The Playtest
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In general, things seemed to go pretty well. There were a few problems early on with explaining the system to the players since most of them hadn't played a card-based system before and there are some suibtle nuances to the game that take a bit of getting used to. Combat proved to be just as deadly as I was expecting, but since the players got the drop on their enemy no PCs died. I think I may have to change some of the rules regarding courage, and I either need to lower the level of damage caused by weapons or remove the factor that increases damage based on how well the attack test went, but those are easily dealt with. All in all I was very pleased with the initial results, and despite a lot of laughing and joking there was definately an atmosphere of tension over the table. I don't know why but I think the cards helped there. Because players tactically choose where they want to do well and where they throw away low cards to be rid of them, it made them more wary of making decisions rashly.

I still need to test out an advanced fight scene with more powerful foes for the players to rail against, that's something for next week - and I need to test the fear mechanics more thoroughly, but since they run on the same rails as normal combat I do not foresee that being a problem.

I don't want to go too far into the story because there's still some serious secrets left that I don't want to reveal, and you never know, one of the players could be on this forum. The basis of it was that the players are poking their noses into a series of gory and senseless murders, and trying to discover the cause. In the meantime they also have to worry about a small band of invisible creatures that are causing local animals to sicken and die, the crazy local farmer who keeps putting up scarecrows, weird dreams in which the scarecrows talk to them, the local police looking into their various misdoings (they broke into the morgue to examine the corpses) and all other kinds of things. As you can probably tell, I'm interweaving several stories into one.

Ash

...seems to be all the rage at the moment (Cold City and the recent MLwM game).

Do you think the players were revelling in the horror and gore of the game? It strikes me that this was the case, and I think there is a rich seam of fun gaming to be had.

I'm assuming that the players are left in the dark and the GM "reveals" stuff at suitable moments to drive play and get reactions from the players. Is there a lot of character versus character stuff, or is it generally PCs versus adversity/NPCs?

Andrew Kenrick's Dead of Night does the revelling in horror really well too.

Didn't know there was so much of the 50's about. I've not looked at Cold City myself, but since that's likely an urban horror I doubt there'll be much crossover.

The players have been left very much in the dark, but I'm against arbitrarily revealing stuff. They have to draw their own conclusions and make their own mistakes. That's half the fun of investigative scenarios :). They get a nudge in the right direction every now and then if it feels like they're coming to a dead end, but it's almost never quite what they expect and generally brings up more questions than it answers. I like to keep 'em guessing. Once the big secrets have been opened though I'm expecting it to take a very different route. I have contingency plans in place just in case they grab entirely the wrong end of the stick.

The players do seem to be enjoying the whole horror aspect of the game, and apparently I am a 'sick little puppy' (I've come up with some really horrible ideas for monsters in this one, and they've not seen the worst of them yet.) I think they'll enjoy it even more when they've a reason to perpetrate that horror as well as being on the receiving end. That's what the game's all about though; scaring people and saving them at the same time.

There is a healthy amount of inter-party tension because that's how I tend to run games - more like a soap opera than an action movie. I think it's more interesting if the players' characters bounce off each other and make their own plot points. For instance one of the players is a local policeman who is hell-bent on finding some excuse to arrest one of the other player characters who is an ex-con. That said, he's had plenty of reason to as well since said ex-con was the one who broke into the morgue looking for clues. Yay for nosey players! I hate it when I have to bring the plot forcibly to people. That said the PVP stuff hasn't detracted from the plot, in fact I think it's rather added to it. It needs keeping a close eye on, but so long as it remains fun it'll be fine.

Ash

There are only a few games that explicitly target the 1950s but I think it's an untapped area.

I guess Dark Conspiracy tapped into that Roswell type of 50s vibe, whereas I think yours might be more like Deliverance or similar.

Cold City has the 1950 Berlin urban thing hooked up with post-WW2 paranoia and the Cold War.

If you want to see a book of horrific creatures you should check out Pelgrane's Book of Unremitting Horror. It's British and it's horrific, in a good way. The Gumshoe version is here. They also do Fear Itself, which is another GumShoe book, but I'll leave someone with more info than me to talk about that one.

Bottom line is, even with other horror books out there, we could be doing with more. And the 1950s rural sickos is something that has a strong hook.

Never been very fond of the Gumshoe system. It's always struck me as being too loose and undefined, especially in the area of combat. And as for the D20 system... well, don't get me started ;) It's the main reason I started writing games systems myself. Anyway I'd rather not let myself be too influenced by other peoples' products in that area. I'd rather keep my mind focused on my own ideas.

Ash

I dunno. I, personally, find it extremely valuable to look at how other people have designed games, how they approached certain aspects and what I can learn from that. Actually talking to the designers as well is great, because it gives you an really in-depth feeling for why they made certain design decisions.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: don't design in isolation! Influence and inspiration are fine things and should be grasped with both hands. Of course, you want to create your own games, that is a fine and laudable goal in itself. But, we have so much to learn from others. For example, Cold City would have been very different had I not browsed through 'The Mountain Witch'. I make no bones that TMW was a huge influence on the concept of trust mechanics in CC. Are they the same? No. but I can't deny the very positive influence that TMW had on CC.

Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios

Like it says in the header really, it's all very well drawing on inspiration, but I don't want to use ideas from systems I don't like and I already have plenty of ideas for the background. I am trying to keep to a single coherent style. I don't want to let other peoples' ideas over-influence my own creativity. It's not about the game's system at this stage, as the system is mostly finished and I'm quite happy with it. It's about the game's background which I would rather keep to being as much my own work as possible. Besides I am also skint and don't have the money to spend on game books I would never use.

Ash

I have a one-shot Halloween game I'm trying to throw together. This sounds like pure horrific goodness. If not, or you think it would not be an ideal game for a one-shot, let me know.

Hell, if it's not good for a one-shot, please pass it on to me if you need outside playtesting. This sounds like something for which I want to get on the ground floor.

I'd be tempted to accept, but the notes I have on the system right now are in no fit state for anyone but me to reference them, due to my taking the artsy option for layout. It would make a good one-shot system though, since character creation is extremely brief and people die rather easily. It's easily adaptable enough to be used as a one-shot again and again with different plotlines though, which is kinda the way I like to run games anyway.

Ash

Well, please put me on the short list if you could. It sounds like fun.

So, you can make allies with the scary things, huh? Sounds interesting...

Just one 'species' of them for the time being, but I have plans for an expansion if it's well recieved, and if I can get two or three similar expansions I may release a deluxe version containing the lot.

Ash

Ah, I feel that I probably was not clear enough in my original post. I was in no way advising to buy games books that you have no intention of using or have a dislike for (in whatever capacity).

However, in my experience, designing in a 'silo' isn't always a good thing, when relating to system elements, setting, or whatever other elements of the game you wish to pinpoint. Althoguh, I think this is somewhat diverting the thread away from the original topic, so I think I shall start a new thread on just such a thing!

Cheers
Malc

Contested Ground Studios

Therefore, logically, designing in a silo isn't always a bad thing either ;)

Ash

That's a dissection of my words that isn't really appropriate to this thread. However, the thread dedicated to the topic is now up and running for discussion of such things.

Cheers
Malc

Contested Ground Studios

You talk about rules being a bit messy at the moment, which is something I can sympathise with (and I'm sure David working on Solipsist would agree). Getting them written down clearly and coherently so that someone else can make sense of them is a lot of work.

So, good luck with that!

I'll keep an eye out for this one, do update us if you get more play of it.