Mechanics Lab: Ludonarrative Dissonance And Scary Things

As you can imagine I’m still thinking about scary games, and in thinking about them I’ve come across a few bits and pieces to steer me in the right direction (maybe).

‘Ludonarrative Dissonance’ if you haven’t heard the term before is when the game, the ‘Ludo’ and the story of the game, the ‘narrative’ don’t align. So if you’re playing a horror game and your supposed to be afraid of the monsters, you’re a simple peasant with a stick and the monsters are as big as bears, being able to kill them by rolling a 2+ on a D6 makes them very non-scary, makes you very powerful. The game and the narrative of the game don’t align. Were you playing a space marine things would be different.

Another example could crop up in an overly complicated role playing game, where you may choose a barbarian class, as you want to run around and go berserk. Looking over spreadsheets to determine your attack damage doesn’t exactly evoke barbarian. If you were in a submarine or piloting a starship which requires a doctorate in future engineering, then spreadsheets would be extremely evocative, but a loincloth clad maniac only wants to roll buckets of dice and watch as limbs fly and blood flows.

So what pitfalls does this idea suggest for the would be scary game?

The player can’t be going equipped. If I can deal with the monsters through combat then they’re not scary. You could have weapons as a red herring, but that’s a trick that only works once, so it’s just easier not to include them.

The player can’t know what they’re walking into. A map, or set of mechanics that are known cannot evoke a fear of the unknown, the player will have to be using limited information.

The game has to be simple. While simplicity is going to make the game far harder to create, I’ve got a strong conviction that if you need to look up rules to figure out an awkward interaction that break from the tension of the game will reduce the effect of any horror. A scary game definitely needs to fall in the camp of easy to learn and maybe difficult to master (although maybe being able to ‘master’ it I’ll also diminish the horror?).

So right now I’m imagining a game with a few decks of cards.

The story will be something along the lines of a person that has just performed an occult ritual and opened a gateway to the afterlife/underworld to look for their recently deceased beloved.

Flip a card from the locations deck and you’ll get a description of the place you’re in, and maybe a couple of options to choose. There may be a monster…

If a monster is present you’ll flip a few cards from the monster deck and it will give you a brief description of what you’re seeing:

…The air was filled with the thick stench of rotting flesh… It’s eyes sunken and fallow, emanated an ancient hatred… It’s limbs twisted and untwisted to the cacophonous sounds of splintering bone…

They’ll have to be carefully crafted so they can all go in any order and still make sense.

You’ll have the option of fighting or running.

Flip a card from the fight deck and you may instantly be torn to shreds, you may win but it will cost you a bullet or two from your revolver and you’ve only got six.

Flip a card to run and you may or may not get away. You may have to stay and fight as the monster grabs you by the leg. If you get away flip the next location card, will it be another monster, the soul of your beloved, or just an empty darkness.

It will probably be fun, hopefully somewhat scary, although you’re mileage may vary.