Liminal Horror Investigators (Goblin Archives)
You know what I haven't reviewed yet? An actual paper-and-pencil RPG! Lots of movies, several books and graphic novels, a few video games....but no RPG. Well, let's fix that with Liminal Horror. Published in the indie scene by Goblin Archives, the current edition is called Liminal Horror Investigators, which is a slightly buffed up version of the original Liminal Horror book. Being indie zine RPGs, these are slim tomes, but don't worry....a recent crowdfunding campaign which I backed is for a thick and heavy hardcover Deluxe Edition, so as with all good and simple RPGs, that will inevitably change. It's like the carcinization effect on beaches, except in the RPG book world, all slim and to-the-point RPGs inevitable morph over time into immense, weighty hardcover tomes.
Liminal Horror uses the game engine introduce in "Into the Odd," which is a very simple mechanical system involving only three stats: Strength, Dexterity and Control. You have a hit score, "HP" for Hit Protection, which is effectively your "combat competence timer to death" meter.....the game system's combat mechanic is unique in that during combat, an attack simply rolls damage and applies it to the target's armor and then HP score. Hit Protection is really measure of how tough and competent you are in a fight, and when it hits zero your luck has run out and damage is now critical, going against your stats. This leads to the Wounds table, where bad things happen, or the Fallout table which is what happens when you take mental damage against your Control score. In Liminal Horror Fallout can be customized to the module, and it can mean anything from mental effects such as paranoia to bizarre supernatural curses and manifestations. The sample tables provided provide some great concept spaces for a game.
Most of the game's character generation process boils down to rolling for a profession, appearance personality traits, gear, and some bonds and features to link the party together. The remainder of this 44 page book is a couple pages of rules (it's a very simple game) and cool stuff for a "facilitator" to use -- the game's name for the GM. This includes rules on artifacts, a small bestiary, different styles of adventure design (voidcrawls, mysteries, funnel rules and flashbacks all get some attention). There's no magic system as such; magic may manifest as a side effect of fallout, resonant artifacts, or whatever the GM (facilitator) might throw in the investigator's way.
Overall Liminal Horror is a very nice, slim pick-up-and-play zine RPG and well worth a look if you like portable games that can get a group up and running in no time. It has a number of modules available from different supporting publishers, of which The Bureau and The Mall are two of the most noteworthy, though I am especially fond of The Parthogenesis of Hungry Hollow. The style of horror in the game and its modules is reflective more of modern horror themes common online and in video games. Imagine Silent Hill, The Backrooms, Creepy Pastas, Slenderman, Sirenhead and such and you will get an idea of what is thematically in sync with what Liminal Horror supports....but even in the bae book there are some curiously Innsmouthian influences hidden in there so mythos horror is also in the mix. Note also that there is a module featuring these frog men in the first Liminal Horror book that is missing from the Investigators edition, so still a reason to hold on to that tome if you find an original. Mechanically this newer version just adds more rules options and ideas, but leaves that module out. I am interested to see how they fill up a couple hundred pages with the Deluxe Edition.
For useful resources on Liminal Horror click here!
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