Grand theft mecha
over 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 07:38:19 AM

583 backers, £4206 raised, five stretch goals hit (including, in the final hours, the story seed-filled interstellar map). The heist of the millennium!

Thank you. Everyone. I've been an RPG freelancer for years, but I've only recently started releasing my own designs. Your vote of confidence in this, my first Kickstarter, means so very much. I can't wait to get this game into your hands and see what you all do with it! 

So what's next?

First, I'm having a nap! After that, probably a celebratory pizza. After that:

•  Kickstarter funds will clear in a few weeks, which is exciting because then I can start paying all my excellent collaborators!
•  All four artists are already hard at work. I expect I'll have more to share with backers on that front really soon.
•  My first task is polishing up the rules. They're already written, but I want to clarify a few points based on playtest feedback, provide some additional guidance on tone and safety, and make sure everything is looking sharp before I send it off to Dr Melody Watson to work her editor's magic.
•  Once the core rules are with Melody, I'll start work in earnest on the sample Thrones. It's fair to say that I'm really looking forward to this part!

You should expect to hear from me once a month from here on out, unless I have specific news to share. 

How can you help?

There's a couple of things you can do to help out:

•  Playtest! The Stealing the Throne basic rules are in the December 2020 issue of in*die zine. If you play the game, let me know how it goes!
•  Recommend a stellar cartographer! I've got a few excellent leads for the last stretch goal, but I'm still open to suggestions. Do you know anyone who might illustrate an amazing space operatic star chart?
•  Stay in touch! You can find me on twitter (@ickbat), and my other games are available now on itch.io (ickbat.itch.io).

The in*die zine

Before I go, I want to say a little bit about the in*die zine. Stealing the Throne was born there, and absolutely wouldn't exist without the support, encouragement and skills of that excellent community of writers, artists, editors, and layout designers.

If you pick up the December 2020 edition you'll get the basic rules for Stealing the Throne so you can start playing today. You'll also get five more games, supplements, essays, even a crochet photo comic, all for just $4. I particularly recommend Heterodoxy by Calvin Johns and To Graves Unknown by Nick Wedig - both are amazing games by top-notch designers.  

All proceeds from the in*die zine go directly to the creators. Moreover, it's a community that aims to encourage, promote, and mentor its members. By throwing a few bucks our way, you're supporting a collective of established and up-and-coming indie designers. And if you think you might want to get involved, drop us a line!

If you'll indulge me a minute longer, I particularly want to thank these people:

•  Marx Shepherd, who wrangles the in*die community and edited Stealing the Throne.
•  Jane Hermiston, who heads up in*die layout efforts, and personally laid out Stealing the Throne.
•  angela quidam, who produced a brilliant illustration of three strange thieves breaking into their Throne.

Marx, Jane, angela, all the in*die community: you're the best. Thank you.

The Getaway

And thank you again, so much. Welcome to the crew. Let's steal ourselves a giant robot! 

-Nick

Blaze of glory: 24 hours to go!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 06:51:35 PM

513 backers! What a truly staggering number - thank you all so much. Every one of you. I'm overjoyed that so many of you are into this game. I can't wait to share it with you all, and hear all about your epic mecha heists!

Let's finish the job

Just 24 hours to go. Here's what you need to know:

•  Share this thing far and wide! Use the #StealingTheThrone hashtag, if you're into that sort of thing. Recruit your buddies on Discord or Slack, talk about (stealing) your favourite mecha, start dreaming up outrageous heists. And tag me in!
•  The £4000 stretch goal is in sight! I'd love to hit it before we're done, so I can commission a star chart filled with interesting details from a thousand years of history: dramatic battles, mysterious artefacts, vast interstellar empires, all that good, good space opera stuff.
•  Want to hear me talk about Stealing the Throne? Check out this episode of Yes Indie'd Pod, then subscribe, listen to more excellent ZineQuest content, and go back Marx Shepherd's brilliant game.
•  If you're itching to play, you can do so right now! And - you guessed it - tag me in!

Gameplay Preview: Blaze of Glory

This seems like the perfect time to talk about Stealing the Throne's Blaze of Glory mechanic!

Stealing the Throne is split into three phases: Planning (discussed in this update), the Heist, and then the action-filled Getaway. During the Heist, the current Thief plays a card from their hand, trying to beat the Throne's highest card.

What happens if they can't beat the Throne's cards?

First, the Thief calls for backup. If the rest of their crew can't (or won't!) help, then the Thief has two choices:

• Go out in a blaze of glory, or
• Betrayal!

These options deliver two of my favourite action-heist beats: the moment where a thief heroically (or tragically) sacrifices themselves so the crew can succeed, and the moment when a member of the crew reveals they were a traitor all along.

If a Thief choses to go out in a blaze of glory, they throw in their hand of cards and narrate their dramatic capture or demise. Their sacrifice clears the current obstacle so that the heist can proceed, but it also lowers the Alert Level, making things a little bit easier for the rest of the crew. (And remember: even if a thief is out of the game, their player never is!)

In playtests, these have been some truly epic moments. On the first Burning Soldier Job, for example, our bird-like cosmic fire sorcerer self-immolated, turning themselves into a flaming comet to punch a hole out of the chamber where The Burning Soldier had been kept in chains for centuries.

Don't just take my word for it! Check out this great twitter thread from Logan Timmins, top-notch game designer and excellent human. He wrote about his Stealing the Throne playtest with the Amble Studio crew, where they had not one but two thieves go out in a blaze of glory!

Almost there...

24 hours to go. The end is in sight. You know what to do.

- Nick

The getaway: 48 hours to go!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 07:17:39 AM

450 backers, 331% funded, 48 hours to go. We've secured the Throne - time for the getaway! 

In this update: another awesome art preview, some inspirations behind Stealing the Throne, and a couple more cool zines for you to check out. First, though, some quick reminders:

• Only 48 hours left on the Kickstarter Heist. Come and join in!
• We've got two more stretch goals to go: At £4000, I'll commission an interstellar star chart filled with story seeds, and at £4500 we'll start adding bonus pay for all the zine's contributors! Can we hit them before we make our escape?

 More art previews!

Who wants to see some more preview art? (Me!) Check out Sam Tung's sketches for the mighty Belly Laugh, a fan favourite in early playtesting:

How incredible are these?! Sam is a storyboard artist (currently working on Metroid Prime 4!), and I think that really shines through in these sketches. They're so dynamic! You better believe we had a hard time choose which option to go with. Which one is your favourite?

(Also, have you checked out Escape from Dino Island yet? Sam Tung co-designed it along with Sam Roberts, and it's a masterpiece. Get it in your life!)

Inspirations!

Curious where Stealing the Throne came from? Here are four big pieces of the puzzle: 

•  Battletech. I discovered a dusty copy of the Battletech board game in a newsagent nearly thirty years ago. I had no idea what it was, but I was instantly hooked: grand sweeping space opera (very 80s!), with big stompy robots handed down through the generations, knowledge of their construction now lost. (It makes me very happy that the Battletech board game is undergoing a bit of a resurgence right now, thanks in no small part to Kickstarter backers.)

•  Wushu: The Qimmerian Kestrel. I ran a game of Wushu by Daniel Bayn in the mid-2000s. It was a steampunk heist, to steal the mysterious Qimmerian Kestrel from the airship of Baron von Limburg, floating high above the capital of the Rennish Empire. This was where I first discovered the joy of posing impossible heist-related challenges to my friends, and seeing what devious schemes they came up with in response. The beauty of Wushu is that actions narrated by players always happen (you're rolling for scene resolution, not action resolution), so it didn't matter if my puzzles seemed impossible - the thieves would always find a way through!
•  Leverage. You all know John Rogers' Leverage TV show, right? I loved that show. And I particularly loved it when the mastermind Nate would kicked off a heist or con with the phrase "Let's go steal us <something ridiculous>". A masterpiece, a general, Christmas, a royal title.

•  The good bit in Pacific Rim: Uprising. This is where it all came together. Let's face it, Pacific Rim: Uprising is not a great film. But two minutes in, John Boyega's Jake Pentecost breaks into a decommissioned Jaeger scrapyard to steal valuable Jaeger parts. Sitting in the cinema, I thought why stop at Jaeger parts? Why not steal a Jaeger? (Go and watch this clip. You'll see what I mean.)

Of course, you'll be building your own Throne at your table. What will your inspirations be? Let us know in the comments!

More cool zines

We're nearing the end of our run, but there are plenty of other cool ZineQuest Kickstarters still going. Here are a few more of my favourites:

•  Project Cassandra by Craig Duffy. I've been watching Project Cassandra throughout its development, and I'm excited it has finally launched. It's an original game about Cold War psychics, with some really interesting mechanics based on the characters' precognitive powers. Craig is great people, and he's also supporting the excellent Yes Indie'd Pod with his stretch goals - please check this one out! 
•  Descending the Stairs by Avri. A Descended From The Queen game where players narrate their last night at a favourite nightclub, now closing down. The music scene in Melbourne, Australia was a huge part of my twenties, so I'm very much looking forward to a bit of nightlife nostalgia.
•  An Altogether Different River by Aaron Lim. This is a game about how a town changes, through the eyes of people who have left and returned, and those who stayed behind. It's an idea that's near to my heart, living so far from the place where I grew up.
•  Dying Hard on Hardlight Station by David Kenny. Would you believe a thirteenth member of the February 9 crew? A number of Mothership modules have grabbed my attention during this ZineQuest, and this is definitely one of them. A mashup of Die Hard and Alien Resurrection with some truly stunning art. Give it a look!

 Right, let's get out of here with this giant robot. Keep spreading the word (#StealingTheThrone!), and thank you all so much for your support. We've come further than I ever imagined, and I'm so grateful!

- Nick

Four days to go...
over 3 years ago – Sun, Feb 21, 2021 at 01:59:09 AM

I'm playing Brindlewood Bay for the first time tonight (!), so I'll try to keep this quick...

We've got 4 days left on this rollercoaster of a heist. This is a perfect time to share the campaign wherever you can. Use the hashtag #StealingTheThrone on your social media, and all ask your friends if they want to steal a giant robot! (Who doesn't?!)

This update: new stretch goals, a brief word on our Kickstarter Heist, and two brilliant zines you should check out.

Final stretch goals

We've already cleared four amazing stretch goals: Jane Hermiston's layout consulting, Dr. Melody Watson's editing, interior art from Galen Pejeau, and a solo rules supplement from me. I've taken some time to ponder what's next, and here it is:

Everybody loves maps, right? If we manage to hit £4000, I'll commission an illustrated star chart from a thousand years in the future. It'll be dotted with story seeds: mysterious objects, interstellar dominions, sites of ancient battles, and other mysteries. Use it as inspiration for Stealing the Throne, or a sandbox for any number of space operatic adventures!

And after that, should we make it that far? Bonus pay for all of the contributors!

 The scene of the crime

As I write this, we have an incredible 40 backers contributing to phase two of the Kickstarter Heist. Those folks have been helping us decide where we're stealing The Burning Soldier and Justice Above from, and why.

The creativity on display is so cool - it's a joy reading your contributions as they roll in. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time! Here are a couple of my favourite reasons why we need to steal these Thrones, each with an associated system (see the previous update for more on how all this works):

•  The Burning Soldier is the only thing stopping What Lies In The Outer Dark from converting the human race and that must occur. 

Ominous! I think this suggests The Burning Soldier has some unique capability that makes it particularly suited to fighting What Lies In The Outer Dark. Probably it's the Hyperfine Gravimetric Sensors. 

• Because our enemies have launched an expedition to retrieve Justice Above, and their power would be overwhelming if they got it first.

A race! That's brilliant, because it immediately suggests interesting obstacles for the heist. Plus, I'm on record as loving races. Things might get complicated if it's really close, though, since Justice Above has a Dual Pilot Interface.

Even. More. Zines!

Let's raid the #ZineQuest3 vaults for two zines currently funding that I really love. Please check them out:

•  a loud noise in a quiet place by Marx Shepherd. This is a really personal game about dealing with temporary hearing loss - something that I occasionally struggle with. Marx is extremely good people, who does so much for the indie design community. That includes hosting Yes Indie'd Pod, where they have been doing amazing ZineQuest coverage (including me!), and wrangling the in*die zine community, where Stealing the Throne was first published. I really think you should give this one a look - it's a great game, and it's going to be a gorgeous zine.
•  The Depths Of This Forest by Ursidice. A surreal hex-crawling journaling game in which you play a plant cetacean journeying into The Depths to save your dying home? It's a wildly excellent premise, made by wildly excellent people (including a familiar name!). I can't wait to play this one.

We've almost secured the prize, folks. Thank you for all of your support, and remember to spread the word. Soon, the getaway (plus another art preview)!

- Nick

The Kickstarter Heist Gameplay
over 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 01:52:02 AM

Stealing Alone 

I woke up yesterday to the amazing news that we passed £3000, meaning I'm officially developing solo play rules for Stealing the Throne.  

I'm so glad we hit this stretch goal. During development I played many, many mock games of Stealing the Throne, flipping cards alone in my living room to get a sense for the game's rhythm. Thanks to all of you, I get to turn that experience into a proper solo game!

So what's next for stretch goals? I'm genuinely not sure! I honestly never thought we'd get this far, so I'm going to take a moment to really think it over. Watch this space!

Gameplay preview: The Kickstarter Heist

Right, so we're planning a heist together during the Kickstarter. Partly because it's fun, but also because it gives you a glimpse of how Stealing the Throne's Planning Phase works. Sneaky, hey?

The Planning Phase is designed to give you key ingredients to launch your heist:

• A shared picture of the cool ancient mech you're about to steal.
• A location for the heist, to help kickstart the first scene.
• Motivation! Why are the thieves attempting this impossible task?

First you pick a Throne to steal. We know there are ten surviving Thrones. Eight are named in the game, leaving two mysterious - backer suggestions for these two included Ashen Fury, Ice Dragon, Archibald the Obliterator, Karma of the Fallen, and The Watcher (great names all!). 

Next you decide where you're going to steal the Throne from. We're doing that now for the Kickstarter Heist, but here's a quick spoiler: it looks like The Burning Soldier is in The Outer Dark, where it stands in eternal vigilance (but against what?). Justice Above is most likely in the Throne room at the heart of the city-sized Holy Palace.

Then you take turns answering one of two prompts: 1) Tell us about a dramatic moment in the Throne's thousand year history, or 2) Tell us why we must steal it.

After each response, a different player describes a weapon, system, or other visual for the Throne, building off what we just learned. This helps build a shared image of the Throne and its capabilities, and the resulting list of systems will come in handy during the Getaway!

Let's use a few of your Kickstarter Heist responses to illustrate this in action. Here are a couple of your dramatic moments in The Burning Soldier's history. I've come up with an associated system for each:

• The Burning Soldier held the Supernova Gates alone against the Null Legions. Three hundred pilots took turns in the Soldier, and one by one their hearts exploded from the stress, until the Soldier and its last, nearly-catatonic pilot beheld a battlespace of nought but ruinous victory.

In honour of this grim victory, The Burning Soldier now wields the Null Shield, its light-absorbing metal torn from the hull of the defeated Null Legion flagship.

• This happened during the desperate defense of Dyer's Station, when the Throne was young and spry. A particularly heinous enemy weapon system set The Burning Soldier alight and the fires burned unchecked for four days. During that time, the Throne never stopped fighting, using the flames to wreak havoc on the enemy.

Ever since that day, when the situation is dire enough The Burning Soldier once again bursts into all-consuming flame. Pilots call this dangerous ability Ignition Mode.

And here's a bonus one that I loved, for Tensword:

• The battle of the thousand eyes.

That's it. The battle of the thousand eyes. So creepy. So awesome. I think Tensword is now accompanied by a Swarm of Eyeball-Sats, giving it an unparalleled view of any battlefield.

So that's the Planning Phase. It can be as short or as long as you like, provided you're happy with the mech you have built together, and you have at least three reasons to steal it. Then it's time for the Heist!

Yet more amazing ZineQuest projects

Last update I introduced 7 members of the February 9 Crew: ZineQuest Kickstarters that launched on the same day as Stealing the Throne. It turns out I'd missed 4 more!

Here is the rest of the February 9 Crew - give them a look!

•  Docks of Caswarren / Fight Club Arena by Trinity Knot Studio and The Grinning Frog: Not one but two zines: a legacy city setting (with actual stickers for customisation!) and an arena fighting game. I'm so mad I missed this one first time around, because I am here for the amazing map!
•  Wise Women by Aleksandra Brokman: A game about witches in a remote village who use plant-based magic to help their communities, but who are feared and shunned for their powers.  A simplified PbtA system, inspired by Polish folklore. This one looks like a super interesting combination of theme, inspiration, and rules.
•  Chronicles of the Spacejammer: Enoch's Wake by Richard Ruane: A space fantasy game set in a comet city, with a supplementary zine of adventures by an amazing list of collaborators.  I love a good space fantasy, so I'm into this!
•  Beta Red by Scott Uhls: A meaty cyberpunk game with some really gorgeous art. Nice to see a game in this genre that embraces body modification too.

So, five days left on this Kickstarter. An amazing 418 backers so far. Now is a great time to spread the word, see if we can't push that backer count up a little higher. And don't forget: if you're desperate to play, the basic rules are already available!

- Nick