On Horror
I've been thinking about what makes something scary lately. If I'm honest with you, I have never been a fan of scary movies or scary media. I always thought the idea of watching something scary with the intent to be scared was stupid. I've grown from that position, but it still floats around my head. I view it now more akin to "adrenaline junkies". I've also thought horror movies, alongside certain other genres, do more damage than anything else to a person's mental state, especially with their regards to actually horrible things and the value of human life. It dehumanizes people and desensitizes us from actual terrible things.
That last reason leads me to my first "point" - gore isn't horror. Body "horror" isn't horror. It's uncomfortable or disturbing, absolutely, but it isn't scary. It makes most people squirmy, uncomfortable, or look away until it is gone. But it's doesn't make me scared. It's just gross. And lazy. Very lazy. "Ooh, there's a worm crawling under the skin" - okay. gross. Also, overdone (and yes, I'm aware of one of my own recent posts with worms).
The ever present "jumpscare" isn't really scary either. It is surprising, often within a larger context of "scary", so it is attributed to fear. But the stretched face of a mangled person and the picture of the kitten playing with a puppy can both get the same reaction if the image is suddenly put on screen with a loud enough noise. It is a surprise, not a scare. It gets your heart racing, not because it is scary but because it is sudden. And "jumpscares" are also lazy. Very lazy. And so overdone.
Besides, a jumpscare doesn't work within the media of an RPG. What am I gonna do - put a scary JPEG on one of my rule pages? OoOoOoOoH. So scary.
There are a number of systems which have implemented "horror" into their games via the rules. Mechanics for serious injury, insanity, trauma, wacky magic, and the like all exist in various forms across various RPGs. These mechanics let the player know what to expect - "Your character can go crazy in this game from interacting too much with XYZ" or "This type of monster can do XYZ body horror thing". But in giving these mechanics the horror is dead on arrival. One of the most important elements of horror is not knowing. For more lore-based horror, a similar important element is giving enough information to get the imagination running, but not enough to make things known.
But the rules are supposed to make things known. That's why they exist. And then we get this juxtaposition of "crucial to horror is the unknown" and "crucial to playing a game is knowing the rules". One could attempt to circumvent this with a scary setting in which the rules function and leaving the setting completely out of the rules. An agnostic ruleset for a horror setting might work, but then most of the lore would have to be hidden so as not to reveal too much.
In thinking of a ruleset built to be scary, what isn't included in a ruleset speaks louder than what is. A ruleset with no rules regarding HP or weapons is very informative. Additionally, if that ruleset's "combat" options are Betray, Cower, Hide, Make Noise, and Move with no explanation beyond what is necessary and whose "Attributes/Stats" are Fear, Quiet, Perception, with no explanation beyond what is all communicate something. Especially when it is presented as any other game.
There are other things to mention, like the enemies or monsters within the game. The players would get 0 information regarding them, first and foremost. All information would be learned via playing the game; none should be given outside of play. I think it is in the realm of monsters that RPGs get closest to invoking horror. Ideally, the party does not know what the monster does nor looks like and the GM keeps it that way as long as possible. Also ideally, the monster does things unique from other monsters, so the party can never really know what to expect.
I'm rambling, but these thoughts have been bouncing around in my head for a while now, especially with re-watching some analog horror videos and being introduced to Skinamarink. Maybe it'll go somewhere; maybe it won't. I can guarantee I'm not creative enough or smart enough to produce a horror ruleset, but sometimes I like to think I am, because sometimes I'm a liar.
P.S. Completely unrelated to the above, but Prompts-Giving is still open to any prompts y'all would want to throw my way! I'd love to hear from any one of y'all reading this about what you'd like to see.