Welcome to this month's installation of Chilling Thoughts. Each month, Chilling Thoughts will bring you a column which includes some small props for use with the Chill Horror Role-Playing Game by Mayfair Games. These props are designed to be photocopied (so you don't have to mangle your valuable copy of SHADIS) and handed out to the players on a Chill adventure. You will also be given details and suggestion as to how each prop could be used in an adventure, or as the subject of an entire adventure in their own right.

In this month's installment, we'll be exploring the use of one of the easiest and most often used props in role-playing games - the business card. The business card is an extremely easy-to-use prop that can add just the right touch to a situation or can be a good way to start off an adventure.

Often, the simple business card can be used to launch an adventure. It could be found in a library, pinned up on a bulletin board, dropped on the floor of a restaurant, or handed to the PCs by a mysterious stranger on a cold, dark street. Calling the number (or visiting the address on the card) could result in a contact for a mission, a new source of information for the PCs, or perhaps even a trap laid by an enemy.

Other times, it is more useful to use a business card as a prop in the middle of an adventure. The PCs could be searching the office of an NPC who turned up mauled to death in a nearby alley. The card could give some clue as to what the NPC had been doing before he or she was killed. Alternatively, the card could be found in the pocket of the dead NPC, indicating perhaps who the NPC was on their way to see when they were killed.

Creating business cards for a Chill adventure can be a particularly amusing venture. Since Chill campaigns usually take place in a modern setting, business cards are appropriate to the adventure, and are very easy for a ChillMaster to create. In addition, it is important to remember that most business cards contain more than a name and an address. Often, a business card will contain a short phrase about what the person or company does, or perhaps a small graphic that shows the logo of the company. The logo, of course, is usually related to what the person or company does as well.

If you, as a ChillMaster, have a difficult time creating a business card from scratch, it can often be a fun experience to acquire some real business cards for use in your game. The primary (and unexpected) benefit of this is that the types of places a creative ChillMaster can acquire useful business cards from are often the types of places that provide wonderful inspiration for constructing a useful adventure.

Some examples: Try dropping by a funeral home and asking for a business card. Loads of ideas there, and the atmosphere can be a real mood setter for an adventure. Who hasn't set an adventure in a funeral home? How about going to an old motel for a business card. While there, take a few pictures. Or, jot down a few notes. Or, drive to a local industrial park, look for a business that has an unusual name (or just one that strikes you) and stop in and ask for a business card. While there, get a good look at the place. Industrial buildings can often be great settings for adventures.

The business cards included with this article are designed to give you a few to use right away (they should be enlarged with a photocopier) and are easily incorporated into an adventure. The card for Tru-Kleen is ideal for an adventure involving creatures in the sewers, perhaps beginning with a dead "Rodent Removal Associate."

The second card, for Eric Stewart, Professional Sharpshooter, can easily be presented to the PCs as hired help (hired by SAVE, of course) during a particularly sticky situation. He is sent in to help them. But if they call the number, do they reach his house? Or perhaps a local sanitarium instead? Coincidentally, this business card goes very well with the ad for a professional sharpshooter in a previous installment of Chilling Thoughts.

And lastly, Dr. Henry Jones, the Acquisition Specialist. Is he a new contact, with loads of information about an ancient artifact the PCs are searching for? Or is he a more normal type of acquisitions specialist, who is able to acquire that special gun or holy water the PCs need to defeat that enemy they've been plagued by the entire adventure?

However you choose to use them, business cards lend themselves to use in a Chill game. In some cases, the PCs may even start to collect them for use in later adventures, providing continuity in a long campaign and a bit of realism for an otherwise normal adventure. And, as a parting thought, what if the business card was the address of a real place the ChillMaster had set up in advance? It might cost a bit of money, but a hotel room rented out and set up as a murder scene can be one heck of a scare for the players, and is a great expression of horror in a Chill game. Have fun with it!

Tru-Kleen, Inc.
Sewage And Extermination Experts
1883 W. Erica Jane Parkway
Howard City, IL 61003
Mr. Dave Johansen
Rodent Removal Associate

Eric Stewart
Professional Sharpshooter
13 E. Denyl St.
Skara, NY 13153

Dr. Henry Jones
Acquisition Specialist
548 Indiana Avenue
Albuquerque, NM 34921