GM Tips: You already do scary: Use desire, guilt & cost to make your horror haunting.

Today we’re going to talk about 3 ways I’ve learned to make horror really land. I love running and playing horror so this really is for those other GMs who also love horror and if you have players who enjoy playing horror or enjoy having their characters unsettled. 

1. Give the Horror a Desire

Spooky shit is so much more interesting when its more than just spooky. Let it want something. Let the fact that it exists mean something. Sure, random and chaotic scariness has a place but purpose gives it power, at least narratively. A spirit that demands a confession is a whole vibe and so much more intense than just a spirit.

Because now it’s not just what is this thing?
Which is fine for surface-level horror and spooky vibes. But the horror that sticks - the kind you think about after the session - isn’t just about what it is.

It’s about:
Why does it want me? Is it following me? What did I do? What did I fail to do?

2. Make It Personal, Not Just Lethal

It’s easy to make something dangerous and there is absolutely scariness to a faceless monster. But a faceless monster that wears a PC’s sister’s wedding ring? That’s a problem.

And like you don’t have to have the answers, but guaranteed, your players are going to knot themselves up and scare themselves more than you ever could. 

What does this thing connect to? Who does it remind them of? What guilt does it echo?
Horror sticks when it’s about the characters—not just happening to them. For bonus points, give it a name. And a name that matters because the recognition matters.

Calling something “The Pale One” or “The Shadow Priest” gives it flavour. Calling it “Jonah” - the person they left behind? That gives it weight.

“You hear the lock click. And then you hear his voice. Jonah’s. Like it was the night you said goodbye.”

That’s not just an enemy. That’s a decision they made that they’ve been trying to outrun. And you don’t need to change stat block or abilities or anything, it’s just about the introduction hitting hard. You don’t need to be cruel. They can eventually figure out it’s not Jonah - just some malevolent spirit toying with them.. But like… in a minute.

Because that’s the whole point of building trust and having consent checks and whatnot - so you can go hard and give the people who like horror something worth being scared about.

3. Force a Cost

The best horror isn't about defeating the thing - it's about deciding what you're willing to give up.

Anyone can fight a monster.  What lands harder is a choice they can’t fight their way out of.

Those moments stick because they shift horror into decision-making and now this isn’t just threatening the character's life - it threatens their identity, their values, their relationships.

You can’t charm or stab your way out. You have to choose what matters to you and what you are willing to give up. That’s where fear lives - in the tension between two bad options that are all you have and that’ll hit hard because the horror isn't just an obstacle, but almost a mirror - reflecting back at you the cost of who you want to be.

Here are more examples for the game:

• A door that saves you, but shuts behind you.
  Do you walk through, knowing you can’t go back for the others?
  

• An artifact that silences the ghost forever, but only if you lie and say they deserved what happened.
  Are you willing to rewrite history to end the haunting?
  

• A choice between killing the creature or letting it live so it can take vengeance on someone who wronged you.
  Can you live with knowing you didn’t do what you secretly want?

These aren’t traps. They’re invitations to define a character.