If World of Necroscope was West End Games reaching for Vampire: The Masquerade, The World of Tales from the Crypt (1996) was a desperate grab at Chill (a game whose second incarnation was dead for several years at this point). Now, don’t get me wrong, I think there is a place for a game specializing in single-serve generic horror. Monster of the Week proves it, and even leaves room for addition types of horror. I even think that campy is a solid vibe to go for; Chill had a plethora of problems, but the game worked better with scenarios that lean toward the silly.

The problem is that I think Tales from the Crypt is corny, rather than campy. And you just know the whole rulebook is written in the Cryptkeeper’s voice and full of play-on-words “humor” that in a million years isn’t going to translate to laughs at the table. The show always struck me as pretty cynical, too, leveraging lurid B-movie standards like over the top gore and gratuitous nudity, but lacking the earnestness that underpins most low budget horror. Combined, these two issues leave me not knowing what to do with a Tales-based RPG.

The art doesn’t give any clues either. There is some generic horror art, but the vast majority of the illustrations come in two types: blurry black-and-white still of the Cryptkeeper from the show and illustrated portraits of the Cryptkeeper by the artist pool, in a variety of styles and situations. Whyyyyyyyy? It reminds me of the Chill book written around pictures of Elvira, except who wants this many pictures of the Cryptkeeper?