Pyramid Review
Fear Itself
Published by Pelgrane Press
Written by Robin D. Laws
Cover by Jérôme Huguenin
Illustrated by Jérôme Huguenin and Dave Allsop
90-page b&w softcover; $19.95
Fear Itself is Pelgrane Press' second title to employ its GUMSHOE investigative roleplaying system, preceded The Esoterroists, also penned by Robin D. Laws. Both are horror games, but the two are radically different. In The Esoterrorists, the characters act as highly trained and competent operatives, working for a well-funded and multi-government-sanctioned conspiracy to prevent the incursion of the forces of the Outer Black. In Fear Itself, the characters are ordinary folk, ill equipped to deal with the horrors of the Outer Black, let alone the cannibals, perverts, rapists, and serial killers they might encounter. If The Esoterrorists feels like The X-Files and Millennium, then Fear Itself feels more like Halloween, 28 Days Later, and In the Mouth of Madness.
The GUMSHOE system is designed to force the players to concentrate on the discovery and analysis of clues in investigative scenarios rather than on rolling for them. If a character possesses the relevant ability, he gains the clues, but he can also spend points from a pool for that ability to learn extra information.
Two types of Ability -- Investigative (divided into Academic, Interpersonal, and Technical) and General -- define characters. Both types of Ability work as pools of points, but while players spend Investigative Ability points to acquire clues, . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: January 25, 2008
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