Running Suspense and Horror in Your Games

05 Mar Running Suspense and Horror in Your Games

Once upon a time I used to play exclusively power fantasy games – D&D, and everything like it. There were explosions, it was awesome and very epic. But eventually I wanted something… more. Something that I could really feel.

Without realising what “genre” I was stepping into, I started playing different games. Unusual plots and storylines. They felt more like a movie or a novel, and less like a power fantasy game.

And I totally loved them.

The genre is probably more suspense than horror. But when confronted with genres I usually shrug and play whatever seems cool.

Each time I play one of these games, I come away with a few more guiding principles that will hopefully help make the next game even better. So here’s a few of those.

1. Let Them Run, Let Them Hide
   There was a moment in our game when the player character was in a horrific dream but couldn’t run away from the decaying partyers all around him – and more importantly, the being who had been chasing him for much of the campaign.
   The player later told me that at that moment what had been high tension evaporated. He knew he had to either fight back, or simply die. And you don’t want them fighting back – if you’ve made your horror villain appropriately, they’ll just kill the character. And if the pc can fight back, that will also destroy a lot of the suspense.
   A better solution is to let the pc run and hide. Give them options to escape.
   One of the greatest suspense video games out there is Alien: Isolation. Your only option is to hide, otherwise you’ll die. You start squeezing yourself into tunnels, under tables, into cabinets and lockers, and there are even controls to hold your breath.
   That is brilliant for creating tension!
   
2. They Can’t Harm Their Foes
   This has been said many times, but horror typically comes from helplessness. A feeling that you can’t fight back, can’t possibly harm your opponent. Then fear sets in. If you can hurt them, they can’t be that scary after all.
   There are always ways to bend this rule and maintain tension. I had it so that every time the bad guy in the story was killed, it turned out to be someone else. So instead of killing a psycho baddie, the pc had just shot a uni student (with straight As of course). Not only that, but the bad guy was still out there, unharmed. Freaky.
   The movie Aliens has the marines killing xenomorphs left and right… but the horde is undiminished, and unstoppable.
   
3. An Enigma Builds Tension
   The harder it is for your players to wrap their heads around what’s going on, the more freaky, suspenseful and tense it’s going to be. However, they still need to have clear motivations, and you can’t lose track of the plot!
   Not only that, but wrapping up the mystery completely will have your players later going, “So that’s why he said it like that! Wow!” When you miss on that, you end up like Lost… ending with a sigh, not a bang.
   There were a few times that I was inconsistent in the way certain elements of the plot played out, and while I think I got away with it for the most part, there would have been more “wow” at the end if I’d gotten it just right.
   
4. Don’t Show the Monster
   It’s weird right? But monsters, to maintain their suspense, must remain as enigmatic as possible.
   A monster doesn’t even need to be a physical thing. But it is the core enigma, the mystery, the thing that brings the horror.
   Better yet, don’t let the characters interact with it at all.
   I’ve always called playing Call of Cthuhlu, but every time you show a player the picture of “Cthulhu” it removes the tension. If the monster is unknowable, formless, something that exists outside of the players’ capacity to understand or perceive… and yet it can affect them. Oooh boy I find that eerie.
   There are lots of way this could be played out. You’ve of course got spirits, possession, and gods with their unfathomable powers. But what about for games which actually have the monsters? In those cases I’d say change the monster. This is a tip I learnt from Professor DM in the Youtube channel Dungeoncraft.
   It’s not an Ogre, it’s a Maneater.
   Change the name, alter the origin story. Make it horrible and grisly. Then you can always have it hard to track down. It strikes its prey, but is hard to pin down. You saw a huge shape in the darkness, but when you get there it’s gone.

Those are my tips for today! What tips do you have for running suspense and horror? Please leave a comment below.

~Oliver R. Shead