#50: Surveying the Dark - Part 4
I. Dear Reader,
It’s the milestone Issue #50 for the newsletter which means it’s been almost a year of these weekly dispatches from indie rpg land. I’ve really enjoyed doing these over the last year - even when it gobbles up my precious weekend hours. So I just want to say thanks for reading and engaging with the newsletter. People have sent me encouraging and thoughtful emails, gifted me games, and lots more. And I just really appreciate all of it. <3
And what do I have planned for this landmark issue? Well, planned might be the wrong word because this issue is “horror games and stuff I missed from the previous issues”. Just rolls off the tongue! Clearly, I have thought this through.
Horror
Quietus: When I saw 2020 movie The Invisible Man, it felt exactly like a Quietus game. This is a one shot game for one or two players where you can play out horror-thrillers where the character is running from or fighting some insidious terror. It has an excellent use of clocks and has a great SRD. Complete
Enter the Survival Horror: In Blades, there’s “quantum Load”, right? You can always just decide to have brought the item you need for the heist. In this game, as your characters try to survive in some deadly environment, players can just choose to find whatever item they need most. It’s just there, lying around. It’s quantum loot! A great example of reframing mechanics from Blades for other genres. In-development.
TEETH: 18th Century England. The darkest heart of Empire where monsters abound. Deliciously dark and messy game with simplified Forged in the Dark rules (a bit like World of Blades). There’s two standalone parts out: Night of the Hogmen (exactly what you think it is) and Blood Cotillion (a bloody dinner-party).
See also Haunter in the Dark (Call of Ctulhu-esque investigative horror, free, in-development) and The Hunted (horror wrapped in folklore storytelling device, complete)
Stuff I Missed in Previous Issues
Fantasy
Blades of Gothica: Joan of Arc and Rasputin and every other luminary from history now reside in Gothica, a city beyond death and dimension where “chaos and despair reign supreme”. Every citizen caught up in great political games. In-development
Eat Trash. Be Free: A game of feisty animal critters going on heists and doing criminal gang stuff against the awful humans. Complete
Heart & Glory: A fantasy adventure game a la D&D built on FitD bones. In-development
Rebel Crown: Like Band of Blades, this game has too has a campaign “built into it”. You play as the claimant to the throne and their retinue as they make their play for power - collecting allies, conquering territory and then hopefully, finally, taking the throne. Complete
Errant: Tall Tales in the Blackwood: Okay, I love this conceit. The game is framed as a story told in the tavern, vaguely remembered, lovingly embellished. Tell the grandiose stories of forgotten swashbuckling daredevilty when you fought against the law on the edges of the Blackwood. It’s got a GM-less mode on its way! In-development.
Goblins in Shadow: Based on World of Blades, you play goblin revolutionaries fighting to overthrow their cruel elven overlords. It’s also got really neat mechanics for winning the support of different neighourhoods. In-development
Cyberpunk
I missed at least 3 cyberpunk and adjacent games. Prospero City Stories is a cyberpunk playset for Blades in the Dark with new playbooks and setting. Yet Another Cyberpunk Hack is a one-playbook, setting-instead-of-crew hack that’s in-development. Subway Runners is a game about the gig economy where you randomly generate characters and jobs and then try to get home in one piece. Lots of digital tools to help with getting started.
Sci-Fi
Hieronymous: A surreal tribute to the art of Hieronymous Bosch. You play refugees running from an astral terror across hexcrawl maps of Bosch’s paintings. Using some of the core mechanics of Blades, you explore strange worlds and try not to fill the clock that portends your doom. Complete
Slugblaster: Teenagers are going to grab their phones and do jump between dimensions. What are you going to do about it? Stop ‘em? Slugblaster is a game of teenagers escaping their small town to jump on hoverboards and do stunts in other worlds for fame and internet points. It sounds like a lot of fun but I’m biased because I got to write about my hometown and put in the game. In-development
(Phew! That’s a lot of games. And there’s probably a few more coming!)
II. Media of the Week
Dan Wells, author of many YA and horror books, has a small Youtube channel where he reviews games. I enjoyed this one that looks at the beautiful Symbaroum.
III. Links of the Week
How the Black creatives of Dimension 20’s ‘Misfits and Magic’ are redefining inclusivity in tabletop gaming
The One Page RPG Jam is back for another year and it’s a great place to start making small games
This article is a neat bit of game design (or maybe, marketing) advice about hooks and anchors: what makes your game unique and what makes it familiar.
Magpie Games have released their free quickstart for the Avatar: The Last Airbender RPG ahead of their kickstarter.
And a very useful review from Cannibal Halfling if you want to read about it first.
A review of Kriegsmesser, an indie response to all the problems with Warhammer: “I think Kriegsmesser surprised me because its framing of Chaos -- as a promise, as the light of hope shining through cracks of a broken world -- It feels so fucking right.”
A review of Dwelling, “a game about conjuring ghosts and letting them inhabit a lonely home. These ghosts are your own fears, whether imagined or remembered, and you’ll write and draw them onto the book’s pages.”
IV. Small Ads
This section contains sponsored links and advertisements.
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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.
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Also, I have a new game out called Triptych, it’s a small storygame where you collaboratively imagine a weird painting and then unearth its macabre secret.
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