Game Club: Haunted Mansion
Character Roles: Roll a dice (1-16) to see who you’ll play:
1: Ghost Hunter
2: Explorer
3: Fortune Teller
4: Scientist
5: Skeptic (doesn’t believe in ghosts)
6: Lost Soul (someone tied to the mansion)
7: Paranormal Investigator
8: Thief (came to steal the mansion’s treasure)
9: Librarian (researching the mansion's history)
10: Healer (here to help cleanse the mansion)
11: Psychic Child (drawn to the mansion for unknown reasons)
12: Time Traveler (accidentally arrived in this timeline)
13: Famous Adventurer (always seeking the next great mystery)
14: Reporter (writing a story about the haunted mansion)
15: Artist (looking to capture the haunted mansion in their work)
16: Caretaker (used to take care of the mansion years ago)
Let’s Talk Characters
To make the characters more personal and emotionally connected to the story, it’s important to assign them distinct emotions and personal motivations. Here’s how you can guide the group to think deeply about their characters:
Step 1: Assigning Emotions to the Characters
Once the characters have been created, it's important to get participants thinking about their emotional states and how those emotions will influence their behavior in the story. Here’s how to assign emotions:
Past Experience Influences:
Ask each participant to reflect on why their character is in the mansion. What past experience led them here?
Example prompts:
“Has your character lost someone dear? Do they feel guilty about something in their past?”
“What scares your character the most about the mansion? Is it the idea of ghosts, or something from their past that haunts them?”
Current Emotional State:
Ask them to assign an emotion that their character is feeling as they enter the mansion.
Emotion examples:
Fear: The character is terrified of what’s to come. Maybe they’ve encountered something similar before.
Curiosity: They might be excited to explore and discover the mansion’s secrets.
Guilt: They feel responsible for something that happened here.
Anger: Perhaps they’ve come to the mansion with a grudge, seeking revenge or answers.
How Emotions Affect Behavior:
Ask, “How does this emotional state affect the way your character acts?”
If a character is fearful, they may be hesitant to go into certain rooms or might jump at the slightest noise.
If they are curious, they might be the first to explore hidden passageways or lead the group into danger.
A character filled with guilt might have a self-sacrificing nature, trying to atone for their past mistakes by protecting others in the mansion.
Step 2: Making Characters Personal to the Story
To make the story more engaging and personal, you can weave the character’s emotions and background into the narrative. Here’s how:
Character Backstory:
Ask each participant to think about a defining moment in their character’s past that connects them to the mansion or the supernatural world.
Prompt ideas:
“Did your character lose someone in this mansion years ago?”
“Are they here because the mansion holds a secret connected to their family?”
Creating Personal Stakes:
Ask each participant, “Why is solving the mystery of the mansion important to your character?”
Example stakes:
Redemption: The character is looking to make up for a mistake or find peace after a personal tragedy.
Treasure or Power: The character is seeking a reward, whether it’s treasure or knowledge hidden in the mansion.
Closure: They may have a personal connection to someone who died or disappeared in the mansion and need closure.
Personal Connections to the Haunted Mansion:
Suggest that each character has a personal connection to an object or room in the mansion.
Example: One character might recognize a portrait of an ancestor in the mansion, another might feel an inexplicable draw toward a particular room.
This could introduce opportunities for emotional scenes, like someone coming across an object that brings back memories, or finding clues about their personal past.
Step 3: Expressing Emotions in the Scene
As you work through the story, encourage participants to think about how their characters’ emotions will affect the overall narrative. Ask questions like:
“How does your character react when they encounter something terrifying? Do they freeze up, or do they face it head-on?”
“If your character is struggling with guilt, how does that play into their actions when the group is in danger?”
“When a secret is revealed in the mansion, how does your character feel? Relieved? More terrified?”
This process makes each character more three-dimensional and relatable, which strengthens the emotional stakes of the group’s story.
Special Skill/Power: Roll a dice (1-6):
1: Speak to the dead
2: See hidden doors
3: Read minds
4: Solve puzzles easily
5: Control light/fire
6: Turn invisible
Weakness/Fear: Roll a dice (1-6):
1: Fear of the dark
2: Allergic to ghosts
3: Afraid of cats
4: Claustrophobic
5: Fear of loud noises
6: Haunted by a mistake from the past
Share Your Character:
Introduce your character and tell us why they were invited to the haunted mansion. What’s their goal? What are they looking for?
Exploring the Mansion
Scene Setting:
The group arrives at a mysterious haunted mansion. Fog surrounds the mansion, and the front door creaks open. Strange things are happening inside…
Collaborative Storytelling:
Each person tells us what their character does when they enter the mansion. What do they see? Hear? Feel?
Example: “I walk into the mansion and see a huge portrait of a man whose eyes seem to follow me.”
Part 3: Challenges & Cliffhanger
Challenges: Roll the dice when encountering spooky situations:
1-2: The group hears footsteps upstairs!
3-4: A secret door opens in the wall!
5-6: The chandelier suddenly crashes to the floor!
End with a Cliffhanger:
The characters find a key or a note but don’t know what it unlocks yet. This will continue next time!
(Optional) Visualize the Story (if time permits)
If you have extra time, draw your character or a room in the mansion, or describe a key object from the story!
Writing a short scary story or scene can be a lot of fun, and when done well, it creates a powerful sense of fear or unease with just a few key elements. Here are some tips and tricks to help you write an effective scary scene:
1. Build Suspense Gradually
Start slow: Instead of jumping right into the scare, take your time to build up the tension. The anticipation of something happening can be scarier than the event itself. Let the fear simmer by describing small unsettling details that slowly escalate.
Tip: Use subtle hints like flickering lights, strange noises, or unexplained movements in the background to foreshadow something sinister.
2. Use Sensory Details
Engage all five senses: Describe not just what the character sees but what they hear, smell, taste, or feel. A sudden cold breeze, the creaking of floorboards, or a metallic taste in the air can amplify fear.
Tip: Avoid too much visual description—sometimes, what is not seen is scarier. Focus on sensory cues like an odd smell or an unusual sound that doesn’t have an immediate explanation.
3. The Unseen is More Terrifying
Imply the threat: What the reader imagines is often scarier than what you describe in detail. Let the reader's mind fill in the blanks by implying a danger but not fully revealing it.
Example: Instead of saying "a monster lunged out," describe shadows moving oddly in the corner of the room, or how the character feels like they are being watched but cannot see anything.
4. Play with Psychology
Tap into common fears: Fear of the dark, fear of the unknown, fear of isolation—these are deeply rooted fears in most people. Use these psychological triggers to your advantage.
Tip: Give your character a vulnerable state (being alone, tired, or lost) so that small threats seem larger and more terrifying.
5. Use Short, Choppy Sentences for Tension
Change pacing: As you approach the climactic or scariest moment, shorten your sentences to speed up the reading pace and heighten the tension. This creates a sense of urgency and anxiety.
Example: "She turned. Nothing. Silence. A breath—was it hers?"
6. Create Unsettling Atmosphere
Use the setting: The environment plays a huge role in scary stories. Choose a setting that isolates the character or has an eerie, off-putting vibe.
Example: An old, abandoned house, a foggy forest, or a dimly lit alley. Use descriptions like peeling wallpaper, strange odors, or dim flickering lights to make the environment feel unsettling.
7. Character Reactions are Key
Make the fear personal: The reader feels fear when the character does. Show how the character is affected by the fear—rapid breathing, sweating, heart pounding, trembling hands. Readers will relate to these physical signs of fear, making the scene more immersive.
Tip: Sometimes, having a character's logical mind try to dismiss the fear makes the reader more suspicious that something is wrong, even if the character doesn't realize it yet.
8. End on a Cliffhanger or Unresolved Moment
Leave something unresolved: A scary story doesn’t have to have a full resolution. You can leave the reader on edge by not fully revealing what the character is dealing with or allowing the scare to be the last moment of the scene.
Example: "She opened the door, and there it was, standing just inches from her face."
9. Twist the Familiar
Make the familiar strange: Take something ordinary and make it unsettling. For example, a child’s toy suddenly coming to life, a mirror that shows something that isn’t there, or a normal hallway that seems to stretch on forever.
Tip: Contrast normalcy with the unnatural. A family dinner where the lights start flickering and everyone’s eyes glaze over can turn something normal into a nightmare.
10. Keep the Mystery
Don’t over-explain: Sometimes, what’s left unexplained is scarier than having all the answers. Keep the supernatural or the unknown vague enough that the reader’s imagination fills in the gaps with fear.
Tip: If you describe a ghost, don’t explain why it’s there or how it operates—just describe its eerie movements or presence and let the reader wonder.
Sample Scene Breakdown (Applying the Tips)
Setting: An old, creaky house on a stormy night.
Character's state: The protagonist is lost and alone, flashlight flickering.
Suspense & sensory detail: "The rain pelted the windows in a steady rhythm, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the creak of the floorboards behind her. The flashlight flickered again, casting long shadows that danced across the room. Was that… breathing?"
Imply the threat: "Her heart raced, and she strained to hear. But the more she listened, the less she wanted to. Something was there. It wasn’t close, but it wasn’t far either."
Cliffhanger ending: "She reached for the door, praying it would open. The knob turned, but then—a voice, low and ragged, whispered her name from behind."