Archive for May, 2010

Risky Business

Posted: May 28, 2010 in Dead of Night, design
Tags:
1

With Dead of Night’s release just around the corner – it’ll be on sale at Games Expo on the 5th-6th June, and then available from me on the 7th – you’ll be able to read all about the new changes for yourself soon enough. I’ve saved talking about probably the biggest rules change until last, however – the introduction of Risk Checks.

In 1st edition, the only way to lose a Survival Point was by losing a combat check – i.e. failing an Assault or Protect check. This worked nicely, making combat nasty for both PCs and monsters. But, it didn’t entirely play to genre. After all, in the middle of a slasher movie you shouldn’t have to tool up to take on the big bad. Similarly, it ensured that Survival Point loss was fairly unsubtle, ignoring all the other ways characters can come to a sticky end that isn’t necessarily through being eaten.

(more…)

Games Expo preparation

Posted: May 25, 2010 in actual play, conventions, Dead of Night
Tags: , ,
1

In a fortnight’s time it’s Games Expo, one of the UK’s best conventions. I’ll be there as part of the Collective Endeavour for the fourth year, debuting Dead of Night second edition. I’m also running a game of it but the automated booking system shows that games are filling up fast. There are still slots available in the following Collective Endeavour games (including mine), all run by the designers themselves:

Ends & Means (Covenant), run by Matt Machell at 10am on the Saturday

Unhallowed (Dead of Night), run by me at 3pm on the Saturday

Hell 4 Leather, run by Joe J Prince at 3pm on the Saturday

The Fir Tofa (Carnage Amongst the Tribes), run by Gregor Hutton at 10am on the Sunday

(more…)

Printing and an art preview

Posted: May 17, 2010 in Dead of Night
Tags: , ,
0

Well, the deed is done. Dead of Night has been sent to print. All being well, the first copies should be with me in a couple of weeks time. If they’re OK, I’ll print more. I’m taking the first print run to Games Expo in three weeks time, after which I’ll put it up for order direct from me. If you’re patient and can wait a few more weeks, there’ll be copies at Indie Press Revolution, which should make the postage cheaper for those of you not in Europe and the UK.

The book clocked in at 186 pages in the end – a good 96 pages longer than I was expecting, and almost as thick as first edition. Not too shabby considering 1st edition was physically half the size. The new edition is a good deal prettier too – I’ll post up some previews of the interior design over the next week or so so you can see Paul’s handiwork for yourself.

In the meantime, here’s a look at another of my favourite pieces of art – Path Lab.

(more…)

Monstrous Mayhem

Posted: May 16, 2010 in Dead of Night, design
Tags: , ,
2

Amongst the subtle tweaks to the rules, one of the things I wanted to change was how monsters worked to reflect how I’ve been using them in my game. In 1st edition, monsters were built like any other character, except you could buy monstrous specialisations – special powers, essentially, that bent the rules slightly – at the cost of a Survival Point each. Some of these monstrous specialisations needed a Survival Point to be spent to use them too. These two rules compounded and tended to mean that monsters with lots of cool powers didn’t last long, as they had either given up their Survival Points at creation or had to burn through Survival Points to use their powers.

In 2nd edition I’ve disconnected a monster’s pool of Survival Points from their powers, meaning that when creating a monster you simply pick some funky abilities, add in a vulnerability if required and then set its Survival Points to whatever number you want – the higher, the longer the game will last. And instead of forcing a monster to spend a Survival Point to trigger its powers, you spend a point of Tension. Simple.

(more…)

Genre Bending

Posted: May 6, 2010 in artwork, Dead of Night, design
Tags: , , ,
0

The largest new chapter (scenarios excepted) is titled Genre, and is about emulating pretty much every horror movie genre in Dead of Night, from splatter horror to psychological horror and everything in between. In all there are 12 genres covered, including a sample scenario synopsis and set-up for each.

I’m really proud of this chapter, although at times it’s been a slog to do. At its most basic, the chapter is great for inspiring the reader to try out a different genre or style of horror movie. Did a little deeper and it provides suggestions for how to capture the feel of the genre chapter on the tabletop, including Tension settings, Survival Point ideas and suggestions for pacing the scenario.

Here’s a look at one of the genres, Body Horror, as well as one of my favourite bits of art for the accompanying sample movie, Symbiote.

(more…)