I find it hard to scare my players. If I'm running a horror game, they expect horrific stuff to happen. No impact.

That being said, I don't run horror games. I run hard (ish) SF games, so when something horrific happens, it freaks them right the fuck out, and chaos ensues. I go for the scary, and I do it by completely blindsiding the players with it. Now, I've had a few games go completely sideways as a result, with totally batshit panicked PC's making some very bad decisions, but these things happen.

Quote from: tenbones;833703This mirrors my own experience.

In Glorantha, Chaos, especially Broo, is a lot more scary than lightsabers and at least as scary as level drain in level-based games. From the perspective of most PCs Chaos-taint is a fate worse than death. And being capture by Broo is even worse. It's a "let's not even go there" kind of worse.

Go for scary. It will be campy anyway, but might have a little scary in it.

Quote from: tenbones;833539Haven't any of you had "those players" that are wisecracking through everything?

This is my best friend...and he loves horror games and he's a great gamer, so we agree he plays the gallows humor PC and I go for "freaky dangerous camp", ala Scream where the players are afraid for their PCs life, but the mood is more campy.

But yeah, serious horror games require him to be elsewhere.

I can still get in some "Oh fuck" from him sometimes that at least creates 10 seconds of creepy/scary at the table for the other players. Also, as my best friend, I know his triggers and I bounce on them like a sadistic maniac.

...and by just writing that sentence, somewhere a SJW just crapped themselves in an assplosion of tears, fecal corn bits and pain.

Quote from: Bren;833650Everyone has to cooperate for a game to be scary for anyone.

Absolutely. Buy-in from everyone is essential.

Quote from: tenbones;833422For those of you that run Horror games, or games with elements of Horror in them. Do you go for WTF scary? Or campy horror? How do your games hold up under the dark clouds of super-scary games?

Really kind of depends on the game.

Just to be contrary, I throw out a third way.  For Witch Hunter and Solomon Kane, I lean towards pulpy horror.  That is, I like to exploit the creep factor and the macabre, but nothing so mind numbingly horrifying that the players feel the need to run for their lives (unless they are just obviously outclassed).  This seems appropriate to the setting – the heroes are there to FIGHT these nightmarish creatures.  Now, if someone has a pet phobia (like, say, spiders or, looking at myself, flying things that sting), I'll play that to the hilt.  But otherwise, it's not the kind of stuff that's going to keep you up at night.

Now, when I'm running KULT, its a completely different ballgame.  In that game, yes I go for the deeply unsettling WTF kill-the-baby-and-the-dog-too brand of horror.  Nothing is off limits.  And God help you if you tell me something is, because THAT'S what's coming for you. It is, after all, based on early Clive Barker splatterpunk (Hellraiser, Nightbreed, Great and Secret Show, etc.).  It's not about uber-cosmic horror that makes you feel alone and insignificant.  It's about mind twisting horror that makes you ask, "why is the knife in my hand?"  The old movie, Jacob's Ladder, is a big influence on how I run that game.  Did you see it?  What was it?  I'm not sure!  Why is it in bed with me?

There are...maybe 2 people in my current game group who I would feel comfortable running KULT for.

Tom

Quote from: tenbones;833422For those of you that run Horror games, or games with elements of Horror in them. Do you go for WTF scary? Or campy horror? How do your games hold up under the dark clouds of super-scary games?

Scary. Because that gives players more importance to the game and to their character.

Scary and unnerving. Campy horror gaming sounds boring as hell.

Horror has never really done it for me.

I like the gore and jumpiness of horror films, but none have ever scared me (Except for Eraserhead).

So, I treat horror games with extreme caution.

I played a zombie game recently, that was fun, with PCs being picked off one by one by zombies. Was it fun? Yes. Was I remotely scared? No.

I have played Call of Cthulhu a number of times, but was never actually scared or creeped out by it.

Were I to play Horror games, I'd play the campy ones, or ones with loads of gore, preferably both - campy with buckets of blood, like Fright Night.

Depends.  I've done both.

I usually don't run horror with the goal to run horror, but if I'm trying, I'm never going for campy. Sometimes, what I run creeps out my players and sometimes, what I play creeps out the GMs as well:). This usually happens when I draw on real world atrocities, though, so it happens more often when I'm GMing it, but as stated already, it's usually a by-product.
Interestingly enough, supernatural and high-tech horrors have a much lower success rate with my players. My theory goes that the supernatural helps them insulate themselves from it being real;).
Either way, if the horror becomes campy, I count that as me failing to set the mood.

The few things I've found out about horror:

1) If running a horror RPG like CoC, it won't be scary. The Players will know what's coming by the title of the game.

2) The most effective horror can be achieved when using a non-horror game. I got this with Traveller, because nobody expected to run in to a ghost ship which was actually haunted.

3) Even if the scary becomes campy, it is still fun if everybody enjoys themselves.

I can do either.  It depends on the type of game, and whether I really want the players to be scared.  If I do, generally the methods involve nothing that I do actively, but how I frame things, if that makes any sense.

Quote from: jeff37923;834531The few things I've found out about horror:

1) If running a horror RPG like CoC, it won't be scary. The Players will know what's coming by the title of the game.

If that's the case then no one ought to ever be scared by horror films or books... because they know those things are going to try to scare them. But people like me DO get scares from those things as well as RPGs aimed at overt horror.
It sounds like you feel it's necessary to 'trick' Players into being scared where I see it as a sort of contract that is best entered into willingly/knowingly.

Quote2) The most effective horror can be achieved when using a non-horror game. I got this with Traveller, because nobody expected to run in to a ghost ship which was actually haunted.

I get why that might work, but might it also upset some folks who see it as 'bait n' switch' and don't want ghosts in their 'hard scifi'? Still, it's one of the reasons that I'll toss mundane/non-Mythos situations into CoC campaigns... why I think the introductory adventure 'The Haunting' works well if you turn it into a Scooby Doo episode where it's just ordinary suburban cultists trying to scare folks away from the Corbett house... no dimensional shamblers or undead wizard.

Quote3) Even if the scary becomes campy, it is still fun if everybody enjoys themselves.

That second bit kind of renders whatever goes before it meaningless... 'Even if the game sucks...' or 'Even if the GM doesn't show up...'

Quote from: Simlasa;835275'The Haunting' works well if you turn it into a Scooby Doo episode where it's just ordinary suburban cultists trying to scare folks away from the Corbett house... no dimensional shamblers or undead wizard.

The Corbett house is one of two scenarios with the highest PC fatality rate. The other was whatever adventure featured the tunnel riddled Boucher estate.

Quote from: Bren;835278The Corbett house is one of two scenarios with the highest PC fatality rate. The other was whatever adventure featured the tunnel riddled Boucher estate.

I played in a one-shot of The Haunting recently and no one came close to madness or death... for which I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the Keeper. Up until the final confrontation with Corbett it really felt more like some old 'Abbot & Costello Meet X' movie because he pulled all his punches.