'm there to have fun, not navigate a player's emotional problems.

If xxxxx is reasonable, or doesnt interfere with the game overall, then I'd more than likely be fine with that. I don't do rape pedastry or other things of that nature in my games, its reasonable to not have to deal with that crap when one is trying to have fun. But a player who shows up to a horror game and then gets angry because something scared them? Thats not someone I want to play with.

Quote from: TristramEvans;796000If xxxxx is reasonable, or doesnt interfere with the game overall, then I'd more than likely be fine with that. I don't do rape pedastry or other things of that nature in my games, its reasonable to not have to deal with that crap when one is trying to have fun.

Agreed. I don't want to play in a minefield of 'triggers'... I'd rather that player go elsewhere... but there are certain obvious things that most people are understandably not OK with and I'd have to get a go ahead before bringing them in. I've seen what happens when a GM has the whole group gang-raped by Deep Ones...

Quote from: Omega;795437The look on the players faces was perfect. They had faced down a ghoul without much fuss. But THIS... this got them.

How many of your players were parents? Because yeah, that would hook me in the game, you'd be getting genuine emotion, and I'd be enjoying it. I'd be thinking about that shit for weeks... but it's a tough balance, between "I have fear buttons and I DO enjoy them being pressed" and "I have fear buttons and I DO NOT enjoy them being pressed" (If adorable girlfriend was at that game table, for example, she would NOT enjoy that scenario). You've got to know your audience, or give them plenty of opportunity to back out if the game is not going in a good direction for them... and if they need to use the safe word (For lack of a better time), stop it, right then and there.

I don't know what to say, it's a hard call to make. I've played horror games with complete strangers, and had a lot of fun, but I wouldn't recommend it due to the possibility of it going very, very badly.

Quote from: Phantom Black;795916No one wants to be truly horrified in a sense of dread and fear, unless one's masochistically inclined because dread and fear aren't positive emotions, hence "thrill" makes way more sense to me.

It's a game, it's inherently not real. If the GM can achieve that level of immersion in their players, then they're doing something very, very right with their GM'ing.

And then when we're done, we have a pint, we talk about it, we make sure we're all good, and then we all go back home or wherever. Cathartic.

Quote from: Ladybird;796012It's a game, it's inherently not real. If the GM can achieve that level of immersion in their players, then they're doing something very, very right with their GM'ing.

If the GM can achieve that level of immersion in their Players it says as much about the Players as it does the GM... the best GM in the world can't work his magic without a receptive group.
As a Player I've had some nearly great moments diminished by some dolt at the table deciding it was just the right time to show us a 'hilarious' Youtube video... or regale us with his Spanish Inquisition joke... again.

I tend to manage existential angst and occult weirdness better than horror per se.

Quote from: RPGPundit;796956I tend to manage existential angst and occult weirdness better than horror per se.

This is probably true for many good GMs. I've only been scared the shit out of me by one GM (and consistently at that) since I started role-playing. And we're not talking jump scares, but a real feeling of dread.
I think this skill is reserved for the Mount Olympos of GMs.

Quote from: Nerzenjäger;796963This is probably true for many good GMs. I've only been scared the shit out of me by one GM (and consistently at that) since I started role-playing. And we're not talking jump scares, but a real feeling of dread.
I think this skill is reserved for the Mount Olympos of GMs.

could you try to convey how the dm did it? i don't think i can imagine being really scared while playing a roleplaying game. being afraid because of what happens in the game. a "real feeling of dread"? i want to believe you (and others who claim the same), but i don't know if i can. i've  never seen anything even close to this.

is it actually something the gm does or does it depend more on what the players are like?

Quote from: shlominus;796992could you try to convey how the dm did it? i don't think i can imagine being really scared while playing a roleplaying game. being afraid because of what happens in the game. a "real feeling of dread"? i want to believe you (and others who claim the same), but i don't know if i can. i've  never seen anything even close to this.

is it actually something the gm does or does it depend more on what the players are like?

I can understand your disbelief. He had a lot of rotating groups and was always able to achieve that.

It was a mixture of his persona, using voice (twisting it, slowly starting to get silent, breaking out of it) and subtle music to its fullest effect (Koyaanisqatsi-Theme, Wojciech Kilar's Dracula soundtrack), proper usage of grimasses, making absurdly detailed descriptions only to increase horror, playing CoC always around autumn, when it got foggy here in Austria, etc. All of this mind you, mostly without utilising a lot of monstrous creatures -- those he used rather scarcely, but you feared the possibility of them popping up even more.
Atop all of this, his Cthulhu sessions were fucking deadly. When you got to 10% Cthulhu Mythos, you earned it, man.

I specifically remember one time, when I was much younger, where we fought a cult of Shub-Niggurath, where me and my friends got stressed out by going outside into the unlit dark after the session. Good times!

Yeah, that's one thing I learned GMing Call of Cthulhu; don't pull punches. When I GM fantasy, I tend to be very ..."forgiving" of PCs I want then to succeed. So I will provide every opportuunity for them to survive. They may get robbed, captured, knocked ouut what have you. But death is really a last resort. In my Cthulhuu sessions its rare every player gets out alive. TPKs happen with alarming (to me) frequency, and I dont think there's been more then a handful of sessions at least one PC wasnt killed. I'm not a malicious GM, I try to be nuetral, I'm just MORE nuetral in horror games. Mistakes have deadly consequences.

I also am very sparing with my use of the supernatural or monsters. When they show up, its shocking, its fast, and its a whirlwind of violence. I try to leave the players gasping for breath and going "WTF was that?!" This means I don't do combat as "rounds" or any sort of organized turns. Its freeform, and players have split seconds to react. Monsters dont deal HP damage: they tear limbs, gnaw through bones, and slice into flesh.

Quote from: Nerzenjäger;796963This is probably true for many good GMs. I've only been scared the shit out of me by one GM (and consistently at that) since I started role-playing. And we're not talking jump scares, but a real feeling of dread.
I think this skill is reserved for the Mount Olympos of GMs.

That's happened for me a few times over the years, but certainly with no consistency.  Usually, its when I'm running someone else's adventure, but almost never one of the actual "horror RPGs".