I thought, with the launch of Empty and the soft-relaunch of Distemper that it might be useful to paint a bit of a road map of where we're going with this project and, as I often talk in terms of 'what's new, what's now, what's next' at work, I went with a similar stream of consciousness below.
What's New?
Some of you started following this project when it was Fractured, but as there is an upcoming MMORGP with the same name, this project got rebranded to Distemper in January 2022. The new title was suggested to me by one of my play-testers (and the closest thing I have a co-creator) and it has a variety of meanings, all of which fit the setting perfectly.
What's Now:
Empty is finally complete.
This play-test/jumpstart document for the Distemper table-top role-playing game is now available at DriveThru, GlobalComix, and the DistemperVerse website, as well as from here on Itch. I know all developers say this, but I'm casting a wide net (including to comics websites) in the hope of getting as broad an audience for it as possible.
Empty includes everything a GM and a group of 2-5 players would need to quickly get a game started and walks them through an introductory encounter that demonstrates key game-mechanics as they become relevant to the story.
This jumpstart set comes complete with pregenerated characters, handouts, maps, and VTT tokens.
I particularly love this adventure and story, as it came out of a night of impromptu and unscripted play-testing.
In keeping with the cross-platform nature of the DistemperVerse, Empty opens with a 6-page comic book short story (drawn by the awesomely talented Hernan Gonzalez) which provides some background to the world for the GM and shows one potential way that this encounter can unfold.
More comic-book stories can be found at GlobalComix, or the DistemperVerse website, all of which serve as background and lore for the game-world.
v0.8 of the core-rules are complete and are currently being play-tested by multiple groups.
What is intended to be the final play-test campaign ("Home by the Sea") is due to start at the end of November, primarily to test and build on the existing Community & Territory rules.
What's next?
Work continues on Chased, our first full length story-arc which will be told over three 28-page issues and will contain the full rules to the game and is being drawn by the brilliant Nenad Cviticanin
v0.8 of them Distemper Quickstart is currently being rewritten. This 40-page guide will cover:
the core mechanic of the XeroSum Engine (2d6 + modifiers)
character creation via the Background Generation life-pathing system
social tools, such as First Impressions, Gut Instincts, and Negotiations
an overview of the brutal and unforgiving combat system
kills, weapons & equipment lists
the basics of surviving in the new world.
This Quickstart will be full compatible with both Empty and Chased, as well as all future content.
Once the final round of play-testing is complete, the Distemper Core Rulebook will undergo the edit, rewrite, & layout changes to take it from v0.8 to v0.9 and will then go into open beta (while I figure out the next step for this project).
Want to know more? Want to get into a play-test? Want to help with the game development? Want to help us flesh out this new world? Want to be part of this growing community?
Join our Discord server or our Reddit at r/Distemper.
Thanks for making this far!
Tony | Xero
Twitter: @xerosumgames
Reddit: r/Distemper