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100 Horror Adventure Seeds (or 1HAS for short) is a collection of, wait for it, horror adventure seeds. These aren’t full blown scenarios, but rather the “seeds” of an idea for a horror game, often set in modern times but with a few variants. The format goes something like this: we’re presented with the author musing on a subject (such as voodoo, or the undead) or more often a flat out adventure idea (the PCs are investigating an abandoned ship, the PCs are called in to study a possible exorcism). Three “twists” are then provided, which consist of various approaches (sometimes complementary) towards the adventure. Perhaps that ship is abandoned because it’s haunted, or maybe it’s not really abandoned at all but actually under observation by aliens, but what if the ship was actually out of phase with normal reality? Finally, wrapping up the seed is an “epilogue”, which may be a means to revisit the adventure, turn it into a campaign, or just some general closing thoughts. Each of these seeds gets a single page, and while some have sidebars or art these are more the exceptions than the norm. Like I said before, the “seeds” are primarily focused on modern day adventures, but their generic and system-free nature means that with minimal effort you could transport most (if not all) to other times or settings. There are also a few pages at the start where the author thanks people for their support, explains his theory on adventure design, and gives some very basic suggestions for how to brainstorm ideas. As for the actual contents, there's a pretty good range. Zombies, mummies, werewolves, cannibals, vampires, aliens, nature run amok, serial killers, evil spirits, you name it and it's probably in here at least once. And if you think of something that isn't in here... you just found yourself another adventure seed!

And that’s pretty much it.

Style: First the positives. The art by Chad Sergsketter is quite good I think, as is the cover piece by Andrew Hepworth. It’s used well, feels relevant to the surrounding text, and is enjoyable. The table of contents is... well, present and complete, but not all that useful (so much for the positives). I think one of the objective weaknesses of 1HAS is that it lacks a useful form of organization. Want to run an adventure about zombies? They’re in the book, but you’ll have to hunt for them. Some sort of index or more useful table of contents that broke down ideas along the lines of “for ‘Nature Run Amok’, see #52, #91, and #99” would have been greatly appreciated I think. However, given that the twists can turn what seems to be a standard zombie plague adventure into a game about necromancers, I see how organizing might be easier said than done. I also think the book needed a good whip-cracking-red-ink-loving editor. While I respect that the author is going for a casual, off-the-cuff, style of writing, in some cases it needed a better edit due to typos and grammatical errors. In a few (and by few I mean less than half-a-dozen) cases it just seemed like the author put down a rambling train of thought, almost but not quite barreling off the tracks. Here’s an extreme example quoted to better explain what I mean:

A chance encounter with a voodoo houngan downtown leads to upset on their part, jostled in the crowd and unknown by to the characters, not feared or respected by them he takes umbrage at their clumsiness, insulting them and escalating the situation growing more and more insulted at everything they say or do, be it ignoring him, apologising insincerely or anything else.

I’m going to give the book a barely over the line 3 for Style. I never felt like I had no idea as to what the author was trying to say, even if I felt it could have been said better, and the book was easy on the eye.

Substance: I’m going with a low to solid 3 here with a big caveat. I think this book works best for people who haven’t read a lot of horror stories or seen a lot of horror movies. The more you’ve read and seen, the less useful this book is probably going to seem. Based on the ideas presented I figure I’ve read a lot of the same books and seen a lot of the same movies as the author, so I didn’t get as much out of the book as I would’ve liked, but even so I still found a few ideas that really surprised me. And when some of the seeds made me think “I could come up with a better idea” and do so, I can’t really fault the book too much for inspiring me to come up with my own ideas since that’s kind of the entire point. Having said that, those wanting a more traditional horror scenario book will be disappointed; 1HAS is a book to help you come up with your own scenarios, not give you scenarios ready to go. I won’t fault the book for being an apple if somebody wants an orange, since it pretty much says upfront what it is. However, I think if the author had sat around with a few other horror fans and they all bounced ideas off of one another (and their efforts were then edited by a grammar nazi), the book might have been stronger for it. Collaboration on projects like this, where people are actively trying to outdo one another without resorting to extremes, can really make for great products. As is, the lone authorial voice and font of ideas makes for a bit weaker product.

Conclusion: I don’t think 1HAS is a bad book, but I do think it’s geared more towards the novice horror gamer than the old timer. But even then, I still found some neat ideas scattered in the text. And if an old horror nut like me can learn get a few cool ideas from it, I figure pretty much anyone can. Whether that’s enough to justify the price of purchase I can’t say.