Using Hypnotism in Horror
Hypnosis is ever-prevalent in horror, appearing in many horror media (Notably the Cthulu mythos).
There are three major types of hypnosis. Subservience / Psychosis, the hypnosis used by Lovecraft, involves the user living only to serve a specific cause or person. There is not an original person in there. This breaks the rules of modern hypnosis (you can only do something you truly wish to do) which is partially what makes it scary. Your sense of identiy is 100% gone. There is no you, just a mind in your body.
The second trope is pleasurable hypnosis, seen in Harry Potter as the Imperius curse. As described in the fourth book, Harry felt as a voice was commanding him, and because he was feeling immense pleasure he had little will to fight it. This takes away your free will, but if you have a strong enough mind you can overpower it. This is definitely the most interesting, but it’s criminally underused.
The third trope, which is the absolute scariest, is when another force dominates your body. You no longer have any free will, but you’re still conscious. You’re forced to watch every second as you’re being controlled, forced to do (usually evil) things, with no way to fight it. The feeling of helplessness is what makes this the scariest. You’re not overwritten, and you have no way at all to control your body.
This third trope should be used more. In D&D the first trope is the most used, simply because it’s the easiest. The second is used often as well, just forcing the player to make a Will save every time they’re forced to do something. This one is the most fun for the player if they aren’t really into the whole RP part of an RPG. The third one, though, that’s the Pepsi among a sea of Coke. That’s the hidden gem that allows for some great moments, as the player is forced to watch and essentially spectate as their character does evil, horrible, and terrible things. This can be done poorly, especially if you don’t inform or ask the player first, but can go so right.
Bonus points if you tell the player how to act first. If they’re on board the rest of the party will have no idea OOC instead of just IC. They’ll be angry at the player as they should be, as that is the response you want. You want them to be upset. You want them to feel betrayed. You want them to feel what their characters feel, because that allows for the best roleplaying moments.
(The reason so many long posts have come recently is that I got internet again, so I can type stuff up on PC instead of using a terrible phone kb)
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