Horror Role-Playing Game Tips

It's my experience that Horror RPG's are more involving, requires more practice, and is harder to get immersed into than any other RPG genre.
The payoff (in my opinion) is that it's also the most fun, the most intense and the most exciting genre to role-play or G.M. Horror... and being scared in general, is just plain fun!

Successful horror role-playing takes thought and effort; not only to create the horror atmosphere, but to continually recreate it as well.
As opposed to other RPG genres (like Fantasy or Science Fiction), Horror is just as much about intent as it is about content.

So to help both GM's & players,
I built this room in my House to offer stories, anecdotes, thoughts, tips and advice that have all worked in my horror games (Beyond the Supernatural or otherwise), or that I've seen performed while playing in or observing other horror GM's.

What makes a good Beyond the Supernatural GM?

This page will be an ongoing series of pieces of advice concerning the attributes and techniques that make up a good Game Master. While all this advice is allbased on my humble opinion, I'd like to think that I know a thing or two about running a horror RPG

What makes a good Beyond the Supernatural Player?

This page is for the people on the other end of table, the players working with the GM. And like the GM, there is plenty of advice concerning the attributes that makes players not only better gamers, but makes their gaming experience that much richer and more entertaining.

When investigative skill rolls fail

One of the sections I've written for the upcoming “Victims” Sourcebook for BTS deals with failing investigation / perception rolls and what to do about them as they can grind the investigation aspect of a game to a screeching halt. While this is NOT a reprint of what I've written (this is very abridged and off the cuff), I still think its worth saying a few words about this dilemma in the tips section.

Slogging Through the Sewers

I’m a big fan of using sewers, storm drains, steam tunnels and utility / maintenance tunnels in my BTS games. They provide an expansive, treacherous labyrinth-like horror haven worthy of the dungeon crawling experience they conjure. Players on the other hand should find the prospect exciting, but terrifying!

While Palladium Books has already published info on sewers in the Boxed Nightmares and Dead Reign: Dark Places sourcebooks, this PDF also offers plenty of tips on making such underground locations a scary experience.