[Poll] Vote For The Top 10 Horror RPGs!

Just for Halloween fun, I've gone to the Wikipedia list of horror roleplaying games and made a poll to see what the top 10 most popular are. If your choice isn't on this list, post in the thread and I'll add it. You may select multiple games. I've tried to include RPGs, but not settings for RPGs (though that would also be a fun poll). Votes are hidden -- I'll reveal them in dramatic fashion later! Voting closes Sunday midnight. I'll reveal the results first on next week's podcast, and then post them here.

 

[pemerton]

[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION]

Cthulhu Dark - thematically and trope-wise it's CoC, but with a much better (and lighter - the name is a play on words) system.

There's also a free PDF version available. The whole system in 3 columns of text.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I think Dread is the best because of its core mechanic: the Tower. You don't roll dice to determine the outcome of a particular challenge or action--instead, you pull one or more blocks out of a Jenga stack. As the story progresses the tower gets taller and less stable, and eventually it will collapse. And when it does, someone's character usually dies. The tower gets rebuilt, the story continues, until the bitter end. Like any good horror story, the tension literally builds over time.

The character creation is also pretty awesome, which uses a special questionnaire prepared by the GM. These are usually 10 or more leading questions that help the player get into the role for the evening and decide what he or she is good at. It also let's the GM give hits about the evening's story.

It's kind of awesome. I recommend it to anyone who wants to run a Halloween horror game.

Tabletop did a two-part episode on it with Wil Wheaton, Laura Bailey, Molly Lewis, and Ivan Van Norman. Check it out:
Dread Part 1
Dread Part 2

And it's cheap, too. Unfortunately the game book is out of print, so the printed books are hard to find and expensive when you find them. But a watermarked PDF is available at Drive Thru RPG for just $12. That PDF and a $10 Jenga set from any toy store are all you need to play, for any number of people and any genre of action/horror.

The problem our group had with it, is that having characters die before the end of a narrative gives them nothing to do if game play continues - and due to the nature of character generation, it's not easy to find a quick replacement. Q&A character generation isn't a new idea, by the way, and although it was a cute gimmick to include a Jenga tower for gameplay, we actually found just playing Jenga as is, was actually more fun for a casual game crowd in the end.

 

[Morrus]

Can you add Ultima Forsan (a Savage Worlds setting)?

It’s games, not settings (which is why Ravenloft isn’t there either).

 

[abulafia2]

I think you mispelled "deadlands"

 

[Morrus]

I've added the ones which (as best I could tell) were games in their own right.

 

[tjf]

No love for Shadow of the Demon Lord?

 

[Morrus]

No love for Shadow of the Demon Lord?

Not to repeat myself from earlier, but is that a question or a statement?

Added!

 

[tjf]

Not to repeat myself from earlier, but is that a question or a statement?

Added!

Heh, it was a question. Thanks for adding! It's my personal favorite horror rpg.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ah Ravenloft. Though it contributed to the fracturing of the market base in 2e, I have fond memories of it. And the art was something else – Fabian’s pieces were so atmospheric. I do hope we see a return to Ravenloft, beyond just Barovia, one day.

It’s games, not settings (which is why Ravenloft isn’t there either).

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I voted for Call of Cthulhu, Deadlands, WoD, Weird Wars, and Ghostbusters.