Horror with Heart: TTRPG Edition
Creeping it real
In these dark, unsettling days, gather those dear to you, draw them close, and savor the time you have left, however much that may be…
By playing some tabletop games together!
There is something heartwarming about dispensing with the phones and controllers, sitting down at the same table, and playing a thrilling boardgame, puzzle, or best of all, roleplaying game.
Add to that the Halloween season and creepy RPGs, and heartwarming can quickly become heart-pounding!
Here is a list of 5 roleplaying games I recommend playing during the spookiest time of year. Each fits a different aspect and/or level of scary Halloween antics, so there’s something for everyone here!
#5 – Dungeons & Dragons
These past two years have been fraught with issues concerning the monetization of the beloved D&D franchise, but the nerds have fought back and gained some awesome ground.
Despite the negative buzz those of us in the know might now associate with the brand, D&D is a big deal (and a cultural phenomenon) for a reason. There’s something about the system and its storied history that has a special place in the hearts of many-a-nerd, myself included.
But that’s all good conversation for another day. What I want to focus on is this:
D&D is perfectly suited to play during Halloween.
I mean, what could be more iconically Halloween than dressing up as Lord of the Rings wannabes, diving into the dark, dank, slimy depths of a dungeon, and fighting through terrifying monsters, evading deadly traps, and thwarting the plans of evil necromancers?
That sounds like a heck of a good time to me.
There are other systems (several of which are on this list) that are better suited to playing straight-up horror, but I don’t know of a better system for playing in a high fantasy setting and taking the fight right to the things going bump in the night, armed to the teeth with swords and magic.
While D&D is somewhat infamous for the onus it puts on the Game Master and the amount of prep that can go into a session, the next few systems are low prep, high improv. If that sounds like your thing, then do I have some games for you!
#4 – Kids on Bikes
Are you a fan of It, E.T., Goonies, and/or Stranger Things? Were you yourself a latchkey kid of the ‘80s and ‘90s?
Then do I have the game for you.
Kids on Bikes is a collaborative storytelling game based around the classic ‘80s vibes of regular neighborhood folks thrown into the weird and scary.
Mechanically, this game captured my heart because of the built-in collaboration between the Game Master and the players. The first task of the game is to build the town and each others characters step-by-step in a round-robin process.
This creates an instant investment in the setting and population, and the improvised story beats continue to keep the players fully part of the creation process throughout the game.
In the last game I played of Kids on Bikes, we wound up with a small city that was once a mining town and had since become a confectionary hotspot. The sweets industry was dying, though, just like the mining had, and our players (as a teacher and his students on a field trip) entered the old mines and discovered the mind-bending secrets therein.
It was so much fun and genuinely unsettling at times, mainly due to the ideas that the players conjured up and that I, as the GM, ran with.
This game, and the next two following, are more “storytelling” than “gaming,” which can be off-putting if you don’t know what you’re getting into. Still, I highly recommend giving the world-building a shot as it is the most unique gaming experience I have ever had, and I can’t wait to play it again.
#3 – Escape from Dino Island
What if you could rewrite Jurassic Park in real time with your friends while throwing around some shiny clickclacks?
Well, you can!
Escape from Dino Island is a great adventure/thriller game with a lot of laughs, jump scares, and touching moments (which usually come at the moment a character is dying). Basically, it’s perfectly suited to playing your very own creature feature!
This PbtA-style game is fairly easy to pick up and play on the fly, with the GM’s preparations minimal. Additionally, the simple dice system is new-player friendly and eases new gamers into the RPG improvising world.
Plus, the way it leans into movie tropes from the classic action films of the ‘80s and ‘90s makes it accessible and nostalgic to people like myself.
If you like dinosaurs and horror movies, definitely give this game a try.
#2 – Brindlewood Bay
Murder, She Wrote set in the universe of H.P. Lovecraft.
Yes, you read that right, and the squeals of excitement you are holding back are the correct reaction. Just let it out and ignore the stares from the people around you.
The basic premise is this: the players are a collection of quirky, elderly widows who have formed a mystery book club and have accomplished some amateur sleuthing, and each session sees the ol’ gals tackle a murder mystery. That alone can cover one Halloween night of fun. However, a campaign of interconnected episodes will reveal a deeper, cultish plot happening under the surface.
This game is also a PbtA game, and just like the previous entry, it is very low prep, very high improv, and this time around goes all-in on TV show tropes. The written materials do an excellent job of guiding the table through the improvisations and encourages making fun, bold choices at every turn.
One word of warning, though: the mysteries that are encountered are not pre-determined puzzles that have a definitive answer to be sussed out. Instead, the players and GM work together to weave the mystery along the way, collecting seemingly-random clues around each corner and then performing summations and a die roll to see if the crew can pull a plausible solution together.
It’s definitely a different approach to the mystery genre, but it’s one that plays so well with a group willing to give it a shot.
I would be (fittingly) out of my mind if I mentioned Lovecraft and didn’t move on to this next TTRPG…
#1 – Call of Cthulhu
If you want to embrace the horror this Halloween, then grab some d100s and prepare to have your mind melted by the unknowable in my favorite TTRPG, Call of Cthulhu.
I love the mechanics of this game’s skill-based system, and the terrifying, tentacled troubles you tackle make it all the more fun. Players take the role of investigators, usually set in the 1920s-1940s (though there is plenty of room for playing in any other time period and some even have supplements dedicated to them). They start with what is usually a mundane-seeming mystery that quickly unfolds into a nightmare that even the most stoic mind cannot withstand.
Balance both your physical health and your sanity in a battle against the malodorous forces of the Cthulhu Mythos in the most fitting way to spend a Halloween night. If you want to stand a fighting chance against the horrors in your path, you’ll want to check out the Pulp Cthulhu adjustments for hardier investigators.
But no matter how tough your investigator is, it’s going to be nearly impossible to bear the unfathomable weight of the vast cosmos and its alien-minded denizens without going at least a little mad. But how much different is that from our day-to-day lives?
I have been criminally deprived of opportunities to play these games with my friends, and it’s a problem I look forward to remedying soon. If you have the opportunity to play any of these games this Halloween season, please let me know how it goes so I can at least live vicariously through you!
That’s all, folks! If you’re looking for some spooky TTRPG fun, I think there’s plenty here to work with, and I wish you all a creeptastic Halloween.