Our fourth and fifth in-game sessions of the 23rd Letter saw quite a lot of action! I’ll give a brief summary, and then talk about some of the rules that I think were interesting. I’ll put a * and a number on some rules I’m going to talk about at the end. Everybody woke up… Continue reading Venting Pyrokinetics
Category: Game Design
Progress and updates on the game design process.
The 23rd Letter, 3rd Edition playtest doc
It’s out there in the wild. We are inviting you to the Playtest. Either join our little Discord or, if you already own The 23rd Letter 2nd Edition, check your inbox as you’ll have been sent a link. The highlights are New character options in a new archetype-based system More focus on The Network Explosive… Continue reading The 23rd Letter, 3rd Edition playtest doc
Power Armour (Living Steel) for YZE-Step
An M.I. lives by his suit the way a K-9 man lives by and with and on his doggie partner. Powered armor is one-half the reason we call ourselves “mobile infantry” instead of just “infantry.” (The other half are the spaceships that drop us and the capsules we drop in.) Our suits give us better… Continue reading Power Armour (Living Steel) for YZE-Step
A precog walks into a bar …
Now a few weeks into the first play-test of the 3rd edition of The 23rd Letter, I wanted to post some updates on what’s been going in the game, and a few reflections as both Referee and game designer. First off, let’s talk about the party, which in this edition is by default a Cell… Continue reading A precog walks into a bar …
Reign of Fire for YZE-Step
Challenged to make a Reign of Fire game with our current 23rd Letter rules gives us a bit of thought. In Forbidden Lands (YZE), dragons are pretty nasty. Even the small ones. MIGHT 32 (that is ridiculous but we will come to it) AGILITY 4 (equivalent to d10) WITS 4 (equivalent to d10) EMPATHY 2… Continue reading Reign of Fire for YZE-Step
Why Yeezy?
So, you know we have switched from out ERIS House System to the YZE for the Third Edition and we have been asked why. The first reason is that it’s a decent system. It’s pretty grounded, pretty lethal and abstracts a lot of the bookkeeping (reducing crunch while maintaining verisimilitude). We are using the Step… Continue reading Why Yeezy?
The 23rd Letter 3rd Edition
So, we have been working a lot on this. The rules are probably 90% complete but we keep finding little places where we think a rule or guideline is needed. Like today it was clarifiying how Hideouts function mechanically in relation to Heat from the authorities. We are starting to look at design and layout… Continue reading The 23rd Letter 3rd Edition
Game Dev Discord
We have a Game Dev Discord which we are slowly opening up to a few more people. Inside is space for asking questions about our existing published games as well as participating ideas for our upcoming books. Understand though that none of us do this full time – it’s a hobby where any money made… Continue reading Game Dev Discord
YZE Dice Roller – including Step Dice
AJ built this YZE dice roller on the site so we have a super quick way of rolling dice and collecting successes. It’s the only one that works for Step Dice YZE as well as Pool Dice. Click the image and add to your bookmarks!
Dark Urban Fantasy I hear?
ExSanguine allows for the playing of Vampir Hunters, Familiars (humans enthralled by vampirs), Fiends (young vampires) and Elders. Plenty of supernaturals mentioned in there, eh? De Occulta allows for playing of Occultists (magicians). But De Occulta presents the rules on how to magically create a “Frankenstein” as well as declaring that Pneuma can be people.… Continue reading Dark Urban Fantasy I hear?
Ex Sanguine and De Occulta released: Dark Urban Fantasy
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… Continue reading Ex Sanguine and De Occulta released: Dark Urban Fantasy
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… Continue reading Apocalyptic Fantasy
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… Continue reading Effects-based Magic for YZE-Step
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… Continue reading Frontier – thinking while watching The Expanse
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… Continue reading EXCESSION: Session 1
Micro 2K
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 but you’re going to want the full rules in T2K for sure.
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… Continue reading Games in a Utopia
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,… Continue reading TTRPGDESIGN Update: Enhanced
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… Continue reading TTRPGDesign: Beyond Human update