Inhuman Violence 2

As is the nature of horror media, it’s time for sequel.

Intro

I’ve been running a Delta Green campaign using Violence for a little while now, and I’ve run into an issue - the Endurance soak method of damage outlined in the original Inhuman Violence sucks. It’s just not fun in actual play - it reduces the monsters to feeling like big meat sacks you keep shooting til they fall down. In a horror game, the monsters are such a major focus that it feels silly to reduce them to this.

Rather than having a single unified way to model damage for the supernatural, each creature should have its own unique damage model. This increases the amount of work required, but should give much richer results - and due to the lower count of monsters in most horror games (as compared to fantasy) this shouldn’t be too much work. It also roots us once again in the fictional nature of the being - forcing us to consider how alien flesh might react to physical trauma.

Some general notes to think about when building out these blocks for your own beasties:

• Evasion is simply determining if you actually hit the thing - let the Harm bit determine whether the entity is harmed or not.
• Harm is meant to be a bit tricky to get right - try a few different things. Sometimes a creature is just immune to certain effects.

The Inhuman Violence

Impossible beings respond differently to Violence.

Evasion: Any modifiers to shooting attacks against the entity.
Shooting: The target number the entity uses to hit when shooting, and any modifiers to the Down roll.
Melee: How many dice the entity rolls in melee combat, and any notes about damage or restrictions.
Harm: A per-entity procedure on how to manage Injuries, Downs and Death.

Monsters

The Dead

Flesh borrowed or robbed from rightful rest. What festers within? An animus against the living carried all life long. Or an imposter that would puppet flesh with no concern for the mind that once dwelt within. Or simply the will of another killing the mind and hollowing the body to be worn as you might put on a suit.

Evasion: +3 (No evasive moves taken.)
Shooting: 20/per weapon.
Melee: 2d6. Always receives one Injury as it fights without self preservation. Adds +1d6 for each additional Dead assisting.
Harm: Whenever the Dead are Injured or Downed, roll 1d6 on the table below. Keep track of their Injuries.

Mi-Go

The fun-guys from Yuggoth. Ya boys. When using their heat-weapons, they simultaneously attack a target and suppress the area, counting as two people emptying their magazines. Such areas find any flammable materials igniting.

Evasion: -4 (Flight)
Shooting: 16+/ Causes 1d6 additional injuries on a hit.
Melee: 1d12+2.
Harm: Whenever a Mi-Go would be Injured or Downed, instead roll 1d20 and consult the chart below.

Black Hound

The Peril, The Warden’s Dogs, Vanguards.
A face shredded like a bouquet of flowers, wrapped in black plastic and left by the side of the road. Behind this disaster a long body of taut flesh over many-knuckled bones, flexing and moving independently. There are too many legs.

From ridges and tears in the real the hounds emerge, silent, ignoring any gravity or terrain. The unfortunate notice that each leg terminates in a human hand, some with rings.

They hunt those who survived initial breach events, marked for death. They are left as dust, all moisture driven from them. Electronic devices cannot perceive them, although they trigger moisture-sensitive systems.

To Hit: -4 (Speed)
Shooting: N/A
Melee: 2d8. Always causes 1 Injury regardless of result.
Harm: Black Hounds ignore Injured results from shooting. Downed results send them sprawling, but continue the hunt next round. In melee, they take Injuries and Down result normally. Any Injury or Down result from an explosive destroys them utterly.

2d6 Appearing. If killed, bodies rapidly liquefy, leaving only purified water.

The Teeming Augur

Stream-steeds, Dream Carriers, Graceful Mounts, Slow Angels.
In their thousands they buzz and dance, dwelling upon the shores of Time. They skitter across the surface freely, compound eyes drinking in all the sights offered, drinking deeply where some eddy in the flow gives their fanged proboscis purchase.

To the human eye they are each the size of ponies, scaled, built out with limbs too-slight to bear their weight. Wings of soap-bubble thin gossamer twitch frenetically from their back.

They can be ridden through time, although they will take a companion to incubate a brood of their eggs. They leave it up to those who would ride upon them to decide who bears this burden.

Mango Seed Wevil, Nikon Small World competion, Pia Scanlon

Proboscis of a house fly, Nikon Small World competition entry by Oliver Dum

To Hit: -1 (Speed)
Shooting: N/A
Melee: 2d10.
Harm: Whenever a Teeming Augur would be Injured or Downed, roll a d20 and consult the chart below.

Summoned, they appear in amount specified by the summoner. Upon the shores of the Lake of Seasons or beyond the conventional timestream, there are millions.

Entropy Survivors

The Black Worms, The Coils of Consumption, The Eels of Season.
When all energy spreads infinitely thin, something will survive as a concentration in the flat empty dark. These entities will seek one another, winnowing down their numbers to eke out some few millennia more of existence. Predators and basking sharks, immense coils of ribbed worm set behind mouths fit to extinguish suns. Within the Lake of Seasons, some echo of these final inheritors of existence lurk, preying instead upon those who come to the Lake too early. They are tiny in comparison - merely the size of underground trains. They are attracted to heat, light and movement. They consume electricity, radioactivity and light before resorting to living things.

To Hit: Automatic hits.
Shooting: N/A.
Melee: Those targeted must dodge or be consumed and destroyed utterly.
Harm: Whenever an Entropy Survivor would be Injured or Downed, roll a d20, adding +1 for each prior roll this engagement. On a 20+, it is driven away for d8 hours.

1d6-4 appearing. If more than one appear, they fight over prey.

Supplement V: Carcosa

For the unaware, Carcosa features magic rituals requiring sexual violence, sometimes against children. This is discussed below in the abstract. A version was created with these egregious aspects removed, although I’ve not read it myself.

I have often said in conversation that Supplement V: Carcosa (McKinney, 2008) is one of the most personally inspirational RPG works I’ve ever read. Known for its controversial takes on magic, adult content and (unfortunate) re-release under LotFP, much of what makes it so utterly compelling and strange are often ignored. This is my small effort to address that.

The imaginative scope of Carcosa is huge. Despite pulling so heavily upon the Cthulhu Mythos, the result feels utterly removed from the centre of gaming, dominated by elves and elves-with-a-twist. Furthermore, this scope is more than ad-copy, or a gesture towards a larger idea never quite demonstrated - it is executed upon, creating something directly useful in-play. You don’t need to run through a set of generators to build out the world - that work has been done for you.

Yet there is still work to be done - the hard and interesting work of interpretation and integration. Many of the hex-entries are minimal to the point of listing only a creature and how many of them are present. The prospective referee (or reader) must consider what an encounter with 389 Jungle Ants looks like. There is little thought or concern towards encounter design - by and large there is none. Instead, the facts of the world are presented, rendered in the most prosaic way possible, a flat register for a world so hostile, so alien to humanity - founded upon predation and blasphemous ritual.

These rituals - must discussed for their foul nature - directly tie the magic of the setting to the actual geography and inhabitants of Carcosa. That so many feature sexual violence, sometimes against children, is not only an aesthetic choice (of dubious value) but a statement as to what power means in such a world. Humanity, let alone human decency, must be discarded to wield the terrible powers of the alien gods sharing this living hell with you. I’ve seen defences of these rituals as “just for the bad guys” - I do not think this is the case as such. Presenting the path to power and leaving it up to the player to take those steps is far more interesting. It is worth noting that none of the rituals (on my reading) to defeat, banish or ward off the terrible creatures require such actions - only those who would summon and command the creatures need leave humanity behind like this. Beyond this element, many of the rituals require the gathering of reagents from specific hexes in the campaign world, and may only by learnt by strange actions taken in forgotten fanes and grottos beneath the watch of statues depicting inhuman deities.

The lack of editorialising gives Carcosa strength and dangerous ambiguity. In a space where known shitheads lurk and peddle their works, detailing such awful material raises hackles - justifiably. For those willing and able to take this work and think-with and through it, it has much to teach. This is no mark against those for whom the topics are intolerable - we all have our own tolerances.

This is why I keep coming back to Carcosa. It provides few answers, but gives ground to raise questions. It is a book for thinking-with, its incompleteness inspiring and demanding work from the reader, or Referee. Whether you think this is good or just my personal preference is up to you.

Question-raising is both a technique and a stance. Even if the “answer” (according to the author) is contained within the work, by creating distance between them we invite the reader to develop their own answers. When (if) they discover our answer, they are then able to disagree, to synthesise the two, or reject both and find another, novel answer to the questions raised in the text. Questions beget questions. Examples of this can be seen in using generators to ask questions (e.g. Traveller planet generation) rather than provide answers (e.g. SWN planet generation). There is an intersection here too - encounter tables answer the question, “what is here” but also raise the question “why?”.

Wolves Upon the Coast Grand Retrospective 2

It’s been about two years since I started selling Wolves Upon the Coast Grand Campaign, and about 10 months since the last retrospective. I’m not going to repeat myself, so give that a quick scan.

Accountants Upon the Coast

Data taken 27/05/23.

Calculating exact performance is slightly tricky due to the bundles combining Wolves with Volume 2: Monsters & and &&&&&&&&& Treasure - I’ve tried to account for these, but only in very crude ways.

• Total Purchases: 325.
• Total Income: $14001.

These numbers are frankly fucking bonkers. I am deeply moved by the response to the work - especially for such a plain document bucking against so many trends in the TTRPG space. Thank you.

The more pertinent measure here is how sales have changed as the price point has increased - a $50 pdf isn’t common outside of big traditional publishers the done thing at all.

Breaking it down:

• 65 Sales @ $5 minimum over 44 days.
• 25 Sales @ $15 minimum over 64 days.
• 42 Sales @ $20 minimum over 122 days.
• 27 Sales @ $30 minimum over 79 days.
• 52 sales @ $35 minumum over 187 days.
• 21 sales @ $45 minimum over 33 days.
• 103 sales @ $50 minimum over 83 days.

(These include the bundles which will be at higher prices, as well as people who kindly over-paid, hence the minimums being specified.)

In hindsight the $5 minimum was too low, although it may have helped with the main thing that drives sales: people talking about playing it, reading it and enjoying it. The huge increase is sales has come from those who tirelessly enthuse about the game and run it. You are all the real MVPs.

A rough-and-ready Twitter poll indicated that a few people would now be willing to jump onboard a slow-fund like this, although more said this only applied to me.

those of you who bought into Wolves later on - would you be more likely to buy in early on a similar project from me? what about for other people?

— Luke Gearing (@LukeGearing) March 27, 2023

So the big question - does this work?

For me, yes. I’ve not seen anyone else do anything similar, so I can only speak for myself. To my knowledge, some of those buying in had not heard of me and my work before - but this was driven entirely by word of mouth, which is the thing I keep coming back to - success in something like this comes from people talking. There’s no art, no layout to show off. You have to actually read (or play) the game. That’s hard when you’re competing with the amazing visual talent on display in the scene. I would love to see more people operating like this, but I can appreciate why many don’t - it’s a big unknown right now, and might be too bundled up in the individuals involved to generalise anything.

Since last time, 2 people have confirmed they read the demo and went on to buy the full thing. If this applies to you, please let me know - I’m really keen to see if demos are a thing that might work in TTRPGS.

Fans Upon the Coast

More than anything, the best part of this is hearing about people playing games. The public posts and reviews drive sales which is nice but knowing that people are using the content and having a great time is why I do this. Everyone who has told me privately or posted publicly that you’ve played Wolves - thank you. The success of the project is down to all of you.

Seeing some of the stuff people are making and have made for Wolves is stunning. I’ve had people show me art they made for their games, which blew me away. I wonder if the artless nature of Wolves encourages this sort of participation. I know of at least three people expanding the Wolves map, or applying it to different settings entirely. Getting to make something that inspires others to create is an amazing feeling.

Print Upon the Coast

ARE YOU DOING IT?!?!?
Yes.

WHEN?!?!?!?
Eventually. Like, at the soonest next year eventually.

WHAT ABOUT okay, stopping the bit for a moment.

One issue with Wolves upon the Paper is that people have already bought something. I’m trying to look into ways to offer discounts or special features to those who already own the digital Wolves, but it’s going to be messy and complicated due to the shifting price point and the numbers involved. At the least, those who already own the book should expect some special edition of the print edition - even if it’s just a signed copy and/or an alternate cover.

The digital edition will be updated alongside the print text, so they will be identical in the end. This mostly means hiring an editor to tidy and clean up the prose.

I suspect the final print edition will remain artless bar covers. Currently, I want to do this as a box-set although that will depend on price point. The box-set would include Volume 2: Monsters & and &&&&&&&&& Treasure. I’m looking into a single “big book” edition too, although my heart yearns for the box.

There will be no Kickstarter if it is humanly possible. More likely is a pre-order, so I can manage the number of copies printed carefully.

Clerics

The Cleric represents something not present. A representative of an outside force - the Church hierarchy, or a God. The other classes could be agents in a similar way, but the Cleric alone must be. A mystic seeker seems better represented by the Magic User, unbound by the titles and ethos of a firm known structure. A Cleric cannot be a force unto themselves - unless they are a Heretic.

The Heretic is against an orthodoxy. They are unsupported by their ‘home’ religion - consider that the OD&D cleric cannot call upon support from their religion, despite nominally being its representative. Rather than adventuring for the glory of the Church, they instead gather power to build a new temple - the centre of their new sect. They gather the “faithful” (converts) and build strength, independent and answerable to only their God. By reading the Cleric as a Heretic, we solve many of the issues with them as adventurers, contrasting with the self-interested mercenary aspirations of Fighter or Magic-User. This also retains the different relationship to magic they have as compared to Magic-User: the MU uses Magic to achieve something. The Heretic remains devotional.

That even this most spiritual of classes must rely upon the acquisition of wealth through guile and violence seems notable. Contrast with the NPC Clerics who collect tithe from those passing by, or task them with missions, ensconced in their strongholds.

On the Thinking Adventures discord, Milton from The Last Redoubt found this extra context:

The “turcopole”-type here as well is interesting and really lend this as well as your concept of clerics not being part of local power center.

During the period of the Crusades, turcopoles (also “turcoples” or “turcopoli”; from the Greek: τουρκόπουλοι, literally “sons of Turks”)[1] were locally recruited mounted archers and light cavalry employed by the Byzantine Empire and the Crusader states.

A perennial problem for the Christian states of Outremer was the limited quantities of Frankish manpower, horses and weapons available. To a certain extent this weakness was redressed through the employment of locally recruited turcoples, riding indigenous horses and using the same equipment as their opponents.

The Mamluks also considered turcopoles to be traitors and apostates, killing all those whom they captured.

Wolves 3rd Party Shit

So you want to make shit (meaning books) for/with Wolves?

1. If you want to just use the rules chassis as its own thing without using the name, feel free. Saying thanks is nice but not required.
2. If you want to use the Wolves name on something, make it clear you’re not associated with me.
3. If you want to make Wolves content (i.e. something that integrates with the Grand Campaign, Volume 2: Monsters & or &&&&&&& Treasure) make it clear you’re not associated with me and that this is a 3rd party addition/expansion/whatever. You may reference stuff from any of the Wolves content, but may not reproduce it (e.g. you can say “Treasure Type Bandits III” or list a magic item from &&&&&&&&& Treasure but not copy the text of the item itself.)

In any of the cases above, you’re all good to make money on what you make.

Exceptions:
If either…

1. You personally or as a business entity have an annual gross turnover in excess of $100,000 and/or….
2. You are planning on using the content on Kickstarter or any other form of crowdfunding.

…then you must contact me to reach an agreement to do any of the above.

If you just wanna do a stream or video or whatever go nuts. Anything else check in with me first.

Writing NPCs

When writing NPCs, you can communicate 2 or 3 things, or 4 related things. Anything more than that, and you’re either going to be ignored by the person running the game, they’re going to change it, as is the nature of translation, or they’ll be checking your notes so often that they do a worse job of running the game than if they’d just winged it.

That said, NPCs changing when used in play isn’t a bad thing - it just means you can’t rely on things being true about them any more. Experience reproduction is something I’m actively against in RPGs: this is more about using your various pieces effectively.

I’ve been running Classic Traveller Adventure 08, Prison Planet, which has a shitload of NPCS and communicates them super effectively: the other trick it uses is the UPP, which encodes some general info into the stats and skill. The order for the stats is Strength Dexterity Endurance Intelligence Education and Social Standing, using hexadecimal notation (e.g. A=10, B=11 etc.) Below is an page of NPC stats. Personally I’d use a name to refer to the rumours so I can immediately tell which rumour it’s in reference to, but otherwise this is great - gives you plenty to riff on, doesn’t take ages describing the character, and doesn’t set up stuff to get ‘wrong’.