The Final Girl: Let’s Talk About It

The Final Girl is an RPG in the horror genre by Bret Gillian that was released in 2011.

The Trope

The “final girl” is a trope of horror films dating all the way back to the 1960’s but became a familiar staple in many 1970’s and 1980’s slasher flicks. The trope is evident when the final survivor of the film is a female character that manages to defeat or otherwise escape from the villain. Some versions of the this trope feature the character as a helpless, terrified victim who finds the strength to overcome by the end. While in other versions, the “final girl” is portrayed as a strong character throughout.

Another horror trope that falls in line with this is that of the virtuous survivor. Many times the “final girl” was a virgin or generally unavailable to the advances of a lusty suitor. The “final girl” also refuses to partake in vices such as drinking, drugs, or sex that are perpetrated by other characters in the film. This reinforces the idea that the survivor is worthy enough to not fall prey to the killer(s).

Overview

The game itself is an emulation of the campy horror films many grew up watching during the 70’s and 80’s in which quirky, yet stereotypical characters struggle to survive the evil which stalks them. However, the game takes the “final girl” trope and flips it on its head.

The game is played out in a series of scenes which begin with the players each choosing a character to portray in the scene. One player is chosen to be the “killer” and frames the scene (setting, time, etc.). Free role play between the characters occurs until the killer decides to enter the scene to do some killing. The scene ends when one or more of the characters fall prey to the killer. Then we move on to the next scene with a new player as the killer. We continue playing out scenes and killing various characters until there is only one left. Our final girl.

The reason I mention the game flips the final girl trope is because at the beginning, we have no idea who will survive to the very end. When you watch a horror movie, especially one from the 70’s or 80’s, you know who the main protagonist is and therefore who will be the survivor at the end of the film. This game will mostly always surprise you with a survivor you never expected at the outset and that survivor won’t necessarily be a female or virtuous.

Character Creation

Creating characters in The Final Girl is both fast, easy, and fun. You create characters that are stereotypical and quirky. There is no reason to create deep, complex characters in a game in which they may not survive the first scene in which they appear. There is just enough information there for each player to be able to embody that character in the scene.

No one owns any character in the game. Any player may choose to play any character during a scene. There should be anywhere between 12 and 20 characters created for a game.

Some Example Characters

Felicia McDonald – The trigger happy sheriff who collects Beanie Babies
Jack Williams – The down-on-his-luck garbage man who dreams of being a dancer
Stacy Marlphone – The coked-up journalist who thinks this current assignment is beneath her

Mechanics

The Final Girl uses a standard deck of playing cards for scene resolution. When the killer decides to enter a scene to begin the mayhem, each player draws a number of cards based on the amount of relationships that character has with other characters. The killer chooses their target and draws a card from the deck. The target(s) must be able to beat that card with one from their hand in order to survive the attack. This continues until a character is killed and the scene ends.

Relationships

Relationships add an extra twist to the resolution mechanics. Plus they contribute to the survivability of a character since more relationships allow more cards to be drawn.

There are three types of relationships in The Final Girl: friendships, rivalries, and screwing. Friendships show that two characters are friends and cards can be played by these characters in order to help each other survive the killer’s attacks. Rivalries are the opposite as rivals can use cards to undermine another character in hopes that they are killed during a scene. Screwing relationships are a mixture of friendships and rivalries as the characters can choose to either hinder or help the other character.

Relationships are built through free role play and must be agreed upon by both characters.

Setting

The Final Girl can take place in any setting that you can imagine. Space horror, western horror, gothic, post-apocalyptic, or modern setting may all be used in game. The game rules include a nice table at the end to come up with a setting on the fly. Many of these are based on popular media and instantly recognizable.

Some Tips for Running The Final Girl

• Have the players build relationships for characters early and often.  Don’t try to make them subtle or vague either.  “Oh yeah, we are totally rivals!” is better than “We kind of dislike each other.”
• Make use of relationships during card resolution.  Although you may not want to make use of your high card to save a friendly character, sacrifice for a friend makes some good plot points. 
• Some people prefer the card mechanics be done before the scene begins.  The benefit of this is there is not interruption of the scene narration to turn to the mechanics
• Don’t play these characters safely!  Play them like the characters in horror movies.  Have them go into a dark basement or attic to “investigate that noise”

You’d Enjoy The Final Girl RPG if You Enjoy:

• Campy horror or slasher films
• Quirky characters
• Stories that may be a tiny bit gonzo
• Lots of laughs and out-of-character table humor
• No-prep games
• GM-less games
• Story games
• Mechanically-lite games
• Freeform role playing

In all, I find The Final Girl as one of my favorite tabletop games. It’s fast to the table and a great one-shot game, which makes it a game any group can play if they want something different on game night. You can get it for pay-what-you-want on DriveThruRPG.

­Resources

Here are some actual plays of The Final Girl

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