Little Fears - The Roleplaying Game of Childhood Terror is a role-playing game published in 2001 by Key 20 Publishing. The book was written by Jason L Blair, featuring illustrations by Drew Baker, Dimitrios "Jim" Denaxas, Veronica V. Jones, hive, Nick Wilson, Kieran Yanner, Bradley K. McDevitt, and Julie Hoverson, and additional material by Seth A. Ben-Ezra, Greg Oliver, F. Scott Blair, and Shelby Mallow.

Summary

In the game, players take on the personae of children, aged 6 to 12, who are being hunted by the minions of a place called Closetland. Closetland is ruled by the Demagogue and his Seven Kings. Each King is the personification of one of the seven deadly sins. The most well-known of the Kings is the Bogeyman, King of Greed. Other creatures include the Closet Monster, the Monster Under The Bed, werewolves, vampires, and much more.

The children are not entirely powerless: They have Belief, a special kind of magic that can turn the impossible into the real. Through Belief, pictures of deceased relatives can call forth their protective spirits while teddy bears can spring to life to defend children but, through Belief, stepping on a crack really can break your mother's back and mirrors really can capture souls.

Controversy

Though the game addresses controversial issues, such as child abuse and neglect, and sparked its fair share of criticism in the community, many professionals who work with children and victims of abuse supported the book, including noted author and child advocate Andrew Vachss who contacted the author directly.

Awards

Little Fears was nominated for an Origins Award as the Roleplaying Game of the Year in 2002. The book was nominated for and won the RPGnet Award for the Most Disturbing/Controversial Game of 2001.

Foreign editions and expansions

Also in 2002, Little Fears was licensed by prominent German game publisher Feder & Schwert for release in the German language market. The German version, titled Kleine Ängste, inspired the industrial band Janus to release a soundtrack. Packaged with a limited edition of Janus' studio release Auferstehung, the Kleine Ängste CD featured seven eerily haunting songs. Janus frontman RIG also released a German-language storybook inspired by Little Fears/Kleine Ängste which was limited to 666 copies. In it, RIG tells a story from the Little Fears universe.

Little Fears was also licensed by French publisher 7eme Cercle who released the French language edition of Little Fears (which retained its English title) in 2003. The game was illustrated entirely by the Peru brothers and featured a cover by Samuel Araya. 7eme Cercle also released a game screen for use in the game featuring an original mural by the Peru brothers.

The English edition of Little Fears went out of publication in 2004, after selling through its initial print run. The copyright to the work is held by Jason L Blair. Key 20 Publishing no longer has any Little Fears-related content on its website.

In 2006, an article announced the 2007 release of a new edition of Little Fears, called Little Fears: Nightmare Edition. However, in January 2008, Jason L Blair issued a statement regarding his regret that the game had not been ready for publishing in the promised time frame, and that he "decided to step away from it for a bit to reevaluate the game, what I wanted from it and I what it needed to be." In this same statement, Blair said that he had written a young adult novel set in Little Fears called The Wolf Pact and that he was working on its sequel. As of June 2008, the projected release dates of Little Fears: Nightmare Edition as well as the novels have yet to be announced. In August 2008, Blair posted on the game's mailing list that he looks forward to publish LF:NE before the end of the year.

References

External links

• Little Fears - Childhood Terror, the website for the upcoming Nightmare Edition
• Little Fears Yahoo Group
• Feder & Schwert - Publishers of the German language edition, Kleine Aengste
• Janus - Creators of the Kleine Aengste Soundtrack and Storybook
• 7eme Cercle - Publishers of the French language edition
• Little Fears Review review at The Forge
• Little Fears Review Review at Flames Rising