A few days ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with Ed Jowett, the lead creator and writer of “Era: The Forbidden” forthcoming from UK publisher Shades of Vengeance. The setting is a post-apocalyptic Earth, but this apocalypse wasn’t caused by zombies or nuclear war. An Angels vs. Demons war is to blame. The PCs (1-3) are “Forbidden,” humans who touched a weapon or other “Remnant” (relic) belonging to an angel or demon and have been changed forever by the experience.
This project is being funded via their 60th Kickstarter, right here. The Kickstarter funds on November 1, 2020 (3PM Central Standard Time) and it will happen, as it has already gone over the goal of £2,500/US $3,281, but none of the very nice stretch goals has been reached as of this writing. Check out the KS page, including the cool video. And if you want to find out more, after reading Ed’s comments below, do what I did. Check out the Era: The Forbidden YouTube videos on their channel and download the free Era d10 Fundamentals PDF.
60th Kickstarter. My first thought was “Wow! Impressive, most impressive.” How did your
company get to this point? A little history? Why are you sticking with this business model?
Well, I started about eight years ago, building a tabletop roleplaying game for a science fiction universe, Era: The Consortium. Our first Kickstarter went badly, and I decided to get better at running them, so I began experimenting and learning how the best Kickstarters are run. Over the last six years, I’ve published almost 100 books, comics, miniatures, audio dramas and card games, all with the aid of Kickstarter. It allows us to bring in enough money to finish development. Era: Forbidden is my ninth roleplaying game line.
I’d less refer to it as a “business model” than “seeking support from fans” – it’s about whether we can complete creation, make a print run, etc. Kickstarter is a tool which allows me to reach fans, both old and new, getting their support for a book and completing it. I think a core part of it is that I deliver early in nearly every case, and on time in most of the rest of cases. Crowdfunding is perfect for a person who doesn’t have the financial resources to create the things that they want to, but has the time to deliver them once they are funded, and that’s why I use it.
Heaven vs. Hell, or the aftermath, isn’t the commonest genre/subgenre for RPGs, although I am aware of 1 or 2 others that might have some similarities. What inspired your team to create the Era: The Forbidden setting?
I’ve never really worried about whether the genre I create is common or not – some of my games are quite unusual!
I created Era: Forbidden with my wife, Immaculate, after we immersed ourselves in stories of this genre for a month or so – we played through all three of the Darksiders games together when Darksiders 3 came out, then immediately went and watched the new Hellboy movie in the cinema. We enjoyed the genre and agreed that a world could be created where people played within the kind of scenario we’re talking about, but didn’t have the power to change it… and that this could be a fantastic game. Since then, it’s grown to be one of my favourites that I have created, and I wanted to expand that universe… so here we are!
I’ve never played an RPG in this genre. I mostly play traditional fantasy, Star Wars, and superheroes. I mostly prefer things that aren’t too dark–but a good scare once in a while is good too. So tell me what I’d like about Era: The Forbidden? Sell me on playing it!
Era: Forbidden is set in a world that is lost and shattered. People have scattered and are generally hopeless against the Angels, the Demons and the cults they control. Playing as a Forbidden, you’re able to explore this world, fight back, protect people and – above all – provide hope to the people that are trying to survive this hellish landscape. While the Forbidden can’t charge in and fight armies on Angels or Demons (they are roughly on a par with the weakest among those armies), they have the power to save people, to warn them, to move them and to fight until they can’t any more so that Humanity can survive.
The game explores a variety of themes, including:
- *The difficulties of being powerful, but still hopeless against the weight of the enemy. What you do with that and how you apply it is a very important factor in a huge number of people’s lives.
- *What it means to be Human… the Remnants take away something that mean you never quite belong again with the population of the world (and you’re definitely not an Angel or Demon).
- *What it’s like to deal with Human opinion railing against your informed advice when they are so inferior to your power level, but are ultimate what you want to protect (e.g. should you take away their freedom to choose in order to protect them?)
Add to that Era: Forbidden is designed for small groups – 1 to 3 players and a GM – and I hope you’ll quickly see that the game is an excellent companion during COVID.
It does sound like an interesting game setting.
I don’t really consider it a horror setting, to be honest. It’s more “epic adventure.”
I got that impression [of epic adventure]. It sounds like it might be a fit for someone who likes playing do-gooders. I don’t do well with anti-hero types myself, although I know there’s a lot of gamers who enjoy playing Lone Wolves.
I’ve found that the fun thing is actually to walk the line.
I think most people get annoyed with characters who are NPCs and are therefore “less powerful” making demands of them… and in this, there’s the true case that – with Humans – you could just slaughter the lot. And it’s nice to invoke that feeling that “yeah, I’d kinda like to, but I’m not going to because, y’know, meant to be protecting Humanity in general?”
And that doesn’t mean you have to be a do-gooder, there’s that grey. Plus, you could easily just be in it for the fight.
So you never have to go near Humans, maybe you just want to fight Angels and Demons, revenge story for what they did to you. Loads of options.
You make it sound like a typical party for any other genre I’ve played. Which is great. I noted the option for 1 Player Plus GM, since I sometimes like this. Why is this a game that suits that number of people? This [question] is for gamers who’ve never tried that but might be considering it because getting a bigger group together–even online–at the same time can be hard, or online gaming just doesn’t suit them. So they are limited to just a partner, kid, roommate.
But the comment you make is exactly why I chose to release it now – it is super hard to get groups together except online and online is not the same. So the enemies, campaigns and player characters are balanced so that small groups have the right level of “power” to take on the right amount of the world. There are good story reasons why groups of 8 Forbidden don’t gather – they attract Angels and Demons in huge numbers – so small groups are best.
I think if people don’t know how to run a game one on one, they are probably creating a distinction where there doesn’t need to be one, at least in this case.
You run it in an identical way to how you would run a game with 4 players, just there is only one player…But a single character could be quite overfaced in a game like D&D. In Forbidden, there are a small number of special mechanics for solo play (you are allowed to heal yourself “magically,” where you normally cannot, for example) but it is pretty much the same. And the enemies are statted to make 1-3 players perfect. Otherwise, you are up at armies for every session!
Speaking of mechanics, the Era core mechanic is pretty simple–which is great. I love that is really is just the D10s. Some systems say there’s just 1 die type used, then it turns out you need a different polyhedral for damage or some fairly common action. Since it’s a part of game development I’m not adept at (my strength is fluff, descriptions, backstory), I’m interested to hear a little about how you devised it?
Well, I started with World of Darkness, way, way, way back. When I did, I wasn’t happy with a variety of things, particularly the combat stuff.
So I went away, did a lot of clever stats (with a little help from my brother, who is a mathematician!) and came up with something that feels similar but is very different in the way it plays. Some of it was simple – there is no firm tie between pairs of Attributes and Skills, for example – and some of it was more complex – the way we do Defence, Luck as a Stat, Damage and Kill Threshold.
I did read the free d10 Fundamentals and was impressed by how easy they really are to pick up. I found the idea of Luck as Stat different but it makes sense the more I think about it. The Luck and Bad Luck points are appealing to someone who has enjoyed games that use similar pools for either individuals or the party. I also like that it was made clear that actually killing off a PC when a result exceeds the Kill Threshold was not a good idea.
Yeah, I like the way that works too. Very streamlined. It is good you read Era d10 Fundamentals, it is a good guide to what is happening.
I think it’s a great resource, if a group is considering what they want to play, or play next. Something more extensive than the usual “Quick Start Rules,” which often lack key parts of the mechanics, such as character creation. I feel like having an idea of how that works, how complex it is, gives people a better idea of whether a game is a good fit for them.
I am glad you feel that way as well!
One more…Since I have been a credited playtester, I am interested in the process you use for that phase. Is it very formalized, or more “let’s see how much fun we have with this”?
Somewhere in the middle. I usually have people play and then ask their opinion on several specific things. Sometimes I play or run, sometimes I just watch.
This has been quite enjoyable & informative…Thank you for talking with me.
Linda Whitson
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