As the title says, I was wondering what’d make for good horror in the medium, and thought I’d try to ask here!
My favourite tip take your time. Start with the boring life. The danger about online dating is to meet a walking soviet-parade of red-flags, not to meet a vampire who want to suck your blood. Spending a night camping in the wood is pretty fun, what you really fear is to be snitched on and get fined for “illegal camping” and an unplanned thunderstorm can definitely turn a fun evening into a bad experience, nobody really fears the witch from the woods, it’s a talefor kids isn’t it ?
Then once you took the time to play some “normal” elements, slowly put some uncany elements, a_ctually while you’ve feel like you spoke for hours with your date your watch tells you only 5 minutes passed, and your coktails are still full_. The night camping was pretty fun, but why is the forest so silent in the morning.
This help ensuring that there is a strong link between Player and character, and avoid falling in the comedy horror where fighting Zombie with blood up to knee is the new normal (Note that comedic horror is a genre by itself, and can be pretty fun to play too, but it’s different than real horror)
Dread is commonly recommended but I haven’t tried it myself yet.
Trophy is another one. Listening to their podcast, I found it creepy indeed.
Trajectory of Fear is a must read: https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Trajectory-of-Fear.pdf
And it’s really important that the table has at least somewhat common understandin of what kind of narrative they are trying to achieve.
I’ve run 10 Candles a number of times and had an absolutely fantastic time every single time. It’s perfect for a horror one shot and character creation is built right into setting up the game. Definitely talk with the group beforehand whether you all want to play a more light hearted comedic horror or something scarier.
If you want to use dnd 5e sandy Peterson did a couple adventures and a base ruleset called Cuthulhu Mythos. Theyre a lot of fun and totally built around suspense. Page 70 starts the chapter where they review insanity and dread. I love the dread mechanic.