Resist the urge to run Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons. Those systems empower the PCs to fight evil, and win. That power undermines the horror so completely, it may as well just be a coat of paint. You might think “hey, what if I just make the monster too strong to actually fight?” That’s going to lead to a TPK 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, the spellcaster will pull a wild move you didn’t anticipate and come out on top anyway.
In Pathfinder 2e, you’ll more likely get a chance of martials getting more crits than anticipated than wild spellcasters moves haha.
It can be done… but only by making the monster unfightable. Not “too strong”, literally invincible. To some, that’s horror enough haha.
That said, horror games are indeed the perfect setting to try out other systems, there are some out there like Mothership where the rules hold on one page.
I disagree. There are plenty of ways of presenting scenarios where the threat can be fought by the PCs and even be bested in a small, local sense - yet overall victory can be almost impossible.
Consider something as simple as a zombie apocalypse. Zombies aren’t much of a threat to any put the most low-level adventurers. But once the zombie outbreak becomes too large, the PCs will be unable to contain it - after all, they cannot be everywhere. Village after village, city after city, country after country will fall. They can still fight the zombies - and they should - but true “victory” may become impossible. Instead, the goal becomes: “How can we ensure the survival of as many people as possible?” And there is plenty of horror in that, as the PCs must make harsh choices on what to prioritize.
Resist the urge to run Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons. Those systems empower the PCs to fight evil, and win. That power undermines the horror so completely, it may as well just be a coat of paint. You might think “hey, what if I just make the monster too strong to actually fight?” That’s going to lead to a TPK 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, the spellcaster will pull a wild move you didn’t anticipate and come out on top anyway.
In Pathfinder 2e, you’ll more likely get a chance of martials getting more crits than anticipated than wild spellcasters moves haha.
It can be done… but only by making the monster unfightable. Not “too strong”, literally invincible. To some, that’s horror enough haha.
That said, horror games are indeed the perfect setting to try out other systems, there are some out there like Mothership where the rules hold on one page.
I disagree. There are plenty of ways of presenting scenarios where the threat can be fought by the PCs and even be bested in a small, local sense - yet overall victory can be almost impossible.
Consider something as simple as a zombie apocalypse. Zombies aren’t much of a threat to any put the most low-level adventurers. But once the zombie outbreak becomes too large, the PCs will be unable to contain it - after all, they cannot be everywhere. Village after village, city after city, country after country will fall. They can still fight the zombies - and they should - but true “victory” may become impossible. Instead, the goal becomes: “How can we ensure the survival of as many people as possible?” And there is plenty of horror in that, as the PCs must make harsh choices on what to prioritize.