Ghost-Shot Boke is a full reimagining of Shudderspeed with custom art and solo game mechanics.
Shudderspeed, in turn, is a tabletop adaptation of camera horror games like Fatal Frame and DreadOut.
Ghost-Shot's PDF is 6 pages. One of these is well-organized rules text, another is that same text on a clearer background and without illustrations, and the other four are extremely well composed (and sometimes comical) ghost photos. The artistry throughout is excellent---the photos are baroque-looking collages that feel perfectly at home in the Fatal Frame milieu, and the character portrait is evocative and feels completely appropriate for the source material and setting.
Setting-wise, Ghost-Shot is simple but atmospheric. The visuals do a great job of building mood, but the text is also quite clear and provides exactly as much info as you need.
Mechanics-wise, Ghost-Shot gets around needing a GM by having you quickly flip over and take pictures of cards.
A lot of Fatal Frame's more granular mechanics are adapted here, as the game includes Spirit Power (a resource you can spend to retake pictures) and has you assess the quality of your own pictures based on their Clarity, Framing, and Speed.
Ghost-Shot does have you pause between taking photos, and before starting and ending the game to envision the story, and this feels very effective in terms of immersion. It also adds a kind of natural rhythm to the game.
Depending on how many points you score off of each photo, you get one of four endings---however the scoring criteria is purely up to you, so whether your game ends happily will depend a bit on how harsh you are when you judge yourself. This feels appropriate for a ghost story.
Overall, Ghost-Shot is a stellar single-player storytelling horror rpg. It plays quickly, and you get out of it what you put into it, but it absolutely hands you the tools to tell a tense and compelling story without a GM. If you like Fatal Frame, camera horror, or single page rpgs, get this.
Minor Issues:
-Is there anything stopping a player from using Spirit Power to retake a picture and then getting a clear shot of the Omamori to recover the point of Spirit Power that was spent?
I also don't know if anyone else will get confused by seeing Boke in the title, or if that's just me, so there might not be any real need to mess with this.
· The Omamori only works once. Multiples pictures on the same Omamori do not grant more Spirit Power. · "Boke" is the japanese term for "blur" in photography. In context, there's no much interpretation left.
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Ghost-Shot Boke is a full reimagining of Shudderspeed with custom art and solo game mechanics.
Shudderspeed, in turn, is a tabletop adaptation of camera horror games like Fatal Frame and DreadOut.
Ghost-Shot's PDF is 6 pages. One of these is well-organized rules text, another is that same text on a clearer background and without illustrations, and the other four are extremely well composed (and sometimes comical) ghost photos. The artistry throughout is excellent---the photos are baroque-looking collages that feel perfectly at home in the Fatal Frame milieu, and the character portrait is evocative and feels completely appropriate for the source material and setting.
Setting-wise, Ghost-Shot is simple but atmospheric. The visuals do a great job of building mood, but the text is also quite clear and provides exactly as much info as you need.
Mechanics-wise, Ghost-Shot gets around needing a GM by having you quickly flip over and take pictures of cards.
A lot of Fatal Frame's more granular mechanics are adapted here, as the game includes Spirit Power (a resource you can spend to retake pictures) and has you assess the quality of your own pictures based on their Clarity, Framing, and Speed.
Ghost-Shot does have you pause between taking photos, and before starting and ending the game to envision the story, and this feels very effective in terms of immersion. It also adds a kind of natural rhythm to the game.
Depending on how many points you score off of each photo, you get one of four endings---however the scoring criteria is purely up to you, so whether your game ends happily will depend a bit on how harsh you are when you judge yourself. This feels appropriate for a ghost story.
Overall, Ghost-Shot is a stellar single-player storytelling horror rpg. It plays quickly, and you get out of it what you put into it, but it absolutely hands you the tools to tell a tense and compelling story without a GM. If you like Fatal Frame, camera horror, or single page rpgs, get this.
Minor Issues:
-Is there anything stopping a player from using Spirit Power to retake a picture and then getting a clear shot of the Omamori to recover the point of Spirit Power that was spent?
Edit: I was puzzling over this for a while, but is the Boke in the title from 暈け not 惚け? The photography term, not the insult?
I don't know if there's an easy way of clarifying this, other than maybe spelling it Bokeh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh).
I also don't know if anyone else will get confused by seeing Boke in the title, or if that's just me, so there might not be any real need to mess with this.
Thank you for your review and summary, Kumada.
· The Omamori only works once. Multiples pictures on the same Omamori do not grant more Spirit Power.
· "Boke" is the japanese term for "blur" in photography. In context, there's no much interpretation left.