goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
Spectrum Games announces new RPG, Slasher Flick
Spectrum Games is pleased to announce Slasher Flick, an RPG that emulates the "psycho killer" sub-genre of horror films.
According to Spectrum President Cynthia Celeste Miller: "Some of my earlier childhood memories involve my parents taking me to the drive-in theater to watch such slasher films as Halloween, My Bloody Valentine and Happy Birthday To Me. This led to my lifelong fascination with movies about masked maniacs chopping up hapless teenagers. So, when I came up with the idea of designing and publishing a horror game, going with one based on the psycho killer films was kind of a no-brainer."
As with Cartoon Action Hour: Season 2 before it, every single aspect of Slasher Flick will cater to replicating the source material. It will not be a universal system simply adorned with genre-appropriate artwork. For instance, one of the core concepts of the game is the 'kill scene', which begins when the killer first comes after a character and ends when the character either goes below zero survival points (at which point a character dies) or gains a total of eight survival points (at which point the character escapes, puts the killer down or otherwise gets out of danger). Survival points are won or lost by making various stat checks over the course of the kill scene.
Cynthia elaborates: "One of my favorite challenges with designing a game that emulates a specific genre is sitting down and dissecting what makes that genre unique and then figuring out how to translate it to game form, all the while making it fun. With slasher movies, there are so many entertaining tropes to be explored. For example, in the movies, there's always a core group of characters that you just know are going to either survive or be among the last ones to die; we call them primary characters. Then, there are the ones who have 'victim' practically stenciled on their foreheads; these are known as secondary characters. This convention of the genre is represented in the game by the players each creating their very own primary characters and collaborating on the creation of a pool of secondary characters. This gives the players more of a vested interest in these victims, as well as their own characters. Plus, the players share the secondary characters during the game, allowing them to experience the fun of being eviscerated, decapitated, mutilated or any other word ending in 'ated'."
Slasher Flick is still relatively early in the development stage, but most of the essentials are already in place. That having been said, Spectrum Games is taking a different approach to the game's creation.
"I decided to allow fans to have an impact on how the game turns out. I will occasionally be posting design issues on the Game Design and Development sub-forum at RPG.net. You can post your opinions and ideas about the posts I make, making it an interactive experience. In fact, I've already made the first post of this nature, which can be read here. Everyone who jumps into the fray will be fully credited in the final product."
Slasher Flick will be available in both PDF and print formats, though a release date has yet to be determined. For more information, visit here.
Slasher Flick Now Available for Pre-Order
For those of you wishing to obtain a copy of Slasher Flick when it arrives on April 1st, you're in luck. By sending a $7.99 USD payment to our PayPal account (smbateman@gmail.com), you will not only receive the rulebook on April Fool's Day, you'll also receive a bonus mini-supplement PDF.
Additionally, pre-order customers can send an email to cynthia.spectrumgames@gmail.com with the subject line "Slasher Flick Give-Away". Those who do so will be entered into a drawing, wherein the winner will also be sent a signed hardcopy version of Slasher Flick.
The pre-order offer expires on March 10th, 2009.