Finding the Horror in History, with Eleanor Hingley
Summary
Scott, Eleanor, and Matt explore the ethics of using real-world horrors in horror games, distinguishing between historical set dressing and meaningful engagement with trauma. They discuss how mythologized events like Jack the Ripper or the Spanish Inquisition can be sanitized, while noting that abstracting atrocities into sci-fi or fantasy settings helps avoid trivializing specific victims. The hosts analyze examples like *Ravenous* and *Ginger Snaps* to highlight how hubris and colonialism drive horror, emphasizing the importance of "own voices" and careful research when portraying margina…
Topics discussed
Introduction and host backgrounds
Approaches to using real-world horrors in games
Horror films based on historical events and colonialism
Statute of limitations for historical tragedies in fiction
The Darien Scheme and the TV series The Terror
Mythologizing victims: Jack the Ripper and witch trials
Racial tropes and the importance of own voices
Exploited history: Donner Party and the Weird West
Societal upheaval as a setting for horror
Non-canonical eras in Call of Cthulhu and other RPGs
Abstracting history: Paranoia and the Great Leap Forward
Satire, racism, and moral testing grounds in Warhammer 40k
Defanging trauma: Spanish Inquisition and WWII POW camps
LGBTQ+ persecution and the Anarch sourcebook controversy
Vampire: The Masquerade and the Holocaust
Personal boundaries and punching down in horror narratives
Agency in horror: The Witch, Coffin Moon, and Ginger Snaps
War as horror: Come and See and White Terror in Taiwan
Historical detail in The Lighthouse and Malacca
The Moralist and The Second Coming of the Black Death
Scale of historical horror in RPGs and Grey Ranks
Personal game experiences: Swedish famine and Bletchley Park
WWII blackouts and Victorian match factory horrors
Wrap up, Patreon update, and upcoming projects
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