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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Re-branding NMotDD

Ave,

Nightmares of the Dead Dreamers had been the working title for the early release of my first tabletop RPG. After much consideration, I’ve decided to make my official website atramentisgames.com. It was always my goal to make more than one game and I’ve already drafted a few more using my Strain system. NMotDD is near completion, and is no longer available for download. The finished game will be known as Xas Irkalla. It will be available in digital and print formats.

I will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for Xas Irkalla in the very near future.

Continue following NMotDD social sites for the time being to receive updates about the finished game. I will also be changing the usernames of those accounts. This site will automatically redirect to atramentisgames.com when phasing out the former title is complete.

Thank you for your support and interest.

-James

Social media name changes: Instagram: deaddreamersrpg is now atramentis Twitter: deaddreamersrpg is now AtramentisGames Facebook: deaddreamersrpg is now xasirkalla

Society6: jamesvail Redbubble: jamesvail

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Full Metal RPG

The guys at Full Metal RPG gave a review of Nightmares in their latest episode. Check out their podcast, they're all about horror and dark roleplaying, and they have some occasional music mixed in there too. They gave some valuable feedback/criticism which definitely helped. And, by the way, if you have any feedback or criticism, I'd be glad to hear it from you too!

http://fullmetalrpg.com/2017/05/036-fmrpg-listener-game-reviews/

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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The Eye Upon the Throne

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Wretched Scavenger or The Hungerer in Bone and Tatters

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Update

Version 0.6 just released! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/203948/Nightmares-of-the-Dead-Dreamers-Digital-Early-Release Updated with expanded Magick system, more character advancement options, rule clarifications, and a change to the Determine mechanic.

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Eric Diaz at Methods & Madness reviews Nightmares of the Dead Dreamers http://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com.br/2017/03/review-nightmares-of-dead-dreamers.html

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Delvecast Part 2/2

Check out the second podcast with Delve, talking about character creation, body injuries, and more. https://delvecast.com/2017/02/27/delve-102-nightmare-realities/

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Example Character Build 2

Juggernaut

Difficulty: Intermediate Strategy: Wear Heavy armor on top of Light armor, use a Shield but no weapon. Charge into groups of enemies to gain additional attacks from Warlord, attack as many enemies as you can, using Provocation. Cursed Touch can negate enemy Advantage against you. Grapple and use Iron Grip against single-target. Use Battlecry when positioned strategically. Optional Aberrant Trait: Natural Weapon Ideal Masteries: Armor Rating and Encumbrance Threshold

Psychic Anomalies Iron Grip: When grappling an opponent, attacks deal an extra 20 damage, but you deal 20 less damage any time you attack with a weapon regardless if you are grappling or not.

Mountain: Your armor rating is doubled, but you lose the ability to perform active defense tests.

Shield Wall: Your shield's weapon rating is added as armor rating against any incoming attack, but you suffer disadvantage on all active defense tests, and all attacks made against you have advantage.

Warlord: When surrounded by at least 3 opponents in close range, you may make two additional attack actions without expending dice from your pool, but you suffer Disadvantage on all tests while surrounded.

Cursed Touch: Your successful attacks cause the target to suffer Disadvantage and Vulnerability(receiving double damage) until your next turn, but you cannot deal weapon damage.

Provocation: Choose to make an attack action that causes your target to ignore your allies and focus their attention on you for one round, but you suffer Vulnerability(receiving double damage) for that round.

Battlecry: Expend 3 dice and gain 3 stress points to shout an intimidating war cry that causes nearby enemies to become stunned and lose a turn.

#characterbuilds

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Example Character Build 1

Sniper

Difficulty: Beginner Strategy: Use ranged weapons. Do not wear armor. If within range of enemy attacks, keep extra dice in pool to roll active defense. Optional Aberrant Trait: Natural Armor Ideal Masteries: Exsanguination Level and Weapon Damage

Psychic Anomalies Ghost Dance: You have Advantage on all Active Defense tests, but equipment no longer provides you with an armor rating.

Acrobatics: Mobility-based tests can be re-rolled once per turn, but each piece of equipment weighs 2 additional points of Bulk.

Weapon Master: Deal double weapon damage on Completely Successful attacks, and triple weapon damage on Critical Hits, but your attacks only deal weapon damage, no other damage may be dealt.

Bombardment: Ranged attacks repeat an additional time, but your attacks only deal weapon damage, no other damage may be dealt.

Multiple Strikes: Increase your combat dice pool limit by 1 and gain an extra attack action, but attack actions may only deal weapon damage, no other damage may be dealt.

#characterbuilds

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Delvecast

Episode “Dead & Dreaming” about Nightmares of the Dead Dreamers on Delve podcast. Check it out https://delvecast.com/2017/02/20/delve-101-dead-dreaming/

#rpg tabletop deaddreamersrpg ttrpg indiedev

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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The Atlantean Captured from his aquatic home, forced to labor his entire life, became a gladiator, broke free from captivity and lived in the wild until now.People: Barbaric Environment: Ocean Past: Disciplined Sentiment: Nature Identity: Outlaw

(made with the character creation tables)

#deaddreamersart #nightmares of the dead dreamers #deaddreamersrpg #tabletop rpg #survival horror #atlantean #character generator #weird characters

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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The day is finally here. After several years of work, and perfectionism causing constant reiterations, Nightmares of the Dead Dreamers is actually published! This is the early release version, I still plan on having a final print version. This version is pay what you want, instead of using Kickstarter. I made all of the artwork, layout, setting, writing, and design myself. So try it out for free, if you like it, please consider contributing towards the final print version.

#rpg #pwyw #tabletop #tabletop rpg #nightmares of the dead dreamers #NmotDD #survival horror #dark art #dark games #tabletop games #sci-fi #left hand path #black metal #indie games #indie rpg

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Character Creation Preview

Your character is allowed to be of any description, as a humanoid with all standard biological needs such as eating, drinking, breathing, and sleeping.

Character Background It doesn’t matter whether you roll or choose on these tables. Rolling is usually more interesting, but sometimes the dice land on results that are difficult to conceptualize. Roll again, choose a result that fits, add to it, or make up your own. It is entirely up to you.

d10 People 1 Barbaric 2 Nomadic 3 Scholarly 4 Communal 5 Depraved 6 Grim 7 Desperate 8 Outcast 9 Wild 10 Industrious Your character’s people describes the type of culture/society he/she comes from.

d10 Environment 1 Wasteland 2 Volcanic 3 City 4 Mountainous 5 Grassland 6 Forest 7 Jungle 8 Swamp 9 Ocean 10 Subterranean Environment represents where your character is most comfortable.

d10 Past 1 Brutal: Your memories are of a harsh past surrounded by violence. 2 Wretched: You have been unfortunate in life, and your memories are miserable. 3 Privileged: You have been entitled the majority of your life, with little existential struggle. 4 Disciplined: Your past was very strict, and you’ve been confined the majority of it. 5 Horrific: You are haunted by at least one traumatic experience that cannot be forgotten. 6 Gentle: You have had a peaceful life of relaxation and tranquility. 7 Merry: You have always had a lighthearted life filled with festivity and happiness. 8 Solitary: You were almost always alone, either by choice or circumstance. 9 Cultured: You have explored many cultures, and learned how to interact with strangers. 10 Adventurous: Your life has been extreme, and your memories are of thrilling moments. The memories of your character describe the type of life your character has lived.

d10 Sentiment 1 Warfare 2 Astronomy 3 Beasts 4 Elements 5 Nature 6 Ancestors 7 Love 8 Greed 9 Justice 10 Knowledge Sentiment represents what the character is passionate about. Could be a religious belief, hobby, profession, ideal, etc.

d10 Identity 1 Merchant, Shopkeeper, Trader, or Salesperson 2 Outlaw, Bandit, Thief, Raider, or Gangster 3 Healer, Physician, Witch Doctor, or Shaman 4 Artisan, Artist, Inventor, or Scientist 5 Soldier, Warrior, Guard, or Knight 6 Spy, Emissary, Agent, or Detective 7 Farmer, Peasant, Horticulturist, or Gatherer 8 Bard, Entertainer, Scribe, or Sage, Philosopher 9 Hunter, Assassin, Naturalist, or Explorer 10 Noble, Ruler, Chieftain, or Aristocrat Identity describes your character’s natural calling and role. Remember that you may create your own.

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Here it is, a brief overview of the setting premise... Now you can enjoy looking back at the Fragments of Lore with some perspective.

In a bleak post-apocalyptic world, ancient alchemists discover a way to travel through their dreams to other dimensions. While these alchemists dream in comatose stasis, they use illusion magick to enslave caretakers for their lifeless bodies, and manipulate thousands to build archaic civilizations that worship the dreamers as gods. The dreamers go to war, forcing nightmares upon each other, and imprisoning natural-born psychics to absorb their nightmares. When they die, fragments of their dreams and nightmares are born into reality, forming labyrinths of surreal horror. Within these labyrinths, survivors emerge from the dimension beyond. These survivors awaken to the real world. A place now haunted by the nightmares of the dead dreamers.

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Less than a week until initial release. Will be available as "pay what you want" so you can try it out for free, and donate to the full release if you like it. Early access releases 2/1/17 (2+1+1+7 = 11) Details about the setting and system coming soon.

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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Game Design Reflections 4

In video games, players can attempt any action that the designers programmed... but in role-playing games, players can theoretically attempt any action at all. Often, new players are drawn to role-playing games because of the freedom it offers. Video games have programming limitations, things like invisible walls, NPCs that don't act realistically, only a few dialogue choices(none of which you like), a wall that should be able to be climbed, a door that should be able to be opened, a space ship that you want to be able to pilot, the list goes on. So players come to role-playing games thinking that they will finally be able to do all of these things. But the most popular game, which most new players end up playing first, is Dungeons and Dragons, a "Rules-Heavy" game. And the detailed rules end up getting in the way of this freedom. With tables and charts that need to be looked up and referenced, with modifiers to attempted actions based on difficulty, with a list of skills that determine whether or not your character is able to perform an action in the first place, etc. In response to this issue, the game design trend has been to create "Rules-Lite" games, where the rigid detailed rules are removed, and the action is centered on the story, or narrative. This makes the game play faster and smoother than Rules-Heavy games, and in most cases the players really can attempt anything, but this can start to feel like less of a game since the players have more control over the game than the rules do. At the extreme end, this type of game starts to fall into the realm of collaborative storytelling, and sure enough, games like this are now being called "Story" games. These games almost completely remove the rules of the game, and rely on the players to tell a story together, which stretches the concept of it even being called a game. In designing Nightmares, it wasn't really possible to designate it as rules-heavy, rules-lite, or narrative-based game. There are elements of each that I wanted to keep. Starting with rules-heavy games, I wanted to make sure that the game is mechanically challenging, and that there is enough substance to the combat system that it would retain the character customization and tactical depth of rules-heavy games, being able to choose unique abilities that have unique rules to create a unique character build. One of my favorite video games, Path of Exile, influenced my design decisions for this part of the game. Path of Exile has a very large skill tree and most of the skill nodes are just value increases to statistics, but there are several unique nodes across the skill tree that change the mechanics of the character. It is these unique nodes that inspired the "rules-heavy" character building aspect of Nightmares. Here are some examples: Dark Hunger: By causing injuries, you recover injuries, but can no longer heal naturally. Remove the least important injury from any body location any time you roll a critical hit. Mountain: Your armor rating is doubled, but you lose the ability to perform active defense tests. Bloodletting: Remove 1 Stress any time you suffer an injury in combat, but you can no longer recover Stress naturally, and you now gain twice as much Blood Loss from injuries. Berserk: Your successful attacks affect all enemies within range of your attack, but you gain 1 Stress point for every enemy that you hit. There is a large list of abilities just like these, called Psychic Anomalies, with synergies between them that can allow for a wide variety of combinations and character builds, and adds depth to the combat system. So, as I mentioned in the last design post, combat maintains its realism and depth, but has been streamlined, and a large reason for this is the inspiration I took from "rules-lite" games. This streamlined design decision has been applied to all aspects of the game. There is no reason to have pages and pages of rules for every possible situation that the players can come across. The human mind is the key difference between a video game and a role-playing game. And to this extent, there is a degree of "story" game design in deciding what fits into the game and what doesn't. As opposed to other games that modify actions with various rules, there is no question about an action being easy or difficult here, there is instead only the question of it being possible. This is where it becomes similar to story games. If the GM feels that an action isn't possible, the GM asks the group of players if they think it seems realistically possible. The players have the final say on what is realistic to them, and if the players decide it is possible then the action may be attempted. The only rule to stop this from getting out of hand is a warning that this game is intended to be gritty. If the players want to go beyond the realm of gritty realism, then this is probably not the right game to be playing. Another point that relates to rules-lite and story games is the fact that skill lists have been removed from this game. The characters instead have words that describe their character's background, and the players can use those words to attempt anything that makes sense. For example, a character may have come from a Forest, and has Forest as a Rank 1 skill. That means the character can use the Forest skill for anything related to Forests, and essentially any actions attempted while in a Forest. If the character doesn't have a skill that applies to the situation, the character can still attempt the action using a rank 0 skill called Struggle, which applies to any possible action. Characters then advance in those skills with more specific versions of them, such as Forest Hunting. This system removes the unnecessary overlap of skills and allows for players to be creative with their actions. The last point I will make about the rules complexity is that I absolutely did not want the game to become a storytelling game without any mechanical difficulty. This is intended to be a game where the players are challenged by the rules of the game itself, similar to how a board game is played, but with rules that only take a few minutes to read in their entirety. As an end result, the game has simple rules that are easy to learn, but challenging to win against, requiring careful and skilled play.

#gamedesignreflections

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deaddreamersrpg · 7 years

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#deaddreamersart

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