The Haunting of Hill House-ish. What system?

[mehenwolf24]

love playing and (specially) GMing a lot of different games with various systems, approaches and styles. So every once in while I keep wandering my mind and my readings on some ideas I'd like to bring to the table to some groups. And you guys are always a very nice source of interesting discussions and ideas.

So after watching the series The Haunting of Hill House, I really want to do something akin to it: psychological horror with interpersonal drama; relationships (siblings, parents, children, marriage, friends) being tested by mind horrors (depression, anxiety, addiction, suicide, madness) that may or may not be influenced by the supernatural (ghosts, demons, entities, cursed places).

The general vibe is intended to fit the style of Silent Hill, with melancholy and guilt as common tropes in what I like to call "sad horror", but with less survival horror and more interpersonal drama.

So what would you use for this? I have thought about a few games that would fit but I'd like read your thoughts on it. Here are some ideas from the top my head:

Cortex Prime

Chronicles of Darkness

Call of Cthulhu

DramaSystem (Hillfolk)

Powered by the Apocalypse (Monsterhearts, Night Witches, Masks, Sagas of the Icelanders)

The Burning Wheel

UniSystem (Witchcraft)

One Roll Engine (Nemesis, A Dirty World)

Wuthering Heights

What are your thoughts for this kind of game?

Thanks in advance!

[Dr paradox]

I really like THE EVIL.

It's an ultralite kind of thing with room for adaptation to specific horror contexts, and I've found it effective in a couple of horror games I've run. For something like the Haunting of Hill House, I think less is more in terms of system.

[Wraith]

Don't Rest Your Head is a system that I've always wanted to play; it's a psychological horror setting that is somewhat more surreal than Haunting of Hill House but could very easily be adapted.

I really like how simple the ruleset is, and how the PCs have to 'sacrifice' their health and sanity if they really want to achieve something by spending Pain Dice which can give them impressive results, but unlucky rolls can severely harm them in the long run. Scary mechanics to go along with scary plots so everything is a gamble, but not an unfair one, really heightens the tension for the players.

[Xuc Xac]

If you want Silent Hill style survival horror with personal issues, I recommend Ash Island. If you want to emphasize the strained interpersonal relationships and tensions, I would recommend The Curse of the House of Rookwood which was written specifically for people dealing with the supernatural while dealing with their relationship issues like jealousy, rivalries, secret (and not-so-secret) betrayals, blackmail, etc. The default setting is a cursed aristocratic family with supernatural powers, but there are rules for playing normal people who also have the same relationship issues.

Full disclosure: I wrote both of them, but they are both quite well done. Rookwood, in particular, has been run by many people at cons and private games around the world to great success. It was also chosen to be the basis of the first season of the actual play podcast "Fables Around the Table". I think Nerdy Pup Games has the free rules PDF on their itch.io page too (click on "view all by Nerdy Pup" on the side of the Rookwood page) if you want to check it out.

[Rule-Of-Three]

I have no idea how Wraith: the Oblivion didn't make the list.

[Morty]

Based on my experience, Chronicles of Darkness with the core book and mortal characters should do fine. Mortal games in CofD are aimed at a more traditional horror experience than those with supernatural PCs. But other, more dedicated systems might do a better job.