[Q&A] Bradley K. McDevitt (NightLife and It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show)

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Hi, my name is Brad McDeviit, author of Stellar Games’ cult games NightLife and It Came from the Late Late Late Show, as well as Haiiiii-Ya! for Goodma Games.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> I write, I draw, and I am an unapologetic clown

<+Darren> I am currently designing some giant monsters for SW that I hope BKM will draw a couple of.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> (done) sorry.. my chat is very rusty anymore

<~Dan> No problem!

<~Dan> The floor is open to questions!

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> I need to talk to you about that more, Darren (done)

<~Dan> What is It Came from the Late Late Late Show about?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Dan>> it is a comedy game where the players take the roles of ACTORs playing in grade-Z movies. Like… REALLY bad, low-budget stuff. But there is a disconnect, since the Players play actors playing roles.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Which can lead to all sorts of fun just GETTING the PC’s to the “set”

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> (done)

<~Dan> What sorts of stats do the characters have?

<+Eainix> YOU CAN’T MAKE ME LEAVE MY TRAILER TIL I GET MORE SCREEN TIME

<+Eainix> XD

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> basic, escept for your FAMe, which measurs how impoertant you are

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Eainix.. we have donuts. With sprinkles.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> (done)

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> but you don’t have skills, you have Talents

<~Dan> When you say “basic”, are you talking about Strength, Dexterity, etc.?

<+Darren> Any time, man. Except I don’t know anything until Jonathan gets straightened out. It’s no good ever talking to me, I only work with crazy people.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Yup. Like 6 stars IIRC

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> stats

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> percentile system, form -4-40, rol under

<~Dan> Are they the stats of the actor or the character?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> it was dirt simple

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Actor.

<+Eainix> so the actor’s abilities influence the character they play?

<+Eainix> so typecasting is probably gunna happen a lot?  lol

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> and if your role called for a talent you don’t have… uhh…oops.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Yes, if you have a chin like Jay Leno, you’re gonna end up with a alot of characters with names like Brick or Rock

<~Dan> Can you give some examples of Talents?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Typical for actors.. singing, runing, hiding, everthing except…er…. umm..Acting

<+Eainix> well yea, it’s Z tier movies.  None of those people can actually act 😉

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Xactly

<~Dan> Does the game feature a bestiary? If so, how large, and can you give us some highlights?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> All the usuals: The Blob, Dracula, Frankentstin, The Mummy and the Ummm.. GIANT LIZARD who shall go unnamed but does 100,000 poits of damage per stomp

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Maybe.. 50 monsters?

<~Dan> That’s pretty respectable. What sorts of stats do the monsters have?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> same as the PC’s except quite often, thier FAME is higher

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> and they have weaknesses/ immunities

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> It was designed to be grab-n-go game

<~Dan> How does Fame work?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> You can roll vs. it to influence the  movie to your advantage, and it indicates what your starting gear can be. So Fame of …8… you might get a hot cup of coffee as a prop. Fame of 40, you can command a Lamborghini

<~Dan> (Howdy, DLB_Chuck!)

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Some of the details escape me at this point

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Hi Chuck

<~Dan> How do monsters use Fame, then?

<+DLB_Chuck> Hi Bradley!

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Usually to avoid final death at the ends of movies, IIRC

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> after all, Dracula MUST Rise from the Grave (Again, and aAgain, and Again)

<~Dan> Oh, certainly.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> I think his coffin had a revolving LID (done)

<+Trug> Regarding NightLife, I have a couple questions, one with an ulterior motive.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> shoot, Trug

<+Eainix> ooooh lets talk night life

<+Eainix> I love that game

<+Trug> First: What are the odds of someday seeing a fresh edition?

<+Trug> Or a reprint.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> danke shone, eainix

<+Eainix> oof.  that question hurts my soul cuz i’m pretty sure i already know the answer

<+Trug> I’m afraid I do too, but it’ll dovetail into my second question.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> nil, on either. The principles of Stellar Games have shown zero interest.. the one became a born-again Christian, and droppd ALL his old friends

<~Dan> No soul-hurting, Trug!

<+DLB_Chuck> Any chance you can get the rights back?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> its okay… i have fielded that question dozens of times now

<+Trug> Well, that answers the second one, but I have to ask anyway: No chance of a fan with more disposable income than good sense picking up the rights to the IP?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> nope.

<+Trug> Shame, but thank you for answering.

<+Eainix> so

<+Eainix> here’s the real question

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Trug… I was quoted $50,000 to get the rights back

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> (done)

<+Eainix> what are the chances of making a game that’s perfectly legally distinct known as Evening Affairs being made?  XD

<+DLB_Chuck> Not very Christianly

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> heh, Chuck

<+Eainix> basically, chances of making a new game that’s similar enough but maybe running on a different engine?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Personally, i have moved on: I concentrate on my art and somje other writing that I can control all rights to

<~Dan> For those unfamiliar, what is (or was, I suppose) NightLife about?

<+DLB_Chuck> I think you could definitely make something called “creature feature” and just write it from scratch

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Eanix.. I think NL works because of the characters and setting… and those are tiesd up inthe basic book

<+Eainix> Again, could those be ported?  or even ykno, kept but updated in a sense?

<+Eainix> to make it the “not” Night Life?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Ok.. for the nwebies…lol. NightLife was a game set ina near-future NYC, where the PCs took the roles of Vampyres, werwolves, Ghosts, Inuits, aWyghts, and Animates

<+Trug> (Ghosts were the objectively best role)

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Eainix… not worth the $$$ risk of getting sued

<+DLB_Chuck> Before V:tM, right?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> 10 months before, yes. I had fans that worked at White Wolf, and Mark loved it.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> We are still friends to this day, actually

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> (done)

<+DLB_Chuck> Different tone though. NL was way more fun

<+Trug> I’ve described NL to my friends as ‘Lost Boys’  to WoD’s  ‘Interview with a Vampire’

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> I like to think so! It was certainly more punk than VTM, but that was my mindset at that time

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> I always thought of it as Lost Boys as written by Johnny Rotten

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> (done)

<~Dan> I think they came out the same year, IIRC…

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> NL came out at Gencon 1990. VTM came out June of 91

<~Dan> Hmm…. I seem to have lost my connection or something….

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Mark was stillw itj Lion Rampant at the tim, getting ready to jump over to White Wolf

<+Trug> (I see you, Dan)

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> ditto, Dan

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> sorry, my typing sucks

<~Dan> Ah… there we go. Weird.

<~Dan> Who were the adversaries in NightLife?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Other groups of monsters like Red Moonrise (terrorist monsters) , the Complex (monster mafia), Morningstar Corporation (big biz run by Daemons), Laughter Factory, along with actual demons, and sundry other extreemly anti0human monsters like Zippernecks, Tapefaces, and the Virus

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> (done)

<~Dan> Who are the (relatively) Good Guys?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> The Commune, whi basically beleived in the staus quo of humanity remaining ignorant of the monsters

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> and the default “alignment” for PCs (done)

<~Dan> Speaking of which, how does humanity stay ignorant of the monsters?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Clean and Floss. you feed, you cover it up. also: keep your fights out of sight of Humanity.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Kinda like the rules of the Masquerade, just not as flowery

<~Dan> What was the game’s system?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> like the Late Show.. percentiles from 04-40 , plus various attribute modifiers, roll under the attribute. Powers are referred to as Edges, and work the same way. It was clunky but workable

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<~Dan> Why 04-40?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> when doing chargen, you roll 4 D10 and sum them up. Iwas not a huge fan, but that was Stellar’s preferred rules system

<~Dan> Ah, I see.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> just part of the job, yanno?

<~Dan> Do I recall correctly that the more powers a monster has, the less human it becomes?

* ~Dan nods, re: part of the job 🙂

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Yup. you can become very powerful, but it will cost you , someties badly

<~Dan> Wouldn’t that mean that the Commune was crippled compared to the monsters who wouldn’t care about losing their humanity?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> kinda sucks to be a monster trying to hold onto your humanity…

<~Dan> Also, why was that the case for monsters like daemons who were never human in the first place?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> anyone else? We seem to be losing viewers here

<+Trug> I’m here, just enjoying the recap.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Daemons etx still have tio try to function within human society

<~Dan> Ah, I see.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> the lower your humanity, the less ability to hide.

* ~Dan nods

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> and people tend to notice if, for example, you have horns and a pair of wings you can’t hide

<~Dan> There is that

<~Dan> What supplements did NightLife have?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> so… even though Daemons aren’t at all human, they have to act the role

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Magic, America AfterDark, Kinrise, In a Musical Vein, and one other i don’t recall the title

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<+Trug> (GM screen / adventures, Night Moves)

<+Trug> Night Moves being an adventure.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Night Moves. Right

<~Dan> What was magic like in the NightLife setting?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> It was powerful, but it cost you HP to cast

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> so you might do 20 damage, but you’d take 1-2 yourself

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<~Dan> What sorts of things could it accomplish on the high end of the scale?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Um.. flinging your opponent into space. Summoning hooks to rip them to pieces.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> So.. yeah, bye-bye 10 Sp, but look, Earth had a new orbiting satellite

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<~Dan> Could anyone learn magic, or was the ability inherent in the person?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> inherent, and had to be nurtured. Soeceres were not truly human, and had the same immunities and weaknesses as other members o the Kin

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<~Dan> Really? What happened to Sorcerers who started losing their humanity?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> I forget exactly, but it becomes harder to cast beneficial spells, and easier to cast harmful ones, and vice versa.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<~Dan> What was America After Dark about?

<+Eainix> low humanity let you cast black spells easier and high humanity let you cast white magic

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Bingo.

<+Eainix> street magic was unaffected

<+Eainix> and was singlehandedly the best spell types 😉

<~Dan> Street magic?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> America AD xpanded beyonf NYC: Cleveland, Houston, and the fictional small town of Olds’ Camp, Pa

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Magic that was morally neutral

<~Dan> Ah, I see.

<~Dan> What was Kinrise about?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> tks for the input, Eainix.. it has been awhile since i even cracked open the moan book

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> NightLife ater the Bomb.

<+Eainix> kinrise always struck me as a weird supplement but cool.  I still need to pick that one up

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> I thionk it would have worked better after a bit more developmnt of the main setting.. but that was not my call

<~Dan> How did circumstances change for monsters after the apocalypse?

<+Eainix> this kinda does make me wanna make a spiritual successor to night life tho.  running on the engine i’m writing of course lol.  I think monster mash games need the punk put back into them, not this angsty political nonsense that seems to be set in stone by WoD

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Go fir it, Eainix!

<+Eainix> 😀

* +Trug is totally not discussing something similar with a business partner.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Dan>> 24/7 cloud cover means no sunlight

<+Eainix> it’s good to hear the creator giving me blessing

<+Eainix> Trug you wanna discuss?

<+Trug> Hit me in PM.

<+Eainix> yeyeye

<+Eainix> you in the discord?

<+Eainix> we can talk there

<+Eainix> anyway, kinrise.

<+Trug> I’m not, sorry. :<

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> I’ll be glad to jump in and help, just can’t call it NL

<+Eainix> oooh yes

<+Trug> Kinrise sort of made sense to me when I read it. But I was coming off of Deadlands at the time.

<+Trug> It felt like a “The Bad guys won, now try to fix things.” affair

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> ask Diog o at Old Skull Publishing  or Grim with his Actual F__king Monsters game

<~Dan> Diogo’s a good guy.

<+Eainix> it also introduced the Fae, what were they like in that world?

<+Eainix> seemed a weird place to introduce them

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> basically, a few years before shane did it with… what was the name of Post-Apocalyose Deadlands?

<+Trug> Hell on Earth

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> TKS

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Diogo is awsome

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Fae were in Kinrise?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> <<done>> sorry

<~Dan> Were there any kinds of mutations in Kinrise?

<+Eainix> Seely

<+Eainix> or something

<+Eainix> but they were indeed fairies

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Roachboys, i don’t remember.. it has been years, my copies of most of my NL stuff are in deep storage

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<~Dan> Roachboys?

<~Dan> What were they?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> mutated combos of humand and cockroaches.. impressively disgusting

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<~Dan> I’d imagine so, re: disgusting!

<~Dan> What was In a Musical Vein?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> hehehe

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Adventure concernign some drugs, an illegal medical clinic for the Kin, and some bad gys out to kill every kin out there no mattr the cost

<~Dan> Sounds promising.

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> it was fun, expanded on the musical scene of the Kin, too, hence the title

<~Dan> Do I remember correctly that there was a literal underworld filled with the totally inhuman monsters?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> yup… the Wormholes

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> done

<~Dan> Were those gateways to other dimensions?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> and i do ned to start tying this up..I still have a alot of artwork to do yet this eveninf

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> IIRc, yes, the wormholes had some gateways

<~Dan> Oh! That’s fine, Bradley_K_McDevitt! I’m a little sleepy this evening, anyway.

<~Dan> Want to go ahead and wrap up, then, if there are no other questions?

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> sounds like that is about it

<~Dan> Okay! Thanks so much for joining us, Bradley_K_McDevitt!

<~Dan> Please stop by any time you like!

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> Not a problem at all!

<+Bradley_K_McDevitt> It has been fun strolling down memory lane

<~Dan> Usual reminder: Tips are always welcome at (Link: https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe)https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe 🙂

<~Dan> Indeed.

<~Dan> Now, if you’ll give me just a minute, I’ll post the log and link you!