It's right there in the name; The Shadow of Old Night. My game is as much horror as fantasy, maybe even more so. It takes place in a secondary world fantasy setting, but otherwise should come across more like a Call of Cthulhu game than a D&D game (in spite of its superficial mechanical similarity to D&D.) It's definitely dark fantasy at least, which blends fantasy and horror themes and tones, probably leaning more towards the horror.
In spite of myself, I find myself using Google's AI search results quite often instead of actually looking at the search returns (probably because for years, the search returns have been sponsored or otherwise pretty useless. What in the world happened to the Internet where search engines don't do what they're supposed to because they're either monetized or ideological? I miss the days of Webcrawler in the 90s sometimes; it just gave you results and that was that.) Anyway, here's what it says about Dark Fantasy and Grimdark Fantasy, which I think is useful to distinguish between the two.
Dark Fantasy: Incorporates darker, more disturbing, and frightening themes into the narrative.
Grimdark Fantasy: A subgenre of dark fantasy that features a cynical, amoral, violent, and dystopian tone.
I'm not grimdark, nor do I like grimdark really. But I'm definitely dark fantasy. One could argue that grimdark is a natural evolution of dark fantasy, and that something like Glen Cook's The Black Company kinda straddles the line between the two. But I think grimdark went too far into themes that I dislike, so when I use the term, it shouldn't be seen as overly taxonomic, and just a handwavey adjective.
I used the same thing to come up with a list of horror subgenres, and I'll suggest which of them would or could be applicable to Old Night.
Supernatural or Paranormal Horror: Features ghosts, demons, and other spiritual entities that aren't physically present.
Absolutely yes. This is, in fact, the core theme of Old Night. That said, it's also the core theme of a lot of fantasy. This is pretty broad.
Psychological Horror: Focuses on the mental and emotional states of characters, exploring themes of reality, sanity, and dread rather than a tangible monster.
Much less so. I think of Stephen King's Misery or The Shining as one of the most iconic examples of this, and I just don't really care for it much.
Slasher: A classic subgenre featuring a psychopathic human killer who hunts and murders a group of people, often with a bloody and violent approach.
I won't actually focus on this, but it isn't necessarily much different than many supernatural horrors. Was Michael Myers a supernatural entity? In many respects, he seems to be.
Body Horror: Explores visceral fears related to physical violation, grotesque transformations, and mutilation of the human body.
I'm less interested in this subgenre, but not completely so. Mutation, corruption and stuff like that is more interesting to me than torture and maiming, of course.
Found Footage: The narrative is presented from the perspective of discovered video recordings, often through a camera.
Ironically, I do use some of this as my preludes to most campaigns, when the transparently Scooby gang analogs are killed off to kick off every campaign. But otherwise this is specifically a film genre and can't be replicated in any other medium very well. Maybe the classic story "Call of Cthulhu" is an early example of a prototype of it.
Lovecraftian/Cosmic Horror: Focuses on vast, incomprehensible cosmic entities and the futility of humanity against them.
This is definitely true, but I think Cosmic horror has become a kind of silly in-joke in many cases. You have to be careful with your Lovecraftian references and make sure that you do it right. Just making allusions to well-known Lovecraftian entities does not actually make anything into cosmic horror.
Folk Horror: Features elements of folklore and local traditions, with horror often arising from rural settings and isolation.
Sure, although I think this might be too esoteric of a label. Is supernatural horror taking place in the country using a folkloric supernatural entity folk horror, just just supernatural horror? I'd consider it the latter, really.
Gothic Horror: A classic style, often set in vaguely Victorian times, with themes of romance, death, and the supernatural within decaying settings.
Romance not in the sense of the romance genre, but in the sense of romanticizing the past. That's part and parcel of fantasy already. If Dracula is the iconic gothic horror, or Jekyll and Hyde, or Frankenstein, or even the classic haunted house of The Castle of Otranto, then this is absolutely one of the key elements of horror to show up in Old Night.
Action Horror: Blends horror elements with action-packed sequences and thrilling fight scenes.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Aliens in fantasy, maybe. Or The Mummy (the Brendan Frasier one) or Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman. Even the under-rated and sometimes difficult to find Solomon Kane movie. This is probably one of the elements that most makes Old Night dark fantasy rather than straight up horror; not only the secondary world fantasy setting, but also the focus on action as a theme.
Horror Comedy: Attempts to balance scary and humorous elements, though it can be challenging to find the right mix.
I mean, this happens by default, I think, because players tend to be silly sometimes at the table. I'd never try to purposefully do this, because as the AI text notes, it tends to fall flat if not perfectly executed.
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