When selecting a setting for a horror role-playing game (RPG), it’s often necessary to balance two opposing elements: familiarity and escapism. Horror thrives on the familiar, while escapism draws players into a world removed from their daily lives. Finding the right equilibrium between these elements may be critical in creating an RPG experience that is attractive to your audience.
It is well-known that Sandy Petersen and Chaosium had to deal with this tension when creating Call of Cthulhu. From an interview with Petersen (the link is itself to a quote because the original interview seems not to be available online anymore): "To me, Lovecraft was never about the era. His characters used cutting-edge technology, such as submarines, airplanes, and recording devices, and interacted with cutting-edge events, such as the discovery of Pluto, and 20th-century population conflicts and pressures. [...]
[...] the Chaosium folks wanted to enjoy playing the game I was going to design, and they wanted a "hook" to hang their fun onto. They chose the 1920s. In their games, they loved driving old cars, talking about zeppelins, flappers, the Weimar Republic and all that stuff. My own games usually didn’t reference the era at all, except peripherally. [...]
So Call of Cthulhu to this day is officially set in the 1920s, and has the big 1920s guidebook, with which I had little to do, except providing some monster stats (like for mummies and wolves and so forth). But that was the Chaosium thing."
I believe that both of the instincts of Petersen and "the Chaosium folks" were right.
For a purely horror-focused game, modern settings are ideal—they’re familiar, immediate, and unsettling. The players can easily imagine the situations because most of the environment is known to them. In fact, they go beyond role-play: they don't just imagine their characters in the situation, they imagine themselves in their character's situation. Some RPGs that explore these settings are Delta Green, Fear Itself, Kult, and the World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness games (and Call of Cthulhu, that can also be played as a contemporary game, even if people often forget that).
However, often RPG players expect being transported to a different time and place, to be allowed, for a while, to be someone else. This is a direct conflict with the demands of horror. However, in most groups of players, there will be some more interested in horror, and others more interested in escapism. Not only that, it is frequent for someone to search for a bit of both in their experience.
I believe that some historical settings—particularly those from the 1890s to the 1930s—offer a great balance between the two. I will explore the opportunities of this period in more detail.
1. Familiar Yet Distant
The late 19th and early 20th centuries are close enough to modernity that players can relatively easily understand the technology, culture, and values of the time. At the same time, these settings are sufficiently removed from their daily lives to make the players feel they are being transported to a different world.
2. An Era of Transformation
The Victorian era and the interwar years were periods of immense societal upheaval, with rapid industrialisation, shifting social norms, and the lingering spectre of war. These transitions create an atmosphere of unease, making them fertile ground for horror storytelling. Gaslit streets, crumbling mansions, and the creeping tension between tradition and modernity are perfect backdrops for horror. Modernity tries to move you to a new world where humans transcend their condition, whereas tradition and nature bring you back to your human/animal limitations.
3. Thematic Resonance
Historical settings allow players to explore relevant social and political themes without directly confronting contemporary issues. For example, the economic challenges of the 1920s/30s, the rise of authoritarianism, and social inequalities mirror many modern anxieties but with a layer of abstraction that makes them easier to approach, and a change of perspective that may be illuminating.
4. The Gothic, Lovecraftian, Pulp, and Mystery Legacies
The Victorian era is steeped in gothic tropes—shadowy alleyways, decaying estates, and oppressive societal expectations—that seamlessly enhance the atmosphere of horror. These settings carry an innate tension and dread that elevate any horror narrative.
Some of the greatest horror literature, like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Invisible Man, were written in this period. Also, the greatest of all detectives, Sherlock Holmes, came to life in this era.
As for the later period, there is Lovecraft, who created the concept of cosmic horror and influenced, perhaps more than any other single author, much of what horror fiction and RPGs would come to be. All his stories are contemporary to him (1890-1937).
Moreover, the period from 1920 to 1940 is both the Golden Age of the Pulp novel, and the Golden Age of the Mystery Novel. The pursuits of Pulp characters such as Doc Savage and The Shadow belong to this period, as well as many of the mysteries and fictional detectives that solve them, such as Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Philo Vance, Ellery Queen, Philip Marlowe, Mike Hammer, Perry Mason, just to name a few.
5. The Age of the occult
The period from 1890 to 1939 can rightly be considered the golden age of occultism. This era was marked by an unprecedented convergence of cultural, intellectual, and spiritual movements that made esotericism not just a niche interest but a vibrant and influential cultural force.
It was a time when the boundaries between science, art, and spirituality blurred. Advances in psychology, like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung's exploration of the unconscious, Einstein’s relativity theory and Bohr’s quantum physics, which questioned materialist certainties, fuelled a fascination with the mystical, the unseen and the unfathomable.
Simultaneously, the rediscovery of ancient wisdom fuelled by archeological discoveries in Egypt and the influence of Eastern philosophies made the occult feel both exotic and intellectually engaging. This was combined with a waning of traditional Christian values and beliefs, challenged by philosophers like Schopenhauer and Nietszche.
Organisations like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, and Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis brought structure and a modern reinterpretation to occult practices, combining ritual magic, astrology, Kabbalah, and other traditions in ways that spoke to modern anxieties and aspirations.
This cultural zeitgeist was mirrored in the arts, with Symbolism, Surrealism, and Modernism often inspired by occult themes.
The period's wars and social upheavals also played a role. In the face of rapid industrialisation, secularisation, and the traumas of World War I, many sought spiritual meaning beyond religion, leading to the rise of mediums, spiritualism, and mysticism.
The Victorian to Pulp period provides some of my favourite settings for horror roleplaying, and they are clearly popular with many other people, as the many horror RPGs set in this period show.
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