A few months after our preview, we now deal with the full review of Shiver: the RPG written by Charlie Menzies and Barney Menzies, illustrated by Ben Alexander, and published by Parable Games. Hold on tight, we’re about to get a full thrill.
The game is currently available for purchase in PDF format on DriveThruRPG at a cost of $19.69. On the same website, you can find the quickstart and a collection of short adventures. The material available has that eye-catching, slightly cartoonish, and slightly graffitied graphics already seen at launch, an essential and absolutely engaging style.
But let’s see together, after a promising crowdfunding campaign, what has come to the actual production. This review of Shiver was born not only because after reading and trying it I was fascinated; but also because the project did not stop at this first success but landed again on Kickstarter with the first full-fledged gothic-themed setting.
Collecting another undoubted success, a sign that the horror genre is far from being dead and buried.
Review of the Corebook of Shiver
As we will see in this review, Shiver is essentially a game system that allows you to build horror stories, inspired by movies or TV series, starting from the characters that the group decides to play. With this manual, it is possible to create infinite stories in as many different settings.
It consists of 224 color pages, densely illustrated with a captivating and recognizable style. Colors, among which black stands out, are mainly cold and each segment of the volume is characterized by dominant color, in order to guide the reader in the rapid and practical construction of the characters and the adventure.
The core book is divided into four sections: Welcome to Shiver, Building a Character, the Director, and an adventure-ready to play: Corporate Risers.
Shiver doesn’t have a real setting so it is extremely malleable and can adapt to any weird and mysterious storyline you want to build.
As we’ll see in this review, character creation in Shiver is intuitive. Like many other modern games, this phase is smooth thanks to the use of Archetypes that act as a skeleton for the construction of the heroes.
Skills, Talents but above all Dice
Shiver‘s game system is based on the management of six fundamental Skills: Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck, and Strange. The highest Skill indicates which archetype the character belongs to. Basic Skills are closely related to the actions that can be taken by the characters and their approach to the story.
Each Skill is also linked to a specific symbol represented on the six-sided die that is used to roll the tests.
Shiver actually uses two types of unique dice. The d6 with the symbols of Skills and the d8 for Talents. The Talent die, however, only has two symbols imprinted. One symbol represents the Talents, a five-pointed star, and the other the Strange.
When rolled, the star counts as the symbol of the required Skill (other than Strange); it contributes, with one or more successes, to any other effect exactly as if it were a symbol of the Skill put into play. The Strange symbols on the Talent die, however, count as successes in a Strange check.
The dice for playing Shiver can still be purchased on Gamefound; however, there is a handy conversion on the core book that explains how to use the classic dice; alternatively, you can use an online dice roller created by Parable Game.
The Doom Clock
Failing a test in Shiver, as we have seen in this review, can have terrible consequences. If a player does not obtain the sufficient number of symbols required to pass the test, he will not be able to complete the action taken.
In case of a failed check, count the number of Strange symbols on the dice; for each of them, the Doom Clock is advanced by one minute, effectively increasing the tension within the game.
The consequences are therefore visually represented on the Doom Clock so that they are available to the whole table. It is a sort of analog clock divided into four quadrants; they fill up following the failure of certain tests or certain actions in play.
In each story, the narrator (here referred to as the Director) defines four Destiny Events that will be unleashed as each segment of the Clock is filled. These four cornerstones serve to make the tension within the story constant and growing.
Character Creation
The eye-catching graphics and use of symbols make the character sheet particularly intuitive. Its filling follows a series of guided steps that take just a few minutes.
The first step is choosing the Archetype of the character. A canvas that is perfectly adaptable to any setting and any historical period. The core book offers a total of 7: the Warrior, the Maverick, the Scholar, the Socialite, the Fool, the Weird, and the Survivor.
Each archetype, with the exception of the Survivor, has a preponderant linked Skill where you can assign the highest value, which is 5.
This number is the amount of dice to roll when testing that specific Skill. The other Skills must all have a value of 3 except for the one that is considered the weak point of the character; it will be assigned a value of 2.
To complete the form correctly, just add the equipment, the description of the chosen Abilities, and the character’s Flaws.
The Archetype Trees
The level indicates the progression of the character and how many Ability Points she can spend in the Ability Tree of her Archetype. Each character therefore progresses in a unique way, allowing for an almost infinite variety of builds to play.
The maximum Character Level a character can reach in Shiver is 15.
The Lifeline, present immediately below the Skills, represents the physical and mental conditions of the character. Each wound or trauma received lowers the character’s health level, until the character dies. In order to protect themselves, however, each protagonist can wear armors.
If your character is wearing a piece of armor and is hit by an attack, roll s single Skill die for each armor slot it occupies. On a Luck symbol, the damage taken from the attack is reduced by 1 and the armor remains undamaged. If it’s a Strange symbol, damage taken from the attack is reduced by 1 but the armor gains one wound. On any other symbol, there is no effect, and damage is dealt to you as normal.
Shiver: Review of the Tools for the Director
As we have already seen in this review, Shiver offers the opportunity to play in any setting or historical period, without limitations of any kind. With this nearly limitless number of possible game worlds, the Director has an unlimited arsenal of possible equipment to assign to characters.
Each setting has its own limitations in terms of consistency and the core book provides handy tables for adapting objects and weapons with fitting and timely examples. To help the Director there are numerous weapon tabs, so you can cross space and time and get the best of each story.
Even the Enemies have their own creation process and Shiver offers a practical and functional sequence to guarantee the right villain for each adventure. Lazy Directors also have a list of archetypes for their enemies.
The Atmosphere of Shiver
Shiver proves to be an interesting and extremely versatile game. The atmosphere is undoubtedly one of the main elements in this type of game and the core book itself provides a number of tools to help the Director.
There are no winners or losers in Shiver, in fact only the story and how it proceeds according to the choices of the characters matters. The aim is to create and play a scary and emotional story.
Just like in a horror movie, in fact, the characters will have to group together to be able to survive adverse events whether it is dark forces at work, terrifying monsters or disturbing mysteries to be solved.
Sometimes the characters will be able to survive and defeat the evil that is afflicting the city, at other times they can all die and the story will end in a more gloomy way.
You may not always get the ending you want, but if everyone is enjoying the adventure and having a memorable experience then it will be worth it.
Conclusions of the Review of Shiver
After reading the manual and having tested Shiver, I can conclude this review by confirming that it is a very versatile game. The quality of the final product is outstanding and the success of the new project confirms our general impression.
There are, however, a couple of details I want to focus on.
Although the themes proposed by the game are evident from the title, Shiver could have had a paragraph dedicated to explaining how to manage it at the game table. In my opinion, this is an important detail, especially for less experienced masters and it is a real pity that there is not even a reference in this regard.
I would also have preferred to find at the end of the manual an adventure different from the one in the quickstart, so as to have another story ready to play.