Pencil Pusher Defend Thyself!

namenlos

Hello and hello again,
It's late here and I'm wracking my brain to figure out how to write a good horror(ish) Dream sequence, so I figured why not crowd source some of my favorite internet peoples

Probably worth mentioning this is for PnP, haha. So mostly just interested in general advice for what others have done in this sort of situation(horror Dream to connect events) in the hopes that you'll inspire me! I will gladly share information and links to the info but privately if you are interested in that. Hhhmm well, short but sweet, thanks if you look and more thanks if you can set me on the right path, haha.

"Wherever you go, there I am!" ^.^

TStael

"It was a theme she had on a scheme he had, told in a foreign land."

Shelley's Frankenstein game about that way. A story challenge was given, and she responded. And you? :-)

TStael

"Tell a story of monstrous human hubris that still invokes a very human wish to (pro)create." This is how I could have imagined the missive to Shelley, yet she actually was only telling a scary story in context of a creative challenge. Frankenstein was nonetheless the result.

namenlos

@TStael

Thanks for the response
To be honest I can't recall reading Shelley's Frankenstein, more of a "Young Frankenstein" kinda guy. ^.^

I think the direction I am going is less the "hubris of humans" and more... What is it that slithers and slides just out of sight in the dark abyss of our own minds and beyond, "am I reflecting the darkness or does it reflect me", kind of idea. er... if that makes a lick of sense

elminster

Maybe give players the opportunity in advance of the dream sequence occurring to provide more background about their character. Obviously you don't tell them its for this purpose. Then you can add elements of that background to the dream. (This sounds like pretty generic advice I'll admit but I don't have much to go off of)

namenlos

@elminster Thanks for the idea either way, generic can come in handy!

Nonnahswriter

By horror, do you mean more suspenseful horror or grotesque horror?

Grotesque being bloody, gory, horrifying images, while suspenseful is more psychological, playing on the character's worst fears and flaws and playing with their heads in an extremely screwed-up way.

Vallmyr

One thing you could do is steal a room from Vermintide. The room changes to fit each individual. The Inquisitor guy sees a torture chamber, the elf sees a forest, stuff like that. But you know. Horror-it. So maybe it's a burning forest or maybe a character sees their loved ones getting tortured. The party is all in the same room but they each see something horrifying but different. Mechanically have them roll to not be shaken/feared/panicked.

namenlos

I hope to lead in with a suspenseful feel, but then it should quickly devolve into a more horrifying image(blood, gore, semi-optional), I always liked the feel when I read Lovecraft(there are others that may do it better, I'm only familiar with him) where I could sort of feel a madness creeping on the edge of your subconscious, but it also sort of gave me the tingling spine feeling ^.^ . Not sure if you are familiar with a show, "Penny Dreadful", but (whether you like the stories or not ) it gives a good feeling(to me) of a dark atmosphere.

I'm not familiar with Vermintide but have read a few of the books and take some inspiration from the grim, dark feeling they can give( Vampire Wars, Brunner, The Blackhearts). The roll for shaken and feared is great, though since it is a dream, well I don't want to have them get to invested in it and then go "Boo! it never happened!"(probably not what you were suggesting, just kinda funny) but I like the idea of a shaken/feared/panicked effect upon waking.

hhmmm decisions, decisions, but thanks for the advice and tips I've done one already but it will be a multi-part disjointed dream sequence that eventually makes sense, Drama!

TStael

namenlos said:

Thanks for the response
To be honest I can't recall reading Shelley's Frankenstein, more of a "Young Frankenstein" kinda guy. ^.^

I think the direction I am going is less the "hubris of humans" and more... What is it that slithers and slides just out of sight in the dark abyss of our own minds and beyond, "am I reflecting the darkness or does it reflect me", kind of idea. er... if that makes a lick of sense

Haha, that's fine! :-)

But do check out "China in your Hand" by T'Pau with lyrics - great late 80's pop album in my book, Bridge of Spies.

The lyrics are direct reference to Frankenstein creation process, but it took me the longest to make that connection, it only came about after reading article about the original book. (Mary then Wollstonecraft was exiled in CH with her lover because of the rather extreme scandal of her relation with a married man, Percy Shelley, and there was a thematic story challenge etc etc.)

"A prophecy for a fantasy, the curse of a vivid mind.
Don't push to far; your dreams are china(*) in your hand.
Don't wish too hard because they may come true, and you can't help them.
You don't know what you might have set upon your self."


I love this secondary effect of power of stories - they are at times brilliantly referred to, making compelling art in second generation. The cleverness of T'Pau is the ambiguity between Mary Shelley and Frankenstein as creators, and Frankenstein and ever current human ambition as potentially harrowing fruit of creation.


(*) china as in procaine - fine cups and saucers that break easier than, well, dreams.

I can confess upon hearing on radio, initially I thought "China the country" - huhh? Dreams are... impossible, you tell? I am non native speaker, yet the image of holding China, the largest country on earth, in your hand was as such, compelling idea of impossibility...

TStael

Nonnahswriter said:

By horror, do you mean more suspenseful horror or grotesque horror?

Grotesque being bloody, gory, horrifying images, while suspenseful is more psychological, playing on the character's worst fears and flaws and playing with their heads in an extremely screwed-up way.

Your post makes me think of 1984 by Orwell. Superbly hard reading, and such topical commentary both then and now, and I fear, sadly, in the future.

One goes through the motions of "casual" dictatorship, uneasy at least in my case, but I think the breaking point of cruelty comes with debasing of love as heroic or saving - both the would-be-rebel and his lover denounce each other under prospect of torture tailored to their worst fear. In case of him, rats eating off his face; in case of her, we shall have to imagine.

Nonnahswriter

TStael said:

Nonnahswriter said:

By horror, do you mean more suspenseful horror or grotesque horror?

Grotesque being bloody, gory, horrifying images, while suspenseful is more psychological, playing on the character's worst fears and flaws and playing with their heads in an extremely screwed-up way.

Your post makes me think of 1984 by Orwell. Superbly hard reading, and such topical commentary both then and now, and I fear, sadly, in the future.

One goes through the motions of "casual" dictatorship, uneasy at least in my case, but I think the breaking point of cruelty comes with debasing of love as heroic or saving - both the would-be-rebel and his lover denounce each other under prospect of torture tailored to their worst fear. In case of him, rats eating off his face; in case of her, we shall have to imagine.

Haven't read it. But okay.