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Horror Island is available in PDF format at fine sites like RPGnow.com and DriveThruRPG.com for the very reasonable price of $5.99. The PDF I received isn’t adorned with any manner of a cover, but a page that looks more like a title page inside an RPG book, complete with credits.
WARNING!!! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!!
Introduction
The book’s introduction begins with a faux late-night horror show, Midnight Cinema (presented by KSAF TV 8) featuring a “vampire” named Baron Von Sleaze arguing with his hand-puppet, Mr. Brimstone. It’s very corny, but intentionally so, and the whole skit takes up a page (in comic book format), so it doesn’t detract from the overall product. If you really like, you can print it out and hand out to the players to set the scene for the “movie”.
About Horror Island
The next section is a one page, spoiler-free, overview of the adventure. It’s intended for up to four players, and any combination (primary or secondary) of 6 characters. The players can make their own, or a selection of stereotypes have been helpfully provided in the back.
I did catch a typo here…as an “a” in the middle of a sentence wound up as an “s”.
There’s a warning at the end of this page telling players to tread no further.
Preparation
Here, the Director receives the backstory of the Island. Not a lot of new ground is broken hear, but it’s an adventure based off of schlocky, b-movie films…what are you expecting? We have a twisted doctor building an asylum to “treat” patients…the patients being led by a cunning madman in a revolt, and the police rounding up all but two of them, who have spawned our killers…a demented brother and sister tandem, with the brother providing the brains and the sister providing the brawn.
We fast-forward ahead to the present where a wealthy plot device NPC named Jefferson Dalton has purchased the island and has invited a group of friends and acquaintances to join him on it (this would be the Primary and Secondary characters).
This chapter formally introduces us to Jefferson Dalton, as well as Augustus (the brother) and the brutish Sarah (the sister), complete with relevant stat information and art for Sarah and Augustus.
The Three Acts
Like a horror flick, the adventure is broken down into three acts:
Act I – The story begins with Jefferson bringing the cast to the island in his boat, and then goes pretty free-range, letting the cast mill about, get into character and pretty much act like a horror movie cast. The only mandated encounter here is, when the cast moves away from the boat, it gets sabotaged, leaving them stranded on the island.
Act II – This is where the meat of the adventure begins. The author provides an impressive 21 hooks for separating your cast from one another, if they don’t do it all on their own anyway. This is all to set up your kill scenes, get the cast to further explore the island (finding the asylum and the shack that the twisted siblings have been living in) and lay out some of the backstory. Two events have been provided here as well: One event introduces Augustus to the cast, as he claims to be stranded on the island as well, while the other introduces a Colombian drug dealer who has been living on the island for months after the siblings murdered his compatriots. A couple of scenarios are provided for finding the drug dealer, depending on what is fitting for the game at that point, and he can be used as exposition to clue the eventual survivors in on the truth behind the siblings.
In a very nice touch, the book goes to a “commercial break” and then pimps Cartoon Action Hour Season 2 also written by Cynthia Celeste Miller (and soon to be reviewed by me on the site you are presently reading this review), complete in black and white. When we “return” from commercials, we get another skit featuring Baron Von Sleaze and Mr. Brimstone.
Act III – The final act begins when the killer has become “exerted” which, in Slasher Flick parlance, means it’s down to the Final Two. The Final Two, now well aware (rapidly becoming aware) that there is a killer (or killers, depending on how the story has gone) loose on the Island, are forced to confront them. Hopefully, they survive.
Then, we get the denouement, complete with helpful scenarios on how to escape the island, from repairing the boat, to building a raft, to the cast being rescued. Finally, tips for setting up a sequel appear, one of which includes the squick-worthy revelation that the siblings have mated with one another, and their twisted progeny take up their murderous legacy, ala the Vorhees family from Friday the 13th. Other options include a search party if all the original cast were killed, the movie taking a more supernatural bent with the demonized Doctor returning from the grave to resume his sadistic experiments, or a group of people with no connection to the island crash landing there.
The Island Locales
This is a “location-based” adventure, meaning that aside from the handful of events listed above, the bulk of the adventure is exploring the island…and this chapter breaks down the important details.
We get a hand-drawn map of the island with the important locations keyed on it. Each keyed entry includes a paragraph or two of description, as well as a bullet point list of Things of Interest. For instance, inside the Doctor’s house, the cast can find the crawlspace that the parents of the demented siblings hid in to escape the authorities. Maps are provided where needed (the shacks aren’t all mapped out in excruciating detail, and a basic floorplan is provided for the Doctor’s house as well as the Asylum.)
Pre-Generated Character
Six characters are provided, in Secondary Character write-ups, with modifications to be made if they are used as primary characters instead. The classics are here, from the brooding badboy to the party animal, to the hot, slutty chick to the bookish, girl next door (who, I’m sure, is actually hotter than the slut, and is smarter than to get naked in a horror film).
The section ends with another Baron Von Sleave and Mr. Brimstone section that, IMHO, falls kinda flat, with a bad pun on a famous killer and either a plug for a bogus movie or a hint as to the next adventure in the works.
Finally, we get a blank page for Director’s notes, and then as series of handouts (journal entries for the cast to find and get clued in on the crazy stuff that went on here in the 50s and 60s).
Thoughts & Conclusions
Horror Island is, as I mentioned, very “familiar”…it hits a lot of horror clichés, but this a good thing, and I’ll tell you why: If you picked up Slasher Flick, thought it sounded cool, but were a tad confused as to how to actually translate the horror film genre into an RPG session, this should answer a ton of those questions for you.
I could have done without Baron Von Sleaze and Mr. Brimstone – I appreciate what the author was attempting, but the segments just kind of fell flat. That said, each one was only a page long, and can be skipped easy enough.
The excessive black didn’t seem to be as present here as it was in Slasher Flick (although there is at least one page that has a sidebar box that is white text on a black background), but it still seems a tad much for printing at home. Once more, a printer friendly option would go a long way, in this reviewer’s opinion.
The art largely ranges from “okay” to “mediocre”, with several characters have vacant expressions, but it was all clearly commissioned for this book, at least, as many of them feature likely kill scenes, or Sarah stalking her victims. While the art is serviceable, none of it is beyond “okay”, but none of it is very prevalent, either, so it’s not a huge issue.
The author once more clearly demonstrates her familiarity with the subject matter, and lays out a fun, if hardly groundbreaking, tale to show off the Slasher Flick engine. Again, if you bought Slasher Flick and weren’t entirely sure what to do with it, pick up Horror Island now. If you bought Slasher Flick and are already three or four “movies” into your own horror series, you probably won’t find much here worth your while.
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