Folk Horror: Understanding the Genre
Folk Horror: Understanding the Genre is a system-neutral sourcebook that digs deep into the eerie landscapes, unsettling traditions, and creeping dread that define folk horror. It breaks down the history, themes, and storytelling techniques behind the genre, helping roleplayers shape unsettling villages, cursed bloodlines, and stories filled with superstition, isolation, and forbidden knowledge.
This book takes an immersive approach, unpacking folk horror’s literary and cinematic roots while showing how those elements translate into roleplaying. It covers the genre’s defining fears, outsiders trespassing into closed communities, ancient forces demanding reverence, and the slow realization that a place, its people, or even reality itself is twisted by something older than memory. Whether it's a story of rustic witchcraft, a settlement hiding a terrible past, or a landscape that turns against those who walk it, this guide offers the tools to make folk horror feel immediate and personal.
Every setting has its own folklore, shaped by history, belief, and fear. This book helps bring that to life, offering ways to use regional legends, real-world superstitions, and recurring motifs like harvest rites, blood debts, and haunted landscapes. It also provides guidance on character backgrounds that reflect the genre’s themes, whether someone is a weary traveler, a reluctant initiate, or a lifelong resident who knows better than to question tradition.
For those designing adventures, the book explores different structures that fit folk horror, from slow-burn dread to sudden, inescapable terror. It offers techniques to make horror feel organic, weaving it into the setting rather than forcing it through overt threats. Players won’t always face a monster in the dark. Sometimes, the horror is knowing they can’t leave, that something is expected of them, or that they’ve already taken part in a ritual without realizing it.
Rather than a rule-heavy approach, this book focuses on atmosphere, themes, and tools that fit any system. Whether a setting leans historical, fantastical, or contemporary, it offers ways to integrate folk horror naturally, drawing on its psychological depth and slow-building terror. The genre thrives on ambiguity, leaving room for the uncanny, the unexplained, and the deeply personal nature of fear.
For gamemasters who want to evoke a creeping sense of unease, Folk Horror: Understanding the Genre provides everything needed to shape unsettling settlements, morally fraught choices, and horrors that linger long after the session ends.
228 pages. PDF and epub files included.
Folk Horror: Understanding the Genre is a system-neutral sourcebook that digs deep into the eerie landscapes, unsettling traditions, and creeping dread that define folk horror. It breaks down the history, themes, and storytelling techniques behind the genre, helping roleplayers shape unsettling villages, cursed bloodlines, and stories filled with superstition, isolation, and forbidden knowledge.
This book takes an immersive approach, unpacking folk horror’s literary and cinematic roots while showing how those elements translate into roleplaying. It covers the genre’s defining fears, outsiders trespassing into closed communities, ancient forces demanding reverence, and the slow realization that a place, its people, or even reality itself is twisted by something older than memory. Whether it's a story of rustic witchcraft, a settlement hiding a terrible past, or a landscape that turns against those who walk it, this guide offers the tools to make folk horror feel immediate and personal.
Every setting has its own folklore, shaped by history, belief, and fear. This book helps bring that to life, offering ways to use regional legends, real-world superstitions, and recurring motifs like harvest rites, blood debts, and haunted landscapes. It also provides guidance on character backgrounds that reflect the genre’s themes, whether someone is a weary traveler, a reluctant initiate, or a lifelong resident who knows better than to question tradition.
For those designing adventures, the book explores different structures that fit folk horror, from slow-burn dread to sudden, inescapable terror. It offers techniques to make horror feel organic, weaving it into the setting rather than forcing it through overt threats. Players won’t always face a monster in the dark. Sometimes, the horror is knowing they can’t leave, that something is expected of them, or that they’ve already taken part in a ritual without realizing it.
Rather than a rule-heavy approach, this book focuses on atmosphere, themes, and tools that fit any system. Whether a setting leans historical, fantastical, or contemporary, it offers ways to integrate folk horror naturally, drawing on its psychological depth and slow-building terror. The genre thrives on ambiguity, leaving room for the uncanny, the unexplained, and the deeply personal nature of fear.
For gamemasters who want to evoke a creeping sense of unease, Folk Horror: Understanding the Genre provides everything needed to shape unsettling settlements, morally fraught choices, and horrors that linger long after the session ends.
228 pages. PDF and epub files included.
Folk Horror: Understanding the Genre is a system-neutral sourcebook that digs deep into the eerie landscapes, unsettling traditions, and creeping dread that define folk horror. It breaks down the history, themes, and storytelling techniques behind the genre, helping roleplayers shape unsettling villages, cursed bloodlines, and stories filled with superstition, isolation, and forbidden knowledge.
This book takes an immersive approach, unpacking folk horror’s literary and cinematic roots while showing how those elements translate into roleplaying. It covers the genre’s defining fears, outsiders trespassing into closed communities, ancient forces demanding reverence, and the slow realization that a place, its people, or even reality itself is twisted by something older than memory. Whether it's a story of rustic witchcraft, a settlement hiding a terrible past, or a landscape that turns against those who walk it, this guide offers the tools to make folk horror feel immediate and personal.
Every setting has its own folklore, shaped by history, belief, and fear. This book helps bring that to life, offering ways to use regional legends, real-world superstitions, and recurring motifs like harvest rites, blood debts, and haunted landscapes. It also provides guidance on character backgrounds that reflect the genre’s themes, whether someone is a weary traveler, a reluctant initiate, or a lifelong resident who knows better than to question tradition.
For those designing adventures, the book explores different structures that fit folk horror, from slow-burn dread to sudden, inescapable terror. It offers techniques to make horror feel organic, weaving it into the setting rather than forcing it through overt threats. Players won’t always face a monster in the dark. Sometimes, the horror is knowing they can’t leave, that something is expected of them, or that they’ve already taken part in a ritual without realizing it.
Rather than a rule-heavy approach, this book focuses on atmosphere, themes, and tools that fit any system. Whether a setting leans historical, fantastical, or contemporary, it offers ways to integrate folk horror naturally, drawing on its psychological depth and slow-building terror. The genre thrives on ambiguity, leaving room for the uncanny, the unexplained, and the deeply personal nature of fear.
For gamemasters who want to evoke a creeping sense of unease, Folk Horror: Understanding the Genre provides everything needed to shape unsettling settlements, morally fraught choices, and horrors that linger long after the session ends.
228 pages. PDF and epub files included.