Horror in Rifts

[desrocfc]

Howdy fellow GMs. I did a couple of posts on horror themes, tropes, resources, and application in adventure design. Have you ever thought of Rifts as a horror genre and explored horror themes in your games? What favourite media property have you used for creating horrific adventures? What other methods have you seen your GM use to really drive home the horror themes?

For you reading pleasure and commentary:

The Bazaar #82: Resources Review (Rifts as Horror). The first in a two-part series, we look at the plethora of resources the horror genre can provide a GM for adventure ideas. An overview of various themes found in horror, different media to draw from (movies, television, books/literature, music, art, RPGs and video games) sets us on a journey to leverage tropes and monsters the GM can set against your PCs. At its very heart, Rifts is a game of horror. This will lead into more practicable ways to establish an immersive horror adventure.

Full article at link: https://www.scholarlyadventures.com/pos ... -as-horror

The Bazaar #83: Rifts Horror (Reinforcing Themes). The second part of the series, we look at application of the various horror tropes and themes that Rifts can really excel at; how does a GM “show, not tell?” We examine use of physical elements, Adventure Design, and narrative or game mechanics to disempower Player Characters to inject a little dread into the game. Also a review of other Palladium Books games, and recommended books to leverage in your Rifts campaign.

Full article at link: https://www.scholarlyadventures.com/pos ... ror-themes

Cheers.

[Killer Cyborg]

I ran an adventure based off the movie "Ravenous."

[foilfodder]

Howdy fellow GMs. I did a couple of posts on horror themes, tropes, resources, and application in adventure design. Have you ever thought of Rifts as a horror genre and explored horror themes in your games? What favourite media property have you used for creating horrific adventures? What other methods have you seen your GM use to really drive home the horror themes?.

My original GM did horror/suspense and did it well. That particular GM was a talented artist, he would frequently draw full page artwork on paper as gaming aids. The "show not tell" aspect really came through when he would pass around art of CS soldiers in Deadboy armor that had been crushed or pummeled to death by a rogue AI robot, or a pencil sketch of the new "alien" species we encountered through a Rift. This was back in the 90s...with modern AI image generation, I can add similar aids to my games.

The "show not tell" is a tricky thing when the GM is speaking. Stating that "a vampire approaches you" is less immersive than "a pale man with a feral glint in his eyes is slowly walking toward your camp through the moonlight." Three things I practice to help immersion: 1) avoid using some game-specific terms, like the occuptional character class or monster/D-Bee type, when describing a NPC or monster to players (unless a character is using a psionic or magical detection ability or the appropriate lore skill is rolled). 2) use general terms like "heavily damaged" instead of providing M.D.C. numbers remaining...unless the characters are not in combat an actually role repair or first aid skills. 3) ask players to temporarilly suspend out-of-character dialogue during key moments. This last one is really hard for some players.

Sometimes GMs can get a bit heavy-handed in a bad way. One thing that can frusterate me as a player is when the GM has my character witness a "cutscene". Events right in front of my character that my character should be able to participate in but the GM won't allow because they have predetermined the outcome. Rifts horror factor rules are a great way to pause character actions briefly without resorting to heavy-handed gamemastering.