Chill (role-playing game)

Chill
Designer(s) Gali Sanchez, Garry Spiegle, Mark Acres, Louis J. Prosperi, David Ladyman, Jeff R. Leason, Matthew McFarland
Publisher(s) Pacesetter Ltd, Mayfair Games, Growling Door Games
Publication date 1984 (Pacesetter Ltd), 1990 (Mayfair Games), 2015 (Growling Door Games)
Genre(s) Horror
System(s) Percentile based (d100)
Chill cover, Pacesetter Edition
Chill cover, Mayfair Edition

Chill is a role-playing game that captures the feel of 20th-century horror films.[1] Players take on the role of envoys,[2] members of a secret organization known as S.A.V.E. that tracks down and eliminates evil in the world.

Setting

Chill is a horror role-playing game inspired by Shelley, Stoker, and Poe, where usual foes are vampires, werewolves, mummies, ghosts, goblins, and ghouls.[3] Players take on the role of envoys,[2] members of a secret organization known as S.A.V.E. that tracks down and eliminates evil in the world.

Editions

The game was originally produced by a company called Pacesetter Ltd.[1] Once Pacesetter ceased operations in 1986, Chill was bought in 1990 by Mayfair Games. At Mayfair, the game was published until 1993, when the executives of the company decided to no longer publish RPGs and instead focus on board games. The second edition of the game remains available in PDF format.[4]

A total of 23 official modules (adventure packs and rules companions) were released by Chill's publishers between 1984 and 1993.

Chill and some modules were translated into Swedish and published under the name Chock (Shock) between 1985 and 1987 by Target Games.

Several years ago a third edition was announced by Other World Creations[5] but never was released.

At the end of 2012, Mayfair Games Inc. sold all intellectual property rights pertaining to CHILL to a Canadian couple named Martin Caron and Renée Dion.

In June 2014, Growling Door Games announced the acquisition of the license to publish a new edition of Chill.[6] The game was released in 2015.

Reception

Receiving 7 out of 10, the first edition of the game received a mixed review in issue 61 of White Dwarf magazine. The gameplay was felt to be fairly slow and lacking in scares; furthermore, Chill's significance was lessened as Call of Cthulhu had already paved the way for horror-based role-playing games.[7]

The new third edition has received polarized reviews, with both strong praise[8] and strong criticism.[9]

S.A.V.E.

In Chill, S.A.V.E. (Societas Argenti Viae Eternitata, or, The Eternal Society of the Silver Way) is a secret society that is dedicated to protecting innocents from the creatures of the Unknown.[10] Agents of SAVE are called envoys.[1] The symbol of S.A.V.E. is the Indalo.[1]

Products

Pacesetter edition

  • Chill: Adventures into the Unknown (box set)

Game tools

  • Chill Master's Screen (included Castle Dracula scenario)

Sourcebooks and scenarios

  • Blood Moon Rising (scenario)
  • Creature Feature (sourcebook)
  • Death on Tour (scenario)
  • Deathwatch on the Bayou (scenario)
  • Evenings of Terror with Elvira (book of scenarios hosted by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark)
  • Haunter of the Moor (scenario)
  • Highland Terror (scenario)
  • Isle of the Dead (scenario)
  • Things (sourcebook)
  • Thutmose's Night (scenario)
  • Vampires (sourcebook)
  • Vengeance of Dracula (scenario)
  • Village of Twilight (scenario)

Board game

Mayfair edition

  • Chill Core Rulebook

Game tools

  • Chill Accessory Pack (included Isle of the Dead scenario)

Sourcebooks and scenarios

  • Apparitions (sourcebook with scenario) "The Visitation" pg.96
  • The Beast Within (sourcebook)
  • Chill Companion (sourcebook)
  • Horrors of North America (sourcebook with scenario) "Once Bitten" pg.81
  • Lycanthropes (sourcebook with 2 scenarios) "The Beast of Exmoor" pg.84, "Long Hot Summer" pg.111
  • Things (sourcebook)
  • Undead & Buried (scenario)
  • Unknown Providence: SAVE in New England (sourcebook with 4 scenarios) "Weekend in New England" pg.30, "Death's Head Revisited" pg.47, "Bitter Remnants" pg.81, "Dark Providence" pg.93
  • Vampires (sourcebook with scenario) "Vengeance of Dracula" pg.97
  • Veil of Flesh (scenario)
  • Voodoo (sourcebook with scenario) "Drums in the Night" pg.93

Fiction

  • Chilled to the Bone - anthology of short stories

Growling Door Games edition

  • Chill 3rd Edition Core Rulebook

Game tools

  • Chill Master's Screen
  • Chill Tokens

Sourcebooks and scenarios

  • Free scenarios
    • A Lamp Gone Dark
    • Big Sky
    • Cold Dark Earth
    • Dead Hearts
    • El Cucuy Came for Carlito
    • High Tide
    • in the Domain of the Mariner
    • Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
    • Manhunt
    • Sunshine in Maine
    • Temple of the Skin Man
    • The Last Stop Boys
    • The Wild Hunt
    • Whispered Confessions
  • Good Fences Make Good Neighbors (free quickstart)
  • Monsters (sourcebook)
  • SAVE: The Eternal Society (sourcebook with 4 scenarios)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Chill (Review)". RPGnet. 2002. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  2. 1 2 Epperson, Jerry (October 1984). "Horribly Simple to Learn". Dragon Magazine. IX (5 (#90)): 62–63. ISSN 0279-6848.
  3. ↑ RPG Archive: Chill
  4. ↑ http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2888/Chill-Second-Edition
  5. ↑ Other World Creations News Archived 2010-05-01 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ PRESS RELEASE: GROWLING DOOR GAMES TO PUBLISH NEW EDITION OF CHILL
  7. ↑ McLellan, Angus (January 1985). "Open Box: Dungeon Modules". White Dwarf (review). Games Workshop (61): 9–10. ISSN 0265-8712.
  8. ↑ "Back from the Dead: A Review of Chill, 3rd Edition". GeekNative. 2015. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  9. ↑ "Tabletop Review: Chill, Third Edition". Diehard GameFAN. 2015. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  10. ↑ Melton, Gordon (1994). The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (1st ed.). Detroit, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 852. ISBN 0-8103-2295-1.
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