Playing Angry/Frightening Characters

#1

Hey y’all!

This weekend at Nerdly, I played Stockholm (https://alexandria.dk/data?scenarie=5678 - Content warnings for the game (and this post) include kidnapping, abuse, imprisonment. It’s a dark game.)

I played Frank. Those of you who know me won’t be surprised to hear that I played him unfailingly earnest, overbearingly “loving,” and manipulative as fuck. Feedback I got during the debrief included things like “that was the best/worst gaslighting I’ve ever seen.”

I think it worked well enough for the game, but thinking about it afterwards, I realized that he wasn’t, honestly, very frightening. Since the whole premise of the game was “you’re trapped in a bunker by a sick abuser and there’s no possibility of escape,” I think I used that as a crutch, and based my play entirely in the Dr. Jekyll side of the character, rather than exploring or hinting at Mr. Hyde, or figuring out how to blend the two.

So, the questions I’d like to crowdsource (and please feel free to explain it like I’m five, literally no advice is too basic - I love specific tips about body language, facial expressions, word choice, etc.):

  • Do you have any suggestions about how to play a character that frightens others?
  • How do you create dread?
  • How do you play a character with a temper?
  • How do you do it all while also playing to lift/playing to lose/all those other meta-goals of good players?
  • Bonus question from @libertine that I’m importing from his Facebook because I think it fits in with the rest of this post: Talk to me about safety mechanics for playing with in character ANGER

I asked this question on the Indie Game Reading Club slack yesterday, and @Jmstar responded with some great suggestions, so I’m including them here, but also wanted to open up the conversation to everyone on this forum!

You can do a lot with physicality, because we are wired to respond to specific signals of dominance I think. If you control personal space and eye contact, for example, that signals a power and status differential that players will sense. You can speak softly and force someone to pay close attention or move closer, also a status play. These things can be very subtle and allow you to communicate from a position of social dominance, which makes your message more intense and scary. You can also control your reactions - a flat affect response to information that should evoke emotion is frightening, again because of our social nature. You are communicating power through uncertainty, and that is scary. In terms of safety, I think if you want to really Go There it’s best to check in before the game and let everyone know your intent and motivation, and continue to use the tools to support your friends during play.

In a game like Stockholm remember that your friends want you to make them worried and scared and feeling bad (as characters). And that they have the tools to tone it down if necessary. So it is perfectly OK to Go There if you are feeling it. One thing I like to do if I’m going to get all dominant and scary is to deliberately use the tools early to specifically normalize them and demonstrate that I’m in tune with them, inviting others to do the same.

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#2

I was in this game as well playing one of the abductees. I think it is safe to say that I played the angriest character in the game. I am usually really bad at channeling anger into characters, in part because I worry about safety, and especially bleed associated with me.

From a safety perspective I felt reassured in that game by the specific cut rules, and the way that the opening workshop introduced anger. Like @Jmstar mentioned, that mechanism felt like a strong opt in that at least I wouldn’t surprise anyone by introducing strong anger.

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#3

I don’t know if it was included in Stockholm, but in Here is My Power Button we used a safety mechanic called “Softer” that just meant “this is mostly okay but please ratchet down the intensity.” I imagine when it comes to anger it might be the difference between yelling in someone’s face and lecturing them angrily from a more acceptable distance. It seems like a good mechanic for these types of situations.

I am hungrily watching this thread because I want to write a LARP that has the anger of the oppressed as a major theme and I want to do that well and safely.

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#4

This thread involves my favorite people talking about my favorite camp. I love it.

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#5

The best way to convey anger without simply using volume is to make it clear that you’re visibly working NOT to start screaming. Greeting something someone tells you with a slow intake of breath, gritted teeth, and squinting your eyes closed before answering. very. slowly. can be a great way to show that you’re pissed off enough that you’re just about to blow your stack, without shouting over them.

I personally find it much more engaging when someone is inviting me to desperately try to talk them down. Once someone’s blown their stack, they’ve maxxed out to the point where all that’s left is to escalate to actually physically lashing out. That closes options for other players, but playing on that edge gives them options.

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#6

I’ve had decent luck playing NPCs who are terrifying. They tend to be the cold and efficient types. They’ve been well received if they share some sort of background with the PCs, like being marginalized in the same way, and are retired bad guys. The atoning assassin, the hacker who’s trying to lay low, the fixer whose competition tends to disappear.

Angry is not something I’ve tried recently, and am pretty scared to

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#7

As a GM I tend to be able to frighten, though I’m not sure if I do it as often through an NPC. Generally my go to is to discuss terrible things calmly and clinically. Not getting emotional.

Anger on the other hand… That’s a real tough one for me…

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#8

Something I’ve thought about a lot, especially with larp but also tabletop, is that it gives me a safe space to vent some of my nastiness. Even getting credit for doing/saying things I couldn’t and wouldn’t do in everyday life. This became particularly clear to me after a recent visit to my therapist, where we talked about it. It’s cathartic. I probably have some slight anger management issues. Or rather: am afraid of displaying anger for various reasons, so when I do I escalate too quickly (in RL). Most of us have some darkness inside, that isn’t really compatible with workaday life. Anger is one part of that. The social contract of larp/RPGs, ensures a fictional bubble around that sort of thing, that is easy to shift in and out of (in-character/out-of-character). I will more often check in with co-players these days, but mostly I work on the assumption that everyone is an adult and will take care of themselves (including letting co-players know if things are getting too intense, timeout /cut-brake/x-card/etc).

You’ve gotten good pointers on how to play these characters already. Posture shifts, volume, displaying surpression of volume, glances, staring, grimaces.

Also, as pointed to: the license /alibi is already there when people deliberately turn up to these kinds of games, or put on an action/horror movie. Watching a horror movie is scary (to me), but also completely safe because I’m sitting in my couch with my partner.

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#9

Acting angry is fine, but I found the main thing to do would be to make sure you use a different voice and possibly even posture, but also to check in out of character to make sure they remember it’s not you, it’s the character. In 7th Sea last year I played a character who was tightly-wound and rage-driven. His arc was to channel and then reject the monster within.
I kept a tight posture, jaw sticking out a bit and hands in fists when being in character or in neutral at the table. When talking out of character I made sure to use my own voice and to use my hands when I talk, which I find I often do. Whenever there’s been a moment of emotional intensity especially, I might be in my surly voice but then bracket it by having a quick aside as a reminder that it’s just me, then return to the in character talk. So far it’s not been too jarring.

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#10

Interesting. I don’t know if I vented my nastiness thru characters, but I certainly have found that there is a darkness I can channel. One of the first times this happened (because it was not intentional or planned) was the character arc of Jet in @Frasersimons Hacked the Planet last year. He step-by-step evolved from a schemer that regularly set up other factions to take blame into a ruthless protagonist that, in the end, didn’t bat an eye at killing hundreds of people to achieve his goal. His cold calculations scared me, scared me that this came out of me so easily. I thought the story went great, but that’s really for @Frasersimons, @darren, @Asher, and others who are in the game to say.

In other games, I’ve found that the cold, intimate (not sexual, mind you) actions of characters get that shudder reaction, especially when combined with an unexpected action, such as rubbing with your index finger a still-wet painting thought to be made of blood, and then licking your finger to taste if it’s blood or not…

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#11

This is a really good topic. I’m running My Life with Master for the first time, and it’s got me thinking about this a lot. I’m finding it challenging to be properly “evil” when I have so much sympathy for the characters, and want to maintain player agency as well - it becomes quite a juggling/balancing act.

#12

One thing works really well is to upend expectations and draw things out. Like, if I have somebody’s PC tied to a chair and a psychopath with a straight razor is trying to freak them out, it’s way, way creepier if they gently dry-shave the PC’s head without a single nick as they hum a lullaby than if they actually just cut them up.

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