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What your favorite horror RPG. I suspect that a certain game will be on top. But then again these polls always seem to surprise and inform me.

The original Vampire: Dark Ages. Only WoD game I ever liked, really. Failing that, Mayfair's version of Chill.

WOD is my choice. My favorite game being Requiem. All of it has been great fun over the years.

Chilly Chill-Chill.

See this is why I love these polls. I'm really surprised by the love for Chill. (Even if I was one of the voters for it.:p) Which I recently discovered. I mean I knew about back in the day but never had a copy of it. Now that I have gotten a chance to check it out. I really like it.

Call of Cthulhu as I've always been a Lovecraft fan and the game is fun. Chill and Beyond the Supernatural would be second choices.

Any game where "Mean Old Neighbor Lady," is a monster type is firing on all cylinders in my book.

Art-wise and layout wise....well....Mayfair's Chill does smack mightily of the 90's to say the least.  A bit hard to get 'round sometimes, if you catch my drift.

Call of Cthulhu for me.  Still great after 28 years.

Quote from: Danger;356209Any game where "Mean Old Neighbor Lady," is a monster type is firing on all cylinders in my book.

Art-wise and layout wise....well....Mayfair's Chill does smack mightily of the 90's to say the least.  A bit hard to get 'round sometimes, if you catch my drift.

I have and so prefer the 1st edition Pacersetter "Chill". The Mayfair versions cover alone turns me off for some reason. Just me I suppose. I see my expected favorite has started to come on though. I have to say while I like Chil, CoC seems to be the king. At least in what I've seen. (Hey prove me wrong internet.:p)

Nightbane, def.

The thing is, you really can't vote for anything but CoC to answer this question. I mean, in a lot of other respects, I would say I like Over the Edge far more than I like CoC. I think OtE is brilliant. I think its one of the best Gonzo settings, one of the best systems for rules-lite play, and that its great at handling Bizarre Shit Going Down. But for horror? It still has to be CoC.

RPGPundit

Call of Cthulhu for me too.
I've used it for lots of horror gaming that was entirely Mythos-free... lots of crossovers with Kult's settings/themes.

... and I was tempted to write in The Whispering Vault, but it's more like 'very strange superheroes' than it is outright 'horror'.

I voted for CoC, but it just narrowly nosed out 3e GURPS.  The Sanity mechanic for CoC was a breakthrough for horror role-playing.  However, I think that the Fright Check mechanic from GURPS is just as good.

My favorite horror setting was Ravenloft for D&D. But I don't like the horror genre that much really.

Personally I'd never really consider Deadlands to be a horror game.  In the sense of what I'd consider a horror game.  The characters are fairly capable and even though they do on occasion deal with some scary stuff having a pair of irons can go a long way to mitigating fear.   Then again since you considered Deadlands a horror game I have to vote for it because the game is fucking awesome.  I'd say that Deadlands done close to the book has about as much horror to the setting as WFRP has.

Now if I had to remove Deadlands from it I'd vote for Kult in terms of pure horror in a setting.  It's unfortunate they could never come up with a quality working system for it.  Hmmm Savage Worlds: Kult perhaps....

CoC.

I'd decided before even reading the options, it's just way ahead.  I did read the options, but nothing comes close IMO.

Pundit makes a good point that one may have preferences over it, but I think it is the obvious answer.

But, you know, ymmv.

Chill. Mayfair Games version. I probably didn't play it the way the creators envisioned it, my games were a lot more action packed, ending up more of more of a horror-action movie game than pure horror, drawing not only from Chill canon of mummies, ghosts, vampires, werewolves and Mean Old Neighbor Ladies but from plenty of seventies and eighties horror schlock ranging from Pumpkinhead to Susprira to Scanners to fighting in a fairy tale world dreamscape inside sleeping child's mind, but Chills rules lite system was flexible enough to adapt well to suit all of this nonsense.

Recently running a Gurps 4e game drawing from the 3rd ed Cabal and Path magic from 4e Thaumatology, which is the best representation of hermetic magic I've seen in gaming.

Although I enjoy and am a fan of other choices, notably Chill and the original Deadlands, I had to vote Call of Cthulhu. It's basically synonymous with horror gaming.

Seanchai

I love Call of Cthulhu. It is a fantastic game. It isn't what I voted for because despite loving it. I feel playing COC creates too narrow a field for the kind of horror I want to haunt my players with. I like a broad open spectrum of "what kind of monsters" are out there and COC tends to deal with a specific sort of monsters. I like to pain my own masterpieces in the shadows.  I went with Witchcraft--albeit I'd vote "my own." when I get it written.

Quote from: kryyst;356380Personally I'd never really consider Deadlands to be a horror game.  In the sense of what I'd consider a horror game.  The characters are fairly capable and even though they do on occasion deal with some scary stuff having a pair of irons can go a long way to mitigating fear.   Then again since you considered Deadlands a horror game I have to vote for it because the game is fucking awesome.  I'd say that Deadlands done close to the book has about as much horror to the setting as WFRP has.

Now if I had to remove Deadlands from it I'd vote for Kult in terms of pure horror in a setting.  It's unfortunate they could never come up with a quality working system for it.  Hmmm Savage Worlds: Kult perhaps....

I had one player that I had never been able to creep out until playing Deadlands Reloaded one night...an animated hand made him flip out.  Strangest thing I've ever seen.

Hmm.. its a good point, though. Poll forgot Ravenloft!

RPGPundit

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;356417I had one player that I had never been able to creep out until playing Deadlands Reloaded one night...an animated hand made him flip out.  Strangest thing I've ever seen.

Good story.  I think my player freak out moment was when they all ended up in an abandon mind shaft with ghouls on either side of them (I was running the ghouls more akin to Aliens).  They were tracking ammo and tracking the minutes that they had left of their lamp oil.

Yeah I guess in retrospect Deadlands qualifies as Horror...

Ravenloft for me...ran a long campaign with it that had some truly great "horror moments" where the players really felt it.  I'm also looking forward to running Witch Hunter: The Invisible World for its horror feel.  Having mentioned both of those, I think horror can be run in a lot of systems, and that system isn't usually the limiting factor; some systems are certainly exceptions to that, though.  The biggest challenge is in the immersion and nuances supplied by the Game Master.

Of course, suitable material from the RPG in question never hurts, either.

Hmm...probably worth mentioning that I've never played or run Call of Cthulu, or any iteration thereof.  Just never knew people interested in doing so.  I'm a fan of Lovecraft, so I suspect it would've been a favourite, had it had the opportunity.

Pacesetter Chill has done me good for three decades.
CoC is always HPL awesome, but Chill just rocks.

I voted for Kult. An underrated game on so many levels.

Regards,
David R

I never gotten a chance to check Kult out. Could you expand on why its under rated David?

I had a copy of Kult at one point but with the moves over the years, it was lost in the shuffle.  I remember it as a cool setting for some reason but yeah...I would need a refresher.  CoC broke new ground and I liked the meters in UA.

Edit:  went to wikipedia...I liked the religious overtones of the game but then that subject has always interested me.

Put me down for another CoC vote.

Though Ravenloft would have been a close second, had it been on the list (even if the D&D system was a terrible fit for it).

GURPS: Horror always is a strong contender as well, despite the fact that I'm not a huge GURPS system fan.

AFMBE is a well-written game, but for some reason I just never completely clicked with it.

BTS is a halfway decent game as well.  I think a real 2nd edition that just cleaned the game up a bit (more like Dead Reign) instead of trying to Rifts-ize it would have made a really good game.

I always thought Chill sounded interesting, but never played it.

I played in a spectacularly fun Burea 13: STNF (also not on the list) game at a con once, but I think that was in spite of the system (once I saw the actual rule book).

Quote from: Ronin;357030I never gotten a chance to check Kult out. Could you expand on why its under rated David?

My $.02 on that was Primarily the mechanics held it back.  It was way to over complicated for the setting they were trying to deliver.  I only ever had the 2nd edition and I had heard that they cleaned something up some where around 5th edition but never really fixed anything.  It used a D20 roll over version with lots of skill and situation modifiers and damage was step based, kinda like shadowrun where each weapon stepped differently.  It was a pretty nasty system when it came to getting hurt.  You really didn't want to take on anything big and bad unless you had supperior fire power.

What really was cool, yet not utilized as well as it could be was the theory of assending beyond the madness or fully descending into it.  In either case you finally fully saw through the veil and became godlike.  Which was something you were never really ever to achieve.

Best movie insiprations were Night Breed, Into the Mouth of Madness, Hell Raiser, Prince of Darkness, Serpent and the Rainbow and other cultish movies.  

There were also publishing issues that plagued it's releases.

Kult is a very intriguing setting to me... even if the rules never seemed like a great fit.
It's set up a playground for all manner of modern horror... slasher films, Hellraiser, Silent Hill, hauntings and possession... but with a solid gnostic mythology going on in the background that might or might not ever actually come into focus for the players.
In a way it's the opposite of Call of Cthulhu because in Kult mankind is far from being just a meaningless spec.
It seems to push a more gruesome/violent/visceral sort of horror than Chill or CoC usually would.

Quote from: Ronin;357030I never gotten a chance to check Kult out. Could you expand on why its under rated David?

Well, the mechanics were kind of dodgy but the setting itself was really interesting. If I'm not mistaken it predates Unknown Armies by a couple of years and the two share many themes. One of which, is that the deeper to you go into the rabbit hole, the looser your grip on sanity. I think it was Reckall who likened it to a horror Matrix.

A creative GM could run a whole range of adventures in this setting. David Cronenberg SFish horror adventures, straight up monster hunts and the more subtle Jap Horror scenarios all exist comfortably in this setting. Not to mention the obvious/viseral Clive Barker stuff.

And of course there is the idea of the first City. The cage of torment. Think of the mysterious metropolis of Dark City and The Strangers and you get where this is all going....

Edit: I just realized that I didn't really answer your question, Ronin. I guess why I feel that it's underated, is because most people think of it as some sort of White Wolf knock off, when it's a much richer ...the word, sinister, comes to mind, setting than the World of Darkness.

Regards,
David R

I think Kult also turns some folks off, once they look into it, because the kind of horror it focuses on is very dark and personal... compared to the fun monster bashing of Chill and CoC... or the emo politics of WOD.
I can see how people might not see it as 'fun'.

I voted Call of Cthulhu, but I loved Kult back in the day. A friend of mine ran it, and it was probably one of the most over-the-top horrific games I ever played in.

Unknown Armies. Two of the most fun campaigns I have ever been part of online used Unknown Armies, and I really found the system clean and simple to use. I really like BRP and nWoD as well (they are, respectively, three of my favourite systems of all time), but the obsession and mental-health mechanics are absolutely perfect for horror games.

Quote from: David R;357216If I'm not mistaken it predates Unknown Armies by a couple of years and the two share many themes.

More than just a couple of years, in fact: the very first edition of Kult was originally published in '91, while UA didn't come out before '98. (Incidentally, I voted for Kult, as well. Leaving aside any arguments about what's objectively "the best" game for this sort of thing, it features the single most impressive horror setting that I can think of.)

Quote from: David R;357008I voted for Kult. An underrated game on so many levels.

Regards,
David R

Word. For me, no other game beats Kult in sheer intensity. I dearly love CoC and WoD, but I've never ran such horror games like Kult games.

Somebody up-thread mentioned D&D being a poor system for Ravenloft...when I mentioned it I was thinking of AD&D 2nd, which I thought was not too bad.  I also have the Ravenloft material for D&D3.0 - material I really like (in most cases), but that was definitely poorly suited to the 3.0/3.5 ruleset.  Anyone else have that experience?

Quote from: Bobloblah;357475Somebody up-thread mentioned D&D being a poor system for Ravenloft...when I mentioned it I was thinking of AD&D 2nd, which I thought was not too bad.  I also have the Ravenloft material for D&D3.0 - material I really like (in most cases), but that was definitely poorly suited to the 3.0/3.5 ruleset.  Anyone else have that experience?

I ran Ravenloft in 2nd and 3rd, and though both systems were bad for it.  That said, I love the setting material a lot.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;357480I ran Ravenloft in 2nd and 3rd, and though both systems were bad for it.  That said, I love the setting material a lot.

I never ran 3e for it, just 2e.  But yeah, love the setting, don't think the system is a great fit for that kind of environment.  Not that one can't have a lot of fun with it still or anything.

My opinions are based on the following:

* D&D combat is way too abstract for a game of horror.  Combat needs to be short, descriptive, and (above all else) very deadly.  Something a lot closer to 1/2e Warhammer.

* D&D is very advancement-oriented.  Zero to hero clashes with the whole gothic horror mood the setting was going for, which depends heavily on the PCs always being normal or slightly special and very outclassed by anything supernatural.  Systems where PC advancement is much slower, like BRP or GURPS, makes more sense.

* Horror settings generally use the kind of adventures that would be very skill focused which is the opposite of D&D's heavy class focus.

* D&D is very medieval in focus.  Ravenloft had some medieval, but many of the civilized domains were rennaissance or later.  They didn't even address the whole "guns" thing until well into the life of the setting.

* Most of D&D's classes don't make a lot of sense in the setting - at least not straight out of PHB.  The traditional fighter works in medieval domains, not so much in rennaissance ones.  Theives and rangers kind of make sense.  Paladins and druids don't work at all.  Clerics and bards have the wrong "flavor".  And having traditional wizards in the setting makes no sense at all.

Now, a lot of this could be mediated by making whole new archetypes for the setting.  Have a rennassaince type swashbuckler class to complement the fighter.  Turn bards into gypsies.  Take away the spells from rangers and clerics.  Remove wizards and replace with psychics (though with a better system than 2e's psionics).  The only kind of magic in this kind of setting should be dark sorcery, witchcraft, and necromancy - all of which should be ritual based and come with a heavy price for its use.

TSR actually did kind of try to do some of this late in the 2e lifespan with the "Domains of Dread" HB and the "Heroes of the Mists" expansion.  But, it was kind of too little, too late, and still pretty half-assed because, again, the system just wasn't envisioned for that kind of game.

For sheer fun as a setting, Nightbane with some of Beyond the Supernatural 1st edition mashed in.

Otherwise, Call of Cthulhu with double HP for modern day American Torchwood set in Innsmouth and Black Mesa (that was a joke ha ha fat chance).

Quote from: Casey777;357534For sheer fun as a setting, Nightbane with some of Beyond the Supernatural 1st edition mashed in.

Otherwise, Call of Cthulhu with double HP for modern day American Torchwood set in Innsmouth and Black Mesa (that was a joke ha ha fat chance).

I love NB

BtS 2e for me - it's not just about the horror, it's about the people who refuse to be victimized and stand up and fight.

Sure you can say the same about CoC, but, dang it, for all his flaws, Siembieda gets adventure.

Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane

I prefer to run horror games in systems that aren't built with it as a primary goal, like D&D or Spycraft. One of the most effective ways to introduce horror is as an anomoly or an unknown. If its a part of the known ruleset for the players, it seems to not feel quite as effective to me.

Some friends of mine swear by Dread (the Jenga-based game), but I personally find the idea of the Jenga tower as a resolution mechanic to be a bit distracting.

As far as Palladium is concerned, I very much enjoyed Beyond the Supernatural. Nightbane, on the other hand, I never liked. But another one that's worth considering in this genre is Systems Failure, which I think counts as both Horror and Post-Apocalyptic gaming. Its also probably one of the most brilliant RPGs Palladium ever made.

RPGPundit

Kult rules!!!

I played for a couple of years and when I moved away from my GM, he ran a very revealing game and after that I started collecting the books.
The setting just blew my mind and the themes were truly horror.