Design: At Death’s Door

For folks who’ve followed me for a while, you may have heard whisper of a little adventure game I’ve been working on over quarantine. Today I’d like to share a little about that game both for my fans and as an exercise for myself to explain more about the game. So here it goes.

So, What is the Game About?

Players of the game will choose one of six powerful figures to guide them in their adventures. Another will take on the role of their patron’s rival.

At Death’s Door is a world-romping game of fantasy adventure set in the fantastical world of Expath. As adventurers, artists, and intellectuals, players of the game are tasked by powerful patron to uncover the long lost location of the Black Gates, a mythical portal to god’s domain. On the surface, At Death’s Door is inspired by Victorian era adventure novels—think Treasure Island—as well as pulp horror and mystery books such as Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. Underneath the surface, however, there exists a supernatural element known colloquially as the mystery.

In Expath, mysteries hold real power. Not just in the usual sense, but also in a supernatural one. The people of this world peddle in secrets to appease their gods. They bind them into black books and hide their names behind esoteric veils. The mystery pervades their world, coloring the stars in brilliant shades of red and blue, giving rise to forces at once frightening and beautiful. In their adventures across the Star Blue Sea, players of the game will be tasked with illuminating secrets such as these as they whisper new truths into being.

What’s Makes This Game Special?

A beta version of A Stolen moment, a mini-game focusing on an intimate moment between characters. Vignettes spotlight player characters, giving them an opportunity to further their own ends and recover resources. This particular vignette is heavily inspired by a mini-game found in Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands by Vincent D. Baker.

At Death’s Door is based on the Redacted Materials license ruleset. As such it lends itself to quick and easy improvisational play. This is a game that’s going to be easy to learn but it will also have plenty of guidance for players new to RPGs and for systems that are easy for everyone at the table to understand and adapt for their own campaign or premise.

At Death’s Door will also be a shift from the modern aesthetic of the premier Redacted Materials game, External Containment Bureau, into one of fantasy adventure and there will be additional systems and procedures to support that. ADD will be much fully featured book and that means more room for setting information, custom mechanics, and prose that we just couldn’t fit into ECB.

New Mechanics? Like What?

One element I’m particularly excited to unveil is the narrative vignette. Taking the place of downtime activities, players will regularly engage with vignettes as they journey from location to location. There are vignettes for dangerous action scenes, vignettes for writing letters to distant relatives, and much much more. Each vignette plays out like a mini-game and provides specializes mechanics custom built for the task. Outside of vignettes players will investigate rumors and participate in freeform roleplay using rules fans of Forged in the Dark games will instantly know and love.

The game will also include a world map and travel mechanics as well as exciting new insights: fantastical special abilities powered by the mystery itself. Would you make yourself impervious to mortal weapons or mend the sick with phantom limbs? Brush aside mundane notions of what’s possible to explore secrets yet unknown.

So Tell Me More About This Quest.

On their adventures in Expath, players will peel back the veil of mystery that separates their world from supernatural forces such as this beautiful little creature, here.

As I mentioned in the pitch, the players of the game are on a quest to discover the Black Gates, a mythical entrance to god’s domain. The various fictional cultures of Expath have their own interpretation of what the gates are and where they lead and part of your role, as adventurers, will be to divine those details. This is a true conspiracy, not so much in the modern sense, but in the sense that god has an agenda and he’s not going to just reveal it to you. Will you plot a course to the afterlife or uncover the seat of this world’s creation? Regardless, the player characters have an impossible task ahead of them.

Endings

I’ve been working on At Death’s Door in one form or another for a few years now, so yeah, you could say it’s an exciting project for me. This won’t be my world, alone, however. Also joining me on this project are two wonderful artists, friends, and collaborators of mine, Autumn Haynes and Al Lukehart, as well as a co-designer and cartographer I’d like to reveal a bit later. It’s also important to me that players of the game are armed with the tools necessary to make it theirs, so I’ll be providing a comprehensive chapter on hacking the game that could be applicable to any of your own Redacted Materials concepts.

At this moment in time, much of my life is consumed by the CHEW RPG Kickstarter campaign, happening now. Once that game is launched, however, expect a lot more updates on At Death’s Door and my premier FitD Game, Moth-Light. It’s going to be a fun couple of years!

Regards, and happy Halloween,

-Justin