BioWare Blog: Running a Horror Game, Part One

BioWare's Jay Watamaniuk shares some tips for setting up a horror-themed tabletop game in the first of three new entries to the company's blog.
Rules: Decide what rule system you are using. Trent created a very quick and easy to use live game system (about three pages top to bottom) for our games which worked very well. Keep it incredibly simple as the main focus of a horror game is pacing and atmosphere- not being a rules lawyer. Let me stress that: scary games are all about the atmosphere and flow of play not rules.

Location: You need a space to play in. It can be a house, a cabin in the woods, a warehouse. Whatever it is you will need access to it before game start for scouting and then set-up. For this article we will refer to the location as the '˜house'. It also needs to be a place where you can arrange furniture, move in props and even make a few simple changes if need be (we removed a few doors from their hinges at one of the games to give the place a bashed in, messy feel).
With a large group of people, you'd think there would always be one guy that blurted something out in the middle of your most suspenseful moments. Or is that just my friends?