Publisher Blurb:
Inspired by the likes of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, This City Hates You is an award winning tabletop roleplaying game that brings the terror of survival horror into your hands. Play as someone fighting for your survival against cruel abominations while avoiding becoming one yourself.
Features
Attributes
This City Hates You (TCHY) uses a seven-attribute system, valued at one through five. Each of these attributes has a die value attached to it, and you roll that die and add the attribute score to the roll to determine how well you do.
Body Modifications
TCHY includes a body modification system; the monsters that you fight came from somewhere, and that somewhere was people who couldn't handle the strain put on their bodies and minds. Maybe you will, though.
Body modifications allow for robust personalisation of your character and how they play, varying from small changes like bonuses to rolls to greater changes such as damage reducing armor and status effect inducing attacks. Each body mod becomes a permanent part of your character. Bite off more than you can chew, however, and you'll see yourself becoming the next monster your party has to fend off.
Inventory
TCHY uses a weight system, but only to track large, usually unchanging items, especially weapons. Smaller items that are in constant fluctuation, such as ammunition and medical supplies, are tracked solely by the quantity you have, to create a limit in how much you can effectively carry with you at any time without slowing down the experience to recalculate your carried weight every time you use a bandage or shoot a bullet.
Action Points
The combat of TCHY is defined by its action point system. Every player character gets five action points to use each turn, allowing you a lot of options for improvising and planning on the fly. Want to move out of cover, throw a grenade, heal an ally, then dive back into cover? You got it! Want to sit in a comfy spot and take pot shots at some distant monsters all turn? Absolutely! Need to run like a bat out of hell at full speed? The freedom is yours!
How to Avoid an Ableist Game
Let's face it: The horror genre is one that frequently relies on ableist tropes to generate fear in the viewer, but there are other ways to create horror than by just preying on human fear of disease and stigmatised bodies. As well, body modification mechanics often have an ableist tone about them, too. TCHY includes an informational essay discussing how it avoids ableism to the best of its ability, and advice on how you can do the same.
Game Master Guide
Is there a rule that confuses you a bit at first glance? Are you unsure of how carefully to balance items to create that survival horror atmosphere? Looking for some monsters to throw at your unsuspecting players? TCHY includes a thorough guide for game masters to read through, to create a more transparent understanding of the game design and help them craft the perfect experience for them and their players.