Dragons of all shapes and sizes occupy this world but due to the spread of wizardry, they are most often found on remote islands or on lonely peaks. A solitary race of oviparous hermaphroditic flying lizards capable of parthenogenesis and, when mature enough, breathing fire. It takes a dragon over a hundred years to go…
Category: Game Design
Progress and updates on the game design process.
Patreon Launched
Some small encouragement from people exposed to my first short story set in the “Tales of Distant Lands” world, I’ve launched a Patreon. You can have a look at it here: https://patreon.com/Lategaming All new content for “Tales of Distant Lands” will be released on the Patreon first and then updates posted here later. So, come…
In development: Tales of Distant Lands
Tales of Distant Lands is a working title for a game I’ve been dreaming about for decades. The core inspiration is definitely Earthsea, based on my love of “A Wizard of Earthsea” and “The Tombs of Atuan” which I read as a teenager. I’m currently re-reading Tombs after reading AWoE last week. The author, Ursula…
So What’s Next?
It has to be said we are YZE (Year Zero Engine) fans here at Lategaming – you only have to look at our recent releases. Always interested in new ways to bring the apocalypse. With this latest update, there’s nothing stopping you from having Supersoldiers fighting Dragons on the fields of Poland while psychics battle…
Here Be Dragons – a new enemy for Twilight 2000
Here Be Dragons – A new Enemy for Twilight 2000 [Scenario][Game Aid][Paid] Here Be Dragons is a different look at the post-apocalyptic world after a awakening of an ancient enemy brings our civilisation to ruin. This reign of Draconic Rulers brings down a Rain of Fire and destruction by tooth and fang. Smoke fills the…
Whole New World – a Sci-Fi setting using Y23E/YZE as the basis
We’ve started working on (yet another) world. A Sci-Fi setting we are calling “Whole New World”. Premise I’ve been a big fan of Interstellar, released in 2014 (and therefore has it’s 10th anniversary later this year) and I’m very keen on the rush of mature Sci-Fi we got around that time. Interstellar in particular was…
New and Shiny: Enhanced: Super Soldiers in the Twilight War
We just released Enhanced. This one has been a long time in the making and, due to the amount of art (all done by humans), the most expensive book we have produced to date. Remembering that all of our books are about recouping costs so we can pay more artists! Enhanced is a supplement for…
A Hopeful Ending and a New Beginning
We played our final session of The 23rd Letter play test this week, and wrapped up the story of Poppy and her baby. After recuperating overnight (under Joy’s watchful care, and a handy saline drip), Poppy recovered enough from her ordeal to tell the group about what had happened, which really just confirmed all their…
Rise of R’lyeh Character Sheet
We have a character sheet for Rise of R’lyeh now.
Rise of R’lyeh – Apocalyptic Mythos Horror
Playtest copies currently available Rise of R’lyeh is designed to work with the Year Zero Engine (Step Dice) shared by games like Twilight 2000, Bladerunner, Terminal Shock, The 23rd Letter and Excession. It can be mixed with other third party supplements like Deadzone, Twilight Tangents, Twilight 2249 or any of the others out there. Mythos…
Venting Pyrokinetics
Our fourth and fifth in-game sessions of the 23rd Letter saw quite a lot of action! I’ll give a brief summary, and then talk about some of the rules that I think were interesting. I’ll put a * and a number on some rules I’m going to talk about at the end. Everybody woke up…
The 23rd Letter, 3rd Edition playtest doc
It’s out there in the wild. We are inviting you to the Playtest. Either join our little Discord or, if you already own The 23rd Letter 2nd Edition, check your inbox as you’ll have been sent a link. The highlights are New character options in a new archetype-based system More focus on The Network Explosive…
Power Armour (Living Steel) for YZE-Step
An M.I. lives by his suit the way a K-9 man lives by and with and on his doggie partner. Powered armor is one-half the reason we call ourselves “mobile infantry” instead of just “infantry.” (The other half are the spaceships that drop us and the capsules we drop in.) Our suits give us better…
A precog walks into a bar …
Now a few weeks into the first play-test of the 3rd edition of The 23rd Letter, I wanted to post some updates on what’s been going in the game, and a few reflections as both Referee and game designer. First off, let’s talk about the party, which in this edition is by default a Cell…
Reign of Fire for YZE-Step
Challenged to make a Reign of Fire game with our current 23rd Letter rules gives us a bit of thought. In Forbidden Lands (YZE), dragons are pretty nasty. Even the small ones. MIGHT 32 (that is ridiculous but we will come to it) AGILITY 4 (equivalent to d10) WITS 4 (equivalent to d10) EMPATHY 2…
Why Yeezy?
So, you know we have switched from out ERIS House System to the YZE for the Third Edition and we have been asked why. The first reason is that it’s a decent system. It’s pretty grounded, pretty lethal and abstracts a lot of the bookkeeping (reducing crunch while maintaining verisimilitude). We are using the Step…
The 23rd Letter 3rd Edition
So, we have been working a lot on this. The rules are probably 90% complete but we keep finding little places where we think a rule or guideline is needed. Like today it was clarifiying how Hideouts function mechanically in relation to Heat from the authorities. We are starting to look at design and layout…
Game Dev Discord
We have a Game Dev Discord which we are slowly opening up to a few more people. Inside is space for asking questions about our existing published games as well as participating ideas for our upcoming books. Understand though that none of us do this full time – it’s a hobby where any money made…
YZE Dice Roller – including Step Dice
AJ built this YZE dice roller on the site so we have a super quick way of rolling dice and collecting successes. It’s the only one that works for Step Dice YZE as well as Pool Dice. Click the image and add to your bookmarks!
Dark Urban Fantasy I hear?
ExSanguine allows for the playing of Vampir Hunters, Familiars (humans enthralled by vampirs), Fiends (young vampires) and Elders. Plenty of supernaturals mentioned in there, eh? De Occulta allows for playing of Occultists (magicians). But De Occulta presents the rules on how to magically create a “Frankenstein” as well as declaring that Pneuma can be people….