For one-shot horror games, I will never stop recommending Dread - the game that uses a Jenga tower as its skill resolution tool. The tension is unlike anything created by dice.
Same. But I also love using the character sheets from Dread to flesh out my other horror rpgs. Mainly 10 Candles. And man, I could probably play 10 Candles all year long. It's that good. I recently used it to play a game loosely based on the 1970s horror movie classic Horror Express.
As thematic as it is to release this on Halloween, I wish this showed up a week or two ago, because now I don’t have time to reprep my Halloween one shot for one of these sick ass systems.
If anyone is familiar with call of Cthulhu but wants something a little different, DELTA GREEN is absolutely horrific. A modern take on Cthulhu with a secret government agency in the vein of SCP sent to destroy and wipe the evidence of unknowable horrors from beyond our understanding. I love how it grounds the Cthulhu setting with mil sim, bureaucracy, and modern life. The scenarios and campaigns you can purchase are also bone chilling. A excellent horror rpg that scared me just reading the lore.
Seconded. It's definitely a more traditional RPG than some of the ones presented here, but it really does a wonderful job of handling the PTSD of those who routinely confront the unnatural.
Best TTRPG on the market. It's grounding in reality and the introduction of Bonds to really bring home the impact of conspiracy and horror on "real" lives just makes this feel so real when you run and play it.
I often recommend 'Leagues Of Gothic Horror' line for classic 19th century gothic folklore RP. It has a large amount of beasties & baddies from literature and tales of the era, including variations from different cultures, in it's books.
It's really great and Free League are a Swedish company so I would hope they do some justice to your home town. Just bear in mind that this is kind of an Alternate universe Uppsala! There's a good Actual Play podcast of this run by Ellinor Dilorenzo called the Lost Mountain Saga, also Sweden Rolls have some Vaesen seasons in their podcast. hth!
My favourite RPG ever is a wonderful horror game that deals with a mix of the deeply weird and the extremely mundane: Unknown Armies. There are monsters, cosmic god-like beings and magick, sure, but the game does a great job of making *people* the most potentially horrifying thing in the game, and specifically the things people do to each other. It also has one of the best stress systems I've seen. One of the ways I usually describe the game to people is by explaining that your character has four character attributes, and you have five different stress meters (Violence, Helplessness, Isolation, Unnatural and Self)... which each have separate meters for Failed and Hardened notches. More failed notches means you're more nervous, sensitive and easily bothered, more failed notches means you're able to deal with more stress before it gets to you, though it also means you eventually seem callous to other people: people are *supposed* to be bothered by some stuff, y'know? The game also takes recovering from trauma pretty seriously, recognising that characters can deal with it in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Sure, your character should probably get months upon months of therapy, but for now they might try to cope with self-destructive behaviours, or develop other coping mechanisms. The magick system (yes, they spell it with a k, the first edition came out in the 90s lol¹) is really cool as well, split into "Avatars" who try to embody "archetypes" in the collective unconscious of mankind ("The Mother", "The True King", "The Masterless Man", "The Soldier" etc) thereby gaining powers associated with those archetypes, and Adepts who are so fiercely obsessed with something that reality kind of just... acquiesces to their will, as long as they embody that obsession by sacrificing any semblance of a chance at a normal life. Believe that hoarding wealth gives you supernatural powers? You better never buy *anything* or your mojo will disappear. Think taking outrageous risks will in turn allow you to manipulate probability? Well, should you ever choose the safer option when presented with alternatives, you better start building that luck juice from the bottom again... and so on. There's tons of these things. Avatars, unlike Adepts, can be more "sensible" people who aren't actually wildly obsessed with a weird worldview, but just choose to embody an archetype they've identified (or they can do it without knowing they're doing it!) -- however, they still have taboos they can't break, or they'll lose some of their power. An Avatar of the Mother who doesn't protect a child in danger is going completely against the spirit of the archetype, after all. ¹ There was actually a supplement called "One shots" that contained one-shot adventures, released in 1999, in which one of the adventures had players on a commercial jet about to fly into the Sears Tower in Chicago, done by someone trying to ascend to semi-godhood as the Archetype of the Terrorist... not the best PR for the game a couple years later.
Thanks for the recommendation! It looks really interesting, especially the approach to mental health making the character more deep rather than leaving the player to rely on tropes. That part also doesn't look complicated at all, which I expected it to be. It looks like a really unique take on the genre, with nice production value.
red markets is amazing, love the crunch and honestly straight depressing lore it brings to the classic zombie formula. Fun fact: the guy who wrote it is now making books for delta green! (which I made a comment about here lmao)
One you've missed in this video and as well as your 10 best horror tabletop RPGs article is the terrible conspiracy which is DELTA GREEN. That game should get a lot more spotlight as there are a lot of X-Files and True Detective fans out there. The game is a realistic and grim take on modern-day Lovecraftian horror, where agents of a top secret conspiracy fight back unnatural threats and terrors, covering them up in the process. The premise is basically "men in black", only that these agents don't have fancy gadgets and eyewitnesses need to be silenced using intimidation tactics or by framing them as unreliable, dishonest, insane or guilty in one way or another. If nothing else works, deadly force is also an option, but the cover-up might become more tricky if the players pick that. Existential dread and cosmic hopelessness are central themes in this game, while the creepy side offers bloody occult rituals, mind bending alien threats, reality twisting anomalies and body horror monstrosities. One of the more gruesome aspect of this game is seeing the lives of these agents crumble under the weight of overwhelming stress, guilt and trauma. This of course makes the game difficult to approach for some, but it can be a treat for those who are drawn to psychological horror and tense situations involving the lives of innocents and also the lives of those who use extreme measures to protect the former. The rules system is easy to pick up and learn, and the prewritten operations & campaigns for this game are really good. Can't recommend this game enough! Just pick up the 2016- edition from DriveThruRPG or your LFGS and dive into the dark world of DELTA GREEN's science fiction horror conspiracy!
Kids on Bikes RPG (Stranger Things) Those Dark Places RPG (low budget Alien, or Outland) Mothership RPG (weird horror sci fi) Dark places and Demogorgons RPG (Stranger Things) Outbreak Undead RPG (Zoooombeees) Buffy/Angel RPG (as in the tv shows) All Flesh must be Eaten RPG (The walking dead) Chill RPG (anything Stephen King, actually King use to playing this RPG) Tales from the Loop RPG (Stranger Things) And last but not least, Ghostbusters RPG Not in print? try looking for the PDF or check out eBay,
@@claytongriffith8323 Well, you don't need to be a genius to work it out (maybe you do?, WOW how smart am I.......yeah sarcasm, its a b!tch) But due to the massive hit of the show it was only a matter of time before there would be multiple attempts to reproduce different elements of the show, That and its family friendly, So yeah, (I could of mentioned the D&D version of Stranger Things, its official, but you need to draw the line somewhere, plus I forgot,)
@@claytongriffith8323 I like the first season of the show, And I would play any of those listed, but no, I'm not overly focused on that series, They don't all do the same thing the same way,
One of my favourite horror RPGs is still Deadlands: The Weird West. I mostly played the version that is an addon of the brilliant Savage Worlds universal system, but it also exists as the now more than 20 years old classic version. If you like westerns and want a weird and horror twist you can't go wrong with Deadlands. Also, different versions exist, if you like a post apocalypse, a different planet, or film noir. All part of the same story, the same universe. Just a great setting.
Oh man, Vaesen is my favourite game. I've run three of the adventures, and I'm super excited to get the newest kickstarter for it. I cannot recommend it enough
Call of Cthulhu and Dread are essential horror TTRPGs. They are perfection! Vaesen is fantastic game with a dark but beautiful setting. Alien is absolutely terrifying.
Sleepaway camp is such a hard sell for my group it almost seems like it’s a game for game makers. I don’t know anyone irl that wants to be BOTH player and GM for the duration of a game
Great to see Free League well represented here, they are doing phenomenal work and Vaesen is superb - would recommend Lost Mountain Saga for anyone looking for an Actual Play of this one. Shame that Symbaroum did not get well deserved love on the 'No D&D' list, easily the best fantasy TTRPG on the market IMO. Surprised not to see Delta Green on this list, its by far the best horror game I have played and run. Unlike everything else on this list (and other lists for that matter), it grounds itself in reality, relationships and organisations so when the cosmic horror does become apparent, it is more disturbing than say a Call of Cthulhu (which obviously is still excellent)
There are so many better options; I would play Mothership over Alien any day. I would also play my own game (shameless self-promotion warning), They Feed On Fear, where the players take on the role of IT like monsters terrorizing and eating a small population.
@@rawrbeez6625 Okay, how does not getting a joke warrant an attack on my personality and my game about monsters? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Also, how is my game considered an edge lord game? Are all games about monsters considered that now?
For one-shot horror games, I will never stop recommending Dread - the game that uses a Jenga tower as its skill resolution tool. The tension is unlike anything created by dice.
Same. But I also love using the character sheets from Dread to flesh out my other horror rpgs. Mainly 10 Candles. And man, I could probably play 10 Candles all year long. It's that good. I recently used it to play a game loosely based on the 1970s horror movie classic Horror Express.
As thematic as it is to release this on Halloween, I wish this showed up a week or two ago, because now I don’t have time to reprep my Halloween one shot for one of these sick ass systems.
Oh boy. More RPG books I’ll buy to play but end up putting them on my shelf because my group only ever plays D&D.
Psssst... I share your pain, so maybe we should all get together and play sometime like on Discord or something.
Jk, jk... Unless...
hey man at least you get to play dnd with a group lol. I haven't played anything in a year.
2 minutes in and I’m already pausing to learn more about Heart and Spire. These sound so cool!
If anyone is familiar with call of Cthulhu but wants something a little different, DELTA GREEN is absolutely horrific. A modern take on Cthulhu with a secret government agency in the vein of SCP sent to destroy and wipe the evidence of unknowable horrors from beyond our understanding. I love how it grounds the Cthulhu setting with mil sim, bureaucracy, and modern life. The scenarios and campaigns you can purchase are also bone chilling. A excellent horror rpg that scared me just reading the lore.
Seconded. It's definitely a more traditional RPG than some of the ones presented here, but it really does a wonderful job of handling the PTSD of those who routinely confront the unnatural.
@@brianschoner3350 Thirded. Delta green is an incredible game.
Delta Green is one of the highest regarded RPG books of all time.
Best TTRPG on the market. It's grounding in reality and the introduction of Bonds to really bring home the impact of conspiracy and horror on "real" lives just makes this feel so real when you run and play it.
I often recommend 'Leagues Of Gothic Horror' line for classic 19th century gothic folklore RP. It has a large amount of beasties & baddies from literature and tales of the era, including variations from different cultures, in it's books.
Uppsala seem to be in Vaesen, I might have to buy it to read about what they think about my home town. It looked like a nice map though.
It's really great and Free League are a Swedish company so I would hope they do some justice to your home town. Just bear in mind that this is kind of an Alternate universe Uppsala! There's a good Actual Play podcast of this run by Ellinor Dilorenzo called the Lost Mountain Saga, also Sweden Rolls have some Vaesen seasons in their podcast. hth!
My favourite RPG ever is a wonderful horror game that deals with a mix of the deeply weird and the extremely mundane: Unknown Armies. There are monsters, cosmic god-like beings and magick, sure, but the game does a great job of making *people* the most potentially horrifying thing in the game, and specifically the things people do to each other.
It also has one of the best stress systems I've seen. One of the ways I usually describe the game to people is by explaining that your character has four character attributes, and you have five different stress meters (Violence, Helplessness, Isolation, Unnatural and Self)... which each have separate meters for Failed and Hardened notches. More failed notches means you're more nervous, sensitive and easily bothered, more failed notches means you're able to deal with more stress before it gets to you, though it also means you eventually seem callous to other people: people are *supposed* to be bothered by some stuff, y'know?
The game also takes recovering from trauma pretty seriously, recognising that characters can deal with it in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Sure, your character should probably get months upon months of therapy, but for now they might try to cope with self-destructive behaviours, or develop other coping mechanisms.
The magick system (yes, they spell it with a k, the first edition came out in the 90s lol¹) is really cool as well, split into "Avatars" who try to embody "archetypes" in the collective unconscious of mankind ("The Mother", "The True King", "The Masterless Man", "The Soldier" etc) thereby gaining powers associated with those archetypes, and Adepts who are so fiercely obsessed with something that reality kind of just... acquiesces to their will, as long as they embody that obsession by sacrificing any semblance of a chance at a normal life. Believe that hoarding wealth gives you supernatural powers? You better never buy *anything* or your mojo will disappear. Think taking outrageous risks will in turn allow you to manipulate probability? Well, should you ever choose the safer option when presented with alternatives, you better start building that luck juice from the bottom again... and so on. There's tons of these things. Avatars, unlike Adepts, can be more "sensible" people who aren't actually wildly obsessed with a weird worldview, but just choose to embody an archetype they've identified (or they can do it without knowing they're doing it!) -- however, they still have taboos they can't break, or they'll lose some of their power. An Avatar of the Mother who doesn't protect a child in danger is going completely against the spirit of the archetype, after all.
¹ There was actually a supplement called "One shots" that contained one-shot adventures, released in 1999, in which one of the adventures had players on a commercial jet about to fly into the Sears Tower in Chicago, done by someone trying to ascend to semi-godhood as the Archetype of the Terrorist... not the best PR for the game a couple years later.
Thanks for the recommendation! It looks really interesting, especially the approach to mental health making the character more deep rather than leaving the player to rely on tropes. That part also doesn't look complicated at all, which I expected it to be. It looks like a really unique take on the genre, with nice production value.
@@persephoneunderground845 I'm glad you find it interesting! Yeah, it's way better than one would expect from a horror game, or honestly any game. :)
this channel is insanely underrated
Red Markets is still hands down the best Horror RPG I've played and it needs more love
red markets is amazing, love the crunch and honestly straight depressing lore it brings to the classic zombie formula. Fun fact: the guy who wrote it is now making books for delta green! (which I made a comment about here lmao)
How do You play Red Markets? I mean, what makes it so especial?
This Person Should Not Exist sounds so interesting
One you've missed in this video and as well as your 10 best horror tabletop RPGs article is the terrible conspiracy which is DELTA GREEN. That game should get a lot more spotlight as there are a lot of X-Files and True Detective fans out there. The game is a realistic and grim take on modern-day Lovecraftian horror, where agents of a top secret conspiracy fight back unnatural threats and terrors, covering them up in the process.
The premise is basically "men in black", only that these agents don't have fancy gadgets and eyewitnesses need to be silenced using intimidation tactics or by framing them as unreliable, dishonest, insane or guilty in one way or another. If nothing else works, deadly force is also an option, but the cover-up might become more tricky if the players pick that. Existential dread and cosmic hopelessness are central themes in this game, while the creepy side offers bloody occult rituals, mind bending alien threats, reality twisting anomalies and body horror monstrosities.
One of the more gruesome aspect of this game is seeing the lives of these agents crumble under the weight of overwhelming stress, guilt and trauma. This of course makes the game difficult to approach for some, but it can be a treat for those who are drawn to psychological horror and tense situations involving the lives of innocents and also the lives of those who use extreme measures to protect the former.
The rules system is easy to pick up and learn, and the prewritten operations & campaigns for this game are really good. Can't recommend this game enough! Just pick up the 2016- edition from DriveThruRPG or your LFGS and dive into the dark world of DELTA GREEN's science fiction horror conspiracy!
This content is relevant to my interests.
Kids on Bikes RPG (Stranger Things)
Those Dark Places RPG (low budget Alien, or Outland)
Mothership RPG (weird horror sci fi)
Dark places and Demogorgons RPG (Stranger Things)
Outbreak Undead RPG (Zoooombeees)
Buffy/Angel RPG (as in the tv shows)
All Flesh must be Eaten RPG (The walking dead)
Chill RPG (anything Stephen King, actually King use to playing this RPG)
Tales from the Loop RPG (Stranger Things)
And last but not least,
Ghostbusters RPG
Not in print? try looking for the PDF or check out eBay,
Really into Stranger Things?
@@claytongriffith8323
Well, you don't need to be a genius to work it out (maybe you do?, WOW how smart am I.......yeah sarcasm, its a b!tch)
But due to the massive hit of the show it was only a matter of time before there would be multiple attempts to reproduce different elements of the show,
That and its family friendly,
So yeah, (I could of mentioned the D&D version of Stranger Things, its official, but you need to draw the line somewhere, plus I forgot,)
@@Tony-lc5kc No, I knew that after the show a lot of people were recreating it. I'm asking if you personally are really into it
@@claytongriffith8323
I like the first season of the show, And I would play any of those listed, but no, I'm not overly focused on that series,
They don't all do the same thing the same way,
I'd recommend Kult . Genuinely unnerving to play sometimes.
Glad someone said this if you had a good games master with a good story was the best rpg I've played :-)
Solid list. Vaesen is next on my list of games that I’m tempted to buy. This didn not help. Lol.
One of my favourite horror RPGs is still Deadlands: The Weird West. I mostly played the version that is an addon of the brilliant Savage Worlds universal system, but it also exists as the now more than 20 years old classic version. If you like westerns and want a weird and horror twist you can't go wrong with Deadlands. Also, different versions exist, if you like a post apocalypse, a different planet, or film noir. All part of the same story, the same universe. Just a great setting.
Oh man, Vaesen is my favourite game. I've run three of the adventures, and I'm super excited to get the newest kickstarter for it. I cannot recommend it enough
Call of Cthulhu and Dread are essential horror TTRPGs. They are perfection! Vaesen is fantastic game with a dark but beautiful setting. Alien is absolutely terrifying.
We mention Vaesen in our Most Beautiful RPGs list!
Dark Places & Demogorgons RPG is amazing for a Stranger Things type setting
Sleepaway camp is such a hard sell for my group it almost seems like it’s a game for game makers. I don’t know anyone irl that wants to be BOTH player and GM for the duration of a game
I would add Trophy Dark to that list
Ten candles. It has ritual as part of the game and as light dies so do you
how about talking about KULT: Divinity Lost. that's peak horror
Yep best horror rpg I've played need a good story and games master to help push it along but with those 2 is awesome :-)
Great to see Free League well represented here, they are doing phenomenal work and Vaesen is superb - would recommend Lost Mountain Saga for anyone looking for an Actual Play of this one. Shame that Symbaroum did not get well deserved love on the 'No D&D' list, easily the best fantasy TTRPG on the market IMO.
Surprised not to see Delta Green on this list, its by far the best horror game I have played and run. Unlike everything else on this list (and other lists for that matter), it grounds itself in reality, relationships and organisations so when the cosmic horror does become apparent, it is more disturbing than say a Call of Cthulhu (which obviously is still excellent)
Sleepaway seems like such an interesting game that I'm definitely getting into, hope I can get a group together for it
You forgot LAMENTATIONS OF THE FLAME PRINCES
All high elf haters are just envious about their superiority in magic,wisdom and agelessness
Chill that is all.
Critical Role recently played an Aliens one-shot, and it was awesome!
ruclips.net/video/LaKl58BUASo/видео.html
That one shot was really cool. It was a mix of the Alien RPG, Mothership, and some custom rules and items.
This Person Should Not Exist sounds like a game influenced by the Web and the Eye from The Magnus Archives. Hm....
what about 'paranoia'
There are so many better options; I would play Mothership over Alien any day. I would also play my own game (shameless self-promotion warning), They Feed On Fear, where the players take on the role of IT like monsters terrorizing and eating a small population.
Monsters telling you to try turning it off and back on again.
@@toymachine2328 Uh, Stephen King's IT... also was your comment meant to be funny? IT Crowd joke?
@@toymachine2328 😂
@@zenkinet1 well, coupled with the complete lack of a sense of humor, your edgelord game now makes a lot of sense.
@@rawrbeez6625 Okay, how does not getting a joke warrant an attack on my personality and my game about monsters? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Also, how is my game considered an edge lord game? Are all games about monsters considered that now?
Don’t Walk in Winter Wood.
This Person SHould Not Exist sounds like it could be incredible if it weren't for Where's Wally being involved.