The Tension mechanic in Dead Of Night is a very nifty device for moderating the GM's descriptions of scenes, the measuring of outcomes and determining where the players are in the story. The points can also be spent by the GM to push the characters towards success or failure. It's an absolute delight in play.

Unknown Armies?

I find Horror RPGs tend to have the same problem, a lack of buy in from the players.

One can bash on CoCs take on mental illness all day long (it is not a model for the Psych 101 RPG), but reading arguments against the concept has resulted in my believing most RPG players truly believe that watching their dead mother climb out of the grave and devour half the funeral party before they put her down with a .44 between the eyes would not have an impact on their mental well being.  

I'm not sure mechanics can fix player mindset. As a result I've generally stuck more with monster hunting games than pure horror.  

That said, I did like the fright check used in GURPS Horror, and when used in its entirety CoC's Sanity stat does more or less do what it is supposed to emulate. It seems many gloss over the whole sanity can be recovered bit and repeated exposure can reduce the effects (seen one ghoul you've seen them all ).

Quote from: Toadmaster;1004617One can bash on CoCs take on mental illness all day long (it is not a model for the Psych 101 RPG), but reading arguments against the concept has resulted in my believing most RPG players truly believe that watching their dead mother climb out of the grave and devour half the funeral party before they put her down with a .44 between the eyes would not have an impact on their mental well being.

Those are probably the same players who insist that their PC should be immune to torture..."Nope. I still won't talk."

QuoteThat said, I did like the fright check used in GURPS Horror, and when used in its entirety CoC's Sanity stat does more or less do what it is supposed to emulate. It seems many gloss over the whole sanity can be recovered bit and repeated exposure can reduce the effects (seen one ghoul you've seen them all ).

Good point. Recovering sanity was a key factor in the continued viability of a number of PCs in our CoC games. We did you reduction of sanity loss from repeated exposure...though as we played it, a single ghoul wouldn't have been enough to immunize you from their horror.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1004543Unknown Armies?

I thought about mentioning it. It used to be mentioned often on the purple place, but having never played UA nor read the rules I was reluctant to make a claim for how well it handles horror.

Quote from: Bren;1004632Those are probably the same players who insist that their PC should be immune to torture..."Nope. I still won't talk."

Good point. Recovering sanity was a key factor in the continued viability of a number of PCs in our CoC games. We did you reduction of sanity loss from repeated exposure...though as we played it, a single ghoul wouldn't have been enough to immunize you from their horror.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1004543Unknown Armies?

I thought about mentioning it. It used to be mentioned often on the purple place, but having never played UA nor read the rules I was reluctant to make a claim for how well it handles horror.

Quote from: Toadmaster;1004617One can bash on CoCs take on mental illness all day long (it is not a model for the Psych 101 RPG)....

Something I continue to run into with Traveller Players is the odd duck who hates the game because it is designed to be a game and not a college course on orbital mechanics, planetary science, economics, biology, chemistry, or physics. The best games, IMHO, provide a suspension of disbelief framework with the rules so that the players can try to buy into the game premise while not sucking the fun out of the game by making it a hyper accurate model of reality.

Quote from: jeff37923;1004637Something I continue to run into with Traveller Players is the odd duck who hates the game because it is designed to be a game and not a college course on orbital mechanics, planetary science, economics, biology, chemistry, or physics. The best games, IMHO, provide a suspension of disbelief framework with the rules so that the players can try to buy into the game premise while not sucking the fun out of the game by making it a hyper accurate model of reality.

I don't believe people of that sort are actually interested in the game as much as an avenue to try to demonstrate their superior knowledge. At least that's been my experience.

Quote from: jeff37923;1004637Something I continue to run into with Traveller Players is the odd duck who hates the game because it is designed to be a game and not a college course on orbital mechanics, planetary science, economics, biology, chemistry, or physics. The best games, IMHO, provide a suspension of disbelief framework with the rules so that the players can try to buy into the game premise while not sucking the fun out of the game by making it a hyper accurate model of reality.

I could understand that more with GURPS, because GURPS actually tries. But Traveller is too sparse -- a UPP is an outline and ideas, not a physics lesson.

Quote from: Bren;1004632Those are probably the same players who insist that their PC should be immune to torture..."Nope. I still won't talk."

Good point. Recovering sanity was a key factor in the continued viability of a number of PCs in our CoC games. We did you reduction of sanity loss from repeated exposure...though as we played it, a single ghoul wouldn't have been enough to immunize you from their horror.

I thought about mentioning it. It used to be mentioned often on the purple place, but having never played UA nor read the rules I was reluctant to make a claim for how well it handles horror.

Exactly, just with horror that denial is more in your face than most other situations where it comes up.

Quote from: jeff37923;1004637Something I continue to run into with Traveller Players is the odd duck who hates the game because it is designed to be a game and not a college course on orbital mechanics, planetary science, economics, biology, chemistry, or physics. The best games, IMHO, provide a suspension of disbelief framework with the rules so that the players can try to buy into the game premise while not sucking the fun out of the game by making it a hyper accurate model of reality.

It seems like there are a number of players who feel they have to prove how fake the situation is. I suppose it happens but I've never encountered this behavior when elves, and orcs are involved. I've never once heard someone dismiss the ability of a big lizard to breathe fire. Throw in a homicidal sentient homicidal plant or jump drives and the "non-believers" are happy to point out the flaws.

Quote from: Bren;1004632I thought about mentioning it. It used to be mentioned often on the purple place, but having never played UA nor read the rules I was reluctant to make a claim for how well it handles horror.

I'm not familiar with with the recent (3rd) edition, but the madness meters of 1st and 2nd edition Unknown Armies are a great mechanic. The basic idea is that you have 5 meters, which measure different kinds of stress (like violence or the unnatural). If you encounter that kind of stress, you have to roll to see if you keep things under control, or freak out. If you freak, you can choose flight, fight, or freeze -- and that's up to the player, so it doesn't make you automatically useless. But there are also long term effects of stress. If you fail the check, you mark down 1 failed notch along that meter, and start getting a little squirrely. Each failed check adds a new notch, and ups the crazy a bit. You go permanently insane at 5 failed notches. If you succeed on the check, you mark down a hardened notch instead. Hardened notches make you immune to lesser types of stress, so if you have 6 hardened notches on the violence meter, you'll never freak out just because you heard gunfire (but you're still vulnerable to something like witnessing a mass execution). But becoming hardened isn't all good, either. You become more distant and less human, and eventually lose access to your passions (which allow you to flip percentile rolls) and become a sociopath.

They're not really any more realistic or reflective of how mental illness actually works than Call of Cthulhu's venerable sanity check (the madness meters are inspired by PTSD, but that's not how PTSD works), but it works well in play.

Quote from: jeff37923;1004637Something I continue to run into with Traveller Players is the odd duck who hates the game because it is designed to be a game and not a college course on orbital mechanics, planetary science, economics, biology, chemistry, or physics.

I've seen enough of those guys that it's put me off playing anything except the zaniest of scifi games. And it's not just Traveller who brings them either... I've run into them in Star Trek games, Shadowrun games, SWN games.
Same guys also seem to shit-clog games set in modern times... wanting to lecture the table on weapons, telecommunications, computers, emergency services, medicine, layouts of national airports... blech.

Quote from: Simlasa;1004678wanting to lecture the table on weapons, telecommunications, computers, emergency services, medicine, layouts of national airports... blech.

With all that immense amount of knowledge I'm sure they'd be a wonderful GM.  In fact, I don't think I qualify to GM for them anymore, so they'll have to take over the game.

The person running this website is a racist who publicly advocates genocidal practices.

I am deleting my content.

I recommend you do the same.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;1004689Are you looking for games that model the horror/fear/dread of the PCs mechanically? Or are you looking for games that mechanically create those emotional states in the players?

that's a perceptive question. I think I was angling for the former, but perhaps as a means of inculcating the latter.

Let me reveal my thinking behind this. A friend of mine was telling me about a Hammer horror film he saw when he was a kid. One of the Christopher Lee Dracula films that really frightened him featured  a priest who was terrified of Dracula in a real,abject way. Seeing an authority figure debased by his fears (the guy was a Catholic, so perhaps this was a factor)  generated a dread of Dracula in him that he never felt in other similar films.

I suppose my hope is that finding a system that models dread in a plausible, intuitive way , might have the same effect.  Players might feel something of the fear that their characters are plausibly experiencing.

Quote from: Ted;1003978I think The One Ring does a very good job of starting with Hope and wearing the players down with the weight of the Shadow (palpable in world dread, fear and ultimately misery).

I was thinking of TOR, too. There's a zombie version of The One Ring, and the Hope/Shadow element worked well in it.  

Quote from: Justin Alexander;1004689Are you looking for games that model the horror/fear/dread of the PCs mechanically? Or are you looking for games that mechanically create those emotional states in the players?

Creating those states in the players is every GM's dream, crushed repeatedly by the least serious player at the table.

I can't count how many times we've gotten a mood going, and then the ha-ha-I'm-so-funny guy or the I-am-uncomfortable-with-feelings guy cracks a bad joke to break it.