How do you keep your horror/thriller/surrealist games from descending

Make them feel off-guard and uncomfortable, so the only laughter is muted nervous chuckles.

File: doctor says it like it is.jpg (39KB, 442x536px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 442x536px

>>54049125
The only way you can do this is by telling the players about it beforehand and making sure they're on board.

If they all want to play a horror game and want to get properly invested, they will. If they don't want to, nothing you can say or do will force them.

But both of the things you mention are absurd-fests.

>>54049125
You need some comedy to contrast with the horror, otherwise it's all horror and it's easy to get jaded

>>54049454
How do you isolate the comedy so that it doesn't crop up every time a player makes a stupid joke?

I don't run horror stories, but when I'm doing intense scenes (be they horrors or drama) I've simply looked at the players and said "no out of character talking or planing, this "scene" is all in character or character description"

My player respect that so when I want them to be serious in the kings court, I just say "no ooc"

Set time limits and keep to them. The more tense a sequence the faster they need to react to it. If they burn all their time making jokes about the guy who just peeled off his own face instead of dealing with a dude peeling off his own face then they suffer the appropriate repercussions.

A lot of tension can be made by giving them a finite amount of time to solve a situation. You can do really weird and bizarre things. Describing the meticulous way this guy is removing his own face and what he is doing with the skin and maybe he isn't bleeding but a grey-purple slime is coming out instead. And then you give them 90 seconds as a group to react because he's putting the scalpel down and is turning his attention to them.

>>54052101
And you can ease tension and allow breathing with it as well. Maybe they were super serious and got away from the faceless guy. They've made it back to the hotel that was their base of operations. Everyone was on edge one Fred's jacket getting grabbed almost got him killed. He liked that jacket but the faceless guy has it now. But they are in a safe place, so you give the players 20 minutes to relax and figure out their next plan of attack.

It forces some momentum to the game, and some players will hate it because they want to calculate every angle before taking action. But the real world doesn't have a pause button.

And maybe you don't keep the time exactly. Let them go over in some situations. Or have something happen at a different time hit than what is already going on. Play with their expectations for tension. But don't force it too hard. They will find their own rythm. And if you have a joker at the table they will self police their party if that joker might hurt their characters in the long run.

>>54049665
Subtle conditioning: whoever is cracking the jokes is the one picked for attack or misfortune. Never make it a stated rule, and try not to make it TOO obvious, but they'll come around soon enough.

>>54055455
I will second comic irony. I do tend to shepard players a little with any fudging or logic shifts.

Player is a murder hobo? Their split of the party ends up doing the diplomatics. Player is always loud and clumsy no matter what? Stealth mission.

But I try to use that to push comfort zones. Not punishments.

>>54049152

really this is the case with any kind of horror game, not just surrealist. super easy to derail if they don't play along, probably why most people just fall back on tried and true meet at a tavern and grind kobolds bs

>>54049125
1. Make sure everyone is on board with doing horror.

2. Make absolutely fucking sure everyone is on board with horror.

3. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. Dim the lights and run it at night. Get a soft, non-cheesy horror soundtrack. Less is more in this department. A steady synth dread note is more effective than screams and monster noises. A creaking door is better than Night On Bald Mountain.

4. Make the players feel isolated, in and out of character. Forbid phones and run the game in a private place free from distractions from the outside world.

5. YOU are the single most important factor in setting the tone of your game, so be serious and carry yourself as dead seriously as if you were in court. When you describe scary things, feel the fear in yourself, and your players will take the cue and feel it too.