💭 The core design for white knuckle is great. Horror games are usually mechanically about sneaking/running, which are both fine but have their own problems. Sneaking is usually mechanically along the lines of red light green light where you become safe by halting your progress for a while (an unfair reduction). Running is less common and in most games is pretty much pressing shift+w. In either case, the mechanic being used to survive isn't challenging in itself, meaning it doesn't carry so much of a "I need to succeed" tension. They're scary in other ways.

White knuckle is pretty much 100% running based survival where the running (climbing) is technically complex and varied enough to be the entire game, with high enough cost of failure that the whole game is "I need to succeed" tension.

Irrelevant, since tension is usually tied to cost of failure, non-dextrous games like board games usually handle it by having more emphasis on bad luck. Darkest dungeon where enemies can crit and you can permanently lose trained party members. Kingdom Death Monster where any damage can cause an injury role that could explode your head. I find this to be a bit boring but I can't think of something better. Maybe make it a puzzle with a time limit.