Author Archives: matt

About matt

Gamer. Writer. Dad. Serial Ex-husband. Creator of The 23rd Letter, SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO, ZOMBI, Testament, Creed. Slightly megalomaniac

New and Shiny: Enhanced: Super Soldiers in the Twilight War

Posted on April 18, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Enhanced, Game Design, T2000 Writing, Twilight 2000 | Leave a comment

Whither Krull?

Posted on April 4, 2024 by matt

In this 1983 science-fantasy movie, the planet Krull is invaded by an extraterrestrial conqueror known as The Beast who moves his space-capable stone dwelling (the Black Fortress) from planet to planet, consuming them. He has wormlike minions who either wear … Continue reading →

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Rise of R’lyeh Character Sheet

Posted on April 2, 2024 by matt

We have a character sheet for Rise of R’lyeh now.

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Rise of R’lyeh – Apocalyptic Mythos Horror

Posted on April 1, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Game Design, Rise of R'lyeh | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The 23rd Letter, 3rd Edition playtest doc

Posted on March 21, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

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Power Armour (Living Steel) for YZE-Step

Posted on March 20, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

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Reign of Fire for YZE-Step

Posted on March 7, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

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Why Yeezy?

Posted on March 1, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

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The 23rd Letter 3rd Edition

Posted on February 23, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in 23rd Letter, Game Design, Industry, LateGaming, Layout, The 23rd Letter, Writing | Leave a comment

Game Dev Discord

Posted on February 13, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

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YZE Dice Roller – including Step Dice

Posted on February 13, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

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Dark Urban Fantasy I hear?

Posted on January 19, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

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Ex Sanguine and De Occulta released: Dark Urban Fantasy

Posted on January 19, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in De Occulta, Ex Sanguine, Game Design, Qabal | Leave a comment

Apocalyptic Fantasy

Posted on January 6, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Game Design, Viride | Leave a comment

Effects-based Magic for YZE-Step

Posted on January 2, 2024 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Game Design, Shardworld | Leave a comment

Frontier – new art, old art

Posted on December 31, 2023 by matt

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.

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Frontier – thinking while watching The Expanse

Posted on December 26, 2023 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

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2300AD

Posted on December 18, 2023 by matt

A recent surge in interest in 2300AD at The Pub has me peering at the BladeRunner RPG as a possible shim to run it. Ditching the promotion and humanity rules of course. As I tend to run my games a … Continue reading →

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EXCESSION: Session 1

Posted on December 16, 2023 by matt

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Excession, Game Design, GM, Supers | 1 Comment

Micro 2K

Posted on October 19, 2023 by matt

Today I released Micro2K – a distillation of the Step Dice Year Zero Engine as used in Twilight 2000 and Blade Runner. You can nab it here for nothing! It’s complete enough to be used with things like Twilight Tangents … Continue reading →

Posted in Game Design, LateGaming, Nor Gloom Of Night, T2000 Writing, Twilight 2000 | Leave a comment