Happy Halloween!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Nov 01, 2019 at 01:17:03 AM

Hey folks,

There's a chill in the air, trick-or-treaters are knocking on my door, and I've spent the day sorting through the many pitches submitted to our writers call! It's been more successful that I could have imagined - in total 54 people applied, pitching a total of 52 different cities, 65 different potential NPCs to recruit, and 74 different vassals to fight. It's going to be a hard job selecting the best from these - fingers crossed we hit a few more stretch goals so that I can get more of them into the book.

I've also got something else I'm excited to show you: a test art piece for the book!

The above is the Heretic by Marie Enger - an incredible illustrator whose energetic, anarchic style is perfect for this project! The goal for these art pieces is that they show the rebel in their mundane life, shadowed or haunted by the form they take in the castle. Based on the results here, I'm very excited to hit the £20,000 stretch goal so that I can get art commissioned for the other seven...

That's it for me for tonight - have a great evening, everyone.

More AP, more playbook focus, and a development roadmap!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 04:00:56 AM

Hey folks,

I'm happy to announce that The League Presents: Voidheart Symphony is now complete! We wrapped up our campaign last night, and the final episode is available for your listening pleasure. It's been great fun to put the system through its paces - listening back now, you can see the system evolving in real time as we playtested it together. I'd love to return to these characters again, maybe when the rules are less... turbulent.

Next, I've published another playbook focus - this time on the Provider. A 'support character' is an interesting niche in RPGs, and one I really want to get right in this game. Care, and support, and respect for the needy people around you is so important, and they can be the heart of your revolution. To find out more, click here.

Current Development Goals

Finally, as a bit of a peek behind the curtain at development. With this major playtest campaign wrapped up, I have a few priorities in mind:

• Improve the mundane investigation side of things. There's two things to do here: rework the moves so that they point more directly at the actions players take as they investigate the vassal, and add more explicit timing so that you have a clearer choice between investigation, recovery, improvement of your life and relationships, and delving into the castle. Making the Vassal's clock a clearer part of this is key.
• Add more robust campaign tools. I'm thinking of ways to network vassals together in a grand, reactive feudal system (Shadow of Mordor's nemesis system comes to mind), as well as greater support for showing how your struggle affects the broader city. I'm also pondering routes for closing out the campaign - a Tier 4 adversary who isn't a Vassal but a Regent, perhaps?
• Flesh out downtime. It's important to give the group breathing room between investigations to let them experience the things they won by defeating the Vassal, and spotlight what their character is like in their day-to-day life. We have Retaliation and Peace and Quiet, but at present they're over pretty quickly and mainly focused on setting up the next investigation. I'm not thinking of anything as complex as, for example, Blades in the Dark's downtime, but I think the game could benefit from a greater focus here.
• Add examples. Tons of them. Lots of little snippets showing moves in play, explaining what their intended use cases are, showing how they can be misapplied, and how to work around outcomes that don't quite mesh with your fiction. I'm also going to make sure that however I revise the investigation rules, there's a diagram in the book showing how it's intended to work.
• And that's in addition to adding Vassal examples, City playsets, and more.

Finally, there's the art. Leading up to our next stretch goal, I reached out to a candidate artist for a single playbook to test their style. I've got sketches in and I'm very happy with what they're doing so far. Looking forward to sharing with you the finished version when I receive it!

£16,000 passed: The Trapped unlocked! Next up, playbook art.
over 4 years ago – Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 02:43:27 PM

Hey folks,

We've crossed the £16,000 line and hit our next stretch goal! The Trapped will be joining the seven other playbooks in the book, offering a spectral hand in the mundane world and a home advantage in the castle.

Next up at £20,000, we have playbook art! It's been tough finding artists that fit the style I'm aiming for with this book, but I've been getting test sketches in and I'm very excited to share them with you once we hit the goal.

And after that, at £24,000? We have upgrades to both the book and the card deck. For the book, I'm going to commission even more writers to flesh out a full rogue's gallery of Vassals (complete with dark plots and Qualities), perfect to drop into your game or raid for inspiration for your own villains. And for the card deck, we'll have two upgrades: a printed tuck box to keep the cards in, and improved card stock to ensure they're hard-wearing and a pleasure to use. 

Thanks for your support so far! I'm enjoying writing the playbook focuses, but I also thought I might write up some of the other systems here too. So, would you like to hear more about:

• The city/castle split?
• Covenants?
• The confrontation battle system?
• Something else?

Let me know in the comments!

New interviews, AP, and a focus on The Heretic!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Oct 25, 2019 at 10:15:18 AM

Hey folks - and welcome to everyone who's pledged since the last update!

I've continued my serious of playbook focuses, this time looking at the Heretic. This playbook's a pretty direct opposition to the Authority - antagonistic where the Authority is supportive, independent where the Authority is a team player, and reckless where the Authority is conservative with their power. It's a fun dynamic - click through to read more!

As part of writing this some ideas about the Heretic clarified in my head, leading to a minor update to that playbook and how it functions. That's on itch.io now, alongside an EPUB and RTF version of the game in case the PDF doesn't work for you.

I've also been busy spreading the word about this kickstarter on interview streams and podcasts. First up, I was very happy to go on the Roll Out podcast and talk to Evan about the game - you can listen here:

Second, I went on the Midgardia RPG channel on youtube:

And finally, I ran a game of Voidheart Symphony last night as part of Gauntlet Con 2019! It was a really fun session, starting with the gang investigating a subway cop hassling homeless buskers and ending with a crackling, electricity-filled fight in an underground railway depot shaped like a heart. You can watch our session here:

Playbook Focus: The Authority
over 4 years ago – Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 06:15:32 AM

Hey folks,

First up, the writer call is now over! Thank you for everyone who sent in pitches; I'm going to get to work tabulating them, and will hopefully be able to make decisions on the first round of hires by the end of the month. As we unlock more stretch goals, I'll be able to hire more folks - and looking at the pitches I've received, I definitely want to hire as many as possible!

Secondly, as this kickstarter goes on I'll be writing up deep dives into each of the playbooks your rebel might use, doubling up as an exploration of the different benefits you can get from Covenant arcana. We're starting with the Authority - click here to read more on our website!