Review at RPGNews

Okay. Let's get a discussion started, shall we? Personally, I thought that the review should have talked more about the diary story, but I digress. :smile:

Actually, here's the section of the review that I thought missed the point:

"While the only average monsters were the old standbys of vampires and zombies, some of the monsters seem more "terror" than "childhood terror." Aside from a predilection for children as targets for their depredations, many of the beasts would be just as home in another horror game, such as Unknown Armies. The "maturity" of the terrors that populate the game does a little bit to detract from the feeling of childhood revisited, which is unfortunate. Further supplements may clarify or expand upon what is here and refine it further, but I expect it to be a bit difficult to really recapture that feeling of what was scary to an eight year old. Adults are Blind, as Little Fears would say, and find those terrors to be laughable and silly in hindsight. "

Now, I happen to know that part of (the biggest?) goal for Little Fears was to act as an analogy to the suffering that we inflict upon children, especially child abuse. To my eyes, it is necessary that the terrors faced by the children in LF be "adult". That's the point. Innocence is stripped by having to "grow up" too quickly, having to face the reality of suffering in the world. Garrison Keillor once said that his childhood was happy because there were those dedicated to his happiness. In other words, they shielded him from the cruel reality of the world and protected him from the suffering that so many face. If a child has to face these things too early.... Well, that's why they lose Innocence.

Certainly LF can be played as a "mere" horror game wandering through the frightening imaginary landscape of childhood, but I wonder if the reviewer missed the deeper point about the frightening landscape through which many children now wander, a landscape that is all too real.

Comments?