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Lovecraftesque Second Edition

Created by Black Armada Games

The second edition of the award-winning classic indie storytelling game. You will create a gripping horror mystery tale in a single session of play. Surprise each other with brand-new eldritch horrors and guide your character to their doom. **Due to fluctuating global shipping rates, we will be charging shipping fees at a later date. Your payment information is required to complete your pre-order.**
We will keep you updated through BackerKit Updates for when shipping fees will be applied. Thank you for your patience and understanding!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

December update
about 1 year ago – Tue, Dec 12, 2023 at 06:03:49 AM

Hi everyone!

Our plan is to update you roughly once a month on progress, just to give you a sense of how things are going. This is the December update.

We've made good progress this last month.
  • All interior illustrations are now complete, and in fact there is very little artwork left to do - just some icons and a one piece of UV/blacklight art. I'm hoping this will be all done by the end of January, but because of some known time pressures on the team, it's not 100% certain that it will be.
  • The rulebooks text is complete, the core cards are complete, and 17 out of 18 scenarios are complete, except for proofing and editing. That editing work is starting this week and we expect it to be finished in December.
  • The first cut of the layout is done for the rulebooks and core cards. Scenario layout should be fairly simple, but can't start until the proofing and editing is done. The box and board are next in line to be worked on.

This is broadly in line with the timetable I set out in November.

The next update should come in mid- to late-January.

By the way, I ran a demo of my scenario Ex Nihilo at Dragonmeet earlier this month. It went very well, with some lovely time loop horror coupled with a quantum duplicate. I do love playing the different scenarios - I hope to get to do more of that when we've got a completely physical prototype.

Festive greetings to those celebrating, and I look forward to sharing even more progress in the New Year.
Best wishes

Josh

And we're done!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Nov 10, 2023 at 02:22:25 AM

Hey everyone

The campaign has closed! We ended up with a bit over £45000, which is terrific - our best-funded campaign ever by a big margin. Thank you all for helping us make this great game a reality.

From this point, we'll be focused on delivering the game. This is a relatively slow-moving process. We will keep you regularly updated but the reality is that not much changes week to week. We therefore expect to provide an update once a month. We'll do that even if there's not much to say.

This game is already a good way through the production process, with a well-edited text, most of the art complete, and the layout partially complete. Even so, it will take quite a while before you have the game in your hand. Thank you for your patience as we deliver Lovecraftesque.

That is (mostly) it for now. For those who like detail, there's a high-level project plan setting out what we expect to happen when, just below this message.

Thanks again for your support and we can't wait to get the game into your hands!

Yours

Josh and Becky

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Project plan

Here's a run-down, showing our best estimate of what we'll be doing in the coming months. We'll let you know if these estimates change, in our monthly update.

  • Over the next 3 months we're going to be completing the editing and layout process. This is mostly focused on the scenarios, though we also spotted a few improvements we could make to the core text and will be getting these implemented too. Once complete this will enable us to share the PDF version of the game, hopefully by the end of January.

  • Once we have the core text and cards completely finalised, we'll begin on implementing the virtual playroom. We have created a prototype for this so it's a case of getting all the text and graphics assets in place to build the playroom. We hope to have this complete by the end of March.

  • At the same time, we'll begin work with Longpack Games to get the physical product made. We should be able to commence this soon after we have the final PDF files in hand. It's a fairly length process, as you need to create samples, with potential revisions, at two stages, and there will be a month's break in the middle because of Chinese New Year. We'll be honest, this part of the process is new to us and there's therefore a big error margin around our planning estimates. However we hope the manufacturing process will complete around the middle of 2024.

  • Once the product has been manufactured, it will be shipped to our partner warehouses in the UK and US. Once they've got them, they'll package them up and ship them out to you. We don't have any estimates on this bit of the process just yet - we will update you nearer the time when we know the likely timelines.


Last 48 hours!
about 1 year ago – Tue, Nov 07, 2023 at 06:34:40 AM

Hey folks

We're almost finished with the crowdfunding part of the campaign now. We're delighted with how it's gone and we're super excited to get to work on making the game into a gorgeous physical product.

The last 48 hours of any campaign is the point where a lot of people start paying attention for the first time. In our last campaign we got over half our pledges in the final two days. So, there's a lot to play for and - if you're excited to tell people how great the game is - we would really appreciate it if you share the campaign on social media. It could make all the difference!

If you want something to share other than just "back this great emergent horror game", here's some links you might find handy:

Thanks as ever for your support. I'll be back in touch when the campaign closes to let you know the plan for delivering the project!

Josh (and Becky)

Lovecraftesque Actual Plays are alive and in the wild!
about 1 year ago – Thu, Nov 02, 2023 at 09:02:47 AM

Hey folks

We are entering the final week of the campaign and I'd like to share a ton of actual plays of Lovecraftesque 2e with you. If you see something you like, please do share it around and help people find out about the game.

Before I list the ones that have already happened, I'd like to mention one that is coming up: next Monday 6 November, 7pm GMT / 2pm ET, we'll be playing Echoes Of Vulcan, one of the scenarios from the core box, on Chronomagistrate's twitch channel. Come along and watch us play live!

If you like audio AP podcasts, we have two for you:
  • Party Of One is an awesome 2-person AP podcast, and they've played the new edition in its 2-player format! There's something in the water. Please stay away from the water.
  • Black Armada Tales is our own indie actual play podcast. We play a variety of indie games including our own, and you can listen to us play Lovecraftesque 2e in the delightfully gothic setting of 1920s Whitby.

Then we have the video streams:

Actual Play UK had Josh on and we played through The Outer Gods (part of the Echoes Of The Past expansion pack). A brilliantly weird story of living (and dead) spaceships.
 


Plus 1 Exp had Josh on to spin a weird tale set in a research station in the cold north of Canada, with our maintenance tech uncovering the secrets of the station's creation.



Josh has been playing the new Lovecraftesque solo rules, creating a story in turn of the century Sheffield, with his journalist uncovering the terrible truth about a Victorian industrialist. (Currently the setup and two scenes are up, and a new one is being added each day.)



If you love AP and want more Lovecraftesque, there's a bunch of actual play of the first edition as well, which you can find listed on the campaign page.

Enjoy!

Josh and Becky

Leaping to conclusions - a key mechanic in Lovecraftesque
over 1 year ago – Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 09:44:42 AM

Hey folks

I wanted to give you a glimpse of a key mechanic in Lovecraftesque that holds the game together: Leaping To Conclusions.

The essence of it is that, because Lovecraftesque has the players take turns to create clues to the horror, there's a risk you end up with a mess of clues that don't amount to a coherent story. The rules therefore require each player to privately (secretly!) write down a theory as to what the clues mean: what is happening, what monster, conspiracy or dark truth is behind the clues, and what will the endgame be if nobody stops it? This process is called Leaping To Conclusions.

Part of the fun of Lovecraftesque is that none of you know where the mystery will end up. You've got your theory, but the other player's clues can throw it into disarray. Over time you'll adjust your ideas, sometimes incrementally and sometimes throwing it all out and starting again. So you get a mystery that is kind of collaborative, but you never actually collaborate. You get an ending that fits the clues but nobody had thought of at the start of the game. The story feels surprising and yet somehow inevitable.

I wrote a whole article about the role of theory in mysteries in Geek Native,  including Lovecraftesque but also other mystery games, so if you want more, go have a read.

While I'm here, I'd like to point you to a related discussion post. Because you need to write down clues and theories and such, we're considering including some note sheets in the game. We'd like to know your views on that, and whether to include paper or dry wipe cards. Let us know!

Cheers

Josh (and Becky)