Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Kickstarter Campaign Reviews 2017, Part 5

Time to conclude my reviews of kickstarter campaigns. I’ve reached the present or at least the end of 2016 which was the last time I was tempted enough to contribute to a project. Several of these projects only recently passed their projected delivery dates and most have been run well.

Masks: A New Generation

In October 2015, I backed a second superhero focused game using the Apocalypse World system (the first being Worlds in Peril). As has generally been the case with these games, a tiny goal ($4000) ballooned as backers poured in. 2,371 backers raised $107,328 for this project and its stretch goals, including new decks of cards and the Halcyon City Herald Collection.

Also is often the case the final product was delayed by about half a year, arriving in September 2016. Thankfully this was one of the campaigns which kept the backers updated on progress regularly.

As for the game itself, it focuses on teenage superheroes and their struggle of growing up. Unfortunately it has also happened to be a victim of my growing disinterest in new roleplaying games. So I have yet to read it. I suppose I bought one superhero RPG too many for me.

Apocalypse World 2nd edition

An updated version of the game system that started many many others (Dungeon World, Urban Shadows, Masks and more) has arrived. Since I never bought a physical copy of the original, I knew I needed to get one this time.

As expected from the wild success of other Apocalypse World based kickstarters this easily funded, raising $149,681 (seven times its goal) from over 4,000 backers in March 2016.

I paid for a soft cover and received it somewhat delayed in February 2017 (instead of the previous September). The pdf however arrived on time. In a massive improvement, this time the electronic version of the book uses bookmarks (yeah for easier referencing).

The new version tidies up death and expands combat options. The biggest addition are moves for vehicles. Overall I’ve found the book less useful for the rules than as an example of how one might change the rules to fit your game.

Now I just need to watch some Fury Road and start a new game. Maybe at DunDraCon 2018.

7th Sea, 2nd Edition

Most of the kickstarters I contribute to fund easily. But some kickstarters are something else.

I backed this project because my wife is a big fan of the original 7th Sea game. She apparently wasn’t the only one.

From a modest $30,000 goal, the kickstarter exploded to $1,316,813!! 11,483 backers joined to make this and a whole line of products a reality in March 2016.

7th Sea, for those unfamiliar with it, is a game of swashbuckling intrigue set in a fantasy version of Europe using the most interesting versions of the countries from the 16th to 18th centuries.

In addition to a new version of the game, we were promised new setting books for Theah, its cities, its version of Africa, the Americas, and more. Honestly the schedule worried me, looking like one from the early 2000s with a monthly treadmill of products. That kind of production cycles hasn’t really been reliable for a long time.

But they have continued to deliver. The corebook hardcover arrived 2 months early and while they have slipped from their original schedule, the supplements continue to arrive at an energetic pace. I expect a couple more years of products from this amazing kickstarter.

The system itself seems to be a nice improvement on old system though I have yet to see it in actual play. Perhaps if my wife had enough time to actually run a game...

Scion 2nd edition

It has been the trend these last couple years to release new versions of popular games from the early 2000s. So much so that I’ve had to pick and choose which I splurge on.

Scion is a game of high action thrillers with PCs taking the roles of the children of the gods as they struggle to claim their birthright and stave off the forces of the Titans, the parents (and then prisoners) of the gods.

I’ve always wanted to run a game of secret godlings using this system, despite the fact that the first edition is horribly unbalanced. The second edition promises to correct this problem. We will have to see. The initial material looks promising. On the other hand I am fairly convinced I will not use the setting material so this may have been money ill-spent.

Over four thousand backers raised $334,714 for this project in October 2016. The book was promised for May of 2017 but as you would expect for a kickstarter, it is delayed. On the plus side based on its current rate of progress, I could see it sometime in 2017.

Follow

My last kickstarter, perhaps for some time, was for yet another story game by Ben Robbins.

Follow focuses on a team of people on a quest. Will they succeed? Will they get what they personally want? Who will survive to the end?

It raised $36,424 for a $2,500 goal from 1,554 backers back in November 2016.

Surprisingly for a Ben Robbins game, this one is actually delayed. The pdfs were promised in April but now arrived in the summer, with print books to follow in August.

Ben of course has provided previews and I have no fear that it will be significantly delayed.

The Future

I have no new kickstarters on my horizon right now, something my wallet is happy about. I'm sure I'll another one or two by next year however.

Edit: since writing this a month ago, I've backed Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2, a more modest version of the DarkEras, adding new historical settings for Chronicles of Darkness.

I also added  Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations - Cthulhu Mythos Places which chronicles the various locations featured in Lovecraft's stories.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

The Unusual Suspects: the Infinity Sanction

All things change, even if they don’t end. This is the final session of my Demon: the Descent game to be done “live” or over a video chat. With scheduling becoming impossible due to children and time zones, we are moving to a Play by Post format. Fingers crossed that it works out. I’ll post the details on that in a month or so.

Last time the ring eliminated the doppelgangers for their covers and traded Lilith’s scepter for several useful items.

The Lacuna Job, Part IV: The Infinity Sanction

First thing we did was update Aspirations: at least for those players who showed up on time.

The Weaver set the goals of getting One of a Kind Investigations off its back and locating Jerry, the dealer trading in the tainted T-shirts it worked on as an angel.

Accabish wants to know how the alternate version of Mercy differs from her own long dead daughter.


Priscilla’s phone rings. She picks up.

A distorted voice asks, “what about our deal? What happened to the Dream Machine?”

“By deal you mean your blackmail?” the demon replies sourly.

“It wasn’t all blackmail. Not for you.”

Accabish considers that. Sensing a loophole, she pours Aether into one of the hidden rules of reality. Laws bend then break as she extracts Infinity’s location from the call. An image of the angular woman sitting upright in front of a wall of screens floats within her mind. Infinity is in a wood cabin well set back from the road in an empty quarter of Eastern Oregon.

Accabish tries to argue her interlock Backtrace could be used here. I disagree but allow her to create an Exploit on the spot. She spends the experience, an Aether and rolls Wits + Socialize + Primum to use “Where are you?” an Exploit that locates an individual that the demon is communicating with. I’ll post the complete details with the next session.

She made her compromise roll with Wits + Manipulation +2 (for her high cover) but we never established a condition.


“You mean you have information on my daughter? Do you want to do a side deal on that?”

“Do you still have the item?”

“Yes,” she lies.

Accabish rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge + her Lies Speciality + 3 for Willpower spent (11 dice!). Infinity rolls a base pool of 6 plus 3 for Willpower spent. They tie.

After a moment of silence, Infinity says, “my electronics say you are telling the truth but I don’t trust them.”

“It’s really too bad you don’t trust your machines.”

After another awkward silence, she says, “if you can deliver the device, I’ll give you the information on your daughter.”

“Well I’ll need to get it away from the rest of my team first. How about I drop it off tomorrow at 10?” she ask, thinking of a location with poor surveillance. ”Down at South Washington and 1st?”

“Fine.”

Daemon pours through company memos and private emails, neck-deep into hacking Keystone Pharmaceuticals. Ever since he saw the article linking the company to land buys in the former memory hole of Yesler Terrace, he knew he had found the connection between Verdant Technologies and the Dream Machine.

In other words, his aspiration.


The strange forgetfulness that until recently had a hold on the neighborhood must be connected to the Memnovores. Verdant took possession of the Dream Machine shortly after the effect dissipated. And Verdant is tied to Keystone and the tortuous web of subsidiaries and joint projects that make up the Pentex-Cheiron Group conglomerate.

The other interesting thing about the Keystone purchase was that the property, Ashwood Heights, was the former home of Seattle’s latest serial killer. Jarett Costa murdered three women by slicing their eyelids open. The relevant point for Daemon was Jarett's claims of prophetic dreams and God-Machine imagery in his rants. He was probably a stigmatic, likely exposed at Ashwood Heights.

Hacking Keystone had been easy enough. After a couple of hours he found the shipping records for trucks in the vicinity of Ashwood Heights just before the Dream Machine arrived at Verdant Technologies.

Daemon rolls Wits + Computer explore Keystone’s files.

As for the recent purchase of Ashwood Heights, the official line is that this is an example of giving back to the community. But Daemon discovers they bought three plots of land. Ashwood Heights encompasses two of those plots but the third doesn’t appear to exist.

Also surprising is the fact that Keystone has paid One of a Kind Investigation for several jobs over the years. The last one was shortly before the Dream Machine ended up in Verdant Technologies hands.
Accabish and Daemon reveal their information at the next meeting of the ring.

“So we should strike at Infinity,” Accabish concludes.

The team discusses how they will counter the defenses the hacker has in place, especially any data dumps her removal might trigger.

The Naturalist scries her, watching the hacker for a few hours. Though the demon cannot detect any direct angelic influence, it does notice some crude infrastructure. Several sets of wind chimes hang around the darkened rooms. They appear to be some sort of shielding device. The homemade PDA she keeps on her person definitely is running Infrastructure level code. Nat also detects something weird about her personally though it can’t pin down what.

More mundanely interior of the building appears to clad in modular Kevlar and steel security walls. There are no windows though frequent monitors attest to a network of security cameras.

We forgo the Compromise roll. The demon uses Sense the Angelic as well as its normal demonic senses. Nat also tries Heart’s desire but fails. I let something slip anyway...

The most worrisome thing to the demon are the documents displayed on the screens. Neural scanning papers, details on brain-machine interfaces, speculative material on uploading minds, and a large number of reports and evidence on the God-Machine. She wants to join mentally with its old master.

They decide to bring in some backup. Accabish puts in the call to the Black Pyramid.

And I work to skip past the mission planning stage.
The van bounces along the darkening road. Fading light touches a few parched trees and dusty scrub.

Inside the ring crouches in their facades with the Black Pyramid team. An albino called Snow drives them to infinity’s hideout while Mr. King goes over the plan with them and Barb, a towering warrior woman.

Daemon will accompany the team to secure her tech and cut off any last-minute transmissions. As they approach he will enter the system in dataform. Accabish and Hunter will aid King’s team in any fighting. Nat will hang back using its abilities to provide remote intelligence. They will approach by stealth if possible where King and his people will secure the doors before they can close. Weaver will help should the security doors inside the house hamper them. The demon’s shears can cut through almost anything.

I don’t apply Compromise rolls since King and his people are from another dimension and are supernatural themselves.

King lets them in on some of his people abilities. They practice their world’s ancient blood magics and have been further enhanced by their corporate superiors. Somehow this grants them superhuman reflexes and speed.

Daemon reads their strange crimson auras. Hieroglyphs and stars twinkling within the bloody mess.

Daemon uses his aura sensing demonic form ability.


As the sun sets, the terrain becomes even bleaker. In the final hours, they pass only two cars and a delivery truck going in the opposite direction.

Foreshadowing!
Hunter’s skins blends with bare earth as his eyes scan the perimeter in night vision mode. If he didn’t need to guide the others, he’d be able to slide past these cameras easily.

He moves and the others follow.

Hunter activates Mirrorskin and Nightvision (costing him 1 Aether due to his merits). He rolls Dexterity + Stealth -5 (for supporting the others) + 3 (for Willpower) +3 (for mirrorskin). Infinity rolls Wits + Composure -1. Unfortunately Infinity wins.

Daemon trails behind, scanning the air for signals. As they get within a few meters of a camera, he turns into a stream of ones and zeroes, disappearing into the system.

He uses his Electromagnetic Linguistics merit and then dataform. I skip Compromise rolls for now.

The front door opens easily but the entrance hall soon splits forcing a choice: right or left.

“Straight,” Accabish says.

Weaver pulls a pair of giant shears from its shoulder and begins slicing.

Weaver’s Laser Cutter demonic form ability takes the form of magic shears.

Nearby Daemon traces the buildings power to a large lithium power cell . As it struggles to disable it a short signal escapes the structure.

Daemon tries twice to roll Strength + Computers before succeeded.

The team makes its way through the newly darkened structure, their path illuminated by a ball of red energy in Mr. King’s hand.

Outside by the van, Nat’s milky eyes view Infinity’s control room. She waits, the glow of a custom PDA shining from her hand.

Daemon slides into the back of the team as they reach Infinity’s hideout. Up in front, Weaver spots strange blood stains on the woman’s shoes.

The Weaver rolls Wits + Medicine to notice the dried blood.

“You understand, I couldn’t be sure I could trust any of you,” the woman says. “Especially not members of the Black Pyramid.”

As Mr. King steps into the room, Daemon shifts into his true form. With a sickening lurch, his facade stretches and then shreds. The metallic being glows with electrical energy.

“We’ve got incoming,” he says.

Daemon takes full demon form and fails his Compromise roll (Wits + Manipulation -2 for his facade of 1). He loses the facade and gains the Hunted Condition. On the plus side he gets Aether equal to his Primum or 4.

As King and the others move in, Infinity’s fingers move with increasing slowness toward the PDA. Everyone grinds to a halt and stops except Accabish.

Accabish uses Strike First followed by Stop (spending a 2 Aether to roll Intelligence + Science + Primum to halt time for 3 turns). Those are both reflexive actions.

The demon slips forward in that instant of time, snatching the device from Infinity’s hands. As she hurries back into the pack, she slips the PDA into her pocket and tosses a curse upon the hacker.

She uses her Interlock Preemptive Strike to inflict a tilt. She rolls Manipulation + Brawl - Infinity's Stamina and hobble’s her (-2 to all rolls, -1 Defense).

Time speeds up as Accabish takes on her demonic form. The shining blue metallic woman stands ready to strike.

She makes her Compromise roll (I forgot the earlier one for the Exploit) and trades her Condition of Steadfast to avoid any complications. I award a Beat anyway. She also gains 4 Aether for the shift.

The initiative order is Accabish (done), Hunter, Daemon, the Black Pyramid, and Infinity (with the others hanging back for now).


Hunter lunges forward ahead of the sorcerers. One moment he is a man falling to all fours and the next he is a metallic gold lion bearing down on Infinity.

The hacker stumbles back, her hands grasping the air where her device was a moment ago. Then he rakes her leg with one claw. The other warriors tries to crowd in on her but end up interfering with each other.

Hunter takes full demon form, gains 3 Aether and makes his Compromise roll (Wits + Manipulation - 2). He suffers only a glitch and attacks. He makes his Strength + Brawl - 4 (for her lowered defense) roll. She takes 2 Lethal.

The Black Pyramid gang pummel at her (with 2, 3, and 4 dice respectively) but only deal 1 Bashing.


I’m can’t recall what Daemon did. I think study her aura. Which looks like it is on fire.

Infinity retreats to a corner before regaining her balance. She lashes out with one hand. Electricity races up her body and down her arm. In the blue glow, her skin looks withered and leathery with stitching along every joint.

The blast strikes Hunter dead on and he tumbles back, his circuits momentary overloaded.

Infinity is a Promethean and has more powers than one might expect. She deals 11 Bashing and KO’s Hunter.

Outside the Naturalist hears the thunder rumble out of the house. Then he hears another crack answering from a few miles to the southwest.

Hunter angel inbound.

Round 2:


“Two can play at that game,” Accabish shouts as electricity arcs around her body.

She grabs the hacker grounding the charge in her. Again the electricity arcs around Infinity revealing her true corpse-like features. As the sparks subside, the hacker’s wounds close up.

Accabish makes her Strength + Brawl - 4 Defense to touch her and deals enough “damage” to heal Infinity fully. Well now they know.

On the ground, Hunter’s own scorch marks fade. The lion snaps at Infinity from the ground but she skips past him.

Hunter revives thanks to his wound healing ability. He tries to grapple her with a roll of Strength + Brawl - 3 Defense -1 for wound penalties but he fails.

And right into the middle of the Black Pyramid operatives.

Mr. King clips her shoulder with a sudden punch sending her into Snow who smashes her into a wall. As she staggers away, Barb topples the wall of monitor displays on top of her.

The Black Pyramid team strikes with 6, 7 and 8 dice as they spend their willpower, dealing 1 Bashing, then 2 more, and finally 3 Lethal.

As she struggles to rise, Daemon brings his sword arm down swiftly twice. Her newly severed arms twitch for a few seconds as she glares up at him, critically wounded yet somehow defiant.

Daemon gets an exceptional success on his Strength + Weaponry roll. With the weapon bonus this deals 9 Lethal. After upgrading severity and wrapping, this yields 4 lethal and 4 aggravated marked boxes on Infinity’s sheet. I remove her arms as part of the exceptional success.

Daemon notices a signal emitting from her searching for a device in the area. As he readies his arm blade again, Accabish rushes forward and smashes her metallic fists into Infinity’s leg, shattering it.

Infinity spends a turn connecting the PDA and playing crippled.

Accabish rolls Strength + Brawl - 4 Defense +2 prone and deals 2 Bashing. 2 wounds to go.

Daemon swings but his sword sticks into a monitor.

Daemon uses Fractal Reality to replicate his earlier exceptional success but fails the roll to actually hit her.
Hunter rises to his feet and sinks his fangs into the crippled monster. She gasps, shudders and dies.

Hunter rolls Strength + Brawl and deals 2 Lethal.
Outside the Naturalist climbs into the van. Another peal of thunder rolls over the land, closer this time. Hunter runs out of the building, Infinity’s body in his jaws.

Nat blinks and Mr. King and his confederates appear next to the van, several hard drives in hand.

Accabish and Daemon hurry to catch up.

The next clap of thunder is much much closer.

As the van starts down the road, the thunder gets nearer and nearer. Daemon tosses a burner phone out the window. A moment later he disappears into it as mix of ones and zeroes.

He uses Dataform.

A moment later the thunder stops right behind them.

Then they are alone on the long road to Seattle.
I ran the next section as a quick chase.

Daemon begins bouncing from cell tower to cell tower. an ominous booming chasing him through cyberspace.

He pings off a few satellites until the angel almost corners him high above Canada. Circuits pop and melt as the servant of the God-Machine attempts to overload the system and trap him.

At the last moment, he slips away, disappearing in networks across the Pacific.

Daemon rolled Intelligence + Computers vs. the angel’s Finesse. Daemon remains ahead or close to it for three rounds before reaching 8 successes and escaping.

He resolves the Hunted Condition and earns a Beat.

Weaver rolls Intelligence + Occult to learn what Infinity was.

Weaver runs over the events in Oregon as it looks over the dismembered body of Infinity. She might be a promethean, a reanimated corpse with strange alchemical powers, such as manipulating and healing from electricity. For some reason they are universally despised.

The Black Pyramid offer to take the corpse to analyze with their magics.

”We have techniques for interrogating the dead,” Mr. King says.

The Weaver gives its okay. “Share anything you learn please.”

Weaver buys up its Occult to 2 for 2 Experience. The demon plans to do more studying.


Accabish takes King aside. “Since we provided Infinity’s location I think you still owe us something. I need your help investigating a personal matter.”

“Alright, what?”

“It is private. I’ll stop by later to give you the details.”

She wants to know about her daughter. This is progress on the Aspiration and she earns a Beat.

After the corpse and their allies leave, Accabish produces the PDA. Weaver scrutinizes the code within it. It is an incredibly potent gadget, perhaps a high level lambda. Its primary ability is to tap into the control codes behind the God-Machine’s minions, overriding their free will temporarily. It can also identify what the purpose an object or person serves in the Machine’s plans.

“I want to use it on myself,” the Naturalist declares.

“This was also made by Lilith,” Weaver says.

Basically it allows the user to roll Resolve + Computers + Primum against the target’s Resolve + Primum (which can be any servant or past servant of the God-Machine). Each success allows the user to control a demon or angel for a turn (or a scene for mortals).

It also allows use of a variation on the Voice of the Machine embed. When used on a specific target, the user learns can roll Wits + Computers to learn what role that person or object plays in the God-Machine’s plans. Each use requires a roll against Compromise.

At the very end, I found the time to check people’s ciphers. Accabish and Daemon have already unlocked their ciphers. The Weaver finally buys the next Embed and gains the following interlock:


Decision Paralysis
Action: Instant
Roll: Manipulation + Academics vs. Wits + Composure
Dramatic Failure: Amid the range of options, a clear choice appears to the target. They gain a +2 bonus on their next action.
Success: The demon fills the target's mind with the endless options for how to act. They suffer a -2 penalty to actions for the scene as they try to sort through them.
Exceptional Success: They become paralyzed by the options available to them. They lose their next action.


The Naturalist and Hunter both make their Wits + Intelligence rolls and learn their final Keys.

The Naturalist buys Persistent Legend and learns:

Patch Job: The demon invokes Legend but using a different Cover as the source than the one they are currently using. Spend an Aether as usual and then roll as below. Rather than gain the Imposter Condition, roll for Compromise for the Cover currently used at +1.
Action: Instant
Dice Pool: Lower of Wits + Socialize or source Cover - dots in Skills or Merits being gained
Dramatic Failure: Not only does the demon fail to gain the dots they still roll for Compromise at -1.
Exceptional Success: The demon suffers no Compromise.

Nat’s koan is “safety can be found by hiding within a larger life.”

Hunter buys Combustion and unlocks:

Conflagration: The demon causes a pre-existing destructive force (fire, wind, rushing water, toxic chemicals) to spread throughout a region. The area is affected by the appropriate Tilt.
Action: Instant
Roll: Strength + Science
Dramatic Failure: the force turns on the demon instead. The demon suffers 2 Lethal and may be set on fire or otherwise negatively affected by the force.
Exceptional Success: The demon maintains an unconscious control over the raging elements around him. The demon doesn't suffer the effects of the Tilt.

His koan is “the untamed fire must escalate or die.”

Experience time! I give every one Experience for the story. Accabish earns beats for all three of her Aspirations (blowing Infinity, learning more about Lilith, and making progress on alt-Mercy). Daemon and Nat both get 1 Aspiration Beat (for Learning about Verdant Technologies and raising its Primum respectively). Daemon gains another one from resolving its Hunted Condition. Accabish also earns one for a canceled condition.

Everyone (except Daemon who failed a Compromise roll) earns 2 Cover Beats. Daemon gets 1 Cover Beat.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Kickstarter Campaign Reviews 2017, Part 4

This week I’m covering part 4 of 5 of the kickstarter campaigns I’ve pledged to in the past several years. This time the projects funded between January and August 2015. Some proceeded smoothly and on schedule while others have suffered long delays and occasional frustrations. Thankfully there are no disasters or major disappointments to report this time around.

Deluxe Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

There is a superstition that the Wraith line is cursed. Maybe so. At least the kickstarter has had its troubles.

Despite this wrinkle I had to back the anniversary edition of this darkly atmospheric game of afterlife set in the World of Darkness.

In January 2015 over two thousand backers helped raise $295,645 (almost 6 times the initial goal) to make it a reality. The stretch goals swelled the book and added several additional products: a map of Stygia, a fiction anthology, the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, and the Book of Oblivion.

I was promised a book in November 2015 but with the normal delays and the curse, I am still waiting. Thankfully the production team has been releasing chapters in progress regularly to the backers along with our monthly updates. Communication is key to keeping contributors happy.

According to the Onyx Path Monday Meeting notes, art direction has yet to be completed and the text is in editing. I think a late 2017 release still possible but I may still be waiting on this in 2018.

World of Darkness Dark Eras Prestige Edition

Some kickstarters do something different from the usual stretch goals or rewarding reaching some level of buzz and backers. This campaign was one of those.

Dark Eras is a Chronicles of Darkness book providing campaign locations for the various game lines across the world in different historical eras and for many different game lines. To encourage interest, the creators allowed the backers to vote for which historical settings to include in the final book(s).

Thanks to that innovation, in February 2015 a book that would really be supplement material raised $128,290 (for a $40,000 goal) from 2,030 backers.

The main book arrived a fairly standard six months late in March 2016. Monthly progress reports got us through the wait. The stretch goals created a supplement which arrived earlier this year, completing the kickstarter while leaving the door open for future books of this sort.

I haven’t yet really digested the full material but the stone age Mage campaign has a lot of potential.

Beast: the Primordial Prestige Edition

This third Onyx Path kickstarter campaign included their standard high level of communication and level of professionalism. It’s a shame that the game itself is somewhat problematic.

The latest gameline for Chronicles of Darkness raised $116,383 (over double its goal) with 1,623 backers in June 2016. The core book was promised for June the following year and arrived only two months late. The supplements have arrived at a reasonable rate with only a Beast Dark Eras historical chapter remaining out of the stretch goals.

As for the game itself, it revolves around people with the souls of monsters who must feed on the fears or flesh of humanity. The game presents them as amoral subversions of the classic hero’s journey. In this game the “heroes” are the bad guys, self-absorbed glory hounds in it for themselves.

The problem with this game I feel mostly come from how the monsters justify themselves.

Beasts must feed on people or their inner monsters will hunt recklessly without them. That feeding can be done by instilling fear and caution in the victims or with violence and gore. In that way it doesn’t differ that much from Vampire.

But the designers/Beast society seem to want to justify things, pretending that victimizing people with the intent of teaching important lessons somehow makes them better.

No.

They are monsters and should just accept that. They don’t need to explain themselves anymore than a Werewolf or Vampire does. They must feed. They can choose to do so carefully or not. But concerning themselves with right and wrong, good and evil, Beasts feel like they are just playing into humanity’s myths.

No Thank You Evil

Let’s look at another well run and unproblematic kickstarter.

No Thank You Evil is a roleplaying game aimed at small children as young as 5. As the father of two (very) small children I consider this an investment in future gaming. Launched by Monte Cook Games, the kickstarter earned $111,750 (over twice the goal) from 1,514 backers in June 2015.

The creators communicated progress well and delivered on all the goods on time in February the following year.

The production values were good and the box itself is pretty. They recently launched a kickstarter for expansion material but I think I’ll wait until I exhaust what I have. I’m still a few years off from using it to introduce my son and daughter to the hobby.

Microscope Explorer

A final well run campaign comes from Ben Robbins, the creator of Microscope and Kingdom.

This book of expansions on his original hit Microscope needed only $2,500 to fund but made $55,629 instead, thanks to 1674 backers. Ben kept the goals reasonable and delivered the book only slightly delayed in February 2016.

As normal the game material is great and the book is visually pleasing. It expands Microscope to include rival groups of time travelers manipulating history, family trees, and seed generators.

Now I just need to work on using it more often.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

The Unusual Suspects: The Lacuna Job, Part III

So faithful readers, I return at last to my Demon: the Descent chronicle, the Unusual Suspects. My players and I searched a long time for a viable time to play since my schedule constrained by the work of raising two children. Thankfully we were able to schedule a few games this summer thanks to helpful in-laws.

Basically my wife and I can’t really play before the kids are asleep at 8PM. But my players are on the East Coast. An 11PM game is a nonstarter.

The game will continue however since the players remain enthusiastic and I have many more story ideas. We will be moving to a play by post format, the specifics of which I still need to work out.

The Lacuna Job, Part III: Double or Nothing

To start off, I had my players remind us what was going on last session. They would mention a plot or subplot element and I would elaborate. Each of the players who did so learned a Beat (though not Hunter who was late).

The technique worked really well and I intend to use this in the future.

Next up we covered Ciphers. Everyone (except Accabish) had an opportunity to get one step closer to learning a key. Accabish already knew her last key.

Everyone succeeded and Daemon also learned his last key.

Both Daemon and Accabish purchased their final keys, raised their Primum one last time, and learned their kaons.

Accabish learns Strength Through Adversity and gains the following final interlock:


Preemptive Strike: the demon retroactively inflicts a weakness upon the target. The storyteller will decide an appropriate Tilt which the demon instinctively knows about. Perhaps the target fell down the stairs that morning injuring their leg, or ate a bad burrito leaving them sickened. They suffer a negative Tilt during the scene (see p. 334 in Demon: the Descent for examples).

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Brawl - Stamina

Action: Instant

Dramatic Failure: The power recoils upon the demon who suffers the effects above.

Exceptional Success: The demon can choose the Tilt to inflict and the target suffers a -2 penalty to actions above and beyond that (subject to a maximum -5 net penalty).

Her koan is “the spider strikes swiftly but only once its prey lies entangled in its web.”

Daemon meanwhile purchases Fractal Reality and gains:

More than the Sum of Its Parts: The demon optimizes the workflow within a group, significantly boosting their speed and capability. For extended teamwork actions the time between rolls is reduced by half. Instant teamwork actions add the demon's Primum to the main actor's roll.

Dice Pool: Presence + Socialize

Action: Reflexive

Dramatic Failure: The team ends up getting in each other’s way. The main actor gains no bonus dice from the team.

Exceptional Success: The experience reinvigorates the participants and they regain a Willpower point.


His koan is ”the key to freedom lies without.”

I’ve decided to treat the kaon as a permanent Aspiration and award a Beat a session for anyone who pursues theirs. I have further ideas but I’ll save them for now.

Then Accabish raised her Manipulation to 5! She also raises her cover to 8.

Lastly we updated Aspirations.

Daemon has resolved to investigate Bainbridge (and also resolve his Spooked Condition) and learn the connection between the Dream Machine and Verdant Technology. He is still working to learn who was watching the sewers with webcams.

Weaver’s aspirations include helping Melanie, a little girl with an abusive father; find out who is investigating her; and analyzing the strange powder Dr. Ilyes brought to her.

Accabish intends to blow up Infinity, discover who is Lilith, and pop the daughter bubble.

Hunter still has the aspirations to defeat 3+ opponents in a scene, kill an angel, and get David (his cover) promoted.

Lastly Nat still has the goals acquire a bolt hole, make a deal for someone’s “striking looks”, and gain Primum 4.


We pick up with the demons discussing their next steps.

With the matter of their deal with the Black Pyramid settled, the ring discuss which of the doppelgangers they will attempt to exterminate first.

“Joseph is becoming a liability,” Hunter says.

“Becoming?” Daemon asks.

Hunter shrugs.

“We need to be sure this won’t damage our covers,” Nat says. “As far as I can tell ’killing’ them and using the scepter has at least a 61.2% chance of working. That’s not good enough.”

Nat rolls Intelligence + Occult to gauge the odds of this working.

The demons decide Joseph is the least valuable cover to preserve. Daemon begins tracking his purchases. Accabish offers to handle the footwork if Hunter investigates the doppelganger trailing her.

Talk turns to how they will handle isolating “Joseph”. Daemon suggests using his cats.

“What are your cats like, Hunter?” Accabish asks.

Joseph describes Mr. Whiskers, a tabby with a torn ear, and Stalking Death, a fluffy white Persian. Unfortunately both cats went missing when Hunter retired ‘Joseph’. The ring considers making flyers advertising the “found” cats.

I awarded a Cover Beat after the session for this amusing detail for the Joseph cover.

“We could then direct him to meet us at a motel,” Accabish adds.

“He wouldn’t be that dumb,” Daemon says. “Would he?”

Hunter remains silent.

“Really?”

Daemon’s search turns up a transaction just after noon the next day. Joseph just bought some beers, coincidentally at the bar Dorian works at.

Dorian, a.k.a. the Naturalist, checks into work early. The demon finds a tired looking Joseph talking to an increasingly shocked and drunk Bob Jensen.

Hunter makes the Cover roll (Wits + Manipulation) at -2. His cover doesn’t degrade or raise red flags.

Listening in after dropping off another round, Nat hears the doppelganger explain how he has no one to turn to.

“Don’t you have family?” Bob asks. “Friends?”

“I have one friend,” the man says before staggering to his feet. “Yes, I’ll see him.”

The Naturalist texts the ring and a few blocks away Jane McCall, a reporter for the Slog, begins tailing him.

The temptor however slides up to Bob and asks him what is going on. Bob soon tells him the story: how his friend “died”, came back and seems sure someone is stealing his life. The Naturalist also learns about Joseph’s other oddities: super strength and the encounter with the bathroom alligator.

Nat tells him to pick better friends.

Weaver meanwhile spends the day working and researching. In the morning the demon spends an hour in its bolthole analyzing the strange dust that Dr. Ilyes brought her.

Tiny filaments emerge through its Cover’s hands, sampling and categorizing the grains of dust. Strangely the demon detects no chemicals whatsoever. Instead, it experiences foreign memories.

We skip the Compromise roll for the partial transformation. Weaver rolls Intelligence + Science to analyze the dust.

A house flashes in its mind, gray and decaying. A faint warmth touches its wooden heart. Home.

Then it recalls a handsome man it has never met. The man smiles, standing confidently in an old fashioned brown suit. Trust but also fear.

Finally a white hot fragment of God-Machine core code races across the demon’s mind. A cipher or perhaps a key.

The Weaver earns a Beat for its Aspiration.

Weaver considers digging deeper but the timer goes off on Jean’s phone. Time for work.

On Jean’s lunch hour, Weaver calls Daemon.

“I need help identifying someone who has been asking questions about me.”

“Where and when?”

It tells him about the library and when Kelly told Jean about the visitor.

“Do you have a description?”

“Tall and thin. Average.” The Weaver considers the conversation.

“That’s not much.”

“A snarky T-shirt. A professional investigator.”

“That’s helpful,” Daemon says to the last item.

He scans through the library security footage until he finds the three targets that match the time window and descriptions. A college student, a man in his late 20s and an older balding man.

Daemon hacks library cameras and rolls Wits + Computers to narrow the field.

As an aside, Nat’s player is a librarian and can confirm the quality of library surveillance. They are surprisingly well covered.


He cross references them with the city database and finds a hit.

Robert Mill, 33, employee of One of a Kind Investigations for the past 7 years. He emails his findings to Weaver.

Do you want me to look deeper, he asks in the message.

The other demon replies yes.

The Weaver also earns a Beat for making progress on another Aspiration.

Elsewhere, Jane reports back to Accabish’s cover Priscilla. “He’s entered a shop named Magambo’s. Looks shady. There’s a wrinkle though. I think he made me before he went inside.”

I gave the doppelganger a Wits + Composure roll to detect the tail. He has a -2 penalty due to drunkenness and having not slept recently. He succeeds.

The demon directs her to leave and tells her to find some cats for her. She forwards descriptions of Mr. Whiskers and Stalking Death.

Accabish considers the situation as she researches Magambo’s. Why did he go there? She finds the owner’s first name is Yves. Yves Magambo is Joseph’s friend from before Hunter fell. But Yves also wants Joseph dead and is unafraid of putting himself in harm’s way.

Yves is an angel, she concludes.

Accabish uses her logical leap from her Agenda condition.


Accabish settles into her car from a block away. The alleyway lines up well to give her a direct look at the shop’s exit. From this far, no one can see her.

She gets an Exceptional Success on her Wits + Stealth roll. I forgot to award a condition at the time. I’ll give her Steadfast next session.

After a half hour, Yves exits with Joseph. Flanked by a pair of bodyguards, the angel waves goodbye. Accabish trails Joseph in her car. Her hair glows softly as she sense his aura for angelic interference. He is clean for now.

Again I skip the Compromise roll for a partial transformation.

She calls Timothy, a stringer for the Slog, and directs him to follow Joseph until he crashes for the night.

I do another perception roll for the doppelganger and he fails this time.

An hour later Jane texts her some pictures of the cats she found. Accabish confirms with Hunter that they match well enough.

Around 5 that afternoon, Timothy tells her that Joseph is staying at a fleabag motel. He guzzling some red bulls. But he isn’t alone. A man in a dark car is watching the motel room from the parking lot.

Across the city Hunter sits in his patrol car, sipping some lukewarm coffee.

He studies the house on the other side of the street. The for sale sign looks a little worn and the grass a bit rough. Otherwise nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Then he spots her.

The teenage girl matches the photo almost exactly. Who is this doppelganger to Accabish? What would a demon be doing with a 16 year old?

The dark haired woman paces in front of the house, occasionally glancing at the house and biting her lip. After fifteen minutes she looks back one last time and starts walking away.

Hunter tails her to the local high school, another location on the list Accabish provided. He drives slow and she fails to notice him.

As she resumes her anxious loitering and fidgeting, Hunter blinks.

He also makes a Wits + Resolve roll and succeeds.

A figure in rags stands in the street. Somehow Hunter can’t remember how the emaciated man got there.

Slowly the chalk white creature turns, revealing a rotten visage and black soulless orbs. Hunter shifts gears and begins rolling away slowly.

He turns around to spot four faceless men blocking his path.

He rolls Wits + Composure so I offer him the choice of watching the memnovore or the road.

Events spin out of control. The dark suited things move toward the patrol car as Hunter shifts to reverse. A shotgun blast stops him in his tracks as a woman, a woman resembling an older version of the kid he was tailing, blows chunks out of the memnovore.

He pulls out his phone and hurried texts the ring.

Memnovore found while staking out. Avoiding

Autocorrect changes Memnovore to Mennonite.

Accabish texts: good job

Meanwhile the featureless men begin banging on the car. The side window cracks but holds.

Hunter pulls away quickly, retreating with the car back into the school’s parking lot. He quickly calls for backup. “Shot fired at Shorecrest High School. Officer under assault, requesting backup.”

As a crowd grows at the entrance to the building, he warns them to stay clear. ”Remaining inside and lock any doors until further notice.”

The woman breaks away from the memnovor and races to the school. She drops her sawed off shotgun, her long dark trailing behind her. As she reaches the mass of students and teachers, she vanishes.

Lost in the Crowd Embed.

Sirens begin to close in. The faceless men and the teenage target move out of direct sight of the crowd before winking out. By the time the cops arrive both them and the memnovore are nowhere to be seen.

Accabish earns a beat for the daughter bubble popping.

The memnovore managed to beat Hunter’s Wits + Composure roll. It now knows about him.

Hunter helps sweep the area and answer questions about the attackers for the next hour. “They were wearing nylon masks.”

Security cameras are not an issue here. My wife, a teacher, assures me they are typically very crappy and mostly fake at high schools.

With no sign of the mysterious woman, either version, he heads back to the city and arranges to meet the rest of the ring that evening.

Daemon spends the rest of his afternoon alternating between level grinding a new character on WoW and researching Robert Mill.

Accessing hidden reserves of knowledge, the demon learns that Mill originally applied for the position of an IT specialist. He acquired his detective licence in 2006. There was a suspicious arrest in 2011. He turned himself in after discharging his gun in a threatening manner outside a nightclub. But someone squashed the charges.

Using Download Knowledge, Daemon gets 4 successes on his Wits + Investigate roll.

Stranger facts surround his coworkers. The company hired an ex-Seal sniper named Vittorio Vitacelli after the firm’s founder, Frank Brooks, went missing for three weeks. Frank is back on the payroll but he spent a few years at Hillcrest Mental Health Facility to deal with his odd memory loss. Shortly after his release, he reported shooting and intruder. No body was found.

The whole mess screams hunters to Daemon. He tells the Weaver.

The Weaver thinks over how they decided to come after it.

Cory. He knew something was up and he only backed off around the time her cover suffered a minor compromise. He found something and then he found enough money to hire these investigators.

Weaver makes her own logical leap using her Inquisitor Condition.

The ring meets up in the early evening. After ribbing Hunter about how his phone autocorrected memnovore, Daemon asks, “is Mennonites going to be our code word for them?”

“I think it already is,” the Naturalist replies.

Accabish explains that the woman, at least the teenager, is a doppelganger of her daughter, Mercedes or “Mercy”, her natural born daughter as an angel. “But I don’t know about this older woman. I thought my daughter died, that I completed my mission.”

The rest of the ring suggests she might be an alternate dimension version of her daughter. Perhaps even from the same world as the Black Pyramid.

Shelving that thought for a moment, the ring decides to strike at Joseph no while he is isolated.

The demons enact a plan after a long debate. I might want to get an NPC voice into the team just to cut down on that in the future.

Daemon pulls his car alongside the one watching Joseph’s motel room. As he lowers the window, the man inside barks, “Who are you?”

Daemon fails his roll to activate the Joiner Interlock.

“Who are you?” the demon asks.

Under his steady gaze, the man o9pens and closes his mouth. The man’s face darkens before finally he drives off.

Daemon rolls Manipulation + Intimidation to drive the observer off for a bit.


Daemon exits, pausing a moment to download files on dimensional sciences from the God-Machine’s secret stores. Now a master occultist, he joins Hunter and the others as they pick Joseph’s door.

Daemon gets an exceptional success on download knowledge and picks an Occult speciality in Alternate Dimensions.

Hunter pops the lock quietly and the four demons burst in before the doppelganger can prepare.

Hunter rolls Dexterity + Larceny vs Joseph’s Wits + Composure at a -3 penalty (due to lack of sleep).

Initiative is rolled: Accabish (activating the Strike First embed), the Naturalist, Hunter, Daemon and Joseph.


As Joseph lurches to his feet, he stiffens with pain clutching his leg. Across the room, Accabish loosens her grip on the weave of fate and gets inside.

She uses her new Interlock, Preemptive Strike, to inflict a condition: Leg Wrack (-2 penalty to actions and Defense). On top of his existing -2 penalty from exhaustion, this fight will be over quickly.

The Naturalist gets out of the way as Hunter tackles joseph to the ground. As he pins him down, Daemon wrenches a hole in reality. As a vortex appears connecting the motel room to Weaver’s bolthole, his facade shudders but holds.

Hunter grapples Joseph, succeeding on a roll of Strength + Brawl - 3 (Joseph’s diminished Defense). Then he beats his double in an opposed Strength + Brawl roll (though Joseph has a -4 penalty). He chooses to immobilize him.

The Naturalist waits.

Daemon opens a gateway via his Rip the Gates exploit. He makes hit Wits + Manipulation roll even at a -2 penalty due to his facade.


Hunter hurls Joseph through the portal. While the others rush through the gate, Accabish gathers Joseph’s meager conditions. She dives through just before the dimensional rip seals.

Hunter gain wins the Strength + Brawl roll and forces his double through the gate to Weaver’s bolthole.

On the other side Accabish finds Joseph already subdued and duct taped by the rest of the ring. She takes her place nearby the Naturalist, scanning his surface thoughts with her demonic powers.

I skip the rolls for taking out Joseph. They have a 5 to 1 advantage and he has plenty of penalties.

Likewise I skip the partial demonic transformation for Accabish and the Naturalist. They have plenty of dice and little chance of exposure.


The Naturalist studies the doppelganger, digging into his memories. Slowly he pieces together “Joseph’s” story.

The doppelganger told Yves about which local Agencies Hunter works, with their methods of communication, and work he agreed to do. Basically everything Hunter did using his cover as Joseph. Luckily for the ring, Joseph’s direct involvement has been limited and he failed to mention them. He did however mention Ping who also bore a grudge against Hunter. Before they captured him, Joseph managed to tell Ping about Yves and arrange a meeting.

Accabish asks him about the cans of Red Bull and his fear of sleep. Joseph claims he will wink out if he loses consciousness. He thinks this happened when he was shot.

The demon test his theory by pummeling him into unconsciousness. He doesn’t vanish.

I originally was going to use this theory, lifted from the source in Antagonists. But then I realized that I had “Jenny” sleeping earlier. So I had “Joseph”’s theory be incorrect.

Hunter slits his throat and his body crumbles away. Daemon using the rod locates his remaining essence floating nearby. Accabish targets it with the scepter and it evaporates.

Later that night, the ring slips into Jenny’s new home and repeat the extermination.

The next day, Accabish turns over the scepter to agents of the Black Pyramid. They deliver the payment: three leather purses and two leather satchels each linked to the same interdimensional space. The black reptilian skin matches well to the gold latches and inked hieroglyphs. They also receive a doorway that once placed against a surface will sink into it to create a form of bolthole.

Now they just need to wait until they are ready to strike at Infinity.

Experience time! Everyone earns 3 Beats base plus 1 Cover Beat. Once we add in Aspirations and Beats for remembering the previous session the total are 6 Beats/1 Cover Beat for Accabish (3 base + 1 Aspiration + 1 for acting on her koan +1 for the recap); 4 Beats/1 Cover Beat for Daemon (3 Base + 1 for the recap); 3 Beats/2 Cover Beats. for Hunter (+1 Cover Beat for his cat details); 5 Beats/1 Cover Beat for the Naturalist (3 base + 1 Aspiration + 1 for the recap); 6 Beats/1 Cover Beat for Weaver (3 base + 2 Aspirations + 1 for the recap).

That is it for now. We have one more live session then we move on to Play by Post.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Kickstarter Campaign Reviews 2017, Part 3

We’ve reached part 3 of 5 in my kickstarter campaign reviews. The seven kickstarter campaigns for this week come from a busy period of backing for me, running from August through December 2014. As previously many of these projects turned out really well but several experienced very rough patches, including one which I don’t expect to ever pan out as planned.

Backstory Cards

I love gaming tools so when I saw a kickstarter for tools for inspiring interesting character backstories, I had to contribute. With just under a thousand backers the team raised $24,790 (5 times their goal) in August 2014.

In a well run campaign, they delivered the main part of my pledge only somewhat delayed (four months late, arriving in January 2015) and then continued with monthly expansions for about a year afterwards.

The final product seems good though I haven’t used them yet. It was a cheap addition to by my bag of tricks so I don’t regret the contribution.

Save Point Tavern

I like to support local businesses and I like to support gaming. So contributing to establishing a gaming bar in Sacramento seemed like a perfect idea.

Now I’m glad I didn’t give them very much.

251 other backers helped fill the project’s $25,000 goal (with a little extra) but I am unsure the business will ever manifest.

Technically my reward was a sticker which I got two months late in February 2015. The actual tavern seems stuck in poor business planning limbo. Supposedly a location was secured but no progress has materialized in getting the space ready for use. I expect the money has already dried up.

Girls on Games

This book was another project that experienced problems and an unsatisfactory ending for me.

The kickstarter was highly successful earning $19,565 on a $2,500 goal from 903 backers. The promised collection of articles written by female game designers was something I hoped to make a gift for my wife. Instead it ended up being very very delayed.

When the kickstarter funded in September 2014, the final book was planned for March the following year. I expected it to be delayed (I find almost all creators underestimate the time to complete a project) but I hoped to have it by June (and my anniversary) or Christmas at the latest.

Instead as months dragged on, the backers received more excuses and periods of disturbing quiet.

Finally, the book arrived in August 2016, a year and a half late. But the minimal packing used for shipping meant that when my envelope got sliced open in transit, the book became severely damaged by water.

The worst part however was the lack of a response from the developer when I emailed her about the issue. I did not expect a replacement (even though I have gotten such things from other creators). I did however expect a response.

I will not fund another kickstarter with Elisa Teague as the main developer.

The Sprawl: Cyberpunk Roleplaying

A Powered by the Apocalypse game for a cyberpunk adventuring, this New Zealand based team earned NZ$18,487 (over 7 times their goal) from 675 backers in October 2014. They ambitiously promised a print book by February but it arrived a year later.

The final product arrived as a nice digest-sized volume. The rules for the game feel pretty good. I reviewed it here after a short campaign.

Right now I’m waiting on the Touched supplement stretch goal which expands the setting to include magic and other weirdness. Essentially they plan to create an unofficial Shadowrun supplement. That part of the project has been moving along slowly and updates have been few and far between. That’s somewhat discouraging.

Feng Shui 2

Now to look at how a kickstarter should be run.

The second edition of Feng Shui raised over 20 times its $8000 goal ($185,137) thanks to 3402 backers in October 2014. They promised a print book by the following August and they delivered.

This is a revision of the classic Feng Shui by Robin Laws featuring time traveling martial arts mayhem. The stretch goals added new character types, adventures and other supplemental material. A year after the core rules arrived, I was able to close the books on this project.

As for the game itself, sometimes I buy something for future reference. In this case I wanted to look the classic rules to see what could be extracted for later. I’m happy with the books even if I’m not planning on using it directly. At the worst, they were a good read.

Paranoia RPG

This latest version of the classic game of clones, conspiracies, and your friend the computer raised £217,517 (seven times its original goal) from an impressive 4,380 backers in December 2014.

I really didn’t expect the print version until spring of 2016 and I was not been disappointed. Originally slated for June 2015, the project languished in development hell for a long time as the creators went back and forth with the license holders. But eventually things came together and I finally received the boxed set in May 2017.

Mitigating the frustrating delay was a constant stream of communications including game materials and artwork. As I often found, if creators are honest and communicative even very delayed projects can work out.

Dracula Dossier

This was the kickstarter that convinced me to cut back in my contributions. Not because anything went wrong with it but because I spent way way more than I really should have.

Thanks to such generous souls as myself (and a lot of more sensible folks) the campaign earned £87,935 (for a £10,000 goal) in December 2014.

This product combines a mega adventure for Night’s Black Agents with a gorgeous in-game handout of Bram Stoker's Dracula with the “secret bits added back in”. The extra money funded bonus adventures, a book of film reviews, music, an expansion for playing as the other side and other goodies.

As I’ve come to expect from Pelgrane Press, they met their August 2015 deadline for the main books and the other stretch goals have come in at a mostly steady clip. The only real delay was with the final item: physical handouts stained to look like actual historical artifacts (one of the crazy things I splurged on). The process of assembling them was very labor intensive (something I vicariously enjoyed thanks to monthly status updates).

Another item in this kickstarter’s favor was how responsive the creative team was. When I was shipped the wrong versions of the books, they quickly responded to my enquiry and rectified the situation in a quick and satisfactory manner.