RPG: So You Wanna Play A Spooky Game, Do Ya?
The many shades of horror bubble up this time of year. Here’s how you can make your next RPG a spooky one.
Spooky RPGs are the perfect way to help get your gaming group through the holiday cataclysm of scheduling. Plus they’re a great break from the usual grind of epic story lines where you’ve been spending the last month going from zeroes to heroes capable of attacking and dethroning the gods.
But what can you do when you don’t want to go full on horror. Maybe you don’t want to dive into feeling helpless against cosmic forces. But you want to feel like you’re in a little more over your head. That’s where spooky RPGs come in handy. These are games that flirt with the idea of scary things, but keep the distance firmly ensconced in at least the idea of control.
Sure, there’s a deadly monster terrorizing the sleepy little skiing village. But you’re part of a team of agents sent to investigate these things.
It’s the difference between Final Destination and the X-Files Episode that’s like Final Destination. Or between American Horror Story and Supernatural. You wouldn’t call the Winchesters “horror” but there’s no denying they dabble in the dressing.
We’ve talked before about how horror is hard to do in RPGs. But spooky? Spooky’s easy. You just need the right game.
Eerie Investigations Into The Unknown
A big win for spooky one shots or even campaigns, is mystery. A good mystery is just enough of “the unknown” to feel scary but then you peel back the layers, like an onion or a parfait, and slowly either understand the thing, or at least glimpse more of it.
RPGs and mystery get along pretty well. This is where you might want to play a game like Monster of the Week or Delta Green or something in the GUMSHOE system, like Esoterrorists. These are the kinds of games where you play as agents (or random folk) sent to investigate something creepy. And little by little, you come to an understanding of, if not the thing you’re investigating, at least what must be done about it.
A Monster’s Mash
Another favorite way to play a spooky RPG is to find one that lets you be the monsters. At least for a little while. If the whole party is werewolves and vampires and Frankenstein’s monster’s monster Frankensteins, there’s no end of fun.
Games like Monsterhearts offer you a great vehicle into being spooky. You play as monsters in high school, the scariest place of them all! But it’s very fun vibes as you get into romantic tension and teen angst while also being a dracula.
Or play the more classic Vampire: the Masquerade or anything else from the World of Darkness and have teen angst but dressed up in leather and lace.
In Space Everything Is Awful
Space represents the vast unknown. The final frontier. It’s the worst place to be when something is going wrong, because once something goes wrong, everything goes wrong. Which is why it’s a perfect place to play your spooky RPG campaigns/one shots.
If you want to be a little more action-y, games like The Alien RPG or You’re In Space And Everything’s Fucked are fantastic ways of digging into the spooky vibes. You’ll face monsters, probably die horribly, and have a lot of fun along the way. You’re In Space… has built in save points that you come back to after you die.
Kid Stuff
Movies like ET and Monster Squad and even Hocus Pocus are perennial favorites come spooky season. They’re about that cusp of adolescence, coming of age, and also understanding things that parents just can’t, because they’re too wrapped up in their world of “taxes” and “mergers” and whatever else it is that makes them so sad.
Games where you play as kids dealing with the supernatural or esoteric are a fantastic way to ring in the spooky season. Whether it’s the Stranger-Things-Esque Tales from the Loop or RPGs like Kids on Bikes which let you explore a world of clueless adults and strange things lurking in the shadows.
When In Doubt, Just Add Zombies
Finally, if you can’t think of anything else to do. Just sprinkle in zombies. Or whatever your own equivalent of zombies is. Shaun of the Dead proves that you can have a rom com with zoms. Pick a non-spooky genre, like John Hughes movies, then grab a game that sets that up and add zombies or some other plodding monster into it. And then you’re basically all settled.
What are some of your favorite ways to play Spooky RPGs?
