CoC - Delta Green - Making Horror Scenarios.pdf

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Delta Green:
Making Horror
Scenarios
By
Dennis Detwiller,
© 2015
I receive a lot of email about my gaming methods. It’s nice to be known as a heartless
killing machine when it comes to horror game mastery; I take it as a compliment.
Many people have praised or complained about my style of scenario creation as well.
In any case people are talking about it, so I figure I must be doing something right.
Let’s take a look at how to create horror scenarios for roleplaying games. I may
get down into the weeds on some of this stuff with an angle towards
Delta Green,
but
everything presented here can be used for
any
game. Game systems can help rein-
force horror, but the reactions elicited in players matters more than any dice roll. In
horror, it is about
feeling.
If that feeling is not there, not even the most effective horror
game system will help.
What makes a scenario a horror scenario?
Uncertainty, risk and a lack of control.
Without these essential elements, any scenario, involving even the most terrible crea-
tures, is simply a bug hunt. In fact, that’s what most games are: go here, kill this, and
take its stuff.
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Horror is not about that. So, at the highest level, as a game master, this is what
you must consider. Is your group content with the bug hunt?
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If they are, then horror,
and the possibility of failure, might come as a bitter and unwelcome pill. If they’re
open-minded or have experience in playing horror games, let’s talk.
What
Is Different About Horror?
We’ve said horror scenarios are about uncertainty, risk and lack of control. Let’s look
at these elements.
•
UNCERTAINTY:
When a thing is understood completely (“Bugbears have 5 hit
dice”), it ceases to be frightening and certainly can never be truly horrific. Un-
certainty is the essential rule of horror, and of horror scenarios. Players must
never feel certain of their situation, what they’re facing or why.
•
RISK:
If the game comes down to rote calculations (“I’ll do 1D8 damage six
times by the second round, therefore I’ll average 27 points and the monster
only has 16, so…”), it is not a horror game. Horror involves
risk
and the conse-
quences from failing. In most horror games what is risked is the life (or sanity)
of the character.
•
LACK OF CONTROL:
Many games are player-driven. The players dictate and
the world moves around them. Horror does not operate this way. It is a game
master-driven world where the world
occurs
around the players and they must
react. There is a fine line to be drawn here. Players in horror games can
alter
but not
dictate
outcomes. Being prepared, making plans, researching, secur-
ing backup, these are all healthy things in a horror game that shows the player
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Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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is
thinking,
and which can alter the outcome within reason. But most of the
time, what the player is facing is far out of their scope in a one-on-one battle;
hence, lack of control.
Style and Substance
Let’s look at some of the types of horror that can exist in roleplaying games.
•
GORE
-
FEST:
Evil Dead,
The Cabin in the Woods,
etc. This type of horror elicits
fear, but allows for over-the-top action on the part of the PCs. It usually in-
volves supernatural elements. Death is a risk, but as long as the player is enter-
taining, plays along and has good ideas, it’s likely the GM will keep the charac-
ter around. Either the game system should be flexible or the GM should fudge
rolls to keep players playing.
•
SLASHER:
Friday the 13th,
A Nightmare on Elm Street,
etc. This type of horror
is more realistic and risky for the PCs. It sometimes involves supernatural ele-
ments, or at least insane luck. PCs die a lot, but their ingenuity and reason can
help them survive even the most deadly risk. If the player struggles to solve
the mystery, makes decent rolls and puts two and two together it’s likely the
GM will keep the character around.
•
MAN’S OWN WORK:
The Others,
The Purge,
etc. This type of horror explores
the consequences of a world where there are no monsters, only man—and boy,
is that bad enough. Occasionally there are surprise supernatural elements.
This is usually about survival: you must outfight and outthink your fellow man
who is out to end you. If the player is clever, constructs a plan, and stays one
step ahead, it’s likely the character will live long enough to see the end of the
scenario.
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•
THE WORLD PLUS:
The Resurrected,
An American Werewolf
in London,
Ocu-
lus,
etc. The PCs live in the real world, but a secret world of supernatural
threats exists and for some reason is after them. This is the world of
Delta
Green.
The PCs live in constant fear of something beyond, which might reach
out at any time and destroy them. Even the most resilient, clever and well-
prepared PC can perish with a single bad roll.
Structure
Let’s examine a few of the types of structures of horror scenarios.
•
IN MEDIA RES:
Usually reserved for one-shots
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,
in media res
games usually
dictate location, time-period and even the characters the players can choose.
For example:
You’re all teenagers staying at the Bremen Estate, waiting for the
first train back to Albany once the snow clears.
The players pick characters,
play it, and then it’s done.
•
THE MYSTERY:
This can be part of an ongoing campaign or self-contained.
The players are presented with a mystery which they must solve. For example:
People are disappearing at the Lesner Institute, and the university has hired
you to check
it out.
A mystery can easily connect to an
Ongoing Threat,
and
can give rise to characters that continue, change and grow over time and
across multiple scenarios.
•
THE ONGOING THREAT:
A campaign of scenarios (these can be linked or in-
dividual “movie of the week” investigations) connected by a skein of repeating
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Scenarios that usually have pre-made characters, and are playable in one session.
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player characters. For example:
The Gilchrist Trust is a group of like-minded
investigators bent on answering one secret:
What
comes after death?
A Note About Control
I've talked to a lot of people who have many different experiences with horror games.
Some play horror like a Michael Bay movie or a Marvel comic. It's their game, and
they can do what they want—but they're missing out. Horror gaming is about fear.
Fear of the unknown, of losing control, of
losing.
In many ways, control is the op-
posite of fear, and players yearn for control.
A lot of players don't understand this. For that matter, a lot of
game
masters
don't
understand this. Player control is not an option in a game that’s meant to evoke hor-
ror. The spells and creatures and magic and sanity-rending books should be stacked
against you from the first moment of the game.
Regarded mechanically,
Delta Green
is a machine that produces agent deaths in-
terspersed with (sometimes miraculous) stories of survival. It is a story of decline—
moral, mental and physical—with horror and death on all sides. It is
hardly ever
about
winning; and if it is, victories are fleeting and doom is always eventual.
So, players, embrace the fear. It's some of the most fun I've had in gaming:
not
knowing what's coming next.
And GM, take the reins, let the dice make the life-and-
death calls, and bring more of the battle back to the internal struggle with fear.
Where I’m Most Comfortable
I’m most comfortable in the world of
Delta Green,
of course:
The World Plus
and
An
Ongoing Threat.
Now, down to brass tacks: let’s create a little horror scenario that
fits
Delta Green.
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