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Horror RPGs of the 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s
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Horror RPGs, 1980s
Horror RPGs, 1990s
Horror RPGs, 2000s
Horror RPGs, 2010s
Horror RPGs, 2020s
Horror RPGs, 1980s
The 1984 tabletop RPG Chill captures the feel of 1970s and 1980s horror films, where players act as agents of a secret organization to track down and eliminate classic monsters like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts.
CHILL
The 1980s-themed tabletop RPG named Rotworld is a survival horror game where players fight against undead flesh-eaters in a post-apocalyptic setting. The core synopsis involves the collapse of civilization and the desperate struggle of survivors agai...
ROTWORLD | Pacesetter System
Call of Cthulhu (CoC) RPG, launched in 1981, lets players be ordinary people (investigators) facing cosmic horror from H.P. Lovecraft's stories, uncovering secrets, cults, and alien beings like Cthulhu, all while their sanity (SAN) erodes, with no gu...
Call of Cthulhu RPG
Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic (1980s RPG) is about agents of a clandestine US government agency fighting supernatural threats like demons, ghosts, and black magic, using cutting-edge (for the time) tech, secret training, and a mix of gritty...
Bureau 13
The 1980s Ghostbusters RPG by West End Games lets players run their own franchise of the iconic paranormal exterminators, using the simple D6 system with Traits (Brains, Cool, Moves, Muscle) and Talents, a special Ghost Die for mishaps, and Brownie P...
Ghostbusters™ The Roleplaying Game
GURPS Horror, designed for use with the GURPS Basic Set (Generic Universal RolePlaying System), offered rules and guidelines that could be applied to any horror scenario, from Gothic and supernatural horror to slasher films.
GURPS Horror
Beyond the Supernatural is a horror role-playing game published by Palladium Books. It has seen two editions released, both of which have introduced innovations to Palladium's standard mechanics. A versatile horror-themed game, it lends itself well t...
Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG 2nd Edition
Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness is a seminal 1988 Games Workshop sourcebook for Warhammer Fantasy & 40k, detailing Chaos forces with rules, lore, mutations, and deep dives into Khorne & Slaanesh, bridging fantasy and sci-fi Chaos, focusing...
Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness
Aftermath RPGs (plural, as there are different games) typically involve surviving a post-apocalyptic world, focusing on resource scarcity, rebuilding, and facing dangers, with the classic 1981 Aftermath! being rules-heavy for generic post-holocaust s...
Aftermath!
Stormbringer RPG is a dark fantasy tabletop game by Chaosium, set in Michael Moorcock's Young Kingdoms, where players become heroes navigating a world balanced precariously between the cosmic forces of Law and Chaos, facing dangers similar to Elric o...
Stormbringer! – Gaming in the Worlds of the Eternal Champion
Horror RPGs, 1990s
Blood seeks to recreate the feel of modern Hollywood horror films and places a strong emphasis on violence, blood and gore, as opposed to nameless dread. The game is written in a simple informal style with just a hint of self irony.
Blood! - Postmortem Studios
Nightlife is a dark urban fantasy RPG about immortal, monstrous beings called "Kin" (like Vampyres, Werewolves, Ghosts) living secretly in near-future New York City, feeding on human "Herd" while navigating factions, maintaining humanity, and embraci...
Nightlife RPG
"Dark Space" RPGs generally offer gritty, cosmic horror sci-fi, focusing on survival, exploration, and ancient evils in deep space, with specific versions blending Alien/Dead Space vibes, Cthulhu Mythos, or rules-light, narrative-focused systems for ...
DarkSpace Core Rules - Sci-Fi Rules for the Shadowdark RPG
Ravenloft is a Gothic Horror campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons, a dark pocket dimension called the Demiplane of Dread, where mysterious Dark Powers trap evil-doers and heroes alike, isolating them in mist-shrouded domains ruled by tormented...
Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (2e) - Wizards of the Coast
Vampire: The Masquerade (VtM) is a gothic-punk tabletop RPG where players are vampires (Kindred) in a dark, modern world, navigating political intrigue, secret societies, deadly hunters, and their own inner Beast (hunger for blood) while hiding their...
Vampire: The Masquerade
Dark Conspiracy is a dystopian cyberpunk horror RPG (1991) where players are "Minion Hunters" fighting supernatural horrors—demons, aliens, vampires—leaking into a near-future Earth ravaged by economic collapse, corporate control, and environmental d...
Dark Conspiracy the RPG
KULT is a dark, Gnostic-inspired horror RPG where modern reality is a prison called the Illusion, crafted by the tyrannical Demiurge to keep humanity from its divine heritage, with players awakening to see through the unravelling veil to a nightmaris...
KULT
All Flesh Must Be Eaten (AFMBE) is a zombie-themed survival horror RPG from Eden Studios, acting as a toolkit for creating various zombie apocalypse scenarios, from classic Romero-style outbreaks (Rise of the Walking Dead) to unique worlds like a fai...
All Flesh Must be Eaten
Lost Souls is a game in which the player characters are ghosts who have returned to complete an unfinished task before they are able to move on to their next lives.[1] The mission of these ghosts is to restore justice using their powers, and to oppos...
Lost Souls
ightbane RPG is a superhero-horror game set in an alternate present where an alien race, the Nightlords, secretly invaded Earth via a dark mirror dimension called the Nightlands, causing a world-altering "Dark Day" event. Players become Nightbanes, o...
Nightbane® 1: Between the Shadows™
Horror RPGs, 2000s
De Profundis is a unique, GM-free Lovecraftian horror RPG where players create a narrative by writing letters to each other in the style of H.P. Lovecraft, focusing on atmosphere and psychological horror rather than dice rolls. The game emphasizes mo...
De Profundis Second Edition - Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.
Little Fears is a horror roleplaying game where players are children (ages 6-12) fighting monsters from "Closetland," led by the Demagogue, who embody fears and sins like the Bogeyman; they use their powerful Belief (imagination, superstition) to mak...
Little Fears
Demon: The Fallen is a World of Darkness RPG where players are powerful, fallen angels (Demons) who rebelled with Lucifer, were cast into Hell, and have now escaped to a decaying Earth to regain their "Infernal Glory" by influencing humanity, fightin...
Demon: The Fallen
If you need me to explain this one, then you need more help than I can give.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Horror Rules RPGs generally focus on recreating classic horror movie tropes, blending scares with comedy, using simple mechanics to emphasize narrative and survival against monsters or killers, often featuring rules-lite systems where players die fre...
Horror Rules, The Simply Horrible Role-Playing Game - Crucifiction Games
Unbidden is a modern horror RPG where outcast characters, touched by strange powers, fight literal demons and their own inner darkness in a world where reality is fragile, blending psychological horror with supernatural threats, focusing on personal ...
Unbidden - RPG
Dread RPG is a diceless horror tabletop RPG where players create characters via questionnaires and face peril by pulling blocks from a Jenga tower; collapsing the tower results in character death, creating rising tension, while players build suspense...
Dread
Conspiracy X is an X-Files-style RPG where players are agents of AEGIS, a secret government agency fighting alien invaders and paranormal threats, uncovering conspiracies that suggest aliens secretly control Earth, with rival groups like the Black Bo...
Conspiracy X
Dead of Night is a horror roleplaying game (RPG) that simulates B-movie survival horror, where players are victims, hunters, or monsters in quick, one-shot sessions, using simple rules and "survival points" to manage health/sanity, earning points by ...
Dead of Night - SteamPower Publishing
Scared Stiff: The B-Movie Horror RPG is a light, narrative-focused tabletop game from The Guildhall Press (2002) that lets players create and star in their own low-grade horror films, featuring tropes like mad scientists, giant monsters, alien invasi...
Scared Stiff: The B-Movie Horror RPG (Silver Best Seller)
Horror RPGs, 2010s
Eclipse Phase is a hard sci-fi, post-apocalyptic RPG about transhumanity surviving after Earth's fall to AI-driven chaos, focusing on digital consciousness, body-swapping (morphs), nanotechnology, and exploring the solar system via wormholes, with pl...
Eclipse Phase
Maschine Zeit (German for "Machine Time") is a brutal, cinematic sci-fi horror RPG where players are doomed adventurers exploring derelict, haunted space stations in a near-future "Machine Age" where humanity is becoming obsolete. Inspired by films l...
Maschine Zeit
"Abandon All Hope" RPGs offer grim sci-fi/horror survival, often featuring condemned prisoners or desperate survivors trapped on a failing spaceship or in a hellish dimension (Gehenna), battling monsters, rogue AI, insane inmates, and their own fears...
Abandon All Hope 1E - Earl of Fife Games
Outbreak: Undead (and its 2nd Edition) is a hardcore, realistic zombie survival simulation tabletop RPG where players create themselves (or archetypes) to navigate a brutal, collapsing world, focusing on teamwork, realistic needs, and harsh choices b...
Outbreak: Undead
"The Unexplained: Chronicles of the Foundation for Paranormal Investigation" (FPI) is a tabletop role-playing game where players take on the roles of elite paranormal investigators. The game is designed to blend fictional storytelling with real-world...
The Unexplained
Kingdom of Nothing (KoN) is a collaborative, urban fantasy RPG where players are "Lost" people who've fallen through reality into a surreal, terrifying underworld, forgotten their pasts, and become invisible to the normal world.
Kingdom of Nothing
Agents of Oblivion (AoO) is a modern horror-espionage tabletop RPG for Savage Worlds system where players are secret agents fighting supernatural threats and conspiracies, blending Men in Black tech with occult horrors, allowing for gritty spy action...
Agents of Oblivion - Reality Blurs
Rapture: The End of Days is a dark, theological sci-fi horror RPG where the biblical Apocalypse has occurred, leaving scattered human space colonies to face demonic legions and their own descent into superstition and conflict, focusing on grim surviv...
Rapture: The End of Days
rgh! The Supernatural RPG is a free, creative-commons licensed tabletop game using the simple SFX! system, focused on playing supernatural thrillers by emphasizing narrative sense over constant dice-rolling, letting characters' innate powers shine wh...
Argh! - SFX RPGs
The 2011 Horror Show RPG is a tabletop role-playing game from Bedrock Games designed to emulate the experience and mechanics of horror movies. It does not have a single, fixed campaign synopsis but instead provides a flexible framework for running va...
Horror Show RPG
Horror RPGs, 2020s
Bluebeard's Bride is a dark, psychological horror RPG where players embody different aspects (Sisters) of a young bride exploring her husband's mansion, investigating his past, and deciding if he's faithful or a murderer, all while confronting nightm...
Bluebeard's Bride
Heart: The City Beneath is a dark fantasy RPG about desperate "Delvers" exploring a surreal, nightmarish underground realm beneath the city of Spire, seeking dreams, answers, or absolution but risking madness, physical ruin, and death, all while faci...
Heart: The City Beneath RPG
Slasher is inspired by classic films of the 80s, and includes tools to help your table tell their own horror story! One player takes on the role of Slasher, the other the innocent Teenagers. For 3-6 players, 1.5-2 hours of play. An Exalted Funeral ex...
Slasher RPG (Revised) - Higher Grounds
Liminal Horror is a rules-lite, modern cosmic horror RPG where players are everyday people (Investigators) facing unknowable, unsettling entities in transitional spaces (liminal zones) like empty malls, abandoned hospitals, or digital voids, using si...
Liminal Horror
Delta Green: The Conspiracy RPG synopsis centers on modern-day, X-Files-esque horror where players are secret US government agents fighting Lovecraftian cosmic threats (Deep Ones, cults, alien horrors) using government resources while hiding it all, ...
Delta Green
Trophy Dark is a dark fantasy horror tabletop RPG about doomed treasure hunters entering a haunted forest (or similar hostile location) to find treasure, but the game's true purpose is to tell a tragic story of their inevitable physical and mental de...
Trophy - A roleplaying game of tragic fantasy
The Old Gods of Appalachia RPG is a folk/eldritch horror game set in an alternate, darker early 20th-century Appalachia, where desperate people face supernatural horrors (ancient entities from the "Inner Dark," monstrous "Green" forces) and human gre...
Old Gods of Appalachia - Roleplaying Game
They Came From...! is an Onyx Path RPG series embracing B-movie genres, letting players star in fun, pulpy adventures like 1950s sci-fi (Beneath the Sea), 70s horror (Beyond the Grave), or spy thrillers (CLASSIFIED!), using the Storypath System to cr...
They Came From Beyond the Grave! - Onyx Path Publishing
Vaesen is a Nordic horror RPG from Free League Publishing where players are investigators with "The Sight" in 19th-century Sweden, tackling supernatural creatures (Vaesen) from folklore, often requiring rituals or appeasement rather than direct comba...
Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying
SLA Industries is a dark, cyberpunk RPG set in the "World of Progress," a dystopian future where the monolithic SLA Corporation controls everything, using media-saturated entertainment and corporate enforcement to manage a brutal reality on the plane...
SLA Industries | Welcome to the World of Progress