3:01 PM +Barney: HI my name is Barney Menzies and I am one of the developers of SHIVER.
3:03 PM +Barney: SHIVER is a ttrpg inspired by classic horror movies, pulp films and cult tv shows.
3:03 PM +Barney: The system was born out of mine and my brother’s (SHIVER’s other developer) love for cinema. We wanted to bring our favourite films to the table top but found other systems didn’t quite capture what we wanted to achieve.
3:05 PM +Barney: SHIVER is setting neutral allowing players to take on any character, in any time period and any setting meaning you can really take it to any place you like. Would you survive the horror movie? Make that sequel you always wanted? The options are endless.
3:06 PM +Barney: The other core goal of SHIVER was to be a really good introductory platform to new RPG players. Alot of our friends had never played before and we wanted to design something that was more beginner friendly than other systems but still had enough depth for experienced players to sink their teeth into.
3:06 PM +Barney: As a result the system is very story focused, with symbolic dice and reduced maths to up the immersion and reduce the calculations.
3:07 PM +Barney: We’ve been working on the system for 3 years now and are super excited to be bringing it to Kickstarter on October 27th and seeing people outside our playtester group playing it!
3:08 PM +Barney: done
3:08 PM ~Dan: Thanks, Barney! The floor is open to questions!
3:08 PM ~Dan: You covered this a bit, but can you give us an idea of the scope of the game? What can it do, and what is it not designed for?
3:09 PM ~Dan: (Howdy, Machaeus!)
3:09 PM +Machaeus: Ay 😀
3:10 PM +Barney: The main focus of the game is to provide a framework for players to build their story around.
3:11 PM +Machaeus-TipsyTabby: Took a look at your homepage. It looks really cool!
3:11 PM +Barney: Whilst we wanted to broaden the scope as much as possible to increase the possible settings one restrictive element is that the game is mostly about humans.
3:11 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TipsyTabby Thanks!
3:12 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: (Adjusted so my name isn’t so dang long :P)
3:12 PM ~Dan: And all horror, correct?
3:12 PM +Barney: We wanted to have an element of fragility to player characters in the game. We had gotten really bored of some of the fantasy characters we had played in the past that could take a hammering at almost no cost and combat and decisions felt like they had diminished consequences.
3:13 PM +Barney: If you take horror in the broadest sense of the word, yes.
3:14 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Alright. How do you accomplish the fragility idea, without having them “too” underpowered?
3:14 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: *”too underpowered” compared to their foes?
3:14 PM ~Dan: Hmm. Can you give us a couple of horror movies that are extremely different, both of which Shiver could handle?
3:15 PM +Barney: This was actually a concept we struggled with for a long time in development. Horror as a genre is incredibly wide. Scooby Doo is as much Horror as Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
3:15 PM +Barney: The main touchpoint in the stories SHIVER is best at telling is something strange is going on
3:16 PM +Barney: Which is why 1 of the 6 core skills in the game and a large portion of mechanics are linked to the strange things in the story
3:16 PM +Barney: This skill is also intrinsically linked to the horror elements as it shows how resistant your character is to otherworldly things that would scare them but also how in tune with the weirder parts of the world they are.
3:17 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub the first thing we did was work on health as a concept. We found that HP in number form made players feels more protected and also led to some min/max gameplay where if your health was above 1 then all was well
3:18 PM +Barney: In SHIVER all characters have 16 wounds that they can take
3:18 PM +Barney: and if they’re all gone
3:18 PM +Barney: they die
3:18 PM +kiwi_65: Goodness gracious
3:19 PM +Barney: Although we have incorporated a ‘survival mode’ for players who want to play longer mystery style campaigns
3:19 PM ~Dan: (Howdy, kiwi_65! You can set your name with the /nick command; e.g., /nick Dan 🙂 )
3:19 PM ~Dan: (Is that you, Antiquation? 🙂 )
3:19 PM +kiwi_65: It is indeed!
3:19 PM ~Dan: (Just type /nick Antiquation! 🙂 )
3:19 PM ~Dan: (Not sure if the ! will work, mind you.)
3:20 PM +Antiquation: it’s all the same to me
3:20 PM +Antiquation: thanks 🙂
3:20 PM ~Dan: (Cool. And welcome to Randomworlds! FYI, we have a Discord as well: (Link: https://discord.gg/mCntYas)https://discord.gg/mCntYas )
3:20 PM ~Dan: (The Q&As happen in here, though.)
3:21 PM +Barney: Making character death part of the game has led to some pretty interesting mechanics. Players can haunt the party, helping or hindering. They can come back as antagonists if they’re bitten by zombies etc. We’ve even had characters die and take on the role of their dog.
3:21 PM ~Dan: So that they can keep hounding the survivors?
3:21 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: As someone who loves puns, BOOOOOOOOOOOOO. 😛
3:21 PM +Barney: Dan :’) exactly
3:21 PM ~Dan: 😀
3:22 PM +Barney: In the game I remember the player took over their dog and was doing some amazing lassie style nonsense
3:22 PM +Barney: The other element of fragility comes from threat
3:22 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: That does sound cool 😀
3:22 PM ~Dan: Hmm… Since there’s no specific setting, perhaps we should get into the system. Do you have a character sheet that we can see? (When you’re ready.)
3:23 PM +Barney: Uploaded file: (Link: https://uploads.kiwiirc.com/files/bad1326c4d8334e095682eeacc7e48ed/SHIVER%20Character%20sheet%20V05_003.pdf)https://uploads.kiwiirc.com/files/bad1326c4d8334e095682eeacc7e48ed/SHIVER%20Character%20sheet%20V05_003.pdf
3:24 PM +Barney: The character sheet has been through a huge number of variations to get to this one
3:25 PM +Barney: As it’s the main interface for the player with the game element we wanted to make sure it was easy to read and fill in and not too overwhelming
3:25 PM +Barney: One of our goals in designing the system was to make character creation easy and quick
3:26 PM +Barney: Too many multiple hour long session zeros with massive piles of books was really against the goals of being accesible for newer players
3:26 PM * ~Dan nods
3:26 PM ~Dan: A worthy goal, to be sure!
3:27 PM +Barney: As you can seed from the file, it’s all fillable online. With COVID we wanted to make as many resources digital as we could, so alongside this there is also a dice rolling app on our website.
3:27 PM ~Dan: That’s handy, especially given the type of dice it sounds like you’re using!
3:28 PM ~Dan: Can you take us on a bit of a tour of the character sheet?
3:28 PM +Barney: sure thing
3:28 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Been reading through your QuickStart Guide, and I gotta say, I love something you did.
3:28 PM +Barney: So at the top of the sheet you have some very basic info spaces. Name, age, etc
3:29 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: “SURVIVOR MODE: Survivor mode allows players to potentially escape death. If a character loses all 16 health dots, they are rendered unconscious and are at Death’s Door.”
3:29 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: I’ve wanted to know if you could play Darkest Dungeon with this game and I see that? XD
3:29 PM ~Dan: I see “Archetypes”. Are they akin to classes?
3:29 PM +Barney: Yeh so what I’ll do is walk through character creation using the sheet.
3:30 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub Darkest Dungeon was on our mood boards alot when designing 😀
3:30 PM ~Dan: (Sorry if I was jumping ahead there.)
3:30 PM +Barney: So the first thing to choose when creating a character in SHIVER is an archetype
3:30 PM +Barney: There are 7 in total
3:31 PM +Barney: 6 are assigned to one of the core skills, Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck & Strange
3:31 PM +Barney: the 7th is an all round archetype called the survivor
3:32 PM +Barney: In this example I’ll build a Jock
3:32 PM +Barney: Our Jock’s main defining feature is that he’s strong. So I’d pick for him to be a warrior (the archetype associated with Grit)
3:33 PM +Barney: The Warrior has a set starting stat line which is strong in Grit which is filled in on the skills section of the character sheet
3:34 PM +Barney: I have just realised this is a slightly outdated character sheet so imagination for a couple of labels may be required
3:34 PM ~Dan: I am sorry, we are roleplayers and do not use imagination.
3:34 PM +Antiquation: Hah!
3:35 PM +Barney: The diamond below each of the core skills represent the characters basic skill level in that area. An average score being 3. Our Jock has a might 5 in Grit. A lowly 2 in Smarts and 3’s across the board for everything else.
3:35 PM +Antiquation: OK, if I dump stat everything and put it all into Strange what do I get
3:36 PM +Barney: The ovals represent talent level. These are for areas a character is incredibly talented in. The Jock would have 1 in Grit and might be able to acquire more through skills later.
3:37 PM +Barney: These skill and talent levels correspond to skill checks made in the game.
3:37 PM +Barney: Skill checks use challenge ratings from 1-5. 1 being an easy challenge and 5 being near impossible.
3:38 PM +Barney: If our Jock needed to kick down a door he’d make a grit skill check and would roll skill dice (the games six sided dice) equal to his Grit skill an Talent dice (our 8 sided dice) equal to his Grit talent
3:39 PM +Barney: As the dice are all symbolic, he’d be looking for the number of grit symbols equal to or greater than the challenge.
3:39 PM ~Dan: Interesting.
3:39 PM +Barney: The second part of creating a character is selecting a background.
3:40 PM +Barney: These are where you really flesh out your characters identity.
3:40 PM ~Dan: (Need to take a quick restroom break. Please continue!)
3:40 PM +Barney: Each background has a skill and flaw which is associated with it.
3:41 PM +Barney: So continuing on the jock theme
3:43 PM +Barney: We have a back ground called ‘The Gentle Giant’
3:43 PM ~Dan: (back)
3:43 PM ~Dan: Oh, can I pause you there for a sec, Barney?
3:43 PM +Barney: sure
3:43 PM ~Dan: Did you see Antiquation’s question back there?
3:43 PM ~Dan: If you answered it, I missed it.
3:43 PM +Barney: yeh I can answer that
3:44 PM +Barney: Antiquation one of the archetypes is ‘The Weird’
3:44 PM +Barney: These are your characters who are a bit odd
3:44 PM +Barney: They range from, werewolves, to telepaths, to kids who see dead people
3:45 PM +Barney: Your unnaturaly power but at the detriment of your friends
3:45 PM +Barney: One of the games mechanics is the Doom Clock
3:45 PM +Barney: whenever players fail checks in certain ways, or take actions that destabilise the story world (like transforming into a giant werewolf) they tick up the doom clock
3:45 PM +Antiquation: That’s pretty bizarre so it seems appropriately named
3:46 PM ~Dan: Agreed.
3:46 PM +Barney: As the doom clock ticks up the story gains intensity. With every 15 ticks of the doom clock the situation gets more dire. Perhaps a random enemy jumps the part or the power cuts out.
3:47 PM +Barney: The idea is that although the weird has strong powers
3:47 PM +Barney: their powers have consequences as do all skill checks
3:47 PM +Barney: it adds consequence to what we termed ‘the zelda pot smashing effect’
3:47 PM +Barney: where players roll checks over and over again
3:47 PM ~Dan: So all failures can cause the clock to tick up, but *all* Weird power uses do?
3:47 PM +Antiquation: OK, interesting, sort of a pacing mechanic?
3:48 PM +Barney: yeh exactly a pacing mechanic
3:48 PM +Barney: Most weird powers do, each different ability has different costs and drawbacks
3:48 PM +Barney: lifting a book with your mind is less severe than summoning a demon
3:49 PM +Barney: The other things that tick the clock up are failed checks where the player rolls a stramge symbol
3:49 PM +Barney: strange*
3:49 PM +Barney: When characters fail a fear check
3:50 PM +Barney: And if they do something in the story thats spooky (using a Ouija board for example)
3:51 PM +Barney: The game does have some opportunities for min/maxing and playing with skills but at the entry level we wanted to make character play and feel like their tropes
3:52 PM ~Dan: Cool!
3:53 PM ~Dan: So you were getting to… backgrounds?
3:53 PM +Barney: yes so
3:53 PM +Barney: lets say our Jock chooses the ‘Gentle Giant’ Background
3:53 PM +Barney: he’d get the ability
3:54 PM +Barney: ‘Feed the Rabbits’ which gives him a talent dice when making checks involving animals to
3:54 PM +Barney: but he’d also get the flaw ‘Pacifist’ which means he loses 1 skill dice when making checks to attack humans or animals
3:54 PM ~Dan: But not monsters?
3:55 PM +Barney: No not monsters
3:55 PM +Barney: He likes animals and people
3:55 PM * ~Dan nods
3:55 PM +Barney: As you can see on the character sheet there are space for multiple flaws which characters can gain in different ways but most level 1 characters start with just 1
3:56 PM +Barney: once we’ve picked a background for our Jock he needs a fear
3:56 PM +Barney: Lets say hes scared of the dark
3:56 PM ~Dan: All characters have such fears, I assume?
3:57 PM +Barney: yeh every character picks a specific fear, which can be secret or known by the players
3:57 PM ~Dan: Gotcha.
3:57 PM +Barney: it gives an extra element for the story to revolve on beyond the main intrigue
3:57 PM +Barney: if ticking the doom clock up makes the lights go out
3:58 PM +Barney: suddenly our jock might get scared
3:58 PM +Barney: if characters are afraid / terrified they get worse at passing skill check
3:58 PM +Barney: The final thing for our jock is to pick some skills
3:59 PM ~Dan: Doesn’t getting scared tick up the doom clock as well?
3:59 PM +Barney: Each archetype has a skill tree much like a video game
3:59 PM +Barney: @Dan it does indeed
3:59 PM ~Dan: Wow… Bit of a death spiral there!
3:59 PM ~Dan: (Well, not death, necessarily, but you know what I mean.)
3:59 PM ~Dan: I can see this game getting intense quickly.
4:00 PM ~Dan: But sorry — skill trees, you say?
4:00 PM +Barney: yeh it can definitely get pretty crazy
4:00 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: I’m reminded of Ten Candles by the Doom Clock, in a very good way.
4:01 PM +Barney: Each archetype has a starting skill which their tree stems out of
4:01 PM +Barney: For our jock who is a warrior
4:01 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Ten Candles is a 24-hour RPG I found and it’s got similar themes going on. I think you can find it for free online.
4:02 PM +Barney: His starting skill is ‘Tough’
4:02 PM +Barney: Every time he is hit by an attack he rolls a skill die.
4:02 PM +Barney: If he rolls a Grit he reduces the number of wounds taken from the attack by 1
4:03 PM ~Dan: One wound per Grit rolled, or just one wound for any number of Grits?
4:03 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub Ten Candles isn’t one ive delved to deeply into but from looking at it just now, it says story driven and good for one shots which does sounds like out plan
4:03 PM +Barney: @Dan he only gets to roll a single dice
4:04 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: c:
4:04 PM ~Dan: Ah, I see.
4:04 PM +Barney: The skill dice has 1 of each core symbol on
4:04 PM +Barney: which makes it’s a great randomiser but also allows for interesting role play opportunities
4:05 PM ~Dan: So skills are unrelated to the attributes?
4:05 PM +Barney: Some skills will be determined by a specific skill check
4:05 PM +Barney: whilst others will stand alone like this one
4:06 PM ~Dan: Oh, wait, things like Grit are skills in this game, right?
4:06 PM ~Dan: Want to make sure I have my terminology correct.
4:07 PM +Barney: Yeh so Grit, Wit, Smarts, Heart, Luck & Strange are the core skills
4:07 PM +Barney: The label on the character sheet for ‘skills’ should actually be ‘abilities’
4:08 PM +Barney: So ‘Tough’ would be an ability
4:08 PM ~Dan: Ah, I see. And Abilities are, it sounds like, akin to have-them-or-don’t skills?
4:08 PM ~Dan: So nobody other than a warrior can reduce wounds like that, for example?
4:08 PM +Barney: exactly
4:08 PM ~Dan: Got it.
4:09 PM +Barney: so each archetype has a tree of abilities they can take
4:09 PM +Barney: the warrior’s starts with ‘Tough’
4:09 PM +Barney: and then branches off into different specialisations
4:10 PM ~Dan: But for some Abilities, you’d make a Grit roll (for example), but nobody without that Ability could use Grit that way?
4:10 PM +Barney: No so ‘Tough’ as an example is an innate ability
4:10 PM +Barney: every time our character would get hit
4:10 PM +Barney: he rolls 1 dice to try and reduce the damage
4:11 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Meanwhile, Grit is a Skill, and everyone has the six Skills, if I got it right?
4:11 PM +Barney: Some abilities require you to make a skill check
4:11 PM ~Dan: Right, I’m with you there… I thought you said that some Abilities would require a Core Skill roll to use?
4:11 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub thats right
4:11 PM ~Dan: Okay, I’m with you.
4:11 PM +Barney: Dan some abilities do
4:11 PM +Barney: so for example
4:12 PM +Barney: ‘Counter Attack’ requires you to make a Grit check when attacked by an enemy
4:12 PM +Barney: if you succeed you get to hit the enemy back
4:13 PM * +Cortana meeps
4:13 PM ~Dan: Right, and nobody lacking Counter Attack could use Grit like that, correct?
4:13 PM +Barney: correct
4:13 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: (Hey Cort :P)
4:13 PM * ~Dan nods
4:13 PM +Barney: abilities give you more interesting ways to use your core skills
4:13 PM ~Dan: (Howdy, Cortana! Q&A in progress! #randomworlds2 open as usual. 🙂 )
4:14 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: (…I didn’t know there was a second shoot-the-sh!t chat on the IRC XD)
4:14 PM ~Dan: Reminds me a bit of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
4:14 PM +Barney: So once you have your archetype (warrior), your background (gentle giant), your fear (the dark), and your starting skill (Tough)
4:14 PM +Barney: your ready to go
4:14 PM ~Dan: (We mostly use it when a Q&A is going on.)
4:14 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: (That’s fair c:)
4:14 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Okay, question then
4:15 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Let’s say this character were kicking down the door, like you mentioned earlier. Can you give me a difficulty? And, I would roll 5d6 and 1d8, right?
4:16 PM +Barney: correct
4:16 PM ~Dan: I’m fuzzy on the 1d8, though. What’s printed on that die?
4:17 PM +Barney: So the D8 is the talent die. It has Talent symbols which count as success for all the core skills (except strange)
4:17 PM +Barney: and then it has strange symbols as well
4:17 PM ~Dan: How many of each?
4:17 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: From the PDF, it has:
4:18 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: 2 1-Strange, 1 2-Strange, 3 1-Talent, and 2 2-Talents
4:18 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub faster at typing than me 😛
4:18 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Page 7 of the Quickstart, if you’re wondering
4:18 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Lol I get like 60 WPM regularly 😛
4:19 PM * ~Dan chuckles
4:19 PM ~Dan: (Howdy, Silverlion!)
4:19 PM &Silverlion: (Hi Dan)
4:19 PM +Barney: It weights the odds in your favour as most checks only need 1 or 2 successes
4:19 PM ~Dan: Gotcha.
4:19 PM +Barney: but it can lead to some hilarious failures as well
4:20 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: So, I roll my 5d6 and 1d8. My 5d6 comes up as 2 Grits (2), and 3 Wits (3), but also 1 Strange on the d8 (3).
4:20 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: For the door, what’s that mean for my purposes?
4:21 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Trying to do an Example Of Play thing, to make sure I got the concepts 😛
4:21 PM +Barney: Sire, so to bust open the door you’re looking for grit. You’ve got 2 and a basic door would have Challenge rating 1 so you’d succeed
4:21 PM +Barney: sure*
4:21 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Okay. And the three Wits, and the one Strange?
4:21 PM +Barney: The interesting thing about checks is you can use them to add to the roleplaying
4:22 PM +Barney: so in this example 3 wit maybe means you were able to do your action more deftly
4:22 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Alright, so I kick the door in right to the side of the doorknob, and it flies open easily with minimal damage. For example.
4:22 PM ~Dan: If you roll one Wit but the die is cocked, does that make you a halfwit?
4:23 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: And maybe it’s a fraction-of-a-second thing. And LOL
4:23 PM +Barney: the strange in this scenario wouldn’t do anything but if for example you had rolled that result for a smarts check you would tick the doom cluck up by 1
4:23 PM +Barney: doom clock*
4:23 PM +Barney: Dan you’re firing out the puns!
4:23 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: (Our Jock) “Yeah, I took some training as a volunteer firefighter. Didn’t make the cut, but I did learn some cool tricks.”
4:24 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Something like that?
4:24 PM +Barney: yeh exactly like that
4:24 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Sweet 😀
4:24 PM +Barney: It can also save you from failure as well
4:24 PM +Barney: so if you roll a grit check
4:24 PM +Barney: get no grit but all smarts
4:25 PM ~Dan: Why does the Weird have that effect on the Smarts check but not the Grit check?
4:25 PM +Barney: maybe you see a crack in the door
4:25 PM +Barney: or spot a key under a mat
4:25 PM +Barney: so if you rolled a smarts check, and got no smarts symbols you’d fail
4:25 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Oh, I see. For the mat: Maybe he slips on the kick, and that reveals the key 😀
4:26 PM +Barney: for each strange symbol you roll on the fail you tick the clock up by 1
4:26 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub exactly
4:26 PM +Barney: using symbols gives that extra story telling crutch that bunary success fail doesnt provide
4:26 PM +Barney: binary*
4:26 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: I see. Nice c:
4:27 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Sorta like the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG
4:27 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Where it has success/fail but also advantage/threat symbols
4:27 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: But more interesting 😛
4:28 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: …and now I can picture the Death Star Trench Run being done in this system XD
4:28 PM +Barney: yeh exactly 😛
4:28 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub you could definitely play Star wars with this
4:28 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: That is awesome 😀
4:28 PM ~Dan: How does combat work?
4:28 PM +Barney: the force would be controlled by strange
4:28 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: …and it would fit in the Rebellion era too, in a sense!
4:29 PM +Barney: and we have rules for laser swords 😛
4:29 PM ~Dan: Nice. 🙂
4:29 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Because the more your Doom Clock ticks up, from Strange/the Force
4:29 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: The closer the Empire gets to finding you.
4:29 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Because of the Inquisitors and Darth Vader.
4:30 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Well ticks *down* but you know what I mean
4:30 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: I LOVE THIS SYSTEM
4:30 PM ~Dan: 🙂
4:30 PM +Barney: So combat has 2 options, a turn based variant which uses the order first, middle and last.
4:30 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: I haven’t played it and I LOVE it 😀
4:30 PM +Barney: At the start of combat players and enemies are assigned first, middle and last based on the setting
4:30 PM +Barney: Get surprise attacked? Your going last
4:31 PM +Barney: get the jump? your going first
4:31 PM +Barney: Characters within each grouping set their own order unless one is imposed by the director (GM) for story purposes
4:32 PM +Barney: In each characters turn they can use 1 of each of 3 different actions
4:32 PM +Barney: Move – Attack – Interact
4:32 PM +Barney: Move is a move
4:32 PM +Barney: Attack is an attack against an enemy
4:33 PM +Barney: Interact is an action that is neither a more nor an attack, e.g. picking up a weapon, shouting a warning etc
4:33 PM +Barney: You can also forgo and attack for an extra interact
4:33 PM +Barney: To make combat more interesting enemies have a level of AI
4:34 PM +Barney: if a character succesfully hits an enemy they cause a roll on the enemy reaction table
4:34 PM ~Dan: Huh… Interesting.
4:34 PM +Barney: each enemy has a reaction table which is linked to how dangerous it is as well as what type of monster it is
4:34 PM +Barney: the GM rolls 1 skill die and check the table for the result
4:35 PM +Barney: basic monsters react on grit and do nothing on any other symbol, boss monsters reaction on every symbol other than luck
4:35 PM +Barney: so this really ramps up the tension as you don’t know what the enemies will do next
4:36 PM ~Dan: I can see that.
4:36 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Ooh, I see now.
4:36 PM ~Dan: What effects do weapons and armor have in this system?
4:36 PM +Barney: Ok so I’ll start with armour
4:37 PM +Barney: Armour follows along the same lines as the tough and monster reaction mechanic
4:37 PM +Barney: When you take a hit you roll a skill dice for each piece of armour you have
4:37 PM +Barney: On a luck you reduce the wounds you take by 1
4:38 PM +Barney: On a strange your reduce the wounds taken by 1 but add a wound to that piece of armour
4:38 PM +Barney: on any other symbol there is no effect
4:38 PM +Barney: Some armour has other special abilities but the above is it’s basic function
4:38 PM ~Dan: Man… this is good stuff.
4:38 PM +Barney: Weapons have a core skill that defines their use
4:39 PM +Barney: melee weapons like baseball bats and swords will tend to be grit
4:39 PM +Barney: guns, bows, dexterity weapons will tend to be Wit
4:39 PM &Silverlion: Do you have special dice with this game? Or is it something else?
4:39 PM +Barney: explosives, improvised weapons and tech are Smarts
4:40 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: You can use normal dice, but they do have some proprietary dice too. I’ll probably pick up a set of the latter myself, because this sounds really cool 😀
4:40 PM +Barney: (Link: https://shiverrpg.com/?page_id=19)https://shiverrpg.com/?page_id=19
4:40 PM +Barney: We also have this online dice roller
4:40 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Oh nice c:
4:40 PM +Barney: Heart has less weapons and focuses more on buffing other characters
4:41 PM +Barney: but things like reading from a bible to attack a vampire would be hearts
4:41 PM ~Dan: Nice.
4:41 PM +Barney: luck is weapons operated by pure chance, so things like old rusty heirlooms
4:41 PM +Barney: and then strange is unnatural weapons, magic etc
4:41 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Ooh, I like that idea (re heart attacks)
4:41 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: …
4:41 PM * ~Dan chuckles
4:42 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: My Darkest Dungeon Crusader has a holy scroll he uses to attack. Would that be Heart or Strange? Or could the DM decide?
4:42 PM +Barney: The other thing we wanted to work into the game was damage type. Lots of classic horror enemies have weaknesses and resistances so we wanted to add an element to combat that rewarded players for playing to trope and investigating the mystery ahead of the fight
4:43 PM &Silverlion: Are you going to make dice to add to it for people who don’t use electronics at the table?
4:43 PM +Barney: So a holy scroll would probably be hearts
4:43 PM +Barney: yes there are physical dice
4:43 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Okay, good to know.
4:43 PM +Barney: but there are rules for combined skill checks
4:43 PM ~Dan: How is damage determined?
4:44 PM +Barney: all weapons have flat damage on their profile
4:44 PM &Silverlion: Ok. cool just curious 😀
4:44 PM +Barney: if an enemy is weak to the damage type they take double
4:44 PM +Barney: if they are resistant they take hald
4:44 PM +Barney: half*
4:44 PM +Barney: if they are immune they take none
4:44 PM ~Dan: Cool.
4:45 PM ~Dan: Does the game have a system for magic and/or psychic powers?
4:45 PM +Barney: Silverlion no worries, we developed the app as we didn’t want to force people to buy the dice if they didn’t want to and also to make distance playing easier. It also means when we launch people can start playing earlier 😀
4:45 PM &Silverlion: Sadly the special dice will unsell my FTF group, not that I think will last much longer as a group.
4:45 PM +Barney: So magic and psychic powers are currently covered by abilities in the Weird Archetype
4:47 PM &Silverlion: How often do those come up in the game? (Mostly curious since the cover hints at serial stalker bad guys and they run into them, I think once maybe in an entire movie series.
4:47 PM +Barney: Silverlion that’s a shame, we realise the symbolic dice aren’t for everyone but we love what they bring to the gameplay experience. We’ve had some amazing responses from players who’ve always struggled with the math element of other systems
4:48 PM ~Dan: Does the game have a bestiary, and if so, how large?
4:48 PM +Barney: Silverlion how often does which element come up?
4:49 PM +Barney: Yes it does. So the core book I believe has just under 100 enemies in it. Then the campaign book we’re releasing alongside it will have even more which are specific to the stories in it.
4:50 PM +Barney: All of the classic bases are covered, zombies, mummy, vampire etc
4:50 PM +Barney: There are also rules for developing your own enemies
4:50 PM ~Dan: Awesome.
4:50 PM ~Dan: Speaking of scary stuff, are you ready for… danhunsaker’s Favorite Question(TM)???
4:51 PM +Barney: That sounds terrifying, but yes!
4:51 PM ~Dan: Okay!
4:51 PM ~Dan: What is your *least* favorite aspect of Shiver?
4:51 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Barney’s resolve is tested…
4:52 PM +Barney: hmmmmm
4:53 PM +Barney: So for me, I’ve played quite a lot of rules heavy systems and quite enjoy attempting to see what the most busted character I can create is. With SHIVER as the focus is much more on the story and the feel of the characters you’re trying to create there is slightly less of that gamification element.
4:54 PM ~Dan: A very fine answer!
4:54 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: [COURAGEOUS]
4:54 PM +Barney: Striking the balance between easy to learn and hard to master is a difficult one
4:54 PM ~Dan: Kudos to you. Many game designers are certain that they’ve discovered the “right” way to play.
4:54 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Been on a DD kick lately so I’m having fun XP
4:55 PM ~Dan: In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
4:55 PM +Barney: but we’ve had some pretty hardcore min maxers having a great time making detailed characters so there are definitely elements there for everybody.
4:55 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Dan Does that count as [ABUSIVE] or [IRRATIONAL]? 😛
4:55 PM +Barney: I think to be honest that has been quite comprehensive
4:55 PM ~Dan: Oh, 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 (Link: https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe)https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe . Anything’s appreciated! 🙂
4:56 PM ~Dan: Well, thanks for joining us, Barney!
4:56 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: Oh, I didn’t know you had a Ko-fi 😀
4:56 PM ~Dan: Please know that you are *always* welcome, both here and on Discord. 🙂
4:56 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: And yes, thank you! I will be picking up your Kickstarter 😀
4:56 PM ~Dan: I would be happy to review the game once it comes out!
4:56 PM +Barney: Cheers Dan much appreciated and thank you everyone for your questions!
4:57 PM ~Dan: Now, if you’ll give me just a minute, I’ll get the log posted and link you!
4:57 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub thanks very much 😀
4:57 PM +Machaeus-TTPub: I’ll share the link with a few people I think will appreciate it c:
4:57 PM +Barney: Machaeus-TTPub ❤
The Hardboiled GMshoe's Office 