Nevermore Roleplaying Game

November Update - Pre-Orders Now Available
about 2 years ago – Thu, Nov 17, 2022 at 11:35:02 PM

Hey Folks!

First, thanks again for helping to make the Nevermore Kickstarter a success! I plan on keeping updates to about once a month or so. That should be enough to keep you all up to date but not flood your inbox. 

We won't be sending out surveys until we get closer to publication, so you don't need to worry about that yet. The game is now available for late pledges and pre-orders on Backerkit. So, if you have any friends who were interested in pledging but missed the Kickstarter they can still get the Kickstarter pricing and save a little cash. 

Contracts have been sent out to Nicky Rae and Rich Dansky and I'm working on hiring artists for the remaining artwork. I'm also working with the amazing Marc Hudgins on the map of Baltimore City and I've hired the talented Yulia Zhuchkova to do two full-page color illustrations for the interior that will be openers for the Protagonist and Narrator sections of the book. Yulia also did the cover and she is a Ukranian artist who is currently living in Poland so it makes me super happy to be able to hire her again. I'll have more art details in the December update. 

Other than that, I've begun my final re-write and development of the game systems as well as writing the setting material. We'll also be doing more playtests over the coming months. 

Now back to work! Lots to do!

Quote the Raven, "We did it!"
about 2 years ago – Fri, Nov 04, 2022 at 04:45:27 PM

Hey Folks, 

Thanks to all of you wonderful people we did it! Not only did we meet the Kickstarter goal, but we surpassed it. Our final tally is 382 backers for $22,394. Not bad for our first Kickstarter! I also want to give a special shout-out to the folks on my Patreon who were instrumental in making this all possible.  Their donations went to things like artwork (both the cover and interior), a new printer,  and an occasional cup of coffee... all the things a writer/designer needs to keep going. 

I was so excited to see us hit the 22k stretch goal in the last minutes. I'm really looking forward to working on those new cabals.  Speaking of which, it's time to get to work. I've got art orders to place, a map to order, contracts to write for Nicky Rae and Richard Dansky, and much more. 

I can't even say how thrilled I am that after two years of working on this thing it's going to become a reality and you all are a part of that. But before I dive back in I'm going to take the weekend to rest up and celebrate a little.  Have a wonderful weekend!

--Ian

New Stretch Goals Unlocked!
about 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 01, 2022 at 05:01:49 PM

Hey Folks!

Since the last update we've unlocked two stretch goals - Rules for Building a Lodge and the Nevermore Narrator's Kit and we're almost half way to the next! You can find more details on both of those in the last Update. Now let's talk about the next two stretch goals. 

1880s Map of Baltimore City - I'm super excited about this one! This will be a fold-out map that comes with the core rulebook. Baltimore is the core setting for Nevermore so this map will be invaluable for both players and narrators. It will highlight important areas in the city both historically and in the world of Nevermore. 

Nevermore Props and VTT Kit - Anyone who has ever gamed with me knows that I love a good text prop. This Kit will be chock full of cool PDF text props that you can print out to use in your Nevermore tales. It will include letterhead, calling cards, mysterious newspaper clippings, and more.  You can print these out to use at the table or use them in your VTT game. There will also be VTT character tokens for all of the supporting characters (NPCs) in all published adventures as well as for the Protagonist Pre-gens. And we'll even include a PDF version of the 1880s map of Baltimore. 

So, what else is new?

We're currently in the middle of an actual play for The Curse of Whiskey Springs on Nat21 Adventures. You can find that and the actual play for The Hound of Litchfield, here. 

I had a wonderful interview with Roleplayer with a Thousand Faces where we talk about Nevermore, Changeling: The Dreaming, and ttRPGs in general. I highly recommend his stream! You can find that here.

Artist Highlight

And finally, I want to take a moment to introduce one of our artists. If you like the Nevermore cover and you enjoy Gothic Horror-related art you should check out our cover artist, Yulia Zhuchkova on Art Station. She's a Ukrainian artist (currently living in Poland) whom I was lucky enough to find. Personally, I think she did an amazing job,  and if all goes well, I look forward to hiring her for additional covers. 

Stretch Goal #3 Unlocked
about 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 14, 2022 at 09:08:09 AM

Stretch Goal #3, The Curse of Whiskey Springs is now unlocked!

Like The Hound, this will be an 8-12k word PDF adventure, complete with maps and original art. As per the title, it takes place in the fictional town of Whiskey Springs, a mining and iron smelting town in the Appalachian mountains of south central PA. I can't say too much more without giving away the plot, but suffice it to say there are tragic deaths, terrible murders, and maybe a ghost or three. 

The next two stretch goals are now posted.

They are Rules for Building a Lodge(eight additional pages added to the core rulebook) and a 24-page PDF booklet called Nevermore Narrator's Kit. 

The Lodge
Every chapter of the Esoteric Order of the Illuminous has a lodge where the protagonists gather to research possible cases and socialize. The lodge might provide access to a library, workshops, supplies, or any number of other resources. 

These additional pages will offer expanded rules for designing the lodge, almost as if it were another protagonist. The players will be able to mutually make decisions about where the lodge is located and what it looks like as well as purchasing advantages (such as a weapons locker, telegraph machine, or a library or workshops) or flaws (such as sinister reputation, rough neighborhood, or even haunted). There will also be some additional history and background on the Illuminous itself. 

Narrator's Kit

The Nevermore Narrator's Kit will take a deep dive into how to run a Nevermore tale and provide resources for the Narrator including story seeds and supporting characters.  It will also include a short adventure set in the heart of Baltimore City. And for players and GMs there will be some advice about making believable characters (protagonists and supporting characters) in the world of Nevermore. 

Upcoming Events

Want to more about Nevermore? I have two upcoming podcast interviews. The Gaming Monk on October 19th and Roleplayer with a Thousand Faces on October 24th. We'll also be picking up a new Nevermore actual play on Nat21 Adventures starting Thursday, October 20th. Follow the Nepenthe Games on Twitter or Facebook. 

Thank you all again for supporting Nevermore and spreading the word. Let's keep it going and hit that next stretch goal soon!

Insights & Illuminations
about 2 years ago – Wed, Oct 12, 2022 at 06:39:06 AM

First the down-and-dirty stuff. We're 2/3 of the way to the next stretch goal, The Curse of Whiskey Springs PDF Adventure! Hopefully, we'll hit that soon. I'm not going to do updates every day, but you can expect to hear from me every few days and when we hit new stretch goals.  With each update , I'm going to take the opportunity to tell you a little about Nevermore. 

I called this entry Insights & Illuminations because I wanted to tell you a little about where Nevermore came from and where I took inspiration.  I've wanted to create and publish my own ttRPG for quite some time. In fact, when I dove back into the ttRPG industry about 6 years ago it was with the intent of eventually making my own game. But to make? 

We're in sort of a Rennaissance of ttRPGs right now and it seems that just about every subject has been covered.  Something to do with the faerie realms seemed natural at first, but then I thought it better to maybe do something new rather than derivative of what I have done before.  (Don't worry, I suspect I will revisit the faerie realms again.) 

After lots of contemplation, I kept coming back to horror. Anyone who has played at my table knows that I eventually manage to work Call of Cthulhu into just about anything I run. Mi-Go in Traveller, strange cults in Shadowrun, other-dimensional entities in Star Trek, and any number of horrors in D&D games. So, horror.... but what brand of horror? 

I don't recall the exact moment, but I do remember the sudden revelation that there are very few if any Gothic Horror games sent in America. It seems just about every game has a "by Gaslight" supplement and there are quite a few Victorian-era games but these are all set in Europe of the UK. Call of Cthulhu is definitely the closest, but it's primarily focused on the 20s and 30s which is a very different feel than the late 19th century.  Eureka! I had it!

After hitting up the setting it came naturally that Baltimore would be the core setting and I was surprised that it hadn't occurred to me before. After all, I grew up in Baltimore city, surrounded by the myth and legend of Edgar Allen Poe. For a time I lived but a few blocks from where he was found unconscious before he died and often did odd jobs for the owner of The Horse You Came in on Saloon, the establishment that is believed to be where he had his last drink. 

 I have always enjoyed the American Gothic writers and spent many a summer afternoon or winter night immersed in their stories of the macabre and horror. In grade school when we received an assignment to recite a poem from memory, I chose The Raven (a formidable undertaking for a 5th grader). 

Any honest game designer (or writer) will tell you that no one invents anything from whole cloth. We are all influenced by our experiences and that includes other games we have played and read. I can name quite a few that influenced Nevermore and there are probably others that I don't even remember. 

Castle Falkenstein  was a favorite of mine back in the 90s. I loved the fact that it used cards for skill checks and conflict resolution. It felt so appropriate for Nevermore a game that takes place during the Gilded Age, lending a bit of the feel of sitting around the parlor playing games of Whist or Hearts. So using playing cards was always on the table, but that is a story for another time. 

Of course, Call of Cthulhu had some influence but mostly in seeking to differentiate from that system and setting. Nevermore has its own form of madness represented as Sanity loss in CoC, but I wanted something a little more personal and so Weaknesses were born. As a protagonist becomes more unsettled by the strangeness they encounter, they begin to succumb to their personal weaknesses.  Also, unlike CoC the more a protagonist experiences a particular type of shock and terror the more resistant they become, but this comes with its own problems. Becoming inured to encountering horror and violence is not exactly healthy. 

The One Ring's method of dealing with Shadow and The Expanse RPGs Churn tracker also lingered in my thoughts and provided inspiration for aspects of Nevermore.  And I'm sure there were many other influences which I can't recall.  

My apologies for the length, but I hope this has given you a little insight into the creation of this game that has consumed my life over the past 2+ years. Hopefully, we'll hit that new stretch goal soon and I'll get to reveal more about the behind-the-scenes creation of Nevermore and explore some of its rules and setting.