October Horro RPG Blog # 1-Now with Candy Corn

FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS

October Horror Role Playing Blog # 1

Happy Fright day Boils and ghouls. All this month I will be taking a look at Horror Role Playing games...or maybe just some Horrible Role Playing Games...HA GET IT?
Anyway. Before I open up the vaults for any one specific Horror role Playing System, let's delve in to the Question of can you in fact run a Horror Scenario in a world where your Player's have Characters with “Super powers?”
Be it Spells,Future tech,or actual Super Powers your average beginning PC in a RPG is a cut above Joe Shepherd so, can you in fact run a Scenario that is scary for Guys who can cast spells or whatever?

For Example: I recently tempted to run a Hunted Mine scenario for a D&D game. I had all the Props,Dark twisting hallways. Weird chttering sounds. Strange shadows on the walls, Brief glimpses of glowing red eye's. Every thing I thought would evoke the sens of dread I wanted the PC's/Players to feel about this Mine. Which lasted all of 5 Seconds! Between the Wizards ability to cantrip Light Spells, the Cleric detecting evil, the Rogue with his perception the Frightening Haunted mine just became a standard throw down with some Kobolds because the PC's had changed the environment due to there “Super powers”.

So? What could I have done to make that scenario work? Sure I could have Railroaded the situation by telling them there “powers” are not working but that would have been unfair . I could have made them roll a few more dice rolls and just give them wrong answers, but anything I could have thought of was again quickly defeated by the fact that your Average First level PC is a Super powered machine. It's very hard to run a dark spooky hallway scene when the Wizard has the ability to create Light as often as he wants.

Several other articles and ideas on Horror scenarios suggest things like mood music (which I had), darkening the lights in the room (Which I did not do), banning Phones from the table (Which I need to start doing), saving throws vs fear, giving them wrong answers (which I did) but frankly my personal experience is that unless you are an amazing story teller it's just not possible to create a haunted house scenario for “Super powered” beings. I for One have never been able to run a successful Ghost story and I have tried, in fact in all my years of gaming I have only ever played in One spook story game that worked!

So, again what can you do? It's hard our players of today because we are Jaded, have watched a ton of scary films and are thus prepared and our PC's have an arsenal of Super Powers?

Add to that the fact that your average RPG player has seen a lot of Horror Films and has a vast amount of experience from previous games (both video and face to face)and unlike your average “Victim” in a scary movie is in fact SMART!

You don't see Joe first level fighter going down the stairs, alone,with out a weapon, in the dark, in his Jammies that often do you? Why? Because no logical sane person would do that!

No, your average person might freak out in a Scary situation in RL but us gamer/geeks have been training for stuff like this forever! A Geek/gamer would grab a weapon or five, a flash light or torch and either get out of the house or wait for the Killer and then whack him over the head with a bat. Am I right?

Frankly Kids, I don't know if you can run a Horror scenario in today’s jaded society. It has to be a agreed upon contract with the GM and players that the players are going to ATEMPT to suspend there disbelief, shut down there logical mind and be open to the idea that the scenario is a “Scary Movie.”

I'm not sure it can be done? We are to smart, to experienced, to aware that our PC's are for lack of a better name “Super Human”. At least I could not do it, not that I wont try again. I mean, you sort of have to run a Halloween Game in October right?

This is not a “how to “article, it is more of an open letter . How would you run a Horror scenario? What would you do in a situation like that?

That’s it Halloween fans! October blog # 1.

Tune in next Fright day when we review our first Horror RPG..Till next time.

UNPLEASEN DREAMS!!!!! Muahahahahah.