The Kickstarter Heist Gameplay
about 5 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

Three obstacles defeated!
about 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 15, 2021 at 10:52:54 PM

One week to go!

Well folks, we're (basically) half way there! It's honestly a little hard to believe that there are 385 of you! How far do you think we can push this thing before the Vector Guard* are on to us?

In today's update, something for everyone: the next phase of our Kickstarter heist (and a surprising twist!), a gorgeous art preview courtesy of Si Sweetman, some brief words about stretch goals, and some other ZineQuest games to check out. Let's go!

The Kickstarter Heist: Phase Two

We're planning a heist together during the two weeks of the Kickstarter, using the same basic rules you'll find in the final game. In week one we chose which Throne we're going to steal and learnt about its history, but... surprise twist! 

The vote was tied! We couldn't decide between Justice Above and The Burning Soldier. There's only one possible solution: we're going to steal them both!

Head over to this form, decide which job you're on, and help us figure out the rest of the heist! 

Si Sweetman sketches

Who fancies another art preview? (Me!) Feast your eyes on these very early concepts for The Burning Soldier, courtesy of the supremely-talented Si Sweetman!

Receiving art from folks like Si, Galen, Sam, and Brandish might be the most fun part of this whole thing for me. I get to see what they think a giant thousand-year-old Throne looks like. I think Si's concepts bring a real sinister edge to the brief, which contrasts beautifully with the dramatic sweep of Galen's Tensword illustration.

We've already picked one, but which concept would you choose?

Stretch Goal update 

•  We've sailed past the £2200 stretch goal, so Galen Pejeau will provide additional interior art for the zine! Galen and I will chat about what form this might take - spot illustrations, or perhaps border art. Whatever we decide, it'll doubtless make the zine even more gorgeous!
•  We're sneaking up on the £3000 stretch goal. If we make it (and barring any more surprise twists, I suspect we will), I'll figure out what a solo play version of Stealing the Throne looks like. I'm excited about this one, so let's get it done!

The February 9 Crew

A whole bunch of amazing ZineQuest games launched on the same day as Stealing the Throne. These are my launch day buddies, and I highly recommend you check them out!

•  Paranormal Inc by Alicia Furness: Scooby Doo-inspired spooky mysteries as well as a GMless hack of Brindlewood Bay? I'm in! The sample page layouts look gorgeous too.
•  Beakwood Bay by Jackson Adams: A second Brindlewood Bay hack! Harebrained adventures inspired by Duck Tales, which is a cartoon I grew up with. I'm here for some cute cartoon adventures!
•  Knights of the House of Mars by S. John Bateman: Knights on a journey across a dead Mars, escorting a seer to the Pyramid of Tharsis?! Such a great pitch, with Gontijo's characteristic stunning layout. GMless too, like Stealing the Throne. An instant back!
•  High Speed Low Drag by Tom Mecredy: A solo journalling game about the life of an elite soldier. Solo journalling games are my jam - I think I want to use this one to play Starship Troopers. (The movie. Racszak's Roughnecks. Hoo-ah!)
•  External Containment Bureau by Eli Kurtz and crew: I love a good Forged in the Dark game, and there are some serious heavy hitters from the FitD design community on this one. The mechanics they've previewed sound amazing. Very keen to dig into it!
•  d36 by Chris Bissette: A quarterly zine of varied and eclectic gaming content, by a swarm of awesome indie creators. Adventure prompts, monsters, random tables, micro-games... this is perfect ZineQuest content, people.
•  Token by Gabriel Robinson: More GMless one-shots? Rooted in Trophy? The (slightly flirtatious?) circling of a hero and a monster seeking each other out? Token sounds like it's going to be a fascinating play experience. Give it a look!

Have I missed anyone from the February 9 Crew? If so, hook me up in the comments! And get planning for phase two of the heist...

- Nick

* I don't know who the Vector Guard are either, but they sound cool.

Sneaking past stretch goals to steal art previews
about 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 15, 2021 at 07:36:45 PM

We're barely 3 days into the campaign, and you've snuck past two stretch goals and are coming up on a third before I've even had a chance to properly announce them all! Amazing to think that there are now 277 of you lovely backers - a staggering number of potential Throne thieves!

So, this update: stretch goals, some amazing ZineQuest Kickstarters ending soon, a Throne-sized art preview, and a small update on our Kickstarter heist.

And stretch (goals)

If you've been watching closely, you'll have seen three new stretch goals appear on the main page. You've already funded the £1650 goal, and it's a great one:

That's right, editor extraordinaire Dr Melody Watson is joining the team! Stealing the Throne has already been through one wave of editing for the in*die zine (check it out!), spearheaded by the brilliant Marx Shepherd of the Yes Indie'd Pod podcast. Melody will handle the revised and expanded rules text, as well as the four Throne playsets.

Melody is a specialist RPG editor, game designer and mech-loving science-fictionist from Adelaide, Australia. She's edited a diverse range of games, including Lancer, dungeonpunk, and the ENnie award-winning Thousand Year Old Vampire, and has written for numerous others. When she isn't polishing words, she serves the whims of three gremlinous cats and makes her own weird games about robots, history, and dogs in space. You can keep up with Melody's hijinks on Twitter and check out her portfolio at melodynova.com.

You read that right: Lancer. Melody's genre cred is clearly impeccable! She's also an excellent game designer in her own right - I'm particularly fascinated by her game Standoff. 

So what's next?

•  At £2200, Galen Pejeau will provide additional artwork for the zine interior! Galen has already given us cover art of the Throne Glaive of the Cenotaph, and there might be a sneak peak of his work on Tensword in this very update. As I type, this goal is only £1 away!
•  At £3000, I'll write a solo play variant of Stealing the Throne! Solo RPGs are dear to my heart, so I'm excited to hit this one. (If we do, the variant rules will be delivered as a separate PDF after the main project has completed, so no concern about delays.)

Art theft!

I promised you art previews, and here they are. My brief for the artists was deliberately vague: I asked them to pick a name from a list of Thrones, and I told them that it was a) giant, and b) ancient. That was basically it! I wanted each artist to bring their own completely unique interpretation to their Throne, just as players will do when they play the game.

So you can imagine my joy and excitement when Galen showed me his Tensword sketches:

Up until this point, Tensword was just a name. It hadn't come up in any of my playtests. I had no idea why "Tensword". Did it have ten arms? Was its name an amalgamation of the words tense and sword? You can see above how Galen interpreted it, and I think you'll agree it's hot!

Looking at these sketches, a whole heist begins to unfold in my mind's eye...

A trio of ZineQuest friends ending soon

It's hard to believe that the first wave of ZineQuest3 Kickstarters are already nearing their end. Here are four (among many) that I think you should check out before they're done:

Rascals by Giles Pritchard. A retired crew of sci-fi hardcases pulled back in for one more job? Art by Juan Ochoa? Sold! The system sounds super interesting, pushing players to change the scene in their favour, keep moving, be energetic. And Giles is an excellent human, whose ZineQuest resources helped me get this whole thing off the ground!

Journeylands #1 by D G Chapman. A game about travelling on rigs across a psychedelic solarpunk world, I originally backed this one for the visuals (so pretty!). This update on the mechanics completely sold me. Amidst stiff competition, this may be the ZineQuest game I'm most excited about.

Two Summers by Come Martin. A diceless RPG about an adventure played out over two time periods: as teenagers in the 90s, and adults 30 years later. The pitch promises "light drama, sunny adventures", and honestly I could with more of that in my RPG diet. 

Old Roads by by Kyle Latino. This is a zine filled with tiny isometric maps. Ten year old me would have loved it. Grown up me feels exactly the same way.

The Kickstarter Heist

If you've made it this far, don't forget we're planning a heist! Justice Above looks like our preferred target, but there's only a few votes in it. Maybe the art preview in this update will give Tensword a boost?

And let me tell you: whichever Throne we end up stealing, its history is epic. We've got holy fire, a desperate defence on the Great Crystal Bridge of Corvus V, mysterious disappearances (and reappearances), Null Legions, law spoken from the Throne's head...

Come join the fun!

It's heist time!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Feb 09, 2021 at 04:10:50 PM

Looks like we're going to steal ourselves a giant robot! 

So, folks, thank you all. From the bottom of my heart. To have this thing fund in under three hours... well. Today is a good day (to steal a giant robot).

Let's celebrate by planning a heist together! Head on over to this form, help me pick which Throne we're going to steal, and perhaps share a thrilling moment in its thousand-year-history. I'll keep it open for a week, then we'll move on to figuring out where we'll steal it from. Spread the word!

The talented artists are busy working their magic, so expect some previews as we move through the campaign. We're barrelling towards the first stretch goal, so I guess I better announce it fast:

At £1250 the brilliant Jane Hermiston will join the team as layout consultant! 

Jane loves the the playful, and the clever. They are a long time gamer with a creative design attitude; they're truly nerdy about creating unique visuals that spark your imagination. They've worked as layout artist - and now layout coordinator - for in*die zine, as well as on a range of other tabletop projects: from one-pagers to D&D.

I'm so excited to work with Jane again. They did amazing work laying out Stealing The Throne for the December 2020 issue of in*die zine, and produced a brilliant logo for one of my other games, Speed Daemons. They're an extremely talented (not to mention supportive and encouraging) human!

Okay, that's enough from me. Except to say thank you again. And we've got a heist to plan!