January 7, 2023
This article will tell you the secret techniques that I use to make players feel fear or terror. But before we get into the juicy part, lets first understand why things work the way they do.
True fear is a difficult thing to achieve in Tabletop RPGs. In games or movies, the flow of the scare is usually dictated by scary entities standing or popping around on the screen. In tabletop roleplaying games, it's impossible to do that, because…we don’t have a screen display!
Although the first thought to solve this problem is to simply just get a screen display and jumpscare your players with Scary pictures of Ghosts, not all of us can get a table with a screen nor do we have the skill/time to draw a scary picture of our creature.
But what if I were to tell you that there is a trick to horror in RPGs? A technique to create fastened heartbeat or a method to instill fear and tension.
With introductions out of the way and hopefully with your attention hooked. Let me first talk about the concepts of horror according to me in a tabletop RPG setting.
We will be diving into the following segments and learning how they all tie up in the end.
Using the 4 types of horror in Story Writing
Summarized from **Unseen Terror: How uncertainty feeds our fear, this article touch on the difference between Terror & Horror.
Terror - The anticipation, uncertainty, and the worst outcome possibilities created by the human mind
Horror - The grand reveal of the scene displayed in horrifying imagery.
The human mind is innately creative. When hinted at, the human mind often imagines the worst outcome possible. This creates terror and fear. If you ask me, this is the top secret of creating fear in RPG.
Due to the inability of displaying horrifying imagery, we must dive deep into terror to truly deliver fear.
So what is terror?
“A girl heard her mom yell her name from downstairs, so she got up and started to head down. As she got to the stairs, her mom pulled her into her room and said “I heard that, too.”
You’ve probably heard the above short story before. That is what terror is, the anticipation, the uncertainty, and the worst outcome possibility. Your mind spins thinking what is downstairs. Forming whatever hideous creature could be mimicking the girl’s mother, the imagination in your head fears you.
What is horror then?
“A girl heard her mom yell her name from downstairs, so she got up and started to head down. As she got to the stairs, she sees her mom in a blood-soaked nightgown stabbing feverously at a kid that looked exactly like her. “Come to mommy sweetheart” A voice warped from the shadows as her mom leaps up the stairs.”
Further down this article, we will talk about how we will use terror to give the tension and scare needed to back up the horror. Most of these methods and techniques will teach you how to ensure terror is delivered in a methodical and technical way.
Now that we know what type of horror we can use to plan our adventures we can now talk about the methods and techniques we can use to install these horrors.
Unlike other blogs, I love to write my blogs and tips with actual creation. So from here on forward, any segment in a grey box is an example that I use to install these tricks.
Oof, a cliche one, Little Cat GM. Yes, it is. But damn is this important! I also often refer to this as creating the Flow of Horror. As with many horror films, there is always a calm before the storm. You will see that this method branches to many other tricks, even a trick such as a jumpscare — notice how there is always a pause/music build-up before the ear-piercing scream.
The Set Up is everywhere because without it your horror will fall flat.
Let’s look at an example (without set up) :
The Towering Monster steps out of the shadows. You can’t believe you didn’t see it there before. Its teeth decorated with chewed flesh and it holds an intestinal tube that he pulls back from the shadows. It growls. You see a human torso dragged by it as it approaches you.
With the example above, we have established mainly body horror. We described the scene to our players only emphasizing on the grotesque nature of the scene. But what about the other two types of horror. Those are missed out!
In addition, the entire scene feels flat too quick not enough impact…no terror.
Now let’s look at an example (with set up) :
There is something in the shadows ahead of you. You are unsure what it is. A gnawing chewing sound similar to the sound of gum being savored. Your heart beats faster. You step back and place your hand on the stone wall next to you as you light a torch.Your body freezes. Something deadly is in there. In that dark corner infront you. You want to run but your legs feels like jelly. You take stumbling steps back wards while keeping your gaze at the shadow. That’s where you see a bloodied snout escaping the shroud of the darkness. It growls… like a hound ready to pounce on its prey. It spits its food on the ground and for a split second you see it… its an intestine still connected to the upper half of a human torso.
We’ve now introduced the Set Up portion of the horror. In addition to Body horror, we have tied in Mental Horror - “Your heart beats faster, your body freezes” , Uncanny Valley - “Sound of gum being savoured” , Fear of the Unknown - “Something in the shadows”.
These are all small little bits of horror that amplifies the greater reveal.
Of course, in the example above. we only have 1-2 paragraphs to set up. In an actual adventure creation, this set up can range for a long period of time.
A common way to introduce a set up an intrigue is to introduce a rumor.
ℹ️ As the group of you venture into the town, you overhear people discussing around the marketplace.”Have you heard? The council’s son was found dead in his room.””What! That’s such big news!””Yeah I heard the corpse was almost unidentifiable…”
In this rumor introduction we have used Fear of the Unknown and potentially a tad of body horror. There are a couple of small factors that is missing this way. Such as how nonchalant the NPCs were when discussing about someone dying in their town. As such, I usually refrain from using rumors.
But Little Cat GM, what if I don't want to use rumors?
An alternative way is to have the rumor be told directly to the players or asked by the players.
ℹ️ As the group of you venture into the town. You are greeted immediately by a familiar individual. Its Canie, the lass that worked at the Inn. You settled in quickly to the Inn as she pours you all a drink. As she serves the ale, you can’t help but notice that everyone in the Inn including Canie is wearing a silver locket.
If players asks Canie…”Oh… something bad happened a few months ago. The town’s seer forced all of us to wear a silver locket. Those that did not go missing and their families too.”
Now we’ve introduced a couple of intrigue points which is key to any mystery plot. Not too much of horror here as we are still padding up the set up. But its good to know how this could be used gain the player’s investment.
An extremely common way I use to introduce set up for horror is using a tragic scene. This is common as it touches on what the players see and feel. This method we will be describing a scene that instills that something bad happened to the place they are at.
An example to show:
ℹ️ Opening the door to the supermarket, you are welcomed with a wave of rotting stench. The whiff of it almost made you vomit. There are flies that came buzzing out. from within. Its dark but you found a light switch.
Do you turn it on?
Yes > The light flickers, struggling to muster whatever juice the generator has. In the blink of the white light you catch glimpses of red and flying flies feasting. The light turns on completely and infront of you is what seems to be a feeding ground. Bones, limbs and whole sized animals with bite marks filled the supermarket. You see from within the pile of meat, a small human hand sticks out grasping on to what looked like an unopened wrapper of a chocolate bar.
In this method we’ve set up the scene, we introduced body horror, fear of the unknown and, uncanny valley. There are many small plays here that we made. We had the set up of the unknown, leading the players into the supermarket. We introduced the horror of death and bones although not too deep into body horror. Most importantly we set up the uncanny valley of a potential child that befell the tragic scene who didn’t even get to eat the chocolate bar.
I save these for the big baddies or the big scares. The threat & haunt method can be simply defined as describing the Uncanny Valley. In this method, we will not be using any body horror or mental horror or fear of the unknown. We will be full throttling The Fear of the Uncanny Valley.
Why does this create the most fear?
Did you ever feel fear when you see someone from a far just looking at you for a long period of time? You most likely have. In fact, many scary images and set up of horror in films/media involves something looking at you. It makes your hair stand. It's simply creepy, as though you are being hunted.
This actually plays deep into the Uncanny Valley…now let’s recreate that in real life.
ℹ️ The rain is pouring… it’s difficult to see past the mist created by the rapid rain. But you get a sudden chill that something in the rain is watching you… You gaze deeply into the rain and that’s where you caught sight of it. Ever so faint, ever so camouflaged… a face… a smile …Immediately Actually Curl Your Smile In Real life and stare directly at the Player. Speak in a whispered voice : “Hello”
In the example above we went and did an immersion transference. We flowed from setting the scene to portraying the creature in one single flow. That is where we play deep into the uncanny valley, we don’t warn the players that we are going to portray the creature. We JUST DO IT.
ℹ️ As you slice the creature in half. The creature’s bottom torso starts to bubble at the wound and you see its flesh regenerating at incredible speed. Its legs stumble while the rapid weight of the regeneration swings and snaps the bones in its body. It limps back up and what you see before you shake you to your core.
You look at the creature… it looks exactly like a human now. Its hair long and its upper body’s anatomy all fits the description of a middle aged female. But something about its face is wrong. Her eyes… its as though misaligned by a tad bit as though her face was created through the hands of an amateurish artist. It looks at you…Her eyes shifts and darts. Actually dart and shift your eyes…And it lands back on you… “He… heheh…. hehe…”
The above example we introduced the uncanny value in a more direct way. We introduced the creature to take complete form of a human as though mimicking a human body. But we inserted the uncanny valley by stating its eyes darts in an alien way.
And by actually darting our eyes in real life we amplify the effect and end of with a nice creepy laughter.
Now with the BASICS out of the way, let’s move on to the REAL Little Cat GM tricks.
Sounds are the only omni tool at your disposal as a Game Master. Its the sounds that creates the moods, its the ambiance, its the explosive bass, its the dreadful horror effect.
There are plenty of sounds we can use and here are the type of sounds I use.
Now before we deep dive into each of these sounds I would like to address that these sounds does not have to be from a computer/media. They can come from your own soundbox - Your Voice. The better you get at mimicking these sounds, the quicker and better your game will flow.
This is the most commonly used sound in TTRPGs. The classic mystery/pillars of eternity soundtrack playlist. Every time I see a game run without a music ambiance my heart hurts. Use the music, google mystery RPG music or peaceful RPG music on youtube and just let it rock!
Here are a couple of playlist I use : Mysterious and Creepy
Trick - Playlist switching.
The first small little trick we have regarding this is to switch playlists and switch music playlists in accordance with the situation you want to introduce. I recommend creating a slight tension pause (See Technique 3 later) before you cue a darker more brooding playlist.
Music you want to avoid…
Any form of music with lyrics & any form of music that’s techno based. I generally prefer to not introduce any form of lyrical music as it will compete with your voice over narrative. Techno music…. yea that just kinda kills any horror mood.
God Damn, I love this. Monster Screech is one of the best Set Up mechanisms or fear-inducing sound we can introduce. Of course, not every creature have to be Cleric Beast from blood borne that is screaming off the top of its lungs.
Look to Introduce strange screeches, ethereal voice effects, talking when you inhale instead of exhale.
At this point of my life, I do make my own monster screeches. I understand that screaming like a weirdo in public or in confine rooms might not always be the best idea. If you need to get a youtube sound clip and play it trust me that will be great.
This trick is important. Imagine you are going to introduce this super badass scream and you go ahead like this:
ℹ️ You see the furred beast raise its head and its eyes fumes with smoke. It smashes the pierced sword deeper into its chest and pulls it out. It looks at you and it {silent pause for 1 second}…Press play on computer…… RAWWWRR…..
Yea…. the pause between the narrative into the sound effect should not have any awkward pauses. Take into consideration of the sound clip loading. In the example above, I would be pressing play on the computer during the last sentence.
It is exactly due to this reason that I prefer to use my own voice instead of a computer sound clip.
Now we are getting to the real juice. Ambient sound, we are not interested in musical compositions now. Let's kick our environment into overdrive. Let's play with ambience & environmental sounds.
There are 2 types of ambience sounds we can play - Realistic ambience & Mood ambience.
The difference between this two is interesting. Typically for me, I prefer to use realistic ambience when I am not intending to introduce the scare. Which means this is usually during a set up or perhaps NPC conversations. Here is a common set up point of how I switch my playlist.
ℹ️ {Play Realistic Ambience} Its damp.... You hear the sound of rats and the occasional droplets of whatever liquid splashin on the cold dead forgotton floors. Its cold, but the lights are still on. The train station looks completely rid of life. You quickly make your way past the gantry and find yourselves looking at a long flight of stairs leading downwards towards the train departure platform.
A sense of unease starts to creep in. What do you do? Which one of you goes first?
{Play Mood Ambience} Tabby, taking your first step down the stairs is difficult. The darkness infront of you shows know defeat to the small quivering glow of your lighter. The rest of your holds on to Tabby as she descends down the stairs...Nicole, as the group of you walk down the stairs, you notice something. A glimpse. Just a short one....
{Stop all music and pause for a few seconds} Nicole, you aren't sure if you should tell your friends to prevent panic. Perhaps its just a trick of the light. But for that moment. You are sure you saw it... You saw 4 humanoids in the same shape as you and your friends sitting and smiling at the far end of the train platform.
{Resume Mood Ambience if you want to keep the tension or return to realistic ambience to break it}
The example above included Silence. Silence is extremely important. The pacing of horror lives in the essence of silence. Think about it, every jumpscare functions off silence, every tensed reveal functioned off silence. Use silence to the best of your ability.
The most common mistake about silence, is actually your facial emotion and body position. It really is that Meta! Nothing breaks the tension faster then you flipping through the pages or you looking at your computer screen. When you introduce silence, make sure to stare at the players (Not creepily of course... unless you want to) make sure to stare blankly into space or across the table. The trick is to act as if you are going to whisper something to them, this will get them to lean in towards you.
--- You have reached the end of this article for now, I will be updating it as i perform more work throughout my website. --- If you enjoyed this article please do follow me on twitch, add me on discord or join my comfy discord! -- stay tune to this site as i post about techniqque 2 and 3 which is one of the best ways to create more fear.
Technique 2 - Asking Cursed Questions
Technique 3 -
