Hello gamers, Abstruse here with another round of tabletop gaming news! This image made the rounds on various social media recently. As old-school gamers know, many RPGs began with a required “What is a Role Playing Game?” section that everyone skipped over if they’d played before. Then someone noticed this one…
Many wondered which game packed so much snark about gaming and gamers into their section, and a few pointed out that it was The Laundry RPG from Cubicle 7, based on the novels by Charles Stross. I started with something a little humorous because things are about to get hardcore!
I got a chance to talk with the legendary Robert Schwalb, whose credits include DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE ROLEPLAYING, WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLEPLAY, THIEVES WORLD, and a lot more. As you can see, dark fantasy is in Robert’s blood and he’s taking that passion for the gritty and dark into his new company, Schwalb Entertainment, and their first game with a brand new system and original IP, SHADOW OF THE DEMON LORD, currently on Kickstarter until April 11.
Abstruse: What's SHADOW OF THE DEMON LORD?
Robert Schwalb: SHADOW OF THE DEMON LORD is my new tabletop RPG. Metal-infused, horror-fantasy, with streamlined mechanics, it plays fast and places few demands on the players and Game Masters. The title of the game highlights the world's apocalyptic atmosphere. There's this monstrous being that lives in the gaps between realities, a being known as the Demon Lord. It craves souls and bashes its fists against the boundaries between the Void, where it hangs out, and reality. Its hammering, aided by the corruption and dark magic and demon-worshippers in the mortal world, have weakened the barriers and cause the Demon Lord's influence to bleed through and spark all manner of catastrophes that threaten to tear the world apart.
A: The Kickstarter page seems to beg for the game to be played with Slayer blaring in the background.
RS: That was the vibe I was going for, Slayer, or maybe, Behemoth.
A: How does the game play?
RS: Fast. I opted for accessibility over complexity. The rules are there for when it's not clear what happens next in the story. In some circumstances--fighting cultists and fleeing from the horrors--you need them more, while in others--your exploring, talking to other characters, doing fun stuff--the rules fade into the background. To hit the accessibility button, I opted to use the d20 as the task resolution die. If you play D&D, Pathfinder, Mutants & Masterminds, or a slew of other games, it will be like putting on a pair of comfortable jeans, cracking the top of a favorite beer, or making your favorite sacrifice to a dark lord. Here are the basics. When you describe an activity and the outcome's not clear, or when the rules instruct you, roll a d20 and add the modifier from the attribute that best applies. Most times, you're looking for a 10 or higher. If you make an attack roll, your looking for the score of the attribute or characteristic used to resist the attack. If you equal or beat the number, you succeed. Otherwise you fail. The game models difficulty with boons and banes. For each positive circumstance that would help you with the task, you roll a boon (a d6) with your d20 and add the highest number rolled on all the d6s. For each negative circumstance that would make the task harder, you roll a bane (also a d6) with your d20 and subtract the highest number roll on all the d6s. Boons and banes cancel each other. You'll never roll a boon and bane at the same time.
A: What kind of stories do you think the games is best suited at?
RS: SotDL's game engine suits a wide range of stories, from high fantasy to the grimmest of grimdark, all by making minor adjustments to the engine. If you wanted to play a light-hearted game of adventuring in Candy Land, you'd probably drop insanity. Hmm. Maybe you wouldn't? The game's default, however, is a mix of investigation, exploration, RP, and fighting, all with a heavy dose of horror. You'll uncover conspiracies by deranged cultists, fight horrors spawned from forgotten corners of the crumbling Empire, explore new continents, search for forbidden writings, and more.
A: You've got an impressive list of award-winning authors doing short fiction for the game. How did that come about?
RS: I have been fortunate to meet and befriend a great number of people in the business, both in gaming and in the fiction fields. Richard Lee Byers, Erin M. Evans, Erik Scott de Bie have been announced officially, and I've got stories by Elizabeth Bear and James Lowder as higher stretch goals. I may have a few others to announce. As my pals, they were willing to help out and turn this game into a reality.
A: The Kickstarter funded in its first day and you've (as we're talking) already unlocked five of your stretch goals. You've only got six more listed which it looks like you'll easily reach. Do you have more planned beyond those?
RS: Oh yes. Yes I do. I have stretch goals planned out for a ways. Higher level goals cause the book to grow bigger, adds more story packs, setting expansions (want to go to Hell in Shadow of the Demon Lord?), and, eventually, additional print books.
A: Based on what the regular world looks like, I'm a little worried about what Hell has in store…
RS: Hell is pretty interesting in SotDL. It's not a place outside the setting. Rather, it's a place that exists in the world and one populated by twisted, corrupted faeries, forgotten gods, escaped spirits from the Underworld and worse. All the nasty things that live in Hell feed on mortal corruption. They don't want the world to blow up. They want to make everyone in it as awful as possible so they can sustain their existence.
A: You mentioned elsewhere you had plans to use this engine to tell stories in other genres as well. Is that a potential stretch goal or will we have to wait for the next Kickstarter?
RS: Heh. The pre-industrial fantasy world of SotDL is one of many worlds I plan to introduce. However, those other worlds don't need to be full games onto themselves. Instead, the Demon Lord might smash through this world and turn its attention to a world much like our own. Its shadow falls and now you have a Mad Max setting, but with demons and magic. Or, the shadow might fall on a galactic empire causing it to fall and strand the player characters in some remote, death world on the fringes of the universe. I have plans for about ten different worlds. They would all bolt on to the core game.
A: There's been some criticism of the game's visual design with its use of Satanic and demonic imagery, saying that your game might bring back the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s that affected tabletop RPGs. Do you think this is an issue in 2015?
RS: Really? I hadn't heard or encountered that so far, so that's news to me! I doubt my little game will bring about another "Satanic Panic," though I'm sure it would be good for business. This game is fantasy, horror-themed, but fantasy all the same. It's make believe and no more dangerous than Diablo, D&D, WFRP, or Evil Dead.
A: Do you have anything in the works you can talk about for the future of SHADOW OF THE DEMON LORD beyond the Kickstarter?
RS: Work continues on Shotguns & Sorcery. Aside from that and the Demon Lord, I am busy enough at the moment. There are some little things coming up that I had a hand in, but I am sworn to secrecy at the moment.
A: Any final message to the Ain't It Cool News readers?
RS: Thanks for reading and I hope you consider backing my Kickstarter campaign. If you have questions, you can find some answers onwww.schwalbentertainment.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter (@rjschwalb and @schwalb_ent), Google+, or email me directly at info@schwalbentertainment.com
Due to various issues, this interview took place shortly before the Kickstarter launched. At this point, they’ve raised over $100,000 and unlocked several more stretch goals, as well as added several more to get through before the campaign ends on Saturday. Make sure to get in soon for a pledge of $24 to get a PDF of the core game and starter guide, $66 for a print-and-PDF bundle, or any of the other great rewards.
The largest tabletop gaming convention in the United States (possibly the world, depending on how you count ticket sales) became the center of a political news story getting national attention. In response to Indiana’s passing of a law which may allow business to discriminate against gay or transgendered customers on religious grounds, Gen Con released a series of open letters on March 23, March 26, and March 30 outlining their disapproval of the law and their actions in protesting. This campaign (along with other companies) made enough of an impact that the Indiana legislature and governor both passed an amendment to the law preventing its use in any form of discrimination.
Take a step back from the politics because I’m going to tell you right now, no matter what side of the issue you’re on, the other side doesn’t give a shit what you have to say. The bigger story here is the impact that gamers have in the modern world. A convention of tabletop gamers (a far smaller demographic than video gamers) has enough financial and political clout to take the national stage on the issue of diversity and tolerance. Almost every major news outlet ran a story about Gen Con and the other companies joining them in denouncing SB101. Tabletop gamers, a group that’s been stereotyped and marginalized for the majority of our existence as a culture, have a voice now on the national stage. I think that’s pretty fucking awesome.
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It seems like the pendulum swings back and forth between the two biggest names in roleplaying games. We’re in a quiet time from Wizards of the Coast as, while they’re launching their Elemental Evil plotline for D&D starting with Princes of the Universe <NOTE, LOOK UP THE REAL NAME>, Paizo seems to be ramping up. If you were one of the many who were worried about the status of PATHFINDER after the launch of D&D 5th Edition, I’ll let Erik Mona explain it (quoted from an interview with ICv2):
“What I’ve been hearing anecdotally from a lot of the retailers, especially at some of the presentations that we’ve done here, is that it seems to kind of invigorated the category...I’m sure that some people who used to play Pathfinder are now playing 5th Editionbut we’ve been picking up new people as well so we’re not seeing deleterious drops in our sales...The size of our community continues to grow, yeah, depending on how one measures community. Every metric I have, it continues to grow. We’ve got more registered players in Pathfinder Society than we’ve ever had. We have more members of the Paizo.com community than we’ve ever had. I think one of the things that Pathfinder does in the new post-5th Edition paradigm is, it’s a mature brand, it’s got multiple monthly releases. There’s product for stores to sell.”
To drive that point home, http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Unchained/dp/1601257155 PATHFINDER UNCHAINED finally releases in a month. This highly anticipated book drastically overhauls several classes in PATHFINDER which have traditionally been thought of as “broken” by the player base, either by being under or over powered. The 256 page book retails for $39.99 and contains new class builds for the barbarian, monk, rogue, and summoner classes. It also delivers new options for gameplay. Jason Bulmahn teased the new action economy, allowing you to dial back the complexity of combat by streamlining action choices or add further depth to the system with martial resource pools. This book will literally be a game changer when it releases on May 12.
Fans of the STAR WARS games from Fantasy Flight should be jumping for joy at the announcement that not only have they extended their license with LucasFilm, but also obtained the rights to THE FORCE AWAKENS. This license extension applies both to the highly successful STAR WARS X-WING MINIATURES and to the role playing game series STAR WARS: EDGE OF THE EMPIRE, STAR WARS: AGE OF REBELLION, and the forthcoming STAR WARS: FORCE AND DESTINY.
Further expanding their STAR WARS offerings, Fantasy Flight recently launched both IMPERIAL ASSAULT and STAR WARS ARMADA. IMPERIAL ASSAULT is a STAR WARS themed dungeon crawl game similar to DESCENT with scenarios inspired by the films and expanded universe. It also includes skirmish rules if you just want to go head-to-head in strategic combat. STAR WARS ARMADA is pretty much the capital ship scale version of X-WING MINIATURES. capital ships from both the Rebellion and Empire battle it out with the buzzing of X-Wings and TIE Fighters grouped together as entire squadrons.
Green Ronin Publishing scored a coup by nailing down the spot pretty much every small game publisher coveted. Their new Fantasy AGE system is the basis for Wil Wheaton’s new Tabletop RPG-themed spin off show.
And don’t forget, International Tabletop Day is this Saturday, April 11! Click on the link to find an event near you. If you can’t make it, follow the action on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel.
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Okay, first off, when you click on this first project, ignore the broken English. I know I say I look at grammar and editing when choosing Kickstarters to cover, but I’ll cut this particular one a lot of slack because the artist is Swedish and the art looks amazing.
The biggest challenge for a lot of us who run games regularly is tracking down fresh and interesting maps. Dungeon of the Day is less a single product and more a subscription to, just as it says on the tin, get a new dungeon every single day for 111 days. You also get 10 sci-fi themed maps and an adventure written by Skip Williams (designer on D&D 3rd Edition). This project is fully funded and don’t let the foreign currency scare you, there’s a US Dollar equivalent on each reward level. The prices are an estimate, but $1 gets you access to low resolution versions of the map, while $8 gets you PDF versions suitable for printing. This project, running until April 16, is fully funded and unlocked every announced stretch goal.
In the tabletop game POSTHUMAN, you take on the role of one of the last humans attempting to survive in a world slowly being reclaimed by nature. Each player heads through ten different randomly-determined zones to reach a fortress safe zone in this resource gathering game, hoping to survive the mutants A pledge of $52 gets you the core game with all the unlocked stretch goals, of which there’s only one left to unlock for this highly successful Kickstarter, running until April 24.
CAR WARS CLASSIC ARENA is an expansion to the classic vehicular combat game of CAR WARS from Steve Jackson Games. It adds new maps and tokens previously only available at small scales you had to draw yourself on a larger grid, now full-size and ready for play. You can pick up the expansion itself compatible with previous editions of the game, or you can $40 to get a copy of CAR WARS CLASSICS core game if your original copy got lost to the ages. The Kickstarter is almost funded at time of writing and runs until April 29.
That’s all for this week. Next week, we talk more about CAR WARS CLASSIC and the forthcoming CAR WARS 6th Edition with line editor Scott Haring! You can also find me in a LOT of places right now. As has ever been, you can listen to the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. You can also watch the Gamer’s Tavern Twitch channel for live streams with tutorials for how to play D&D 5th Edition as well as a live stream of me running a D&D 5e game (archived on our YouTube channel as well). If you want to play D&D and don’t know where to find games, a new community has sprung up from the Geek & Sundry Critical Role Twitch chatroom called #TeamDemihooman (don’t ask) where you can sign up to run or play games with people all over the world. And as always, you can follow me on Twitter @Abstruse or email me your gaming news at abstruse@gamerstavern.org!
