Snowy Mountain Syndrome takes the root idea of random encounter tables and troupe style shared characters and puts them into a period survival horror setting. Despite not being quite playable due to some missing or contradictory parts, Snowy Mountain Syndrome or the game which it promises to become, should be compelling as it mixes Apocalypse World style moves for characters interacting with the fiction (and vice versa), while experimenting with shared characters and GM roles.
I'm particularly intrigued by the random scene cueing rules, which generate one of twenty scenes using a d20, moving towards the endgame somewhat unpredictably when enough scenes have been cued. The scene cues themselves seem an interesting combination of fantasy and horror tropes, but I feel they could be more closely interlinked - perhaps using the current progress towards each ending. The accumulation of troubles, revelations, and progress towards various endings seem to be paced about right. And the idea of provisos, which restrict and/or guide a character's action seems to be an important part about creating the kind of social breakdown you should expect in this genre.
Alas, there seem to be several places where the system doesn't match up with itself. On one hand, the brief explanation of fallout and the "things go horribly wrong" procedure, implies that it brings things closer to a crisis which can eliminate the character by increasing the Jeopardy for the character. But "things go horribly wrong" also happens due to the loss of Wits or Vitality, I don't know by what amount Jeopardy may increase. Another confusion is that the central rules imply any roll risks "things go horribly wrong", but under the rewards for a scene cue, some explicitly list "things go horribly wrong" as a risk, but many other rewards have different risks. Most of this looks easily surmounted, by some clarification and ideally some examples of the mechanics in use.
Ultimately Snowy Mountain Syndrome seems hamstrung by the restrictions of the Game Chef format, both in time and core text length. I wished the core section was longer and I don't think, as is, the game is understandable without serious perusal of the supplementary pages. This game builds strongly on the four term ingredients and makes at least a nod to Last Chance. Most importantly there is a good, extensible root to this game, which could be further refined to apply to this setting or to numerous other stories of the perilous and inevitable.
Reviews