“Augmenting” AUGMENTED

Over the last few days, Augmented has gotten a bit of a facelift. While the core game mechanics are (relatively) unchanged, I wanted to provide more tools that would make it easier to run a session without doing the burdensome prep work that’s often associated with the genre. 

We’re on a Mission from the Company

The headline addition is the assignment generator. Originally, Augmented featured a small 1d6 table that the Supervisor could use as a random starting point. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of table, of course. Weirdwood uses something similar, although it provides more than just six options. But I wanted something that was a little more dynamic.

Fortunately, I recalled a discussion I took part in on a Discord server recently where fellow game designer Jeff Stormer was talking about a villain plot generator for a superheroes game he’s been working on. Using that as my starting point, I came up with the following formula: 

You must    action    a (an)    target    in a    location    at    city site   .

There’s a chart associated with each space that the Supervisor can reference to randomly create a basic cyberpunk mission. The big challenge, however, was coming up with six distinct actions, which basically determine the goal of the assignment. Here’s the list I ended up with:

Action (1d6)

• Acquire
• Eliminate
• Sabotage
• Embed
• Protect
• Interrogate

Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but the trick was using words that were both flexible enough to be interpreted in different ways and apply equally as well to a “target” that was a person or an object. That’s why I went with “Eliminate” instead of “Terminate” or “Assassinate.”

The last entry, “Interrogate,” is the result of some Discord crowdsourcing. It’s a distinct action from the more straightforward “Acquire,” but it may not be immediately obvious how you can interrogate an object. Essentially, the “Interrogate” action tasks you with gathering information from someone or something without actually stealing it or removing it from a location. “Acquiring” a data file, for instance, would require you to download and deliver the contents of the file to the Company. “Interrogating” a data file, on the other hand, would mean accessing data to find out what’s in it, but not actually removing it or copying it from the system. It’s more of a discovery-based mission than a theft-based one.

So, as an example, here’s what a random Augmented assignment might look like: 

You must    protect    a (an)    executive    in a    power facility    at    the outer sprawl   .

This gives a ton of information for the Supervisor to work with without overloading them with details. They can quickly start to imagine reasons why the executive might be in danger and the characteristics of the power facility. Since it’s located in the outer sprawl, it’s probably dirty, run-down, and hazardous in some way. Maybe it has a radiation leak or generates some kind of toxic byproduct.

I also added a few other lists detailing security levels, potential enemies, and mission complications that Supervisors can quickly glance at to generate ideas. In my experience of running RPGs with little to no preparation, having this kind of information on hand to spark ideas is incredibly helpful. By adding some of this material to Augmented, I hope the game will be even easier to manage on the fly.

Augmenting Augmentations

One area of the game that did get some substantial reworking is the augmentations section. Originally, I provided a list of 10 augmentations players could choose from and left it very open-ended about what they could actually do. That probably would have been fine to leave in place until I added some guidance on how to upgrade augmentations following successful missions. I wanted to leave those decisions totally up to the players, but the reality was that it was a lot easier to think of how to add new features to something broad like a cyberlimb than to something rather specific like “wired reflexes.”

So I pared back the augmentation list to just six basic types. While that may seem a bit restrictive, each type also has five distinct features associated with it. Now when players make their Agent or are looking to upgrade their augmentations, they can simply pick another feature from the list and get back to the playing. Of course, as with everything in Augmented, players and Supervisors are totally free to come up with their own ideas and use them instead. 

Part of the reason I try to avoid restrictive guidelines is because it’s almost impossible for one person to come up with the best options for every unique group of players. If you don’t like something, change it or come up with your own thing. Augmented’s system is so sparse and adaptable that you don’t have to worry about breaking anything from a balance or mechanics standpoint.

And if you do implement something that doesn’t work, it’s not the end of the world. Just have a conversation about why it’s not working and either change it back or do something else instead. It’s a roleplaying game, not computer engineering. Nobody is going to kick down the door and yell at you for doing something different.

Preorder AUGMENTED Now

The added material has expanded Augmented from 20 pages to 28 pages 36 pages (another round of additions followed this post). I don’t anticipate anything else being included at this point, but I am going to provide a separate short guide that outlines the details of a ready-made cyberpunk setting. Augmented allows groups to create their own settings, of course, but it was conceived and written with a particular setting in mind that probably informed a few decisions along the way. The setting guide will detail the cyberpunk world I’ve hinted at in the short stories “Lena’s Song” and “The First Price.” I’m planning to make it available around the same time as the main game releases on March 30.

You can preorder Augmented now on itch.io! If you preorder before March 30, you’ll get the game at the special $5 preorder price rather than the $7 retail price. Someone asked me on Twitter recently if there will be a print version available and the short answer for right now is that I don’t know. I would like to do a print run, but I’m going to see how the experience goes with mailing out Weirdwood to Kickstarter backers first and then explore what it would take to set up physical distribution.

Weirdwood: ZineQuest 3 Kickstarter Update

Wow. It’s been a pretty crazy week.

So let’s get the big news out of the way first: Weirdwood launched on Kickstarter as part of ZineQuest 3 on February 1 and hit its funding goal in a little more than 24 hours.

Since this was my first time launching a Kickstarter, it was a bit of a nerve-wracking experience. I spent most of Monday glued to my phone and constantly updating the browser, hoping to see that funding total inch closer to the goal. The game shot out of the gate a bit better than I expected, but as the day wore on, I started getting nervous. I did the very thing you’re NOT supposed to do when you’re running a Kickstarter, which is watching higher profile projects hit their funding goals and start to worry that you’re going to be the one who falls short.

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too much longer. Weirdwood hit its funding goal the next morning and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Of course, that relief didn’t last for too long because I immediately started watching to see if the game would hit its stretch goal. That milestone took a bit longer, but it crossed the threshold Thursday morning. As of right now, Weirdwood is almost exactly 50% over its funding goal, which has already exceeded my expectations, so I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

Great, Weirdwood Funded…Now What?

Luckily, all of the work for the game itself is already done. The book is written, laid out, and ready to go to the printer. I may give it another editing pass or two, but I don’t expect anything to really change between now and the time copies are shipped out to backers.

The big challenge for the time being is the stretch goal soundtrack.

Weirdwood’s soundtrack is going to be created by Morana’s Breath, but that’s a bit complicated for me because, well, I also happen to be Morana’s Breath. This will be the second time I’ve tied Morana’s Breath in with another creative project in a big way, the first one being the soundtrack for my recent novel, Blackspire. It’s a fun process, but making an album of any kind is always intimidating. Once I get started, things tend to move pretty quickly, though. I don’t want to commit to a hard deadline, but I anticipate that the album will likely be completed sometime in March, which will hopefully be around the same time that backers are receiving physical copies of Weirdwood.

I have a Spotify playlist devoted to Weirdwood that I listen to whenever I’m working on the game, but I’m not entirely sure how closely it will reflect the “official” soundtrack. Most Morana’s Breath tracks are purely electronic and don’t feature any vocals. While there may be an exception or two, I don’t anticipate putting any vocals on these tracks. At the same time, I don’t think a wholly electronic aesthetic is entirely right for Weirdwood, so there may be quite a lot of physical instrumentation. This is all speculation at the moment, though. I expect I’ll start working on the album sometime next week, so I’ll have a better idea of what it will sound like at that point.

More About Weirdwood

I’ve had a couple people ask me if I’m going to share more information about Weirdwood leading up to the release. While I’m not going to be doing a preview or anything like that, I can definitely take a few moments to talk about how the game actually works.

The actual rules system was inspired by the dice pool system used in John Harper’s Lady Blackbird. When a character takes an action, they start with one die and then add more dice for various aspects about the character that may be applicable. They can also add dice from a separate table pool for situational benefits.

Where the game departs from Lady Blackbird is with the opposed GM roll. The GM begins with one die and can add dice to their pool based on situational modifiers. Once the dice pools are created, both sides roll, and tally up even results as successes to determine who gets to narrate the outcome.

A big wrinkle, however, is that another player gets to be involved in this process. The player to the acting player’s left not only gets to define what will happen if the action fails, they can also add dice to the GM’s dice pool to make the task more difficult for the acting player. Why would they do this? Because when you succeed on a test, all of the dice you rolled go into the table pool. By adding dice to the GM’s roll, the player can get those dice back, adding them to their own pool.

Players are incentivized to add interesting complications to every situation they encounter, which can pull the narrative in all sorts of unexpected directions. There are a few other wrinkles in the form of specialized tokens, but they generally allow the player to regain dice or take control of the narrative in some way.

Creating Your Weirdwood

One of the big draws of the game is the ability to create your own version of the Weirdwood. The game provides very little detail about how the Weirdwood operates apart from a few basic qualities. Before the game begins, players will build the Weirdwood at the same time they build their characters. By answering a series of prompts, they will flesh out the local wood’s characteristics, how its magic works, a few important locations, notable NPCs in the area, and how people can enter the forest. After recording this information, the GM has a ready-made setting to begin a campaign (along with a few adventure prompts if they need help getting started).

I’ve always liked the idea that players could create a unique version of the Weirdwood and then share it with other players. While I don’t have a firm plan for how to facilitate this at the moment, I definitely want to make it possible for people to do this. This might end up taking the form of a Discord server or something similar where players can share the sheets they created during their Weirdwood creation. 

Beyond the Weirdwood

Once Weirdwood is out the door and delivered to backers, I’m going to be working on a few more projects. I’ve already teased bits and pieces of Simulacrum, a game inspired by The Matrix and Dark City where you play as independent agents trying to free human minds from a computer simulation. That game is actually quite far along, but needs a bit of playtesting to sort out potential kinks. 

I’ve also teased Wyld Sea quite a bit (you can still check out the Sneak Peek pdf), but that game probably won’t be ready for release until late 2021 at the earliest. Unlike the other games I’ve done, I think that one will require me to commission artwork. I’ve been pretty fortunate so far with public domain and free usage artwork and photos, but Wyld Sea has a pretty unique look that will be hard to capture.

There may be another game or two sprinkled in there if an idea catches my attention and I throw it together in a furious weekend of writing and editing. That’s part of the fun of working in this medium. For now, though, my primary focus is going to be on the Weirdwood soundtrack (and finishing the final installment to the Chronicle of Rostogov trilogy, but that’s another blog post for another website!).

I want to give a big thanks to everyone who has believed in and supported Weirdwood during ZineQuest 3. It’s been a truly humbling and inspiring experience, and I feel so fortunate that I’m going to be able to share this game with all of you.

If you have any questions about Weirdwood or any other Last Redoubt Games releases, please feel free to email me at pyramid@lastredoubtgames.com. You can also find me on Twitter as @last_redoubt.

Last Redoubt Games 2021 Update

So we’re already more than halfway through the first month of 2021 and it’s been a busy one!

First thing’s first: the final release versions of REVENANT and HOUNDS OF THE TSAR are both available on DriveThruRPG now as well as Itch.io. As of now, there are not firm plans to produce physical copies, but the idea is kicking around in the back of my mind and I may explore the idea in the future.

Second, and this was an unexpected endeavor for me, I’ve released an expanded version of THE DROWNED LANDS that greatly expands the original book into a full-fledged, standalone game. Rather than the old “system agnostic” version, this new edition features an adaptation of the simple rules system utilized in HOUNDS OF THE TSAR. I think it’s a massive improvement from the original release and is much more in keeping with my original conception of the game setting. You can purchase a digital copy from DriveThruRPG or Itch.io.

Next up, last weekend saw a rather unexpected release in the form of FASCINATION, a solo RPG written for the Record Collection 2K21 game jam on Itch.io. The challenge was to create a game inspired by a song or album. FASCINATION is based on the song “Fascination Street” by The Cure. You play as a shapeshifter going out for a night on the town to feed on new sensations and experiences. It’s a major departure from any other game I’ve done, but I’m really excited with the way it turned out. You can get it on Itch.io right now and it should be available on DriveThruRPG by the end of the week.

Last, but certainly not least, is the upcoming ZineQuest 3 Kickstarter for WEIRDWOOD. The game has gotten a complete visual redesign and is all set up for printing in a 32 page zine format. I’ll be talking about this one more as the Kickstarter launch approaches, but you can follow the project right now to receive the latest updates.

Whew! That’s quite a lot of updates! I’d like to do a better job of making regular updates on this site, but with everything going on, it might be hard to keep to that promise. Rest assured that I’ll announce new releases as they become available.

The rest of 2021 should be pretty fast-paced. In addition to the WEIRDWOOD Kickstarter, you can expect to see the release version of SIMULACRUM sometime this spring, another HOUNDS OF THE TSAR system game (really need to give that system a name!), and, if all goes well, another Kickstarter in the fall for WYLD SEA.

Until then, keep playing games and stay on the lookout for more updates!

REVENANT Playtest Demo Update

After sharing the most recent version of Revenant with some folks on reddit, I got some valuable feedback and made a few key changes to the latest playtest version.

Here are the key changes:

Revenant V.3 Demo Changes

• Changed Target “Bonds” to “Ambitions.” While Bonds represented things and people that were important to the Target, Ambitions are more targeted goals they’re seeking to achieve. I made this change because the nature of Bonds created a situation where the Revenant was incentivized to potentially harm the innocent people associated with the Target.
• Changed Revenant “Echoes” to “Bonds.” Echoes were always a bit nebulous, but Bonds represent specific people with strong emotional connections to the Revenant. It provides them with something that anchors them to their humanity and also creates a new opportunity for Gatekeepers and the Target to fight the Revenant. This change also impacted the way the Crisis mechanic works.
• Created a new mechanic called “Scars.” A Revenant gains a Scar whenever it allows one of its Bonds to be killed, commits an act that harms an innocent, or carries out a wantonly cruel action. Scars make it more difficult for the Revenant to channel Hatred effectively. I introduced this concept to punish a Revenant for causing collateral damage or showing no concern for how innocent people are affected by its quest for vengeance. Revenants may be mean, but they’re not evil.
• Modified Gatekeeper Hunt and Confrontation mechanic. Slightly altered the rules regarding the Hunt roll and the way Confrontations work.

Revenant: A Game of Vengeance

UPDATE: The latest version of REVENANT is available here.

I recently posted a new RPG playtest demo on the Last Redoubt Games page called Revenant. The core concept for this game is that the player is a restless spirit drawn back into the world of the living to avenge its death. Drawing heavily upon the “revenge story” tradition of films like The Crow or the Kill Bill series, Revenant encourages players to avenge their deaths by slowly destroying the things that matter most to their killer before finally destroying them directly.

The concept is pretty dark and I deliberately avoided including any sort of redemption mechanics. Your hatred for your killer is what brought you back from the dead and you cannot rest until you’ve had your vengeance.

Like most of the other games I’ve designed, Revenant is very narrative heavy and light on rules. It’s also specifically designed as a two-player game (although there is a variant included for more players). The player and the GM work together to tell a collaborative story about how the Revenant pursues and carries out its revenge. Narrative control passes back and forth between the two throughout the game, but the rules (such as they are) don’t provide much in the way of restrictions. As long as both the player and the GM agree on how to resolve situations, pretty much anything goes.

The playtest pdf gives you pretty much everything you need to play other than six-sided dice and something to write with. There are no stats, but a character sheet is included near the end of the document. So take a look and let me know what you think. As always, I’m interested to hear thoughts and suggestions.

Oh, and if you’re looking for something to strike the right tone for the game, check out this Spotify playlist I put together to put me in the appropriate frame of mind for, you know, rising from the dead and seeking vengeance.