CURSED! Horror roleplaying made with Knave is available

Cursed! is released: Basically I wanted a horror rolepalying game as simple as Knave to run my favorite horror adventures.

What's different though?

Modern-era this is meant to run anything from late 19th century monster hunting to contemporary survival horror. Knave's item slots system will be familiar to Resident Evil players.

No classes and no levels no hit points bloat, characters can get better but fights remain dangerous. Smarts trumps violence!

The game comes with horror-themed spells, a bestiary and the tools to customise or create your own monsters.

Short, concrete and easy guidelins to help you run horror games.

The game is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 International License: you are free to share and adapt this material for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you give attribution.

 

BUY THE PDF ON DRIVETHRU

GET THE CHARACTER SHEET

RATS IN THE WALLS : Paper minis!

Because, let's face it, paper minis are cool.

"Stay behind us professor Bergman, I smell trouble!"

"This is the end for you and your troublesome friends professor!"

"You don't scare me Ivan! Right guys?"

So grab them here, it's free!

RATS IN THE WALLS: a roleplaying game of Cosmic Horror

Rats in the Walls is a roleplaying game of cosmic horror, inspired by the writings of H.P Lovecraft but it does not use HPL's Mythos (though it's pretty easy to run classic Call of Cthulhu-like adventures with the system).

 

The game system is inspired by classics like Advanced Fighting Fantasy, Traveller and more recent titles like Maze Rats or Into the Odd.

• Roll 2D6, add an attribute and get a result superior or equal to 8 to succeed.

By default, the game is set in the roaring 20's but an appendix allows you to create medieval characters. A Sci-fi setting is on the way as well (without aliens or haunted derelict ships, we promise!).

Rats in the Walls was the product of multiple things:

• As much as I appreciate the simplicity of Call of Cthulhu's BRP system, I wanted something even simplier, without the burden of dozens and dozens of skills and sub-systems.
• At the same time I didn't want to write a "one-shot only" game. These are a dime a dozen, especially in the horror genre. I wanted the characters to be able to evolve in long-term campaigns.
• I wanted to help the GM to create his own investigations/horror adventures and to help him run these kind of games as well.

So go grab the game, it's pay what you want!

A Society of Unlikely Gentlemen : Victorian sci-fi rpg !

This is the year 1895. Five years ago, the city of Atlantis rose again from the depths of the ocean. At the same time, several portals appeared on Earth and allowed safe passage to Venus and Mars.

Scientific marvels pop-up everywhere, four-armed martian ambassadors walk the streets of London while Venusian amazons guide big game hunters through the jungles of their planet. Empires still scheme and fight among themselves, looking for new technologies to gain the advantage over their rivals.

You play adventurers and explorers, always looking for new scientific discoveries, uncharted territories or lost treasure, to quench their thirst of knowledge, fortune and fame.

One of my players described it as "The adventures of Captain Future in the 19th century"

No magic, no fantasy, this is scientific romance !

If there is enough interest I will develop the game a bit more (illustrations, professionnal layout and added content). So if you like the game, let me know!

Click the image to download the game!

Dreadful & Obscure : OSR meets Vampire

So to celebrate april's fools day I wrote a stupid little game, built around a very stupid idea : a game mixing the OSR mindset (think of games like Into the Odd or Pits and Perils) and the biggest hit of the 1990s : Vampire the Masquerade.

And the damn thing is actually playable.

You can download it by clicking here.

Shell Shock

It's coming soon...

Shell Shock 13

Wanmansou from the Storygames forum has posted an awesome AP report on this site.

Of course the "The session was a success and that was in no small part due to Shell Shock." comment is really rewarding to read, but as a designer the best part lies here :

"In my mind the game will probably tell a lot more about ourselves and our attitudes about the Gaza conflict than about the actual conflict and the people involved in it."

This is what I wanted Shell Shock to be and it seems to be successful.

THE HARD WAY ! 2

Good news, Matt Strickling who organised the contest at the Storygames forums just posted :

"After reading through the entries, and conferring with my panel of judge, Kobayashi's The Hard Way has been named the winner!!"

It's really cool, thanks to Matt and the judges !

Shell Shock 12

SHELL SHOCK is now available in english.

Shell Shock puts you in the role of young recruits sent to the frontlines. Facing the hardships of military life and war they will have to make tough choices to survive.

Shell Shock is a set of rules which will allow you to tell the stories of these soldiers. There are no predetermined setting. You can tell the stories of US soldiers confronted to the horrors of the Korean war or the lives of guerilla fighters on the Polar front of the Mars independance war of 2135. Whatever the setting, the question remains the same : how far will they go to survive ?

The game is here

THE HARD WAY !

So there is a small contest at the Storygames forum :

Write a game based on a category of exploitation or grindhouse movies in (about) the next two weeks. Entries are due by the end of the Halloween weekend.

So here is my entry, heavily inspired by John Carpenter's Escape from New York and David Cronenberg's Scanners.

The game is here, enjoy !

Gates & Gorgons 6

Levi Kornelsen has written a very interesting read-through review of Gates & Gorgons, be sure to check it out !

Gates & Gorgons 5

Some errata for G&G :

Number of spells per day : a Wizard can cast (his Magic score) spells per day.

Life Point recovery : use the Bandage spell or make a successful Croaker career check with a difficulty of 7. Success means 3 Life points are restored.

The last version of the rules are corrected.

Questions and comments are welcome here or on the G&G forums.

Gates & Gorgons 4

G&G has been updated :

_a little rules clean-up

_rules for character flaws (GM hassle-free rules)

_a cheat sheet for the GM

_accessories for the Bloodbath Map^TM : throw a teddy bear at that troll's face !

_New magic items like the Dead God's tears, the Vagrant's revenge or Obsidian Feathers

_New monsters like the Demented Elf, the degenerate dwarves called the Forgotten Ones or the Stone Hounds

It's here, so grab it, read it and go play !

Gates & Gorgons 3

We all know that scribbling a spell description on a character sheet is just a pain. That's why I offer you the official Gates & Gorgons spell cards. Print, cut if you wish and get ready to kick some orc's ass with a Reign of fire spell.

It's all here.

Gates & Gorgons 2

Thanks to Rafael Chandler we have a new slogan for Gates & Gorgons :

a "traditional game with Indie testicles"

Mike Holmes and Darren Hill put the scenario generator online at Abulafia, thanks guys !

Click here and run a game

Gates & Gorgons

Gates & Gorgons is a fantasy rpg using Rafael Chandler's Disciple 12 rules from Dread : the First Book of Pandemonium.

If you want a slogan we might call it a "traditionnal game with an Indie game feel" but that feels kinda stupid.

Gates & Gorgons comes with everything you need to play (except players, dice and pizzas) : character creation, rules, monsters, magic,a scenario generator and the famous G&G Bloodbath Map^TM

Download the rules, read them, grab some friends, create characters, use the scenario generator. You'll be playing a Gates & Gorgons game in less time you need to say "4th edition" (or 2 hours according to playtests).

Thanks to Rafael Chandler for letting me use his excellent set of rules (go see his site !). Happy birthday !