|
|
|
Little Fears is the scariest roleplaying game I've ever read. It is, along with All Flesh Must Be Eaten and Hunter: the Reckoning, one of the best horror games I've ever read.
It's not easy to find, unfortunately, by virtue of being a small press game. Key 20 published it, and you can probably find a copy at one of the various online game stores -- that's what I did. It's one of the few games I've purchased sight unseen, on the strength of the reviews, and I'm very glad I did. The game describes itself as "The role-playing game of childhood terror. A world of bullies, curfews, tattle-tales, werewolves, vampires, and things much worse. The world of Closetland bursts at the seams with monsters and baddies lusting after the one thing that will sate their twisted hunger: Your Innocence. But you only have so long to fight. Because when you reach 13, the age of innocence is over. And you become just as blind as your parents. Lose your innocence too early... and you could suffer a much worse fate. The children are screaming in pain. And no adult can hear them. The only hope they have... is themselves." I really can't put it any better: that covers all the basics you need to know. There's wonderful advice for roleplaying children, and everything in the player-applicable sections lends itself to this. Even the "damage" section of the character sheet is categorized with descriptors like "I'm fine," "I'm sore," "I'm dizzy," etc. The qualities -- merits and flaws, advantages and disadvantages -- are described the way a child would see them, as are the stats (with the possible exception of soul, a word I'm not sure a young child would bandy around, but which is integral to the game.) The mechanics are simple, and the setting is something you understand pretty quickly: I'll be honest, a book of this size isn't needed for the level of detail the setting is given. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with the level of detail: it's exactly as much as you need to get started. This isn't a game you want to bog down with lots of introductory exposition. If it develops into an ongoing campaign, you can make up more info to feed your players, or use things from the forthcoming supplements. The rest of the book is taken up with advice, essentially, and while for many games that would be an annoyance in the core rulebook (save it for the storyteller's guide and keep the price of the core down), it's valuable here. Valuable enough, in fact, that I recommend the book even if you don't intend to play Little Fears but do intend to play another horror game with children as the PCs.
The copyright of the article Spotlight: Little Fears in Horror Gaming is owned by . Permission to republish Spotlight: Little Fears in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|