I hadn't played a proper roleplaying game for so long, I had almost forgotten what it feels like, which is kind of a shame as it feels pretty much brilliant; a fact of life I was reminded of a couple of days ago when I, the lady of the lair and my best friend went over to another friend's place for a few hours of Chill. A few hours that turned out to be, well, quite a bit more than a few and were even enjoyed by said lady who had -interestingly- never experienced an RPG before.
After all, we did get back home both slightly tipsy and at 4 o' clock in the morning, which made this feel like a most proper and mainstream of Saturday nights. Of course it wasn't. It was a night when we got recruited by SAVE (the Societas Argenti Viae Eternitata) to combat the Unknown somewhere in the snowy parts of northwestern USA, got to think, scheme, strategize, solve puzzles and combat a most disturbing entity with a taste for cannibals, while rolling dice, listening to atmospheric music, chatting (or, well, strongly disagreeing) about art and drinking a truly fine single malt whiskey. Yes, it was a fun, rewarding and most invigorating night, that reminded me that making time for the odd RPG session should become a priority. I was even reminded of what a great system and game world Chill has to offer.
Chill, you see, is a rather obscure, d100 based, tabletop RPG system that was published by Pacesetter and then Mayfair Games and has been out of print for over a decade. The game sports simple to learn core mechanics and focuses on what it does best: horror and intricate monsters, that each need to be killed in a particular nasty way, the discovery of which is always half the fun. A zombie for example has to be shot in the head, whereas a rakshasa can only be destroyed by any wound inflicted with an iron blowgun dart, that is fired from a blowgun made of bamboo that is at least 15 years old.
Intrigued? Good. You can (and frankly should) find out more about Chill via this RPGnet review, its Wikipedia page and this handy Chill FAQ. Better yet, why not grab the Chill books themselves? Mayfair Games is still selling a vastly discounted bundle of books and you can find everything you'll ever need to enjoy the game on either Amazon
Although I'm glad you acknowledge the game, I'm not that glad to see that really, really ugly piece of graphics illustrating the article. Why not use the Swedish edition of Chill (Chock) instead? It's a heck of a lot prettier, dontchathink?
ReplyDeleteWell Pete, though admittedly better, I'm pretty sure us with poor knowledge of Swedish would quite spectacularly fail to grasp the Chock-Chill association. BTW, that was a brilliant pic you linked to. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought that "Mazes and Monsters" was the scariest RPG of Them All...
ReplyDeleteHor hor hor. Mind you, we are having sort of a M&M give away right now. Twelve pamphlets, 3 books and one CD can be yours for the modest amount of 40 euros.
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