Tips for running The Darkest Age and The Darkest Age: Resurrected

It’s game night, sometime in gusty October—blood and gold-colored leaves crunch underfoot and rustle in the chilly wind. You’ve gathered your gaming group in some darkened room, perhaps only illuminated by sputtering candles. The door opens, and a blast of cold wind snuffs out a few candles. The pizza is here. It’s time to game.

The Darkest Age: Resurrected is a horror role-playing game in which players contend with zombies in a broken and twisted medieval world. So the big question is: Is a horror role-playing game horrifying? Can it be? 

Here are some of our thoughts on the more nuanced aspects of The Darkest Age role-playing game.

Body Horror versus Psychological Horror

Both have their place, especially when Halloween is just around the corner.  Yet, facts are laid bare. The Darkest Age: Resurrected isn’t intended to be a psychological horror game. Zombies are all about body horror. Being chased might be psychologically bothersome, but being eaten alive is, truly, much worse. GMs wishing to use The Darkest Age: Resurrected rules and setting for a psychological horror game are encouraged to do so (share your success stories with us); it will work. Of course, this is your game, and as long as you’ve done a player check-in, go for it. With character classes like Vicious Murderer and Surgeon or Berserker and Inquisitor, the potential for horrible things is quite high. Remember, it’s just a game.

Isolation

A quick way to frighten someone is to isolate them with threats and danger as the only thing they can rely upon. A role-playing game is certainly a group activity, and while isolating individual players might be appropriate occasionally (I know I’ve set off traps and found myself far from the group), in this instance, we’re talking about isolating the whole group of players. Vast stretches of land with no living creatures, only the occasional zombie or small horde slowly shuffling through. Without resources, characters will feel a different kind of isolation. There are no towns nearby, no shelter. This would be a poor way to spend an entire game, but to set the theme and mood, it is a useful technique to intersperse.

Trusting Other Players

Most of us have seen horror films where characters are isolated, run out of options, and eventually turn on one another. Good stuff. In many role-playing games, party cohesion is a given. The forgone conclusion that this disparate group of elves, dwarves, humans, lizardfolk, and god knows what else all meet in an Inn and are happy to trust their lives to armed strangers they met while drunk in a tavern is laughable. Yet, it is a point that, as role-players, we often simply accept. In the Darkest Age: Resurrected, there is really no reason to trust your companions. At least, not at first.

Breaking Point, Desperation, Murder, Madness

Role-playing a zombie survivor is clearly an exercise in madness, desperation, and unwavering stress for a character. If players want to role-play their characters’ psychological state, we encourage that, too. A word of warning to players and GMs alike – once this Pandora’s box is opened, depending on the maturity and abilities of a gaming group, it might be hard to close the lid. 

It is suggested to players who want to role-play this sort of character to have an internal focus of terror – something that doesn’t ruin the session for other players. If a player insists that their character’s motivations are from an external source, be sure it relates to zombies or the theme you’ve chosen for your game. 

Zombies should be scary…

The enemy should be ever-present and relentless to make sure players feel the insidious pressure of the relentless hordes. This is not to suggest continuous rounds of combat. Instead, narrate a setting where a zombie shuffling by is no different than a bus going by: it happens. Most survivors have developed techniques to avoid the undead whenever possible. But like rats, zombies are never far away.

There’s no end to ways GMs can torture players. Remember, you want them to play again! Be sure to check in with your players before a game to ensure everyone is comfortable with your planned horrors.

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