The New Flesh

I backed Tremulus on Kickstarter so I had access to the PDF version of the game for a while, although the print copy turned up last year I've struggled to formalise my feelings on it. I didn't find the PDF that accessible and was hoping, like a lot of games, that the ideas would be easier to absorb on the written page. However it turns out that the PDF was representative of the game generally and it is not the easiest of reading. Tremulus is a horror game based on the Apocalypse World engine, it aims to create a Lovecraftian atmosphere by revisiting the sources, side-stepping the baleful gravity of Chaosium's classic interpretation of the genre. This does give the game an original spin and also means it can handle a broader range of horror themes than fishmen in the harbour or dangerous geometry. The playbooks are pretty standard for the AW family and you cannot really judge them without giving the game a go. The thing I'm finding most intriguing about the gam...

Monster of the Week is a game that can I only really think of as being Monsterhearts without the sex and angst. That undersells what it offers and tries to achieve. Whereas both games have deep roots in the Buffy series, Monsterhearts takes the sexual angst of the TV show and makes it explicit via teen horror films. MotW on the other hand focuses on the action and literal monster-fighting throwing in similar shows ranging from Dr. Who to X-Files. The result is less shocking, enticing and transgressive but perhaps much more flexible and varied to play. It might also be more appealing to people who find Monsterhearts too full on. For the most part the game has little new to offer, there are playsheets that do a good job of representing the various archetypes of Buffy with enough variety to encapsulate a wide range of TV shows. The GM Moves, Agenda and Principles are sound but for the most part because they have been thoroughly road-tested in Apocalypse World itself a...