Quantum Dark Made Light

 Stellagama Publishing is famed for Cepheus Deluxe, Terra Arisen, and their Fantasy RPG, Sword of Cepheus.

I've tinkered with their house system: Quantum Engine for a few years -self publicans Lightning League (pulp SF and horror). Since going Stellagame I wrote Solar Sagas (Golden Age SF RP). I love Quantum in its various forms. One of the good things about working with Omer Golan-Joel: the Stellagama Publisher is that he has such a wealth of ideas he will often say to us associates, 'Here, do something with this.' This was the case when he asked me to write a horror RPG using the Quantum Engine, I jumped at it.

Josh Peters lent his fine editing to the work, then no stranger to horror gems himself took the deep dive and became co-author (tri-author! Omer did do Quantum Engine!) A few tweaks had to be made to Quantum sensibilities regarding combat, psionics, and the nature of horror itself.

Combat: combat is more lethal. Quantum combat is dangerous enough but in Quantum Dark you run the risk of bleeding out from slashing or piercing wounds unless they are treated. It makes combat more -horrible. 

Psionics: psychic powers are fewer and have an element of danger. For example, clairsentience is replaced by Astral Projection. Instead of getting to snoop on that demon at least once a day with no danger, your astral body must go to him and what happens when he turns around and stares at you, then grabs your astral form by the throat?

Vehicular Combat: vehicle combat introduces two new moves: Force and Trickery. Force lets you drive into a foe, running them off the road (or vice versa). Trickery portrays luring the opponent into making a dumb mistake or giving up pursuit (driving across the train crossing just ahead of the oncoming train, or ducking down an alley and losing the bad guys). 

Resolve: horror results from seeing what you've been taught can't exist: the dead rise, a ghost appears, a man removes his head and keeps walking and talking. Fear provokes a fight or flight response. Horror causes a paralyzing fear, the last thing you want in a fight or when that vampire is coming at you. All monsters have a Horror roll. A Vampire might be Horror 8+. Fail to make it and you're frozen. Resolve is a modifier to this roll. A bad roll can reduce your Resolve, making you a liability for field work. Any further mental difficulties are a result of the player roleplaying, not rolling for various insanities on a chart.

Monsters: monsters are statted with skills, Stamina, Lifeblood and basic attacks. Each monster has six special powers listed. Very, very few have all six and those are 'monster' monsters. Some will have only one or two powers. But most monsters can end most humans in a one on one. The creatures are basically glass cannons -if you know the drill. A vampire is a terrible foe -until you get them into sunlight. A demon is nearly invulnerable -except to holy artifacts. Do your homework before the final confrontation.

My inspiration: of course Call of Cthulhu is in there somewhere. A long forgotten gem was Lost Souls, one of the creepiest games I ever ran. TSRs Ravenloft (both setting and campaign) for atmosphere and the Dark Powers checks! I'll go out on a limb (and give my age away sort of) Magic in Car Wars and Full Moon Over Midville in Autoduel Quarterly got me hooked on the idea that horror and magic was supposed to show up where and when you did not expect it.

Give this guy a home on your bookshelf or hard drive! He is called... Freddy.