Best Horror Role Playing Game

[Autumnal]

I think it's almost The Clive Barker RPG.

Ken Hite has called it Clive Barker’s Superfriends.

 

[Gradine]

Clive Barker is immediately the author I think of whenever I hear the meme about "the author's barely disguised fetish"

 

[dbolack]

Ken Hite has called it Clive Barker’s Superfriends.

And Robin called it Yahtzee with cthuloids.

 

[radiothief]

Personally, 10 candles - i know its not a horror game persay but i really really can be one, and just the atmosphere of it is unlike any other game, requiring darkness to play the game, soo good!

 

[aramis erak]

Just a note on Horror RPGs in general... Not everyone plays them to get scared. Some want to have their character get scared, while they laugh and munch snacks...

Some simply like monster hunting. (BTVS, Ghostbusters, Supernatural, Monster of the Week, Legend of the Five Rings)
Some like investigations of things horrible... be they monsters or monstrous people. (CoC, Chill, L5R, Angel)
Others want to be out there defeating terrible threats to the world and sanity. (CoC, Chill, BTVS, L5R, Angel, Supernatural)
Some even want it to occasionally be a fake to unmask, à la Scooby Doo. (can be done in most games)
A few want to be those summoning the threats to the world and/or sanity. (Ron Edward's Sorcerer)

Some genuinely want to be scared for their character... but, usually, the ability to do that is NOT in the game, it's in the GM and the player. If either isn't on the right tone and style for the other, it's not going to be scary to the player. The player has to have buy-in on their character

Thus the criteria, "It doesn't scare me," is not a good reason for exclusion from the list; it's a very personal one for a subset of players seeking a particular set of skills from the GM, and engagement. Some games may block that for those players, but they're not the only ones who might be looking.

Me, I like the splatterfest of Alien as a cinematic, both as a GM and as a player-potential; I love the monster of the week, be they human or not, of an L5R Emerald Magistrate game, especially as a player. I only played CoC a couple times, and watched a few other sessions by other GMs... it doesn't do it for me... but it very much belongs on the list because it does work for many. I've two players who wanted a Scooby style... and I gave it to them in an L5R game... it ended with a duel and decapitation. Of the NPC, fortunately. Of course, it's easy to write out a dead man's "confession" and sign it with the dead man's chop (personal signature seal)... which bears all the legal needed to convict the dead man and replevin his goods...

 

[Larnievc]

The late 80s one from the Phoenix command folks? Bughunters was also decent at this.

Phoenix Comand was by Leading Edge? Or was that Living Steel? Either way didn’t they also do the Aliens: RPG in the 90s?

Also a vote of Necroscope RPG.

 

[General_Tangent]

Phoenix Comand was by Leading Edge? Or was that Living Steel? Either way didn’t they also do the Aliens: RPG in the 90s?

Also a vote of Necroscope RPG.

Leading Edge Games published Living Steel .

 

[dbolack]

Phoenix Comand was by Leading Edge? Or was that Living Steel? Either way didn’t they also do the Aliens: RPG in the 90s?

Both, and yes.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Phoenix Comand was by Leading Edge? Or was that Living Steel? Either way didn’t they also do the Aliens: RPG in the 90s?

Also a vote of Necroscope RPG.

I think all of the above is correct.

 

[MGibster]

Phoenix Comand was by Leading Edge? Or was that Living Steel? Either way didn’t they also do the Aliens: RPG in the 90s?

Just trying to play Phoenix Command was a horror in and of itself.