<+RobStith> Hello, folks. My name is Rob Stith, and I’m the designer of The ORPHEUS Protocol, a horror/espionage RPG live on Kickstarter right now, at (Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/948927035/the-orpheus-protocol.)https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/948927035/the-orpheus-protocol.
<+RobStith> In The ORPHEUS Protocol, players take on the role of operatives of the secretive paramilitary group known as ORPHEUS, who seek to protect the everyday world from supernatural threats, while maintaining a monopoly on deployable paranormal power.
<+RobStith> ORPHEUS operates in secret cells and directed strike teams all over the world, and spends easily as much of their resources on a sustained, global disinformation campaign to prevent a general panic at the cosmic horror of just how tenuous humanity’s hold on the world truly is.
<+RobStith> ORPHEUS aren’t exactly the good guys, but they’re the people with the training and the capital, and they’re doing the work. The moral/ethical conflicts that arise from working for an entity that performs an undeniably critical function, yet works without oversight or accountability, is rich soil for storytelling, if your group is into that sort of thing.
<+RobStith> Operatives of ORPHEUS are not always, strictly speaking, human. Anything paranormal that can be sufficiently studied and controlled will end up finding a field application before long, and, as such, ORPHEUS fields Werewolves, Occultists, Telekinetics, and more in the furtherance of their mission.
<+RobStith> Player Characters have lots of Archetypes to choose from, and can mix archetypes within limits. In effect, mundane Soldiers and Cyborgs do not have any supernatural aspects, and their abilities can be freely taken at any time, within reason of the fiction. Players can take abilities from up to two of the other, more paranormal archetypes.
<+RobStith> Mechanically, The ORPHEUS Protocol is focused on resource management as a manner of tactical/strategic engagement, as well as a vector to reinforce the horror/thriller tone intended for play. Multi-tiered and intertwined resource management systems are at the heart of the game’s mechanics.
<+RobStith> The hard decisions players must make about how to spend (or not spend) their limited resources, along with the dread of a dwindling reserve, mirrors the desperation evoked by horror and suspense narratives.
<+RobStith> Speaking of narratives, we did the beta testing for the game in a recorded setting, and have edited/produced the campaign, which is presently ongoing, as an actual play podcast, which can be found at (Link: http://www.orpheusprotocol.com,)http://www.orpheusprotocol.com, or by searching for The ORPHEUS Protocol on your podcast app of choice.
<+RobStith> We’ve released 124 episodes and counting, and the epic story is far from over. Not to mention a truly harrowing amount of bonus content for patrons at (Link: https://www.patreon.com/orpheusprotocol,)https://www.patreon.com/orpheusprotocol, for those who are interested.
<+RobStith> I’ll be glad to get into more of the gory details mechanically, or in any other aspect. I could go on forever about this game, the world it’s helped create, the design/podcasting process, etc., but I’d prefer to really get into the details that you folks are most interested in. That’s what I’m here for!
<+RobStith> (done)
<~Dan> Thanks, RobStith! The floor is open to questions!
<~Dan> Let’s see, where to begin…
<~Dan> Can you tell us a bit about the game’s cosmology?
<+RobStith> At risk of podcast spoilers, there are certain things I can say for certain: The world is solidly in the grip of cosmic horror. There exist powers and realms beyond the comprehension of a sane mind, and the dark corners of the earth are home to the twisted offspring of these powers, and to exiles from these realms.
<~Dan> So fairly Lovecraftian, then.
<+RobStith> Myths, religions, and spiritual beliefs, in the world of The ORPHEUS Protocol, all have their roots in some kind of truth, but the commonly-told versions of these stories are almost invariably sanitized and made more suitable for comprehension by human beings; the truth is always messier, more complex, and more awful than the story.
<+RobStith> Very in the tradition of Lovecraft, but also of Barker, Machen, Campbell, etc. — but all original. It’s important that we don’t use the actual public-domain Yog-Sothothery, in my view, because once Cthulhu’s been in enough monster manuals, it loses its power to frighten.
* ~Dan nods
<~Dan> Fair observation.
<+RobStith> To say nothing of wishing to divorce the project and myself from Lovecraft’s extreme politics, which is something I feel I can say little more about without skirting up to the rules of this forum.
<~Dan> Understandable.
<~Dan> Aside from supernatural protagonists and non-Lovecraft beasties, what else separates this game and its setting from, say, Delta Green?
<+RobStith> But what I WILL say, I suppose, is that that cosmic horror niche felt starved for content that was a bit more modern and inclusive, and I’ve had a great time introducing a wide and diverse audience to the horrors of the unthinkably vast and uncaring universe.
<+RobStith> Ah, yes, the Delta Green comparison. Funny story. I didn’t know what Delta Green was until people heard my podcast and mentioned the similarity.
<+RobStith> Fortunately, ORPHEUS and Delta Green are very different from one another,.
<+RobStith> As I said, ORPHEUS does extensive research and development on supernatural phenomena they encounter, and weaponize and field them as much as possible
* ~Dan nods
<+RobStith> As such, the player characters in ORPHEUS are far more dangerous than a garden variety federal agent or member of a conspiracy
<+RobStith> They have supernatural powers (unless they wish to stick entirely to Soldier/Cyborg abilities, which is fine, all the archetypes are balanced)
<+RobStith> So a common elevator pitch for The ORPHEUS Protocol I’ve used is “What if the X-Files were investigated by the X-Men?”
<~Dan> Interesting!
<+RobStith> The power level/competence of players, in my experience, is actually NOT antithetical to horror. It’s a matter of scale
<+RobStith> When you have a party easily capable of effecting a casualty-free raid on, say, a heavily-guarded cartel compound, and yet they still feel their very minds cracking under the pressure of even *seeing* some of the things they must face, it’s a study in contrasts
<~Dan> So you have a sanity mechanic of some sort?
<+RobStith> To wit, a monster that can mess up an over-the-hill civil servant may be scary, but a monster that can similarly mess up a street level or a bit higher comic book superhero? Yikes
<+RobStith> There are 3 damage tracks in the game, One for Mental, one Physical, and one Spiritual, So more or less, the integrity of your Senses, your Body, and your Sanity
<~Dan> I see. Cool.
<+RobStith> Stress (spiritual) is one of your “hit point” pools, along with Clarity (mental) and Health (physical)
<+RobStith> so yes, players will be making Horror checks
<+RobStith> and how to handle the resource management challenge they represent is a big part of the challenge
<~Dan> So you’ve touched on this a bit, but what sorts of powers can the PCs possess?
<+RobStith> So, one of the resource management systems present in the game is Humanity itself. Players start with 100, and spend 1 or more points each time they use a supernatural ability. Depending on their Archetypes, there are symptoms of going into lower and lower Humanity levels.
<+RobStith> Players can cross-archetype up to 2 Archetypes that have a Humanity loss mechanic (that is, all archetypes aside from Soldier and Cyborg).
<+RobStith> To name a few:
<+RobStith> Soldier* – Exceptionally well-trained and conditioned combatants using modern weapons and tactics. Cyborg* – Cutting edge technology allows the enhancement and weaponization of the human form. Draugr – An undying spirit of winter, hunger, and madness dwells in a human host, making lethal in close combat and nightmarishly hard to see coming.
<+RobStith> Hermeticist – Scholars of the Three Great Disciplines of Alchemy, Theurgy, and Astrology, Hermeticists craft substances to harm and heal, animate homunculi, and see outside the flow of Time. Hero – Ideals made flesh, Heroes display otherworldly prowess and greatness akin to that of Beowulf, Heracles, Achilles, and others, but must exemplify the qualities oth
<+RobStith> –ers laud in them, to reach their full potential
<+RobStith> Medium – Speakers to the Dead, who can call upon spirits to aid them in learning the truth as well as in destroying their enemies. Occultist – Practitioners of unnatural sorceries that warp space and time, as well as the bodies and minds of those who witness it– and often the Occultists themselves.
<+RobStith> Pathokinetic – Gifted with the ability to supernaturally influence and alter the emotional states of others, Pathokinetics are unmatched in espionage and manipulation, but run the risk of losing touch with what it means to be human.
<+RobStith> Psychic – The power of the human mind unlocked and carefully honed. Psychics can read minds, create illusions, and grant both healing and harm to the minds of others. Telekinetic – Wielders of unseen force, Telekinetics’ very minds are engines of destruction, protection, or both.
<+RobStith> True Faith – Belief in an ideal, deity, or code causes the True Faith practitioner’s conviction to manifest in the power to aid others as well as near indestructibility.
<+RobStith> Vampire Thrall – Fed upon by a Vampire but not yet dead and turned, the Vampire Thrall has access to many of the abilities they will master fully after death, but fights to remain alive and partially human to retain their agency and capacity for doing more than evil.
<+RobStith> Weapon Bearer – A warrior whose soul has a unique bond with a legendary weapon. ORPHEUS has collected weapons from ancient times up to the present, and those weapons that gain sufficient legendary or folkloric weight attract the spirits of their previous wielders, granting the Weapon Bearer unmatched mastery of their use.
<+RobStith> Werewolf – Nearly every human society has a legend relating to people who transform into rampaging monsters, and ORPHEUS puts these people on the front lines, when possible.
<+RobStith> Witch – Older than language itself is the magick that inhabits the blood, the moon, the tide, and the changing of seasons. Practitioners of this oldest of arcane arts harm and heal in equal measure.
<~Dan> Wow. That’s pretty impressive.
<+RobStith> There are actually 2 more archetypes, one of which was recently unlocked as a stretch goal on the kickstarter, which are known as Nephilim; human vessels for gestalt entities from beyond time and space, manifesting in a monstrous, chitinous body-horror spectacle that can sometimes take human guise. (Think 8-foot Guyver units designed by Cronenberg)
<~Dan> What’s the other one?
<+RobStith> Something that I *LOVE* in games is the potential for theorycrafting. I probably spent more time on wowhead than on actual WoW, back in the day, and it was important to me to have a “class” system in The ORPHEUS Protocol that supported weirdos like me who like to tinker around in the lab with character builds ad-infinitum
<+RobStith> A secret until unlocked :-p
<~Dan> Ah, gotcha. 🙂
<+RobStith> What I will say is that it’s a mechanical niche not yet fully inhabited, which will be a blast to playtest and balance
<+RobStith> and by a blast I… also mean a nightmare, but I live for this stuff.
<~Dan> Heh. 🙂
<~Dan> So it sounds like there are at least three distinct magic systems?
<+RobStith> “magic” in ORPHEUS is nebulous, and rather a postmodern take on the supernatural
<+RobStith> Do things have power because we believe in them? Or do things have power, and thus inspire our belief?
<+RobStith> So while the magick practiced by a Witch looks and feels entirely different from the miracles of a True Faith practitioner, there is something elementally similar about them, to those who study the underlying metaphysics
<~Dan> Do they use the same system mechanics, then?
<+RobStith> All Archetype abilities function the same way, with the exception of Soldier/Cyborg, which spend Strain (a pool of spendable resources for boosting/changing results on checks) rather than your Humanity.
<+RobStith> You have a pool for Mental/Physical/Spiritual, and can spend those types of Strain for checks that involve those types of Attributes. Your attributes in game are also broken into Mind/Body/Spirit
<+RobStith> 2 each, for a total of 6 primary Attributes.
<+RobStith> A fun thing with the Strain system is that it’s not just for boosting checks. Strain buys down damage you take. So you have to make the often excruciating decision of whether to go ham on your checks for resounding success, or hoard some Strain back to keep yourself safer.
<+RobStith> Is the best defense a good offense? Or will you kick yourself for not having the fortitude needed for the next nasty thing that comes your way?
<~Dan> And only Soldiers and Cyborgs can use Strain, you said?
<+RobStith> All players use Strain for checks/soaking/etc, but Cyborg and Soldier Archetype spend Strain to use abilities
<+RobStith> Other Archetypes use Humanity to fuel abilities
<~Dan> Ah, I see.
<+RobStith> So they don’t degrade your soul and make you more monstrous over the long term (losing your character entirely at 0 humanity) like the other Archetypes do, but they exhaust you in more conventional ways, so there’s a give and take.
<~Dan> How quickly do Strain and Humanity refresh?
<+RobStith> Strain refreshes when you get a day without extreme stress, and when you get a decent night’s sleep, as well as resetting to full between adventures
<+RobStith> Humanity, however, only refreshes when you elect to spend some of your Downtime between adventures on self care, whether that’s religious observance, seeing family, meditation, going somewhere peaceful, etc.
<+RobStith> When you go to Downtime between adventures or missions, you must choose how you spend your time, which will either be focused, or divided among Medical Attention (heals wounds and injury conditions), Self-Care (heals humanity), and combat training (grants you a pool of temporary Strain, usable in combat situations in the following adventure)
<+RobStith> You get more of the benefit if you focus on it exclusively, or you can get a smaller benefit from two of them, and the bonuses scale week by week.
<+RobStith> Naturally, you can’t split between medical attention and combat training. Though if you take medical attention and get back on your feet, you could hypothetically switch to combat training if the downtime is sufficiently long.
<+RobStith> (done)
<~Dan> Regarding Heroes, how powerful are they? Are they literally as strong as Heracles, for example?
<+RobStith> Not at the start, certainly. All the archetypes are balanced. At level 0, player characters are as strong as very competent normal humans, with a few special edges. But by late game, you’d have a Heracles, sure.
<+RobStith> That said, the basic math doesn’t scale all that much. What you gain is deeper Strain pools, and more absurd things you can do with abilities from Archetypes, and the synergies between them.
<+RobStith> The statistics in The ORPHEUS Protocol are thick-graded, and every +1 is significant
<+RobStith> This is to take some weight and swing off the dice and reemphasize how important proper resource management is. Dice luck is less important than wise use of resources, when it comes to long term success.
<~Dan> I see… On a related note, do you happen to have a character sheet posted that we can see?
<+RobStith> There are temporary ones in the playtest document that was posted along with the kickstarter
<+RobStith> I’ll grab the link
<+RobStith> (Link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/274996/ORPHEOUS-Protocol–Playtest)https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/274996/ORPHEOUS-Protocol–Playtest
<+RobStith> Pardon the couple of typos in there, the layout was returned to me mere hours before the KS launch.
<+RobStith> But the final character sheet is going to have some more information on it, based on the parts of the rules that most commonly need to be referenced in play
<~Dan> Let’s see here…
<+RobStith> so there’ll definitely be a chart for what features are granted by different Skill ranks, a list of modifiers for the Tactics system, and some other stuff like that for easier bookkeeping.
<~Dan> Looking over the character sheet…
<~Dan> What’s the human attribute scale?
<+RobStith> 0-5, where zero is something you have noticeable difficulty with, and 5 is an Olympic athlete level.
<~Dan> (Howdy, Silverlion!)
<~Dan> How are the Derived Attributes figured?
<+RobStith> Depends on the one. The Attack Attributes (Ranged/Melee) are the average of Dexterity and Perception and Vitality, respectively. After all, you need coordination as well as a decent eye, or the strength to use a weapon stably
<+RobStith> and most derived attributes work that way, based on one or more primary Attributes that are relevant to them
<~Dan> I see.
<+RobStith> Vigilance, for example, is a passive perception-type attribute that determines how hard you are to sneak up on, which is based on your Perception Attribute
<~Dan> What do the letters next to the skills signify?
<+RobStith> The tricky thing about Vigilance, though, is that it can be boosted, depending on how many ranks of the Awareness Skill you have, and you have to just decide, on a scene-by-scene basis, if you’re spending any Strain or Skill features on being extra frosty
<+RobStith> it’s stressful looking out for every possible threat.
<+RobStith> The letters are the ranks. We go from Untrained, to ranks D, C, B, A, S
<+RobStith> each rank gives you more things you can do with associated checks and more powerful/efficient ways to use Strain on those checks.
<+RobStith> we started out with ranks 1-5, but INVARIABLY, people thought you would add your Skill rank number to checks, which you do not.
<+RobStith> So we switched to letters.
<~Dan> So you don’t actually get more skilled, but rather become able to spend Strain better?
<+RobStith> Ranks D and C merely raise the limit on how many Strain you can spend to boost a check. You can always spend 1 for a +1, but D and C raise the limit to 2 and 3, respectively.
<+RobStith> so the first 2 ranks do in fact raise your maximum output significantly
<+RobStith> Rank B allows a once-per-scene reroll of the dice, where you keep the better result, and a once-per-scene spend of 1 Strain of the appropriate type to reduce the Initiative cost of an action using the Skill by 1 (very powerful)
<+RobStith> Rank A allows you to spend 1 associated Strain to ignore all negative dice (the game uses 3 fudge dice) on checks with this Skill for the entire Round, and the ability to swap your dice roll for a +1, once per scene, outside of combat.
<+RobStith> Rank S gives you ability to swap your dice roll for a +2, once per scene, outside of combat, and the ability to generate 3 Temporary Strain for use with this skill, once per scene.
<+RobStith> So as you can see, getting to Rank C lets you get the maximum top output, but further skill ranks make you much more reliable and efficient.
<~Dan> Yeah, I can see that.
<~Dan> What led to your decision to use such an unusual skill system?
<+RobStith> Well, ultimately I wanted the Skill system to contribute to the resource management focus of the game, mechanically. Players have to choose when and how to use their skill features, which are a Scene-level resource
* ~Dan nods
<+RobStith> down below that there is Initiative, which is an action-by-action resource– Initiative checks give you a pool of Initiative you spend to take actions in each Round, with turn order passing to whoever has the highest present total unspent Initiative.
<~Dan> What is the game’s basic task resolution mechanic?
<+RobStith> above Initiative and Skills is Strain, which is more of a session-to-session resource, and of course Humanity is the adventure/campaign level resource
<+RobStith> 3dF + Relevant Attribute + Spent Strain (limited by Skill Rank), + any situational or Archetype ability bonuses
<+RobStith> so the dice’s average contribution is 0, but -1 and +1 are the most common results. I went with an odd number of fudge dice because I like the slight unpredictability it gives, and how that plays better into the horror/suspense tone than an even number of dice.
<~Dan> Huh. Interesting approach.
<+RobStith> so maximum dice swing is -3 to +3, which is significant when the max attribute is 5, but isn’t anything close to a d20’s impact, for example. Again, being smart about Skill features, Strain, and Abilities is more predictive of success than how much your dice love or hate you.
<+RobStith> because when you run out… your enemy better be dead, or you’re in trouble
<+RobStith> unless of course they’re out, too, then you get into kind of a shaky-leg late-round slugfest, I suppose, which is tonally fun in and of itself.
<~Dan> Sure. 🙂
<~Dan> Can you say a bit about how combat works?
<+RobStith> Sure
<+RobStith> As said before, Initiative is checked at the start of each Round (which is just Initiative + 3dF from all entities). Turn order is who has the most initiative right this second, with players beating NPC’s in tie breakers and rolling off against each other (or just agreeing on an order).
<+RobStith> Active characters roll the appropriate combat skill checks (Firearms with Ranged Attack, for example) against the relevant defense value of their target (Evade, in this case, because you can’t Parry bullets unless you have a few rad abilities)
<+RobStith> defending characters can spend strain to boost their defenses, based on the associated skill
<+RobStith> so for example with Dodge skill ranks (nothing), D, and C, you could spend 1, 2, or 3 physical strain to give yourself a +1, 2, or 3 Evade against a gunshot, stab, etc.
<+RobStith> When a hit occurs, damage is determined. Weapons tend to have a +X/Y notation for damage, where X is damage that can be bought down with Strain, and Y is damage that must be blocked by armor or abilities, and cannot be bought off with Strain
<+RobStith> damage that gets through is marked off your wound boxes for the appropriate damage type (Clarity, Health, or Stress)
<+RobStith> and if you take damage past your track, you have to start making Up checks to see if you go unconscious
<+RobStith> if you take 5 or more past your track, you’re in for a Death check, which functions just like an up check but with higher stakes. You don’t actually die that instant, though. Your allies have a chance to apply emergency medical aid to retroactively boost your check, depending on their skills, and potentially save your life.
* ~Dan nods
<+RobStith> Also, taking damage past certain thresholds, before Strain based reductions, gives you a chance for bad status effects. Mental damage can cause Daze, Physical damage can cause Bleeding, and Stress damage can cause Breakdown
<+RobStith> which are nasty effects that need to run their course or be dealt with (bleeding needs to be stabilized with first aid if you don’t want to die)
<+RobStith> naturally all aspects of combat have certain Archetype abilities that give an edge.
<~Dan> Can you give an example?
<+RobStith> Sure. The tankier Archetypes (Werewolf, certain abilities from Cyborg, Nephilim) may have boosts to Up Checks or the ability to ignore Wound Penalties
<+RobStith> Vampire Thralls don’t really bleed much, and can get bonuses to bleeding checks
<+RobStith> Telekinetics and True Faith Practitioners have Armor boosts through the Force Shield and Guardian Angel abilities
<+RobStith> Each Archetype has 6 abilities. Each ability has 3 Ranks, with rank 2 generally being a more powerful version of rank 1, and Rank 3 being some sort of passive bonus, gained by more thorough command of the ability.
<+RobStith> Each ability also have 2 Masteries, which are gained at various levels, which alter or diversify the use of the ability in specialized ways.
<+RobStith> Every ability also has an Overload, which characters will only get 4 of through the entire level progression, which allows them to go absolutely bonkers with it.
<+RobStith> but carries a heavy Humanity cost.
<+RobStith> (or Strain, in the case of Soldier/Cyborg)
* ~Dan nods
<+RobStith> Not to mention that straight up ability bonuses to checks are one of the only ways to boost your initial value beyond Attribute+Strain+Situational.
<~Dan> So going back to Heroes for a moment, how would their superhuman strength be simulated?
<+RobStith> They have some abilities that give them incredible melee prowess, but a standout for the super strength factor is the ability Legendary Feat
<+RobStith> which gives you a bonus to Athletics/Might checks to perform absurd feats of Balance/Speed/Strength beyond the normal +3 Limit for abilities, as long as it’s to do something like tear a tree up by its roots, blast through a wall, jump over a huge chasm, etc
<+RobStith> its combat use is more bounded, and notated alongside.
<+RobStith> We wanted Hero players to be able to do those incredible feats without making an ability overpowered.
<+RobStith> In one episode of the podcast, for example, a Hero player used Legendary feat to jump from a rooftop through the window of a building across the street, and I’m pretty sure he threw a carriage at someone.
<~Dan> So clearly, you have vampires and werewolves… How much of the setting is “traditional” horror vs. “cosmic” horror?
<+RobStith> To a degree, that’s a GM decision. You don’t necessarily need to focus on ORPHEUS itself and its mission to hold the gates shut against the Outer Dark. One campaign I’m playing right now is set in 1997, in a small town on an island, where the players depict a Breakfast Club-esque group of teenagers dealing with the spooky happenings in their town.
<+RobStith> They’re low level, and just begun to discover their latent supernatural abilities, and the horrors they’re facing are much more of the “spooky small town” mold than the grand cosmic stuff.
<~Dan> Oh? What have they run across so far?
<+RobStith> but the main canon setting for the podcast, as well as the book, has both. Werewolves and Witches are just lower on the totem pole, proverbially, than unspeakable existences whose very names sear the souls of men
<+RobStith> They’ve run across a black dog with smoking, red eyes who may or may not also be a bad-news kid they know, an invisible but tangible presence haunting the home of one of their classmates, a path in the woods that doesn’t… seem to take you where it ought to
<+RobStith> that sort of thing
<+RobStith> more restrained than the main campaign’s operatic cosmic threats.
<+RobStith> The game works for quiet horror as well as comic-booky cosmic splatterpunk.
<~Dan> That’s good to know. I like flexibility in my games.
<~Dan> By the way, what is the tech level of the setting, given that it supports cyborgs?
<+RobStith> on the topic of flexibility, GMs and players are encouraged to reskin Archetypes to their hearts’ content.
<+RobStith> The game is set in the modern day by default, with the popular assumption that governments and PMC’s (especially a huge, supernaturally fueled one like ORPHEUS) have access to much better tech than the public knows about
<+RobStith> That said, the game and book will support different time periods. Like the adventure we had in 1893 London where we just *wallowed* in penny dreadful tropes and turn of the century gothic horror.
<~Dan> I’m sure fog was much in evidence.
<+RobStith> It’s mostly a matter of setting tech level, which archetypes are allowed, and which archetypes are reskinned as something more setting-appropriate.
<+RobStith> so much fog.
<+RobStith> and bad smells.
* ~Dan nods sagely
<+RobStith> And worse accents. To be perfectly honest.
* ~Dan chuckles
<~Dan> So what other examples of high tech are there beyond cyborgs?
<+RobStith> Oh man.
<+RobStith> There’s an entire arc in the main campaign on the podcast concerning a very advanced AI project that goes rogue
<+RobStith> And ORPHEUS itself has some incredible technology used to contain the paranormal threats they capture and want to study rather than destroy. And, more disturbingly, the ones they don’t want to study but can’t figure out how to kill.
<+RobStith> Drone surveillance and countersurveillance has become almost a mosquitos on the bayou level annoyance to players in the campaign
<+RobStith> but hey. If the enemy has money and wherewithal, you’re going to need to figure out how to stop them from spotting you a mile away. That’s the world we live in.
<~Dan> How much of a bestiary does the game include?
<+RobStith> Bestiaries are a sort of bone of contention for me.
<+RobStith> When it comes to something that’s supposed to be truly horrifying, the thing probably ought to be unique, and thematically/metaphorically connected to one or more player characters, and the arc of story being played.
<+RobStith> I think the bestiary will be more of a how-to and utility belt for GMs, to enable them to make their own monsters, but with quick and dirty tips for common types of enemies (different human antagonists, for example)
* ~Dan nods
<~Dan> Congratulations on funding, by the way! Is this the beginning of a whole game line, or more of a one-off?
<+RobStith> Well, that depends. It
<+RobStith> is definitely a complete game. But if the thing goes a bit wilder than it has so far, there are plenty more things I’d like to work on and add later on.
<+RobStith> The podcast is my main source of income, actually, and it’s far from over. So there’s no doubt new ideas will keep happening, because that’s a crank I haven’t stopped turning for mroe than 3 years now.
<~Dan> Really? Interesting! I hope that continues to work well for you.
<+RobStith> I was doing pretty decently on typos, but the inevitable has finally happened.
* ~Dan chuckles
<~Dan> I had to re-read your post to find it. 😀
<~Dan> In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
<+RobStith> The audience I’ve attracted is just… amazing. People theorizing on the cosmology, hidden meanings, mythical allusions, etc, trying to psychoanalyze the characters, etc, playing the game in multiple campaigns on a fan Discord server, it blows me away.
<~Dan> That’s awesome!
<+RobStith> Honestly more than any money I make or even listenership, the fact that people are out there playing my game, even in its beta state, every day, is the thing that makes me proudest.
<~Dan> As well it should!
<+RobStith> I guess what’s left to say is this: If you like horror, and you like games that have some mechanical heft without reaching Exalted levels of unwieldiness, this is a game worth checking out. I built the game I wished existed, because I wanted Dread to have a baby with Euro style boardgames that grew up into a fairly crunchy TTRPG.
<+RobStith> And I think I’ve succeeded in raising that little monster.
<~Dan> Oh, my usual reminder: If any of you have enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee, you can do so at (Link: https://ko-fi.com/gmshoe)https://ko-fi.com/gmshoe 😀
<~Dan> Thanks so much for joining us, RobStith!
<+RobStith> It was my pleasure!
<~Dan> Please know that you are always welcome to hang out with us here. 🙂
<+RobStith> *bookmarked*
<~Dan> Now, if you’ll give me just a minute here, I’ll get the log posted and link you. 🙂