Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 17h

Day 45: Mothership.

Mothership has been the hotness for a few years now. It’s a great setting with easy to follow rules & a lot of high quality content when it first came out. I had a lot of fun running/playing this. Sci-Fi horror isn’t done that often and this is the best of the offerings so far.

Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 1d

Day 44: Raiders of R’Lyeh

KS warning here. A Cthulhu game with a Howardian feel set in the 1910s sounds great, yes? Well, the KS felt apart instantly. The book came only in b&w & NONE of the extras paid for. Cipher Bureau disappeared for a few years until they released a campaign for the game.

Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 2d

Day 43: SLA Industries.

SLA was a weird game that had a ton of mystery surrounding the metaplot. Then when people learned how the sausage was made. Words can’t describe how bad the reveal was. Consequently the game died until a few years ago when 2e was released. We don’t talk about the Minis game.

Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 3d

Day 42: Vampire: The Requiem

VtR 1e was a bust. White Wolf ended VtM too soon, & people just didn’t want this, even with nWoD having some nice ideas & rules. The NWoD languished for a while & when V20 came out it all but died on the vine. Which is a shame, because The Strix Chronicle was amazing.

Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 4d

Day 41: Shadows of Esteren

A low fantasy horror game originally from France, SoE calls itself Ravenloft meets Call of Cthulhu, but it’s really a low fantasy Vampire: The Dark Ages meets Chill, with a little Eternal Darkness thrown in, which is honestly better.

Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 5d

Day 40: Ghosts of Albion.
While this is a fun game about Victorian haunting, you might not realize this is a licensed title! Based on the BBCi series by the same name, this Flash series became a series of books & this TTRPG. People who remember this series still have found memories of it.

Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 5d

Painted up the first of many Barrow Guard today.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 6d

Day 39: Wraith: The Oblivion

Werewolf & Vampire get a lot of love, but the other three OWoD games are a “little” bit harder to conceptualize, much less play. Wraith is so well written, with gorgeous art, wonderful concepts & a great metaplot; but it takes a certain GM to really make the game work.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 7d

Day 38: Delta Green.

This started off as a Call of Cthulhu spin-off, which of course is a BRP spin-off. Delta Green brought the Mythos into an X-Files like era, similar to Conspiracy X. It became its own beast years later, with its own ruleset & fiction line. It’s still going strong decades later.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 7d

Painted up Joker for DC United today.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 8d

Day 37: Ravenloft 3e

Ravenloft + White Wolf? One of the easiest & smartest ideas ever to happen. 3e is not only the best version of Ravenloft, but is also the best campaign setting for the entire edition. The Gazetteers alone are some of the most beloved books in the history of the industry.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 8d

5e WFB. Still have it on my shelf.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 9d

Day 36: Liminal Horror

Out of the the many new horror games that have come out over the past few years, this has been my favorite. The rules are easy to learn, it can be applied to any type of horror & the adventures are fun; many of which are homages to older TTRPG adventures for other systems.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 10d

Day 35: In Nomine

About 30 years ago, SJG brought over a French RPG about Angels & Demons. Although not a horror game in the usual sense, this is a morality play in RPG form. it IS pretty easy to make this a creepy or scary considering we are dealing with Hell and its denizens.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 11d

Painted up a Mind Controlled Superman for DC United today.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 11d

Day 34: De Profundis.

There are a lot of Cosmic Horror TTRPGs out there, but this one stands out. As an epistolary game, this is primarily writing letters between other players and the GM. Think the format of the novel Dracula but as a RPG. It reminds me a lot of the golden era of PBEM & PBW RPGs.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 12d

Day 33: The God Machine Chronicle. Easily the best bit of the New World of Darkness, it is the creepiest thing ever put out for either WoD. It is surreal, mysterious & purposely vague about the God Machine’s origins & intent.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 13d

Day 32: Red Markets.

Red Markets is a zombie game, sure - but it is also a game discussing socio-economic horror via metaphor. This is the type of RPG that a certain audience will think is SO COOL because it’s exceedingly violent & then will complain years later that “they made it political.”

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 13d

Did a mediocre job on Harley Quinn today.

Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 14d

Day 31: Chill 1e. I miss OG Pacesetter and 80s Chill. A wonderful tribute to Hammer Horror and Roger Corman films alike, Chill was the first ever traditional
Horror RPG (CoC was cosmic horror) & it died more because of Pacesetter’s internal issues rather than a lack of popularity.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 15d

Day 30: The Shivering Circle

64 pages. PWYW. Folk Horror. There’s absolutely no excuse not to own this gem that came out in 2018. It’s rules-lite, heavily focused on storytelling, & is more
MR James than survival horror. Little indie games like this are well worth supporting.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 16d

Day 29: CthulhuTech

The original CthulhuTech was THE EdgeLord TTRPG. It was doing Black Dog without the tongue in cheek. That helped kill it as quickly as it gained attention.

This year, CthulhuTech came back, but sans the purposely offensive bits. What remains are nifty ideas & solid mechanics.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 17d

Day 28: Don’t Look Back. One of my favorite indie horror TTRPGs, I discovered the second edition of this game in a bargain bin decades ago and I loved the charm of this mostly one man show. In 2017, 175 people backed a KS for a Third Edition, using the d6xd6 system. Remember when that was a thing?

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 17d

Painted up Corvus Glaive for Marvel
United.

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Alexander Lucard @alexanderlucard.bsky.social · 18d

Day 27 - Curseborne.

Wish Onyx Path was still doing World of Darkness 20AE? Well, it kind of is. Curseborne uses the Storypath system & is a truncated version of the five WoD games - barring the trademarks & IP. The feel, look & writing all reminds me of 2e VtM, just with less Timothy Bradstreet.

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