Adding Horror to your Game

Today I'm going to talk less about procedural topics like campaign building or monster design, and instead I am going to talk about something that even I haven't worked out all the way yet: Being scary with your game. Turning a roleplaying game into a horror game can be tough. Like reputations, it takes a while to build up good horror, and it can be ruined with a single off-hand comment. To this end, I will share my experience with horror, and 5 tips to making it work in your game.

The Story of Orsik

One of my hobbies other than DMing is painting metal miniatures. Usually this goes with my DMing as I can paint minis to use at the table, but my current painting project is a bit different. It's not a mini meant to be used at the table, rather its a diorama, depicting one of the coolest characters I've ever had the pleasure of running a game for. I finished this beast of a project last night, after 3 weeks of modeling, and I wanted to share this with everyone; share the awesomeness that is Orsik.

Best Session Ever

Last night I had one of the best sessions I've had in a while. This was my weekly game where I get to be a player rather than a GM, and I just have to share. I'll try to summarize the background, but there's a lot of details as it was the climactic battle of the adventure, so bear with me through all the little details.

Building a Campaign with Nested Plots

Today I talk about the beginnings of making a campaign. The campaign is what ties a group together, and brings players back each session. Simply put, a campaign is a series of adventures tied together, much like an adventure is a series of encounters tied together. For this article, we'll build a simple example campaign.

There are several ways you can start off your campaign design. If you're like me, you start with the world; draw a map, add some countries, some cities, and let the players choose how they want to play. You could also start with a story you want to tell; the lawful good deity decides the world is not worthy, and is attempting to destroy it to start again, and the players must stop the agents of this "righteousness" and prevent the world from being destroyed. If you're really ballsy, you can take the PC's backstories and weave them into a complex web of seemingly disjointed adventures. For this article, we'll focus on a method of plot-tracking I use to create complex plots and sub-plots.

New Look

You may have noticed the fancy new look I've got going on here with this blog. Let me know how you like it, or if I anything is too hard to read or unclear or whatnot. I will touch up the header image to match the color-scheme in due time, but right now my main issue is that big block of grey that appear next to an ad. Does anyone know of any way I can get rid of that or change its color? I would be eternally grateful for a solution.

I'll also make a "real" post later today.

Learning from the Masters

One of the best ways to learn something new is to watch a master at work. This is just as true with DMing as it is with anything else. To this end, I eschew the long-winded guide today in favor of a video featuring one of my role models as a DM: Chris Perkins, the Senior Producer of D&D at Wizards of the Coat. In this video he is running a game for some of the developers of the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken.

So without further ado, I offer up this video for your viewing pleasure. This is just the first in a series of 25. If you've got two and a half hours of free time, this is an entertaining watch.

Plot Hooks: How to Use 'Em

In this article we'll look at how to use plot hooks, those funny little devices that get players interested in your game. These are a staple for any person running a game, in any system, and I know from personal experience they can be a bit of a problem: Players don't pick up on them!

The trick to getting players to pick up on plot hooks is actually less of a trick, and that is to bombard players with so many plot hooks they can't help but notice them. This shotgun style delivery of story hooks ensures that at least a few get noticed, and gives the players a decent choice.

"But if I do that, don't I have to plan for a bunch of different adventures and quests?" Good point, and here's where the real sleight of hand comes in. You don't. One technique I've used several times is to give the players plot hooks that seem completely different, yet, once the players start investigating, it turns out all the hooks led to the same adventure, in different ways.

Now of course you shouldn't do this all the time, the players are bound to catch on, but once in a while this can break up the monotony of "go here, kill that." For example, say you've got three plot hooks the players have picked up on. 1) Wells around the area have been drying up, leaving only a few areas where water is accessible. 2) Several people have fallen ill in town from some unknown disease, and the local lord fears a plague. 3) Plant-like abominations have begun killing livestock.

Can you see the connections? Here's the adventure: Someone has been emptying the wells in order to force people to use specific water for drinking water, which he has poisoned. This poisoned water has seeped into the groundwater and has corrupted local vegetation, making it sentient. Depending on which hook the players follow, the story can take a different shape. If the players examine the wells, they might find that they've been emptied, and trace that back to the source. If they investigate the illness, they might find it poisoned, and track the poison to a seller/maker, and if the players investigate the plants, they could find the corrupted ground-water.

Plot hooks are great tools when used correctly. They can pique player interest and curiosity and mask what would otherwise be railroading. Learn what motivates your players, and use that to create your story hooks, then relentlessly bombard players with those hooks until they figure out what they want to do.

Happy gaming!