Fear Itself
I have a crazy quantity of material hitting publication between now and Gen Con, and I hope you'll bear with me over the next few weeks as I let you know about my various projects. Gen Con being what it is, it's not unusual to see releases cluster in August like this. But this time around nearly an entire year's output is coming out all at the same time. It's all a little bit disorienting.
First up is Fear Itself, which officially released on Friday. This is the first expansion for GUMSHOE, my game of investigative roleplaying, published by Pelgrane Press. Where the first game, The Esoterrorists, pitted competent agents against subversive occult forces, Fear Itself allows you to play more generic horror scenarios, in which ordinary people go head to head with slashers, monsters, and demons.
You might remember that last year at this time I was bemoaning the fact that I'd just finished a scenario in which a corporate retreat descends into horror and madness-right before receiving a copy of the '06 Toronto Film Festival program. There, in the Midnight Madness section, I recoiled in dismay at the description of Severance, a movie in which a corporate retreat descends into horror and madness.
Not wanting to read reviews describing the intro scenario as “an homage to Severance”, I found an even better idea. Now the intro scenario is about a boffer-style LARP that descends into horror and madness.
In playtest this led to some of the best characterization and my local group has ever done, thanks in part to the comparative realism of its subject matter, and also to the flashback and directed scene techniques the game suggests. Simon at Pelgrane HQ reported similar results, and I'm looking forward to see how roleplayingdom at large responds.
Also, like The Esoterrorists before it, it features one of the best covers ever to appear on one of my books.
I'm very pleased with this one and hope you check it out.