This week I released two complete books. Both of them are powered by the popular Year Zero Engine and both of them part of a series to create a “Dark Urban Fantasy” world. The first, Ex Sanguine (Out of the Blood) is about modern vampires. It has rules for Hunters, Familiars, Fiends and Elders and…
Category: Game Design
Progress and updates on the game design process.
Apocalyptic Fantasy
My contribution to this thread on the pub: Things I think would be interesting. Messed up geographies. Not necessarily Skyrealms but I based the design of Viride on a diagram of proteins floating in lipid layers (cell membrane). An assumption is a planet – much like Earth. Maybe or maybe not one ecology but what…
Effects-based Magic for YZE-Step
My favourite magic systems are from Ars Magica (and to a degree, MAGE), and the effects based system from For Faery Queen and Country. The principle of Nothing From Nothing (and presumably, Nothing Into Nothing) I like a lot. Which means you can get shot of Creo and Perdo. It’s really just about seeing, controlling…
Frontier – new art, old art
Would really like the time and energy to get life paths done this month. Depends on life and everything. I did get some new art commissioned.
Frontier – thinking while watching The Expanse
I’ve just started a binge of The Expanse TV series and if I enjoy it, I’ll hit the book series. There are things I really like about The Expanse. They maintain momentum and include it in part of the story There’s no artificial gravity Missiles are long range weapons. Slugthrowers are close combat weapons (and…
EXCESSION: Session 1
Excession is a new low-to-mid powered superhero game using the Year Zero Engine. Session 1 Excession is a privately owned non profit organisation that seems to have unlimited money and a private army. Louis and Jana are two hard chargers for the Excession organisation. Louis is a German-American with a real love of animals and…
Games in a Utopia
I guess it depends where you sit. We live in a post-scarcity civilisation (we have the technology), we just don’t live in a post-scarcity society. Scarcity is manufacturered. So are we close to a utopia if we fixed distribution and inequality? Well. Kinda. There would still be people with greed. People who think that the…
TTRPGDESIGN Update: Enhanced
I haven’t spoken much about “Enhanced” but the premise is: “What if, in the Twilight War, the war to end all wars, there was another agent. Something that arrived on earth nearly 100 years before and spread it’s mutagenic force throughout the world, especially after it was discovered that the mutations could be controlled. So,…
TTRPGDesign: Beyond Human update
Progress with Beyond Human has definitely slowed dude to working on other projects; not least ENHANCED for Twilight 2000 and The 23rd Letter 3rd Edition (as well as Xiongguo, Invasion and Rise of R’lyeh. Yes, some of those projects you’ve never heard of, but that’s just another thing slowing things down. Many many projects and…
Beyond Human: Progress Report
Every day brings us a little closer to release day. Today was about defining the attributes better and working on the rules for Pushing and Channelling powers.
New Project: Beyond Human
New? I’ve been working on this for a while. 2008. I wrote that in 2008. The project has advanced. It’s now 70 pages which puts it as the largest book I’ve made to date. The premise is that it’s a grounded superhero game. I mean, as grounded as superhero games can really be. It’s got…
New Release: CONTRACTORS for Twilight 2000
It’s been a while and a lot of research but also a lot of fun. CONTRACTORS for Twilight 2000 CONTRACTORS is a supplement for Twilight 2000 4th Edition detailing the operations of private military contractors in the years leading up to the Twilight War. It provides a slightly different backdrop to the game but could…
The 23rd Letter, 3rd “Fury” Edition
Yeah, I wasn’t planning on having to talk about it so soon. Blog post isn’t even written. but… it’s set nearly thirty years later. The Psychic War as was died with the final end of the Cold War. Corporations figured out it’s easier to manipulate people with social media than fragile psychics. Many of the…
23rd Letter, 2nd Edition PDF
After a lengthy delay, I released the PDF of the second edition of The 23rd Letter. Anyone who has the print edition gets it free (so, if you have it, get in touch).? There’s a third edition (different time period, different metaplot) coming so don’t rush out and get it unless you want some amazing…
New Release: Kick Murder
Well, tonight we hit publish on our new #TTRPG: Kick Murder https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/419543/Kick-Murder “Your Emotions Make You Human, Even The Unpleasant Ones Have A Purpose” In Kick Murder, the players are catapulted into a world of danger and uncertainty. Their humdrum jobs, their dangerous jobs, the sorts of jobs that no-one would want to do –…
Mythos Role-Reversal
Originally posted on Mastodon at #TTRPGDesign Saw someone asking about Mythos role reversal on Reddit. I don’t relish the idea of playing evil characters or Mythos monsters so most of the thread was meh. But characters who are doomed are interesting. Maybe the PC is trying to track down their long lost parents and discovers…
Return to Jorune
I am in the middle of a writing project (Twilight Invasion, if you must know) but this just means I have extra procrastination for other writing projects. I’ve written about Jorune before. There’s some activity on the Jorune Facebook page for a resurgence into the BRP version but honestly I don’t think I can face…
Silver Haired Sentinels: Superheroic Role-Playing in the Retirement Age
Take on the reigns of a retired superhero living out their lives in a retirement home with other seniors. Try and relive smome of your glory days while fighting authoritarian wardens, the rigours of modern life and a family that would rather they didn’t have to visit so often. Silver Haired Sentinels is a roleplaying…
Latest Project: Silver Haired Sentinels
I’ve been working on this for a while now – and just waiting on a few art pieces to be finished. So, what is it? Silver Haired Sentinels is a roleplaying game about the residents and staff of a Continuing Care Retirement Community. That would be interesting in itself but some of these Residents have…