Well down here in FL, I got to try two games yesterday, Geist, and Paranoia.
Geist was fairly middle of the road for me. It runs on the WoD system (or NWoD or whatever it currently is). You play people who have died, or almost died, but came back bonded with a ghost of some sort. Also special ghost powers. The powers on the pregen characters ranged from amazing (a person who lights people/ghosts on fire with his mind, a person who can find anything in a football sized area) to the utterly Aquaman-esque (a dude who can dodge bullets slightly better if half submerged in water.) The tone felt like Ghostbusters: So Full of Angst edition.
Maybe it was the pregen adventure, but I wouldn't call it particularly horrifying. Theres no sanity mechanic, but I did have to make a morality role when I had to get a hooker for a ghost. Yes. The pregen module has a situation where a ghost wants a hooker to possess, and then goes off an does hooker-esque things. As we were had awesome ghost powers, our most pressing concern wasn't that ghost would try to hurt us, it was looking ridiculous in front of witnesses, as it looks like we were pretend fighting someone, as normal people can't see ghosts. Theres was a cool idea of "reverse possessing" the ghost you bonded with, whose descriptions were cool and terrifying. However, mechanically, this fell kind of flat. Normal people saw us as normal, and the only real application was that now the stereotypical kung fu guy could punch a ghost. Sadly his powerlevel remained below 9,000.
Paranoia was a different beast altogether. Definitely a fun one shot, or "lets blow off some steam" game. Me and my fellow troubleshooters had a rip roaring time tromping around Alpha complex, accusing others and other team members of being commie mutant traitors. Evidence of commie mutant traitors was found, altered, and altered a good third time, and a total clone wipe was initiated when the Tech guy was convinced that the Security Officer was a traitor, as he missed shooting another commie mutant traitor and destroyed a vital console, so he pulled out some blasting explosives and made sure he got all of the commie mutant traitors. Luckily the next batch of clones was able to fix the console and complete the mission.
Definitely my favorite of the two. Going to pick up the book when it comes out.
EDIT: Now with less bold!
