Tag: Keeper

Experimental Map Handout – Printing and Aging

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One of the projects I’m working on right now is making props and handouts for my recently purchased copy of Chaosium’s Horror on the Orient Express campaign for Call of Cthulhu.

I started with a simple print out of the route map.  Decided to experiment a bit to try and produce some different effects I can use for other handouts and props.  The end result – or close to it anyway – is a nicely aged map that has a heavier/coated feel to it.  Nicer maps designed to hold up the elements have a coated/leathery feel to them, and I wanted to try and replicate that.

A couple of important things to note:

  • The original file includes some faint halos around most text that looks a little like a bleed.
  • I intentionally tried to screw this up at a few stages.  That way I know how much wiggle room I have to play around with the process – plus I wanted to test how well the ink in my new printer holds up to the process.
  • I seriously doubt this will work with just any inkjet printer and ink.  There is a LOT of variety in inkjet inks.  So if you try this, your results could vary quite a bit.
  • Be sure to click each image to see the higher-res photo.

Printing

I printed the map on my new Epson Workforce WF-7820 printer.  This uses a pigment-based ink.  A big goal of this was to see how well this ink resists bleeding when exposed to water, as a common way of artificially aging paper involves water.  It did not disappoint.

I printed the map on a single 11×17 sheet of 67-lb cardstock that has a vellum finish.

HotOE Route Map Printed

Aging

Ideally, you would let the print sit overnight to ensure it’s completely dry and minimize any possible bleeding.  I intentionally took the printed page directly from the printer to soak and age it.

I placed the printed map on a baking sheet and soaked it in coffee.  I looked carefully for any signs of bleeding ink.  At worst, there was a very, VERY SLIGHT bleeding around black text.  Since the original file includes some faint coloring around a lot of the text, it’s hard to tell if there was actual bleed.  If so, it was just a faint bleed of black into the surrounding tissue, but it in no way impacted the crisp edges of the text.  Again, I wouldn’t expect this result with any inkjet printer, but it seems this pigment-based ink holds up very well to water.

Then the map goes in the oven for 4-5 minutes at 225°.  Flipped the map over for another 4-5 minutes.  I placed it directly on the sheet, which evidently had some residual cooking spray on it.  This discolored a couple of areas on the back.  Simple fix is to always place the paper on a piece of parchment paper.

HotOE map soaking in coffee
HotOE map wet

Waxing

This is where I was going completely experimental to try and get the coated/leathery feel.  Basically, I’m using a wax designed to wax and waterproof fabric.  In this case, it’s a product called Otter Wax, and it comes in a bar.

Straight out of the oven, I placed the still warm map on the counter and rubbed the bar back and forth over the surface.  Again, this didn’t affect the printed details at all.  As it’s applied, it adds a subtle, waxy sheen to the surface that slightly brings out the color.  Flipped the map and applied wax to the back.

Supposed to let waxed fabric cure in a warm environment for 24 hours, so I initially left the map out overnight.  The next day it still had a tacky, wax-like feel to it.  Decided to put it in the oven (after I aged some paper for another project) for another 3 minutes.  This finished the wax curing / absorbing into the paper.  No more wax feel to the surface, and slightly heavier than the base cardstock.  I applied a second coat of wax the same way, and put it in the oven again.  You definitely feel the wax when you apply it, but coming out of the oven that slight stickiness is gone.

Route map waxing
Route map waxing closeup

End Result

The aging process always makes the paper wavy and wrinkled, so after waxing the first time (and again after waxing the next day) I pressed the map under weight to flatten it out a bit.  Then I folded the map and pressed it again.

The final map is definitely heavier than the regular cardstock, and it has a texture and feel very close to what I was going for.  I might try another application of wax or two, just to see if it makes a difference.  The waxing also enhances the aged look of the coffee-died paper.  It adds a subtly mottled appearance to the paper that is very reminiscent of natural parchment.

HotOE Map aged and waxed
Closeup of aged and waxed HotOE map

Work Continues

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Work continues on Our Terrible Fate.  Here’s an overview of what I’ve been working on lately.

Sanity

I’ve got an outline of a sanity system.  That might sound like a small thing, but with the way it will integrate into the system, it doesn’t require a lot of additional detailed rules.  I think it will yield gameplay results similar to CoC, with characters occasionally going mad and turning on their compatriots or waking up in strange places covered in blood and strange markings.  At the same time, it should be less complicated – don’t need to make three rolls because you saw a monster and hopefully no flow charts required – by leaning into Fate a bit.

Underlying insanity is easily handled with consequences.  The Keeper can use these to justify certain events, like hallucinations or dreams, and can compel them when they really create problems.  And of course, players are encouraged to roleplay things like phobias, which can easily be used for self-compels to get some fate points.

Certain situations will automatically trigger a bout of madness, and the Keeper can offer a compel to trigger a bout as well.  One thing I’m considering is possible ways to incentivize players to really play into a bout when doing so would cause them to take action against the other investigators.  This is a common idea in CoC that produces some especially memorable moments in play, but it’s not really driven by the system.

Character Progression

Another area I’m tinkering with is character advancement and progression.  I’ve never been a big fan of the default character advancement in Fate.  It’s a little too removed from the fiction and gameplay, with progression essentially happening based on the end of a session or scenario.  It’s also easy for players to get into the habit of making choices in advancing their character that aren’t necessarily based on what their character has done to this point.

I’ve long been a fan of skill progression being tied to actual skill use, but that can sometimes involve a LOT of bookkeeping that bogs down play.  I also like the character advancement approach taken in Invisible Sun.  Basically, it lets the player choose a type of goal from among several categories, flesh it out with specifics, and then gradually complete steps in support of that goal  As they complete steps, they are able to make small advancements, with more significant advancement upon completion of the goal.  This also works well for goals outside of strict character advancement, such as gaining membership in a group, advancing in rank within an organization, developing relationships, etc.

I’d like to incorporate something like this along with guidelines for Keepers to integrate steps for these goals into existing scenarios.  I’m hoping this will not only provide a character advancement system that’s driven by the investigators’ actions, but also make it easy for Keepers to better tie scenarios into investigator backstories.

Scenario Rewrite

And the other major thing I’ve been working on is a draft of a scenario to use with the system.  Applying the system to actual situations while writing a scenario is a useful way to identify things that need more work prior to actual playtesting.  Plus I am putting a lot of effort into how scenarios are written and presented to the Keeper.  One key element of the game is the ability to play out any given situation using different methods, depending on the needs of the scenario and your table at that time.  This isn’t just about giving the Keeper a couple of different options and saying “pick one,” but also about explaining why one option might be preferable over another.

I’m also including a lot of guidance for building and maintaining tension and fear over the course of the scenario.  First at the beginning to give the Keeper an idea of where the climax is and how tension should (or can) flow during the game, and then with additional guidance in each scene.  More than once I’ve seen Keepers complain that their games like any real sense of fear, while they also spend 30+ minutes with their players acting out detailed conversations with a completely irrelevant NPC.

Rather than expend energy to develop a new scenario from scratch, I’m just re-writing a classic CoC scenario.  The NPCs and overall structure of the scenario is unchanged, but it’s being rewritten to use Our Terrible Fate and provide lots of additional guidance for the Keeper.  It’s also being setup with an eye towards making it easier to use at the table.  Layout that’s easy to follow, layers to support printing with less ink/toner, and space on the page the Keeper can use for note.

A New Tenant

Finally, a tackled one other project over the past few days.  It’s not directly tied to developing OTF, but I hope to use it as a prop in a future game.  But that’s a separate post…

Clues in Play – Part 1

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I’ve already written how part of what I’m working on with this game is integrating some board game elements into the actual gameplay. Probably the most obvious example of how the table will look different from many games is the inclusion of a lot of cards. Some of these cards are used for characters, locations, ancient tomes, or strange artifacts – but the majority of the cards in the game represent one of the most central gameplay elements of any investigative game: clues.

Clues – From the Players’ Perspective

As a player, the the primary goal in play is to discover clues. Eventually, these clues will point to the truth behind whatever mysterious events the investigators are looking into – and maybe even reveal a way for the investigators to make a difference in the world (temporary though such success might be). These clues are integral to investigative gameplay, but it’s not always as simple as just finding the clues.

Play enough mystery games, and you’ll probably see at least one of the following issues come up:

  • Players forget about some of the clues they already found.
  • Players find a clue, but don’t realize it’s a clue.
  • Players become convinced that some mundane detail is actually a vital clue.

I think I’ve briefly touched on these elsewhere, and I’ll probably go into them more in depth in the future. But for now, if you recognize any of these, you realize how they can create problems and potentially stall a mystery game.

The way I’m using cards with clues is fairly simple. Whenever an investigator discovers a clue during play, the Keeper gives them a card that shows a brief summary of that clue. Nothing complicated – just a short phrase that describes whatever the players know now that they didn’t before. The investigators find a bloody, mummified body in the basement, with bloody footprints leading away from it. The Keeper gives the players a couple of cards, one with the description of the body and one with a description of the footprints.

This effectively helps mitigate all three of the issues above. The players have a stack of all the clues they’ve found that they can review whenever they want. The players a clear about what information is actually a clue – after all they got a card if it was a clue – and this covers two out of the three.

So from the players’ point of view, clues are pretty simple: When they find clues, they get cards to keep track of them.

(For those familiar with Fate, clues are also Aspects – they describe the world as it is – and they can be used to have a mechanical effect within the system.)

Clues – From the Keeper’s (GM’s) Perspective

As usual for investigative games, things can be a little more complicated from the Keeper’s side of the table. If players can have a hard time keeping track of the clues they’ve found, the Keeper has to keep track of all the clues in the game – which clues have been found, which clues haven’t, where the remaining clues are, and how they might be found. If you’ve been a Keeper in these kinds of games, you also know that some clues are more important than others, more critical to the investigation. And since things don’t always go the way you expect, you may even have to alter some clues on the fly. (Okay, let’s be honest, if you’re the GM, the players will make certain things never go the way you expect.)

So the Keeper needs some tools to help manage all these clues (while they’re also keeping track of everything else going on). Recognizing that different clues play different roles in the game, sorting clues into different types can really help. There are two basic types of clues: core and supporting.

Core clues are those that are critical to the scenario. They are the clues that are necessary to the players figuring out how to bring the scenario to a successful resolution. Discovering all of the core clues will still leave a lot of unanswered questions, so the players may not understand what’s really going on, but they will have the bare minimum information necessary to figure out what they have to do to stop the cult, seal the gateway, defeat the creature… whatever has to be done to resolve whatever mystery or end whatever threat is at the heart of the investigation. Core clues also include information necessary for you to find other clues – such as a new location or character which possesses other clues.

Supporting clues are the other clues in the scenario which provide background and explanation. They help answer a lot of the other questions players may have about what’s going on, but they’re not indispensable the way core clues are. If the players don’t find a single supporting clue, they should still be able to “win” as long as they find all the core clues. It’s important to understand that supporting clues still won’t answer everything – after all, a cosmic horror game should always leave a little mystery.

Understanding which clues are core clues and which are supporting helps the Keeper run the game and keep it running smoothly. When the investigators go to a new location, you’ll know which clues there you need to make sure they find and which ones they can miss without bringing the game to a halt. When I write up a scene for a scenario, I include a quick list of all the clues up front so the Keeper can quickly identify which clues are available in the scene.

Due to whatever events lead up to the scenario, many clues will naturally be found at specific locations. The body and blood trail are found at the crime scene. The clues pointing to how the ancient artifact was stolen are found in and around the auction house vault. However, some clues could plausibly be found at different locations, and the Keeper can make adjustments to those clues based on the needs of the game. These kinds of clues are referred to as floating clues. They are core or supporting clues just like any other, but their location can vary.

So how do these different kinds of clues help the Keeper?

Finding Clues

Look around the web, and you can find a number of different ways to make sure play doesn’t stall because players can’t find clues. Examples includes never requiring rolls to find clues, spending points to find clues, and tripling the number of clues to increase the odds at least some of them are found. All of these have their merits, but they also rest on the assumption that all clues must be handled the same way. But that’s not true.

The point of distinguishing between different types of clues is to let the Keeper know what options are available for finding those clues. Since core clues are critical, you don’t want players to miss them because of a bad roll of the dice. Supporting clues, on the other hand, aren’t necessary to keeping the game moving forward, so you’ve got a few more options with them.

Finding Core Clues

Part of your job as Keeper is to make sure that, by the time a scene has drawn to a close, the players have found all the core clues available in the scene. Some clues are more or less just given to the investigators – a helpful NPC is sharing information or an obvious clue is out in the open. As long as the investigators are in a position to receive the clue or take some basic action to obtain it – like looking at the journal on the desk – they are given the clue. But which investigator gets the clue can vary, and the Keeper can use this to spread attention around between the PCs.

If it makes sense in the situation for a particular investigator to receive an obvious clue – one player describes their PC as leafing through the journal – then give that player the clue. If multiple investigators could notice the clue, then consider their skills. Figure out which skill would be most relevant to finding the clue and describe the investigator with the higher rank in that skill as finding the clue.

Other clues might require some effort or otherwise seem like their discovery is not a foregone conclusion. These are the ones that scream out for some kind of roll, and that’s okay. The roll provides dramatic tension, and let’s face it, finding important clues should be a tense moment in an investigative horror game. On the other hand, we’ve already established that the Keeper needs to ensure the players get the core clue. So the roll isn’t to determine if the investigators find the clue – it’s if they find it without complication.

Finding Supporting Clues

Supporting clues are easy. You have all the same options on the table as with core clues, but the investigators can also just fail a roll – or fail to even look – and just not find the clue.

Action Resolution – The Core Gameplay Loop

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One of the things I want to include in this project are rules and guidelines that actually teach players and Keepers how to play the game. That might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s amazing to me how many professional tabletop roleplaying games out there don’t actually do this. You’ll probably find plenty of detailed, case-by-case rules and a hoard of great setting material. You might have a brief overview of roleplaying game concepts, but a lot of the details of how to really play the game are often summed up as “find someone that already knows how to play and learn from them.”

There are a few reasons I think this is a real problem within the tabletop gaming community in general, but one of the big reasons is that there are a lot of different styles of games and play at the table. When you don’t clearly describe the style of game you’re going for and align your rules to match, how do you expect players and GMs to play the game the way you intended?

So I plan to include reasonably comprehensive rules and guidance for both players and Keepers. And with that in mind, one of the most important parts of any roleplaying game is how to resolve the actions of the characters. Action resolution is the core gameplay loop, so it seems logical to focus on providing solid guidance for this first.

Note that while OTF borrows a lot from more narrative games, it still places the primary narrative responsibility (and authority) on the GM/Keeper. In other words, the Keeper is the one narrating the results most of the time. The reason for this is simple: It works best for an investigative horror game.

So here are draft versions of both an overview and a more detailed breakdown of Action Resolution in OTF. If you have comments or questions, please post them in this thread on our SubReddit.

Action Resolution Overview

I. Present the Situation

1. Keeper Sets the Scene (Describe the Scene and present Choices, Sources of Opposition, and Obstacles)

II. What Do You Do?

2. Players provide Intent and Approach.

III. Yes, No, or Roll?

3. Yes, No, or Maybe? – Are all possible outcomes interesting? Is this a possible branch in the story?

IV. Here’s How We’re Going to Play This Out…

4. Set the Stakes
5. Single Roll, Single Roll with Help, or Pacing Mechanism?
6. Obstacles and Opposition
7. Core Action and Skill(s)

V. Roll Some Dice

8. Roll Dice, Invoke Aspects, Use Boosts
9. Determine Outcome

VI. Here’s What Happened…

10. Narrate outcome. Apply changes to Aspects, free invokes, boosts, etc.
11. Scene Complete?

Action Resolution Breakdown

I. Present the Situation

1. Keeper Sets (or Resets) the Scene.

a. Keeper presents situation – a choice the Investigators must make or immediate problem to deal with.

b. Describe scene visually (Aspect), add a detail (Aspect), add goals and points of interest (Aspect), add exits, finish with any obvious Sources of Opposition or Obstacles.

c. Consider if the situation appears the same to all characters

i. Differences in Skills, Sanity, Mythos can all impact how Investigators perceive the world.

II. What Do You Do?

2. Players imagine their Investigators in that situation and decide how the character acts in response.

a. Investigators react to Sources of Opposition, attempt to overcome Obstacles, or make a Choice.

b. Keeper and players discuss the action until a clear Intent and Approach are identified.

c. Who is participating in the action? Who is taking the lead? What are other characters doing during the action?

III. Yes, No, or Roll?

3. Keeper determines if action succeeds, fails, or should be randomly determined

a. Keeper determines if the action is even possible.

i. Is the action possible within the fiction? Can the approach actually work?
If the answer to both questions is No, then the action fails; go to step 9. (Say No)

b. Keeper determines whether the outcome needs to be randomly determined.

i. Can the action plausibly fail? Does failure carry risk or cost? Is failure interesting?
If the answer to all questions is No, then the action succeeds; go to step 9. (Say Yes)

ii. [Possibly consider if possibility of failure is appropriate to pacing.]

c. If the action is possible, and the opposition or possibility of failure is interesting, then Roll.

IV. Here’s How We’re Going to Play This Out…

4. Set the Stakes

a. What are the possible outcomes? What interesting thing will happen if the action succeeds? What interesting thing will happen if the action fails?

b. Always consider Success at a Cost, especially if the action involves a Core Clue. Consider what kind of opposition is involved and how things could go badly.

c. Both the Keeper and the players should have a basic idea of the Stakes before moving on, but the precise details will be determined in Steps 9 & 10. Occasionally, the Keeper might leave the players in the dark about the Stakes for failure.

5. Keeper determines how to randomly determine the outcome.
(Single roll, Teamwork, or Pacing Mechanism?)

a. Emphasis and Pacing?

b. Single character or multiple characters working together?
If multiple characters, are they using the same Approach (same skills or different skills?) (Help vs. Challenge)

c. Opposition and Obstacles? What is the Opposition’s Intent? (Contest vs. Conflict)

6. Keeper sets Opposition/Difficulty

a. Active Opposition or passive Difficulty?

b. Set Opposition or Difficulty relative to Investigator skill?

c. Consider Aspects in play

7. Keeper determines which skill and core action are being used.

a. Keeper uses the Investigator’s Intent to determine which core action or pacing mechanism applies.

b. Sometimes the player is simply rolling to Oppose an action by an NPC or the environment.

c. Keeper uses the Investigator’s Approach to determine which skill applies to each roll.

V. Roll Some Dice

8. Dice are rolled or pacing mechanism is played out, Aspects are invoked, Boosts are used.

9. Keeper determines the mechanical Outcome of the roll or pacing mechanism (success, tie, failure, or success with style), and determines appropriate outcome (short-term) and repercussions (long-term), including any costs (success at minor/major cost).

a. If action is automatically successful (Step 3.b.) consider which Investigator succeeds based on skills.

VI. Here’s What Happened…

10. Keeper describes (narrates) the results of the action of the players, which results in a new situation. Make any appropriate changes to the Aspects in play, free invokes, boosts, etc.

11. Keeper determines if the Scene is complete.

a. If the Scene is not complete, reset the Scene (go to Step 1).

b. If the Scene is complete, Transition to next Scene.

Lessons in Fear – From the ALIEN RPG

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One question that pops up from time to time is how to actually instill fear into horror games. There’s plenty of techniques for setting the atmosphere – especially for games like Call of Cthulhu (CoC) – but I recently came across some really useful guidance in the newly released ALIEN RPG. And since it plays upon the idea of “fear of the unknown” it’s certainly suited to a Mythos game. I definitely plan to use this in my future games. And I also realized that I had unwittingly done so in a past game as well.

Cover of the ALIEN RPG from Free League Publishing

The ALIEN RPG repeatedly highlights that it is a horror game, and it briefly outlines three different kinds of fear (and how to use them). Combined with an understanding that the tension of fear has to periodically be released, I see a lot of potential here. The three stages of fear the game points out are Dread, Terror, and Horror. Here’s how they are described in the ALIEN RPG (Note that the game refers to the GM as the Game Mother):

“Creating horror in a roleplaying game is not always easy. Overdo it, and the players aren’t scared anymore—downplay it, and the game drags on. The key to Game Mothering horror is to manage pacing properly and keep the major threat hidden as long as possible. To do this effectively, you need to carefully manage the stages of fear in the game: dread, terror, and horror.

DREAD: The sense that something bad is about to happen, but no-one is really sure what or why. Dread is the first stage of fear in the ALIEN roleplaying game and should be employed as often as possible. The key to using dread is planting seeds and watching events unfold. The players know something terrible is about to take place, but without knowing what it is, they can’t do anything about it. This dread may evolve to the next stage, but sometimes it won’t—and that’s fine. Examples of dread:

  • A control panel indicates that the airlock was just cycled manually whilst all of the crew are accounted for on the bridge.
  • Someone finds blood on the walkway. The ship’s cat is missing.
  • A strange and leathery egg is found in a crashed derelict ship. It’s like something is alive in there.

TERROR: You feel terror when you know something bad will happen any moment now. It is no longer a question of if but rather when it will take place. From a roleplaying perspective, the feeling of terror is the most effective feeling of fear as the PCs are at their most helpless state. Therefore, terror often involves the scariest moments in a gaming session. Use it selectively for maximum effect. Examples of terror:

  • A squad of marines investigating an old mine steps into something slimy. One of the marines hears a hissing sound. She realizes that something is directly above her.
  • A colonial marshal following a killer in the deep bowels of a space station realizes that she is the prey.
  • A pilot on a stranded shuttle barricaded in the cockpit hears pounding on the access hatch. Something wants in.

HORROR: The ultimate form of fear is horror. Horror is the moment when the danger reveals itself. It is the moment of climax. The payoff that the earlier stages of fear have hinted at. But because of this, it is also less scary than terror. When horror hits, the game mechanics take over. You draw initiative and fight it or try to escape. Horror is vital to the game, but it should be used rarely and is often best utilized late in a game session rather than early. Examples of horror:

  • A corporate agent turns around and stands face to face with an alien baring its teeth.
  • The egg opens and a crab-like creature lunges at the closest crew member, attaching itself to her face amidst the screams of her friends.
  • Black, lightning-quick creatures crawl through the walls and roof towards the marine squad.”

After reading this a couple weeks ago, I immediately began thinking of ways to incorporate this into how I GM. Then, this morning, I realized this also helped explain one of my more successful scenes from a previous game.

Last year, I ran the Peru Prologue for Masks of Nyarlathotep. (I used it as a test for my WIP alternative to CoC’s mechanics: Our Terrible Fate.) The players were my two children and my mother. This was still fairly early in the scenario, but they were already a little paranoid – not freaking out or overreacting, but generally distrustful of everyone. (Also note that I used two play aids during the game that came in towards the end of the scene. I had a printed card showing what the monster looked like – not always appropriate for CoC but worked in this case – and I had Syrinscape’s MoN audio program on my laptop.)

(Spoiler alert: This won’t reveal any big details from the scenario, but it may ruin this scene if you intend to play it.)

  • The investigators were visiting a professor at the local university museum. The professor’s assistant was translating an old journal that may provide important clues. They are introduced to the professor and are having a conversation. As that wraps up, the professor mentions that his assistant should have arrived already. He suggests that the investigators could go down to the archive room and check on her. (Dread: What happened to the assistant, and what are we walking into?)
  • The investigators head down and discover her dead body. (This initially provided a small bit of tension relief.)
  • Then they looked over the body and discovered the nature of the strange wounds and emaciated state. (Dread: What could have done this?)
  • Then they notice bloody footsteps leading away from the body to another exit from the room. “We are NOT following those footsteps!” (Dread: What left the footsteps, and where did it go?)
  • The investigators then hear screaming from upstairs. (Dread)
  • Rushing upstairs, they hear signs of a struggle from inside the professor’s office. (Dread leading into Terror)
  • Heading inside, they see what appears to be a man clutching the professor. His back is to them. (Terror: It’s right there. What is it, and what’s it doing?)
  • The strongest investigator, a boxer, decided to grab the figure from behind to pull him/it away from the professor and restrain him. I narrated that the figure easily broke free from the investigator’s grasp and flung him back a few feet. It then turned and snarled at the investigators, revealing at strange mouth on an otherwise human-looking face. (At this point, I played the snarling sound effect in Syrinscape and showed the players the card so they could see the monstrous form of the villain.) (Horror: Big reveal.)

At this point, my son actually got up from the table with an “Oh, hell no!” and started pacing around. Everyone was on edge up to that point, and I think it was the snarling sound effect that really pushed him over the edge. This was immediately a big tension relief in terms of fear, but some of that tension was immediately replaced by the tension of “Okay, now that we’re face to face with this thing, what do we do?”

This scene was easily one of the highlights of our session. (Though admittedly, that may have been because I screwed up some other scenes. But that’s another story.)

(If you’re interested in the ALIEN RPG, you can buy the PDF from Free League Publishing on DriveThruRPG.)

The Dark Texts – What You Need to Know

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I’ve reached a point where I feel comfortable posting some of the actual game text I’ve written in the hopes of getting some useful feedback. I’ve got a fair bit written, so there should be enough to get some first impressions and thoughts on presentation. I’ve updated the draft content posted to this point to using a knowledge base system, which should make it easier to read through.

For the time being I am calling this work-in-progress game of mine Our Terrible Fate. That may change down the road, but for now it will do.

There’s a lot of background and detailed explanation elsewhere on the site, but here is where I am going to post some of the actual draft text.

I’m always appreciative of feedback – be it criticism, comment, or questions. You can post feedback on the base113 Games subreddit.

Update: A PDF of the first chapter is now available as well. While there’s not much art, the layout should be much easier for many to read. Just click the link through to the draft text, and you should see a link to the PDF version along with an example image of the layout.

Available excerpts of this dark text currently include what is essentially the first chapter of the book, which will serve two purposes:

  • Giving a new player this chapter should tell them everything they need to know to begin play.
  • This chapter should introduce new Keepers to the game, give them an idea of how the game is run, and how running it may be somewhat different from other games.

Links to the current draft content and our subreddit (to post feedback) are provided below:

Delve into the Dark Texts

base113 Games subreddit

Mythos Tokens of Fate

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Following up on my post about finding an Elder sign to use for my Fate point tokens. I’m using the Matzke Elder sign for the player side of my Fate point tokens, so that leaves the Mythos/Keeper side to figure out.

While the Elder sign is a commonly used symbol to oppose the Mythos, there isn’t a comparable symbol of the Mythos itself. There are a few symbols related to specific Great Old Ones, but I don’t want to narrow the focus quite that much. There are some other symbols in Fantasy Flight Games’ assorted Mythos games – doom tokens and the like. Beyond the obvious copyright issues, those symbols generally just look like some sort of demonic rune. They’re appropriate for how they’re used, but that sort of theme is a bit overdone these days. Nevertheless, FFG’s various symbols and tokens are a good source of inspiration.

FFG’s Doom Token from Arkham Horror 3rd Edition

I also recently came across some third party tokens for FFG’s Arkham Horror produced by Team Covenant, with some cool designs. Their options for different tokens depending on the campaign being played got me thinking about different ways to customize components, but that’s an idea for down the road. Looking at those gave me some ideas, so I started playing about and finally came up with a rough design for the Mythos side of the token.

I started with a Penrose triangle. It’s a design I’m somewhat fond of, and being an “impossible object” it fits with the idea of cosmic horror. While I’m leery of over-using tentacles, they are often used in Mythos-related art. I added some tentacles with the appearance of emerging from the triangle, evoking a sense of the Mythos entering our mundane world through the triangle. Then I introduced some icons based on lunar phases, along with an assortment of lines interlinking them – going for a combination of passing time and “the start are right”.

Having designs for both sides of my token, I set to making some prototypes. I wanted them to have some weight, and I also wanted a tactile component. The result is a combination of chipboard, printed cardstock, and a penny. The Penrose triangle is debossed on one side, and the Matzke Elder sign is debossed on the other.

Prototype tokens for Fate points