New Kiwi Games

Welcome to a round-up of the latest roleplaying games created by New Zealanders.  Previous instalments in this series include Roleplaying Aotearoa Style (April, 2015), the rise of New Zealand Roleplaying products, (Aug 2013) and  New Zealand Roleplaying Products (Feb 2011).  Now, on to the 2016 edition:

We start with The Sprawl, a Powered-by-the-Apocalypse RPG of mission-based action in a gritty neon-and-chrome cyberpunk future. On the back of a successful Kickstarter, Hamish Cameron has created a game where you are the extended assets of vast multinational corporations, operating in the criminal underground, and performing the tasks that those multinationals can’t do... or can’t be seen to do. You are deniable, professional and disposable.

Another Kiwi to successfully harness Kickstarter is Ciâran Spencer Searle, who raised funding for Transylvania, a hidden role party game of vampires and villagers played in a darkened room for six or more people.

Next up, Steve Hickey released Soth, a diceless game of cultists vs investigators where you play cultists in a small-town, trying to summon a dark god.  If you complete three more rituals, Soth will rise. But can you conceal your murderous crimes from family and friends?

Also of note, Left Coast, Steve's role-playing game about a science fiction writer in California, who struggles as the weirdness from her novels spills into real life, was a runner-up for the 2016 Indie RPG Award for Most Innovative Game!

Catherine Pegg has also been busy.  The Face of Oblivion, is a science-fiction chamber LARP for 6-8 players, designed around a hard choice.  Disaster is coming: will you save a large group of people that you are responsible for, or a smaller group of everyone you ever loved and everything you ever cared about?

Catherine also released My Bloody Valentine, a LARP scenario for 6-8 players, where instead of spending Valentine's Day with your loved one, you're stuck having biscuits and a cuppa with your landlady.  And it's worse than that - she's making you talk to her other tenants. Trouble is, Miss Elisabeth is so nice, she'll let anyone in. They're nuts!  How long before you're climbing the walls?

Anna Klein released two live action roleplaying scenarios during 2015.  Argonautica is an intense vignette inside the lives of eight characters who have found themselves in desperate enough circumstances to take part in an unpleasant shock reality TV show, wherein they sequestered from the world at large for four months, and subjected to the general ridiculousness of reality TV challenges. Partway through the game, a horror element is introduced, and the tone of the game becomes one of personal horror.

Boats Against the Current (also by Anna)  is an introspective live action roleplaying scenario for 9 players, set New York, in the throes of the roaring twenties.  Recently, an eccentric but much talked about millionaire socialite died under questionable circumstances. Speculation abounds in the streets, and splashed across the papers - who was this man, really? Where did he come from? Who killed him? And why?

At the end of 2015 I released Death of Legends, a GM-less dark-fantasy roleplaying game that tells the story of epic deeds against great odds in aid of UNICEF New Zealand, and followed this up with a high-fantasy expansion First Kingdoms.  Death of Legends was recently awarded an Indie Groundbreaker Award for Best Rules and was second runner up for the Indie RPG Award for Best Free Game of 2015. 

I also released another Christmas Special scenario for the EPOCH survival horror roleplaying game Polaris Six and Candidate, a micro-game of political ambition.

New Zealand game designers have also been well represented in international competitions.  Rose Docherty was a finalist for the renown Game Chef 2016 competition.  Rose's game, Making History is a game about history, hard decisions and public memory.  Hamish Cameron entered a game called Mirror Ball, a game about the many faces of technology and I entered Fragment (see below).  Rose also created School of Magic, a card-based RPG where you play teenagers in a mage school as part of the Fantasy RPG Design Challenge.

This is the biggest list to date, and I think it reflects the growing strength and diversity of New Zealand game design.

If you know of a product I've missed, comment below.

Also of Note

Mike Sands has been hard at work on Heavy Metal Æons, a roleplaying game of heavy metal inspired science-fantasy adventures.  A playtest document is currently available. 

My 2016 Game Chef entry Fragment, a game of machines and memory is currently available to playtest.

Holding On, Morgan Davie's entry into the 200 word RPG challenge recently went micro-viral.

Addendum
A couple I missed; Jenni Sands has been busy writing Monster of the Week mysteries, including Murders at the Music Festival, and The Shadow Man, and she's working on a new game called Purification: a facilitator-less story game with cards, violence and lots of death.

Grant Robinson has been  writing for Shadowrun.  In Amber Waves of Grain The runners are going to have some unusual jobs, including spreading some poisons and making sure innocent lives are spared (if they’re so inclined). They’ll have to be on their toes to steer clear of the authorities, get all the pieces of this particular scheme in place, and in particular answer the pressing question: Just what is Mr. Johnson up to?

Grant also contributed to Court of Shadows, an alternate setting for Shadowrun, Fifth Edition, emphasizing the magic and intrigue of the Seelie Court.

Hot off the press, Malcolm Harbrow has created The Devil's Brood, a LARP for nine players and an organiser, inspired by history and The Lion in Winter.

Arkham, Awards and New Adventures

First I wanted to point you to the nominees for ENnie Awards this year; these awards celebrate excellence in roleplaying products.  Voting is now open and it doesn’t take long to go through and vote and I encourage you to take a look and exercise your ability to participate, if you see some things you like.  I don’t have a product nominated this year, although my whodunit RPG Wicked Lies & Alibis picked up a judges spotlight award (thanks to the excellent taste of Judge Stacy Muth). 

I’ve posted before about the beautiful agony of the ENnie Awards, where micro-publishers like myself can (if we’re lucky) be nominated, but ultimately are extremely unlikely to win an actual award based on the size of our customer base (when compared with much larger publishers).  The Judges Spotlight Award, on the other hand,  is a perfect recognition for a micro-publisher like me.   In related news, friend and one-time EPOCH scenario author Mike Sands has been nominated in the category of Best Rules for the Evil Hat edition of his bestselling game Monster of the Week, so congratulations to Mike!

We’ve just wrapped up the 13th and final session of Arkham Chronicles, and cleared our way to play the (recently ENnie Award Nominated) Horror on the Orient Express, now that it has finally arrived in magnificent physical form.  You may recall that we had already played the Orient Express Gaslight prequel scenario – The Blood Red Fez.  I plan to run the Orient Express campaign with all the trimmings, including the Invictus, Dark Ages, Modern and Dreamlands additions, as well as music, miniatures, and all manner of handouts as appropriate. 

As I read through the campaign I am reminded just how old some parts of it are.  The implicit assumptions about character actions and motivations are not something you’d expect to see in a modern scenario, as they are simply too brittle to survive contact with resourceful, creative and engaged players – highlighting a tension that can (appropriately in this case) be termed as railroading.  Rather than simply try and shoehorn the characters into difficult and dangerous situations, or frustrate their players by stymieing any but the approved investigative avenue, I’ve had some open conversations with my group about this aspect of the game. 

As I told them, I’ll do my best to meet them half-way with these kind of plot elements, but I’ve pushed the players to look to their own characters motivations, and to view the game as a television series, where the setup is usually the same at the beginning of the episode, sometimes ignoring just how crazy and dangerous things were in the previous episode.  I’m also using some of the optional elements from Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition and introducing a house rule; a ‘Mark of Destiny’ which will work as a one shot option to allow a character to avert certain death, take a reduced SAN loss or boost their Luck (this being a critical resource in 7th edition using the optional rules, to both levy consequences and enhance investigative progress).

I’ve really enjoyed running the Arkham Chronicles, and it’s been a great way to develop characters which have strong player buy-in before the campaign and learn the seventh edition rules a little as we go.  As is traditional, I post the key stats from this mini-campaign below:

SCENARIOS

• Dark Rivals (Dead Reckonings)
• Darkness Illuminated (Island of Ignorance)
• Dead Light
• Missed Dues
• The Condemned  (H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham)

CAMPAIGN STATS

Players  = 7

Characters created = 8
Characters killed = 0
Characters institutionalised = 1
Outer Gods encountered = 1
Great Old Ones encountered = 1

Roleplaying Aotearoa Style

In the past I've posted about New Zealand Roleplaying Products (Feb 2011) and the rise of New Zealand Roleplaying products, (Aug 2013) highlighting some great products authored by New Zealanders.  Now it's time for the 2015 edition, covering more RPG products by Kiwi authors:

We begin with a new edition of a title featured in the last instalment; Monster of the Week a new and revised edition of this best-selling monster-hunting roleplaying game powered by the Apocalypse.  Michael Sands teamed up with Evil Hat Productions to produce this slick product, packed with new art and containing some new material including an introductory mystery; example monsters like Balkan vampires, ghouls, and spore trolls; and hunter types like the Crooked and the Spell-Slinger.  Mike's also made available all the handouts and created a bundle of extra playbooks.

Next up is The Idea from Space by Simon Carryer.  This is an adventure suitable for low-level characters for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role-Playing and other traditional role-playing games.

Also by Simon is Nod, a game about a barbarian from the Shivering Steppe, hunting human quarry within the walls of the city. One night is all that is given to find the quarry and flee the city. But Nod is a place of dark alleyways, strange rituals, degenerate worship and corrupt rule. The barbarian's journey will have many crooked turns, and will never end where you expect.

Steve Hickey has recently released Left Coast: the Short Story edition a role-playing game about a science fiction writer in California (and her weird friends, family, fans and nemeses).  Steve also has Soth, a game about cultists just trying to do what cultists do, coming soon.

Jenni Sands recently published Quiet Day in the Library, which is an existential live action roleplaying game about memories, relationships and coping in a crisis.  Jenni has also authored Four Things, a simple, systemless game about ordinary people that examines the quirks and foibles which form our personalities and how we relate to each other. Inspired by games like Grace, Silver and White and a team building exercise.  She also published the horror sequel Four Spooky Things, which sets the self reflection on the backdrop of a player-chosen horror scenario.

True Love Match is a free game of romance and reality TV by Morgan Davie. You’ll need six people, a couple of rooms, and a few hours. It might mess you up a little....

Stepahnie and Catherine Pegg published Tesla's Wedding,  a giddy roleplaying game based on the steampunk genre, designed in a spirit of celebration and to evoke a feeling of joy; the story of how Tesla von und zu Drakenwyrm and Pierre de l’Eclaire, having Conquered the forces Arrayed against them and Founded a little town of their own in the Black Forest, are about to get married good and proper. 

Catherine Pegg also authored The Face of Oblivion,  a science-fiction chamber larp for 6-8 players, designed around a hard choice.  Disaster is coming: will you save a large group of people that you are responsible for, or a smaller group of everyone you ever loved and everything you ever cared about?

EPOCH scenario publication has continued apace and continues to showcase some great NZ talent with Andrew Millar, Liam Jones, Marcus Bone and Michael Sands and I all contributing scenarios to War Stories, which was nominated for an ENnie Award for best adventure. Morgan Davie and Andrew Millar also each contributed a scenario with proceeds donated to charity - Silent Night was published in Christmas 2013, White Wedding in Christmas 2014.  The EPOCH companion The Experiment Continues also features original scenarios by Donna Giltrap, Liam Jones, Alasdair Sinclair and I.

I also recently released Wicked Lies & Alibis, a whodunit roleplaying game set in the age of Art Deco enabling you to recreate murder mystery stories in the finest tradition of the goden-age of detective fiction. 

New Zealand writers also feature in the RPGgeek Dramasystem contest, in  particular Monster's Brawl by Morgan Davie and Grapes of Wharekaka by Eric Dodd.

Looking back over the last lists all the way back to early 2011, there has been a lot of growth.  Some names have appeared with regularity, their writing credits growing steadily, while there has also been an influx of new talent.  All in all it seems to be a vibrant and diverse community of writers, publishers and gamers. Perhaps we should all get together sometime?

If you know of a product I've missed, comment below.

Designer's Notes - Wicked Lies & Alibis

I recently launched a new game; Wicked Lies & Alibis, a whodunit roleplaying game set in the age of art deco.  I thought it might be interesting to briefly discuss how this game came about and the thinking behind some of the key design decisions that were made.

Inspiration
It all started when I was playtesting a new EPOCH scenario - Harvest - which was subsequently published in The Experiment Continues.  One of the suggested setups for the characters in the opening scene is that they are old friends who are travelling together to sprinkle the ashes of a recently deceased friend from the cliffs of her remote, coastal, hometown. This background served no purpose to the scenario beyond being a reason that the characters travel together to the town where the scenario begins

EPOCH is designed to encourage the players to construct interesting backstories for characters with a specific flashback mechanic.  As my playtest progressed the players began to focus on the story of the deceased friend, and created a Tarantinoesque story involving a drug-deal gone bad, double-crossing and finally death.  Each player used their flashback to show a different way in which the friend was badly injured during these escapades, but concluded with the friend being alive when they last saw them - implicating the other characters.

So engaging was this story of betrayal it came to compete with and even eclipse the scenario plot.  That led me to conclude that EPOCH worked pretty well to support this kind of a game. But what, I wondered, would a game that was explicitly designed to generate this kind of story look like?

I have always found it interesting that in most murder mystery stories the crime itself is fairly straightforward; the bulk of such stories are the lies, obfuscation and twists that the guilty, and not-guilty, weave in order to hide their secrets.  It seemed to me that there was a neat game experience to be had in recreating this kind of game for the tabletop, focussing on the human drama and secrets of the suspects, rather than the procedural aspects of following clues and deduction.

Characters
I started with character creation; EPOCH does a pretty good job of supporting the players to generate interesting concepts from a few card-based concepts which could be fleshed out in much greater detail over a single session, so I borrowed these mechanics - but there were a few tweaks I wanted to make.  For example, in the past I'd observed players complain they simply couldn't reconcile two randomly dealt character creation cards, and sometimes players would even agree to swap cards.  So, I decided it would be important to give the player several options so they could pick a combination of cards that suited them from the outset.  I also added a motive card which would have obvious importance for later in the game.

In EPOCH I suggest using a group relationship to help players establish an identity relative to one another.  For Wicked Lies & Albis I wanted this relationship to have a mechanical effect, so during the opening scenes each character can play a connection (which they specify) on another character, and both players look at each other’s secret motive and circumstance cards, binding them together in a way that enables them to help or incriminate one another later in the game.  During playtest this had the greatest impact when players established close relationships, particularly immediate family.  It also means that some characters might end up being heavily connected (and knowing a lot of other people’s secrets) which I think helps reflect the reality the way social groups actually work in real life.

The game itself is split into two parts.  The opening scenes serve to ease the players into their characters, and to interact in order to establish some basic relationships.  Another EPOCH device that I’ve slightly refined this is also where the GM does the scene setting and introduces the future victim, and at the conclusion, the means of their demise.

The System
The second part of the game is perhaps the real meat of the game experience.  I wanted the characters to be able to tell stories of the victim’s demise, and ultimately accuse each other – but I needed a way to balance the different skills and experience that players bring to the table, and create a story framework that was constrained enough that it could evolve over the course of the game, and where the key elements could be remembered by the players. 

My solution was to create a deck of accusation cards.  Each has an element that incriminates another character somewhat (for example the character has a violent temper or previously threatened to kill the victim), and a player draws three such cards in each of four rounds and choses one to play on another character at the table in order to incriminate them as the potential murderer.  Played cards remain on the table as a physical reminder of the story and where the weight of accusations sits. 

In the hands of some players these cards support the framing of a detailed flashback scene which culminates in an accusation; for others less interested in exercising narrative control, simply making the accusation across the table is sufficient.  There are also alibi cards that allow a player to cancel an accusation played on another character by providing an alibi, rather than making an accusation.

The key is that the accusations can fit any context that the players construct – for example we know the character of the actor has a violent temper because it has been narrated in an accusation that they assaulted a theatre critic who reviewed them poorly – now that we know the actor is violent and probably ambitious, so a further accusation might infer that perhaps the victim was preparing to fund their next theatrical outing and reneged at the last minute, or perhaps they were a beneficiary of the victim’s will and needed a cash injection to promote their career... As the accusations are played, we learn more about the character and their motive to murder.

So while the accusation cards provide elements of a story framework, the players are the ones who really shape the story.  Playing multiple accusations on a character allows players to build on one-another’s stories, and ultimately each is a vote for which of the emerging narratives is most compelling.  This is an unusual experience for the players as they begin the game with total autonomy over their character, but in the second part of the game, they give up some of this autonomy and gain a level of narrative power over other characters, while still remaining in the skin of their character. 

During this phase the GM takes a formal facilitation role through the NPC of the Great Detective, who already knows the identity of the murderer, but will only reveal this once the secrets of the key suspects, and their attempts to obfuscate the truth, have been laid bare.

Playtesting the game yielded a further element – players wanted to have the opportunity to respond immediately to accusation made against their character, by turning them back on their accuser.  So I added the Prime Suspect card (given to the character with the most accusations) which allows this to happen once per round, providing some disincentive to piling accusations on one character, while also providing a physical reminder of which character is soon to face charges for murder.  This all comes to a conclusion in a formal end scene, where each player provides a conclusion for their character.

Conclusion
So, how does this all work?  In my experience Wicked Lies & Alibis supports an almost entirely player-driven story experience, and balances interaction so that everyone at the table has a fairly equal degree of participation.  It manages this without needing a 10,000 word scenario or the threat of character elimination that is the modus operandi of EPOCH.  All the GM needs is a deck of cards, a one-page case summary and to have some idea about the Great Detective they want to portray.

That said, much like EPOCH, I imagine this won’t be a game for everyone, it’s pretty non-traditional, dispensing with attributes, skills and characteristics, and my perusal of relative sales status of DriveThruRPG titles suggests that while investigation is common in many popular RPGs, dedicated murder mystery RPGs don’t seem to have a huge following.  There’s also the need to assemble the deck, which is obviously a much higher bar to entry than simply grabbing your trusty dice and a pencil.

As always, it took much longer to pull together all the material I wanted to include than I initially imagined.  Following on from the example of EPOCH scenarios I wanted to offer some detailed facilitation notes to explain how to get the most from each phase of the game, and some summary materials to make the GM's life easy at the table (as a regular 'con GM I am a big advocate of simple reference sheets).  Then there is the historic context - I wanted to set this during the art deco period (mid 1920's- late 1930's) to parallel the 'golden age' of detective fiction, so I wanted to add a few historical details, but as this wouldn't be the focus of the game, I didn't want to get bogged down in this material, so I hit on the idea of introducing selected historical themes in the same way you'd introduce an NPC - some general details to enhance the flavour of the game.

So, that's a high-level overview of creating Wicked Lies & Alibis.  It makes it sound a much more orderly and planned experience than it actually was - at it's heart this is a game that evolved from a tabletop experience, and was refined through further gaming and experimentation.  

[Cross-Posted to Wicked Lies & Alibis]

Kapcon 24

Over the weekend I attended Kapcon 24, a local roleplaying convention. This year I was only at Kapcon for Sunday (Rounds 5 and 6) but despite my short tenure I had a great time playing in one game and facilitating my new game 'Wicked Lies & Alibis'.

Round 5: Heroes of New Haven!
I've run my fair share of superhero games at Kapcon, so I was interested to see how Robert Vincent would balance securing player buy-in for superheroes created at the table, maintain realism while supporting an open story for the characters.  Robert didn't disappoint.  He used the 'Ladykillers' system to provide a really interesting moral overlay to the game, making it feel almost like a game of Dread, where each impulse to act had to be measured for it's moral value, and against potentially severe consequences.  On top of that the system generated a simple random resolution mechanic through the use of playing cards and the accumulation of power and pain points.

It was a very solid game, and we quickly developed characters from several templates and began balancing life as heroes (on probation) with the drama of being a teenager, in a world where the process of becoming a superhero is sufficiently traumatic to ensure a steady supply of villains.  My own character 'The Confessor' who had shapeshifting powers soon got the rest of the crew into trouble and ultimately had to be rescued -  an epic scene where the actions of the characters had such severe consequences that few of the heroes had a happy ending.  It was a gritty superhero experience, very well executed.

Round 6: Wicked Lies & Alibis
This was the third playtest of my new game; a whodunit murder mystery set in the era of art deco.  It went brilliantly.  The players created a cast of suspects and the wove a story of intrigue and murder focussed on a missing manuscript involving criminal family connections, ghost writing, the mysterious disappearance of a husband, professional rivalries and the simmering dissatisfaction of a butler.

Things came to a head in a memorable fashion when Ivan's character, the butler Seeples was unmasked as the murderer.  Seeple's confession was a thing of beauty, when his mask of professional disdain finally slipped and the rage poured out.  I suspect people in the adjoining rooms will speak in hushed tones of Ivan's bellowing for year's to come...

I had a fantastic time, so thanks to all the players for making a great game and putting up with my poor Poirot accent with good grace.

'Tis The Season

It’s been a busy time as EPOCH celebrates its 21^st;  that’s 21 scenarios of character-driven survival-horror published over the last two and a bit years.  These 21 scenarios have been written by 10 different authors and collaborators, and each has featured stunning artwork from Doug Royson, been carefully edited by Andrew Smith, and been fitted into the excellent layout template created by Marcus Bone.  I am very grateful to have worked with such talented folks, and I think the quality of the finished product is a good reflection of all the hard work that’s gone in behind the scenes.  Thank you all for helping to spread the horror.

 

Recently I published The Experiment Continues the companion to the EPOCH roleplaying game which has some new rules, more advice and also includes 4 new scenarios.  The companion had been in development for most of the year, and collects a variety of things drawn from my experiences in playing and facilitating the game, reports from others, and a collection of formal reviews.  Mostly this is in the form of advice, although one particular innovation I’m quite proud of are the Twist cards.  When I was first designing EPOCH there was some feedback that there should be more variety in outcomes for the characters, a degree of randomness which had a mechanical effect beyond the core outcome process.  At the time I stuck with the core idea of balance – that every player has an identical chance of  character survival, and that eliminations would be solely determined by collective decision making. 

 

However, the Twist cards add a layer on top of that mechanic, and have really enhanced the games in which I’ve used them.  There have been some extremely memorable plays of ‘Die Hard’, ‘Big Damn Hero’ and ‘In League With The Horror’.  One of my favourite plays was in a scenario which shall remain nameless. Igor had been dealt and then chose to play the ‘insight’ card.  Insight  lets the player look at one of the face down Horror Track Cards.  The card Igor peeked at read “Determine the entire town is gripped by homicidal mania’.  The look on his face was priceless, as were his characters, largely fruitless attempts to convince the others that they were in danger.

 

The scenarios are pretty fantastic as well.  My player were initially luke-warm about the premise of Donna’s scenario  The Tribute as they felt that playing characters in Ancient Greece would be tricky, but within a few minutes of getting started, they realised it was much more familiar setting than they had initially thought and they made it their own, invoking gods, heroes and pirates and having a great time.  Perhaps the best thing was hearing glowing reports of Donna’s run of the scenario at Fright Night, and seeing just how big the differences were between our respective facilitation of the scenario, but how both had delivered a gripping and entertaining experience for the players, despite being very different.

 

Mash’s scenario of gangster horror has an immediate and compelling setup, and I think it’s a scenario that will develop some very memorable experiences.  Our playtest was a lot of fun, and, as ever, the player stories were very memorable.  I was struck by just how many people have played some version of Death on the Streets when compiling the list of playtesters, it’s like a mini convention all by itself – which goes to show just how much thought and effort Mash puts into his craft.

 

Then there’s Liam’s scenario Slaughterhouse, which is deceptively simple, as the title would suggest, yet entirely perfect for EPOCH where character stories should be in the fore.  I had a great time playtesting the scenario, and I think Doug’s illustration perfectly captures one of the most dramatic moments.  Liam’s accomplishment is all the more impressive when you consider he wrote the first draft on an i-pad while overseas on a work trip in order to meet my deadline.

 

In addition to the Companion, I also recently released  White Wedding, the 2014 EPOCH Christmas Special.  Andrew pulled together this incredible scenario at short notice, which was amazing, as I was buried in editing the Companion for most of that time.  Andrew had a very clear vision of the scenario he wanted, and I think he’s created a really compelling and engaging piece.  Then there’s Doug’s stunning cover and fantastic interior art.  All in all, the twenty first published EPOCH scenario is one of the best yet.  If you haven’t yet, you should pick it up, and donate whatever you can afford to help children in need.   

ENnie Awards - The Beautiful Agony

Being nominated for an ENnie Award is a big deal for a little publisher.  For those not familiar with the process, publishers of roleplaying game, podcasts, websites and the like can submit their products from the previous year for consideration by a panel of elected judges.  The Judges then read each publication, and debate amongst themselves which 5 of these products are sufficiently awesome to be nominated for an award (and in which category).  For a really interesting insight into the process of being an ENnie Judge, you might like to read this account on the Iron Tavern.

Once the nominees are announced the public have 10 days to vote for their favourites, with the top two products in each category being awarded a prize at the ENnie Awards Ceremony held at Gen Con.

Both of these mechanisms  are a little controversial - the selection of nominees is obviously a subjective assessment, albeit moderated somewhat by a group of people.  The voting process meanwhile is often seen as a popularity contest, with the big publishers being able to mobilise overwhelming support.

Last year EPOCH products were nominated in 4 categories (Best Rules, Best Electronic Book, Best Free Product & Product of the Year) and these nominations were both very gratifying and proved a big boost to interest in the game.

This year I was extremely pleased that War Stories, a collection of 5 scenarios set during wartime (a 155 page book or PDF with an RRP of $7.99, currently half price)  was nominated in the category of Best Adventure.  I was particularly proud when I reviewed the other 4 nominated titles:

• Eternal Lies; an epic campaign for Trail of Cthulhu  (a 400-page hardback book or a 396-page PDF with an RRP of $49.95)
• The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man, A Dreamlands Campaign for Call of Cthulhu (a 294-page book or PDF with an RRP of $49.99)
• Rise of the Drow, a mega-module for Pathfinder (a book of nearly 500 pages, with an RRP of $41.99 or $99 in print)
• Razor Coast - Heart of the Razor, a collection of four adventures for Pathfinder (a 160 page book currently available for $29.99)

Some serious competition to say the least! All of these look like great products (so much so that I already own the first two).  So how does War Stories stack up? 

• The first scenario in the book is FROM ABOVE AND BELOW, by Marcus Bone.  A thrilling plunge into the darkness and the horror that lurks beneath the trenches of the Western Front during the Great War.  I had a great time playtesting this scenario, and would love to try running it in the dark with each player wearing a head-lamp that is extinguished when their character is eliminated.
• Next up is THE COLDEST WINTER by Mike Sands which thrusts the characters into the hostile climate and freezing forest in a brutal struggle for survival during the Russian invasion of Finland.  When I ran this game it had the feel of a true Russian epic which spanned the entire war experience for the surviving characters, and culminated in a suitably bleak ending.
• Then it's HOME FRONT, Andrew Millar's homage to Dad's Army where the well-meaning Home Guard of the British village of Blakely are sent to secure the wreckage of a German bomber.  Although this scenario is truly creepy, I most remember the Inglorious Basterds style shootout, which was the epic climax to the tensions between the characters. 
• Next is my scenario MASS DESTRUCTION which blends modern catastrophe with ancient evil, and which I've recently ran at Kapcon to good effect.
• Finally, Liam Jones presents BEHIND THE MASK OF EVIL which draws on his own experiences of Peace operations in the Congo and adds a supernatural twist.  I loved playing this so much I used our playtests as an example of how to structure flashbacks.

So, although these scenarios were contributed by friends,  I think they've delivered an excellent package which will provide you with hours of quality gaming.  Can we win?  No. Like many small games EPOCH simply doesn't have a fan-base which can compete in a popular vote.  But I think it's clear that just being nominated is a victory in its own right.   

Voting for the 2014 ENnie Awards is open for the next 10 days, so no matter who you vote for, spend a few minutes to participate in the Beautiful Agony that is the ENnie Awards.

One Year as a Micro-Publisher

This October marks the one year anniversary of my entry to the world of RPG publishing.  It has been an interesting 12 months, and I thought it might be useful for those interested in RPG publishing to post about what I did, what I didn’t do, and why.

To set the scene, my game EPOCH is about one-shot survival horror.  It is a traditional game (in that it has a GM and pre-written scenarios) but it doesn’t use dice, instead using a card based mechanism, controlled by the players, to determine character survival.  It doesn’t have a specific setting, rather it is a game about movie style horror.  A fuller description is here.  In addition to publishing in PDF form, the game also features print-on-demand softcover books and card decks. 

Things I Did

Regular Releases.  Taking a page from Fiasco, I wanted to maintain the momentum of EPOCH from the outset.  Therefore, I observed a fairly regular release schedule, which hopefully illustrated my commitment to the game and expanded the support to would-be purchasers, increasing the scenario count from 3 at launch, to 15.  Here is the schedule of the last 12 months:

• October 2012 – EPOCH PDF
• November 2012 – Fever Pitch Scenario PDF
• December 2012 – Road Trip Scenario PDF
• February 2013 – EPOCH Book and Cards Revised to include new art and formatting
• March 2013 – EPOCH Print on Demand Book & Card Deck
• March 2013 – Frontier of Fear Scenario Collection PDF
• April 2013 – The Cold Shore Scenario PDF
• June 2013 – Printer Friendly Cards Released for all PDF products
• August 2013 – Frontier of Fear Print on Demand Book & Card Deck
• September 2013 – War Stories Scenario Collection PDF
• October 2013 – Shadows of Yesterday Scenario PDF
• October 2013 – War Stories Print on Demand Book & Card Deck

Gave it away for free.  Right from the outset I wanted to give my rules maximum exposure and allow people to try them without having to pay anything.  Therefore, I released 3 scenarios, each with quick start rules and cards.  Did it work?  I really don’t know.  People have certainly been downloading the free products (free scenarios have been downloaded at a rate 3 times greater than EPOCH sales), but I haven’t heard much discussion of the free products, or received any reviews.  I assume people have downloaded them for a future rainy day…

Solicited Reviews.  Early on I identified independent and established folks who had reviewed other games, and approached a number to see if they’d be interested in reviewing EPOCH.  A number were and I was very pleased to receive some very positive reviews (collected here).

Talked about the game and why I created it.  I was approached for a couple of interviews (here and here), and had one of my posts on this blog about the creation of EPOCH incorporated into the RPG Review.

Ran my Game.  During this period I took EPOCH to local roleplaying conventions including Kapcon, Fright Night and Buckets of Dice.

Used the OneBookShelf.com Marketing Materials.  I fully availed myself of the publisher points and marketing options available via DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.  Most successful were sending out e-mails to customers about new releases and being featured in the e-mail newsletter.  Less effective (for me at least) were the banner and featured product options.

Discounted my game.  I took part in a number of sales during the 12 month period, and these did generate additional sales.

Maintained a web presence.  I have a simple blog website for EPOCH, and post regularly there.  As people have pointed out to me this is not exactly an elegant site, and I don’t even have a dedicated URL, but it is easy to maintain, free and updated regularly.

Submitted the game for awards.  Being nominated for a clutch of ENnie awards significantly increased sales in my products.  Obviously being nominated was hugely gratifying and as submitting an electronic product is free, this was a pretty great outcome.  The flip side, of course, is that given my following, relative to other nominees, winning an award was pretty much out of the question.  But a pretty dream nonetheless.

Things I Didn’t Do

Actively talked about my game in online fora.  I don’t have much of a profile in online RPG communities, and so have no reputation to speak of.  Talking about your game in a forum where you have no reputation, and have made no previous contribution is pretty poor form (in my opinion).  This means that in the majority of online RPG communities there has been no discussion about EPOCH, and without this word-of-mouth it is hard for any game to grow a following.

Made a video.  One comment I have received from several people is that they understand the game, but want to see how it actually works in practise and a video of a game session or similar could be a major asset.  I have thought about the idea, but video editing and appearing on camera is not something I am excited about, so it hasn’t happened yet.

Utilise social media.  I haven’t utilised Facebook for EPOCH (and only recently experimented with G+), and accept that this might be denying easy access and free marketing to interested folks.  Social media isn’t something I’m personally interested in.  I do use Twitter for regular updates about the game, although I’m not sure many folks beyond my immediate circle of friends pay much attention to my tweets.

Ran my game at major international conventions.  I would have loved to attend major ‘cons overseas to run sessions of EPOCH, and show off the game.  Unfortunately the cost of travel abroad is simply too high to justify such an extravagance.  I approached some Australian RPG conventions on Sydney and Melbourne to see if they’d be interested in having me attend and run games, as flights across the Tasman are more manageable, but my e-mails went unanswered.

Kickstarted.  A Kickstarter was not really an option for me (as it is not yet available to folks in Australasia) and I have no significant reputation or license to cash-in on.

Sold my game through other channels.  I have yet to branch out to sell EPOCH through other channels (including direct sales) and I’m not sure if it’s likely to have much impact considering the work involved.

State of Play

So, what next?  I have more EPOCH products planned, and have a lot of confidence in the quality of the game, and its ability to deliver what it promises.  I have yet to facilitate a bad session of EPOCH (although as Marcus has said, this may be because playing any game with its creator is likely to be fun, and is no guarantee that others can replicate the experience).

In terms of future sales, I am fairly sure that I have yet to break into the collective consciousness of the mainstream international RPG community.   My game is very specific, and tailored for a unique market (single-session non-traditional survival horror). Without influential folks who relentlessly champion your game online, to their friends and gaming communities, I don’t think it’s possible to make this leap, and I don’t seem to have reached many people who are active in this context beyond NZ.

Can I reach these folks?  Perhaps.  My game has a lot of moving parts, and unless you play or run it, I think it is hard to envisage how everything comes together. And it is hard for me to convince these folks to take the time to do this when I have no credible means to reach them - especially as there are so many other games out there. 

The flip side of this argument (evidenced by the reviews and award nominations), is that I think EPOCH is a strong enough offering that, if you do manage to play or run it, it will convince you of its merits.  So, perhaps there is some future potential to break into the mainstream market.  I guess time will tell.

Please feel free to post any questions or comments.

EPOCH Goes To War

Today I released War Stories, the second scenario collection for the EPOCH survival horror roleplaying game.  As the title suggests, War Stories features scenarios set during wartime, and covers conflicts which span more than ninety years – from the horrors of trench warfare in WWI through to the complexities of peace-operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

War Stories features the works of some very talented RPG writers including: Monster of the Week author Michael Sands, the co-author of Call of Cthulhu’s Monophobia  Marcus D. Bone, Frontier of Fear contributors Andrew Millar and Liam Jones, and, of course,  yours truly. 

 

Each of these scenarios offers something different; a unique take on war and the role of the characters as soldiers and civilians in the context of wartime.  I think there are hours of great gaming to be had exploring each of them – I certainly had a blast during the playtesting process.

 

The collection has been beautifully illustrated by talented artist Doug Royson.  I think it’s evident that his art has gone from strength to strength with each piece in this collection, and the extremely evocative cover is truly outstanding. 

 

Behind the Scenes

Assembling this collection was more time consuming than I had expected.  This is the largest EPOCH scenario collection to date, and each author has put considerable thought and effort into their offering.  The collection comes in at 155 pages and a little under 60,000 words, and it took a fair while for the authors to design, playtest, write-up and submit their work.  Then each scenario was edited by me, which involved a fair bit of back-and-forth with the author, to ensure a level of consistency with other EPOCH scenarios, while staying true to their vision, and then a detailed edit was done by Andrew Smith, who also flagged any questions he had regarding content.   

 

Writing an EPOCH scenario is both simple and extremely tricky.  On the one hand, EPOCH allows a high level of flexibility which allows an author to adapt virtually any horror premise.  The source of the horror (and associated effects) merely need to threaten the physical or mental wellbeing of the characters on 6 specific occasions, ideally culminating in a dramatic climax.   As the players will apply and describe the suffering of their own characters during these challenges, there is no need for complex mechanical detail (stat blocks, skill checks and difficulties etc.).

On the other hand, EPOCH is about empowering the players to create any character they wish, and makes the development of these characters the core focus of the game.  Therefore, it can never be assumed that characters will investigate explore or endanger themselves voluntarily – which is the central tension of most horror games.  In EPOCH the source of the horror, and the scenario setup, must either be tailored to threaten the characters irrespective of their actions, or the characters must seek an escape which puts them into the path of the horror – or some combination of the two.

 

This character focus means that the scenario is actually more of a framework to provide ever increasing tension and drama to force character development, rather than a detailed story to be explored in-and-of itself, and I think this can be challenging to write – particularly if you have a strong vision for how you want the scenario to play out.  So, although scripting an EPOCH scenario seems simple at first, creating a scenario with sufficient adaptability to suit a diversity characters can be a challenging undertaking.

 

War Stories brings the total of published EPOCH scenarios to 14, featuring the work of 7 individual authors.  Needless to say, I am extremely grateful for the contribution of these talented folks to the game, and I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work.