Haunting Secrets

With Haunt right around the corner, let’s hear from James to see what makes Haunt so unique.

Secrets

Haunt is a game about secrets. Players have secrets, Game Master’s have secrets, and even NPC’s have their secrets.

Let’s explore these secrets in detail.

When creating a character in Haunt, the Game Master needs to physically get up and leave the room. He cannot be here during this time, otherwise the game becomes trivial. Once the Game Master is gone, you can really dig into these dark secrets. There are three secrets each character has, and each one has certain limitations to it. These secrets are the Haunt Secret, Character Secret, and Background Secret. The players talk together to explore their secrets. It is important that each player knows everyone’s secrets. The reason for this is it makes sure that no individual player can lie about their secrets.

The first secret is the Haunt Secret. Think of a phrase that fits within these guidelines: something that has to do with why your character came to this location or why they hunt the supernatural. Let’s look at a few examples. At the beginning of the game the Game Master explains the setting to the players as much as he can. The players use this knowledge to choose their haunt secrets. In this example, the haunted location is an old abandoned house that several people have not returned from. One character’s Haunt Secret might be “I was left behind while my friends went to this house,” and anothers is “I am a paranormal investigator who wants to get to the bottom of this!” The Haunt Secret gives your character a reason for being at this location.

The Character Secret is the most fun secret to choose. The limitations of this secret is that it must have something to do with another character. This secret strengthens the bonds between the characters and helps build up even more of a backstory. Some examples of these secrets would be “I am secretly in love with Mary,” and “The people I murdered had a son. He is another character.”

The Background Secret has the most freedom connected to it. It is simply a secret from your characters past. This is a good way to flesh out your characters background a little bit. Some examples of these secrets would be “I stole another mans identity.” and “I was convicted for a murder I did, but got away.”

Something magical happens when creating these secrets. Talking about them with your friends at the table, you will start to make connections between your secrets. A detailed and interesting backstory begins to reveal itself. When you create your characters’ secrets you will see how your characters’ backstories interact. This makes a small web of interconnected events that can make for some very interesting stories. Of course, you can ignore all of these connections and just play these secrets mechanically, but I have noticed that the kind of people who truly enjoy roleplaying games cannot help but to create these connections instinctually.

Now that we know what the secrets are and how they are formed, the Game Master needs to know how to discover them. Throughout play, the Game Master will gain the opportunity to ask a player a question. This question is the primary technique for finding the players’ secrets. Did you murder anyone in your past? Is your character in love? Are you a runaway? Who is your character secret with? These are all types of questions that you can ask. Each one whittles away at a character’s secrets until the darkest ones are revealed. It is important for the Game Master to use context clues and gauge the players reactions to your questions. The human element of investigation is very important, because once the Game Master uncovers all three of a character’s secret, that character is out of the game.

The three secrets, Haunt, Character, and Background, are just the tip of the iceberg. There are a few other optional secrets as well which will be in the full version of the game. These include Legacy secrets, Outsider secrets, and Hellbound secrets. And many more varieties are possible as well. As long as they are consistent, Game Masters can even create their own.

You can get the playtest version of Haunt for free by CLICKING HERE.

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If you want to know more about Haunt or talk to the developer, then come join our Discord server!

Z-LAND S2 Chapter 1 “Lost & Found” Part 3

The final part to Chapter 1 is here, what will our survivors find at the end of the cable?

If you want to get in on the apocalyptic action, you can grab a copy of the Z-Land beta here.

Missed out on the previous episodes? CLICK HERE to catch up on all the apocalyptic action.

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If you want to chat about Z-LAND with other players and the developers, then come join our Discord server!

Intro to Haunt

Haunt is the first product created by Stormforge West. It has been in development for nearly a year and is now nearing completion. Soon, a fully fleshed out roleplaying game filled with beautiful, hand painted art will be fully available for purchase.

So to get you started with Haunt, here’s James with more about the game:

Let’s Talk about Haunt

In Haunt, you play as a group of private investigators, psychics, scientists, and exorcists being hunted by a supernatural creature. Haunt is a horror tabletop roleplaying game. This means your table will soon be a center of dread and terror. Haunt creates this tension by spiraling your failures. Everytime you speak to a non-player character; every time you attempt to find a clue; every time the evil spirit makes itself known; you can fail, and with each failure, it becomes easier and easier to fall to the ghost. Losing the game is easy when your darkest secrets are exposed, your will to survive is lost and you are killed.

Winning the game is significantly more difficult. To win Haunt, you must track down the clues and learn about what exactly is hunting you. Once you know what’s hunting you, predator becomes prey. Killing a ghost is not easy. It is a deeply personal task, one that requires you to learn about the ghost’s past actions and current intentions. Every haunt has a unique method of banishing it. Some may require you to solve their past mistakes. Others require dark rituals to be performed. The method of banishment is just as important to the ghost is its origins.
What makes Haunt different from other RPGs is its secret mechanic. Every player has 3 dark secrets. These secrets are so secret in fact, that the GM does not know what they are. As a GM, your job will be to uncover these secrets. There are a few ways to go about this, but the easiest is to just ask them. Whenever a player fails a roll, you may ask a question that they have to answer truthfully. Did you ever murder anyone? Were you a criminal? Are you in love? Did you lose a loved one? These are the sort of questions you should ask. Every time you discover a secret, every roll the players make becomes more difficult to pull off.

This is the backbone of Haunt: the secrets. They force the GM to play along with the players. While the players are investigating the haunted house, the GM must investigate the players. The GM must try to kill the players instead of trying to almost kill them. Haunt is a race. The GM must find the players secrets before the players find out the haunts secrets. Who will win? Who will survive?

You can get the playtest version of Haunt for free by CLICKING HERE.

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If you want to know more about Haunt or talk to the developer, then come join our Discord server!

Sigil System Feedback Survey

We always want to make the best games we can, and to do that we need to know how we’re doing. If we know what we’re doing wrong then we can fix it, and if we know what we’re doing right then we know not to mess with it.

Your feedback is more valuable to us than gold and silver, and we would be eternally grateful if you could do us a favour and fill out the Sigil System Feedback Survey. It will be your chance to tell us exactly what you think about the system and you can even say what type of projects you want us to work on next. You will have our undivided attention.

We’ve also got a gift for those who do they survey: you can grab any one of our paid digital products for free. So if you’ve had your eye on a game of ours, but haven’t gotten it yet, now’s your chance to get it for free.

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If you want to chat more about the survey and everything else we do, then come join our Discord server!

GM’s Day Sale now on

DriveThruRPG is holding their annual GM’s Day Sale. It’s their biggest sale of the year and everything included in the sale is 33% off.

We’re lucky that they picked three of our products to put on their sale. We got Z-LAND, The Ruined City, and The Ruined People in the sale, so if you haven’t gotten your hands on them yet, get in quick now to get 33% off.

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If you’re looking for a place to talk about all the games and settings we make, then come join our Discord server!

We’re proud to announce Stormforge West!

We’re always seeking to get better at making games and producing content, and the best way of doing that is to grow, expand and take in new talent. We’ve done precisely that and we’re happy to announce Stormforge West!. That’s their runic logo up top, and Stormforge West will be a small development team situated in the Americas and spearheaded by James Andrews who just joined us. Stormforge West is part of Stormforge Productions, but it will make its own games and do its own thing. This means that Stormforge Productions will not only be able to put out more games, but will put out a greater variety of games than before. We’re all different sorts of people and we look at things in different ways, and that variety is the spice of life.

You won’t have to wait too long before seeing something from Stormforge West, as they already have a game near completion! It’s called Haunt, and rather than having me talk about, let’s hear about it from James himself:

“Haunt” is a horror tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) designed for 4-5 players, one of which is called the Game Master (GM). Haunt does something different than most RPG’s. In Haunt, the players hide information from the Game Master. Players will play as paranormal detectives, exorcists, or psychics with a goal of stopping a haunting, possession, or any other supernatural event. These “haunts” will attempt to learn your characters darkest secrets to gain an advantage over the character and break their resolve. Haunt uses simple rules paired with detailed locations to give a greater sense of immersion in the environment. Using simple rules allow you to jump right into the game without having to read pages upon pages of rules. Six archetypes are available for characters to play as. Each one has unique statistics and a special boon, but, true character creation begins at the secrets. This game absolutely relies on trust between the players and the Game Master, cheating or lying ruins the fun for everybody.

Sigil System get’s Copper!

The Sigil System just got to Best Copper Seller level on DriveThruRPG! We couldn’t be more happier and it’s all thanks to all of you! It’s with your support that we’ve gotten the Sigil System this far, and that’s with it only being a Pay-What-You-Want product. To celebrate this milestone for our core system, we’re giving you 50% off The Runed Age with this special discount.

We got a lot more mods and supplements planned for the Sigil System, so we’re sure that we’ll be seeing it hit Silver Seller soon!

If you haven’t yet gotten your hands on the Sigil System yet, CLICK HERE to check it out.

Runes of Power update

With the Sigil System 1.2 released, it was time to start updating our prior mods to get up to speed with the new system.

First on the block is Runes of Power. It used to be called Runic Magic, but now it’s got a snazzy new name and a new pretty cover. We’ve made some tweaks to the magic rules to get it to Sigil 1.2 standards and you’ll see this especially with the Range rules for the incantations.

We’ve also added in some new character creation options (much like in Brightest Night), so if you want to start a game off as a wizard or a mage, these character creation options will help set the mood and the tone for your new magical character.

So if you’re keen on some runic magic (and who isn’t), then click the big image up top or HERE to get your hands on Runes of Power.

And remember to keep watching this space as we’ve got a heap of new mods coming out on the horizon, from character focussed mods to combat mods to even world-generating mods!

Z-LAND Beta 6.0 Released!

Version 6.0 of the Z-Land beta is now out and on its way to you!

We’re on the final stretch now for the beta and we’re busy wrapping up the last of the mechanics. In this version we’ve added in the character creation section for the third era of Z-LAND: New Genesis. It takes place 175 years after the undead apocalypse happened and the world is now a truly different place. Think of the New Genesis character creator as a sneak preview into the minds of the people living in that faraway future.

What you can still look forward to in the beta is some GM tools for quickly creating NPC groups that the players can interact with as well as some touch up jobs here and there!

The Z-LAND questionnaire

Thank you to everyone who has so far filled out the survey. It has helped us immensely. For those of you out of the loop, we have a short survey that you can fill out if you’ve gotten your hands on the beta. In the survey you can tell us what works, what doesn’t work, what you like/dislike and all that carry on. Now that we’re getting close to the end of the beta, we need your feedback more than ever.

https://goo.gl/forms/kl7FRONSX2nJrVcu2

New Sigil System mod out: Brightest Night


Calling all clerics and warlocks, priests and witches, paladins and dreadknights! Your journey to power starts here!

The next mod for the Sigil System is out now and it focusses entirely on holy and evil powers.

If you want to be a paladin or a cleric then you can swear an oath to your god or gods to gain the powers to heal wounds, see into the future, smite evildoers or make yourself superhumanly powerful.

If you want to be a warlock or other ne’er-do-well then you can sacrifice something precious of yours the powers to summon hellbeasts, turn into smoke, control hellfire or teleportation.

Just remember that nothing in life is for free, and one way or the other you will eventually end up paying for it.

CLICK HERE or the image above to get Brightest Night now for Pay What You Want.