Traveling down the Room 14 hallway, there is a secure door on the party's right half way down.
The door is barred with a huge lock in the center and two more auxiliary locks. Three different Open Locks rolls or Knock spells are needed.
Once open there is a wave of necromatic magic that hits the party. They all need to make a saving throw vs. Detah or take 2d6 hp of damage.
This is a stairwell down to Level 10.
Continuing my exploration of Bloat Games' modern horror/monster hunting RPG, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide. Today I cover Part 2 of the two books, the Cthulhu Sourcebook.
220 pages. Black & White cover and interior art.
$9.99 PDF
A while back I once said, rather snarkily, that a game can get instant sales by slapping some Cthulhu on it. One the surface this could look like that, but it doesn't do that at all.
Also, I compared What Shadows Hide to the classic RPG Chill. So the logical comparison here is this is Bloat Games' version of Call of Cthulhu. But it is not quite that either.
What is this game supplement? Easy. Remember the first season of True Detective? It was a great detective show with a cult and some crazy guy talking about Carcosa. Turns out it was all just normal, though very evil, human agents.
Well, what if Carcosa had been real in True Detective? What if those human agents/cultists interacted with real Elder Gods from beyond reality?
That is what this game is.
This book gives us some new classes for What Shadows Hide. Archeologist, Priest of the Darkness, Priest of the Light, Priest of the Mother, Priest of the Old Ones, Priest of the Protean Path, Priest of the Void, Psion, Warlock, and my favorite, Witch. Some of these we have seen before, but that is fine, not everyone will start with the same book or buy everything in their line (you should, but I see why you might not).
There are new spells, new skills, curses, and psychic powers.
Why put these into this book? It keeps these more powerful classes out of the hands of the Players and squarely in the Game Master's hands.
We also get a bit about Cosmos Cats (fun!).
The bulk of this book is dedicated to the monsters the characters will encounter and the cults they will likely have to deal with. There is even a good section on creating your own cults.
This book has more utility than just "Book 2" of What Shadows Hide. This book can be easily used with other Bloat Games' RPGs like We Die Young or Vigilante City. There is also enough here for anyone who wants to add some cults to their Fantasy OSR games.
There is even an index.
Both books make for a great game, and a worthy addition to the Bloat Game catalog and the Survive This!! line.
Going back to Room 2 and taking the last exit on the right. This leads to a long hallway.
This is a long hall with several alcoves similar to last hallway. This hall is filled 20 Green Slime.
When the party enters this hall they begin to slowly move towards them. They are all on the floor, none are on the ceiling.
On this day in 1969, I turned 3 months old. I didn't know it then but that same morning a new cartoon that would stand the test of time premiered. Scooby-Doo hit the airwaves on CBS on Saturday morning, September 13, 1969, at 9:30 Central time. It would later go on to several spin-offs, merchandise, movies (both animated and live-action), and give us some iconic characters. To a kid obsessed with Hammer Films, Universal Horror Movies, Dark Shadows, and the Twilight Zone, it became something of an obsession to me. From my "first" witch to the Hex Girls, it is hard to overstate the effect this show has had on my games.
So today is a good day to bring back the Hex Girls into my discussions here on the ole' Other Side.
I have been wanting to do something more with them for a bit to be honest. They are just silly fun. I am going to try to get some stats up for both Tim Knight's (btw, check out his version of my Teen Witch Taryn!) and Pun Issac's respective games.
I was online looking up some new information and/or art for the Hex Girls when I encountered the Earth-27 wiki. I was not disappointed at all.
This is a crazy site. First, I LOVE all their detail and their desire to throw everything into a blender and hit frappé. There is a solid mix of DC Universe, Scooby-Doo, and even Supernatural here. There are bits of Lucifer and a lot more. Honestly, it would take a long time to dig through the whole thing. I am speaking from experience because this was the rabbit-hole I went down one night and it was all great stuff.
First, I love the art and attention to detail here. This is all just fun stuff. And obsessive on a level I can really appreciate.
However, I could not help but notice something. There is a lot of "canonical" information about the Hex Girls that comes from this blog and my RPG write-ups of them.
I can see how really. Back in 2013 (sheesh over 10 years ago!) I posted about how some details from here made their way into the Wikipedia entry on the Hex Girls. Compare that old link to the current one, and you will see the information is now gone, as it should be. Gone, but never forgotten. Earth-27 adopts it all wholesale and then expands on it.
Some things I think are obvious; Luna is very obviously bi-racial to me. Their "real" names are taken from my blog with notable exceptions of Thorn's Sally McKnight (from the show) and Dusk's "Muffy St. James." They keep that, but mention her real name is Margaret and she is just called Muffy. Ok. That's cool. I like that.
Mind you. None of this bothers me. In fact, I think it is really cool. There are certainly some big improvements in what they have done over what I have done. Plus, they have a "user agreement" to share information, and it is not like these characters are "mine," really. So, in that spirit, I say share and share alike. There are certainly some ideas they have that I can back-port into my own games. I love the art for example and the character sheets for the characters are a lot of fun. And, sure, let's go with "Margaret 'Muffy' St. James, AKA Dusk." And their mentor is none other than Elvira. So yeah, how can I say no to any of this?
I hope to use some ideas here (within their implied permissions of course) and see what it can do for my games. I know there is a lot more to explore.
Links
I want to spend some time with one of the newer RPGs in Bloat Games' line of SURVIVE THIS!! Today I want to look at their modern monster-hunting horror game What Shadows Hide.
I say "newer," but these have been around for a bit. There are two books in the line, the Core Rules and the Cthulhu Sourcebook. For the purposes of this review I am considering both the PDF and Print versions of these books. There are at this time no Print On Demand versions, I bought these from Bloat Games at Gary Con in 2022.
250 pages. Black & White cover and interior art.
$9.99 PDF.
If you have followed any of my reviews of the various Bloat Game offerings then you will know that I am a big fan of their games and the SURVIVE THIS!! system that powers their games. Like the previous games (in particular Dark Places & Demogornons and We Die Young) this is a horror game. Though the feel to this one is a bit different. This is not the 1980s or 1990s anymore, this is a game with real stakes, real horrors and people dedicated to fighting them.
Up front, if you have played or own any of the other SURVIVE THIS!! games then a lot here will feel familiar. The rules sections are largely the same as are the rules for creating characters, combat, and some of the monsters. This time the authors address this and mention this is done for maximum compatibility between the game lines. You can take classes from any SURVIVE THIS!! game and use them here and visa-versa.
The joy of this game though is what it brings that is new. And there is plenty of that.
The game largely follows a similar path to that first taken by the Chill RPG. You have professionals working in various areas of the government (or other places) and they interact with an organization known as C.A.R.E., Conservers of the Ancient Realm of Earth. Think of them like BPRD, SCP, or even good old SAVE. Many characters will be involved with C.A.R.E., but you don't have to do that in your games (CARE-less?), the point is there is a connected group that does it's best to fight back against the monsters of the night.
Character Creation
Characters can have a Race, Occupation, and a Class. Races include Dimensional Forsaken (Angels and Demons), Doppelgangers, Fairies, Ghosts, Ghouls, Greys, Half Mer-men, Humans, Jari-Ka (Mummies), Negator, Reptilians, Vampires, and Were-beasts. This moves it a little further afield from Chill and into World of Darkness territory.
Occupations have a random table with how much they make each year.
Classes include Academic, Arcane Thief, C.A.R.E. Field Agent, Exorcist, Medium, Monster Hunter, Mystic, Necromancer, Occultist, Paranormal Investigator, and Void Master. Some of these are from other books, but pay attention to the details as some do feel different.
Character creation follows the same process as other SURVIVE THIS!! games and by extension most Old-School games. Attributes are covered which include the standard six, plus the "Survive" attribute common to all SURVIVE THIS!! games.
Like the other games in this family, Hit Points start with a 2d6 and increase by 1d6 per level, regardless of class or race. Combat can be pretty deadly in these games for people used to the hardiness of even Old-School D&D characters.
Character creation, spells (rune tattoos), skills, and Equipment cover the first 140 pages of the book, so a little more than half.
Rules
Here we get our rules for playing the What Shadows Hide game. We get an overview of game terms, which is nice really. Rules for Curses, Exorcisms, and Madness are covered. Similar to the rules found in We Die Young. It looks to me like they could be backported to DP&D rather easily.
There is a fair number of combat rules. Likely this has come about from the authors' experiences with their other game Vigilante City.
We also get rules for XP & Leveling Up and Critical tables.
The Setting of What Shadows Hide
This is the real treat of the book. What makes this one different than the others. The world is filled with monsters, aliens, and other threats to well well-being of humankind. It is largely up to the characters (and those like them) to keep the world safe. Here we get into detail about C.A.R.E. and other organizations. We also cover the cults and organizations the characters are most likely to encounter and how to deal with them.
At the end of the book, there is a section of adventure seeds. There are some monsters here, but they are directly related to the adventures. For more monsters, you will need the second book in this line, the Cthulhu Sourcebook, or grab one of the other Survive This!! books such as the wonderful DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS - The Cryptid Manual are an excellent choice.
There is a bit here that can be found in other Bloat Games' Survive This!! games. But that is fine, because as an author/designer/publisher, you never know what someone's first book is going to be. So I am perfectly happy with seeing the Mystic again for example. Each book/game does add more to the sum total of the Survive This!! experience, so even in a class I know well (hello again Mystic) there is something new and often something a little different.
You can use all the games interchangeably, along with supplements made for the individual lines.
A quick read through the book at Gary Con 2022 and I knew right away I could use this core book to recreate any Chill or Conspiracy X game I played in. If I wanted to recreate ay Call of Cthulhu game, well for that I would need Book 2 in the series.
Another secret door can be found underneath the fountain-like structure in the middle. There is a 10ft drop down into the center of the room.
This room is filled with the same sorts of snakes that came out of the fountain during the encounter in Room 11.
There are 2d10 snakes in this room. Additionally, there is 3d10 Type U treasure here.
I want to share a few books with you today. Not reviews, but I do want to talk about them.
Most everyone reading this blog likely knows about this book.
The Grimtooth Traps books were not official AD&D books, but nearly everyone back in my gaming groups in the 1980s had one or access to one.
These next two are less well-known.
They are the Game Master's Book of Random Encounters. The large hardcover (brown) we got my son for Christmas from Amazon. The smaller green "magazine" style one I bought last week. At a grocery store in South Carolina.
All three books share the same origins and goals. They are third-party products designed for "any RPG" but obviously for their respective current editions of *D&D. They fill a niche market of DM's tools, so a small number of people will buy these.
The biggest differences?
For the Traps Too book, my then-DM and I had to drive to Springfield, IL, to get it. It was 35 miles away, and then we had to go to a store downtown (Black's Hardware) because our regular D&D stores (Waldenbooks and B. Dalton's) didn't carry this.
I found the magazine Gamemaster's Book of Random Encounters in the periodical rack in the checkout line at a grocery store next to copies of People, Us, and whatever holiday cookbook magazine America's Test Kitchen was selling.
This is just one more example of how ubiquitous RPGs are getting.
Hell, even at my sister's funeral people from a side of my family I barely know were talking about how great Baldur's Gate 3 is. (Spoilers. It is great.)
Sometimes, it is easy to forget how great we have it now. Sometimes it is easy to forget how scarce or rare things used to be.
We are really in a Golden Age of RPGs now and sometimes it is nice to sit back and soak it all in.
