The House of Little Fears

I hadn’t read any Clive Barker previous to The Thief of Always. Sure, I’d seen films based on his works and knew of his work and was around while friends talked about his work, but I hadn’t experienced it myself.

It was the summary on the back of the book that drew me. That, and the absolutely fantastic title. (The Thief of Always remains one of my favorite book titles.) I read the book in short order, which is unusual given my normally turtle-like reading pace. Barker’s fluid narrative sucked me in and kept me going, each chapter punctuated by one of his scratchy and horrific illustrations. The book looks as good as it reads.

The story is about a very bored boy who is dreading away the day when his prayers are seemingly answered by a wide-grinned man in an odd suit. The man sweeps the boy away to a very unusual house. A house where it is summer every afternoon, Trick-or-Treating every evening, and Christmas every night. The boy is enthralled, having the time of his life, but he is oblivious to the true nature of the house. As the facade begins to peel away like aged paint on a rotten cupboard, the boy begins to see there is more to this house than fun and constant celebration.

I won’t say anymore about this book. If you haven’t read it, I urge you to do so. It’s not only primo fodder for a Little Fears Nightmare Edition session but an excellent fable.

The Thief of Always pops up every once in a while as a book they’re making into a movie. They haven’t yet, to my knowledge, but I do think it would translate well to the screen.

A year ago, during one of the attempts to get the Nightmare Edition going, I laid down a few edicts. One of them was a list of movies that the system had to be able to emulate. One of them was The Monster Squad, which I talked about last week. And as much as I love that movie–and I do!–the number one “kids on an adventure” movie of all time is 1985’s incomparable kid action flick The Goonies.

Now, The Goonies is not a horror film. It’s straight-up adventure pulp. But what folks can learn–what I learned while rewatching it recently–is how to create and portray amazing characters. Every character stands out, from the kids to the criminals. They all have gentle quirks and endearing personalities. You can’t help but love each and every one of them. (Including the main villain of the piece, Anne Ramsey’s brilliant criminal mastermind “Mama Fratelli”.)

When thinking about how Qualities work in the game, I often went back to “How would I stat Data with this?” “Can I make Mouth? Chunk?” Because it was important to me that this game hold up while recreating one of the seminal films of the 1980s.

When it came to the system, it was co-conspirator Caz Granberg who talked me through the “I Believe in You” mechanic using Andy’s tense try at tickling the old bones as a prime example. That made it fall right into place.

While the tone may be different, The Goonies touches on some of the core aspects to the systems. Aspects that soon became pillars.

If you want a really fun session of Little Fears Nightmare Edition, that takes a big step to the left of its horror roots, have the players stat up the Goonies and send them on a run deep under the coastal town of Astoria. You’ll have a blast.

Though I cannot guarantee the game will let you recreate this madness.