From Dennis (OkayestDM)
Happy spooks, everyone! This is one of my favorite times of year for the TTRPG community, because this is when I discovered the joys of running horror games. If you have not run or played in a horror one-shot before, I highly recommend you do. By focusing almost entirely on the suspense and immersion in these types of games, I was able to improve the atmosphere of all my other ones. But, there are some risks to running horror games.
Horror isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Many people, myself included, just don’t like certain aspects of horror. Anything that could merit an R rating on a movie is something that, if you’re planning to put it in a TTRPG, should be discussed beforehand. I learned this the hard way in a game I DMed for my family. The party had tracked a blue dragon to its lair, and went inside to slay it. They were accompanied by a small party of orcs they had befriended. In its opening attack, the dragon descended with all of its melee attacks on poor Gothrt the orc, who was killed instantly. My reasoning for opening the combat this way is to give the players a chance against the dragon, while also using Gothrt’s death to impress upon them how immensely powerful the dragon was, and how much danger they were in. It worked, but I took it a step too far. As I was giving a particularly visceral and gory description of the kill, my mom interrupted me. She said “I’m not comfortable with that description.” That’s all. I apologized, re-described the death appropriate for a PG movie, and we continued playing.
My mistake here wasn’t the gory description. It was not the narrative strategy I used to put fear in my players. The problem was that I hadn’t cleared that kind of content with my players beforehand. Had I known what my own mother was uncomfortable with, the momentum of the battle wouldn’t have been stopped, and more importantly, everyone would have remained comfortable throughout the game. Now, there are several measures I take to prevent that mistake from happening again.
First, I talk to all the players before a new campaign or one-shot, and we discuss any mature content for the game. We go over what we’re okay with and what won’t fly. The point of playing these games is to have fun. Discomfort can stop that fun in its tracks. Normally this isn’t an issue if the people at your table are all good friends or family, and setting boundaries might not be necessary. I learned the hard way that this isn’t always the case. Boundaries should always be clear, because when they are crossed, bad things can happen from a stutter in the game’s tension, to losing a player, or in extreme cases, losing a friend. To avoid all of these, make sure you have that conversation before you play the game.
But what if having that conversation isn’t an option, or the conversation itself is difficult to have? In many cases, people just say they’re “cool with whatever” and no boundaries are set. Sometimes those people just don’t want to talk about things that make them uncomfortable. In those cases, there’s a few tools you can use. As a fan of simplicity, my favorite is the X-Card. Each session, make sure everyone has a card or piece of paper with a big, clear “X” on it. At any time, if someone feels uncomfortable with what’s happening in the game, all they have to do is hold up their X-Card. At that point, the scene or description ends immediately, and the next scene begins. Most people find raising a card much easier than speaking up. It is important that everyone feels it is easy to voice their discomfort, and it doesn’t get much easier than raising a card.
Some games are played online without cameras. In those cases, the text chat works as the X-Card. Simply send the message “X” to convey your discomfort instead of raising a physical card.
There is another tool that I have found useful in the past. Instead of having a conversation about what makes everyone uncomfortable, which can be hard most times, you can have everyone fill out this RPG Consent Checklist:
https://mcpl.info/sites/default/files/images/consent-in-gaming-form-fillable-checklist-2019-09-13.pdf
The first time I filled out this form, I realized there are actually many things that I might not be comfortable with, like explicit sexual descriptions. Using this form, you can ensure that no boundaries are even approached, much less crossed. The small action of raising an X-Card can still stop rising tension in its tracks, which is no good for the story, but necessary for the players. With the RPG Consent Checklist, you maximize comfort and fun at your table, as long as you can remember what boundaries are off-limits.
So, when you’re setting up your horror games, (or re-scheduling them for November), remember to use these safety tools. You and your players deserve nothing but the best, spookiest, safest time you can create together.
From Saint Paul, Minnesota, Dennis Fleming started running TTRPGs in 2014. An avid player and GM, he has been in several streamed Actual Plays and has his own TTRPG YouTube channel, Okayest DM and his other projects
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