Genres in D&D - Horror

My other favorite game to run is Call of Cthulhu. For those of you not familiar with the game, it is a horror roleplaying game based off of the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. It uses a percentile based system, although they did release a d20 version of it many years ago.

Horror is a rather difficult to convey in D&D. Horror in general relies on two things: the unknown and powerlessness. People are most frightened when they do not understand the situation or know what is coming and when there isn't anything they can do about it.

Darkness is a common source of the unknown. When you can't see what's around you your mind begins to create the monsters you can't see. D&D has a myriad of ways to defeat the darkness, both metaphorically and and literally. From 0 level spells to cheap alchemical items to racial abilities to see in the dark, players will rarely ever be in a situation where they can't see what they want to.

The unknown is also difficult to do in D&D. It is based on common mythologies and any group that has been playing long enough will know the basic stats of most monsters they'll encounter. Not only that, there are more than a few divination spells to discover information about anything that they will ever encounter.

Horror is difficult to accomplish. From a "historical" perspective, Ravenloft was the horror setting; however I've never played in that setting, so I can't truly comment on it. I've always found D&D does not have the appropriate system for horror. Players will never feel powerless because they grow in power regularly. The availability of magic means that they will rarely be faced with things that are truly scary. Fear and horror lies in the hearts of the common person, not the hero.

Genres in D&D - High Fantasy

Obviously, the default setting for D&D is a high fantasy setting. With creatures such as orcs and dragons, trolls and fairies flying around high fantasy is the only way to describe it. With High Fantasy tends to come other concepts such as world threatening plots, epic action, and piles of treasure hidden in caves.

As I said, this is the default setting for D&D; with it comes pros and cons. In High Fantasy the heroes are heroes and the villains are villains; right is right and wrong is wrong. Adventure is for the good of all and the rewards will be deserved. There won't be much in the way or moral dilemmas or gray areas for the players to explore. These are neither good nor bad things; they just are. This is what D&D was designed for.

Deviation from this setting requires some kind of warning to the players. Even if the warning is just "This won't be your usual D&D game." There are many other genres you can take your game; but they do require some buy in from everyone so that everyone's expectations are met and everyone has fun.