Which RPG(s) have you always wanted to play but could never find a group that was interested?

Some of mine are Space 1889 and GURPS Discworld

  • @INeedManaEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    I haven’t played it but I think horror can be quite tricky to pull off at the table. I managed to create a spooky atmosphere a few times but it was never controlled, it just came out so.

    Do you have some pointers/thoughts about how to make horror work in ttrpg?

    • @rgalexEnglish
      2•8 months ago

      I think I’ve been lucky building an horror atmosphere, because the only one I played was for Call of Cthulhu and was with a combination of casual DnD players and new players to TTRPG in general. So, explaining to them the kind of game keep them on the mood since first minute, since CoC has pretty hard rules about sanity and the posibility of dying, and there is a lot of emphasis on not beign combat focused.

      Then, the adventure I played had a lot of elements that create a build up for the sessions. Things I can identify that helped where:

      • That the players where given a clear objective as a premise, but then an aircraft accident happened and they were completely lost. The whole adventure is escaping from the town were they are after the accident, the premise was a lie, and this gave them a sense of constant danger and a direct problem that they can not just forget about.
      • In the adventure, language was a barrier. They were on a town where everyone spoke an old romanian dialect. Their only way of communication they had were trying to use their hands or talk to only one person in town which could translate their requests. This augmented the isolation factor.
      • With the first two points, everything else flowed, because if they found, like, signs of blood somewhere, or strange paintings, talking about them ment using this one character that could translate their requests, but they didn’t trust them, because everyone on that town felt like an enemy, so everything else exponientialy grew in possible theories because trying to just grab information felt dangerous in itself.

      This may be too much specific, but could be translated in other contexts by using those kind of barriers and immediate unavoidable problems that felt real, that augment a normal spooky scene you can imagine, supported by a game system that danger is a real threat in the rules.

      • @INeedManaEnglish
        2•1 year ago

        Ah, you have some horror under your belt.

        everyone on that town felt like an enemy,

        How did you achieve that?

        • @rgalexEnglish
          2•1 year ago

          The adventure presented almost every character in a situation where players could almost no interact, but they were spectators of a weird situation that something felt off. Then later in the second day the adventure gave them freedom to try whatever they wanted.

          For example, first interaction with the person who give them shelter, was requiring them payment after a heated discussion with some familiy members. With this, goes along a description where “players can feel that they are not welcome”. It’s in this moment when the discussion stops and this character began asking for something to stay the night, and it’s not money, and just aims at items they carry, like watches, or bracelets they could have.

          Another example, there was an orphanage in this town, when they go to just investigate, they are presented with a person that controls the orphanage, and while they are talking, they hear screams from a child who is permanently locked in a room without windows.

          The first example builds distrust in the family who gave shelter, and the other does the same for the person who controls the orphanage. Every person in this town has something wrong with them.

          Even the less dangerous was a drunk person, which also build distrust, not because of danger or horror, but because trusting a drunk person could unveil their plans of escape to other people.

          Also, there were minor factors that engrained on the players. One of the characters lies to them, and from then, they think that anyone could also be lying.