Ramblings About Game Mastering - Rooting Your Characters in Reality

This, to me, is key to any successful horror story. The players need to be able to identify with their player characters and they need to be able to relate to their reality within the game.

This is where a horror story differs from a Fantasy or Sci-Fi story. Even though the character in those stories may be rooted in the reality of the game, that reality may be so far from ours that it doesn't feel real on a personal level. Those stories can also be great and fun, but I think the approach should be slightly different.

Character Creation

This is the first time you get a chance to paint a picture of who the player character is when he is living his day to day life. The overall idea is great, but sometimes a number of small details will bring the characters to life much more. 

In the rules for the Cthulhu PBTA Hack I list a number of questions you should ask your players during character creation 

• Where do you live?
• What kind of car do you drive, if any?
• Do you own a weapon? If so, what are you packing?
• Do you have a family? Where are they? Are they close to you?
• How do you look? Do you have any features that stand out? Wingnut ears, large nose or a limp perhaps?
• How do you make a living?
• How do you know the other player characters?

These are just examples, but I think they are really useful of getting the "grey" everyday life of the player character into focus. This will contrast with the colorful and dangerous adventures that they will get up to. 

Downtime

Lets face it, investigating strange mysteries or exploring dangerous underground caverns is where the fun of roleplaying games are. The danger and the mystery is what makes your blood pump and makes you come back for more. 

Downtime is the contrast of this. While during actual in-character roleplay you may spend several hours on just one single encounter, during downtime you can advance the game by several weeks, months or even years in just a few minutes.

The player characters may have research to do, or they may be in a relationship that they want to bring to the next level, or they may need to spendtime recovering in a hospital.

In the Cthulhu PBTA Hack there's a list of Downtime Moves that the GM may perform during any period of downtime. They are there to throw obstacles in the player characters path, but mostly as a way of rooting that character deeper in reality. Things happen beside the dark mysteries they investigate. Things that matter to your character. Some of them mayo give rise to new scenarios but some may just be a bump in the road. Hopefully a memorable one. 

Some examples of downtime moves are

• Illness or Accident
• Economic Difficulties
• Falling Out

During Adventures

Having family members call, show up or just reminding the player characters of them throughout adventures can be a really powerful tool to root the characters in reality. 

When they enter a room and there's a woman who they think is behind a series of brutal murders and she reminds one of the player characters of his mother or sister. 

Recovering from an ordeal in a hotel away from home, a telegram arrives from the husband of the player character, reminding her that next week they are going away to his parents cottage in Maine . This reminds the player character of their everyday life and may give them strength and resolve to carry on. 

Of course, you can use and abuse friends, family and colleagues as kidnapping victims, murder victims or anything else you can think of as an easy way to motivate the player characters. Be aware that using this too often it will lose it's effect.