No, I’m not going to say all the obvious stuff again. I won’t batter on about how Horrified is my gateway game and the reason I’m up to the nips in this hobby and how I won’t tolerate a single word against it. I promise. I’m going to be totally different this time.
How about this: I’ve always been a bit alongside Dungeons & Dragons. Very aware of the TTRPG, but never involved in it directly. My first D&D-adjacent product I enjoyed was the 1980’s cartoon. I was 8 (was I ever really 8?) when it graced UK television screens, and it kicked off a forever-love of fantasy worlds. Dragonlance Chronicles became my utter favourite book trilogy for a while - I wore my first copies out, the pages ended up worn and frayed. Then I stumbled across a magazine called Dragon in John Menzies (remember that shop?) in the late 80s and I was absolutely fascinated by the contents, even if I didn’t understand what half of it was referencing. I got my hands on a Monster Manual simply because I bloody loved monsters. Then there was a comic book sale on in Athena (remember that shop?) in my late teens and I blasted through every penny I had scooping up random D&D themed issues.
It’s funny to think that I’ve never played D&D - the closest I’ve veered towards it is a bit of Advanced HeroQuest - and yet I’ve always loved it. And I suppose Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons hasn’t changed that alongside-ness one little bit, but I’m enjoying it at least as much as all these other things I’ve enjoyed, if not more (spoiler in the middle of the intro, what you gonna do?).
I will mention that I took a fairly savage dislike to the previous iteration in the Horrified series, World Of Monsters. I felt that it cast aside the majority of what makes the series great. Yes, the basic mechanics were still the same, and yes the automa still worked, but there was no theme at all and it was a mish-mash of monsters that didn’t belong together. It lost the atmosphere. The announcement of this Dungeons & Dragons version featuring some of its most famous creatures was something I eyed with great interest. My initial thought was, ‘Horrified? D&D? They’ve lost the plot!’ Then it occurred to me that at least this would be a return to a unified theme, and perhaps it would be well-thought out. But what about that D20? Is it just a gimmick or will it add something to the gameplay?
Let’s delve deeper…
How To Play
I won’t spend long on the rules of the game: if you want the nitty gritty, look elsewhere, I save my word count for impressions and feelings (although you’re probably saying I wasted a bunch of words on that hoity-toity little statement, aren’t you? (attitude)).
Set the Terror Track to 0. Fair warning, it won’t stay there for long…
Select the monsters you dare to face (follow the instruction book’s advice if it’s your first game). Choose your character - there's some decent inclusivity options here. All minis and standees have specific starting points. You will be given one Perk - others are earned by saving NPCs (who have a ‘charming’ habit of turning up exactly when and where you don't need them to). The terror track is set to zero - this goes up one every time either a hero is successfully attacked and cannot spend an item to deflect, or an NPC is killed (two reasons to save these buggers then).
You have a set number of actions you can take per turn, indicated on your character sheet. Move speaks for itself. Lead allows you to take any number of NPCs with you - you save them by leading them to their intended destination. Pick up allows you to take the items at a location. Those items will prove useful too - you'll use them to solve the puzzles that defeat the monsters in play (which is another possible action). You can also share items with other players (or your own characters) if they occupy the same space - handy if they’re going to head off towards a monster’s challenge space on their turn. The Advance option allows you to use an item to solve part of a monster’s challenge (and remember that you can use all of your actions on Advance if you’ve got enough relevant items - you can take actions in any combination that suits you).
The monsters you're trying to defeat are controlled by AI - in this instance, a deck of cards. Every player turn will see the top card from this deck played, and there will be instructions to follow. There will be an event to resolve, and then a symbol or two at the bottom. These symbols represent the monsters. If a monster’s symbol is shown, that monster moves the amount of spaces shown, and rolls X amount of attack dice should it land on a space occupied by a hero or NPC. A defeated villager is removed from the game and the Terror Track advances one space. A defeated hero also costs one move along the Terror Track, but they aren’t dead: they’ll return to the board via the Reviving Throne at the start of their next turn.
This time round there’s the addition of a D20, and this rogue element imported from the D&D TTRPG is employed to excellent effect. The D20 is used to resolve special abilities and actions for the heroes, and during some monstrous attacks. If you trigger your hero's ability, then a high roll could enable you to cancel a monster's entire turn, but a low one could result in a wasted action. This brings that element of chance from the D&D realm into the Horrified engine, and allows for welcome moments of great victory or anxiety-inducing disaster. It’s a genuinely well-implemented addition, and almost feels like it belonged in the series from the start.
This, then, is your mission. Destroy the monsters before that Terror Track maxes out. Hold your nerve, be brave…
How Well Does It Play?
The thing with all of the Horrified versions is that they function exactly the same when played solo as they do with two or more players. The monsters are always controlled by the automa card deck. All the rules are the same. The only difference is experiential - whether or not you prefer solo to cooperative depends on your particular disposition. On your own, you can make all characters go exactly where you want to - the plan is yours. With others involved you will need to discuss that plan together, and even then your teammates might abruptly decide on a different move without warning. You will either believe this is all part of the fun, or deeply inconvenient/exasperating.
You can probably guess which side of the line I land on.
Look, it’s great fun with others, in the way that the best co-op games are: your team is cruising, everything is going well… and then it suddenly isn’t. The player with all the items is cornered, the monsters have got the upper hand, they’ve just taken down another villager and the Terror Track has crept up more than you realised, it’s tremendously tense fun.
However, my first play of any Horrified game (the original Universal Monsters version) was a solo playthrough, and I was simply stunned that the game worked as it promised. I was new to the hobby and therefore knew little of automas, and had actually assumed that the monsters must be controlled by one player while the others controlled the heroes. Even after setting the game up, I was convinced it would be a silly affair with the monsters offering an ineffectual and random-feeling challenge. Sometimes it’s great to be wrong. The game was tense, exciting, atmospheric, and there was a feeling that the game really was out to get me. It was a little bit magic. World Of Monsters lost that magic because the theme was so slapdash and the monsters unrelated, so it’s appropriate that it takes D&D to bring that magic back.
Horrified at its best feels like storytelling to me. It can feel like a classic monster film or book with all the ups and downs and plot twists and tight spots to squeak your way out of. I get lost in my own little world. It’s an hour of action and drama and switchbacks and it’s my ideal way to spend a Sunday evening.
It feels best when controlling three characters. It’s just enough time between turns for each character that the monsters can sneak up on one and crank up that tension: it’s the right amount of danger. Controlling more characters is actually harder, as they end up standing around that little bit longer between turns, and every time one of them falls that Terror Track ticks further towards doom-time. At this level you need to think about using some characters as decoys and others to focus on solving each monster’s puzzle. That’s the beauty of Horrified, though. You can try any kind of combo of monsters versus characters and see which suits you best.
Conclusion
I can’t stress this opinion enough: Horrified: D&D is a well-needed return to form. The Dungeons & Dragons theme is a strong fit for the series, and is quite honestly a relief to this fan, who feared that the series had veered permanently off the rails. The atmosphere is back, the fun is back, the heart and soul have returned to Horrified.
That is not to say that all of the problems of the recent iterations have been solved. We’re still short-changed on monster variety. Four monsters is still a serious step-down from the six we used to get, and we aren’t getting as many player character choices either. Yes, I hear you, if I want variety then I can mix and match monsters with Horrified: World of Monsters. I’m going to be a whinge: I don’t want to mix and match. That doesn’t interest me. I am well aware that others will get plenty of mileage out of the possibility of playing a Beholder with a Yeti. Part of the reason I dislike World of Monsters, however, is the mishmash of monsters chosen for the game. They have no real thematic link, and it makes that particular game feel very blah for me - it is the only version that I would consider selling. The reason I still play Horrified: Universal Monsters is the large amount of themed variety within the box. Six well-chosen, well-balanced monsters gives a lot of replayability.
Also, the dip in component quality from the first couple of games remains an issue here. It’s not a huge deal, and you’re unlikely to notice if you aren’t a long-term fan (although I’m pretty certain that people will universally recognise how crap the item bag is), but if you are a Horrified Stan, then you’ll yearn for the standards of the original production.
Horrified: D&D has retained a lot of the ambience of the first game. A unified vision takes a unique hold on players and creates the atmosphere that makes a game compelling. The art design across the board is second-to-none, and every element feels as if it belongs.
Coming next is Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft, and this horror setting from the TTRPG feels like a triumphant Horrified homecoming in the making…
