Stay Alive! by Sean K. Reynolds and Shanna Germain is a role playing game supplement published by Monte Cook Games for use with Cypher System. This is a setting book and, although it does contain game mechanics, the Cypher System Rulebook is also needed to play.
The supplement is available as a 226-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $18.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. One page is the front cover, three the front matter, one the Table of Contents and one is the Index.
Introduction: Growing up with Horror is a single page on the author’s experience with horror and creating it as a game designer.
Part 1: Horror Worldbuilding starts with Chapter 1: Horror Can be Anything and Anywhere. This explains to how to spot references to the Cypher System Core Rulebook and why that is needed, the human love for being scared and brief definitions of various genres of horror.
Chapter 2: Building Your Horror Setting explains that the first step is to decide what setting to use, and a sidebar looks at informed consent, which is covered in more detail in Chapter 3. It looks at some published horror RPG settings, borrowing ideas from various sources, various different base settings if using your own, has some horror inspiration tables to roll on and looks at informing players about the setting, as well as deciding what characters in-world know about monsters and horror; in media, characters who do stupid things like going off alone when a chainsaw maniac is on the loose could be from a world where horror media doesn’t exist.
Chapter 3: Consent in Horror explains that whilst horror is a genre where people expect to be scared, not every subtype of horror is suitable for everyone, and some players may not like some elements; these should be discovered in advance to avoid problems. It references the Horror Game Consent Checklist, found at the back of the book.
Chapter 4: Horror Plots: Why and How explains that most of the framework for the horror setting covers the Who, What, When and Where of the five W questions, and this chapter looks at Why and How. Why is finding the plot and How is how the PCs are involved. Following this are 40 sample horror plots.
Chapter 5: Advice for Running a Horror Game starts with some advice for players on how to make horror more effective by getting rid of distractions, as well as knowing your character and the rules. Following this are suggestions on enhancing the mood, including appropriate props and effects. Getting characters emotionally invested in NPCs is another useful thing, and it also looks at creating narrative highs and lows and handling them. Showing, not telling, is next, with examples of setting the scene with descriptions. It explains that horror fatigue is a thing, and many horror games are one-shots or multi-session story arcs. Red herrings, or misleads, are next, and how to add horror to an existing campaign, and the use of the sequel, a staple of the genre. Finally, it looks at death, which in a horror campaign is more than likely going to happen to characters, as otherwise the horror loses its bite.
Chapter 6: Horror Genres starts by explaining how to understand the listings. Each is named, has an overview, a look at why the genre is scary, horror modules, which are optional game mechanics in Chapter 7, that can be used, risks of running the genre, including consent issues, how to make the genre scary in game, media inspiration and sidebar callouts and GM intrusions. A brief overview of each genre, and there are 23 different genres, is followed by detailed descriptions following the format outlined, each taking up two pages. Sometimes, there can be overlaps between the genres, especially in the inspirational media; Lovecraftian, for example, has its own genre, but Lovecraft’s works crop up as inspiration in other genres.
Chapter 7: Encylopedia of Horror Mechanics contains a number of optional rules, which are called “horror modules” that were referred to in the genre descriptions in the previous chapter, intended to make a game more scary or represent a common trope in a type of genre. There are 18 different modules, though one, Horror Mode, is an optional rule from the Cypher System Rulebook and the default assumption is that every horror game uses this mode. Some modules are more complex than others.
Chapter 8: Cypher Shorts has three, two-page Cypher Shorts which are quick and easy adventures intended for use with the Cypher System with minimal GM prep and quick character creation.
Chapter 9: Creatures and NPCs is the bestiary. It starts with a list of creatures by level, some of which are in the Cypher System Rulebook, and the genres they are suited for. The creature descriptions follow, each following a standard format with stats, use, interaction and GM intrusions. Given the nature of horror, it’s unlikely that all of these creatures would be found in the same setting, though not impossible if there was some kind of overall setting. Finally, there are a couple of NPCs laid out in the same way.
Chapter 10: Horror Cyphers are new cyphers suitable for horror games. They are categorised by the horror genres listed in Chapter 6, though there are naturally some that work with different genres.
Chapter 11: Horror Artefacts is similar to the previous chapter, only this contains artefacts. It starts by explaining that most artefacts in a horror setting are either cursed or used to control, contain or destroy the horrors and that as horror mixes genres, any artefact has the potential to be included in any horror game, no matter what the subgenre of either. There is also a sidebar on Lovecraftian artefacts. The artefacts themselves are then detailed; unlike the previous genre, the specific genre of them isn’t given. Most are easily recognisable.
Part 2: Masters of the Night begins with Chapter 12: Welcome to the Night. This is a brief chapter that explains that Masters of the Night is a mini-campaign setting with the characters being created vampires in the modern world who lack more experienced vampires to guide them. It gives a brief rundown as to what the different chapters contain.
Chapter 13: Awakening deals with the creation of new vampires. It explains that the four character types from the core book are used, and setting-appropriate character concepts for each are given, followed by appropriate descriptors. Next, appropriate foci for the setting are given, with suggestions as to how to use them and how to use vampire in the character sentence. A sidebar explains that the other characters are allies, and characters should not turn on each other.
Vampires can do things human can’t, using blood shifts. They start with three and gain an additional one at tiers 2, 4 and 6. Some blood shift examples are given. The standard vampire abilities are given, followed by the gifts and bloodlines; gifts can be learned in place of a new type or focus ability and are bloodlines are the categories they are divided into. The gifts are not covered here, but in the core book. There are also some bloodline player intrusions.
Details on the benefits of feeding and the effects of hunger are given, and some possible substitutes for blood. There are also various vampiric weaknesses coming from stories, though the newly-formed player vampires don’t know which are and aren’t true, nor do they know how to create new vampires.
Chapter 14: Secrets of Being a Vampire contains information for the GM for running the mini-campaign. It starts with a number of decisions that need to be made for the characters before they are created; whether the players know they are creating vampires or not, with them creating normal characters to start if not, whether or not all the blood shifts are created at once and whether they have a bloodline gift. There are details on changing the character sentence and some general things to know about vampires, especially when it comes to feeding, how they sleep and various aversions vampires can suffer from. There are also quirks for vampires, details on drinking from the dying, the dead and from other vampires. There are also some optional rules and details on setting difficulty ratings by PC tier.
Chapter 15: Your City at Night has setting info for the Masters of the Night mini-campaign, and it’s advised to set the campaign in a city that’s known well, only presented through a dark and corrupt lens. It looks at daily life as a vampire and how various character arcs can be used, and has sidebars on consent topics and whether vampires could be science or supernatural. Vampires are a secret and there may be other supernatural secrets too. The older vampires are all missing. With their being a strong criminal focus, various criminal activities are listed, as well as using the idea in other genres and time periods. Vampire slang is given, and details on the vampire gangs, with typical gang members, named NPCs and the gangs they could belong too and some example gangs.
Chapter 16: Your Last Sunrise is a short adventure in which the characters have been turned into vampires by Mr Shark, an established vampire who became aware that the more powerful vampires in the city are being killed, and turned the characters in order to have them run his criminal operations whilst he fled the city. They are given some “food” in the shape of thugs to kill and then told what they are there to do by Mr Shark’s human associates.
Chapter 17: Power Vacuum is the next adventure in the series. In this, they need to start doing their job in Mr Shark’s criminal enterprises, making sure the money keeps coming in. The characters will take a role in protecting some of the more dangerous parts of the organisation, protecting shipments and payments, investigate what happened to the older vampires, deal with attempts to defraud them and get to know their territory.
Chapter 18: Gang War is the next adventure and in this one the characters fight a rival gang of vampires that is encroaching onto their territory. After finding out who is responsible, they may either agree to join the rival gang, which is now being run by a lieutenant of the previous boss, just like the characters are now doing, or they may fight him.
Chapter 19: The Hunted is the final adventure and the characters discover who wiped out all the older vampires by encountering them. There are several different options given to end the campaign, from going down in a fight to summoning a vampire god to curing their vampirism.
Special Cards has these which are referenced in Chapter 7.
Horror Game Consent Checklist is one to use.
Vampire Abilities Reference Sheet is a sheet for use by players.
Stay Alive! in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is less thorough but is hyperlinked. The Index is not extensive but covers major topics and is also hyperlinked. There are also hyperlinks in the sidebars of the supplement, which are not easy to spot unless already familiar with how Monte Cook Games lays out supplements. Navigation is very good. The text maintains the standard two columns with sidebar format, with the sidebar being used for internal links, stats, extra details, external references and other material, and appeared to be free of error. There are a variety of illustrations, most colour and up to about half a page in size, as well as some black and white ones, all of which may be custom. Presentation is very good.
As the book is laid out, there are two sections. The first, Part 1, is a collection of horror tools and mechanics for running horror games of many different types and subgenres. This does mean that a GM is likely only going to need parts of the worldbuilding tools, depending on the types of games they are running.
Part 2 is the mini-campaign, and this is an area where the supplement falls short of other similar supplements. Other supplements of this type have a setting which can be used to run a variety of adventures in and be expanded; Masters of the Night is not a setting but a short campaign that is run through and then finished. The GM might be able to expand it a bit, but overall, once the included adventures are run, the campaign is over. There’s little room for further development. This might be because this is a supplement with horror tools for many subgenres, as mentioned, so focusing on one subgenre meant everything else had to be ignored. Overall, this is probably one of the less impressive supplements of this type published by Monte Cook Games, feeling even more diffuse than some of them do, though it does have useful mechanics that could be imported into other games. Stay Alive! can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply