Game Design: Do Your Homework

This article contains content for Schattenkrieg, Nevermet Press’ alternate World War II pulp setting. Our content is community driven so we want feedback from you. Please leave a comment here, write about it on your own blog, or contact the Lead Designer, Michael Brewer, if you would like to contribute directly.

A couple of weeks ago, it was announced here that Nevermet Press was developing an alternate World War II pulp setting for Mutants & Masterminds called Geheimkrieg. We even published some intro fiction on the blog to set the tone. Well, I had yet to complete my homework on the setting.

Last week I discovered that there was a miniatures skirmish game with the same name. It also has some similar supernatural elements to the theme. However, it wasn’t a roleplaying game and it didn’t deal with supers. So I had a few choices.

I could be a jerk and ignore the fact and keep marching on, hoping that no one would cry foul or have the money to pursue legal action. I could attempt to contact the owners of the skirmish game and seek permission, but that would require a complicated (and perhaps costly) legal document to protect both of us. Or I could just change the name.

I decided to kill the working title and choose something else; something that is not already in use and would not lead to future trademark entanglements. Sure, it might mean an early onset of product identity confusion (“Hey, wait a minute, I thought Nevermet was making something else…”), but it’s really early in the design phase. So early it probably wouldn’t even be noticed if I hadn’t chosen to write about it here.

Nevermet Press is pretty open about the creation of our material, so this presents a great opportunity to provide some insight on how we tackle hurdles like this.

Market Research

When I first started laying down the idea for an alternate history setting for WWII, I did thorough research on what was already available. Of course, for our Savage Worlds fans reading this, Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Weird Wars instantly comes to mind. I also found a lot of miniature games, such as the really cool looking Incursion, and some interesting DIY one-offs.

I had already decided that I wanted to develop for Mutants & Masterminds and discovered that they even had a WWII adventure available for free on their website, Live in Infamy. But there wasn’t really a setting available. Nazis, zombies, aliens, and supers. I was sold.

I then researched a name. I needed something that immediately invoked the idea of the world at war. Something that sounds exotic, at least to native English speakers… I decided to call it “Secret War” because of the backstory I had developed with our writers and artists. A story where WWII has met sort of an uneasy stalemate and the powers are recruiting unconventional forces (read: aliens & supers).

Since I have been trying to teach myself German (unsuccessfully), I pulled out the dictionary and looked up secret in Deutsch.  Geheim. I didn’t need to look up war, everyone knows that word. I slapped the two together and liked it so much I didn’t even bother searching the term.

Proper Prior Planning

In the Marine Corps, we had a term/phrase called the Seven Ps (or 7Ps). Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Well, had I remembered my training, I would have double checked my new title, but I didn’t because I was excited about it and pretty sure no one had ever put the two together in the context of a tabletop game.

Wrong.

If there is one thing anyone takes away from this reflection, it should be that nothing is new. I often fear we live in a world of remix and remake where nothing is original. Then I realize it was probably that way for a very long time (like since man discovered his imagination). It’s always been about tweaking an idea just enough that it appears fresh. When that happens enough, you can look at the originating idea and the newest creation and it looks like innovation.

Or I could be wrong, but very rarely is something created from whole cloth. We stand upon the shoulders of giants here (which are really just a bunch of dwarves stacked atop each other in a manner that appears as a giant).

Final Answer Is

So I still needed a name. Well, I went back to the drawing board with our team and put out a bunch of ideas, took some ideas, and finally came out with Schattenkrieg, Shadow War. It fits the theme nicely and I got approval from a native speaking German that it was both correct and sounded way better than the first title I had chosen.

So a big shout out needs to go to Michael Wolf of Stargazer’s World for providing invaluable assistance on verifying our setting’s new name.

But of course, I was very sure to research this new name. I even did several searches with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for anyone who might have registered it as their mark. I didn’t find much of anything besides German references to a Tom Clancy book. Good Deal!

Guten Tag,

Michael Brewer

A Brief Introduction to Schattenkrieg

This article contains content for Schattenkrieg, Nevermet Press’ alternate World War II pulp setting. Our content is community driven so we want feedback from you. Please leave a comment here, write about it on your own blog, or contact the Lead Designer, Michael Brewer, if you would like to contribute directly.

Edited by Cassey Toi

“Jesus Christ! What kind of sick fuck did that?” I spit the words past teeth clenched on one end of the tourniquet I’m applying to my shredded left arm. My forearm looked like hamburger and my blood was flowing freely. It would heal soon enough on its own, but I still wasn’t used to my new regenerative abilities.

Tying off the compression wrap, I kneel down to inspect the carcass of the hideous creature that had caused my injury. “Lieutenant, this is definitely the work of Fremder,” Zora informed me. Zora Skerrit was a biologist attached to my unit by the OSS. Her Slavic accent was more pronounced when she was frightened. “The mutations resemble similar specimens found in a laboratory in Argentina we believe he was operating. It also shares traits with the Parisian Marauders.”

Parisian Marauder MKII by Rob Torno

The creature was once human, or rather, several humans. It had been hanging from the ceiling in the passageway of the underground bunker we were searching, when it surprised us and pounced on me. It was disgusting. It scampered around on six arms… where six hands used to have fingers and thumbs, there were four razor sharp talons.

The arms were elongated, with an extra segment, effectively giving each arm two elbows. These arms protruded from three torsos conjoined at the waist, almost as if their flesh has been kneaded together like clay. The creature had obviously been formed out of two men and one woman. The mutant has no legs, but the other end of each torso terminates with a head in which resides a giant, impossibly large, needle-toothed maw. Each head sits atop a long rubbery neck.

One of those maws had minced my left forearm before my team had been able to react. It had continued to chew on my arm even after Sergeant Burgess had lit the other two heads on fire with his pyrokinetic blasts. I had to resort to my trusty sidearm to spray the mutant’s grey matter on the wall. Burgess’ fire did nothing to improve the smell of the beast either.

“Nazi bastards must have realized they were wasting a precious commodity by killing Jews and instead decided to turn them into beasts of war,” Private Jasinski, our scout, muttered as he turned over an arm with several digits tattooed along the forearm.

“We’re burnin’ daylight kids,” said Burgess. “Let’s get the shit we came for so we can get the hell out of here.”

I looked down at my arm, the wounds had already closed. I untied the tourniquet and used it to mop up the blood which was the only trace that an injury had ever occurred. I threw the blood soaked compression wrap onto the floor beside the mutant and nodded my head in agreement with Burgess, “You’re right, Sergeant. Men, check your weapons then move out. Continue down the corridor, don’t bunch up. Maintain a five yard distance with the man in front of you.”

Jasinski turned to me and said, “You know sir, you shouldn’t waste our medical supplies, some of us don’t recover from injuries as well as you do.”

I looked up at Jasinski, “I tend to forget I’m so resilient when my arm’s being chewed on by a mutant monster. Jasinski, I want you to take point.”

“Aye, aye, sir,” Jasinski responded as his form faded from sight. I couldn’t even hear the footfalls of combat boots as he moved ahead of the unit to keep anymore mutant nasties from surprising us. Privates Marcone and Campbell ensured their Thompsons were good to go before stepping off down the corridor at a brisk, but cautious pace. Zora and I followed while Burgess brought up the rear.

It’s early September, 1945, though I can’t quite remember the exact date; the days all run together after a while. We’ve been tracking and eliminating German insurgents that had been wreaking havoc behind the Paris front-lines for the past month. The local units had dubbed them the Parisian Marauders. Only these insurgents were not your average krauts; they were mutant terrors very similar to the beast we just put down. Except the ones tearing apart GIs in Paris were still single monstrosities instead of the macabre amalgamation we just encountered.

My squad is a special team of commandos assembled by the O.S.S., the Office of Strategic Services. Each of us had a unique gift that set us apart from regulars, even other highly trained commandos. Though people like us were becoming popularized on radio programs, newspapers, and even on the silver screen, I suspect people possessing powers beyond the capabilities of average humans have always existed. It sort of lends new credence to Greek myths like Hercules or even more recent legends and folktales like John Henry. Only, modern marvels like the television are making the world a smaller place along with radio and telephones. So information travels faster and is becoming easier to validate.

The governments of the world mostly ignored Extraordinaries, the label the papers have officially pinned on them, or treated them as threats. Them. I guess I mean us. Well, at least until the Great War. That’s when they began instituting programs to recruit them for use in clandestine missions. But they found it difficult to command what amounted to a bunch of hot shots with powers beyond the government’s limited imagination. So they turned to programs to develop Extraordinaries in-house, so to speak. Most of those programs failed too; Jasinski being one of a handful of recent successes from some project called Wraith. The rest of us were born Extraordinary or, like myself, gained that status through mishap.

I see Pvt. Jasinski’s form waver as if looking at a mirage as he and his equipment turns invisible so he can scout ahead of the squad. Hopefully we can secure this bunker without anymore surprises and shut down Fremder and his vile operation before anyone else falls victim to his experiments. I hear our boys in white lab coats back stateside are real close to finishing some super weapon to end this war; it could not end soon enough.

---

The D-Day invasion of Normandy by the Allies was not as successful as they had hoped. They had surprised the Germans, but Hitler’s war machine quickly recovered. The Allies were able to strike into Paris before the Wehrmacht was able to counter attack. The city is currently under the control of the Allies, but has switched hands twice since Operation Overlord. The war effort has devoured the resources of both the Allies and Axis in Europe which has resulted in what amounts to be a stalemate in the European theater. Hot spots still flare up along the front lines as the Axis and Allied powers test defenses, new tactics, and technologies.

America is still fighting a war of attrition in the Pacific and the atomic weapons that could end it have yet to be deployed. The Manhattan Project, which was tasked with creating the first functioning atomic bombs, has suffered several major setbacks from Axis agents who sabotaged their plutonium enrichment program. The African theater was secured as planned, but the Germans are using guerrilla warfare tactics against the occupying Allies in Egypt and proving difficult to root out.

The Soviets were routed during the German offensive of Operation Barbarossa. The winter was not as harsh as normal, and there are some intelligence reports that indicate some sort of Italian weather device guaranteed the Axis victory against the unprepared Red Army. The remnants of the Soviet military withdrew into the harsh expanse of Siberia after the destruction of Moscow, but have recently made contact with Allies and are planning a massive counter offensive against the Eastern Front of the Third Reich.

But this war is far from conventional.

As the second World War trudges on, both the Allied and Axis powers begin to look for alternative resources to secure the final victory. Thus the Shadow War, the Schattenkrieg has begun. UFOs have begun supplementing the Luftwaffe over Parisian skies. Dead soldiers are rising to eat their comrades. Strange electrical storms roll out from Siberia. Extraordinary people begin to make their presence known and are answering the call to arms. Become a part of Schattenkrieg and stop the Nazis and their evil agenda.

M&M Superlink

Earlier this week, we received communication from the Mutants & Masterminds Line Developer, Jon Leitheusser, that our M&M Superlink license query for the Schattenkrieg setting had conceptual approval.

This is great news as it means we are free to move forward on development of Schattenkrieg. Of course, all material is still subject to final approval prior to release by Green Ronin, but I’m confident we’ll be able to meet expectations.

As always, our patrons will be able to read most of the non-mechanics here on the NMP blog before everything is composed along with their mechanics and published in book form. In fact, return here tomorrow to read some fiction that introduces a little of the alternate WWII history of Schattenkrieg.

Schattenkrieg – Design Choices

At the beginning of the year, Jonathan and I saw how much steam Nevermet had lost during the holidays so we brainstormed some ideas on how to feed the boiler so to speak. We concluded that first, the owners (Jonathan and I) needed to be excited and totally invested in whatever project(s) we undertook. Jonathan’s pet project became the Loaerth & Feywyrd setting and I had something dark & gritty in mind dealing with WWII.

This article is a look at how my own project, Schattenkrieg (my apologies to any native German speakers for slaughtering the language), a pulpy World War II supers setting (yeah, it’s a mouthful). It is meant to give a peek into why I made the design choices I did.

Those that really know me understand that besides gaming, I have also have a deep seated fascination with horror. I like some of the new stuff, but really love classic Universal Monsters, Hammer Horror, and pretty much everything from the 80s. My fascination has carried over into gaming; I have an extensive Ravenloft collection and absolutely love the World of Darkness (both versions). So, I decided my project definitely needed a large dose of the horrific.

I also wanted to break away from the fantasy scene, yet wanted something familiar where I needn’t create a whole world from cloth (and perhaps allow the game material to be used in established games). I was tired of dwarves, elves, gnomes. Well, it just so happened that I was watching a movie that involved Nazi zombies and the deal was sealed; I wanted an alternate history WWII setting.

When it came to selecting the rules that I would support with my project, I found that I really only wanted to use one system, Mutants & Masterminds. M&M, to me, is probably the pinnacle of what was done with d20 game design. It’s sleek, sexy, and point buy. Oh, and it uses a core mechanic most every roleplaying gamer knows. This reminds me, I need to send an email to the M&M Superlink crew to get approval before we publish any mechanics.

Anyways, I looked at all my design choices: a horrific, alternate history WWII setting that used the Mutants & Masterminds setting. The first thing that occurred to me was that it sounded very similar to the Weird Wars setting by Pinnacle Entertainment Group (publisher of Savage Worlds). It also sounded very niche (within a niche, within a niche).  So I opened up the audience a little by deciding the setting would be more pulpy (though there is still plenty of room for horror in pulp) and maybe it could be beneficial to support Savage Worlds, too.

There are a lot more details for the Schattenkrieg project (formerly known as Geheimkrieg), much of which plays out on the NMP content developer mailing list. We’re looking at a cold war scenario where the Germans were never defeated, as well as pre-war ideas. We have aliens, Oriental magic, artifacts, Tesla Death Rays, and many other ideas brewing, so be on the lookout for future Schattenkrieg content.

I stuck with much of my preliminary design decisions simply because that is what I want to create. If I can get a few content developers, mutants, or masterminds interested too, then it’s a win.

MB!

Now An Official Savage Worlds Publisher

Today we are very proud to announce that Nevermet Press has been given permission from Pinnacle Entertainment Group to produce gaming products built using the Savage Worlds game system. In other-words, we are now an Official Savage Worlds Licensed Publisher!!!

I suppose the pressure is now officially ON!

I personally see this as important success in a line of growing achievements for Nevermet Press on the business side of things. Our immediate plans are to continue developing Loaerth & Feywyrd as the center piece setting that uses Savage Worlds rule system. In addition, Geheimkrieg is also slated to support both Savage Worlds and Mutants & Masterminds (from Green Ronin).

So, please join us in this moment of WOHOO! We are all looking forward to what happens next!

One Day Valentine’s Day Sale. Get The Desire For Under $1!!!

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Add The Desire to your shopping cart, and a $4 discount will be reflected in the shopping cart during checkout.

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The Desire to Help Haiti

Are you a gamer and would like to help the relief effort in Haiti? Well, the fine folks at OneBookShelf (owners of RPGNow! and DriveThruRPG) have put together a massive bundle of RPG products that anyone who donates $20 through them to Doctors without  Borders will receive. The bundle includes over a hundred products that retails for more than $1400!

We only had one title available to contribute to the  charity bundle, Portrait of a Villain: The Desire. We wish we had more to donate to the cause, because Haiti really needs as much help as can be mustered. Here is the press release from OneBookShelf:

Gamers Help Haiti! DriveThruRPG Offers a Mega-Bundle to Spur Donations

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

DriveThruRPG announced a major incentive to the roleplaying gamer community today to incite donations to aid in rescue and recovery in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Called the “Gamers Helping Haiti Bundle,” the product includes over a hundred products totaling over $1000.00 in retail value. For a simple donation of $20 – all of which goes to Doctors Without Borders to support their post-earthquake Haiti relief efforts – RPG fans can have this once-in-a-lifetime collection of gaming products.

DriveThruRPG already had opportunities to donate up and running within a day of the disaster. When publishers began asking how they could support the cause, the bundle was created to be an all-inclusive shared effort. Those who donated at the lesser levels won’t be left out, however; gamers who have already donated $5 or $10 will be receiving a special coupon code that lets them pay the difference from their initial donation to get the bundle.

“We are humbled by the generosity of both our customers and our publishers,” said Sean Patrick Fannon, Marketing and Communications Manager for DriveThruRPG, “all of whom have stepped up at this time of terrible tragedy to offer aid to a desperate people. We are also very proud to facilitate these collective efforts, providing the necessary tools and technology to bring it all together.”

More than tools and tech, though, DriveThruRPG is really putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak. “We have always believed in the power of giving and sharing to make the world a better place,” said Steve Wieck, President and co-owner of the site. “To that end, we are matching funds with everyone who’s making a straight donation at the $5 and $10 level.”

There is no set date for terminating the donation efforts, though the bundle will only be available until the end of January.

Anyone wishing more information about this effort, or about DriveThruRPG overall, should contact Sean Patrick Fannon at sean@onebookshelf.com.

The fantastic news is that of this writing, gamers have contributed $7,790.00 through OBS to help the Doctors Without Borders Haiti Earthquake Response. And that value increases by the second.

DONATE NOW!

NMP Affiliate Program

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Affiliates earn a %20 commission.

Visit our Affiliate Program page for the details.