Son of the House of the Bride of An Old Competitor Rises From the Grave

Back in the '80s horror role-playing was pretty much a two-way competition between Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu (Lovecraftian cosmic horror) and Pacesetter Games' Chill (Universal/Hammer style Gothic horror). CoC kept plugging along while Chill changed owners several times and foundered after a third-edition fundraiser failed. Control of the license was split among multiple parties, and the game was effectively dead.

This week, however, Goblinoid Games -- which has acquired rights to the Pacesetter Games brand and the games TimeMaster and Sandman -- announced a new Pacesetter System horror RPG: Cryptworld. The game will be more generic than Chill, supporting more styles of horror campaigns. Cryptworld will be available print-on-demand; Goblinoid plans to announce an order date once the final proofs arrive.

goblinoidgames.com • View topic - Wild speculation welcome!

Other new Pacesetter System titles are Rotworld (zombie apocalypse) and Majus (magic noir).

So Chill isn't back, but this new creature bears an eerie family resemblance.

I love the cover of Cryptworld, very much in the vein of the old pulp horror comics from the 60s and 70s , titles like Creepy Tales for instance. Personally i would welcome a Call of Cthulhu supplement that dresses the system up with pulp Hammer House type horror as opposed to Lovecraft's Elderich Horror, not that it would take much to homebrew it. I think the supplements Blood Brothers had a take on it, i'm unsure. In any case i wish all the best for Goblinoid Games.

Remind me, what was the Pacesetter game system like?

I am also disappointed that, like Chaosium, they don't seem to want to make a combined pdf-print option easy or affordable.

I think I never went for Pacesetter because, and this is odd, they looked cheap and very American, in a lowest common denominator way.

Dan Proctor, Goblinoid Games head honcho, describes Pacesetter's system and answers questions here

goblinoidgames.com • View topic - The Pacesetter System Part 1: Intro and Characters

and here

goblinoidgames.com • View topic - The Pacesetter System Part 2: The Action Table

Goblinoid's products are well-written, carefully proofread and corrected, and laid out in an easy-to-read fashion. They are definitely American and, while not cheap, are reasonably priced. Typical hardback is in the $30-$35 range. Softback titles vary from about $18 to $28, depending on length. My first edition copies of GORE and Mutant Future have held up well enough.

Pacesetter's games featured glossy color covers and decent black-and-white line interior illustrations. The layouts were tight and had small print but that was true of products for Champions, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu and other games of the era.