Winner, Winner Killer Thriller!

When was the last time you really enjoyed an RPG with a high PC mortality rate? How about a game in which it pays to fail your roll? Killer Thriller achieves both these distinctions, and in the process provides a superb one-shot gaming experience. This rules light game of exploitation horror movies includes a lot of nice touches. It provides clear, concise advice on running a free wheeling splatterfest in an irreverent conversational style. The rules are simple and simulate the hackneyed tropes of the genre perfectly (using a firearm makes you progressively less competent, for instance). Character creation is lightning fast, which is just as well given the nature of this sick little gem.

For a start PCs have victim written all over them. You don’t have ability scores in this game, you have Inabilities that measure how much you suck at making good decisions, being lucky or keeping your cool. You get to assign scores of seven, eight and nine to these and if you roll under your Inability on 2d6 then Bad Things happen. If you roll your Inability score exactly an Epic Fail occurs involving your character taking damage equal to that score.

Wait, did we say character? We meant characters (three per player is the default). Don’t get too attached to them, you’ll want to walk, or run them screaming, into Savini-esque death scenes. Why? Another nice touch – hit points are called Unharm (generated by a roll of 1d6+6) when they are reduced to zero that character dies, but their starting Unharm score lives on to be donated to one of that player’s other PCs. This guarantees that your last surviving character will be a hard kill. In effect, the rules make a player’s last surviving PC a monster for the monsters (Monsters automatically succeed except against a Last Survivor, when they have to roll just like any other character, with the same penalties if they succeed).

The result is an easy to run, fast playing, fun, free-for-all. Just put the characters into a stereotypical horror movie situation and let them run around until they die or become a much tougher proposition as Last Survivors. This should be the first choice for one-shot games with a horror theme. Buy it for your group this Halloween and dive merrily into the mayhem!

"The most fun you can have with a carrot and a few friends!"

Let me start by saying that this is a great cartoon inspired storytelling game. Let me add that as I’m typing this I’m still sweaty from playing it and slightly breathless from laughing! It’s simple enough to be played at a lunatic (Looney-Tunes?) pace and features collaborative play combined with simple conflict resolution that allows everyone to share in the creative process.

There are three roles during game play – the Cartoonist (who narrates the action and picks the character that’ll be the focus of the scene), the Producer (who controls the secondary characters and vies for control with the Cartoonist) and the Audience (everyone else). These roles change during play, with the current Cartoonist being denoted by their holding a carrot – much more fun than a dealer’s button, I’m sure you’ll agree.

After characters and their goals have been created by the group and a few simple rules called Constraints agreed on, the Cartoonist sets the scene and describes what happens. When someone has a different idea what should happen a 2d6 roll determines whether the Cartoonist’s, Producer’s or an Audience member’s idea wins. Play continues like this, with all involved encouraged to contribute their wildest ideas in the most manic manner possible, until a character achieves their goal, or enough Constraints have been triggered to end the current episode.

An episode can be finished in as little as 10 minutes and my group clamoured to play another episode and another, and another until we shelved our original gaming plans for the evening. This game as played by my group is also a pretty good work out, as it resulted in chases around and under the table, but you don’t have to go that far.

I’d certainly recommend this game for introducing kids to tabletop gaming. It allows everyone to play the part of storyteller and when you’ve played it once you understand all you need to know. This is loads of fun without recourse to loads o’ dice and charts.

I should note that I played the English language version of this game and found the manual easy to understand. So if the fact that this is a translation of an Italian game is putting you off, then I can only suggest you get over your fears and go and get yourself a carrot and a few friends – you won’t regret it.