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
I want to play Wanderhome, but one issue with it is I want someone who really understands how that style of play works to play it with me. I’m very intrigued by the game but can’t quite wrap my head around how it actually goes at the table.
Next on my to play list is Reach of the Roach God but the issue there is scheduling: I have an existing weekly campaign and struggle to find time for a second campaign-length module.
I also want to play Gubat Banwa, I might try the solo rules, but I also have a massive backlog of solo games I want to try.
Alien! I’ve got it on my hands a few days ago at my local store. I’m probably going to buy it by Monday or shortly after.
I’ve only read good things about it so far.
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?
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.
