As with last time, taken me rather longer to post than intended – work and various viruses to blame but think through the worst of it now. With Christmas on the horizon, hoping some people may have more time for gaming so will try and restart my The One Ring game as have a few more adventures from Tales from Wilderland I want to play through before the Rivendell and Mirkwood supplements are released next year.
I think with Halloween I began reading some horror games – as with most people, my main experience of the genre has been Call of Cthulhu, and indeed enjoyed the excellent campaign Dan ran several years ago. However, like Dan, I discovered Trail of Cthulhu and the Gumshoe system subsequently which made me rethink using the Basic Roleplaying System.
Gumshoe 
Gumshoe is a system written by Robin D Laws and prioritises investigation – as well as being used in Trail of Cthulhu to excellent effect, it also underpins Esoterrorists, Night’s Black Agents , Mutant City Blues, Lorefinder (Gumshoe Pathfinder mashup) and the excellent sci-fi game, Ashen Stars (pic above).
An overview of the system and the games can be found here and a video with Pelgrane Press about Trail of Cthulhu here
However, the game that really caught my attention was ‘Fear Itself’ as this described a horror setting where the PC’s were regular guys, not linked to an organisation, and yet didn’t involve the Cthulhu mythos. Also, it was linked to the acclaimed ‘The Book Of Unremitting Horror’ and one of my favourite adventure writers, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, has written ‘Invasive Procedures’ for it.
Here’s a review
All Flesh Must Be Eaten (AFMBE)
I’ve only recently discovered zombie joy after reading the wonderful ‘world war Z’ (although have been warned the forthcoming film is a bit rubbish) but have enjoyed the work of Eden Studios over the years, not least for their Unisystem and ‘Witchcraft’ (contemporary magic rpg, an alternative to white wolf’s Mage), as well as ‘Conspiracy X’ (X-files). AFMBE uses the same system but the setting is the zombie apocalypse, whether in contemporary times (core book) or in the wild west, space in the future, pirates on the high sea, fantasy dungeons, or an oriental martial arts setting, Zombies get everywhere.
A review from the Gentleman Gamer is here
More horror
There are a couple of things in the pipeline that I am also quite excited about.
Tremulus, a storytelling game of Lovecraftian horror, video here, by the excellent Sean Preston of Reality Blurs.
Also, Kuro. You know how we at the Hod like oriental fantasy as well as cyberpunk? This is a Japanese dystopian cyberpunk horror game set in 2046. I know. What’s not to like? PDF is just released with hardcopy out in new year. This is published by Cubicle 7, but like Qin and Yggdrasill, is originally from the French company, Septieme Cercle.
I keep meaning to write some stuff up about The Laundry RPG…. next time
