Parable games – Shiver

Have you ever watched someone run upstairs, when you know that you would have run outside? Have you yelled at the screen, because there’s a killer stalking right behind those happy campers? Do you secretly want to be in your own scary movie? Then there’s good news – because we did too.

Parable Games is proud to present to you: SHIVER – the Horror Movie Role-playing Game! Now you and your friends can find out once and for all who would survive a rampaging killer at summer camp, who would make it through the zombie apocalypse, and which one of you is most likely to use the others as bait for a hissing alien monster!

SHIVER is a tabletop role-playing game, or an “RPG” – but what does that actually mean? Well, it means that it’s a game where you play as individual characters, playing out a story created by another player – known as the Director, and the other players make up the cast of characters.

These characters are the kind you’d usually find in a horror movie: a jock, a cheerleader, an Antarctic scientist, a space marine… Whatever, wherever or whenever your story takes place, SHIVER gives you simple tools to make sure your characters fit in to your world.

“This sounds a little complicated” you might be thinking, and you’d be right. It does “sound” complicated – but it actually isn’t! Parable Games loves games (surprise-surprise), but what we love more is getting new people to play games. SHIVER is designed to be a game that you can pick up and have fun with, even if you’ve never played anything more complicated than snakes and ladders.

So, how does it work? SHIVER uses an intuitive symbol dice system, where each symbol represents a different “skill” – or to put it a different way, a different way your characters might solve problems. Solving problems with your fists? Then you’re lying on your Grit skill. Maybe you face your challenges more with your brain than your brawn? Then that’s Smarts. Different characters have different skill strengths and weaknesses based on their personality, but each of them can try anything – here’s nothing like learning a new skill when your (fictional) life is on the line!

Why not gather your friends round for a scary movie night, but this time you’re all going to be in the movie! All you need to get started is the SHIVER Core Rulebook. With this simple and easy to read guide to the dark and unknown (world of RPG rules), you’ve got all you need to get started. We have a free online digital dice roller so if you wanted to roll ‘dem bones virtually, go ahead and give it a try.

With the SHIVER Core Rulebook you can run stories anywhere from a cabin in the woods to the International Space Station, and any-when from the dawn of mankind to the space faring future. Whatever your imagination can conjure up, SHIVER can help you turn it into an interactive, spooky experience.

Of course, horror is a varied and many headed beast. We know that. That’s why we’re always working on expansions for the game – new books themed around some of our favourite horror sub-genres…

Gothic horror – with Vampires, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Wolfman fighting supernatural horrors in Victorian London? We’ve got it covered in SHIVER Gothic.

Maybe your tastes lie less in the fantastical – maybe you’re more of a “nothing’s scarier than a guy with a knife who just… SNAPS” type. If that’s your modus operandi, then you’d need to keep an eye out for SHIVER: Slasher. A decades spanning story where the killers always come back, but the survivors aren’t guaranteed as much.

If you struggle with the hardcore violence in horror, or maybe you want a more safe way to introduce your love of the genre to sceptical friends or family – then SHIVER: Blockbuster is the answer you’re looking for. Giant Sharks, Spaceship Adventures, Ghost Pirates and Skeletal Dragons? Launch your own mega-horror-franchise with bang!

We love horror, and we love horror movies. It’s why we’re proud to sponsor Dead Northern, and why we can’t wait to be there, but most of all it’s why we made SHIVER to begin with. We wanted to play our favourite horror movies, but also make our own – and besides, how many games can you play where you actually get to kill your friends and still get to keep your friends? Not many, I’ll tell you!

Want to give SHIVER a try? You can sign up to our mailing list and receive a copy of our QuickStart version of the game!