Oddities From My Bookshelf – It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show
I have a fondness for obscure books and games. In these posts I’ll talk about some of them.
What the Hell Is That?
It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show, published way back in 1989, is a roleplaying game for fans of B-movie (and worse) horror and science fiction. I’m not talking about the good stuff here. If you demand that your horror films are on par with The Exorcist then this is not the game for you. On the other hand, if you get a kick out of movies like Bad Channels (or anything by Full Moon Entertainment, really), Friday the 13th Part Whatever, Return of the Living Dead, or anything along those lines then you may get a kick out of this game.
ICftLLLS gives you the tools to play those movies as games, and the mechanics are actually pretty good.
But Wait! There’s More!
This is where it gets meta. As a player, you aren’t just playing Ash in Army of Darkness; you’re playing Bruce Campbell! That’s right, your character is actually the actor, so over the course of a campaign you’ll also get to play out your equivalents of Escape from L.A., Maniac Cop II, and Man with the Screaming Brain.
This is where the system actually shines. Player Characters (in the game called Actors) have a stat called FAME, which is earned through experience and spent to gain some control over events. For example, once per game (at no cost) an Actor can Walk Off the Set – on a successful roll against FAME, the Game Master (Director) has to negotiate terms that will bring the Actor back to the set to continue play (nothing too harsh, but it can get you better props, wardrobe, or a break from monster attacks). Of course, the Director can likewise have the monster Walk Off the Set demanding more cooperation from the Actors.
As another option (and there are several more), when events are going badly an actor can spend 1d10 FAME to call a Film Break. The film literally breaks, ending the scene and skipping ahead to a point where the Actors are safe. The Actors can then concoct a story of how they escaped.
Final Selling Point
The sample monsters in the back of the book include ninjas. The game doesn’t say much about its cheesy Kung Fu movie potential, but the book supports experimentation.
Okay, that isn’t actually what I wanted to go with here, but still: ninjas. You have a right to know.
The presentation is as cheesy as the movies that spawned it. From the art to the jokes, there’s an honest cornball aspect to the game that suits it well. What’s more, Stellar Games managed to give the book this feel while keeping the layout clean, the information organized, and the text legible.
It’s a simple game, but the right group could have a lot of fun with it. If the game included Fake Shemps, it would be perfect.
Like these kinds of games and movies? Let me know below.
