As I nibbled around the crunchy edges of the Ghost Punchers RPG this week, I had a few thoughts on the nature of horror-themed storyworlds. And since I haven’t done a storyworld post in a while, I wanted to share those thoughts with you!
Horror is all about power. More to the point, horror comes from a lack of power. Being powerless is scary. (“Oh no, the axe-wield slasher is coming and I’m naked in the shower!”). Discovering that you’re powerless is scary. (“Bullets have no effect on this thing!”) And losing the power you once had might be scariest of all. (“You have to have faith for that to work.”)
As creators of horror stories and storyworlds, we have the power. The audience for such works come to us looking to be scared, willingly putting themselves under that power. But unlike, say, slasher victims in the shower, the audience has the ability to walk away if they’re not having fun anymore. They have the ultimate power: to close the book, to turn off the movie, to quit the game.
That’s important to keep in mind. Because while frightening the audience is part of the job, the whole job is to entertain them.
