Kinak Talks Games

I grew up reading superhero comics and fantasy novels, watching cartoons, and playing 8-bit video games. All of those have influenced me in different ways, but the biggest influence on me as a creative person is Dungeons & Dragons.

Playing D&D with my older brother and cousins had a huge effect on me. I was small and scrawny so we couldn’t play sports and even when we played video games their hand-eye coordination was way better than mine, so it was no contest. When we played D&D though, it was completely different. At the gaming table we were equals. My die rolls and ideas were as good or better than anyone else’s. Coming up with a fun bit of strategy and making the other people at the table laugh was incredibly empowering for that nervous little Zub. 

When my brother went off to university, I started running tabletop RPGs for my friends and that propelled my excitement about making stories even further. Coming up with characters, places, and stories helped me gain confidence as a storyteller.

After high school I went to college for Classical Animation and, when I graduated, I worked in animation as a layout artist and designer, but that need to build new stories was always there, waiting under the surface. It wasn’t until I started writing my own stories again that I felt like I was really playing to my strengths and, fortunately, I’ve been able to build on that and make it a successful second career as a comic writer.

D&D and other tabletop RPGs lit a creative fire in me that’s still burning to this day. It’s my biggest influence and it’s also why I’m so damn proud to be writing official Dungeons & Dragons comics now. It feels like I’ve come full circle and I can hopefully share some of my excitement for the game with a new generation of players and DMs.

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This is a rework of an article I wrote in 2013. I’ve added some sources, but others might be a bit dated. Additional scores and suggestions welcome! 

You can also hear the gist of this preamble in the recording of “Something at Work in the Soul: Horror in RPGs” from Orcacon 2018 

Silence: Ambiance’s Weak Spot 

I won’t run horror tabletop RPGs without background music. They need it.

More so than other games with their looping tracks from The Lord of the Rings or Conan, horror games absolutely require background music.  

Is that strange? In a genre filled with innocents creeping across creaky floorboards and screams piercing still nights, is it weird to use music to fill every breath-holding moment?

If you’re making a movie, maybe (and even then only maybe). In the TTRPG game you’re running, though, absolutely not.

In any horror game, a absolute goal of your work as a GM is to build an appropriately creepy ambiance or atmosphere. To do so, you’ll use your story, lurid descriptions, whispered conversations, dimmed lights, a whole bag of spooky tricks. But in all of it, your greatest enemy is silence.

That’s because, once a pause hits, once you’re not forwarding the plot, once a player’s not speaking in character, like a mist, the ambiance starts dissipating. Too quickly, the players realize they’re not on rain-slick parapets fleeing the hungry night, they’re in your game room. They remember they’re just playing, they might even realize they’re tense, and in that situation they might do what most humans do when they’re tense: try to break that tension.

Gamers do this with Monty Python jokes.

Monty Python jokes KILL AMBIANCE DEAD. 

Horror Behind Your Words

So what to do? Never slow the game’s momentum. Never look up a rule. Never use the restroom. Never break the session. Lock all the doors. Run the game until either its over or you are.

Or, give yourself some backup. 

Low, subtle, constant, appropriately creepy music provides a steady drumbeat of atmospheric agreement to your story.

While you’re describing the indescribable, it’s an ominous pulse, nodding along, seconding every terror you reveal. 

Even better, though, in the pauses, it’s still there. It’s the dread that lingers even when you’re not building it, it fills the space and holds the atmosphere, helping to keep players in the moment when you can’t.

There are a thousand tricks you can play once you’ve incorporated music into your game—volume, looping, manipulating attention, Pavlovian responses, avoiding recognition—but that’s a discussion for another time. With appropriate selections, the score to your game can do as much to create a memorable experience as your storytelling itself. But, your music has to work for you.

Dread Accompaniment: Horror Music Playlists

Not all horror is alike. The world-destroying marches of Godzilla’s score would never work if you subbed them in behind the visuals of Ringu. Hellraiser’s score works for Hellraiser, The Thing’s score works for The Thing, and trying to swap them would be a mess. The music has to encourage the atmosphere you’re trying to create. If it doesn’t, it might actively work against your story.

As the director on Pathfinder’s Carrion Crown Adventure Path, I wrote several forewords that included my suggestions for music that reinforced the themes of those adventures and that highlighted a specific horror genre or general concept. (The associated films also make damn fine viewing if you’re looking for a specific vein of inspiration.) For ease of reference, I’ve expanded on those playlists here, each with suggested artists, albums, and (where possible) links to help emphasize certain ominous moods. Obviously, these playlists are not all-inclusive; just some of my favorites that have worked well for me in the past.

Use these next time you’re looking for something to enhance the atmosphere of your most sinister TTRPG games, those sessions when you really want to leave  your players dangling from the edges of their seats.

General

Beal, Jeff: Carnivale

Dead Can Dance: The Serpent’s Egg, et al.

Elfman, Danny: Red Dragon

Haslinger, Paul: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Julyan, David: The Descent, The Prestige

Kilar, Wojciech : Bram Stoker’s Dracula*

Navarrete, Javier: Mirrors, Pan’s Labyrinth

Newman, Thomas: Castle Rock

Söderqvist, Johan: Let the Right One In

Yamane, Michiru: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, et al.

Zimmer, Hans: Hannibal*

Ghosts

Carlos, Wendy & Elkind-Tourre, Rachel: The Shining

Carpenter, John: The Fog

Giacchino, Michael: Let Me In

Henifin, Steve: Eternal Darkness

Midnight Syndicate: Gates of Delirium, et al.

Newman, David: Serenity

Revell, Graeme: Below

Yamaoka, Akira: Silent Hill, et al.

Young, Christopher: Drag Me to Hell, The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Zimmer, Hans: The Ring

Terrors of Science

Alwyn, Kenneth: Bride of Frankenstein

Rachmaninoff, Sergei: Prelude in C Sharp Minor, Op.3, No.2

Aufort, Cyrille: Splice

Band, Richard: Reanimator

Beltrami, Marco: Mimic

Bergeaud, David: The Outer Limits

Burwell, Curt: Gods & Monsters

Davis, Carl: Frankenstein Unbound

Doyle, Patrick: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Shore, Howard: The Fly

Savage Horror

Donaggio, Pino: The Howling

Elfman, Danny: Nightbreed, The Wolfman

Frankel, Benjamin: Curse of the Werewolf and Other Film Music

Haslinger, Paul: Underworld (and sequels)

Kanno, Yoko: Wolf ’s Rain Soundtrack 2

LoDuca , Joseph: Brotherhood of the Wolf

Marianelli, Dario: The Brothers Grimm

Morricone, Ennio: Wolf

Powell, Andrew: Ladyhawke

Horrifying Resurrections

Carpenter, John: Village of the Damned

Goldsmith, Jerry: The Mummy

Elm, Bill & Woody Jackson: Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

Heil, Reinhold & Johnny Klimek: Land of the Dead

Isham, Mark: The Crazies

Morasky, Mike: Left 4 Dead

Murphy, John: 28 Days Later

Revell, Graeme: The Crow

Suzuki, Kota: Resident Evil 5 (Related Resident Evil 7 OST)

Taïeb, Jean-Pierre: Frontiere(s)

Alien Horror

Bates, Tyler: Slither

Beltrami, Marco: The Eye

Carpenter, John: Prince of Darkness*

Elfman, Danny: Mars Attacks

Goldenthal, Elliot: Sphere

Graves, Jason: Dead Space

Horner, James: Aliens

Howard, James Newton: Signs

Kurzel, Jed: Alien Covenant

Morricone, Ennio: The Thing*

Shortner, Clinton: District 9

Subtle Horror

Bell, Joshua: The Red Violin*

Bishara, Joseph: Annabelle, The Conjuring

D’Ambrosio, Marco: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust*

Fjellström, Marcus: The Terror

Glass, Philip: Dracula

Goldenthal, Elliot: Interview with the Vampire

Jones, Trevor: From Hell

Kid, Jesper: Assassin’s Creed 2: Brotherhood

McCreary, Bear: 10 Cloverfield Lane

Reitzell, Brian: Hannibal (2014 series)

Tartini, Giuseppe: Violin Sonata in G minor

Zimmer, Hans: Sherlock Holmes

World Ruiners

Benyacar, Simone, Craig Stuart Garfinkle, Veigar Margeirsson, & Daniel Nielsen: Requiem for a Tower

Brower, Russell, Derek Duke, & Edo Guidotti: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Debney, John: End of Days

Desplat, Alexandre: Godzilla (2014)

Glass, Philip: Candyman

Goldsmith, Jerry: The Omen

Ifukube, Akira & Sagisu, Shirō: Shin Godzilla

Jackman, Henry: Skull Island

Mancell, Clint: The Fountain

Young, Christopher: Hellraiser

Zimmer, Hans: Inception

The DM (via outofcontextdnd)

Original post from u/jimbaby on r/DnD 

When writing a character’s backstory, it’s important to include a certain number of “knives”. Knives are essentially anything that the DM can use to raise the stakes of a situation for your character. Anything that can make a conflict personal, like a threatened loved one or the appearance of a sudden enemy. They’re called “knives” because the players lovingly forge them and present them to the DM so that the DM can use them to stab the player over and over again.

The more knives a player has, the easier it is for the DM to involve them in the story. So it’s important to have them! When breaking down a backstory, it kind of goes like this:

Every named person your character cares about, living or dead (i.e. sibling, spouse, childhood friend) +1 knife [EDIT: a large family can be bundled into one big knife]

Every phobia or trauma your character experiences/has experienced +1 knife

Every mystery in your character’s life (i.e. unknown parents, unexplained powers) +1 knife

Every enemy your character has +1 knife

Every ongoing obligation or loyalty your character has +1 knife

Additionally, every obligation your character has failed +1 knife

Every serious crime your character has committed (i.e. murder, arson) +1 knife

Every crime your character is falsely accused of +1 knife

Alternatively if your character is a serial killer or the leader of a thieves guild, those crimes can be bundled under a +1 BIG knife

Any discrimination experienced (i.e. fantasy racism) +1 knife

Every favored item/heirloom +1 knife

Every secret your character is keeping +1 knife

You kind of get the point. Any part of your backstory that could be used against you is considered a knife. A skilled DM will use these knives to get at your character and get you invested in the story. A really good DM can break your knives into smaller, sharper knives with which to stab you. They can bundle different characters’ knives together into one GIANT knife. Because we’re all secretly masochists when it comes to D&D, the more knives you hand out often means the more rewarding the story will be.

On the other hand, you don’t want to be a sad edgelord with too many knives. A buttload of knives just means that everyone in your party will inadvertently get stabbed by your knives, and eventually that gets annoying. Anything over 15 knives seems excessive. The DM will no doubt get more as time goes on, but you don’t want to start out with too many. You also don’t want to be the plain, boring character with only two knives. It means the DM has to work harder to give you a personal stake in the story you’re telling together. Also, knives are cool!! Get more knives!!!

I always try to incorporate at least 7 knives into my character’s backstory, and so far the return has been a stab-ity good time. Going back into previous characters, I’ve noticed that fewer knives present in my backstory has correlated with fewer direct consequences for my character in game. Of course, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, it’s just something that my friends and I have come up with to help with character creation. We like to challenge each other to make surprising and creative knives. If you think of any that should be included, let me know.