Café de Nuit

Most of the horror RPG's in the market take place on Earth, or on some dark version of it. This is the case with White Wolf's World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Gumshoe games, Dark Conspiracy, Kult and so on. Many of those games include glimpses of different planes and worlds, but those are not the central setting, and usually aren't much detailed.

There are only few exceptional settings, describing a full-scale, fantastic world of horror to play in. To the best of my knowledge, Ravenloft/Shadowfell is by far the most extensively detailed setting of fantasy-horror world that exists. Other examples of such horror-worlds that I know of are Gothos, from Hunt: The Rise of Evil ; and Closetland, from Little Fears games, which in the Nightmare edition looks very much like the Shadowfell (an expansion of Closetland is scheduled to be released this year).

Do you know about any other detailed RPG worlds of horror? Setting that takes place not on Earth, but in a different, nightmarish reality? I would be glad to be informed.

I can't add much to the list, but one computer game that did this very well was Clive Barker's Undying. It detailed two otherworld locations in a Gothic/Lovecraftian horror milieu, known as Oneiros and Eternal Autumn respectively.

For a first-person shooter game, Undying is probably unprecedented in its horror gaming. Very good stuff and well worth a look.

I know nearly nothing about it, but would the world of "Midnight" apply?

I know nearly nothing about it, but would the world of "Midnight" apply?

No. I checked it out. It's a fantasy world inspired by Middle Earth, and though it is ruled by evil, it can't be considered a horror setting.

Bug Hunters. Awesome sci-fi/horror game inspired by The Alien franchise, Critters, and Starship Troopers (the book).

Well, if this thread is still active, then recently I found about the Nightbane game, which describes the Nightlands- a dark reflection of Earth which also look somewhat like the Shadowfell, but darker and more violent. I didn't read it all yet, but it looks quite interesting, not to mention the game's theme, which is roleplaying nightbanes - kind of good aligned were-monsters.

Jack the Reaper wrote:Well, if this thread is still active, then recently I found about the Nightbane game, which describes the Nightlands- a dark reflection of Earth which also look somewhat like the Shadowfell, but darker and more violent. I didn't read it all yet, but it looks quite interesting, not to mention the game's theme, which is roleplaying nightbanes - kind of good aligned were-monsters.

Kind of sounds like Werewolf: The Forsaken for New World of Darkness; darker and more violent reflection of Earth, lycanthropes that are actually the sort-of good guys (well, the Forsaken are; their Pure counterparts are often little more than rabid beasts who view humanity as food or tools, not that some Forsaken are any better). If nightbanes are also spirit hunters and guardians of the mortal world against the Nightlands (and vice versa), then it's a Werewolf clone.

High Priest Mikhal wrote: If nightbanes are also spirit hunters and guardians of the mortal world against the Nightlands (and vice versa), then it's a Werewolf clone.

Or vice versa, since IIRC Nightbane is older... Anyway, the monsters of Nightbane are much more varied - practically any creature from the monsters manuals can be the alternate mode of the PCs.

The Nightlands are deeply connected to Earth of the Nightbane universe and serve as something of a dark mirror to it, so it's not a setting really set off from Earth.

The Nightbane resemblance to lycanthropes is intentional. On that earth the Nightbane are responsible for the legends of werebeasts. The race's morphus (non-human/monstrous form) is also intentionally diverse, as each Nightbane's is a representation of the character's inner psyche.

FYI, I've heard that the game bears a strong resemblance to Clive Barker's book Cabal and the movie based on it called Nightbreed.

Jack the Reaper wrote:

High Priest Mikhal wrote: If nightbanes are also spirit hunters and guardians of the mortal world against the Nightlands (and vice versa), then it's a Werewolf clone.

Or vice versa, since IIRC Nightbane is older... Anyway, the monsters of Nightbane are much more varied - practically any creature from the monsters manuals can be the alternate mode of the PCs.

I found Nightbane/Nightspawn to be a lot more fun and a lot less prententious than W.W.'s Werewolf ( AKA , Captain Planet with Claws!). There really isn't all that much in common between the two games.

I'm not a huge fan of the Palladium house system, but Nightbane has some nifty stuff. It's sort of a superheroes/horror crossover. Beyond the Supernatural is more of a 'traditional' horror game.

ewancummins wrote:I found Nightbane/Nightspawn to be a lot more fun and a lot less prententious than W.W.'s Werewolf ( AKA , Captain Planet with Claws!).

Captain Planet with Claws? Okay, yeah, I can see how the two would seem related. And how any sub-setting of nWOD could be pretentious. That's actually the point; each group--the supernaturals and the mortal hunters--are all largely ignorant of each other by default. One supernatural group usually doesn't trust any other, and the hunter groups have very erroneous stereotypes regarding the other hunter groups and the supernatural groups alike. Pretense is a given.