How do you effectively pull off a dark plot-twist?

>>47825839

The same way you pull off any plot-twist: drop enough hints, however subtle, to set it up beforehand--preferably so that a certain narrative starts forming in your audience's minds which you can then subvert--and then pull the shocking swerve at a moment of high dramatic tension.

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>>47825839

Foreshadow Subtly

Make the players attached to the character.

Make the event happen quickly focus heavily on the aftermath, do not describe the event itself in detail but be sure to describe the aftermath in plenty of detail.

>"You pull back the sheet, the mortician has removed Susies clothes as part of the autopsy and her torso is held closed by only a few loose staples. Her skin is cold and pale save for her neck which is ringed by deep brown bruises. "

>>47826033
Seconded to all hell.

Also, the end of Dexter season 4.

>>47825839
What's this from?

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>>47825839
Let's be honest, anon, trying to be edgy is one of the things that are the biggest signs of a game on the ropes as is.

Trying to make twists happen to make a game "interesting" is a sign your game wasn't interesting to begin with.

>>47826888
Fanart of ParaNorman.

>>47826925
There's a clear difference between being dark and being edgy. You can have a story tackle darker subjects without having it be Edgy McEdgelord's shaving razor levels of edge.

A good way to do this is not to have the story focus on the dark subjects, it should be a side point.

Such as raiders frequently attack and pillage towns. The villagers maintain a normal life, but there's a level of stress that the adults feel, several of them feel they always need to be alert at all times to prevent an attack. The kids meanwhile, aren't aware of any danger.

Let them think they've won. let them think they've calmed the spirit then fucking rip the princess' head clean off. Hit them with a whiplash of events so vicious they'll need a chiropractor. They'll either be stunned silent or they'll be bitches whining about being railroaded.

>>47826925
I'm sorry, all I can think about is how terrible that show is once you sit down and think about the plots.

>>47825839
That was a good movie

Don't. It's a fool's errand to begin with. A "twist" means you start telling one story and then half way through start telling a different story. It's awkward and clunky and it barely works in a movie much less in any sort of collaborative writing.

You just let the bad stuff happen. Random bad things in the present. Bad things threatening to happen in the future if not stopped now. Bad things from the past still haunting the living.

A secret that won't stay hid slowly coming more and more into focus one thin layer at a time is worth a dozen "twists." And a sudden intrusion of the bad part of life on the good part is worth a thousand.

There's a subtle horror at the moment where what you think turns into what you know. And there's nothing subtle about sentences like "they think the water current was just too strong for him."

>>47828301

That was a great movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUuCSP9seLs

As grim dark, depressing, edgy, hopeless, sappy, disturbing and painful as possible

>>47833564
A good twist should make the audience go back and look over the work that came before with fresh perspective, and realise how the truth was right in front of them all along. This requires planning and forethought, which makes a twist hard to pull off well in TTRPGs, given their loose, improvisational tone. Well, that, and the fact that the "audience" (the players) can't go back examine what happened before very easily.

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>>47833582
>you will never have a qt ghost gf