The Ubiquity of "Tension Mechanics" in Horror TTRPGs

Just a type of mechanic I noticed is fairly universal in horror RPG's, this game aimed to create a simplified version of this trope.

In almost every horror TTRPG, there is almost always a mechanic that will, given time, outrun the players. The best example of this is the big dog itself, CoC's "Sanity." Sanity is the perfect example of this, and the original implementation to my knowledge, it is a mechanic that, given enough time, will inevitably and always remove a player's character from play, similarly, Dread's Jenga tower will, no matter what, kill a character, these mechanics always loom over the players with the threat of death. Mechanics like this can do several things, namely:

- Create an Atmosphere of Inevitability: Sanity from CoC is the best implementation of this, and it also best represents cosmic horror, if your character will eventually die given enough time, the player can go into the game resigning themselves, in a fun cosmic-horrorish way, to losing their character. This in itself can do several things, such as inspire roleplay, annoy new players and add to the tone.

-Create Tension: This is best exemplified in dread's Jenga Tower, as it's tension is made far more immediate through dread's one-shot nature, and the fact a Jenga tower will not last a campaign, in this way, these mechanics also work like timers, a ticking clock that the players have to outrun, and all GM's know how much tension a timer can create.

-Eliminate Power-gaming: If my character is always close to death from these "tension mechanics," why would I min-max them? Even if they can one-shot cthhulu my insanity will still catch up to me in the long-term, and my mounting pile of stress counters will eventually cause a heart attack. This works well for horror games, as they oppose player empowerment in all it's forms (for the most part), and power-gaming only serves to offer security and confidence when you want your players scared.

An Analysis of existing "Tension Mechanics"

- Insanity: Insanity serves itself best not to tension, but inevitability, as a character's insanity can generally last them an entire campaign investigating the lovecraftian, the threat of insanity is not immediate enough to make a player scared or tense, instead it helps to create an atmosphere of inevitability, which makes insanity suited to cosmic horror best.

-The Jenga Tower: Dread's Jenga tower best creates tension, as the character's looming demise is both more immediate, a tower will rarely last the end of a one shot, and far more tangible, the player literally feels how close they are too their demise, both of which work better to create tension.

-Bad Tension Mechanics: The worst type of tension mechanic is that which activley degrades the player's abilities, whether or not they are being disempowered only being able to move 10ft a turn is simply boring, not terriffying, and a lack of means to "win" or atleast outrun tension mechanics in some way robs any tension and instead creates boredom.

-Suiting the Mechanic to the Game: The ideal tension mechanic is suited to it's game, alien's stress links to it's stealthy task-oriented gameplay, and therefore mirrors the 1979 classic, a zombie game's tension could link to the horde constantly growing stronger, and as I already mentioned CoC's Insanity exemplifies and organically mirrors cosmic horror.

A Very simple version?

My own tabletop RPG, designed for the fit on a business card jam (https://itch.io/jam/pleasurecardrpg), was forced to create a very simple version of a "tension mechanic." and I think serves as a simple summation of the mechanic for those curious (https://sr16.itch.io/zombie-game-on-a-card). I encourage you all to create your own micro-RPG's featuring such mechanics on itch, so we can see more experimentation on the very common trope.