Kuro - Near Future Japanese Horror RPG

[Voros]

So I know Ragr posted about his plans for a Kuro campaign but has anyone else read or played it? It looks very up my alley but the pdf is quite pricey.



I lost Miko during the Kuro incident. She was driving when the light from the missile exploded over Tokyo. It must have blinded her because her car was found wrapped around a tree, her body covered in petals fallen through the broken window.

When I found a message from her on my phone I thought it was just an old one I hadn't erased. I kept it, playing it back just to hear her voice. It helped, just a bit, to have a few moments when I could pretend that she was still alive. But more messages starting appearing on my phone. Now I just want them to stop.

Because the girl who keeps sending them isn't Miko, and she won't stop screaming.

The year is 2046, and something dark has returned to Japan. With an international blockade set up around the beleaguered country following the Kuro Incident, there is no escape. In addition to the meteorological side-effects of the Incident, some people have noticed a sharp rise in disturbing, mysterious and supernatural occurrences. The authorities refuse to acknowledge such obvious sensationalist delusions. Do you have the strength to face the nightmares?

Kuro is the core rulebook of a new near-future game setting influenced by unremitting Japanese horror. Dare you stare into the darkness?

 

[Chris Brady]

So everyone is playing a dead person who doesn't know it? That's creepy, and cool.

(FYI: The Japanese islands have literally no way to feed themselves without importing, the nation would be dead within a week. And frankly, that would be a cool supernatural aftermath in my opinion.)

 

[Ladybird]

So everyone is playing a dead person who doesn't know it? That's creepy, and cool.

(FYI: The Japanese islands have literally no way to feed themselves without importing, the nation would be dead within a week. And frankly, that would be a cool supernatural aftermath in my opinion.)

iirc things like that are part of the mystery.

I've played a bit of it. It seemed like a perfectly average investigative game, to be honest; I think it would really shine with a GM and group who really get into the horror of it. It seems designed more to be used for the designer's campaign rather than as a general system, though.

Thematically, reading 4's as 0's is really cool, but it's a bit fiddly at the table. Definitely play with pipped dice, and draw over the 4's. As with Yggdrasil, I think the designers are too stingy with character gen points.

 

[Chris Brady]

Is 0 a bad thing to roll? (In Japanese, the number 4 is the same sound word for Death, which is why four way intersections are considered bad luck.)

 

[Ladybird]

Is 0 a bad thing to roll? (In Japanese, the number 4 is the same sound word for Death, which is why four way intersections are considered bad luck.)

It's an xd6 vs target number type of system, so rolling a 0 is bad, yeah.

(I can't remember if you just keep the top two or sum them all, and am not sure where my book is or even if I still have it.)

 

[Skywalker]

I have played Kuro. I like it, though the biggest thing to know is that the line is actually two sister RPGs with an optional connecting campaign.

Without spoiling too much, the main rulebook is for a cyberpunk horror game. Kuro Tensei, the 3rd book, is an epic fantasy RPG. Makkuro explains how the former becomes the latter.

 

[Lessa]

Thanks for bringing this up. Looks pretty interesting.

 

[Quill]

I've skimmed the books, and I wasn't too impressed, though that was more from my own expectations than the actual content.

I would really love a good J-horror game, that would let me run investigators looking into Ringu or even take the world into the Kairo/Pulse apocalypse. But I haven't really found it yet.