Relaunched

Ohh how long has it been since the darkness was last pierced with clarity and insight into the inner workings of depravity. Well something like that, and now for a change in direction. Originally this was intended to touch on the larger aspects of horror in life, literature, film and other activities. But that is a total waste. My interest in horror is much more focused, sharper, more piercing than an overreaching view will encompass. So instead, the foci have altered. No longer the big view, instead it is time to narrow it down, bring it into a gun sight focus on a few areas of the horror genre.

Welcome to the varied worlds of Horror Tabletop Gaming, or Horror Roleplaying Games and Gaming. Horror RPGs have a wonderful history in the overall hobby of Tabletop Gaming. There is a nice wide assortment of products still in print, with new ones coming out every year. Oftentimes in fact a non-horror game will have nice facets of the horror gaming genre in it making for plenty of choices to pick and chose (and borrow) from for the gaming enthusiast.

Now for purposes of this writing, the genre includes the weird, paranormal, macabre, occult and the conspiracy oriented genres as well. Often these are essential elements in addition to the horror factors, so no need to exclude them now is there. I might add in Urban Fantasy and some elements of SF gaming, often there can be an element of horror (See the movie Alien for a prime example) included in those. The initial focus is on the core elements though.

Starting off is a list of the titles I personally own, which are the ones I have experience and most of my interest falls into. I then go on to some other very arbitrary distinctions about the games and settings. I am going to focus my writing and support efforts on the systems and settings I have and are the most acquainted with.

Ones that I still possess
Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium)
Dark Conspiracy (Far Future Enterprises)
Kult (Unknown as of this time)
Dark Matter (Alternity Edition)
The Mutant Chronicles (Target Games and CMG version Fantasy Flight Games)
Dark Heresy (Fantasy Flight Games)
Unknown Armies (I forget right now)
The Whispering Vault (I forget right now)
Code Black (BTRC)
Ravenloft (AD&D)
Etherscope (Goodman Games)
Nightlife (BKM)
UnHallowed Metropolis (I forget right now)

Others I know of and want to get
Little Fears Nightmare Edition

Others I know nothing about
Dread
Chill

In Production (that I am personally aware of) Includes
Dark Days RPG (George Cotronis)

Related to the genre are the following
Eclipse Phase
Capacity (my own product in production have to plug my own items)

Most of the various generic game systems have horror based settings as well. GRUPS has the GURPS: Horror and GURPS: Screampunk setting books, Hero Games has the Horror Hero sourcebook (a perennial favorite of mine ideal to mine for sources and material). The d20 OGL world has the d20 editions of Call of Cthulhu, Dark Matter, and the more Urban Fantasy Urban Arcana (which can have horror elements and in fact it incorporates ideas from the old Rising Tide AD&D setting as well). Some of these are a bit more peripheral.

So time to embark on the weird and wonderful world of Horror Gaming