The Outer Presence (review)

My favorite thing about this book/adventure is the voice of the author. It is having a conversation with him. It is a tone that I haven’t seen before exempt in diaries or journal-like samples.

The dice mechanic is a d6, the higher the roll the better. 1 is low, 6 is high. There varying degrees of success and failure depending on the roll. The base roll is two d6. If the character has some kind of advantage you get to add a d6, if the character has a penalty or disadvantage you subtract a d6. 

Characters are a short list of descriptors; Profession, Organization, Connection, Drive, and Flaw(s). 

The other item I liked was the adventure was also the source material for the game. The Outer Presence gives the GM enough of a starting detail for an encounter and room to adapt and flavor it for the group of players playing the game. 

This is a horror game, the players will come up against some evil and maybe some creature that can’t be defined without a few tentacles. Usually when tentacles show up so do Insanity rules. The players are highly likely to get some form of Insanity before the game is over. 1 in 6 chance to avoid it but there are multiple rolls to make. It should be some fun to see how it works out. I personally see surviving with some insanity as a “win” in these types of game. Not that surviving is easy to achieve.

The look of the game is good. The artwork is good and fits the genre. My only gripe about the game’s layout is the font choice for the headers. I think it is a cool looking sci-fi type font. It doesn’t fit in a horror theme. (I am a graphic designer and I’m sure I am more picky about these things than most people. See for yourself.)

I like that this game is really rules light, it gives the GM and players more control over the narrative. Rules light games have made a space in our hobby the last few years and it is good to see them. 

It’s been a long time since I played a horror game. I think this would be a fun game to play. Go give its try.