Don’t Look Back: Terror is Never Far Behind is a tabletop role-playing game set in a modern world full of supernatural and paranormal horrors, secret government laboratories, alien abductions, and a master conspiracy trying to cover up the truth. If you’re a fan of Stranger Things, The X-Files, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Firestarter, Fringe and other horror stories and shows like I am, you’ll be very comfortable playing in the world of Don’t Look Back.
I developed Don’t Look Back (DLB) in the early ’90s and published two editions of the rulebook and an alien abduction/government coverup supplement called Giant Psychic Insects From Outer Space. We put in a lot of work and it paid off with really good press and some great reviews.
The resurgence of paranormal horror on TV and at the movies, coupled with conspiracy theories on every news channel, made me feel like a perfect time to bring DLB back. With the help of my good friend Origins Award Winner Lester Smith (creator of Dragon Dice, Dark Conspiracy, and the cool D6xD6 multi-setting RPG), I updated the game and migrated it over to his D6xD6 system and ran a Kickstarter. With the support of several old and new fans, a full-color third edition was born and is currently available on DriveThru RPG, Studio 2, and everywhere RPGs are sold.
DLB is set in a dark modern world where government laboratories experiment on helpless citizens, aliens plot the downfall of humanity, powerful organizations go to extremes to cover up the truth, and you never know who you can trust. Nothing is what it appears. Truth is dictated by the media, and history is rewritten by the bureaucracy.
Players take the roles of characters who see through the veil of secrets. They could be anything from kids investigating strange lights in the woods, to detectives trying to solve a string of ritualistic murders, to the subjects of mind-altering experiments who escaped from a government lab and are now running for their lives, or even running from the zombie apocalypse. Maybe they are part of a clandestine government agency that investigates the paranormal or maybe they help cover it up.
DLB easily accommodates any modern supernatural and paranormal horror scenario. I like to deviate from the standard tropes to keep it interesting. Seriously, where else are you going to find Giant Psychic Insects From Outer Space and enormous, lactose-intolerant, flesh-eating amoebas?
What even long-time fans don’t know is that the conspiracy was always intended to extend beyond time, space, and realities. Are the puppet masters of Earth merely puppets themselves? With the promise of other dimensions and alien worlds, the adventure possibilities are limitless.
The D6xD6 mechanics helps players create characters in 5 minutes or less, and helps the Guide (Game Master) resolve game actions with fewer dice rolls. People who have played DLB before will have no problem making the shift. You can be up and running with minimal preparation, making it an ideal game for fast one-off adventures and convention play even with people who have never played DLB or other RPGs before.
The other reason I chose to use the D6xD6 rules as the base rules is so players can access scenarios and settings that already use the same rules. So far, more than 30 settings written to work with the D6xD6 rules have already been published and there is an existing D6xD6 community that DLB players can join. D6xD6 gamers can also immediately pick up the DLB rulebook and use elements from it in their own games.
