Category Archives: Horror

Alien

Dice Pool, Future, Horror, Leans Storytelling, RPG Finder
  • Genre: Horror  
  • Setting: Future 
  • Gameplay: Leans Storytelling            
  • Mechanics: Dice Pool             D6
  • Publisher: Free League

Highlights

  1. Set in the universe of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise
  2. Has specialty dice, but regular d6s can be used as well. 2 colors needed
  3. Can be used for one-shots or campaigns depending on how deadly MOTHER (the GM) sets the difficulty.

Alien is the officially licensed science fiction horror role playing game set in the universe of the Alien film franchise. Characters play humans and androids on missions in space that go horrifically awry thanks to the deadly combination of corporate greed and negligence and the harsh realities of an uncaring and hostile universe. The books include a wealth of information on the campaign setting and games can be situated anywhere along the Alien timeline. Players need two different colored dice pools: one to represent their skills and another to represent their accumulated stress from the mission and the danger they face. The game master can fine tune the difficulty of the game to allow for a short and brutal one-shot or provide a slower burn over a longer campaign.

Official Site: Alien RPG

Buy it: Free League Publishing, Drive Thru RPG

Thousand Year Old Vampire

Deep Storytelling, Horror, Middle Ages, RPG Finder, Unique
  • Genre: Horror  
  • Setting: Middle Ages
  • Gameplay: Deeply Narrative             
  • Mechanics: Unique Follow the Dice
  • Publisher: Tim Hutchings

Highlights

  1. Solo journaling game!
  2. Dice don’t resolve conflicts, only lead to new prompts in the character’s story
  3. Great for people who want to lean into history and research for that verisimilitude.

Thousand Year Old Vampire is a solo journaling game, where you write in a diary about your experiences as a blood sucking monster. The problem is that time takes its toll on you and you only have so many pages. Memories that were precious to your character hundreds of years ago are erased to make room for new memories you want to hold onto. The dice rolls are how you move from prompt to prompt throughout the book. It is evocative, scary, tragic, and encourages deep dives into real-world events to find hooks for your character’s escapades.

Official Site: Thousand Year Old Vampire

Buy it: Tim Hutchings, Drive Thru RPG, or Indie Press Revolution