[1:00 PM]Aeryser: Hi folks, I’m Federico Giliberto, I’m Italian born and raised, however been living in Ireland for the past 9 years. I’m the creator of Nightbound: Embrace the darkness. Face your demons. Survive the night. – Thank you for having me here Nightbound is a PbtA game (Powered by the Apocalypse) inspired by the Hellblazer comic book series along with other media of similar themes. The game talks about people who entangled their lives with the supernatural one way or another, which in the game I call the Darkness, and have to face the consequences of having done so. These consequences are represented by their guilt, each character feels guilty and responsible for their sins and the harm caused to others and themselves. The game explores these feelings and asks the characters to answer this fundamental questions: Will you be able to redeem yourself for what you’ve done? This concept is something that’s always present in almost all Hellblazer’s stories. John Constantine has great power and knowledge but he is also arrogant, he condemned the poor Astra to hell because of his actions and felt guilty for it. He puts up a fight against the supernatural to right his wrongdoing however every time he’s called to save the world from evil he has to sacrifice or hurt someone he loves, restarting the cycle of guilt. This is the core narrative of Nightbound and what I’ve tried to replicate in the game with its mechanics, moves and playbooks.
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[1:00 PM]Aeryser: You might ask yourselves: “Why PbtA?” – I chose to develop this game using Apocalypse World (and other PbtA games) as a framework because I believe that this system of rules is best suited for narrative, fiction first type of play, and to facilitate the kind of fiction I was trying to achieve with the game. The mechanics are pretty simple to understand and use in play and I think this aspect helps the players to focus more on the scenes that are playing at the table and to surface the fiction that they enjoy and find interesting to explore within the concepts of the game. Ultimately that’s one of my favourite systems so I really wanted to try to make one myself! That said it doesn’t mean that other systems or a completely novel system wouldn’t have worked, on the contrary I’m a firm believer that any system is good for what it does and what tries to achieve. I try to focus my game designs around the kind of experiences and narratives I want to try and replicate, and for Nightbound PbtA felt right! I’ve played games of various different genere, I enjoy trying different and diverse games and I would not ever say “no I won’t play that because of the system”. Off course I have personal preferences but I don’t like gating games out my library just because I might not like them. Every game, every system is unique and has something to teach from a game design point of view. DONE.
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[1:01 PM]Aeryser: I’ve come prepared!
[1:02 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): So I see!
[1:03 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Thanks, @Aeryser! The floor is open to questions!
[1:03 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Is this a modern-day setting?
[1:04 PM]Aeryser: The base game comes with a predifined setting, and it’s modern-day, however I wouldn’t exclude the possibility for players to come up with their own unique setting(edited)
[1:04 PM]Aeryser: we’ve called it the city of New Eden
[1:05 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Does the setting appear to be the “real world” on the surface, or is the supernaturally widely known?
[1:07 PM]Aeryser: On the surface only few know the existence of the supernatural, the Darkness hides among the normality of life and wait patiently to strike. The characters are among those few who’s lives have been affected by the Darkeness and that’s why they fight it
[1:08 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Can you give some examples of the ways in which the Darkness manifests? Are the classic monsters of gothic horror present in some form, for example?
[1:10 PM]Aeryser: In the game I haven’t given an exact definition of the Darkness, meaning there’s no bestiary or monster list. The Darkness is everything supernatural that we know from fantasy lore, modern fantasy, folklore and, if you like, also religion. An example can be anything, your character might have a beef with a demon, or there might be an underground fairy market populated by all sorts of creatures
[1:10 PM]Aeryser: The players choose what they want to include within the darkness when they start playing the game
[1:12 PM]Aeryser: It’s important to say that the setting of the game, the city of New Eden, is not well defined either, in the game you have some districts and same places populated by the darkness, then the game asks the players to add more Darkness into the city
[1:14 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): How does the game ask players to add more Darkness into the city?
[1:17 PM]Aeryser: When you create a character you have a set of steps to follow and questions. The first step is to pick your playbook and answer the questions of the playbook. The questions are posed in a way that you will come up with something supernatural, for example: The Slayer playbook has lost something important because of supernatural monsters and seeks revenge. When answering those playbook questions a supernatural creature will come up, because that’s what the Slayer as sworn to eliminate – then the game asks all the players to come up with a supernatural threat or a supernatural mistery (not necessarily tied to their character) – slowly you’ll see the city crowded by monsters of all sorts.
[1:19 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): What, if any, supernatural resources do the PCs have at their disposal?
[1:24 PM]Aeryser: The PCs have a set of playbook moves that mostly translates into spells, magical abilities or magical artefacts. The Occultist is the typical spellcaster for example, and has access to a variety of magical tools (that the players define on the spot, no equip list or anything). That said there is a basic move that allows all PCs to perform magic (again no spell lists, they all have to come up with a spell on the spot). Not all playbooks moves are magical, but still effective all the same, one that has no access to a magical arsenal for example is the Victim, they rely on luck and wits and on the fact that they look harmless so more often than not they are underestimated. The PCs in this game a virtually invincible, they could take on any kind of supernatural threat with a single move if they’d like.
[1:26 PM]Aeryser: When I say invincible, it doesn’t mean that PCs can’t be defeated. It means that the game doesn’t focus too much on combat, there’s an harm mechanic off course, but what focuses more is the consequences of using violence, or magic as well
[1:27 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Given the power of the PCs, do you consider this a horror game?
[1:28 PM]Aeryser: I would consider this game more of a personal horror game. The creatures are not scary for the PCs, not at all, is what they can do to your loved ones or what you might be forcing them to do to them that’s scary(edited)
[1:30 PM]Aeryser: to give an example using another game, I would consider this game very similar to Vampire the Masquerade, the horror is not because of the monsters, the horror is there because you are a monster and are forced to do terrible things to survive
[1:31 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): What are the potential costs of using magic?
[1:33 PM]Aeryser: Mechanically it increases a PCs Guilt score, in fiction, if you botch the use of magic you could potentially unleash a terrible spirit after an innocent, and that’s all your fault if that happened
[1:34 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Why does magic use increase the Guilt score even if nothing bad happens? Is magic use directly associated with the Darkness?
[1:36 PM]Aeryser: Yes, fiddling with magic is considered very dangerous and it shouldn’t be attempted lighlty or without proper preparation. The basic move to use magic is called Pierce the Veil, the Veil is the fictional barrier that separates the Darkness from the real world. If you Pierce the Veil and it doesn’t go as you’d hoped for, bad things happen afterwards
[1:36 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): But even if it does go as the PC hopes, it still causes Guilt?
[1:37 PM]Aeryser: oh no, if you do it properly it doesn’t cause Guilt, only if it goes bad
[1:37 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Ah, okay.
[1:37 PM]Aeryser: Mechanically, assigning Guilt is an Hard move for the GM to use when there’s a failed roll
[1:38 PM]Aeryser: off course if it makes sense in that precise moment of the fiction
[1:39 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Are there any limits to magic use other than potential Guilt from a failed attempt? Are there daily spell limits, magic points, or the like?
[1:43 PM]Aeryser: no nothing like that, virtually there is no limit, the Pierce the Veil move requires the players to state what kind of magical effect they would like to cast, then depending on the size of the effect the GM might put conditions that the character needs to satisfy in order to cast that spell – for example: if I want to perform a ritual to banish a monster back to where they came from, the GM might tell me that I need some specific ingredients or artefacts before actually being able to perform that ritual – then whenever a character casts a spell using the basic move, the players have to take a note of the effect and any potential conditions applied by the GM, because that spell became fiction and if they want to obtain the same effect they’ll have to satisfy those conditions again
[1:44 PM]Aeryser: bigger and powerful magical effects will require complicated conditions or very rare materials that are hard to gather for example(edited)
[1:46 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Is there anything that magic definitely cannot do?
[1:47 PM]Aeryser: I haven’t thought about that, virtually no, off course it all goes with the taste and common sense of the players – if during the first game session I cast a spell to annihilate the whole universe, well I’ve ruined the game for everyone and probably my friends wouldn’t want to play with me anymore ahah1
[1:48 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Likely not, no.
[1:48 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Can the Darkness employ magic against the PCs?
[1:51 PM]Aeryser: Yes, it can and it’s highly recommended that the GM (I’ll start calling it the MC from now on) make it use powerful and dark magic against the players – What a creature can do in terms of magic is completely informed by the nature of the creature, if for example as the MC I make a vampire threat that NPC will be able to do what commonly vampires are able to do, heightened senses, superhuman strength, shapeshift, blood magic etc.(edited)
[1:53 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Is there anything preventing an NPC witch from casting a “Kill [PC’s name]” spell? Can PCs resist magic with magic?
[1:54 PM]Aeryser: It depends on the situation and on the dice roll, the MC doesn’t roll dice for the NPC (it doesn’t roll dice at all) the moves let us know what happens, I’m going to make a couple of examples
[1:57 PM]Aeryser: I’m a PC who’s trying to cast a fireball to hit a demon – I roll the dice as indicated by the move and I get a 7 (as most PbtA in Nightbound you roll 2d6 + trait), that’s a partial success, meaning I do it but not quite – the MC interprets the result and incorporates it into the fiction by narrating: As you cast the fireball you hit the demon, but you see that it opened its mouth and ate the fireball, the demons says “Thank you I needed that”
[1:59 PM]Aeryser: At the same time if the PC is a target of a magical ability and don’t want to take its effects, they may use the move Avoid Fangs, Claws and Curses, which basically is used to avoid immediate consequences – the PC rolls a 10 which is a full success and describes that instead of dodging they pull up a magical barrier that deflects that spell
[1:59 PM]Aeryser: visually you can represent a dice roll however you like, mechanically it works as I explained1
[2:02 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): One big issue I have with PbtA is that because all rolls are PC self-tests, NPCs universally lack skill levels; in other words, a werewolf’s chance of hitting a PC is completely dependent upon the PC’s roll against his own ability level, not the werewolf’s combat prowess. Any thoughts on the subject?
[2:08 PM]Aeryser: True and it might seems that the PbtA system is limitating in that sense. My thoughts on this aspect is that when playing a PbtA game as an MC you have many tools to raise the stakes of an encounter. We’d have to go into the specifics of each game off course, because every PbtA focuses on different things. But for example, if the game in question doesn’t really have a prescribed life points pool for NPCs, nothing says that they could be though or come back to life after they’ve been defeated. Or that the werewolf instead of inflicting 1 harm inflicts 4 harms and kill a PC because is frigging werewolf. I think that the game system should serve the purpose of play and the kind of fiction that attempts to represent, if the purpose of the game is not intense combat encounters I wouldn’t want that game to make me spend two hours on a fight. If this makes sense off course (edited)
[2:09 PM]Aeryser: and ultimately as an MC I don’t have to wait for a PC to fail a test to stab them in the heart
[2:11 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Regarding that last line, though, isn’t that exactly what’s required for a PC to be injured in a fight?
[2:14 PM]Aeryser: No not at all, as an MC you have to power to do whatever makes sense for the fiction in that moment – Say I’m the MC and you are the PC – I say that the rouge lounges forward with his daggers to stab you – you tell me that you try to avoid the blow and I make you roll for a move – I’ve used a soft move on you cause the consequences weren’t manifesting yet – if you succeed your roll you avoid it, if you fail or partially fail I inflict harm – but say you were distracted in fiction doing something, that same rouge can stab you without you being able to react, and in that case I used a hard move on you inflicting harm directly(edited)
[2:17 PM]Aeryser: then again, it all depends on what kind of experience the game wants to achieve, surely if I want to play a combat oriented game, probably PbtA wouldn’t be the first thing that comes to my mind
[2:17 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): A fair point.
[2:18 PM]Aeryser: For example in Nightbound, the focus is not on the combat, if you decide to decapitate a monster with your first blow, you can do it, it’s not important for the purpose of the game to know if that monster can withstand the blow, how many life points has or if is resistant to anything – it’s important to find out what happens after you’ve decapitated it
[2:20 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Is there any reason not to declare that you defeat the monster with one blow? And if not, how do you keep adventures from wrapping up very quickly?
[2:23 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): (brb)
[2:26 PM]Aeryser: It depends on the premises set for the situation at play – that monster could hold the soul of your best friend hostage and if you kill it you will never get it back, that could be a reason for example. I don’t think adventures could wrap up quickly in my opinion, if you managed to kill your nemesis early on in the game, I would most likely make it come back one way or another, for example – The adventure ends when the PCs are able to overcome their guilt once and for all – in game is called breaking the cycle of guilt and it’s something that the PCs have to work for to achieve it. Additionally, the game instructs the PC to branch out consequences for the PCs in the future, meaning they can manage to resolve a specific situation, but they will fail rolls along the way, and those failed rolls can create branches of the story told so far that will come back in the future. I could have defeated my demon, but I surely have pissed off others along the way.(edited)
[2:27 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): (back)
[2:27 PM]Aeryser: The Darkness is vindicative, and doesn’t take defeat lightly, they will attack those close to the PCs (which are NPCs that the game asks the players to create)(edited)
[2:27 PM]Aeryser: and those consequences are bound to branch out
[2:29 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Is the Darkness always a unified front, with every monster working for a common goal?
[2:31 PM]Aeryser: Not directly told by the game, they can work against each other if that’s what the players like to see in game, it can be a unified front if they want. It’s all decided at the start of the game, when they come up with threats and their backgrounds
[2:32 PM]Aeryser: from the point of view of the MC, the common goal of the Darkness is to make the lives of the PCs miserable and dangerous
[2:33 PM]Aeryser: but it’s more a high narrative concept rather than something defined in fiction, if that makes sense
[2:37 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): It does.
[2:38 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Do you have a character sheet that we can see?
[2:38 PM]Aeryser: yep
[2:39 PM]Aeryser: this is a playbook I’ve included in the quickstart for the game, let me know if is too small, I could upload the PDF in the chat if that’s easier
[2:40 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Let me have a look here…
[2:42 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Okay! For those unfamiliar, can you tell us the basics of the system?
[2:52 PM]Aeryser: Off course I can! – So in the vast majority of the PbtA games, you create your character by picking a playbook (which is a thematic representation of a specific fictional archetype, the one on the screen it’s clearly Buffy the vampire slayer for example) – The playbook you choose has instructions to make your own PC, specific background questions, bonds (which are NPCs you have a connection with) – Then the playbook gives you moves, which are description of actions that only your PC can perform, other playbooks will be able to do different things that you can’t – Most playbooks will have multiple moves, in other games they might have one, in Nightbound all playbooks have 7 each and levelling up they could also access moves from other playbooks – In the second screenshot, second page, you can see the list of advancements which is what you can do when levelling up. On top of the moves from your playbook, everyone at the table have access to Basic Moves, which are actions that every PC can perform, that could be hurt someone, read someone, dodge something. When you want to use a move, you will have to narrate in fiction the action described by the move before being able to roll the dice – for example if you want to hit someone, the move might say, When you try to hit someone roll + – so you’re PC will have to physically perform the action before knowing if is a success or not – Normally in a PbtA game players roll 2d6 + a Trait – if you get a 10+ is a strong success (you get exactly what you wanted), if you get between 7 and 9 it’s a success (you do it but not quite) and if you get a 6 or less is a miss (you don’t do it and something bad happens). That’s the basics of the system.
[2:54 PM]Aeryser: On top of this in Nightbound you can see the sheet has a clock for Guilt, that indicates how much guilt the PCs have accumulated, if you reach 4 guilt, you trigger your Sin move, which is a temporary condition that you need to satisfy in play, and if you reach 7, you burst out on rampage – in this case when a PCs bursts, the game tells the player that they can narrate a scene where they destroy or pour all that guilt and frustration on someone or something, without intercession from the MC, the player will narrate also the results of their actions.
[2:55 PM]Aeryser: Every time a PC gets guilt they also get 1 XP and they have a Guilt move that tells the player the kind of behavior or actions makes them earn guilt and in turn XP
[2:56 PM]Aeryser: on top of that the MC can assign guilt based on the results of specific moves or specific situations (sometimes inaction can award you guilt as well)
[2:57 PM]Aeryser: for the Slayer for example the guilt move is “Prioritize the hunt over anything else, over danger and consequences. When you do it, take 1XP and 1 Guilt”
[2:57 PM]Aeryser: that means that if they want to earn XP they’ll have to play reckless whenever they hunt their prey
[2:57 PM]Aeryser: because they are angry and resentfull towards those creatures
[2:58 PM]Aeryser: The PC Traites are 4 – Faith, Influence, Experience and Rage – they can go from -3 to +3 max
[3:00 PM]Aeryser: lastly Conditions and Scars – when a PC earns harm, it’s called a condition, which is a description of the type of harm they’ve received, it can be a broken bone, deep cuts, or even mental stress or emotional distress, the players decide freely what they want to write as a condition – a Scar is almost the same thing with the caveat that it cannot be healed(edited)
[3:01 PM]Aeryser: That’s pretty much it
[3:03 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Cool!
[3:03 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
[3:03 PM]Aeryser: If I may add one last thing about the game that I wanted to showcase
[3:04 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Sure!
[3:07 PM]Aeryser: the game plays a lot with shared narrative and listening and reincorporation, not all the moves asks the MC to come up with consequences, but asks the players to define them, or for example there’s moves that do not require a dice roll, but the player will decide the outcome of that move, for example if a PC wants to lower the wait of their guilt they can use a move which is called Ask for Forgiveness, this requires the PC to go talk with one of their NPC bonds, and tell them what’s been bothering them, at the end of the scene, the player decides whether they are forgiven or not and if they can remove guilt points from their track – this is to encourage players collaboration at the table and build a story that feels truly something the whole group made together – I’m not saying that other games don’t do this, I’m just explaining how Nightbound does it
[3:08 PM]Aeryser: I’m done
[3:09 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Nice.
[3:09 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Thanks very much for joining us, @Aeryser!
[3:09 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): Usual reminder: If you’ve enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee or two, you can do so at https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe. Anything’s appreciated! Ko-fiBuy Dan Davenport a Coffee. ko-fi.com/gmshoeBecome a supporter of Dan Davenport today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love with no fees on donations.
[3:10 PM]Aeryser: Thank you Dan for having me here it’s been a nice and interesting chat 1
[3:10 PM]Dan (Hardboiled GMshoe): If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll get the log posted and link you!