My Tips for Running Horror in 5e
My Experience
I started running Curse of Strahd back in October 2020. The module had always called to me, mainly because of my love of horror. I have always been a fan of horror movies, from the older ones such as Dracula, to the more recent ones like Midsommar. My podcast playlist is full of horror, Pseudopod and No Sleep Podcast being some of the top ones. So bringing horror to my game was something I knew would happen. It can be tricky, but I found a few tips to take a regular game and bring horror elements to it.
Tips
Set Expectations Early
When you want to run a horror game, one of the first things you need to do is communicate that to your potential players. When trying to get people interested, mention “this will be a Horror Game” or “this will include Horror Elements”. Once you have the potential players, reiterate this during your Session 0.
Running a Session 0 is a crucial step in communicating with your table. This applies especially to horror. Making sure the party knows what they can expect in the coming game will help make sure that players are prepared and enthusiastic about this type of atmosphere in the game. It helps to have some examples of what elements they will experience, such as gore and other graphic descriptions.
Create a Safe Space through Consent
Another item that helps early on, Consent Sheets are a valuable resource I include at all of my tables. RPGs have the possibility of touching on subjects that players may be sensitive about. Areas that need to be treated with caution or entirely avoided. While you may know some of your players pretty well, there may be certain subjects they want to avoid entirely. Horror Focused games can touch on these subjects more frequently since a lot of horror has to do with elements that scare or make people uncomfortable. Consent Sheets are perfect for figuring this out.
These will help your players privately let you know what topics they are okay with, what topics they are fine with in small amounts, and what items they want completely avoided. One one I like is here but there are many ones out there. I keep these between each individual player and myself, so that anything a player might be uncomfortable bringing up at the table stays between the two of us. This keeps the horror scary, but not something that makes your players want to leave the table.
Optional Rules to Adjust the Atmosphere
You can run horror in standard 5e just fine, but there are a ton of optional rules that can help you really play up certain elements of the horror. The original core trilogy of books has some great options. The DMG has the “Lingering Injury” table, which I find especially interesting. This outlines options for making combat leave lasting marks on your players. Grievous wounds that can be a limp or broken rib, or as lasting as a missing eye, arm or hand. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft has the “Seeds of Fear”, fears that the player can have their character react to in return for a point of inspiration. It also goes into more details on Fear and Stress, offering mechanical options to represent the rising tension horror can cause.
When adding these rules for the first time, I recommend keeping them to shorter games and discussing them with your party. These rules can be powerful options, and you do not want to create something that drains the fun out of a campaign for your players. I also let my players know that with any new rule, if it accidentally causes irreparable changes to their enjoyment at the table, we can always go back and retcon.
Build the Horror through Descriptions
You, as the DM, have the power to shape the world through how you describe it. Focusing on elements that maintain the atmosphere you want is a powerful item to have. The choice of artwork, music, and ambient can start to layer on the atmosphere that you are trying to invoke, but I have found that descriptions are the most powerful.
One tip I have found is focusing on what the characters cannot perceive as much, or even more than what they can see. Sure, the crypt itself might be spooky, but the shadow filled hallway is full of potentially unseen threats. Your player’s imaginations will do the work for you, conjuring up images of terrors you could not even imagine. Try to anthropomorphize occasionally as well. Tree branches become the grasping fingers of a dying crone and the shadows claw hungrily at the flickering light. Sprinkling these in adds a layer of malicious intent to the world around them, reminding the party of the ever-present dangers.
Make Moments of Respite to Refresh and Amplify
Finally, ease off of the horror from time to time. When I started running games that were primarily horror, I initially felt like I had to keep that atmosphere all the time. Constant danger and suspense around the corner for the party because I wanted to make sure that the atmosphere was sustained. What I found out quickly was that keeping the mood dark, bleary, or scary would ultimately de-sensitize the table to horror. My players would get used to it, and it would have a decreased effect. The constant terror and hopelessness was also particularly draining. While I enjoyed pushing out session after session of horror, it was not the most enjoyable for my party. Allowing moments of joy, hope, or humor helps maintain the atmosphere for a few reasons.
First, it creates a varied environment that allows the party to compare their feelings against. Hopeful moments provide peaks that can help to highlight the darker elements. Even moments that lack suspense and building terror can provide a baseline for your group before the horror hits. Hope or comedy can prevent burnout. Running a very suspenseful or scary game can be taxing on the party. Especially considering the state of the world, a bleak environment like Barovia can pull up those real-world feelings. When DMing, this can be something easily missed. When you are planning and running the campaign, you can tell that the sun will come out after the storm, and know that the big picture balances out. But the players do not always see that at the moment, with what they and their characters know. Hope can be a candle in the dark, or a fire on a long and dark path. It gives them a moment to catch their breath, chuckle a bit, and prepare for the next terror you plan on throwing their way.
Final Thoughts
Throughout my time playing RPGs, horror has been something that I have gravitated towards. As a DM, a lot of the content has those themes in it as well. The suspense, fear, and general unease that can come with horror is a powerful storytelling tool when used the right way. It has taken me some time to grasp onto those points, and so far I feel like I have learned a lot.
Communicating with your table from the start and making sure they know what to expect sets the expectations ahead of time. Making sure your table is a safe space is vital to making sure everyone feels safe enough to truly enjoy the dark and not shy away from it. You can spice up the system too, to downplay DnD heroes, making them feel normal or even underpowered in the face of adversity. Tailoring your music, artwork, and descriptions towards the spooky and unnerving will help your players visualize the horror-filled environment they are in. Finally, let the light shine through the clouds occasionally. The moments of joy or hope can help emphasize the horror you are working so hard to maintain, as well as give the players a chance to recharge their batteries so they can enter the dark once again.
While I can (and have) talk about running horror in 5e all day, I wanted to find the most important tips I had and share them. I think these tips have been vital for me in being able to run horror at my tables in a way that makes more of an impact while maintaining a safe space for all involved. I hope these tips can be of use to you. They have been quite beneficial to me.
Feedback is Appreciated!
I would love to hear your thoughts on horror.
How do you run horror in DnD? What is your best tip?
Do you have a moment where you think horror went the best?
Let me know down below