Best horror RPG, bar none!

[Piratecat]

Dread.

I'm running The Esoterrorists in a week or two, and have high hopes for it, but I don't think it'll come nearly as close to being as scary as Dread. It tries to do different things (Esoterrorists is a great game for investigative/CSI horror, as well as simulating Lovecraftian sanity loss. It has far more mechanics, though.)

And I disagree with Arkham. For instance, given a good horror GM, some systems will be inherently scarier than others. For instance, I like the CoC BRP system, but I find that the combat mechanics are so klunky that they get in the way of the mood.

 

[BluSponge]

KULT. American 1st edition. Terry Amthor as author/translator.

Watch Jacob's Ladder and Hellraiser before delving in. Best game for psycological horror I've ever encountered. Beware the martial arts/chi rules however.

Tom

 

[EvilPheemy]

Call of Cthulhu. Hands down, it was the first, and remains the best. All other games in the genre owe their success to the Great Old Ones who forged the path for them.

Ia!

 

[Imaro]

I'm going to second KULT. It is one of the best horror games I've played.

Call of Cthulhu, eh...I think I just never got it. It is not scary at all to me, I actually think the nWoD mortals line is a better horror game than CoC. I would be interested in hearing why people like this game so much. I like BRP's mechanics well enough...and I will admit as a black gamer with a mostly black gaming group, the default time period of CoC doesn't float my boat. But after reading the 5.5 edition I quickly traded it, just didn't seem my cup of tea.

 

[Maggan]

Kult, 2nd Swedish edition.

/M

 

[master arminas]

Chill.

Arminas tar Valantil
Grand Master of the Order of the Ebon Rose

 

[Wik]

CoC d20. All of my horrific moments have happened in that game. Hell, I was just reading the book last night, and I kept on saying "this is probably the best d20 product ever made". I agree that it's more the GM than the system when it comes to horror, and CoC was great - it cut out a lot of the d20 rules clunk, in favour of a lighter game (no AoO, for example).

 

[RichGreen]

Call of Cthulhu, definitely. I have Kult but have never played it so can't really say how good it is.


Richard

 

[Stormborn]

Unknown Armies

-multiple mechanical responces to various types of stress
-facinating setting
-disturbing and yet belivable supernatural world
-PCs that have intersting abilities but are still likely to go insane one way or another, even some that require you to
-good fan support on various websites
- draws from aparticular genre of fiction and models it pretty well

 

[TroyXavier]

Cthulhu. In the hands of the right GM, it's still the scariest game out there.