"What constitutes Horror?" Topic

In a tabletop miniature wargame. What do you need? What are nice-to-haves?

Monsters
Drama
Gore
Impossible Odds
High Mortality Rate
The Unknown
Atmosphere
Nihilism
Surprises

A great question.

A monster, or some kind of horrific threat – a cosmic god who will be summoned by a group of human cultists unless the players succeed in stopping them, for example – that the players will have to overcome or die trying.

Drama – yes, but I think that depends a lot on the spirit of the players and ref (if any), the scenario, and the rules.

Gore – not essential. Some of the best horror films have minimal gore, but large blood slicks to mark casualties is fun.

Impossible Odds – Depending on the genre. In werewolf and vampire games, the odds should be long, but not insurmountable. For zombies odds should get longer as you go through multiple scenarios – raiding a gun shop one week into a zed plague might be a dangerous, yet fairly routine mission, but a month later will be a suicide mission. In the case of Cosmic horror, the designs of the cultists, etc can be thwarted, but the Old Ones never defeated (surviving characters end up in the insane asylum).

High Mortality Rate – depends on the scenario or threat.

The Unknown – This is ideal if you have a good game master that can introduce horror elements without the players knowing what will happen. It might be fun to play a straight gangster, Old West gunfight, or Medieval skirmish, but it turns into a horror scenario part way through.

Atmosphere – a necessary element that is difficult to achieve.

Nihilism would most fit with Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror. Existence has no intrinsic value, etc. In the case of classic vampire and werewolf tales, or say in Asian supernatural terror, often appealing to religious authority might exorcise the evil spirits and so forth.

Surprises – see info under The Unknown.

Doing a complete inventory of the lead pile.

High probability of death from the supernatural primarily. Though rvandusen hit many of the points I would make.

JJ…losing a witty bit of writing is pretty horrifying in it's own right.

Suspense is pretty important when it comes to my view of horror. I think the "Feldmechanik" device can be handy in moving the Big Bad around so that no one knows where it actually is. You have to divide the table into a grid and run search teams essentially.

One of the most 'horrifying' movie/genres? that comes to mind….is something along the lines of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'….where someone right next to you…CHANGES in the wink of an eye to someone/something ELSE.

There are a lot of different versions of this sort of thing….but like in TWILIGHT ZONE….it was where something formerly so familiar becomes something terribly sinister, different and alien to you….They used different camera angles, lighting and made B/W an artform in itself…

To me, those things were truly 'Horror'….not someone pouring 50-gallon drums of 'fake blood' and body parts flying everywhere…or sharks…flying everywhere…etc.

Terrement – there are some things that mortal man was not meant to know. Evidently you transgressed that rule….

Now bloody sharks flying everywhere, on the other hand, would be horrific.

Suspense, and an imminent threat. A scenario where a crazed murderer is stalking you still counts as horror, even if no one has (yet) been killed.

Not sure about 'Horror'. But I've found a recipe for 'Dread.'

Uncontrolability + Unfamiliarity + Imagineablility + Suffering + Scale of Destruction + Unfairness

In a tabletop wargame, where the players have this God's eye view of all the elements, it's tough to do uncertainty and the unknown, let alone suspense, surprise, and horror. So, I usually start with trying to figure out what scares me. Not what repulses me or shocks me, but what truly scares me.

I always thought oblivion was the most horrifying thing possible, so I try to use the threat of futility to fuel horror games on the tabletop. I try to get the players fighting against a beatable opponent, but set the stage so the means of success seem to stay continually poised just at the edge of their control and never firmly in their grasp.

When the players find that their weapons have no effect on the foe at hand, they get anxious rather quickly.
Discovering that the foe is 5x bigger than they had been led to believe also prompts some fun reactions.

And- Tape one of those hand held air horn noise makers under the table before the game. Then, as the player reaches across the unconscious corpse of the mutant thing to try to retrieve the pendant, just out of reach…….

Great question with many interesting answers. I guess I'm in the suspense camp. If you need buckets of blood, just play a wargame.

When the cat gets onto the gaming table! :(