Review: SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide

 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.

SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: The Roleplaying Game

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.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 13

 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.

RPGs are Now Mainstream, example #254

 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.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 12

 In Room 11 there are three small secret rooms behind the many alcoves. All are covered here.

Each of these rooms are small, 10' x 10' or so. Their function is unclear. They could have been guard rooms, storage rooms or something else.

There are no treasures and no monsters here.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 11

 Going back to Room 2, and moving on down the gallery there are the larger exits to the left and to the right. Taking the left leads to a long hallway. 

The room is a large, circular chamber with a high ceiling. The walls are made of smooth, polished stone, and the floor is covered in a thick layer of dust. There is a single door in the far wall and a large fountain-like structure in the center of the floor. There are alcoves in the walls with gargoyles in the recesses.

The traps in the room are all triggered by pressure plates. The first trap is located by the doorway. If a creature steps on the pressure plate, dart traps will fire (from the gargoyle's mouths), dealing 1d6 damage, save vs Poison or take another 1d8 points of damage. The second trap is located in the center of the room. If a creature steps on the pressure plate, a pit trap will open, dropping the creature 10 feet to the ground below (1d6 hp damage). The third trap is located under the fountain. If the trapdoor is opened, a swarm of poisonous snakes will pour out.

Ten (10) snakes come out from under the fountain. These snakes are blind and are the same color as the stone. They use the same stats as Giant Rattlers.

There is a cache of gold, 105 gp, hidden under the fountain. 

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 10

Moving to the right there is another room, similar to room 9.

This room was also a research library. The books here have been destroyed by water and fire. All are beyond saving.

 

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 9, Room 9

 On the back wall of Room 8 there are two small rooms. To the left (perspective of the entrance) is door to room 9.

This room is a small research library. The light inside is magical (no fire near these books).  Most of the books are treatises on magical animals and monsters.  Anyone spending an hour or more reading through these books will gain 10 XP. Spending a week with the entire collection would grant 1000 XP.

There are a few books on the Gravlok Ka Varnash, including how it came to have that name; a powerful wizard had cast read thoughts on it and it scrambled his mind so completely that this was all he could say. 

There is no way to transfer all these books, there are too many. But It is possible to spend some time reading here.

There is nothing here about the Vampire Queen save for books sing her praises or talk about how brutal she is with her enemies.