Mad Max: Fury Road and Sleepaway serve as inspirations for this horror RPG

Play as the last survivors of the final city in the world in Strange Hills, an upcoming roleplaying game inspired by the likes of Mad Max: Fury Road and the RPG Sleepaway.

Once held together by The Witch Queen, the last remaining city on Earth has fallen, leaving the player characters as refugees seeking to escape to anywhere else that might be safe. Nobody knows what could be out there waiting for them, but with nothing left for them in the crumbling remains of their home - there’s no other option but to hope for the best.

Strange Hills is a GM-less roleplaying game - meaning that the players collaborate in creating the story, rather than having one person take the mantle of narrator - based on the No Dice, No Masters system, same as Sleepaway, with the players taking on various roles that will change their goals and shape their decisions. Players are able to choose from four different roles including the questioner - whose job is to figure out the other players’ motives - the nervous witchling, the scheming technocrat and the untrustworthy informant.

Besides having unique motivations, each role in the horror RPG also comes with a set of abilities, alongside their own potencies and vulnerabilities. When creating their character, the players will answer a series of questions, gaining strong, standard and weak moves that they can use during the game to push their agenda. As people who are in a particularly dangerous situation, every character in Strange Hills has their own deep wickedness that they can choose to succumb to or fight against in order to gain catharsis and possibly become a better person.

Other than battling with their own inner demons, the player characters will also have to face a variety of scary scenarios out in the desolate world, such as an enormous segmented worm or a collection of deserted ruins that could contain all manner of horrors. With 125 prompts available to choose from, players will be able to concoct an intriguing story which could lead their characters to redemption or eternal damnation.

Strange Hills was created by Jason Vanhee, with contributions from artist and illustrator Juan Ochoa, graphic designer Andrew White, writer and illustrator Alec Sorensen, writer Kate Scheer and Guilherme Gontijo, a graphic designer.

The Kickstarter campaign for Strange Hills is live until September 10th, with a pledge of $10 (£8) getting backers a copy of the digital PDF for the RPG that’s set to be released in April 2022.