What would you say is a good way to run a gothic horror campaign?

Gothic horror tends to play on both the thrill and the fear of the unknown, and places a great importance on atmosphere. It's usually heavily symbolic, sometimes even dreamlike.

It's highly romantic. Passionate affairs determine the fate of empires. Ghosts linger behind every shadow, fueled by rage and hunger for revenge.

The human soul is imperiled by all manner of dark forces. We return from the cosmos and unknowable beings of cosmic horror to a more local fear. The graveyards, forests, and abandoned homes no longer illuminated by the light of science, but with the shaking hand carrying a dying lantern.

Make sure to use Catholic imagery. Protestant writers of gothic horror always found Catholics creepy and sinister.

Borrow freely from the Bible and creepy legends

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>>49837622
Interesting, wouldn't have thought of the Bible as a source to draw from--maybe just because I wasn't given much church early on. Care to elaborate on that?

And freely pull on the western occult tradition

Hermeticism, Astrology, Kabbalah, Satanism, Alchemy, the Key of Solomon, etc

>>49837690
Lots of material

Witches, fallen angels, the curse of Ham, the Nephilim, demonic possession, the torment of hell, the anti-christ, the plagues, pagan deities such as Moloch demanding blood, etc.

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>>49837760
Ah, okay. Sorta read that initially as meaning specific stories rather than the various myths and legends.

>>49837428
Gothic horror is the best use of action horror. You get to have strange foreign (both literally a different country and acting off) citizens, immortal and impossibly decadent nobles, monsters that are true dangerous monsters and not unknowable things, fantastic landscapes, and your protagonist is all that hanged in the various subgenres.

I think a campaign is always better suited for a Simon Belmont or a Van Hellsing pulp adventure with some genuinely creepy and tense moments than trying to play it as a horror game. In my experience horror at the table requires commitment and weird shit and even then it's hard to actually do. A Gothic action horror combines dark comedy, pulpy reneissance adventuring/exploration, and intelligent and charming villains into a really effective combo for anything longer than a few sessions.

>>49837773
Check out the book of Revelation

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>>49837782
I think I agree with you, for the most part--I feel it's a better idea to confront the PCs with a threat to the world around them rather than trying to make them feel helpless or cornered.

>>49837782
Very much this

Many Gothic Horror novels were blends of romance, adventure, and horror

Take Dracula for instance as a classic example

American cowboys and British gentleman battling gypsies and an undead gypsy

Older gothic romances were more about swashbuckling with dastardly fiends while solving paranormal mysteries

>>49837690
Pull from Judges. A barbarian rebel locked in the basement for a decade, pulled out yearly to be mocked by the council, not knowing his strength slowly returns, a gift of unknown gods. Cultists of a strange god to be burned for their crimes, only to have a figure of shadow and sound come to their aid. There are legends of a nation of people who once walked into the desert and disappeared. Most thought them dead, but then there are reports of a sighting. If they exist, no one knows what they eat, where they find water, or how they survive the poisonous fauna of the desert wastes.

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Another point comes to mind--say I'm running it in a fantasy setting, what are some good races to include rather than the usual elves, dwarves, etc.? I'm considering dhampir or some sort of demon-kin (tieflings or what have you), but can anyone recommend some other ideas?

>>49837920
The fourth man in the furnace is one of those mysteries of mythology I love

I like to think it was Jesus

>>49837963
Vampires, werewolves, elementals, hags, revenants, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, the fair folk, succubi, incubi, stereotypical demons with hooves/horns/wings, doppelgänger, dullahan, gargoyles, hellhounds, golems, skeletons, will-O-wisps, homonculi are all very appropriate for Gothic Horror tales

>>49837963
Wouldn't making nonhuman races playable conflict with the fear of the foreign and strange that gothic horror is built on?

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>>49838043
That's what I'm worried about. Part of me is tempted to make a nonhuman race it more of an extra bonus one can gain in exchange for associated flaws.

At present, I've got a few ideas for things like rat-people or alchemically-created dolls.

As for time period you should go for anything after the 30 Years War up to the Edwardian era, medieval times used to be popular for Gothic fiction for its perceived grimness but now it's more associated with elves, hobbits, dwarves, and farm boys fighting dark lords

As far as themes go theres always
>Be careful what you wish for
>Science is evil
>The power of love
>Sex is evil

Plots of gothic horror
>Halloween
>Girls lusting for mysterious bad boys
>Surreal architecture
>Hidden passages
>Witch hunts
>Chess games with the reaper
>Wizard schools
>Demon summoning and deals
>Science gone horribly wrong
>Exorcisms
>Apocalyptic logs/journals/diaries
>Villains in love with heroes/heroines (or their love interest)
>Jealous murder
>Incest
>Rape
>Creepy paintings
>Seances
>Angry villagers
>Human experiments

The best settings are
>Ghost trains
>Tombs
>Old Fashioned Asylums
>Mansions
>Boarding Schools
>Cathedrals
>Graveyards
>Forests
>Towers
>Ships
>Castles
>Laboratories

Magic is usually

>Psychic powers
>Alchemy
>Hermetic
>Illusions

The story can be
>Southern Gothic (like True Detective)
>A depressing northern country
>A New England knockoff
>A stereotypical eastern/central european country

Expect
>tragic deaths in childbirth
>wasting illnesses
>arranged marriages
>jilted lovers committing suicide
>wrongfully imprisoned men seeking revenge
>sociopaths
>villains secretly training the hero to replace them
>evil fire and brimstone protestant ministers with hypocrisy
>serial killers
>sexy priests and nuns who tempt virgins and married people
>pirates
>pedophile priests
>detectives
>the devil in disguise
>mad scientists
>innocent maidens
>hideous creature villains
>highwaymen
>crazy vaguely german doctors
>angsty half vampires
>evil sluts
>corrupt churches

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I kinda feel like I might want to inject some of Puritan New England schtick into a gothic horror setting--witch hunts and the severe men who carry them out. Anybody feel this might be a step in the wrong direction?

>>49838495
Fits right in, actually.

>>49838502
Perfect. That in mind, probably high time I brushed up on some Solomon Kane.

>The whole cosmos is ending because of this unfathomable squid
Is not actually scary, the least power you have in a situation the least meaningful it is to you. That's why post-apocalypse is more popular than apocalypse now settings. You don't have any power wether you survive a meteor strike, but surviving after you lucked out is all in your hands.

Everyone is claustrophobic to a certain degree. Make them game very small, very cramped, threaten them on every inch they walk, don't let them sleep, don't let them think and make it very clear that all they have left to lose is the life that thing stalking at the edge of the candlelight craves so much.

In Gothic horror the threats should reflect human flaws and bring out the worst in the characters, those who give in to their worst aspects are suitably punished, those who manage to endure without giving in make it out alive. This tradition carried over to modern horror movies and is why the characters everyone hates tend to die first and the last person left alive is usually an innocent nicegirl.

Don't forget lost heirs

How about a Frankenstein's monster situation?

>>49841782
Falls under the "science is evil" category

Gothic Horror was part of the romantic response that the enlightenment

They felt that science made the world cold and empty

I'm going to be playing Curse of Strahd soon and it's the most gothic horror (with some bloodborne style cosmic thrown in) that Ravenloft has ever been. Looking forward to it.

>ITT underage faggots misuse the term cosmic horror and Lovecraft

>>49844050
Well how the fuck would you define it, then? Like it or not, the idea of utter hopelessness in that kind of setting makes for a pretty boring game after the dozenth time.

>>49844050
Wat

>>49837622
>It's highly romantic. Passionate affairs determine the fate of empires. Ghosts linger behind every shadow, fueled by rage and hunger for revenge.

Seconding this, nothing makes a persistent haunting like love lost/betrayed etc.

>>49845383
It was such a staple of gothic horror it started getting parodied

>hurr hurr my beloved lost lenore is dead
>lol better try to resurrect her by using some similar looking maiden's body as a vessel for her soul, hail Satan!
>lol better turn this foreign lady into a vampire and role play as married
>lol fuck it I'll I'm just gonna haunt you people and only her memory can control my murderous impulses
>lol I'll use her wildly anachronistic invention as a weapon of mass destruction to kill the city where she was murdered in during the anti-nobility revolution by a mob

Bonus points if he does some creepy shit like making the heroine dress in his dead beloved's clothing

Doesn't even have to be a waifu, it can be anything from a daughter to a mother to even a step-sister he was having a scandalous affair with

Also you could go the old fashioned "false imprisonment" route

>locked up for a crime he didn't commit
>spends years escaping whether through his wits or evil magic or both
>becomes successful and nobody realizes that the mysterious wealthy man is a revenge obsessed fiend

>>49844050
>the idea of utter hopelessness in that kind of setting makes for a pretty boring game after the dozenth time.
no, it doesn't

>>49845797
>he doesn't know about darkness induced audience apathy

The 8 deadly words are a thing y'know

The Walking Dead and GOT are a few examples

>>49845909
>referencing two tvtropes articles in one post

>>49845925
Argumentum Ad Hominem

Try again

>>49837428
Check Lamantation of the Flame Princess and it's various modules

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>>49846093
Forgot the pic
Most of the modules are a dungeon crawl where the main objective changes from loot and glory to survive and escape.

>>49845797
>dictating what someone subjectively enjoys
You must be an absolute joy to game with. Do you also decide on what the other players do each session? I'm willing to hazard a guess you tell the GM what to say as well.

>>49845925
"I don't care what happens to these people" predates your bogeyman site.

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>>49837787
This.

>>49846291
So much

>>49845925
>I can't enjoy this image because it is tumblr in the filename
Whatever floats your goat.

>>49837963
well even the standard fantasy races can be twisted to horror quite easily, Elves obviously one can play up the Fey aspects, with Dwarves bring up the connection to Maggots they have in Norse Mythology, with Halflings mix in some Wickerman into their Shire culture

>>49838043
>>49838077
not necessarily, it all depends on how you set it up

also way I see it, pretty much anything listed in the Monster Manual could be tweaked for Horror usage pretty easily, it's all a matter of presentation

>>49838495
nah that's plenty Gothic, lots of the early myths and legends that emerged in the Americas would fit right in(Sleepy Hollow for example)

>>49841782
>>49842217
a friend of mine came up with a system that divides up Horror into 4 overarching subcategories; Gothic Horror, Cosmic Horror, Atomic Horror, and Slasher Horror, each emphasizing different things, although he notes that they can all mix into each other in different ways;

http://tyrantisterror.tumblr.com/post/111717131759/ichf-key-concepts-the-four-horrors-ive-been

>>49850440
>tumblr

Still a good read tho

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>>49853481

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>>49853492

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>>49853504

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>>49853511

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>>49853517

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>>49853527

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>>49853539

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>>49853547

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>>49853561

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bump

>>49837767
>>49837773
See you space taffer ;_;7

>>49838354
Awesome post! I wish I could pick and mix a variety of these and have a campaign full of them!

>>49837690
>>49837920

The Bible is one of the best splats one could find for their fluff.

>>49855465
I like Bible-inspired ancient myths which may or may not be true.

Everybody knows the legends of giants who lived in the world millennia ago, of a man cursed to wander the earth until judgement day, of an accused beast smote but not slain, of demons that possess men.

Then, from the furthest reaches of the world, come tales of sightings of giants, of witch-doctors who summon demons to possess their enemies, etc.

>>49837428
Maybe portray a world being struck with a biblical like plague for some ill deed that the PCs need to discover and correct?

>pcs enter a bustling, if dreary town
>after exiting the tavern they find it totally empty
>no sign of a struggle
>only the ancient phrase, that when translated, means "PUNISHMENT"

>>49837428 (OP)
Try picking up the Ravenloft box set, 1st or 2nd edition AD&D, doesn't really matter which since it was mostly a copy and paste job. There's a technique section as well a brief introduction that might be useful to you.

>>49838354
>medieval times used to be popular ... but now it's more associated with ... farm boys fighting dark lords
Star Wars was set in medieval times?

>>49837428
Here's one I've always wanted to use: The PCs start to be confronted by people from their past who accuse them of being imposters.

Make locations that were once familiar uninviting and unknown. Make once allies distrustful and filled with scorn. When PCs sleep they shall hear the endless accusations of a forgotten world.

Not so much Gothic but I just did a horror based mission in D&D 3.5. My group came upon a snowed in village of cannibals. The lead cannibal had all of the mannerisms of Nicolas Cage.

>>49855610
But was he a vampire?

>>49837428
A good ol' vampire and/or monster. Raging village mobs?

Or if you're in a Victorian context, Spring Heeled Jack?
He's an underrated fellow.

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So /tg/ I was hoping you could help me with a little project of mine related to the topic. I have recently moved to a new house in a quite spooky area. Middle of nowhere, house standing on the field (there is corn growing on it in season) near a base of large forested hills with few climatic places on them. Abandoned cottages; chapels, crosses and graves in the middle of woods, this kind of thing. On top of that, there is an early medieval pagan burial ground on top of one of the hills. Oh, and there is also a large lake near the house.

So, seeing that I have such good scenery, I'm thinking about running some kind of gothic/deep woods horror larp or something like that on Halloween. I did run few successful horror sessions, but never any kind of larp or other outdoor game. I would be very grateful for any tips, ideas and suggestions.

>>49855713
>house standing on the field (there is corn growing on it in season)
>On top of that, there is an early medieval pagan burial ground on top of one of the hills.
At least make up your mind if this setting is England or New England.

>>49855573
>not wanting to play the imposter

Am I the only person who feels like Batman is a superhero living in a gothic horror world?

>>49857149
He is, but it's just Gotham City, not the whole world.

>>49837428
I mean by baking it into the setting really. My current fantasy world building project has tons of horror elements to it but, there understated or mechanically in the game. For example, mages in this game power their magic via a corrupting substance drawn from gigantic organic structures known as dungeons. This 'blood' is potent but if the mage overuses it they'll eventually turn into something far worse than a mere mortal.

>>49856108
Poland, actually. As for in game, both are fine, although the former would probably be better.

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My advice is to keep the horror elements in check. Other anons have mentioned that classic Gothic horror also incorporates romance and adventure elements, and I would recommend reading the source material to get a better understanding of this balance.

Once you've done that, though, it's important to keep in mind that horror is the most difficult genre to recreate at the table. Humans are visual creatures and unless you live in a spooky mansion and if you do say hi to Eddy Murphy for me your players aren't going to be immersed in the atmosphere as much as they would in a movie or a video game and don't start telling me about how immersive books can be, books take up all your attention and don't make you do no math that's why.

You'll need to adjust the classic Gothic formula to be a little more adventure and a little less horror, because the horror parts aren't gonna have the same impact.

You don't even quite need magic, weird and obscure science can provide similar results. Anybody here read Twig, by Wildbow?

Take the Stitched.

My setting has a Gothic horror shithole slowly turning the tides via industrial revolution. Basically Victorian England turned full on industrial police state where the vast majority of people labor in factories or other industrial jobs to support a war on weird.

But it's implied the same crystal powering their industrial revolution with its infinite flames is also screwing around with the ley lines of their little island.

Knowing how to screw around with ley lines is the reason not!Japan can be adjacent to not!Germany.

>>49838354
>>49855436
My picks:

Theme:
>Be careful what you wish for
Plots:
>Halloween
>Girls lusting for mysterious bad boys
>Hidden passages
>Witch hunts
>Science gone horribly wrong
>Apocalyptic logs/journals/diaries
>Villains in love with heroes/heroines (or their love interest)
>Jealous murder
>Incest
>Rape
>Human experiments
Settings:
>Old Fashioned Asylums
>Mansions
>Boarding Schools
>Cathedrals
>Forests
>Ships
>Laboratories
Magic is:
>Psychic powers
>Alchemy
Story:
>A depressing northern country
Expectations:
>arranged marriages
>wrongfully imprisoned men seeking revenge
>sociopaths
>villains secretly training the hero to replace them
>evil fire and brimstone protestant ministers with hypocrisy
>serial killers
>sexy priests and nuns who tempt virgins and married people
>pirates
>pedophile priests
>detectives
>the devil in disguise
>mad scientists
>innocent maidens
>hideous creature villains
>highwaymen
>crazy vaguely german doctors
>evil sluts
>corrupt churches

>>49855553
It's basically a dark fantasy story told with a sci fi skin.

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>>49857149
If you like that kind of thing look for The Doom that came to Gotham.

>>49838354
Sounds rather suited to ERP honestly.

>>49861808
Holy shit, is that Mike Mignola drawing Batman? What?

>>49863884
I can't be scared and horny at the same time

>>49864234
Never had a fear boner before?

>>49864234
You won't be truly afraid in an online game anyway, so might as well replace it with lewds.

>>49863921

Yes, an entire Elseworld titled 'The Doom That Came to Gotham' filled to the brim with Lovecraft references.

>>49855713
>having a great landscape
>wanting to let filthy larpers to shit on it