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Night of a thousand frightful dice rolls
Halloween, night of fiendish fright, dark eve of costume clad revelry. Trick or treat? That's the question on every ghouls' mind as they walk down gloom-shrouded paths. Atmosphere and social interaction, friends gathering to make scary, that's what this night is all about. Each year on Halloween parties are planned, costumes are donned, and frightful fun times are had by all, even mummies shambling in their dusty tombs.
Typical Halloween parties will have tried and true tricks, such as having guests bring pumpkins for pumpkin carving contests. And of course costumes! Every dread ghostess knows that her guests have to come dressed for haunting good times. But beyond peeling grapes to create faux eyes or making front yard scarecrows out of old clothes stuffed with newspaper, besides adding a bit of red and green food coloring to melted butter to create blood drenched popcorn. Beyond all these things there is one undying question…
Why not a game? A role-playing one, that is.
The decorations and munchies all set upon the table with uncare; no Halloween party would be complete without entertainment to stir despair. Most of us have a tape or CD of Halloween sounds, the perfect background mood music to have playing while we cue up our favorite horror movies or tune into whichever channel is offering a Halloween movie marathon this year. All these things we know. All these things have we done. While a gothic Halloween party with vases full of dried flowers, twigs, and autumn leaves can be fun, just think how much more fun Halloween might be with a quick one shot horror!
If not this night of all nights, when props exist aplenty, and every one should find themselves with reasonable excuse to dress as Wizards and Witches, then when?
That's right there's no reason why a Halloween get together can't be planned around playing a role-playing game. Ah, but which role-playing game to choose? There are so many with great potential, games that could have been custom made for Halloween like C. J. Carella's Witchcraft or Call of Cthulhu . Indeed the most important consideration after the game having a theme that ties into Halloween is simplicity. The game should be quick to pick up and have a premise that is fun and easy to understand so that everyone can join in, even the freshly risen vampire noobs! So where to begin?
First, begin with a plan. Set this up like any other Halloween party. Make sure you have the space and the bodies to fill it. Of paramount importance are munchies. If you have the time, and inclination, prepare some Halloween themed munchies. The bloody popcorn is always a crowd pleasure; as are Halloween candies. Just remember to balance out the sugary sweets with drinks. Second, choose a game with a suitable theme. Ghost stories are a staple of Halloween as are many other cinematic themed games involving vampires, werewolves, or zombies. Try to pick something that can be played as a one shot. Third, set the mood. Music, costumes, and decorations should all be chosen well in advance. This is Halloween after all so choosing a theme that compliments your horror game shouldn't be difficult. Fourth, have fun!
The easiest, and perhaps potentially most fun method is to adapt your favorite horror movie to the role-playing system for most familiar to your gaming group. Alternatively using a system that you feel best recreates a style of play reflective of the movie is also possible, and in certain cases more appropriate. These can be purely generic rule sets, such as GURPS or D20, or, in the case of genre-specific movies or movies set in specific periods of time, any game that you feel best reflects the setting.
Then again a Halloween themed game session would also be the perfect excuse to dust off those aged tomes sitting long disused and forgotten in your library of arcane delights. For what better night to reintroduce your gaming group to classic RPGs of yesteryear such as Ghost Busters , Chill , Call of Cthulhu , Bureau 13 , Paranoia , or maybe a classic Advanced Dungeons and Dragons module like Ravenloft ?
However setting up the game can be a problem. Especially if you don't have the time to set things up weeks in advance. And, let's face it, the above route of adapting a favorite horror movie or show will require a lot of prep time and writing. Miracle workers that we game masters sometime are, real life has a tendency to rudely intrude. So what's the best alternative - if not our outright first choice - when we find ourselves too busy to set aside time to set up the perfect Halloween inspired game?
Simple! Find a rules light, “beer and pretzels” game. Something that can be easily setup and played in a single evening. Don't have time to run around like a zombie chicken with its head sewn on backwards? No worries. There are quite a few horror RPGs available online, some are even free, but how to find them?
Just keep reading! What follows is a sampling of 13 role-playing games whose themes should be complimentary to Halloween. Read over the synopsis and determine which, if any, of the games you feel will appeal to your players.
13 Ghastly Game Ideas
Blood and Brains: The Zombie Hunters Guide
67-page D20 Modern splatbook
RPG Objects
Price: $6.95
Read a review
Blood and Brains is a D20 Modern splatbook designed specifically for one purpose, to recreate the atmosphere of the zombie horror movie. The author has done a superb job, presenting more zombies than you can shake a gas powered chainsaw at. Sample shambling living dead critters include the dire "Zombie, Bloodsucking," dreadful "Zombie, Revenant," and rarefied beasties like the evil sounding "Zombie, Cryonoid" and menacing "Zombie, Kyoshi Spawn"! There is something here for every Zombie fan including 15 new occupations, some of which are: Boy Scout, Cheerleader, Mental Patient, Nerd, Jock, Scream Queen, Mad Scientist, Stoner, and that all important Y-mart Employee. Overall this is a very impressive supplement that covers just about everything zombie from Astro Zombies to Zombie Lake .
Blood Games: Occult Horror Role-Playing
182 pages
Flyingmice LLC
Price: $10.00
This is a monster hunting “modern Occult horror role-playing game” in which religion plays a prominent role, as opposed to merely being part of the forgettable flavor text. Characters come in two basic varieties – those of the Path (supernaturally attuned) and Non-Path (mundane). Overall, the game setting occupies a fantastical realm somewhere between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Exorcist . Blood Games uses the same rule mechanics found in Starcluster 2 .
Bump in the Night
59 pages (PDF)
Michael Dunlap
Price: Free
This is a horror oriented RPG in which players choose from a myriad number of monster races. Character races include Vampires, Demons, Were-Creatures, Soul-Less Ones, Constructs, Ghosts, and the Possessed. The game system is rather simple and uncluttered, but otherwise provides a decent framework to build upon. However, being a freebie, there is lack of detailed background. Which means the GM will have to do a bit of legwork to create an appropriate milieu. Still it is available online in both HTML format and as a freely downloadable PDF. Worth looking into?
Dead Inside: The Roleplaying Game of Loss and Redemption
128-page horror RPG
Atomic Sock Monkey
Price: $13.00 (PDF), $25.00 (POD)
Dead Inside presents a synthesis of ideas drawn from various schools of thought regarding the nature of spirit and the soul presented within a conceptualized pseudo-cabalistic game environment in which players create characters that are soul-less or soul-lost. Indeed, the very concept is constructed around the idea that the characters, having discovered themselves to be missing part of their souls, must set out to heal their earthly vessels. Dead Inside is powered by the Prose Descriptive Qualities (PDQ) system, a FUDGE-like rules lite system, and it has great potential to be run as a high concept philosophical game or as just a bit of silly fun. You have to love that.
Ghost Stories
41 page mini game
Politically Incorrect Games
Price: $4.00
Here is a ready to run mini game. Ghost Stories presents a simple, straightforward, and easy to learn minimalist system with four ready-to-play stock scenarios. All you need are two six sided dice to play. Scenarios include a haunted house mystery in the vein of House on Haunted Hill with shadings of Poltergeist and a scary teen adventure set at a masquerade ball on – appropriately enough – Halloween! This scenario is a tale of classic occult misdirection involving an object of power and a malevolent spirit ala The Legend of Hell House . Next up is a scenario involving an investigation into the supernatural that could have been based on an episode of Twilight Zone, Poltergeist: The Legacy , or maybe a movie like White Zombie . This scenario involves psychic visions and thus should pose an interesting challenge to both GM and players. The final scenario involves a cursed item, the perfect scenario for players who are fans of television series like Friday the 13 th , Charmed , or Angel .
Inspectres
PDF download
Momento Mori
Price: $10.00
With a tagline line of: “Fighting the forces of darkness so you don‘t have to,” Inspectres sounds like prime Halloween gaming material. A quick perusal of the freely available download startup PDF shows that this game is centered around a business specializing in ghost hunting, vampire slaying, and research into occult phenomena. The player characters are agents of InSpectres – newly assigned agents to an InSpectres franchise. That‘s right it's Ghost Busters meets Startup.com. Problem is, any world that requires an InSpectres franchise on every corner is bound to be full of mystery and intrigue with supernatural horrors aplenty. Can your players handle that?
Noche de Los Vampiros
Online HTML Document
Zak Arntson
Price: Free
Intended to be played in a single night, Noche de Los Vampiros essentially takes the premise of movies like From Dusk Till Dawn and John Carpenter's Vampires and turns it into a fun beer-n-pretzels role-playing game of survival. The game uses a dice pool mechanic.
Pumpkin Town
Online HTML Document
Gargoyle 13
Price: Free
Pumpkin town is a cute little Halloween themed RPG in the vein of Nightmare Before Christmas that could be suitable for just about the whole family, depending on how the game master handles it. This pun filled game centers around the sleepy little village of Pumpkin Town, a cubical world with sugar mines, a graveyard that is a “sprawling labyrinth of tombstones, mausoleums, forlorn crosses and creaking wrought iron gates” , an icky mucky swamp, and a sinister little place called Tentacle Hill where “various herbs and candies grow wild” . This is but a few of the sites characters can explore. Speaking of which, characters include a hodge-podge of Halloween archetypes set apart by unique, and very individual, gimmicks. The game mechanic is fairly simply and boils down to: D10 + Traits + Skill = Result. A nice little game that needs to be converted to PDF.
Shadows
HTML and PDF
Zak Arntson
Price: Free
A simple narrative game exploring themes of good and not so good. Characters are essentially versions of the players, with each character having a “Shadow” that literally follows them around trying to get them into trouble. The game use two dice, one assigned to be the “shadow” die, with resolution being roll vs. roll. Very simple.
Unbidden
91 pages
Politically Incorrect Games
Price: $6.99
Unbidden establishes a distinctive style for a modern horror milieu, with a depth of psychological exploration that should appeal to fans of Stephen King novels. The setting presents a darker version of our own world in which Agents of the Darkness roam our unsuspecting world. A world of Secret Stories and hidden truths that may or may not be Truth. It is a world sifted through a prism of individual perceptions, a reality shaped by character's personal demons. Demonic forces against which characters wage a Secret War. The knowledge of these secrets comes unasked for and unwanted, and that is precisely why the game world is: Unbidden .
Vault Collection One
(The Whispering Vault)
Ronin Arts
Price: $9.95
There is far more to the world than what our mundane senses reveal to us. In this world there are the Unenlightened , mere mortals to whom the Unseen is never revealed, and the Enlightened , whose curiosity and desire to learn has directed them to explore the nature of the Unseen. Alas, and all too often, this leads them into conflict with the Unbidden . The Unbidden being entities “from the other side,” beings that at best exist as awkward shadows in our world, which is the Realm of Flesh . Think of the characters as cousins of the Reapers from Showtime‘s Dead Like Me series, only detailed to kick ass and slay horrors rather than free souls to set them on their journey beyond when not sitting in a waffle house feeling sorry for themselves. Vault Collection One includes: The Whispering Vault, Dangerous Prey, Smuggler's Run, and The Book of Hunts.
Vs. Monsters
20 page 24-Hour Game
Philip Reed
Price: Free
This is a game about 19 th century monster hunters where the setting is the America of the period. The game contains the basics for setting up a game, including a number of stock monsters, and character sheets are also included. Requires at least two players and a deck of cards.
Vs. Monsters Deluxe Edition
80 pages
Philip Reed
Price: $6.00
This is the “expanded, improved edition” of the game listed above which presents a “revised and expanded” system including “many more options for characters, new monsters, a look at the world of vs. Monsters, and more” .
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