Okay let me just say right from the start, I am now a Gethsemane Games sqeeing fan girl.  This game is now my favourite RPG of all time, even over their fantasy game Spelldancer.  A lot of work has gone into researching the mythology of the creatures and the magical traditions in the game.

Character generation is very similar to Spelldancer (pretty much the same but with more skills available).  The older your character is when you start the more experience points they start with – you use these to buy or improve skills, spells or psychic powers.  Be careful though, ‘cos the older you are the more disadvantage points you have and you have to buy them off by either taking disadvantages or sacrificing experience. Psychic powers are new – they didn’t appear in Spelldancer but are a must for a Horror Game.  The magic system is all new too.  Gone are the Arcaniums and the flashy magic of the Fantasy game.  This magic system “feels” more like a horror games magic system should. Practitioners of magic much select a tradition that dictates what spells they can and can’t learn.  Each tradition has spells they specialise in – which are the easiest to learn and cast, “neutral” spells which the practitioners of the tradition can use but it cost more to learn them and you will not be as efficient, and excluded spells, which practitioners of that tradition can never learn.  Spells aren’t the only things that mark out the traditions either. There are other things that make them all feel different from each other.  The 3 fold law of the new way wiccans or the way Zoroastrian magi lose willpower for performing “Druj” (evil) actions with their magic.

The curses are neat too but are lifted directly from Spelldancer.  The diseases section is great, and with so many creatures that can infect you it is very important.

The monsters are a mix of classic Horror beasties and some more obscure ones, but everything is taken from real world folklore and mythology.  On the besties, the “preturnatural abilities” gives them a range of supernatural powers that humans can’t learn.

Ghosts are very well handled as well, with fettered and unfettered ghosts, be careful not to destroy a ghosts fetter till you are sure that is the right way to destroy the ghost, ‘cos they get a lot more dangerous if you accidentally unfettered one – that just lifts it’s limitations!

I love how flexible the game is and the way you can set it in any historical period – although most of the art and the examples are Victorian.

Again, the layout is noting special but this makes it far easier on the printer ink, although I could have done without the full page picture of the vampire at the end of the vampire section which will just use printer ink I didn’t need to use.