I was a big fan of Chill 1e from Pacesetter, not a fan of 2e from Mayfair (too much math; ugly art), and was excited about the Kickstarter for 3e. I won't bore you with more narrative of how I got here, so here's my review: it's a great game. I've run it for some friends for several sessions and we've all enjoyed it thoroughly, running different kinds of horror stories and finding that the core mechanic works well in a variety of situations and contexts. I just ran two games for mostly strangers at a local game convention and got rave reviews - so much so that some of the players from the first day bought the book that night and came back to play in my other session the next day. I'm a decent GM, but the system made it easy to get new players up to speed, contributing creatively, and with very little introduction from me.

I like games that provide players and the GM with consistency of resolution and flexibility in application. Chill 3e provides both. The core mechanic is simple, intuitive, and works for the style of game - heavy on the story and atmosphere, lighter on rolls - that Chill seems best to promote. That mechanic, and the systems related to it, are flexible enough to be applicable to just about anything the players could want or GM could devise. Much like Gumshoe, which ensures that players end up with the clues they need to move the investigation forward, Chill guarantees a "vital clue" with every type of investigation roll, regardless of how one rolls. This is a good thing because adventures are boring and frustrating when players go nowhere because they fail a roll for an important clue. Chill eliminates this possibility entirely. If the roll is successful, you get your vital clue...if it's a really good roll you'll get that and something more, and if it's an amazing roll, you'll learn even more. But if you fail you still get that vital clue, and something extraneous that might slow you down...and if you botch your roll you'll get a vital clue and a false lead, and then it's up to the player to figure out what's what. I think this is a simple, clever way to ensure that the plot moves forward while plugging in opportunities to take fate into consideration.

The book itself is very nice, although some of the creature art wasn't so great. The photos throughout the book are quite good, with some even genuinely creepy. I wish the creature art were better, but I'm not going to complain, because it's the stat blocks that I'll use, not the art. The section on creature powers (the Evil Way and 'aspects') is great, making it very easy to create customized foes. Instead of levels or HD, a monster has an 'Evil Way Score' that provides an idea of how formidable it is, and all abilities and powers are rooted in this score. It was easy to create a ghost, for example, that could do what I wanted it to do and be as threatening to the party as I wanted it to be. This should make adventure design easier.

I also think the amount of the book spent on SAVE history and current world hotspots will be very useful to me over time as I run the game, and that background was clearly the work of a passionate group of writers - I appreciate that.

If you liked the original (but realize that the rules are so so so clunky after 30 years) and want an update with a hefty dose of modern story-focused mechanics, this is a good game. If you want a horror game that's easy to run and learn, this is a good game.

While it is great to have all these pregens. The blank character sheet was disappointing. It still contained printing marks (dashes in the corners) and had a page size of 9.08"x12.08". And because of this it does not work well for printing out home or on a 8.5"x11" page (without creating a new Character Sheet of appropriate size).

With this being my first review (I plan on going through my backlog of purchases) I may seem harsh to some. Chill is beloved by many from high school days of gaming and college nights or terrible vampires and mummies! But I don't have those memories, and I have not seen the previous editions before either. But based on name alone I knew that I had to purchase the new 3rd Edition. I ordered a hardcover copy from elsewhere, and the PDF copy here. And it was difficult to enjoy this book:

The art is inconsistent. There are images that most likely were just edited using photoshop, and then there was the beautiful cover! But then there was the amateurish creature artwork. It was all over the place and didn't resemble a clear direction graphically. Like it wasn't committed one way or the other.

The text of the game itself has an apparent number of typos, misplaced words/sentences, and just was difficult to read due to organization. Again, I may be being critical... But 20 pages of pregens before I know what the traits were or how to use the pregens is a little ridiculous. And that the information for the core of the Characters (being the attributes!) is found on page 58 while character creation starts on about page 22. The information on traits was after the information for how to grow your character through advancement from session to session.

That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the chapter that focused on the history of SAVE (the organization that the Players Characters are a part of in the game). But the information was scattered! With references to events without having been hinted at and that would only be further explained pages later. The chapter that I enjoyed suffered from the same typos and organization as the rest of the book. However! There was a short bullet point timeline that helped ease things on the last pages of the chapter. Even if what looked like major events in the timeline weren't mentioned in the history of SAVE.

Overall, I would not recommend this book to someone who would read it. Page by page in order. Or even as a material to search through like a dictionary. Seeing as the references generally don't give page numbers in the text.

I was greatly dissappointed. And had a lot more to say about it in my full writeup (which can be found here: http://orbitabovegames.com/2015/10/06/an-opinion-on-chill-3rd-edition-from-growling-door-games/).

I hope that in the future it is greatly revised and rewritten.

http://diehardgamefan.com/2015/05/15/tabletop-review-chill-third-edition/ Among the ugliest sheets I've ever seen. Artwork is not even on par with Mayfair, which was abysmal compared with Pacesetter art. The positive reviews are obviously friends and relatives of the author - no one has such abominable aesthetic sensibilities.

The is a great set of sheets. The Art is great and really fits the feel of the game. I think it is nice in this day the creators took the time to create so many pregens rather than just a few and to include colored art work..

Great Job!!

Just a quick note to anyone curious. I haven't done more than glance at the book, particularly character gen and pre gen characters but it is very well organized with very clear and helpful instructions on how to build your character. I definitely Say this is worth a person giving it a look over. Good job updating an old favorite !

This is a free product. That's pretty awesome. Most publishers would charge for this.

Also, with most "pregen characters" packs, you really only get enough for everyone at the table to have one choice. This gives a bunch. That's super cool.

One thing I like is, you can usually tell a lot about the game from looking at character sheets. This tells you a lot, and is a great way to get a feel for what the game is before buying or committing to running a demo session.

The art? Great.

In short: Would buy again. Would probably pay a couple dollars for this sort of thing.

A solid character sheet, and some good and varied pregens. Each character has a short backstory which offers good hooks without feeling limiting. The character art is good and has a comic book feel to it, which suits CHILL well.

Part source guide to New England, part historical treatsie and part adventure Unknown Providence covers a lot of ground. Set firmly in the Chill/SAVE meta-plot this book was one of the first of what was to be the new direction in Chill. Sadly it was also one of the last. The background and history of New England is awesome. Filled with all sorts of facts and ideas to use in any game as well as a cast on NPC, monsters and SAVE agents. The adventure is less good, though perfectly fine.

Chill Vampires is the standard to which all vampire related supplements to a horror game must be measured. Any game can produce a bunch of stats, some bad fiction and link them together, Chill: Vampires is a Master's Thesis on combating the undead. Not just notes for the would be vampire slayer (and game masters) but also detailed accounts of the most brazen of the undead. Complete with stats, history, motivations and the notes of previous investigators and SAVE agents. This book is fantastic for any game but essential for a good Chill game. I would recommend it on the basis of the Dracula and Bathory write-ups alone, but there are more and even stranger and deadlier vampires in these pages.

What I loved most about Chill was it was American Horror. Not just New England, or even old England, but the Mid-West, the North and all over the place. Horrors of North America is one part travel guide, one part monster manual and all parts awesome. Great even if you are not playing Chill as a guide to whats weird and supernatural out there.

A must have if you are playing 2nd Edition/Mayfair Chill, AND a good buy for fans of any horror rpg.

Add more depth to your characters including (and most importantly to me) the use of magic and psionics. Nothing beats Chill and this was one of the best additions to the game.

Chill is a great game. I picked this up to get a glimpse at Mayfair's version of Pacesetter's original creation. In my view the system seems use the same concepts. I will be picking up the full download soon. A+

the chill game within itself is a very interesting game this web site on the other hand has some problems which need to be looked at like the down loading of the games needs to be made much easyer

the chill game within itself is a very interesting game this web site on the other hand has some problems which need to be looked at like the down loading of the games needs to be made much easyer