Advice/Help Implementing Horror Tropes

[kaninchen]

I'm a huge fan of horror. All of it, and nearly all the tropes, but especially the final girl. But I struggle to think about how you could implement something like that in an RP, you know, without everyone dying?

My main train of thought was establishing a classic horror setting: summer camp, small town, etc. But usually at that point, people start dying. But I would rather avoid character death, which runs me into my issue. So does anyone have any ideas on how to organically implement horror tropes, maybe in more subtle fashions? I've been looking for examples but I'm having a hard time.

 

[Big Brother Jack]

You could have it be like Resident evil and have certain characters have plot armor like survivors in outbreaks can have plot armor if they move the story forward. Like Leon Kennedy should be dead with all the shit he goes through, same with Chris but they are not because they move the story forward and are good at pew pew. Also maybe have the threat be killable in some form so people will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Long story short, study horror survival games for inspiration.

 

[nerdy tangents]

There are two easy ways to do this

1. Have all the deaths be NPCs
2. If this is a 1x1 perhaps the points of view characters are the final survivor and the killer?
3. Alternately everyone who dies comes back as a ghost or something and they could be trying to influence the plot to help protect the "final survior"?

 

[kaninchen]

Actually you both put forth some interesting ideas I hadn't thought of before, if everyone has these roles of course they are ultimately voluntary. So a character could die because their creator wants, which would help further the story. And NPCs could pad out the rest. Something like this I think would work better in a group.

And the ghost idea is very interesting... that got me thinking a little!

 

[Lia]

Yes, it's tricky. I liked all of the ideas above, and I think another way to make it work would be if there was a final group instead of a final girl. So all players could create two characters, one that they are willing to kill for the sake of the plot and one that they wanted to leave in this final group. Everyone has fun and no one is kicked out of the roleplay.

I also loved the idea of ghosts. Murdered characters could even rejoin the group immediately after their deaths, unaware that they are dead.

By the way, if you're really planning to do this RP, don't forget to call me. I'm obsessed with horror too.

 

[Idea]

The first thought that came to mind for me was to maybe use a different type of threat instead of death. Characters could lose something important to them, or they could be brainwashed, or trapped in some object or something. A disease might also work, letting a player be infected and be slowly dying could be a "death" without the character actually being out of the picture. You could also lean into more mystery instead of survival type horror, and have the players not be the target, but rather be attempting to protect the potential target.

The ghost solution, the few times I've seen it implemented, had the major flaw that the players in that state lost interest anyway because they weren't really involved anymore. So solutions that put players as an outside separate group I wouldn't say are the best idea.

That being said, I'm not gonna pretend like I'm the most informed or experienced person on the issue by a long stretch, as I'm generally not someone who does or even engages with horror in roleplay. This is because I'm not confident my writing is good enough, if nothing else at least not good enough in the aspect of invoking emotion, to create a tangible sensation of fear which is a pretty essential element to horror.