If you frequent RPG.NET, you've probably at least heard of this one. You may have seen it praised glowingly, or blasted for including controversial material. If you haven't got a chance to look it over yet, you're probably wondering if it really merits this much attention.
In a word, "Yes."
The book itself may look a little awkward on your shelf, it's weighs in at around 130 pages in a softcover binding. It's a bit unusual in size, about 9 1/2" X 7 1/2" rather than the more typical 11" X 8 1/2". I suppose it's something of a bonus: its unusual dimensions make it easier to locate on a shelf crowded with RPG books. The presentation and style is uniformly excellent. A lot of evocative, moody artwork that harkens to the style Lunch Money card game.
Introduction
The book is divided into five chapters and indexed. The Introduction “There’s no Such Thing as Monsters” sets the mood with a piece of fiction written as a child’s increasingly desperate and frightened diary entries. The introduction goes on to give some startling statistics about missing and endangered children. Then it introduces us to Closetland, the alternate dimension where the monsters of our youth came from. It’s all too real to the children who are tormented by its denizens—we’re just blind to them.
Character Generation
The first chapter “To be Young Again” starts out by introducing the concept of roleplaying a child. Sources of inspiration are given, as well as ways to remain in the proper mindset during the session. It goes on to character generation. This is, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant parts of the book.
I’m the first to mock a game that changes the names of staple statistics and mechanics solely for its own sake; that has wacky mechanics and stats just to be “different.” In Little Fears, everything that deviates from standard roleplaying nomenclature and design architecture does so to help set the mood of playing as children, and, moreover, as children in stories of terror. There’s great little touches throughout that add to this, for example the injury levels on your character sheet are prefaced with “I feel” and include “Fine,” “Sore,” “Bad,” “Dizzy,” and ”Nothing.” Maybe it’s just me, but I found it a little spooky-cool.
The character sheet is probably different from any you’ve seen. Before you fill out a single stat, you’re given a series of background questions to answer in character. A few examples: “I hang out with _____ but _____ is my best friend.” “When I get scared, I _____.” “I have a _____ and it is special because _____.”
When you finally get to the nuts and bolts of things, you start with 6 Playaround Points (PAPS). You distribute them to your five stats: Smarts (Intelligence, book learning, and creativity), Muscle (Strength, Endurance, Injury and illness resistance), Hands (acute dexterity and hand-eye-coordination), Feet (agility and speed), and Spirit (willpower and spiritual awareness). These stats default to 2, but can be raised to a maximum of 5 by spending playaround points. You may also lower them to a minimum of 1 to get playaround points to spend elsewhere.
You’re also strongly encouraged to purchase one or more Qualities. These each cost 1 playaround point. These are listed under a heading on your character sheet with the heading “Things I like About Me…” A few examples are “I’m Athletic,” “I’m the favorite Child,” and “I’m Internet Savvy.” More on how these work later. You can also gain more PAPs by purchasing negative Qualities (“Things I Dislike About Me…”) like “Bully,” “Chubby,” and “Delinquent.” The system of qualities is easy to expand if you like, one quality that seems sorely missing is “I’m a Scout!” I definitely recommend allowing players in your games to come up with new qualities if you like. It’s a simple advantage/disadvantage system that’s tough to twink with.
You also have several fixed traits: Fear (How much the creatures of Closetland and the all-too-real monsters have gotten to you), Innocence (How much of your innocence you retain—Once you have no innocence left, you are blind to the monsters of Closetland), and Soul (Literally, how much of your immortal soul you still have). Soul begins at 10, Fear at 0 (Though you can raise it up to 2 for more PAPs), and innocence is variable depending on the age of your character. The older you are, the less of your innocence you retain.
There are no skills as such, but they aren’t really needed in a game like this. Pretty much any child concept you come up with can be created with the given stats and qualities, or with creative and simple addition of a few new qualities.
Overall, the character creation system does a great job of setting the mood and getting you in to the role, but I do have a few minor, forgivable nitpicks. These related to character age. From what I can tell, there’s little game rule incentive to play an older child unless the GM dictates a starting age. The only difference between older characters and younger I got from reading the rulebook is a lower innocence (Innocence is a vital thing to hang on to in the game). I mean the only difference. There’s no graduated scale or capping system to allow for the vastly different abilities of children of different ages. From a strict interpretation of the rules, all other things being equal, a 6 year old has an even-odds chance of beating a 12 year old in a fistfight, a footrace, or a contest of wits. This adds to the simplicity of the rules, but could potentially be a thorn in the side of a GM who wants to include the schoolyard pecking order into his games-- only to find out that, mechanically, a tough, athletic sixth grade bully is evenly matched with a tough, athletic kindergartener.
Task Resolution and mechanics
The system of task resolution and mechanics of Little Fears are extremely simple. I usually prefer more rules-intensive systems, but I really like LF’s. It works. It keeps things moving, doesn’t require that you look up and reference a dozen charts, and is simple enough not to confuse novice roleplayers.
There are two types of dice rolls: Quizes and Tests. A quiz is an unopposed check of an applicable attribute. The player tries to roll a d6 equal to or less than an attribute. Lifting a heavy cedar chest lid might require a muscles quiz. A test is an opposed attribute check. The player tries to roll a d6 over the opposition’s applicable attribute, while they do likewise with the character’s appropriate stat. The winner by a greater margin succeeds. For example, trying to throw out a runner at second in a Little League game might require a test against the baseman’s hands and the runner’s feet. If a positive or negative trait would come into play in a test or quiz (IE Athletic, butterfingers), the player rolls two dice and takes the best result for positive qualities, worst for negative.
Combat
Combat is also resolved through tests and quizzes. The person trying to do the hurting usually has to roll over the victim’s feet in a test, the victim trying to beat the attacker’s hands attribute. The margin of success also determines damage, modified by the muscle score in fisticuffs, or by weapon. Against a helpless or immobile opponent, striking them usually comes down to a simple hands quiz.
A damage table is given for most of the weapons of circumstance that a child would happen upon in a schoolyard, Boy Scout kit, kitchen, or locker room. Also included is a table for firearms damage, with an obligatory disclaimer about kids and guns. They are divided into very broad categories, and while I typically prefer more detail in my game’s armory, again simplicity works here. If for some reason a child is at the business end of a handgun, they probably aren’t going to stick around to identify the make and caliber. Likewise, if for some reason a child gets access to a firearm, they won’t be mulling over the choice between a Berretta 92F or a .50 AE Desert Eagle at a gun shop; they’ll be secreting away with the little gun they found in Daddy’s dresser drawer.
Injury is handled by five different categories with one checkbox in each category for each point of Muscles your child has. As your condition deteriorates, so does your child’s ability to perform and heal. As you might expect from a game of terror; knives, baseball bats and dimension lumber inflict some serious injuries on your child with frightening speed, and a shotgun blast at close range will kill them outright. Of course this should rarely be an issue: Little Fears is a game about the closet monsters and boogiemen that torment children and how they fight them with their courage and beliefs… …not a game about shootouts and knife fights.
Fear, Soul, and Innocence
Chapter 2: The Virtues of Childhood deals with Fear, Soul, Innocence and belief. The mechanics are dealt with more or less simply and elegantly. In a nutshell: Gain enough fear and you start going crazy, lose enough soul and you start dying from the inside out, lose enough innocence and you’re blind to the horrors of Closetland. This is not a Good Thing[TM] or a defense- it just makes it easier for you to rationalize their machinations and ignore the pleas of the children, not to mention to be manipulated yourself. Losing all of your innocence essentially puts your character out of the game. It’s possible to regain soul and to lower your level of fear, but there’s no way to get back your innocence.
This chapter also deals with belief. There’s a kind of belief magic that a child can invoke if he truly believes in an object. If your child believes with all his heart that his Mecha Delta Zero Laser Sword [TM] can cut through the bed monster, or that saying the Lord’s Prayer before bed every night will keep the boogieman away, then on a successful spirit test, it will do exactly that. If it doesn’t, however, it will more than likely never work again. Belief is a fickle thing.
GM Stuff
Chapter 3: Keeping the Kids in Line deals with techniques for GMing the game, a few sample NPC templates, and the like stuff. It has some good advice about maintaining the mood for a game of terror and advice on how to keep the terror level to your players’ comfort level.
Chapter 4: Behind the Door deals with Closetland itself. It describes the Kings (Lords of Greed, Lust, Gluttony and the like, with lesser minions and most having the ability to possess mortals), some general information on Closetland itself, and some of the other monsters your players will face.
Chapter 5: Scary Stories gives some seedling ideas for you to develop in various sessions. Pretty useful stuff in that there are multiple resolutions and explanations suggested for each.
So How is It?
It’s good. Very, very good. I’m fond of using the term “brilliant” to describe it.
A note about controversy: The game does briefly touch on unsavory issues like child physical and sexual abuse and incest. Mr. Blair does so, in my opinion, with the utmost of care and compassion. To read the book, you’ll find he’s trying at least as much to use the game as a vehicle to raise awareness and advocate for the children as to include it as a narrative element. With nearly every mention, Mr. Blair advocates probably not using them in your game, and knowing your audience. At the end of the book are contact numbers for RAINN and the NCMEC. Comments about the treatment of these issues being treated in an exploitive, flippant, or insensitive manner are, in my opinion, mostly the result of knee-jerking ignorance.
The vast majority of the game is not devoted to true horror, but rather fantasy horror in the vein of It. This is not to say that it’s light-hearted, but it’s by far more a game of spooky “What’s that shadow behind the creaky door?” horror than stomach-turning real-world atrocity. Children in the game are not just helpless victims, they are empowered to fight the monsters with faith and courage.
The only real caution I offer with this game is that it will take some mad Gamemastering skills to run right. Horror gaming requires that you maintain a very specific mood, doubly so for childhood horror. Definitely spend some time researching, preparing, finding appropriate props and setting the scene. I found it handy to set my game circa 1986-’88. Drawing from my own youth (And thus that of most of my players) adds to the authenticity.
The Good
- Excellent setting and great concepts
- Solid, simple system helps add to the mood and setting
- Great design, artwork, and production values.
- The first RPG exclusively about childhood terror, and it’s done right!
The Bad
- You might find the simple system to be a bit too simple, at least as far as comparing the abilities of kids of different ages.
- Gaming style requires a large investment of effort on the part of the GM to run right.
Anyway, that’s my take on the game. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask in the forum. Also let me know what you thought of my first review!
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)