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Throughout this review, I'll refer to The Book Of Unremitting Horror, a sourcebook for Gumshoe games.
Disclaimer: I've recently playtested Trail Of Cthulhu, another Gumshoe game, with the publisher of Fear Itself. Hence, I've marked myself as affiliated.
The system
Gumshoe sells itself as investigative horror done right. It makes much of older systems, like Call Of Cthulhu, in which a failed skill roll might lead to a vital clue being missed.
Instead, Gumshoe uses a point spend system. You tell the GM you want to use your Streetwise ability: if there's a clue available, you spend a Streetwise point and get it. If there's no clue, you spend nothing. Core clues, vital to progressing the investigation, also cost nothing.
Here, the GM creates the mystery to investigate, which the players discover piece by piece. Because of the core clue mechanic, there's no doubt they'll uncover the entire mystery, although whether they survive is another matter.
There are non-investigative skills, too, which cover combat, fleeing, health (both physical and mental) and similar matters.
Stability
Stability Points are, essentially, Hit Points for your mental health. When horrific events occur, you roll a six-sided die: if you get four or more, you're fine; if not, you lose Stability, depending on how extreme the horror was. You may also sacrifice Stability Points to add to that roll.
If Stability falls below zero, you're shaken. If it falls below -5, the Mental Illness rules kick in.
When your character is Mentally Ill, the other players are instructed to treat you, the player, differently. For example, if you have Amnesia, the players agree (in your absence) on an event which happened, which you've forgotten; if you're Deluded, they might decide your character's name has always been different; if you're Paranoid, they'll look at you strangely and pass notes.
Mostly, this seems innovative, fun and workable. Certain aspects seem difficult: I'd be uncomfortable playing a paranoid character, with other players looking at me strangely.
Combat
To hit something, you roll: if you get a target number, which varies with the opponent, you hit. Each skill point you spend before the roll (Firearms or Scuffling) adds 1 to the roll.
Then it's another die roll for damage, with modifiers for the weapon. The damage comes off the opponent's Health.
Hence, it's a traditional system: roll to hit, roll for damage. There are innovations: when Health drops below zero, you may roll to stay conscious, and spend more Health points to add to the roll (you exert yourself to keep going, but it hurts you).
For me, this traditional system is unsatisfying. Surely, in most horror, you don't get injured: you kill the monster or it rips you apart. And, in investigative horror, you don't take the monster down with firearms: you discover a weakness (silver bullets, a ritual) and exploit it.
Personally, I'd prefer mechanics that tie into the investigative core of the game. However, as a tried-and-tested system, it'll work well for traditional combat.
Scenario advice
The Scenario Advice section tells the GM how to prepare a mystery for the players to uncover.
At first sight, it appears to advocate a railroad, each scene leading inexorably to the next:
"A straightforward investigation can be seen as a series of scenes arranged in a straight line, with multiple ways to move from each scene to the one following it."
This is misleading, however. On closer inspection, and on reading sample scenarios, it's clear that Fear Itself can give players much freedom.
For example, take one scenario from The Book Of Unremitting Horror, "The Final Case". It begins with a disappearance, from which the players can explore various avenues: they might question the father, investigate a pub or search the missing person's flat.
Each of these locations has a pre-written scene, with much to investigate, and a Core Clue that leads to other scenes.
Of course, all roads eventually lead to the same solution. But it's not quite a railroad: there are many directions to take along the way.
In this Scenario Advice section, I think Fear Itself sells itself badly. The game looks like a railroad, but isn't, and plays better than it reads.
The section also suggests withholding certain clues for dramatic impact. In other words, it's old school illusionism: fun stuff, but know what you're signing up for.
Layout and art
Fear Itself is a slick, professional book, with arresting cover art. The art and layout are by Jerome Huguenin (with one piece, taken from the The Book Of Unremitting Horror, by Dave Allsopp): save for some erroneous line breaks, the appearance of the book is faultless.
Fear Itself in play
I played Fear Itself, using The Final Case scenario, with four players, at a small convention.
The game went superbly: beginning well and getting better. The players investigated the various set scenes: the missing person's flat, a drug dealer, a Goth pub, a fetish nightclub. There was a real sense of discovery as each new piece of the mystery slotted into place.
The scenario gives you events to throw in to increase tension: graffiti writing itself on a wall, a watching creature. These worked excellently: Stability rolls were genuine moments of tension. By the end, most characters had low Stability, and two went mad: we used the Mental Illness mechanic, but there was little time left for it to have an impact.
As a GM, I often needed to drop hints: "You're pretty much done with this scene", "Let's move faster, there's a couple of scenes to go yet" and, at one stage, "I'm going to do a complete railroad to get you all into that office".
Early in the adventure, the players were in danger of accidentally visiting the finale's location, which would have revealed the entire mystery. To be exact, they were in the road outside the location of the final battle. I used GM tricks to take them away and bring them back later. It worked, and they enjoyed it.
The scenario ended with a combat, which was slightly dissatisfying after an investigative game. I beefed up the stats of the final monster, as suggested by the book, to make it an appropriate challenge. Eventually, I stopped recording its declining stats, letting it die after doing a suitable amount of damage.
The feedback from players, afterwards, was absolutely superb. I'm keen to run it again: in fact, since the game, I've agreed to run it at another convention.
Overview
Essentially, Fear Itself does one thing very, very well: investigative horror, with players uncovering a prewritten mystery. The Gumshoe rules, which require some GM trickery, work superbly for this.
It also bills itself as a slasher horror game. Here, I think, it's less successful: this game's backbone is investigation, which isn't ideal for slasher horror. The sample scenario supplied with Fear Itself attempts the genre, but not well: the more investigative scenarios in The Book Of Unremitting Horror are, I think, better.
The combat mechanics, a standard damage-and-hit-points system, seem uneasy in an investigative game. The scenario advice, too, could be better explained.
Overall, however, it's a strong investigative game, albeit with flaws. Does this make it a three-star game (flawed but good) or a four-star one (good if you ignore the flaws)? After some wrangling, I've given it four: despite weaknesses, it's a solid game that I'm looking forward to running again.
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