Radio Hour: Three Harm Tracks!!

In the latest episode of Rascal Radio Hour, Thomas and Chase wade into a forum controversy over Deathrbringer that's about something other than the purile art and misguided promises of lethality. They also discuss delays to the Wolfenstein RPG adaptation that reportedly don't have anything to do with Microsoft layoffs. Then, both of them wonder at the slightly baffling announcement of (deep breath) Anne Rice's Immortal Universe Roleplaying Game, which will have plenty of vampires but somehow be distinct from Vampire: The Masquerade. Finally, they discuss the TTGDA's guidance on properly crediting game designers.

Escaping the Question Dungeon requires swerving on an ask for player advice (watch this space), pondering the perceived lack of historical fiction in tabletop RPGs, and exorcising the ghost of corporate personalism haunting internet cryptid, Jimothy. Silence, brand!

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Here's an excerpt:

Chase: Renegade Game Studio has announced Anne Rice's Immortal Universe Roleplaying Game, which is a franchise of tabletop games that will adapt the the the novels of Anne Rice. But they do specify that a lot of the games are going to be based on the television shows, which also adapted Ann Rice's books: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and whatever projects come next. We're getting the third order adaptation here — adaptation of an adaptation — which is always fun.

They're doing that thing companies do now where they haven't made a single thing, but they're already calling it a franchise. You need to make the first successful thing, and then I'll believe you. Otherwise, we're getting into the Dark Universe films where they did The Mummy and said "We've got eight more of these planned!" and then The Mummy failed. Now, all that exists is that tweet of like Tom Cruise and seven other actors in suits being like, Are you excited about this?

Thomas: It is a really surprising choice for a game. One, because almost by definition, the game you're making is going to be a mature game about relationships, power, feelings, and politics. Dungeon Crawler Carl is a nice and obvious fit for a roleplaying game from a company that has made Transformers and G.I. Joe and all that stuff. It makes sense. So, I wouldn't be surprised if this project is much, much, much smaller and is more on the scale of Free League's The Walking Dead, for example, another AMC adaptation.

It doesn't seem like the kind of game that they normally make. Will they do it badly, then? I don't know. Will they make a D&D? I know they're not doing Essence20 anymore, but will they make something that tries to be broadly cross compatible with Dungeon Crawler Carl or something? Then, it'll be a completely forgettable game. Nobody wants Interview With The Vampire in 5.5E, right? There's not a single human being in the world that's like, here's a show that would that will make for a great D&D adaptation.

Chase: I'm really hoping that someone on that team surprises me with a swing for the fences. The two real problems facing this project from a creative design perspective is that it needs to be a game about dark, toxic, awful relationships. It's about power differentials and relationships; it's about the damage we do to each other and ourselves. What if you were in the worst relationship of your life, and you were both immortal and stuck with each other? So, they need to have a system that brings that in. But then also this project is going to roughly coincide with whatever White Wolf is doing with their new World of Darkness games, which might include a new version of Vampire: the Masquerade. I'm sorry, but I can't see Anne Rice's Immortal Universe Roleplaying Game being the greater of those two projects. You're gonna be damned by the comparison.

Thomas: It's all like us hypothesizing and speculating because we don't even know who the lead designer on this is. I will say the the lead designer on Dungeon Crawler Carl was also not somebody I knew because they don't really work on RPGs. I think they work on either card games or wargames. Who's gonna design this? What's it gonna be based on? We don't know anything. All we know is that success can be as dramatic as failure, collaborative storytelling, and three damage tracks for some reason.

Chase: Imagine buying a toy at the store and in the big, dynamic, jagged orange box it says "Three Damage Tracks!!" Like they're the opposable limbs of RPGs.

Thomas: It's side by side with "Time is a river, but you can fly" in order to suggest that this is going to be a kind of historical game. You might go back and forth between the past and the present. But "three damage tracks" is very, very funny. "You could take emotional harm in this game"; I don't know who that's a selling point for.

Chase: I took emotional harm reading Anne Rice's Immortal Universe Roleplaying Game.