The last few days have been spent getting reacquainted with the rules. Chill is a solid 1980s game with few pretensions. The designers knew what they wanted, and they cut straight to the heart of the matter. Some people have criticized Chill's use of a universal table for action resolution, but I like it. Chill's is done well and is fairly easy to use (with one small change). Whatever confusion might exist at the start of play disappears after a few uses. It's not flawless by any stretch, but I've played many games with more "elegant" systems that ran less smoothly, so I don't take criticisms of Chill's action table too seriously.
My only disappointment with Chill was over the published adventures. Too many of them were roller coaster rides; plenty of ups and downs but no opportunities to veer off the track. That wasn't true of every Chill adventure, but it afflicted enough of them to leave a general distaste. For this outing, I'm adapting a scenario from Shadows Over Filmland to the Pacesetter rules. Filmland is just about note-perfect for Chill's Gothic atmosphere and emphasis on classic monsters.
The crew that formed Pacesetter were all friends of mine: TSR expats looking for greater creative freedom away from the mercurial management and financial follies of TSR. They invited me to come along, and turning them down was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. It ranks as one of the three major crisis points of my career, and I still wonder from time to time where I'd be now if I'd chosen differently.
I *LOVED* Chill. When everyone else was playing CoC I was playing Chill and loved every minute of it.
ReplyDeleteI still think that Chill: Vampires is the best resource of it's kind ever. Even in a post-post-V:TM world.
Love to hear how the sessions go.
For some reason, Vampires didn't impress me all that highly at the time, probably because of general vampire weariness. I read through it again while considering what to run for this adventure and was impressed by how much better it is than I remember it. If people enjoy the rules and we do Chill again, I could easily see using that material.
DeleteChill was our go-to game as well bitd. CoC was hard to find for some reason where we lived.
ReplyDeleteI always felt (and still do) that BRP is not a good fit for the horror genre. CoC succeeds or fails entirely on the GM's ability to force those square rules through a round hole.
DeleteAs much as I loved that game, I always had terrible trouble with the fear rules. It was nearly impossible to design a balanced fight, because you could never tell how many PCs would just turn tail and run. Easy conflicts became deadly when only one PC would hang in, and climactic fights would be a cakewalk because the players would have some lucky rolls.
ReplyDeleteVery frustrating.