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A capsule review. Sorry about that, I prefer playtest reviews myself, but unfortunately this just isn’t the sort of game my current group would like.
The Thing
This is a purpose-designed traveller’s RPG. Not the space Traveller, the type who carries a book in his pocket. To that end, it’s a very small card-cover paperback book, just under 5 ¾” by 4 ½”, although it is 224 pages in length, so it’s not insubstantial. The binding seems pretty decent, although in a single day of carrying it around in a bag the covers got creased. I’d say it’ll survive being carried around, but it’ll suffer a bit. Since this is the game’s stated purpose, I’ll be commenting on it a bit, but there’s no reason it can’t be played in civilised comfort.
The cover art is colour, depicting a werewolf pack feasting on it’s victim. Gory, and not exactly award-winning quality, but reasonable for the style and size of game. Interior art is sketchy, dark, charcoal drawings. On the good side of amateur, certainly better than I could do, and quite atmospheric for the theme. There’s enough of it, all full-page (remembering the small page size!), but it's neither intrusive nor excessive.
The interior is very clear and readable, except possibly for the game fiction (also used to set up examples of play), which is written in a horror font I’m not too fond of. The main text is broken up with plenty of white space and short paragraphs, and should be readable in any decent light conditions, although the paperback format does mean you can’t keep a page open without destroying the spine – use a bookmark. Likewise, although there are sample creature and character templates and examples given a-plenty, you’ll have to copy them out onto paper to easily read – but as they take up a half-page even at this page size that’s no great hardship! The rules, although logically and well explained and easily readable, are spread around a fair bit by the small page size, but they are simple enough to memorise at a read through, and there is also a summary at the back.
The Beast Within
So, that’s what it looks like, how does it work? Well, firstly it should be pointed out, if it’s not already clear, this is a game of RPG horror. It’s set up to replicate the likes of Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, any number of Vampire and Werewolf movies. It’s an extremely simple system, although I’ve seen rules-lighter. Every character and creature is defined by Survival Points (you start with 5 of them) and 4 attribute pairs
Identify/Obscure
Persuade/Dissuade
Pursue/Escape
Assault/Protect
Each attribute has a numeric value, and the pair adds up to 10. So you could have Assault 7/Protect 3 or Pursue 4/Escape 6. You can also add Specialisations to each pair, increasing the Specialisation by 2 over the highest of the pair, but then reducing the pair total by 2. So, you could have Pursue 3/Escape 5/Car Chases 8. Creatures have even more Specialisations, Advanced Specialisations, and Vulnerabilities. They don’t add much complexity, and all the numbers still have to add up, so each monster is still pretty simple. The more specialised they get, the more vulnerable they get in other areas. So Michael Myers may be vicious, strong, silent and unkillable, but he’s also dumb, slow, predictable and has only one real attack.
You use these numbers and abilities in a pretty simple way. Roll 2D10, add the appropriate number. Get 15+ for an unopposed task and you make it. For opposed tasks, the target is 10+opponent’s number. So Escape 6 to get away from Pursue 6 needs a 16+. Players do all the rolling in unopposed tasks, but rolling has to alternate in opposed tasks. This is as close as the game gets to traditional turns or rounds.
This is where the Survival Points come in. You lose a Survival Point if you lose a combat action (two if the creature has the appropriate Specialisation), or stuff like car crashes, falling down concealed wells, etc. You can also ‘spend’ them for various effects, such as making a reroll, getting a clue from the GM, gaining extra Specialisations, etc. You regain Survival Points by rolling doubles on the 2D10 roll (the creature gains one if you roll 13!), by voluntarily following the horror clichés listed in the book (like investigating noises in the cellar all on your own), giving dramatic descriptions of actions, etc. They are combined life points, hero points and energy points, representing your character’s (or creature’s) current progress to success. Drop to 0, and your character becomes helpless to fate, but only actually dies if called on to lose another Survival Point when already at 0.
That’s the basic game, pretty straightforward, and pretty well attuned to the horror theme. Everything needed to play can be noted on small slips of paper, numbers are small and there’s very little complexity getting in the way of game flow. The back cover mentions these as the ‘Fulcrum Rules’. I’ve never heard of this before, maybe they’re used in some other games.
Things that go Bump in the Night
This is when the game introduces it’s ‘innovative’ rule. Come on, you knew it had one; virtually every small-press RPG has to have one. In this case, it’s the Tension system. This is a sort of Metagame method of enhancing/enforcing the… well, tension… at especially important scenes of horror. It’s a numeric value which, as well as giving an idea of how much threat the scene contains, allows the GM to alter the result of what he considers vital die rolls. Tension points are set at the start of important points of a story, and rise with the loss or expenditure of Survival Points, and the appearance of monsters.
And the suggested die-roll alterations are not all for the good of the monsters. For instance, if a character is searching for a clue, and just fails, the GM could spend a couple of Tension points to help the game get going. OK, so it’s the old argument in this case, if the character MUST find the clue, why did the player have to roll? But using this method, there is at least some control, and as the GM uses up Tension Points, the tension drops – so the mechanic does reflect the game, the more fudging that’s done, the less real threat the characters – or, at least, the players - feel. And the Tension mechanic does allow more control than purely random die rolls at vital points of the story, and does make the threats more dangerous at appropriate points. But, well… it’s still GM fudging by another name…
Hordes of the Things
After the game rules come a number of useful and well-written chapters on styles of play, including having one or more players as the monster, even an all-monster party with the GM as the victim! There are sections on traditional types of horror, from psychological to slapstick comedy. There are ideas on sharing GMing, passing the GM authority around the table, and other such ideas.
And then there’s the inevitable, but highly useful, bestiary, full of the predictable Mummies, Demons, Ghosts, Werewolves, Golem, etc., but also the unkillable machete man, the mob, etc. Then a set of predictable, but quite reasonably written, scenario setups, character templates, etc.
A summary of the rules and even a sheet of random numbers if you don’t have D10 handy, round off the rules, with a reasonable index bringing up the rear. The collected list of all the Horror Clichés sprinkled through the book, which we are told at the start of the book would be at the end, never appears, but otherwise it’s pretty complete.
The End?
Is it playable? Oh, yes, I see no problem in using these mechanics to actually play a game. Is it especially suited to it’s purpose? Well, if it’s purpose is horror roleplaying in a very narrative-driven style, yes, it works for that. It certainly does need lots of GM and player input to decide when to spend Survival Points, and what the current Tension level actually MEANS in terms of what’s happening and what the characters and monsters are up to. If the purpose is to create a very portable gaming book to carry around with you, it’s even better – it small, pretty complete, needs very little paperwork indeed, and is easily readable.
Overall, I like it. It’s not great, but it’s got some very good points. It’s not a game I’d use for long term or intense gaming, it’s too rules-light for my liking there. But it would make a good one-off game system, and the horror theme and rule support look well thought out. It could look prettier, the art isn’t entirely to my taste, but it’s not BAD. The layout is very easily readable, and good for the purpose of a pocket RPG.
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