As the Sun Forever Sets: playtest

Over the summer, I’ve been running a game of As the Sun Forever Sets, a Forged in the Dark game set during HG Wells’ Martian invasion by Riley Daniels. The game isn’t out yet – I signed up for the playtest and received a long pdf rulebook, some summary sheets and a hex map of Britain.

The game is a sort of hex-crawl. You decide where you start, determine your objectives during the prelude, and then work your way across the map to your destination, avoiding Martian terrors and the fall of civilisation.

Our characters

I ran it with three characters: Sir Sidney Eaton-Warwick (widower and industrialist – played by Terry), Major Horace Armstrong (guilt-ridden military historian – Jon), and Miss Dorothea Feldman (German magician’s technician – Thomas).

We started in Dudley, with Sir Sidney and Horace at a performance by Miss Dorothea. Then, the roof of the building was torched by a Martian heat ray, and we were off.

Practically, we played the game online. We used Discord for video and chat, and Trello as our virtual table. Players rolled physical dice and told me what the results were.

Our Trello board

The story

Our story was very enjoyable. After escaping the initial panic, the PCs sheltered with some nuns in a nearby nunnery. They then escorted the nuns to their sister order near Stafford before heading north. On their way, they rescued civilians from a Martian capture-machine and helped military scientists refine and test their new, improved artillery piece. Eventually, they left England on Sir Sidney’s yacht – just as the Martians died out.

Some great moments:

• Hiding in the nunnery cellar as the building collapsed above them – and then escaping while there’s a war machine watching above.
• Rescuing people from a trapped Martian capture-machine – shooting its sensors and then killing its occupants.
• Testing the new artillery piece – taking out two tripods and then getting a ridiculous success when shelling the Martian structure, blowing it to smithereens.

The system

However, I hated the system. ATSFS is a Forged in the Dark game, which I’m not familiar with. (I signed up to the playtest because I liked the sound of the game’s setting.)

Rolling dice: Most of the time in ATSFS, the players make planning and action rolls. Planning is for larger, overall actions where everyone works together. Actions are when characters are doing something dangerous or difficult.

(There are other rolls (reflex, chance, feud), but I found they came up only infrequently.)

Both work the same way – decide what you’re doing and build a dice pool of six-sided dice. Then, roll the dice – if your highest dice is a six, you succeed. If you roll two sixes, that’s a critical success. If your highest dice is a four or five, it’s a mixed success (there’s a complication). And so on – if your highest dice is a one, well, that’s a critical fail.

However, the way you build the dice pool is slightly different for each roll, and I found that I was going back to the rules every time to remind myself how it all worked. (That was the playtest – I hope the final system will be more consistent.)

The loop: Gameplay effectively follows a loop:

• Players decide what they want to do.
• Players make a plan roll.
• Players resolve any events that occur.
• Players decide what they want to do.
• And so on…

In game terms, you can cover a lot of ground this way. A journey of ten miles on foot is merely a single roll. And you can zoom in if you need to.

In play, I found that the way the planning rolls worked (each player builds their own dice pool), we had a lot of successes.

The fiddliness: While the core system seems straightforward, I found it fiddly. The core system is backed up by many subsystems (consequences, companions, transport, camping, shelters, the accord, threat, the map), and I often felt overwhelmed. I’m a “let’s keep things simple” GM. I’m new to Forged in the Dark, and ATSFS was not a good fit for me.

I became very frustrated with the system. Despite playing for nine sessions, I never felt comfortable with the game.

Support: The support from Riley on the playtest Discord server was superb, and I got quick responses to my questions.

Online maps

We found superb online maps for Victorian Britain – the National Library of Scotland has online OS maps of the entire country, including those from the 1800s.

Overall

So I’m pleased I tried ATSFS, but I can’t imagine playing it again. I enjoyed playing through War of the Worlds, but I don’t think I’d want to do that again. And I don’t like the mechanics – they’re more complicated than I am comfortable with.

Hazelwood Abbey - DramaSystem playbooks

Following its successful premiere at Furnace, I’ve put Hazelwood Abbey on itch.io as a free download.

Hazelwood Abbey

Hazelwood Abbey is Downton Abbey meets Hillfolk. Players play an aristocratic family in a player-led dramatic game of emotional needs and wants for 4-5 players.

Hazelwood Abbey uses Pelgrane Press' DramaSystem rules engine to create a story of high-stakes interpersonal conflict. During the session, players create family members with conflicting needs and goals. And then we find out what happens.

Hazelwood Abbey consists of two sets of playbooks - one for upstairs (the family) and one for downstairs (the servants).

Upstairs playbooks

• The Earl
• The Countess
• The Heir
• The Spare
• The Eldest  Daughter
• The Youngest Daughter
• The Suitor
• The Cousin

Downstairs playbooks

• The Butler
• The Housekeeper
• The Valet
• The Lady's Maid
• The Footman
• The Housemaid
• The Cook
• The Scullery Maid

Download for free

You can download them for free on my Itch.io page.

I’ve proposed Hazelwood Abbey for Airecon in March 2024, and I’m thinking how I can run a DramaSystem game online.

Furnace 2023

It’s October and that means I’ve been to Furnace, the RPG convention in Sheffield held over two days (five sessions of gaming). I ran one game and played in three. This is how they went.

Dragonbane

First up was a Dragonbane scenario, The Village of the Day Before, ably run by Graham. I played grumpy mallard, Makander of Halfbay.

The scenario had a videogame feel about it – there was a problem to solve, which we had to solve by doing things in the right order. Fail (or run out of time), and everyone dies and the scenario resets. Fortunately, Graham didn’t make us go through everything for every reset – that would have been tiresome. We ended up with a tricky battle against a demon in which I (as the party tank) led the assault and almost died.

As a system, Dragonbane was new to me. It was extremely easy to pick up, which I was grateful for, and probably made it good for conventions.

It would have been nice to have fifteen minutes of session zero at the start to get the characters to bond with each other and create links to the scenario. As it was, we were an “adventuring party”, and we were going to the village because it might have some treasure. I know those are RPG tropes, but I’ve never been convinced by them.

DramaSystem

After lunch, I ran Hazelwood Abbey, which is Downton Abbey for Hillfolk/DramaSystem. My five players were Elina (Eldest Daughter), Lynn (The Heir), Dee (The Earl), Paul (The Spare) and Becky (The Youngest Daughter). 

Most players were new to the game, so I ran through the system, and we dived in. Everyone leaned into their characters and the situation. We had a lovely dramatic game with illegitimate children, money problems, a dodgy Heir and more.

This time, I found I needed some GM scenes to keep up the pressure on the main plot established at the start. (That wasn’t something I needed when I ran Hillfolk at Continuum.) So halfway through the game, I inserted a “GM” card into the deck I was using to call scenes; when it was my turn, I played whichever minor character I needed to play to keep things on track.

We wrapped up after about 2.5 hours with a satisfactory climax. It felt like an intense session, and I was grateful for a slightly longer break after the game. 

I will do a couple of things differently next time as The Heir and Spare need adjusting. The Heir decided that they were a distant relative, which put The Spare in an odd position. We sort of fudged it, but I’ve adjusted The Heir’s playbook to say that if The Spare is in the game, then the Heir should be a family member (ie an older brother). I think that would have been clearer.

I’ll make the playbooks available shortly.

Saturday evening

I never play slot 3 at Furnace; instead, I head home to see the family. So I re-read the Hillfolk rules. Having run it twice now, I’m already questioning some rules. I don’t know if that’s the difference between campaign and one-shot play, or whether I’m missing something, but it’s something I will reflect on as I run more Hillfolk/DramaSystem.

Unknown Armies

On Sunday morning, I played in Elaine’s Unknown Armies game – another system new to me. Elaine ran Jailbreak, a classic Unknown Armies one-shot featuring escaped convicts and an isolated farmhouse. I played Uder, the loving husband, and I’m not going to say more than that for fear of spoiling an excellent scenario. (And that’s a shame because I had a lovely scene with Elina, playing my lovely wife, which I won’t mention because it was sooooo spoilery.)

Jailbreak gets a thumbs up from me for using characters tailored for the adventure – it wouldn’t be as effective with a random set of pre-gens.

A couple of the players had played it before but couldn’t remember the details. Playing the scenario a second time isn’t a problem if you are deliberately antagonistic and help drive the action, which is what happened this time.

I didn’t get the hang of the rules – particularly the Madness Meter. But I think I made only one or two rolls, so it didn’t matter.

I expected the game to end up bloodier than it did – no characters died. Maybe we’re all getting more reasonable as we get older.

Liminal

And finally, a Liminal investigation run by Neil set in and around Newcastle (and written to accompany the forthcoming Novocastria book). With its vampires and werewolves, it’s easy to head towards horror in Liminal, but instead, Scream! If you want to die faster? focussed on genuine Newcastle folklore involving a traditional fair (The Hoppings) with its “danger night” and even an old curse). 

We played members of the Worshipful Company of Investigators – I was posh boy Simon D’Oliviera, a clued-in mortal. (And if that sounds familiar, it’s because the characters were taken from Pax Londinium – the Crew was sent on a mission outside London to the Grim North.) I’m not sure I played Simon particularly well – but I rolled dice, followed the clues, danced, was ineffectual in combat and enjoyed exploring liminal Newcastle.

One character was a London geomancer. Outside of London, you’d think their powers would be limited, but Neil had a great way to connect them to Newcastle through the gift of a magic Newcastle United shirt. (Geomancy is a tricky power if you run a game set in many locations – this was a neat solution.) 

Overall

So, three great games played, and I enjoyed running Hazelwood Abbey. Best of all was catching up with old friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in years.

Maybe next year I’ll make one of the other Garrison conventions?

Current projects

I did a progress report in Feb. Here’s an update. I should do these regularly – they’re useful places for me to record what I’ve done and talk about what I have planned.

What did I achieve?

Since the last progress report, I’ve completed:

• Writing Freeform Larps
• Way out West format update (for Freeform Games)
• Other London Volume 4: Tales of Terror
• Count Magnus’ Descendent
• The Roswell Incident (for Freeform Games)

I also completed the formatting for Night Train and The Highgate Club for Peaky Games, but thanks to some technical difficulties, neither is yet available.

Current projects

I’m currently working on several projects, but I seem to work best by working on a lot of things at once. It stops me from becoming tired of any one thing. And if I hit a block, I can work on something else until inspiration strikes.

Freeform Games

Freeform Games is my main source of income, so these are my main focus.

A Purrfect Murder: A new game by Karolina Soltys and set at a cat fancy show. It’s currently being playtested by some of our customers, and when I’ve incorporated the feedback, we’ll put it on sale.

Court in the Act: Once I’ve put A Purrfect Murder to bed, I’ll start to bring Court in the Act up to date. It’s the last game in our old format.

I’m also thinking about starting a vampire/werewolf/urban fantasy murder mystery that we can sell for Halloween (our most popular period). I’m not sure about the details yet, but I’m sure it will come to me.

The Department for Irregular Services (DfIS)

I wrote about the DfIS a while back, and I used the DfIS for Count Magnus’ Descendent (a gloomy Cthulhu Dark adventure).

However, I created the DfIS for Liminal, and I’m expanding the idea with some pre-generated characters and a couple of adventures. I’ve written an investigation based on the legend of Dartmoor’s Hairy Hands, but I need to playtest it. 

Other London

I’m currently working on two investigations for Other London. Well, when I say I’m working on two, I’ve paused one while the other has taken over.

The Dead Undead: A vampire is found dead in a nightclub, and Desk 17 investigates. Before this, I didn’t know what happened to vampires when they died.

The Orphan Room: A room with no doors is found in a hotel complex. It contains a desk, and on the desk are severed heads preserved in jars. It’s a job for Desk 17, but the author has been distracted by shinies and will get back to it in due course.

First contact freeforms

I am writing and running a series of first-contact freeforms heavily inspired by classic science fiction. The series starts with The Roswell Incident (now at Freeform Games) before continuing with All Flesh is Grass, Children of the Stars and Messages from Callisto.

I am running Children of the Stars and Messages from Callisto at Consequences in November. Events that unfold in Children will affect Callisto, and three players are playing in both (two of whom have played earlier games in the series). 

So I’ve given myself a headache working out how to manage the potential different pieces of information for Messages. I have a system in place, and it means that players won’t receive some information until just before the game starts (because until Children finishes, I won’t know what to tell them). I have my fingers crossed that it all works out as I hope.

The Stars our Destination: I’m also starting on the fifth episode, in which an alien spaceship lands on Easter Island.

Other projects

Hazelwood Abbey: I enjoyed running Hillfolk so much at Continuum that I created a set of playbooks inspired by Downton Abbey. I’m running it at Furnace (and I’ve pitched it for Airecon). Assuming it doesn’t break, I’ll make them available for download.

And that’s about it

For now, at least.