Review of Scared Stiff: The B-Movie Horror RPG

Another individual recently reviewed this game here on RPGnet. The purpose of my review is to do what that recent review did not - give you enough information to form your own opinion of the game.

It is important to note that the .pdf file which I am reviewing here is neither available to the general public, nor (according to the publishers) does it accurately reflect the print quality that will be seen in the hardcopy version of the game (which has not yet been published).

That being said, it is also important to note that I am reviewing the .pdf file which I was allowed access to - not an unreleased hardcopy version of the game. I will describe only what I see (or do not see) in the file at hand, doing my best to avoid speculation about the hardcopy version of the same game.

The Game

Section 1 (Pages 3-4) "Basics":

Apparently this section was intended to summarize the basics of the game, but it comes across as more of a self-congratulatory rambling/promo for future expansions. You are constantly told why you made a good choice when purchasing the Scared Stiff RPG, why the RPG-13 System is good at what it does, and what you can look forward to in future releases.

Section 2 (Pages 5-9) "Terror 101":

This section recalls the old "What is role-playing?" schtick often found in the front of first-generation RPGs. In fact, the only thing that differentiates this section from those long-antiquated (and wholly subjective) sermons is that the Scared Stiff RPG also devotes space to telling the reader what b-movies are (in the same subjective manner) and (again) why the RPG-13 System is the right choice for role-playing in the b-movie genre.

Section 3 (Pages 10-13) "Playing With Panache":

This section serves as a guide to what qualities the author of the game looks for in players. As with Section 2, a large majority of Section 3 is purely subjective opinion (most of which I happen to agree with, but that is neither here nor there) that truly has little to do with the actual game.

Section 4 (Pages 14-34) "Playing the Game":

This section covers the basic of the RPG-13 System. The RPG-13 System is the rule-set which lies at the core of Scared Stiff, which is supposed to have been specifically tailored to b-movie role-playing. I don't see it.

What I do see is a simple, functional, system that has been bogged down in a unique (and totally unnecessary) new form of terminology - Scared Stiff doesn't have player characters, it has "Victims of Circumstance". Scared Stiff doesn't have a GM; it has an "Evil Mastermind". Scared Stiff doesn't measure time in terms of rounds, turns, and adventures, but in "moments", "spots", "misadventures", etc (don't even get me started on "solar phases", "lunar phases", "lunar cycles" and so on). You get the idea.

It seems that the author of the game was under the impression that renaming common rule conventions somehow makes a system more or less appropriate to a given genre - it doesn't. While a few such changes do have the potential to add flavor to a game, a veritable flood of them turns what could be a simple system into an overly complex nightmare - just soaking up all of the new terminology could take weeks (thankfully, a lexicon is included at the end of the file for quick reference).

That being said, if the terminology doesn't impede you, the RPG-13 system is solid. It is neither dice heavy (and can, in fact, be run without dice) nor wildly unbalanced. It can be used to run b-movie genre games as well as any other genre of game that you might like. In the end, the actual system underlying the game offers absolutely nothing (other than the terminology) which ties it exclusively to the b-movie or horror genres.

Finally, it should be noted that no rules for character creation are covered in this section, when this is the place that they would be most practically utilized by the reader (seeing as how the whole of this chapter deals with how certain aspects of a character impact game-play).

Section 5 (Pages 35-46) "Masterful Mastermind":

This section is the obligatory GM's section (or "Evil Mastermind's section" if you prefer) found in many RPGs. This section is easily the best in the whole file - within it you will find solid information on basic conventions of the horror genre as they apply to RPGs, advice on dealing with in-play problems common to horror games, advice on how to handle character insanity, and a brief look at common plot devices and themes that can be used to drive a story.

While most of the information in this section appears to be aimed at the novice horror GM, it can benefit even a seasoned pro that is looking for some advice in a pinch. It should be noted that the proliferation of confusing new terminology present in Section 4 is largely absent here, making Section 5 a much more enjoyable read.

Section 6 (Pages 47-53) "The Evil Mastermind":

In this section, the reader can find detailed rules for creating menaces (of the stalking, drooling, monstrous, variety) with which to antagonize the PCs and NPCs with which to drive the story (called, in typical Scared Stiff fashion, "Innocent Bystanders").

Motives, opportunity, and cheap tricks that the menaces may have up their sleeves are all covered thoroughly in this section of the file, as well as such staples of evil villainy like gloating and death traps.

All in all this section (also largely devoid of confusing terminology) makes for an enjoyable read, if only because it covers clichés of evil villainy in an hereto unforeseen depth.

Section 7 (Pages 54-80) "The Victims of Circumstance":

In this section the rules for creating a PC are covered in whole. Why these rules weren't integrated into Section 4, I cannot say, but they would have been most helpful there (at the very least, they could have been presented before Section 2). Likewise, I cannot see any particular aspect that warrants these rules being presented by themselves - they are, for all intents and purposes, fairly generic character creation rules.

Whilst I do have issues about the placement of these rules within the body of the file, they do still fulfill the basic goals of all character creation systems (regardless of where they appear) - alas, like the rules presented in Section 4, these also suffer from an over-infusion of kewl terminology which only manages to confuse things more than is necessary...

For example, character creation consists of seven steps as follow:

1.Stereotypes, Reputability, and Looks 2.Frustrating Flaws 3.Gobs of Goodies 4.Model Citizens 5.Low Profiles 6.An "E" for Effort 7.Effortless Exclamations

As if the renaming of familiar and functional steps in the character creation process wasn't bad enough, the above steps are immediately followed by text reading: "The process is easy to remember because the section initials form the clever anacronym 'SRLFFGGMCLPEEEE'." This is a great example of how over-complicated Scared Stiff can get and how obviously oblivious the author was to this.

In the end, like the rules presented in Section 4, the rules for character creation are complicated to an unnecessary degree due to the presence of unusual terminology. If, OTOH, the terminology doesn't impede you, the rules are solid and can be used to create characters of any kind that you can imagine (everything from mad scientists to doomed cheerleaders can be covered).

Section 8 (Pages 81-90) "Genre Rules":

This section manages to take what is already a complex game due to the sheer bulk of unfamiliar terminology and make it ridiculously complex by adding a gaggle of rules for every conceivable situation that may pop up in play - skepticism, romance, warning others, insanity and so on.

While some of these things are integral parts of b-movie horror films, the fact is that most of them are either already covered sufficiently by the core rules or are better handled by way of improvisational role-play rather than charts (which, by the way, seems to be the default method of dealing with all of these things).

I do understand that the intent of this section was to adapt the largely generic RPG-13 System to be more genre-oriented. In this, the rules fail - while they do manage to cover many aspects of the b-movie horror genre, they do so at the cost of becoming a burden to the game. With some streamlining these rules may have some benefit, but as they currently stand, the game would likely run more smoothly without them.

Finally, this is yet another one of those sections that seems oddly out of place in the body of the text. After all, this is "The B-Movie Horror RPG", so why are these rules separated from the main stack by so many pages. It seems that it would have been easy enough and more appropriate to integrate these rules into the core.

Section 9 (Pages 91-108) "The EM's Genre Rules":

Yet another section that seems to have been oddly misplaced. Within this section, NPCs are examined again (in more depth than they were in Section 6) and rules for magic (or "Horrible Hocus Pocus") are presented.

As with the rules presented in the previous section, the additional rules presented for NPCs here do cover many staples of the b-movie horror genre - unfortunately, they too, do so at the cost of becoming a burden. As was the case with many of the rules covered in Section 8, the rules for NPCs that were presented in earlier sections more than sufficiently dealt with the topic at hand. These additional rules only complicate things further without truly adding anything of great importance to the game.

Thankfully, the rules for magic are rock solid (and fun). Extremely light compared to the majority of the rules covered up to this point in the text, the magic rules encourage impromptu spell-casting and spell-creation by defining certain perimeters for a given spell (range, time, effects, etc) and then calculating its casting cost. The magic rules are complicated neither by unnecessary rules additions nor by bizarre terminology (definitely a refreshing change of pace for the reader). Seeing as how the magic rules take up a scant five pages, though, this is another one of those sections that seems it could have easily and appropriately been integrated into Section 4.

Section 10 (Pages 109-121) "Genre Advice":

This is less a section on genre advice as its title indicates, than it is a brief overview of Terra Bella, the default multi-b-movie-horror-genre (yeah, I know that's a bit overdone - but there really wasn't any other way to describe it) setting of Scared Stiff. Terra Bella is literally, a b-movie world... at any given moment, in any given place, a b-movie horror flick is being lived by some doomed citizen of Terra Bella.

Common tropes of the horror genre as they apply to these doomed citizens are briefly examined here (and in a much more entertaining manner than they were earlier), so in that respect, it does offer some genre advice. Following the brief examination of genre tropes are a list of common buildings that one might find on Terra Bella, a graphic list of ways that PCs might get geeked, and an extremely detailed overview of insanity (sans rules).

After reading the whole of the Scared Stiff file, I can say without a doubt that this section was the most entertaining part of the entire work (I'm still giggling as I type this). Frankly, I like the idea of an entire world that lives out b-movie horror flicks as a setting - it's fresh, original, and it has the potential to be more fun than a barrel full of monkeys.

Section 11-14 (Pages 122-142) Genre Splats:

Note that "Genre Splats" is not the actual title of Sections 11-14, but rather what the reader will find therein. Essentially, each of these sections briefly covers a small portion of Terra Bella and the genre that is synonymous with it. The genres and places covered are:

Section 11: Traditional Horror - Patty's Cove, Maine Section 12: Alien Invasions - Any area (They're everywhere!) Section 13: Supernatural Conspiracy - Any area (Ditto!) Section 14: Mega Size Monsters - New York City

The splats do a nice job of showing off just how versatile the RPG-13 System can be (which shouldn't come as any suprise, considering the fact that it is almost entirely generic), and give the reader a nice idea of exactly what life on Terra Bella is like (really weird, to say the least). In fact, the only real drawback to the genre splats is that they are only four to five pages long each (hopefully the publishers will consider publishing a sourcebook that showcases Terra Bella in all its glory).

Section 15 (Pages 145-146) "Terrible Terminology":

No kidding. This is the aforementioned lexicon of Scared Stiff's own language that they invented to write the game. It does thoroughly explain each and every one of the "clever" new terms utilized throughout the text in a manner which clears up a lot of the confusion (but seeing as how the confusion could have been avoided in the first place, the lexicon isn't scoring any really big points with me).

Still, I think the fact that a special lexicon is needed to assist people in learning the very basic terminology of the game speaks volumes about over-complexity.

Other junk that I haven't covered yet:

In addition to the aforementioned organization problems, the file lacks any kind of table of contents or index - this makes locating specific information in the file a nightmare (imagine what I went through to write this review). I consider a good table of contents and absolute MUST (I can forego an index if I absolutely have to, but I MUST have that table of contents).

The actual text is (unlike the organization of the content) clean, crisp, and easy on the eyes (primarily a 12pt Times-Roman font with large Broadway-Engraved font section headers). While there are several spelling and grammatical errors, it is important to remember that the publisher has said that this is not the final draft of the game (i.e. - the hardcopy version will be cleaned up). In this light, it is completely understandable that such errors would exist in the file as it currently exists.

Finally, the artwork leaves a little to be desired, but keeping in mind that this is essentially the publisher's first time out, I think that the artwork of Scared Stiff supercedes that of some other games in the same position.

Final Synopsis:

Like all games, Scared Stiff has its good points and bad points.

The bad points are primarily the rather jumbled organization of content (including the tendency to cover one topic multiple times in different places), the rampant overuse of new and unfamiliar lingo in place of perfectly familiar and no less functional terminology, and the lack of any truly genre-specific mechanics which are integrated into the system core.

Among the good points that Scared Stiff has going for it are a truly unique campaign setting, a simple and solid underlying system (assuming, again, that the lingo doesn't trip you up), a few unusual and entertaining explorations of NPCs, and an overall tone of fun.

Now - Would I buy Scared Stiff? It depends....

A. I'm not one of those people that can easily sort through a maze of new and unfamiliar terminology like that which plagues Scared Stiff, so I'm very unlikely to do so unless this is thinned-out (REALLY thinned-out) in the hardcopy version.

B. Likewise, I'm all for coherent organization in game books (this just makes looking things up during play so much easier), so I'd not be very likely to buy Scared Stiff unless a table of contents and index are added in the hardcopy version.

So I guess that makes my final answer "Not right now". But I won't count it out - Scared Stiff has enough redeeming qualities and interesting treatment of subject matter that with a little bit of elbow grease (and some editing), it has the potential to shine brightly.

James Hargrove