Liminal Horror (Exalted Funeral with Goblin Archives)
$12 at Exalted Funeral (Print+PDF)
See it here (free archive of the core rules)
Liminal Horror happens to be one of my favorite finds so far, and is one which I am poised to run games for, as soon as I can figure out when and how to squeeze it in to the already busy game schedule I have going. It’s an amazingly handy mini RPG for being about 35 pages in length, yet it can handle just about any modern horror concept thrown at it. Especially interesting to me are its sourcebooks, one of which I am tempted to try adapting to CoC/BRP if I can’t convince any of my players to try Liminal Horror as-is.
What it is: Like Into the Odd, Liminal Horror is part of a subset of one RPGs which use the same base system that is noted not only for being minimalist in design, but for having a unique “damage based combat system,” in which all attacks happen automatically, and your character’s ability to survive is dependent on hit protection scores and damage dice, rather than an ability to roll to dodge. The result is that the game system works best when the underlying genre or setting wants too discourage combat, which always leads to potentially disastrous results. Liminal Horror just happens to be especially suited to this approach, as its emphasis on modern horror tropes means combat should, of necessity, be both a last resort and potentially. disastrous. Evasion or escape is preferred.
The System: Liminal Horror doesn’t come with a programmed setting, but it does contain the seeds of a strong implied universe. The rules are centered around three stats: Strength, Dexterity and Control. You also have a hit protection score (generally 1D6) and roll or choose on several charts to determine equipment and character traits. An Example character can look like this, rolling purely at random:
Percy Walters - STR 16, DEX 13, CTRL 14, Hit Protection 4, Age: 50, Background: Athlete
The Abyss Stares Back: Percy’s first encounter with the unknown was when he witnessed something in the darkness
Ideology: Morality is black and white
Significant Person: an NPC; Contact: a specialist
Description: towering physique, disciplined virtue, chiseled face, rude (flaw), squeaky voice, cursed (misfortune)
Equipment: smart phone, $138 cash on hand, notebook, pen, magic access, laptop PC and printer, a small old figurine, improvised weapon (letter opener!)
There are two additional rolls you can do to determine party info, where they meet and inter-PC bonds. Other than that…you are good to go. Note that a lot of the process above generates descriptive information, and it is up to the player and GM (called the facilitator here) to establish what it means. Optional flaws and misfortunes, for example, have no inherent mechanical effects, but they should have story effects.
The character I rolled got lucky and gained magic. Magic in Liminal Horror is two pages of descriptive effect rules with some very basic mechanical guidelines. The idea is to combine two sets of key words (you can randomly roll) and that is your spell: the exact nature of the effect, within the limits of advised mechanical effect, are negotiable. For Percy’s starting spell I rolled ethereal effect+physical element, and from those lists I choose: “Scrying Crystal.” Since I am playing both player and facilitator in this example, I rule that the scrying crystal spell can, when used, reveal useful information about the subject, and may be from the past or the future.
Spells can be retained sometimes, and you can have a chance of failure, which can lead to omens and catastrophes. It can also lead to the game’s most interesting unique mechanic: fallout. Fallout happens whenever the mental stability of the person erodes. The fastest way is to take stress damage which wipes out hit protection and then deals damage directly to control. The PC who then fails a damage save on Control suffers fallout, which is a deterioration of the mind and soul of the PC. It’s conceptually in the same space. As Call of Ctulhu’s sanity, but instead of emphasizing the mental erosion of investigators, Liminal Horror deals with spiritual, supernatural and existential erosion. A PC suffering from fallout could experience something as modest as horrific nightmares on down to believing they are in a mirror universe of evil, develop an insatiable hunger for the unusual, neural superposition of other dimensional realms on your vision….some really evocative stuff which can lead to entirely distinct stories all on their own for the PC.
The rest of the book includes some spot rules, monster stat blocks, scrolls and artifact information, spark and mystery tables to roll up story ideas, and a sample adventure. The monsters listed have some clear etymology….Plague of Frogs from the Hellboy series for the frog-men, Mother is most definitely based on Lady Dimetrisque from Resident Evil, and child of the spore is a cordyceps zombie from The Last of Us, for example. But hey, you get some simple but evocative stat blocks for 13 monsters.
The module is a blend of zine-style simplicity and a more conventional mystery approach, and introduces the idea of the doom clock, in which investigators have to work to try and avoid increasingly bad things happening over time. The introductory scenario is a neat one, worth playing.
The Setting: The implied setting is modern horror, with an emphasis on mystery and exploration. The risk of fallout from dealing with the horrors of the unknown mean that the likelihood is investigators will increasingly become paranoid, crazy, and out of touch with reality as they are consumed by the supernatural. Although the initial introduction suggests it does not rely on mental illness or trauma as a method of fallout, I don’t see how that can be avoided in a game of this subject matter, not to mention the fallout table is practically exploding with examples of both, so it seems like there may be some author expectations that are perhaps a bit unrealistic for the nature of the genre.
The game also does not provide for level/improvement mechanics at all. This means that the only way investigators can change is through what they do in play, and through what happens to them. This is not a bad approach, in that it means that every investigator is living on borrowed time before the Liminal Horror itself gets them in some way.
The subsequent sourcebooks do a really good job of setting the stage for what the game is about, as we shall see momentarily.
The Supplements: So far I have tried collecting all the Liminal Horror supplements on Exalted Funeral. I've had some mixed success, as follows.
From Goblin Archives/Exalted Funeral:
The Bureau: This is a gem of a scenario and setting book, easily as critical to enjoying Liminal Horror as the core rules. Investigators are recent recruits into the mysterious title organization, which operates out of a vast complex called The Monolith. Something horrific has happened, and the Monolith is locked down, as an incursion from another dimension takes place. If you play video games then this may sound familiar as its the plot of the game Control. The Bureau calls out Control as well as a few other resources as inspiration....but Control is high on that list. That said, this is a fantastic modern horror/dungeon crawl with mysteries, puzzles and unnatural events in spades. There is also a mini set of the LH rules in this book, so you could run the game without the core book. This includes unique backgrounds and fallout effects that fit the themes of the module.
The Mall: equally perverse and leaning in to inspiration ranging from urban explorer videos, Dawn of the Dead, The Void and a bit of The Thing mixed with Lovecraftian cosmic horror. A mixture of shapeshifting monsters, cults and factions trapped in a mall ripped out of time and space makes for another fine and perverse horror-crawl game. Like The Bureau, its got enough info to run the module without the core rules.
Both of the above modules are fascinating enough that if I can't talk my group in to playing them under the Liminal Horror rules I will instead use the BRP or Call of Cthulhu rules, and just adapt the modules (using, as an example, the fallout tables in place of sanity effects).
Other Third Party Products:
Tunnels in White: a haunted warehouse, mysterious mansion, being from beyond called The Sailor all tie in to a liminal horror tale with strong mythos thematics mixed with a bit of the Backrooms.
Trapped in an Endless I-krala: Take a totally-not-Ikea business and turn it into a nightmare Backrooms scenario, and you have this module. The monsters remind me of mimics, but the book includes the base rules and provides a framework for exploring the many levels of the I-krala building. It's not as fancy as the prior three products, but it is worth looking in to for ideas.
The Fear Bundle: This monstrous folio contains about a dozen different zines, booklets, pamphlets and cards as well as character records and even odder stuff. About half of it is intended for use with Liminal Horror and the rest is generically compatible or coincidentally aligned with LH thematically. It's main issue is that the bundle costs a hefty $76 on Exalted Funeral, and the intrinsic value of the content, had it all been bound into a single book, would be closer to maybe $30-40 (if that). I suggest you get it if you're a habitual collector, otherwise see if you can find the parts and pieces separately, or as downloads on itch.io.
Who Should Get This? Well, if you like horror RPGs in general this is a no-brainer. Lminal Horror scratches an itch I learned I had after discovering Mothership, and that is game systems which lean heavily into minimalist but effective mechanical reinforcement of the underlying horror of the campaign setting. More over, it's shocking just how effective Liminal Horror is at capturing an effectively complete system in 35 pages, and how well it manages to evoke modern horror tropes from contemporary movies and games. For better or worse, the horror zine scene is the only place this stuff is thriving right now, as the big boys (CoC, Kult, WoD) are too focused on the highly elaborate and often overly monetized universes they cater to. You're not going to find something like The Bureau and The Mall anywhere else anytime soon for a more conventional RPG.
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