A HORROR CAMPAIGN
CHAPTER 3
THE DM/PLAYER CONTRACT A horror game requires an element of cooperation from everyone involved. A DM-against-player attitude, where the players are specifically trying to beat the DM, will not work in a horror campaign. The game is still D&D, and there’s certainly an element of competition in combat and the like, but if everyone’s not on the same page and making an effort, it’s simply not going to work. It’s frankly impossible to force a player to portray fear if he doesn’t want to. The DM and players must agree from the get-go that a horror campaign is something in which they all wish to participate. That agreement comes with certain obligations.
Obligations of the DM To make a horror campaign work, the DM must commit to the following specifics. To Provide the Necessary Mood and Detail: Horror requires description; see Creating Horror on page 7. To Go Only as Far as the Players Wish: Some people have a lower threshold for horror than others. No matter how horrific you wish to make it, D&D is still a game; it’s meant to be fun. If one of your players is becoming uncomfortable with a scene or a description, stop. To Avoid Taking Advantage of the Situation: Horror often involves foes too powerful for the PCs to defeat, at least by standard or obvious means. Don’t use this as an excuse to slaughter or torment the characters without reason. You’re the DM; you don’t need to prove that you’ve got the bigger weapons in your arsenal. If you make changes to monsters or rules, do so because they heighten the mood, not because you want to beat the players. And be certain that players know in advance about any rules changes that affect them directly. To Avoid Frustrating the Players: Horror often involves mystery as well as seemingly unbeatable foes. These elements, if drawn out for too long, can prove frustrating for players. No matter how convoluted your plots or how powerful your villains, you must allow the players to experience victories and discoveries, even if only occasionally. To Avoid Going Too Easy: It’s hard on the player to lose a well-loved character, and you shouldn’t kill one at whim. At the same time, the danger in a horror game must feel real. If the dice and circumstances say that a character dies or suffers some other gruesome fate, you should probably allow it to happen.
Obligations of the Players
40
Players must also make certain commitments in order to bring a dark and vivid life to their horror campaign. To Cooperate with the DM in Setting the Mood: A player who refuses to allow himself to be swept up in the game, and who will not portray his character as scared or shocked when the situation warrants, destroys the mood not only for himself but for the entire group. To Accept that Horrific Events will Happen to Them: In a horror campaign, not every ending is a happy one. The PCs will, at times, encounter opponents too powerful and too terrible for them to defeat. They will not always be able to prevent their loved ones from suffering. They won’t have as high a survival rate as characters in other campaigns. They should not expect every fight to be winnable and every plotline to end on a positive note.
To Create Horror-Appropriate Characters: Horror works only when the characters have something to lose. A character with a rich background, goals and ambitions, and friends and family is a much better choice for a horror game than the stoic loner with no emotional attachments. If a character fears nothing, then nothing inspires fear, and while that might fit certain heroic archetypes, it doesn’t encourage horror roleplaying. To Avoid Metagame Thinking: A character in a horror game who thinks, “Dear gods, that creature utterly ignored my fireball! It cannot be a normal troll!” is fine. A player who grows irate at the DM for creating a flame-breathing troll is not. Fear is about surprises and the unknown. Trust the DM enough to accept that she has a reason for making changes. Further, don’t assume that the DM won’t let a character die; this is a horror game, after all. The danger is real, and players should treat it as such. To Tell the DM if it’s Gone Too Far: This is a game. This is about having fun. If the DM’s idea of horror goes further than you’re comfortable with, tell him so.
SETTING
As with any D&D game, the choice of setting in a horror campaign is a vital aspect of the game. Even though the setting remains in the background for the most part, its nature and details can make or break the attempts to create tension and terror in the PCs. Unlike the stand-alone horror encounter or adventure, the setting of a campaign is not something into which you can dip a toe and then leave; it’s set for a good long while. The first and most basic decision you have to make is whether you wish to create a setting specifically geared toward horror (or a certain type of horror) or whether you want to run a horror game in a fantasy world that feels more traditional, or at least is not overtly designed for horror.
HORROR-ORIENTED SETTINGS The advantage of building a horror-oriented setting from the ground up is that you won’t have to make alterations in it to encourage feelings of tension and fear. On the other hand, the nature of the setting can forewarn the players of the sort of horrors to expect (all these handy garden stakes stacked in the garlic field), and it makes it harder to intersperse the campaign with nonhorror stories. A horror-oriented setting need not be an entire world. It can be a segment of a world (an isolated backwater or literally benighted kingdom) or even part of a preexisting setting that’s not particularly geared toward horror. If you’re designing or choosing a horror-oriented setting to fit your campaign, it’s important to decide what sort of horror—which mood or moods (see page 22)—you’re shooting for. That doesn’t mean you have to restrict yourself entirely to stories of that type, simply that you should select a setting that best supports the sort of game you’re most likely to run. Some possibilities for horror-oriented settings include the following. —A land in the midst of a major war. Thousands of stories have been told regarding the horrors of war, and for good reason. The constant death, the gore, the suffering, the potential for battle-magic and monsters run amok, the ghosts
