Non-D&D books for D&D gamers - GURPS Horror

This article is part of a series of reviews of non-D&D game books which might nevertheless be of interest to D&D gamers.


As I've mentioned in an earlier review, GURPS genre books tend to be extremely useful as supplements even when you don't actually play GURPS. GURPS Horror is certainly no exception. Indeed, it may be the best of them all.

Written by Kenneth Hite of Suppressed Transmission fame, this books dissects the horror genre for role-playing games, and then stiches it together again as an unholy, animate corpse ready to terrify your players. So, what's actually in it? Let's go through it chapter by chapter.


This chapter discusses the common archetypes of horror protagonists - in other words, typical player characters. Some of them will be obvious (the Academic, Clergyman, Detective, and Occultist), others less so (the Artist, Attorney, Child, or Journalist). This is probably the least useful for D&D gamers, since many of the archetypes don't map well to the D&D classes, and all of them have lengthy GURPS templates.


This chapter is still about the player characters - but instead of the nuts and bolts of the rules, this chapter discusses motivations for getting involved in horror scenarios. Why, after all, should any sane man go into the monster-haunted cellar? One of the answers is of course that said man is no longer sane, but there are plenty of other character hooks which can be used by player and GM alike. Whether a Childhood Curse, an Evil Ancestor, or a period of Missing Time compels the character to seek out things which he better shouldn't have meddled with, there are plenty of personal reasons for going into dark places. Equally important is the ability to work with other party members, something that is discussed here as well.


This is the Bestiarium of the book and thus lists a large range of monsters. But instead of listing the monsters depending on their nature (undead, shapeshifter, fey etc.), they are listed by the kinds of fears they are supposed to invoke, an organization as ingenious as it is effective. Starting with Fear of Taint (such Vampires, Ghouls), it moves on to Fear of Nature (Werewolves, Shaggy Ones, Man-Eaters), Fear of Madness (Serial Killers, Psycho Killers, Evil Clowns), Fear of Mutilation (The Ripper, Disembodied Brains), Fear of the Universe (Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, Cosmic Deities, etc.), Fear of the Unnatural (Ghosts, Malevolent Objects), Fear of Others (The Unseelie), Fear of Disease (Killer Virus, Nosferatu), and Fear of Death (Zombies, Mummies). In an inversion of the 4E Monster Manual, far more space is given over to flavor and discussing variants than to actual rules mechanics, as it is assumed that the GM will want to tailor the creature for his own campaign. And even if the GM doesn't want to use the listed creatures, the various sections will certainly get him thinking in the right direction when he wants to evoke specific fears. Furthermore, boxed texts discuss less common fears, such as Fear of the Foreign and Fear of Sex (!), as well as entities that fit into multiple sections (such as Alien Invaders).


The next chapter is all about horror campaign considerations. It discusses campaign lengths (whether one-shots or extended campaigns), narrative structures for the campaigns, who both the protagonists and the enemies represent, and a vast range of other design parameters. It discusses the scale of the campaign - whether it is supposed to revolve only about a few people, or the fate of the entire world. Next comes scope - how much of the world the PCs are actually able to affect. The next parameter is austerity - how much are the PCs held accountible for their actions, including their mistakes? And finally, what are the boundaries of the campaign - does it all take place in a relatively small locale, or will the PCs travel the world, or the cosmos?


Furthermore, this chapter gives advice for high-powered horror - how can you evoke an atmosphere of horror when the heroes are almost invulnerable? It discusses the various sources of uncanny power - whether magic, psionics, or perverted science. Finally, it examines the various genres that work with horror, from the familiar fantasy all the way to science fiction.


This chapter is all about individual horror adventures and how to create and run them. It discusses the elements of horror (uncertainty, isolation, the unnatural), the possible styles (splatter, cosmic horror, etc.) and themes (betrayal, corruption, and so forth), and symbolic settings (the Bad Place and the Invaded House). It discusses how to run such adventures, and how to design them, starting from the story hook and the first hints to the twists and turns, the villain's motivation, and so forth. While there is little in the way of game mechanics, this chapter will be incredibly useful to set the mood of the game.


The final chapter gives three ready-made example horror campaign settings:

• Seas of Dread, Sails of Daring: Probably the easiest to convert to D&D, this setting looks like the Carribean in the late 17th century... but here, the New World is still newly formed out of the primordial chaos, with all sorts of monsters lurking in the depths that threaten to swallow it all, including the newly arrived Europeans and the pirates that move among them.
• Blood in the Craters: A sequel of sorts to H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, this setting takes place in the aftermath of the failed Martian invasion. London slowly rebuilds - but not all of the Martians are as gone as they seem, and they are slowly plotting their vengeance and sending out their servitors to abduct the unwitting humans who try to rebuild their lives.
• The Madness Dossier: In this setting, much of recorded history is fragile. A cosmic cataclysm set the true rulers of Earth - as well as their servitors, now half-remembered as Sumerian demons - to sleep for the last 15 centuries, and humanity achieved an independence it was never meant to have. Now the servitors awaken again and threaten to restore the timeline to what it once was. Only a secret cabal of humans have gained the powers to fight the demons back - but their powers allow them to wreck and alter the minds of humans nearly at will, all in the name of the "greater good" for humanity. This setting could be adapted to a fantasy world as well, with a few name changes and appropriate bonus powers for the player characters.

The book ends with a large bibliography with all sorts of books related to the horror genre, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as comics, movies, and television series.


To sum it up, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to run horror campaigns and adventures. Nowhere else in an RPG publication have I found such an intelligent and concise examination of the horror genre in all its forms. And I don't expect that to change until the author writes a new edition of the book...