Fear Itself
Fear Itself is a stand-alone role playing game written by the legendary Robin Laws. This horror game uses the same GUMSHOE system used in his other games, Essoterrorists and Trail of Cthulhu. Fear Itself places characters in predicaments similar to those in horror genre movies. It can work with a range of games, from dark literary horror to something more akin to slasher flicks.
As a GM I enjoyed Fear Itself and the GUMSHOE system. It does a good job of supporting horror while giving players the control to shape scenes with their skill uses. Character generation is fast, and a GM could easily rip off nearly any horror movie for quick inspiration if needed. It is a rules light game that does a good job of focusing on the characters.
Fear Itself is a different kind of horror RPG. Pelgrane Press has the GUMSHOE system, which does alter the way in which a game is played somewhat. (I will go into that more a little later.) The book is softbound and only ninety pages. Though Fear Itself is not a large book, it does not feel like there is anything missing. As of yet, it is the only book in the line, though GMs can borrow from other GUMSHOE games if needed. The book is all black and white with a good layout. The artwork is a mix of pieces I found good and bad. I really like the front cover of someone looking out through a crack of what could b a padlocked door.
When I first got Fear Itself I was intrigued and knew that it was a game I wanted to run with my friends to get a good feeling for how it works. The first impression I got was that it was a different set up to a role playing game than my friends and I were used to. I knew that the only way to determine if it was going to be a game for us was to try it out. We made characters and devoted a double session to playing the game. It had mixed results from the group. The difference was enough to make some players grasp it faster then others. I knew the game the best but once we were almost done playing I had an epiphany on how I could have ran it better for the players and gotten a little more out of the game. I liked it the game and found the sample adventure very enjoyable.
When I ran the game, the things that the GUMSHOE system does differently from other systems were the areas of greatest concern. So, I am going to start with the normal stuff. The game as I have mentioned is a horror-based game. It is intended for player characters to be normal, average people that through either their own actions or bad luck get placed into a horror scenario. The game might be best for a one-shot as the characters are not always going to be expected to live through it all. There are rules in the game for character advancement and how to continue a game as a campaign, so it does support different numbers of game sessions. The game is pretty versatile and does not assume any type of setting other then our modern world. Of course, there could be invincible psycho killers and monsters like in most horror movies. The skills do include things like driving, shooting, computer use, photography and other modern skills. However, it does not seem hard to adapt this game for a different time period, though it would be more work for the GM. When I ran the game it was set in the modern age.
The GUMSHOE rules are designed to make it so that finding the clue for a mystery is not the difficult thing. The challenge comes in interpreting the clue and figuring out how things can piece together. This makes it a lot tougher on the GM then I was expecting. The players’ characters have a lot of angles to come at clues so it can be difficult when the player does something unexpected and as most GMs know that is not an uncommon feat.
Building a character takes a different approach than I had seen. It is a skill-based game with no attributes or other things like merits and flaws. Instead of placing points into the areas that the character is skilled in, the player is encouraged to place the points in skills they would like the character to shine in, as though in a movie. This allows the player a little more control of how their character is successful or not. If the player would like it so his expert driver character fails at critical moments, the player can just not have many points in driving but still have a character that is an expert driver. The reverse is also true – one can have a character that is not an expert at something but can shine doing it. One thing I like is how the number of points each character gets is determined by the number of players in the game, not by the power level of the session. The more players in the game, the fewer points the characters will have. This is important since the points are a resource. Each point represents a d6. To use a skill, one spends a point and rolls the die. One can also spend a point to learn a clue using that skill. This only works if the GM determines there is something to learn, and as I found out, can be a challenging thing for the GM. The skills Health and Stability work a little differently. Health is a bit like life points in other games, and Stability is mental stability that reflects how the character is dealing with strange occurrences.
We played the adventure in the back of the book. We got through about half of it as it is a long adventure and it has some great scenes for role playing and player creativity. Making up characters was simple, but it took time for players to understand the differences between placing points in what the character is good at and placing points in what the character would like to shine at on screen. I am not sure all the players liked that or saw how that was important. It is something as a GM I should have placed more emphasis on in the game. The adventure is of the supernatural horror variety, with some unnamed evil entity noticing the player characters and playing with them. The first half of the game takes place as a team-oriented live action role playing game. My group had a lot of fun with this and the horror plot became second hand to their just having fun role playing characters. It is great when that happens, but the amusement of role playing took away a lot of the horror vibe. It is a game of resources, as the characters have few points. I feel I needed to have them spend more points consistently. I also needed to prep more ways to have different skills be useful, and find other ways the clues and pieces of the happenings could come together.
Fear Itself is a horror role playing game that is a little different from more mainstream games. I like its approach to horror games and the GUMSHOE system. I think the sample adventure in it is inspired and one of the best and most enjoyable settings for a one shot adventure. I think it is a game that fans of horror RPGs should take a look at and try. Not everyone I played with liked it, but I came away knowing I had another good option for my one-shot horror games.