Psychological questions for horror game characters

I am intending to run a psychological horror game. The premise is, the players are all going to make up a modern character who is terminally ill. They start session zero/one in a group therapy setting answering questions about themselves. This is supposed to represent the last meeting of this therapy group.

At the end of it, they are all going to immediately wake up in generic clone bodies aboard a derelict generation ship above a distant planet. There they have to piece together how they got there, what they do next, and oh god what are all of these horrific things trying to kill us.

I am looking for a list of perhaps slightly unsettling questions that the party can discuss the answers to in order to get them in character and have me learn about them.

Side note - I have received my player’s consent to run a horror game where part of the horror comes from a sudden and dramatic shift in theme and setting

Have a look at the horror game Dread, which uses 'slanted questions' to build the PC. There's 4 free scenarios with character question sheets at the bottom which might give you ideas.

For your specific scenario, slant the questions to match what sort of answers you want to generate. Everybody needs to be dying of a terminal condition.

"What condition are you dying of?"
"Why are you so afraid of dying?"
"What large sacrifice would you make if you could avoid death?"

Notice the wording doesn't allow players to claim they aren't dying, they aren't afraid, or that they wouldn't give something up.

"Would you rather [significant other/family member] was the one dying instead of you?"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Reversefigure4

"What condition are you dying of?"
"Why are you so afraid of dying?"
"What large sacrifice would you make if you could avoid death?"

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Elvenoutrider

The premise is, the players are all going to make up a modern character who is terminally ill. They start session zero/one in a group therapy setting answering questions about themselves. This is supposed to represent the last meeting of this therapy group.

---

Do the players know the premise? If not, these questions sound like they can very efficiently help introduce the players to the premise.

If so, there may be some odd dissonance between "last session" and the group leader asking, "what are you dieing of" etc. That sounds like more of a first session kinda thing to me.

Related question: do you want want the session to feel real? Or should the PCs be kinda like, "wtf is up with this?"?

Is the group leader going to be asking oddball disturbing questions like "have you ever had dreams that involved eating or being eaten by another human or inhuman being?" Or is this really supposed to feel like an ordinary, run of the mill, dieing of terminal illness help group?

Also, do such groups really have a "last session"? :smallconfused:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Quertus

Also, do such groups really have a "last session"? :smallconfused:

---

The best excuse I could see for this would be that the group leader has become too ill to continue, perhaps because of a relapse of their terminal cancer or because they're discontinuing treatment, and nobody is willing or has the energy to step up. If it's a small community group not sponsored by an organization, that's entirely possible.

Thanks for the responses so far. These are great questions and I’ll be purchasing dread tonight.

To answer your questions:

The players will know it is a horror game that starts with a group therapy session. The party will be told that some of the horror comes from the fact that there will be a dramatic setting shift. They will be told to make modern characters with terminal illnesses.

Each of the characters has been told that this is an experimental treatment that will allow them to survive their condition. The specifics of that are not further explained yet but the project is funded with government approval by various established medical and software companies. As a part of this treatment, each character has already had many one on one therapy sessions with various specialists and even religious leaders on request. Each session has been recorded though no recording device was visible.

The company has been using these sessions to create mental maps of each of the patient’s brains. The last session is to get readings on how they interact with other people. This means that it is fine to ask the basic question of “what are you dying of?” As well as other questions meant to create a discussion.

The questions are supposed to make the characters feel a bit uncomfortable as they reveal their thoughts to the other characters (or choose not to). I am trying to mix some expected questions with some slightly disturbing ones about what they value and are willing to sacrifice but I have writers block on this front.?

At the end of the session, they are told that they will each undergo a procedure to prolong their lives now that the session is over. It is at this point that each of them wakes up on the derelict spaceship. What happened is their brain scans were stopped at the end of group therapy. The nature of the procedure will be explained further in the game as they access research files.

Their uncorrupted prototype brain scan files were dug up by a fractured ai looking through the archives for uncorrupted humans. They are uploaded into clone bodies (intended for organ harvesting). The party objectives at that point are to escape from a monster as quickly as their malnourished and withered clone bodies can carry them, and to get to medical to have their muscles stimulated and restored.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Elvenoutrider

The party objectives at that point are to escape from a monster as quickly as their malnourished and withered clone bodies can carry them, and to get to medical to have their muscles stimulated and restored.

---

And if they don't come up with those objectives? If, instead, they decide to nourish themselves on this random malnourished (and perhaps wounded) stranger beside them, hoping to hide from the beast until their body recovers / until they wake up from this dream?

Just saying, I don't know about these guys, but you sign me up for horror, and I might well *become* the monster.

I know my players and would not invite anyone that would play like that to my table

The instructions given to them are clearly laid out at this opening stage by audio log. The game becomes more open after these opening objectives are fulfilled

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Elvenoutrider

I know my players and would not invite anyone that would play like that to my table

The instructions given to them are clearly laid out at this opening stage by audio log. The game becomes more open after these opening objectives are fulfilled

---

How dull.

Doesn't answer question, though: you've laid out what rails you want and expect them to take, but not why they should follow said path, or what your plan is should they deviate from your script. EDIT: or do you mean that the audio log is in-game? That's actually kinda hilarious to picture - a calm recorded message telling them to go to Muscular Therapy for the next step of treatment, while they desperately fend off a monster.

Very strong impetus for Exploration in your setup. I like that. How are you planning on handling the "investigate and learn stuff" minigame?

The game is still being written so I don’t have my countermeasures all planned out at this point. Suffice to say I’ve been gming for years so I feel more than capable of coming up with ways to nudge them in the right direction.

In this particular case I will nudge them with information control. They are dropped out of cloning vats with no idea how they got there. A voice tells them they are in danger from something called a fragment, that will eat them if it can. It tells them they have to get out of cloning and that they can cure their physical ailments with a treatment from the primary medical wing.

To keep them on these particular rails, they are locked into the multi room cloning segment of the ship. They either follow the clues laid out and get out or die horribly. there are tools in each room that can be used to slow down the monster, 3 options for killing it, and a few problems the players can solve to override the lock and escape. The monster is designed with a gluttony theme so it’s quite slow and easily distracted.

At the point where they have escaped, priority one should be getting them to find their way to medical because of their frail bodies. If for whatever reason they don’t want to do that, I’ll add in some very easy physical impediments and I’ll describe how much they struggle to get past them in order to nudge them towards the idea that they need medical attention.

The party is on a spaceship with no easy way off and no way to survive long term in the vacuum of space if they don’t play along. That alone limits their options for getting too far off the rails

I also have Virgil, a fragmented ai that communicates in sound bites from pop culture and can be used as an interface tool with the ship computers. I can use him to nudge the party in the right direction.

They will eventually meet up with the former crew who have barricaded themselves in a part of the ship for long enough that they have turned tribal and treat the ship as a diety. They can help guide the party. Though they lack technical expertise they have holy rites handed down by their ancestors to make parts of the ship Work (damaged instruction manuals and printouts of emails)

As for the investigation mechanic. I’m currently evaluating 3 systems - eclipse phase, call of Cthulhu, and trail of Cthulhu. Each has investigation mechanics, and would require some light reskinning but none of that seems too hard 8’ leaning toward call of cthulhu where some of the future tech requires a direct and very stressful neural connection and the magic rules. My party would prefer that since they already love how I run that system but I havnt quite made up my mind.

Focusing on the story right now.

Adding to what everyone mentioned:
1) what do you want to know about the characters? What do you them to reveal?
2) what hard choices do you want them to make pregame? How will those choices affect your story? Dread works great, because hard choices are used against them. That's what makes for great horror.
3) ask them their fears. Abuse them. Make sure your mechanics support that abuse. Because horror. Obvious example: someone hates spiders. Oh look, spiders on that one console that was the one thing that only that character can do that will prevent impending doom. (Even better if there wasn't a single spider on board, everyone else confronted their fears, and it's session 15. #allthetrauma)
4) what specific character aspects do you want them to frame? For example, we all have random behaviors in real life. If you ask a player: "what happened to you as a kid that caused a nervous twitch?" You're getting a twofer: the nervous twitch that the players will now roleplay, and a story background that you can build into the game. Twitches, behaviors, attitudes, and the like all work.

But I digress! No one (or very few) has (have) proposed questions!

What is your name, and what are you dying from?
How do you feel about dying?
Do you have any major regrets you wish you could clear up/fix before you die?
Have you had any odd nightmares within the past two months (or however long they've been scanning)?
Where do you put your faith? Yourself, you family, your doctors, God?
Have you come to peace with the world and your condition yet? If not, what can I do to help?
What's one thing you've been surprised about along the way? What's unexpected about dying?
How attached to you to the body you're in right now?
Do you have any phobias? How long have you had them? (Someone's bound to have picked one up within 2 months...)

Here's just a smattering. If I think up more, I'll post them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Quertus

How dull.

Doesn't answer question, though: you've laid out what rails you want and expect them to take, but not why they should follow said path, or what your plan is should they deviate from your script. EDIT: or do you mean that the audio log is in-game? That's actually kinda hilarious to picture - a calm recorded message telling them to go to Muscular Therapy for the next step of treatment, while they desperately fend off a monster.

Very strong impetus for Exploration in your setup. I like that. How are you planning on handling the "investigate and learn stuff" minigame?

---

Can't the game master just tell the players "this is going to be a very [gametype] game, could you people please make characters that fit the desired role and play them in character? Bear with me the payoff will be worth it." And at the end of session 0 you tell the players "joe you did this bit right and that bit less right".

It's always good to tell the players what is expected of them.

Wow I didn’t expect this to come back to the first page. What a lovely surprise

The questions suggestions and the suggestions for dread have been wonderful all. I’ll try and come up with an actual list this week

I will have a thorough session zero for this game. Can’t work without it. I’ll make sure the players know what to expect thematically from the game before they agree - ie this will be a psychological horror game. There more you know about what makes your character tick and the more you give me in session zero and thereby, the better I can make this.

Expect to deal with complex moral quandaries, body horror, and some scary scenes designed around the fears you have chosen for your characters. Some of the horror will come from very sudden, and confusing setting changes that will Make the characters frequently question the nature of their reality (I’ll make the point that the characters will be gaslit in this way, not the players)

I like it! Getting a very SOMA vibe from this. Let us know how it turns out!

I don't have any questions to add really. All the ones I'm thinking of are more sad than horror inducing.

Hey I’ll take sad too

The questions I am going with:

1) State your name and occupation

2) What is he reason you are dying

3) What do you intend to do with your remaining time

4) What specific things would you like those who survive you to know and remember about you. How will you reinforce that?

5) What instructions would you like to give those who survive you to help them better live in a world without you in it

6) What has become more important to you since your diagnosis. What do you wish you had spent less time on

7) is anyone to blame for your condition? What would you like to say to them?

8) Has your condition furnished any increased interest in spirituality? Would you like us to help connect you to local faith leaders?

9) Do you feel a need to seek forgiveness from anyone before you die? How did you wrong them?

10) The Greek hero Thessius, after a long journey returns home and leaves his ship in the harbor. He does soon after. His ship soon wears down and must have its boards replaced, a few at a time. Eventually, after many years, none of the original ship remains. Is this still the ship of Thessius.

11) What would you give in order to save yourself from death?

12) If you could, would you trade your condition right now, with that of a loved one. If so, which one?

If you want it to take a turn for the mind-twisting and bizarre early-on, throw in some of these questions, then refuse to repeat them or acknowledge they're what you asked:

"Why did you expose yourself to the disease that's killing you?"
"What are you most looking forward to about dying?"
"Why won't you take the cure?"
"Who did you hurt the most by choosing to die?"
"What did you do to deserve this?"

I’m not sure what level of horror you are going with here or what kind of people the characters were but is the illness killing them a mystery? Is the place they are in researching a cure or possibly how to “perfect” the disease? A few questions to make them wonder at the intent of the therapist would be nice to add in.

1. Would you say your time here has been productive?

2. When did you last feel hope of getting better?

3. Do you ever think about how many people you may have infected before you realized there was a problem?

4. Do you think that is why you stopped having visitors?

5. Of those people who would you most prefer caught this disease?

6. Soon someone else will be in your rooms, what would you want them to know about us here?

7. There is a strange taste to the air in here, does anyone else notice? I can never quite tell what it is...

8. Would you say your time here has been productive?

9. ....what were we doing again?

10. How do you feel now about the incident with that family?

11. Do you think what you did to them is related to why you have survived the sickness so much longer than the others did?

12. Do you believe it would work again for someone else?

I’m not sure if this is the sort of questions you had in mind as it requires a bit of improv

"What do you expect to come *after* all of this?" *gestures vaguely at world*

"Do you miss your Brother?"

"Who are you?"
"What do you want?"
"Why do you keep touching me?"

On the more 1-1 mode dropping into Eliza mode might be an easy way to stall/stretch. If they 'reveal' anything that's fine. If they see what you are doing it probably adds to the creepiness (especially depending on how you respond to their reactions).
So
Why do you think [...last sentence]
Have you always though [...last sentence]
Why do you say [...last sentence]
Is this because [... a previous sentence]

Or alternatively you could go the hyper freudian, and (assumming they deny it) hope they fill in more backstory in their denials and come across as a jerk psychologist (with obvious need for caution).
But you were jealous of his relationship with XYZ