Favourite Horror TTRPG of 2022

Hi there!

For Halloween, it feels only fitting to compare a couple of TTRPGs that we've been playing and provide the one that has stood out the most to us (for whatever reasons they may be).

It won't be a full review of these systems or games, but more what has been fun about them and why we'd recommend them to this year.

So what do we recommend?..

This year, we'd say Free League's Alien RPG!

Alien is a system that may be reminiscent of that of Mothership - stress, panic and hardcore sci-fi where the world is stacked massively against the players.

What is it we enjoy about it so much then?

The theme

As we love horror, narturally the influential horror movie Alien is a setting we have used in previous games. While it sometimes feels like the TTRPG environment is bloated with spin offs and new systems that maybe aren't necessary, Alien was a breath of fresh air. We haven't played Mothership, so maybe its similar enough to Alien where you could use one or the other rather than both, but from what I've read and heard, Alien has enough strength to stand on it's own bi-pedal feet.

As a long term Cthluhu player, we've used the Cthluhu system (allbeit, skills slightly modified to make more sense) for sci-fi games which worked well. However, we found Alien a quick grab and play situation.

Character creation

One thing that we found really refreshing in Alien was how quick it was to make characters - which is especially useful considering how brutal combat is in the game.

You have a decent range of character's to choose from, but with how the system is built, you could very easily create your own careers without scratching your head for hours and needing to worry about how the class progresses or affects other elements of your character. The last character creation session we had was less than an hour for 4 new players to give you an example.

What's nice about this is that the mechanical aspects of making a character can be understood easily and the motions be completed, which allowed our players to focus on their agendas, rivals and other narrative-focussed elements of their character. Sure, the game doesn't have immense progression, but a hardcore horror game doesn't need something as involved as D&D or Pathfinder - which play to other themes.

Learning curve

The thing that stoof out the most for our games was how easy it was to pick up - even for players who had never rolled dice in their life!

The simple D6 dice pool, and easy maths to determine how many dice you roll made this game much more accessible than I expected! One of our groups had 2 players who don't like horror or ever played a TTRPG. By the end, they had a great time, have been checking out the films AND are planning to learn some D&D to run a fantasy story they had started writing in their spare time. For me, TTRPGs are about coming together, having a blast and maybe even encoruage people to try their hand at being GM - and Alien's easily accessible system has done that within a couple of games.

Actual play

As a long term Cthluhu player, we've used the Cthluhu system (allbeit, skills slightly modified to make more sense) for sci-fi games which worked well. However, the sanity loss in Cthluhu is massively impactful with not very much damage required before a player loses some of their agency. A standout mechanic in the Alien game is the Stress and Panic ones. Stress builds incrementally, and in the lower numbers can really help your characters with their checks. However, as stress builds a criticial mass is met - resulting in crippling panic effects like freezing in place, or screaming your lungs out at the threat that triggered your panic.

Specifically, what we have had a blast with was how a PCs panic can affect friendly characters. For example, screaming your lungs out actually reduces the stress of the affected PC, but every other freidnly in close proximity must perform a panic roll. It's this representation of building stress that the game really excells in, as a player also feels incrementally more worried as their yellow dice start to outnumber their normal dice pool. It's a great parallel to have in a game, and always resulted in a lot of fun.

Interestingly, Alien almost discourages skill checks because of this fairly dangerous panic mechanic. So unless there's a real risk of something bad happening if someone fails, it feels almost like players should be awarded for their ideas by default.

As with other sytems, standard investigation and survival can be approached similarly, but this game is particulary brutal when it comes to combat.

Combat against PCs with a creature or Alien i hugely asymetric (in the monsters favour). Cthluhu is similar in this regard, but with the crippling effects of some Critical Injuries (assuming they don't just kill you), and with Aliens having multiple attacks in a round, seeing one of these things can result in a bloody mess being left where your players used to be.

While it can be really hard, it suits the horror theme of the game very well. I've introduced Alien as brutal and set my players up to know that they'll not make it. Knowing this going in, people naturally fall into their character roles very well and tend to make creative deiscisions in the name of surivival. If someone does die, making new characters is very easy!

Anyway, we wanted to share our favourite horror TTRPG over the Halloween period and Alien was our pick. Easy to play, fun to run, dedicated to the source material. We recommend checking out some Actual Plays on YouTube to get an idea of what the games can involve. Maybe even consider checkin gout Chariot of the Gods, the first cinematic scenario that was produced. It's a great introduction to Alien, brutal combat, interesting characters and often ends up being pure chaos by the end!

Thanks for reading, catch you next time - and until then, good gaming!

-KJ