KAKURENBO 掴恋慕～かくれんぼ～
Regarding Japanese horror tales, the Western audience probably would be most familiar with movies adopted by Hollywood, such as the Ring. Japanese horror tales are less about the thrills and shrieks, but more about the steady buildup of spookiness that the audience can never rid of -- like the Shining perhaps? Horror themes are always an important part of Japanese popular culture, and naturally it extends to the tabletop space as well. A good example of this is Hako Onna , which has recently been picked up by a Taiwanese game maker for publishing and caused quite a sensation within the Chinese gamer circle. The game I introduce today, KAKURENBO (meaning "hide-and-seek"), also has a grotesque back story in full Japanese horror glory, but the mechanics is simple old-school Old Maid on a deck of 15 cards. Yes, there are some variations using dice, and each pair of cards has a certain effect when discarded, but these additions are too weak to change gameplay. Most impor
