The Honorable Mentions

After compiling Tommy's Top Six, I did have a few other books that I felt needed special mention, so I'm going to do that here.

In alphabetical order:

Agents of Oblivion by Reality Blurs: This horror-espionage mash-up gives you the tools to run almost anything from James Bond to the X-Files to Men in Black. You can even amp it up further, making the PCs mutant super agents. It even meshes easily with Realms of Cthulhu for as much, or as little, crossover as you like.

WHY IT DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP SIX: Timing. If I had reviewed this in a separate year than Realms of Cthulhu, this would almost certainly have made it into the Top Six, but I have a "one book per publisher" limit that I impose on the Top Six, and at the end of the day, I feel Realms just brings more to the table.

Caladon Falls by Savage Mojo: Caladon Falls is a fantasy setting/campaign for Suzerain, taking a grittier and more warlike approach than you typically see from fantasy games. In fact, it is largely Band of Brothers meets Lord of the Rings, and it's a very impressive campaign that takes full advantage of the Savage Worlds strengths, namely the ease in PCs commanding NPCs and the Mass Combat rules.

WHY IT DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP SIX: Timing. Fact is, I had to choose between this and Savage Suzerain and as great as THIS book is, THAT book lays all the framework for the awesome twist on Savage Worlds that is Suzerain.

Hellfrost by Triple Ace Games: One of the coolest (no pun intended) fantasy settings that I was very much "late to the party" for, Hellfrost is a dark fantasy setting for Savage Worlds in a world that is freezing quickly. With some great setting rules and a gorgeous bestiary, Hellfrost won me over nearly as soon as I sprang for my copies.

WHY IT DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP SIX: Notice that I said "Hellfrost", which isn't a single book, but three books: The Hellfrost Player's Guide, The Hellfrost Gazetteer and the Hellfrost Bestiary. Honestly, I came very close to nominating both the Player's Guide (because the bulk of the setting is right there) and the Bestiary (because I love monster books, and this is a very well done monster book), but I ultimately split the difference and went with the Top Six that you saw on January 1st.

Horror Show by Bedrock Games: Bedrock Games impressed me with Terror Network and Crime Network, their anti-terrorism and mafia RPGs, neither being subject matter I'm particularly enthusiastic about. In 2011 they took their skill based system and applied it to cinematic horror, in a combination that probably shouldn't have worked as well as it did. In fact, Horror Show wound up being a very pleasant surprise for me, a well-researched horror RPG with a tested system and a lot of love behind it.

WHY IT DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP SIX: The biggest reason is that it is essentially a horror toolkit, and there are horror toolkits out there. It came THISCLOSE to making the Top Six, but I ultimately decided that Ghostories had the more unique hook that would sway someone into trying it even if they already had a go-to horror game, whereas Horror Show seems less likely to sway someone who is already pleased with their horror options.

Part-Time Gods by Third Eye Games: The third corebook by Third Eye Games covers all new territory for the small, but impressive, company: Playing Gods. Sure, this isn't unheard of in RPGs, at all. Where this one is unique from those is that the Gods are still bound to their mortal lives, and have to strike a balance between being Gods and being humans. Utilizing a simplified version of the Dynamic Gaming System to bring the over the top powers of the Gods to life, Part-Time Gods is a worthy addition to the Apocalypse Prevention Inc. and Wu Xing line-ups.

WHY IT DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP SIX: Part-Time Gods was a HUGE success on Kickstarter, which led to a few top tier donors making it into the back of the book as characters. The "vanity buy-ins" just kind of annoy me. I'd prefer the page count being used for things I'll actually use...but I did only pay cover for the book, while they shelled out more. The other thing was that, for maybe the first time, I read an RPG that has multiple PC "factions" (Theologies in this game) and not one of them really GRABBED me. I can usually find a clan, tribe, group, whatever that "speaks" to me, but not this time. Kinda left me feeling like the White Wolf-esque clan approach worked against the game instead of for it this time.

Smallville High School Yearbook by Margaret Weis Productions: A fantastic resource for not only refocusing your Smallville games for a high school setting, but a great snapshot of "TV American High School". In fact, if you have the extra money and are running any kind of game set in modern American high school and need a refresher on things, I'd recommend picking it up.

WHY IT DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP SIX: In this case, I think the focus was specialized enough that if it were a complete game (like Tough Justice), I would have given it a nod. I couldn't quite do that given that it's a very specific (though well written) sourcebook for another game. Fantastic book, limited in scope, but incredibly useful for that scope.

Tommy's Take on Horror Show

Bedrock Games has put out a couple of games that I have been really impressed with, Crime Network and Terror Network...but when they announced their new horror game, Horror Show, I admit to being skeptical as to how the Network system would transfer to the horror genre.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: First off, I love the cover. It is my favorite cover for a Bedrock Games product by far. Currently available in PDF for $9.99, Horror Show is a standalone game based off of the Network Game system, which I have detailed in my Crime Network and Terror Network reviews.

To that end, I will be talking more about the modifications to the system, rather than rehashing the entire system, but the basic mechanics are a d10 based dice pool, where you roll 1 to 6d10 versus a target number and either fail, succeed or succeed spectacularly (by rolling a 10).

While the previous Network Games used three character types, Horror Show has six types: Soldier/Cop (emphasis on Combat skills), Athlete (emphasis on Physical skills), Leader (emphasis on Mental skills), Bookworm (emphasis on Knowledge skills), Scientist/Tech Expert (emphasis on Specialist skills) and Survivors (emphasis on Defense skills). Helpfully, the book provides examples of the Roles from various horror films (like Ash from Evil Dead as a Survivor and Jack Torrance from The Shining as a Bookworm). From there, you select an Occupation, which gives you a free Skill rank and Acquaintance, and there are over 30 Occupations to choose from, such as Police Officer, Assassin, Musician and Writer.

Shortcomings, from Crime Network, are also present here, such as Reckless Driver (a penalty on your Vehicle Skill Rolls), Luddite (penalty on Computer Skill Rolls) and the very genre appropriate Cursed. An optional rule exists for Motivations, which provide a bonus die when using skills in direct pursuit of the motivation.

Karma is used to get favors from Acquaintances, which work a lot like Connections from the other Network games, coming in Support and Information classifications and divided into Community, Scholarly, Authority, Industry and Unsavory.

The Skill List remains LARGELY the same, although the Vehicles group is condensced down into the Vehicle skill under the Physical group, and a few others are changed around (like Bully replacing Persuasion).

The game also adds the Horror Roll, where a monster trying to frighten you rolls its Horror rating against your Resolve defense. On a Success, you are frightened and lose one action. A Total Success means you are Horrified and lose two...and two or more Total Successes equals Phobia.

The Features chapter is an extensive examination of the genre (and various subgenres) of cinematic horror and how to apply them to the game, as well as vary the approach between a "story based" feature structure, an open exploration structure, etc. Definitely one of the best GM sections I've read in recent memory. Almost all of it is system neutral until the end of the chapter, where some optional rules are provided to tweak the system a bit (like restricting certain skills, for instance).

Five sample features are also provided to get you started or provide inspiration.

Bedrock Games didn't just provide a number of monsters, like vampires, zombies, werewolves, ghosts, atomic bugs, serial killers (undead and living) and more, they also provided an extensive set of monster powers in order to tweak the existing monsters or make new ones from scratch. Body Powers include things like Claws, Deadly Claws (like claws, but deadlier), Mimic, Night Eyes and Spikes. Mind Powers include Fly, Create (basic objects), Create II (living things of low intelligence), Create III (intelligent living things), Mind Read, Telekinesis, Teleport and more. Spirit Powers include Dream Master, Trap Soul, Dream Walk, Summon and more. In addition, a series of curses are provided, as well as Monster Defenses, which include Come Back From The Grave, Super Tough and Perfect Reflection (reflecting attacks back on the opponent). Finally, guidelines for Weaknesses and Dark Objects (the Hellraiser Puzzle Box is specifically cited here).

WHAT WORKS: A tested system that has depth without being too crunchy, combined with an obvious passion and knowledge of the genre. The book really shines with the Monster sections, where they provide both a number of ready made monsters as well as powers and guidelines to build your own from scratch. And yes, if you choose, you can use the Monster Powers section to make characters with special powers (like the psychic chick from Friday the 13th Part VII) or even play the game as a straight up Monsters game. Oh, and I love that cover so much.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: None of the provided Features did much for me, but they don't take up much room anyway. There are still a few places where they probably carried over a bit TOO much information from the previous Network system games, but that's a maybe.

CONCLUSION: Yeah, I doubted the guys that made me like both a mob-based RPG and a terrorist/Homeland Defense based RPG. I'll learn someday. Probably the biggest problem the book faces is that most groups probably have a go-to game for horror at this point, be it GURPS Horror, All Flesh Must Be Eaten (which is easy to mod for non-zombie horror with the genrebooks out at this point), new World of Darkness or what-have-you...and there's probably not anything in this book that just SCREAMS "ditch your go-to game in favor of Horror Show", other than being written with few, if any, assumptions in mind. For my part, even if I never actually use this to run a game with, I have little doubt that I'll constantly pull it up for inspiration when running horror games. Did I mention I really love the cover? Very strong recommendation if you like horror RPGs, and one of the strongest releases by Bedrock Games to date, in my opinion.