Welcome to Northwood....

  1. The Northwoods is patrolled and its visitors kept safe by the local ranger force for as long as people can remember. The secrets that lay within the Dark Heart of the forest are the stuff of legends. For centuries the locals have lived their normal lives knowing that killers and creatures of nightmares roam the area. The small settlements around the Northwoods grew into towns and eventually became the city of Northwood. For generations, the old folks have shared stories of the things that go bump in the night. The local cults still meet, albeit with smaller congregations than normal. This is due to the fact that in the last few decades, major incidents have become so uncommon that the majority of the recent generation of teens has become skeptical of the old folk’s cautionary tales. The stories have now become the focus of local dares and explorations into the city and the forest’s past.

    January 1st, 1990, that quiet ended. Things have gotten worse, much worse, and people have started to go missing and new stories and sighting of local killers have sprung up once again!

The Rules

Don’t Look Back is a solo/cooperative miniature experience for up to four players. When using the advanced rules, another player may also control The Killer! One of the unique aspects of Don’t Look Back is that Characters are only aware of things happening with their Awareness stat in inches. This means that Killers can disappear from sight and rampage from the shadows, catching the Characters by surprise and capturing classic slasher movie moments!

 

Don’t Look Back uses a simple D20 system where players are often looking to roll equal to or less than a Character’s skill value to determine success on the actions they take. When a Character activates they are able to choose between taking a single long action and short action or two short actions.

 

The Killers in Don’t Look Back are made from three aspects. The Visage explains how durable The Killer is and what kinds of attacks it will make. Its M.O. explains how The Killer will be placed on the table and how and who it will move after. Finally, each Killer has two traits that give it some additional unique abilities that can really change how they hunt and interact with the Characters.

 

Characters are looking to complete the objective of the Plot while surviving against The Killer before time is up.  

 

Whats new in the book?

Revised mechanics and more clarity.

The second edition of Don’t Look Back is focused on making sure that the rules and mechanics for the game are as clear and easy to understand as possible. For a few examples, we have spent a lot of time revisiting how The Killer moves and changed the Characters’ Fright value to Terror to make that interaction with damage and special rules clear and not to be confused with the Fright tokens roaming the table, and added the exact wound value of each Character. Ben has also spent a lot of time with the layout to make sure that information is presented in a clearer and more thematic way!

 

New Characters.
The new edition of Don’t Look Back introduces two new Characters to the game. We are excited to present Mia Green, a tough no-nonsense scraper, and Keen Houser a lovable dealer of local naturals.

 

Plot Creation
In addition to the five classic, core Plots, players will be able to randomly generate their own plots. This includes things like the turn length, objectives, how The Killer can appear, and fun optional thematic elements to help really bring the Plots to life.

 

Vehicles
Players will also find optional, advanced rules to add vehicles to their games of Don’t Look Back. These rules are designed to capture the unpredictable nature of vehicles in horror settings. Don’t be surprised if The Killer sits up in the back seat and attacks the driver!

 

Companions
Characters will now also be able to bring along Companions to Plots. Doing this prevents the Character from searching for additional items but can give them bonuses to skills and a special ability activated with Character Luck.

 

Previous Expansions
All of the rules from Trilogies, Final Call, and Pack Hunt have been integrated into the new second-edition book as Advanced Rules. All of these rules have been revisited to enhance clarity and bring them in line with any changes to the core rules.