Killer Ratings: a Review of the ttrpg on Ghost-Hunting and TV Personalities
You are a washed-up celebrity relegated to keeping your career alive by co-hosting a ghost-hunting show. A failing ghost-hunting show. Lucky for you, the season finale is shooting at a real haunted location. Unlucky for you, the ghosts there want to kill you and your fellow cast members. Just try to be in frame when the murders happen, it’ll be great for your social media.
Killer Ratings is a one-shot tabletop roleplaying game (ttrpg) created by Ken Lowry and published by Bannerless Games. The game supports 3-5 players and a game master. Players act as cast members of a ghost-hunting TV show and the game master serves as their director. The team investigates a haunted location, taking turns coming up with descriptors for each new room. Eventually, the ghost becomes enraged enough to manifest and chase the team back through the location, trying to kill them as they run. The players can sabotage each other to influence who the ghost attacks. Once a player dies, they become a ghost too and attempt to kill their former co-workers.
Mechanics
In terms of character creation and mechanics, the rules are fairly light. A character has two stats (Provoke and Survive) and a class, which the player determines at the beginning of the game. Stats determine the success of actions. The action succeeds when a number at or below the stat value is rolled on a six-sided die. The class is an archetype that provides guidelines on how a character should act, however, it does not have any mechanical effects. All other information about the character is up to the discretion of the player and director.
Gameplay Experience
I liked the collaborative nature of the game. It was fun to come up with room descriptions as a group. We often found ourselves suggesting story beats and complimenting each other on additions that could only have appeared with all of our brains put together. The experience reminded me of an improv version of the board game Betrayal at the house on the Hill (reviewed by Leather Snow here). The highlight of the game for the players was embodying characters who were absolute weirdos. As a group, we leaned into the social media influencer vibe and laughed coming up with what “viral moments” had led our characters to fleeting fame. From a game master perspective, the gameplay highlight was the ability for players to be directly involved in world-building.
While my group had fun, there were some aspects of the game that didn’t work quite as well for our playstyle. At its core, the game is centered on the concept that most of the characters are trying to steal the camera time from each other. While interesting narratively, it plays into a common ttrpg issue of players trying to make a game all about them. While we made it work, I could see group dynamics getting out of hand quickly. It also inherently creates player conflict, which may be something some groups are uncomfortable roleplaying. We focused more on the collaborative aspects and had fun doing so.
The biggest issue the players had was that the end game didn’t feel very high stakes. We wanted more mechanically to make the ghost attacks more exciting or suspenseful. From a game master perspective, their biggest issue was that they felt more effective as a more traditional omniscient game master than when trying to give in-character direction as the director.
Conclusions
Overall, Killer Ratings was a fun game and I would play it again with some minor home rules. I would recommend this game for a group that is relatively comfortable with improv and willing to be wacky. If you are looking for a more rules-heavy ttrpg, conflict-adverse, or think your play group struggles to share time, this is probably not what you are looking for. However, it’s a one-shot game with no preparation required, so why not give it a try?
(3.8 / 5)
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Continuing with video games I got to try out at PAX East, I was delighted to demo Let’s! Revolution! the debut game by developer and publisher BUCK. BUCK has historically been an animation and design studio, notably having worked on Into the Spiderverse and Love, Death, & Robots. Let’s! Revolution! marks their first foray into the world of video game development. I found this so interesting, I spoke to the Creative Director for Let’s! Revolution! on his career and how BUCK navigated that transition (find it here).
Let’s! Revolution! is a roguelike puzzle game inspired by the classic game Minesweeper. In it, you play as one of six heroes fighting their way along the dangerous roads to the capital city. Once there, you can defeat the tyrannical king and save the kingdom from his reign. Released in July of 2023, the game has been met with high praise. Unsurprisingly, this includes the game’s artistic and musical direction (by the team at Antfood), which is both stylistic and beautiful.
Watch the console reveal trailer here for a taste of the delightful animation and music:
I had the opportunity to play a 20 minute demo of Let’s! Revolution! on the PAX East show floor. I played alongside the Creative Director and other people who worked on the game. It’s important to note that this wasn’t long enough to get a feel for all the characters or the replayability of the game. But, it was definitely long enough to be enchanted by the game and the passion of the people who made it.
The core mechanics are inspired by Minesweeper. The player must use the power of deduction to uncover procedurally generated maze pathways to the exit. However, enemies are hidden along the way and can defeat the player before they reach their goal. Each character has their own special abilities that can help. Items and general abilities can also be bought or discovered to make your hero more powerful. All of these are limited in some way either by energy (your action currency) or limited uses per run.
From what I played, the gameplay is relatively simple with a mix of chance and strategy. I liked the cozy atmosphere, especially when combined with the ‘high stakes’ mechanics associated with Minesweeper. The UI was easy to understand and interact with while still being cohesive with the storytelling. And of course, the character design is exquisite and narratively driven, with many of the characters presenting as queer.
Having released on consoles earlier this month (April 2024), Let’s! Revolution! is even easier to access than ever. Let’s! Revolution! is a perfect game for those who love cozy roguelites and beautiful (queer) aesthetics. I definitely recommend it for fans of roguelites looking to try something fresh. Look for it anywhere you game!
(4.5 / 5)
Check out my other PAX posts here!
