Playtest Surveys
about 9 years ago – Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 07:44:39 PM

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Preparing for worst case scenario
about 9 years ago – Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 05:15:57 AM

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Playtesting Packets are ready!!!
about 9 years ago – Mon, Apr 06, 2015 at 08:15:54 AM

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Design Update from Cam Banks
about 9 years ago – Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 08:28:42 PM

Cam's been posting some good stuff on Google Plus. I thought I'd past them in here. You'll see that one is an update from the other. This game is shaping up great!

Demon Hunters Design Update

(AW means Apocalypse World)

After talking some of my issues over with +Rob Donoghue I've settled on some revisions to the core system. * Still uses stats (approaches) and skillsets (disciplines) rated d4 to d10 * Dropped the AW fixed difficulty chart, replacing with somewhat traditional easy/challenging/hard/very hard/impossible target numbers of 4/8/12/16/20 * Demon dice are now six-siders players can choose to grab from the center of the table, after they have rolled. They roll and add them to the result of the stat+skillset total to try and beat the target number. If they succeed, it's equivalent to an AW partial success or success with a consequence. If they fail, it's a really bad failure. * GM grabs the demon dice used and rolls them, looking at the results on a chart. Chart is ranked 1 to 6; each die maps to a result, and the more of a specific result the more intense the result is. Each number ties to some kind of GM hard move badness. * Players can earn faith dice, which are like demon dice only they don't do bad things. Any die that comes up 1 (apart from demon dice) earns the player a faith die. Faith dice can be spent to add more to the total without risking partial success badness. * Players also have stunts/special moves that they can use to monkey with the outcome. Specific goals to address: GMs having a hard time coming up with what a partial success looks like; adding dice back and forth; needs to keep polyhedrals but without subsidizing Chessex; GM doesn't need to roll dice (still haven't figured that part out, I suppose).

Demon Hunters Target Numbers

I like funny things. I like quirky things.  

In Demon Hunters, the target numbers for actions are going to be divided into increments of 5. This makes things appropriately tense and means sometimes you're going to want to spend your faith dice and risk using demon dice. But given the wide range of potential dice you're using to start with, it seems to reward expertise, too. So the levels are:

• 0: Whatever.
• 5: Okay. 
• 10: Huh. 
• 15: Nope. 
• 20: No f*cking way. 

If you beat your target by 5, it's success with style, so you may even sometimes want to roll to beat the TN of 0. Because maybe you can walk stylishly across the road.

What do you think so far?

Demon Hunters Mission Generation Design Update
about 9 years ago – Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 08:26:33 PM

Greetings!

Playtesting packets are nearly finished. We're excited to unleash these onto you, the backers. In the meantime, I'd like your help/feedback on something.

I've fallen in love with the Fronts and Threats system, originally published in Apocalypse World. It's such an amazing system that like Fate, it's got it's own system others are borrowing from. They call it "Powered by the Apocalypse", which is just damn cool. So you might be familiar with Dungeon World, that has the fantasy style D&D type setting and flavor to it. And then there's of course, (published by Evil Hat Games, creators of Fate), Monster of the Week. All fantastic games, and while I don't intend on reinventing the wheel, I'm not going to be merely reskinning these either.

Well, maybe a little. :)

So in general a "Front" is a set of linked "Threats". They're related. It's a way to create the framework for a story and not shoehorn your players into going one specific direction.

In DH, we're calling these The Mission. And The Mission will of course have it's own Threats.

There are currently 5 categories of Threats, but I may drop one yet, not sure. These names are not totally sticking yet by the way:

• Demons - The evil incarnate at work
• Minions - Those in service or support of the Demon
• Normals - Normal people who are somehow affected or involved by what's going on
• Danger Zones - Important places
• Corruptions - Something that's happening that is causing danger or is threatening

Each category will have a number of subtypes, we're just gonna call them Types. The Type also has an impulse, that is to say, it's motivated by something. It wants something the most. 

I decided on the first category, Demons, to call it that for a few reasons. One, this is Demon Hunters, so let's hunt some demons. But these are not literal demons, although they could be. No, this is the role they have in the story. Think of it like someone is "demonized" in social culture or the media or something. A Demon is the big bad. The primary villain. etc.

So, I want you to think about all the true villain types in the world. Real villains I mean. Not names or specific people, but thinking about how would you classify them? What kinds of people are out there doing evil and getting away with it? I'm going to give you my working list of Demon Types and their Motivations or Impulses. I'd like to hear if you have ideas that aren't on the list, or if this has some redundancies that could be combined, or moved to another category.

I have found it easy to think about it from either side. Either brainstorm an evil impulse, or an impulse that could be turned evil. Or think about archetypes, or whatnot. And the final list won't be perfect, but I'd love to have your input. Once again, impulses or motivations, think of them as if to complete the sentence: it wants to _____________. It needs/years to ___________. It is motivated to ______________.

• Abomination: to unmake, ruin everything, to tear down 
• Beast: to devour, survive and destroy 
• Bully: to overpower the weak 
• Consumer: to have more than anyone else 
• False Prophet: to foster fear or doubt, to deceive and spread despair 
• Freak: to be satisfied or become whole at the expense of others 
• Idol: to gather and enthrall followers, to seduce away 
• Magician/Sorcerer: to tame or control dangerous forces 
• Misguided Idealist: to beat the impossible, no matter the cost 
• Parasite: to invade, consume and control 
• Plague Bearer: to make intimate contact, consume and multiply 
• Torturer: to gain pleasure by inflicting pain, to harm and cause terror 
• Tyrant: to rule completely, to bend others to their will

Thanks a lot everyone! 

PS, no these are not replacing the tables and whatnot I've already talked about. The tables and story structure outlines we've been talking about and teasing will come together with this above mentioned system to enhance game prep and running the game. BTW, it will be expressly written that you can take as little or as much as you need to generate your story seeds and missions. If all you need are the tables, go nuts. The whole point is to help provide you with inspiration, and a process to organize your thoughts. We ride!