Crowdfunding Spotlight: Terror Trumps, recapturing 1970s game play!

By John Freeman on June 10, 2021

The British team behind Terror Trumps, a retro horror trump card game – who comprise award-winning comics writer Rik Hoskin and comic artists Tim Brown and Chatri Ahpornsiri – love the original Top Trump, so why not, they thought, come up with a new incarnation?

After lightning hit the team, invigorating them with arcane energy from who knows where, they began working on the game and, after months of development, interrupted only by a worldwide pandemic, Terror Trumps is in course for release thanks to Kickstarter support – but there’s still time to back it!

The “Venetian Death Cell” card is a tongue-in-cheek homage to a classic card in the old Top Trumps Horror set from 1978. There, it was an image of a Sea Devil from Doctor Who entitled “Venusian Death Cell”!

Made by Dubreq, Waddingtons and Jotastar, Top Trumps, many vintage sets re-released by Winning Moves since 2012, was the most insane and imaginative card game of the 1970s and 80s with sets that included Horror Trumps, Doctor Who Trumps, Marvel Superheroes Trumps and many more.

“And that’s what we wanted to recreate,” says project head Tim Browm, “that feel of having a new, yet old, pack of cards in your hand, that you could just pick up and play with a friend at a dining table, on a car journey, in the park…anywhere!

“No complicated rules – no dice. Just pick up and play like it’s 1979 again! Simple.”

On offer as a tribute to those games much loved are two sets of old school horrific ‘Terror Trumps’, featuring some familiar and some very strange characters from the world of horror, all embracing an old school retro art glow.

Each set has 32 character cards, so you can mix them together and have one super huge game. They also include full rules, title cards and character checklists.

“We’ve also added a whole new twist,” says Tim, “special cards that ramp up your game like never before. A modifier could make all the difference!

“And our guarantee is that, if we get the chance to create even more cards down the line, everything will always be playable with these sets.”

*Fancy being immortalised as a Terror Trump? You can be!*

I got a test set of these cards a while back. They’re great fun, and it’s quite clear a lot of thought has gone into the project. The rewards on offer are straightforward and there’s even the option of backing at a level that could see you feature on one of the cards.

If you fancy dealing yourself in – then shuffle over to Kickstarter and check out Terror Trumps now…

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.