by EJ Ford
Art by Rogerio Vilela and Phil Reed
Jack slumped against the wall to the left of the door and checked the cylinder of his .38 Police Positive. Three shots left. Wiping dirty sweat from his eyes, he considered his chances. That's enough slugs for the two remaining guardians of this dump with one to spare. With a flick of the wrist, he readied the pistol then turned to pull the door open.
The door swung inward as he reached for the knob. A nauseating odor wafted out of the room -- the smell of blood and offal and filthy hair -- and with a crawly feeling at the back of his neck, Jack suddenly thought he knew what these bastards had done with the missing girls. When the first ropy tentacle of skin, bone and slime snaked out of the darkness, he realized he was completely wrong.
* * *
At this point in a game, the poor sap playing Jack Smart, Private Eye, has to make a quick roll of the dice. In GURPS or any other game simulating the horror genre, there has to be a way to describe the process of losing control. In horror novels and movies, characters routinely lose the ability to act on their own. Sanity rolls, "fright checks," whatever you call them, they are an important part of the genre. Panicking, shrieking, vomiting, fainting; anything but the sort of rational, devastating response that players will come back with, given a chance. A look at something truly horrible should have this effect. You shouldn't be able to see a guy turn into a werewolf and just start blazing away with the silver bullets.
The problem is that a player incapacitated by fear and, potentially, madness makes for a frustrating participant in the play of the game. If the players can't do anything, the novelty of having a character that has just acquired a new ten-point disadvantage will wear off quickly.
What's a Game Master to do? You can't have the players sailing through your haunted house without having the characters catch some of the chills and spill along the way. But, you can't drive the players all nuts, because they will quit coming back for more. It's just like you killed the whole party; after a while, your players will find something less aggravating to do. As it happens, there are a few solutions, ones that involve a little extra work for the Game Master but have a more satisfying pay-off all around.
The first piece of advice is one that you see a lot in books about writing horror stories: describe the details. You want to tickle the players interest and get them involved in the scene. To do that, you need to describe details. The smell of a darkened room. The look of a pool of inhuman blood. The sound of a limb breaking and tearing through skin. If you paint a picture with words, it will make it easier, and more honorable, for your players to fail a fright check and flip out. If you just tell the players to make a fright check after they see a skeleton, with no details, they are going to be more than miffed if their characters go bonkers. Just as brand names and spy jargon are essential to a good espionage game, the street cred of a horror game is the ability of the game master to make the players themselves flinch.
Obviously, a good first step is to read and watch everything you can about the topics you intend to inflict on your flinching friends. However, don't just watch movies about the plot points. Everyone has seen vampire movies, and those aren't the details that will shock, scare, and ultimately amuse, your players. Instead, break your adventure into segments and make a point of keying sensory information on each scene. If they are in a sewer, never let them forget the stench and the feel of greasy slime around their legs. Make the players wish they were wearing waders! If they are seeing something horrible, focus on the sound of the creature dragging itself forward, crushing pieces of furniture in its path. Always make sure you describe the roar of gunfire and the smell of smoke, too.
Placing the emphasis on non-visual cues is important, because people think with their eyes but they remember with all their senses. If you just tell the players what something looks like, they'll think about it for a second, then start in with the silver bullets again. You want the players to think twice. You do that by making them feel like they are right there, in the middle of the action. If the players believe the scene, they won't mind acting a little loopy for a bit.
The second way to get your players accustomed to losing control is to put a plant in the group. I can't emphasize the value of this enough. People like to be part of a good joke. Let your player know that their participation will make it a more enjoyable night for the whole group, then let them steal a few scenes with their best improvisation. In a group of good role-players, this is usually incentive enough. If you need more, promise the player and opportunity for his or her character to find some hidden clue. Have their hysterical character accidentally reveal a cache of hidden weapons or information. Promise the player a big reward in experience points at the end of the game.
This technique also works for more fatal tricks. If you have a player who is getting sick of their feeble character and wants to play something new, let the character volunteer to get smeared by the monster. If you can do it with completes secrecy, you'll scare the pants off the other players as "good ol' Joe" simultaneously goes insane and runs shrieking right into the maw of the glistening beast at the bottom of the stairs. Make "Joe's" death as graphic as possible. Describe how "Joe" is bitten in two by the beast (don't forget to use a sound cue!). Make sure the player running "Joe" knows to keep fighting, screaming and, finally, begging for the other characters to put him out of his misery. Trust me, the other players won't forget it even if they subsequently find out that "Joe's" player was in on it.
A final technique involves the least stress all around. Telescope time. This tip has less to do with horror in specific than the others, in a way, because all games can use a little trimming. If no players can act, don't torture them by telling them what the monsters are doing to them; cut to a scene with the survivors and give them a quick synopsis about why they are all now tied up-side down in a meat locker. Try not to take advantage of insane or otherwise incapacitated characters. Remember: pointless deaths in movies usually just make you want to change channels; no one wants to be forced to sit through hours of that. Skip periods of research, recovery, or captivity if you need to. Tell the players just enough about those periods so they get the plot points and the sense of incapacity without actually making the players deal with real inactivity. Keep the action moving, even if the game-time is crawling.
In some cases, players will short-circuit these techniques, sneering through your descriptions and preventing your pre-arranged stunts from going off as planned. In other cases, your players will insist on getting a good look at a monster that will send their character into hours of real-time inactivity. And if elements of the team manage to avoid incapacitation, it's going to be tough to keep those out of action interested in the game. However, if you involve the players, both by using evocative descriptors and encouraging collusion, no one should mind too much when their character goes 'round the bend.
* * *
Jack felt his knees buckle as the ropy tentacle began to grip his leg. Pieces of the six girls protruded from the heap of flesh, bone, and jelly inching its way toward him. As consciousness began to fade, spinning away just as the dizzying stink of the monstrosity grew stronger; Jack heard a voice screaming. That's me, he thought.
When he awoke, days later in the sanitarium, his teeth chattered in the warm room as he tried to describe his last memories to his incredulous friends.
Article publication date: March 17, 2000
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