ReadyComicsRoll has announced their Kickstarter for their new “Rules-Lite” modern horror tabletop RPG, What Horrors Lie In Wait. Described as “a love letter” to the genre, What Horrors Lie in Wait‘s campaign kicks off on April 3rd.
Inspired by and incorporating many of the different sub-genres, themes, elements, and tropes of horror over the past several decades, the TTRPG allows players to recreate their favorite horror movies, video games, and comics books, or create their own tale of terror. This is due to the “Rules-Lite” nature of What Horrors Lie in Wait, making it easy to pick up, learn, and play for newer tabletop roleplaying games and veterans alike.
Despite the provided setting, lore, and organizations being rooted in a modern time period, the tools and mechanics of the game aren’t necessarily bound to the setting. The game is such that the Fate Weaver (person responsible for running and overseeing a game in WHLIW) can choose to tell a tale that takes place in the future, the past, or even on a completely different planet or plane of existence!
The game’s world is similar to ours, but with many different entities (such as Vampires, Werewolves, Revenants, Soulbound, etc.) hiding within plain sight and living among us, while creatures lurk just beyond the corners of our eyes.
There is a fragile balance within this realm of gods and monsters, where discovering the truth could cause the entire world to unravel, descending into chaos. To prevent this from happening, there are several organizations that strive to maintain this secrecy and protect both human society and the old world in turn.
If that wasn’t enough, you also have cosmic conflicts between the old gods of that past have created fractures in reality, allowing powerful new threats from other worlds, even multiverses and beyond, to slip into the game’s world.
If all of this sounds a too much, you can simply play What Horrors Lie In Wait like a pulp horror adventure, where elements of tension and terror might still come into play, but it all takes a backseat to the player’s journey and their exploits. The creators describe this style of play as “along the lines of Supernatural, the B.P.R.D. series of comics, or even Army of Darkness.”
The purpose of the Kickstarter is for the work that remains on What Horrors Lie in Wait. Namely, the art, layout, and potential editing. Writing for the game has already been completed and thoroughly playtested.