Looking for 1920s action noir and cosmic horror, but not Lovecraft’s take? Then Terrors and Tommyguns might be the RPG you’re waiting for. I spoke with Nick Porter, co-designer of Sagas of Midgard and fellow Georgian, about his new Kickstarter and what will make it different from others.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Nick, I’m excited to hear you’re launching a new RPG on Kickstarter, what is Terrors and Tommyguns?
NICK PORTER (NICK): Terrors and Tommyguns is a cinematic take on cosmic horror blended lovingly with old film noir. It takes place in the treacherous, sprawling city of New Babylon. The technology level is 1920s– there are Tommyguns and radios, but not televisions or cell phones. Blending the gritty (and sometimes unintentionally hilarious) feel of pulp noir with the unpredictable, chaotic feel of cosmic horror, players will assume the role of members of The Collective, a loose-knit supernatural society that exists in the underbelly of New Babylon.
EGG: Does this RPG involve HP Lovecraft’s Mythos?
NICK: Not in the least, and that was a conscious decision. While Lovecraft popularized the modern Cosmic Horror genre as we know it, we wanted to move away from his mythos for a few reasons. To start, there are already tons of games, stories, and other media utilizing it and they do a great job with it. More importantly, we made a conscious effort to move away from his work to help people approach our game with a fresh set of eyes, since using our own cosmology allows us to do a few things. First, it frees up our monster and world design, allowing our art team and design team to create new and unique creatures and settings for the world. Secondly, it allows us to move away from the more problematic aspects of Lovecraft’s writing (*Cough*OVERWHELMINGRACISM*Cough*) and create a fictionalized 1920s world that’s more inclusive to everyone wanting to play an RPG in 2020.
[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Chris Spivey and Chaosium dealt with Lovecraft’s racism in Harlem Unbound. Evil Hat Productions faced this head-on with Fate of Cthulhu. HBO’s Lovecraft Country is providing their own take on Lovecraft’s legacy.]
EGG: What system will Terrors and Tommyguns use?
NICK: Terrors and Tommyguns uses our Rollover system that we devised for Sagas of Midgard. Players make all the rolls, helping to keep them engaged and helping to free the GM up a bit so they can focus on running the game rather than running numbers. The GM tells the player their Rollover (think “Difficulty Class”), they roll their dice, and if they exceed the Rollover they’re successful. A “Dice Pool” mechanic that Dominic De Duonni, my co-creator and partner, devised, helps them determine those rolls. To put it in very simple terms: Character Attributes and Skills contribute “Assets” to rolls. The number of Assets (or, if negative, “Liabilities”) lets you know which dice to add or subtract to the roll. So a player rolling with three Assets would roll a d20 base and add a d8 to their roll. The Assets and Liabilities are on the character sheet, as well as in the book for ease of access and use. We found that this system helps simplify math at the table and ensures players get to use more of their dice more often, which can be fun on its own.
EGG: Who is the creative team behind this?
NICK: The game development team is, like with our first game Sagas of Midgard, Dominic De Duonni and myself. Leah Porter is back as Art Director and contributing artist. Jim Cornell, our Lead Artist who did the cover and some interior art for Sagas of Midgard is back, as is Roger Creus Dorico (“Digital Rowye” online) who did the amazing cover for Terrors and Tommyguns and will be contributing interior art. We’ve got other great artists on tap waiting for the Kickstarter to fund!
EGG: What inspired you to create this setting and game?
NICK: My dog is named Bogart after Humphrey Bogart. I love the feel and setting behind 1920s-1940s noir and gangster movies. We wanted to recreate the feel of Humphrey Bogart/James Cagney/Edward G Robinson movies with a Cosmic Horror twist. Cosmic Horror has persisted as a genre, and grown in popularity again recently, due in part to the chaotic nature of the world we’re living in. They coexisted as genres back in the 1920s, and we think they go very well together, especially in 2020 which has been an Eldritch Nightmare of a year all on its own.
EGG: How many pages is Terrors and Tommyguns? What content will the book include?
NICK: The Corebook will contain everything you need to make a character, run a game, and get started in New Babylon. It will contain Character Creation and options, the entire setting and game world, Rituals, Artifacts, Incantations, premade adventures, Terrors to fight and… well.. also some Tommyguns.
The Corebook is currently at 120 pages. The core action loop, character abilities and engine are done, though of course we’ll be continuing to balance everything until it goes to print. Depending on Stretch Goals, we’re planning for Terrors and Tommyguns to come in at around 200 pages as a finished product, similar to Sagas of Midgard. We’ve baked in a little bit of extra time before delivery because we want to be sure we have time to write, edit, and balance everything in the book. Like with Sagas of Midgard which shipped three months early, we also figure it’s better to ship the finished product early rather than late.
EGG: What stretch goals do you have set up for the Kickstarter?
NICK: I don’t want to tip our hand too much here, but in short: more art and more game content. We’ve got some fun ideas for the Kickstarter that we hope will make backers feel not only like they’re supporting a great project but, as much as they choose to, can help to contribute to the game and the world it’s set in.
EGG: You’ve already stated this isn’t Lovecraft. Nevertheless, on its face this project could evoke comparisons with Call of Cthulhu or, to a lesser degree, fellow Atlantan, Craig Campbell’s CAPERS. How would you pitch your project to fans of those works?
NICK: So the way I describe this game to people in one sentence is “Dunwich Horror meets Maltese Falcon meets John Wick”. We’ve done our best to marry the Cosmic Horror Genre with the Noir genre while giving player characters just a bit more of the edge needed to overcome, or at least momentarily stand toe to toe with the Eldritch Horrors that await them in New Babylon. Without getting into the weeds of those two systems (both of which are great), I think we’ve been able to create something that will appeal to fans of both.
EGG: Beyond Terrors and Tommyguns, what other projects are you working on?
NICK: We all work full-time jobs outside of game design (Dominic and Leah as teachers, and myself as a critical care nurse) so Terrors and Tommyguns has occupied all of our free time for now. Moving forward, after launch we want to continue to support it and create content for it, as well as add more to our first system, Sagas of Midgard. We’ve got a few ideas fleshed out for our next game but we want to be sure Terrors and Tommyguns is as good as it can possibly be when we ship it, so that’s all we’re actively working on right now.
EGG: This isn’t our first time talking at d20 Radio, we also spoke about your experience with Multiverse Con 2019 (here). Thanks for talking with me again. Where can fans follow you and this campaign?
NICK: The Kickstarter is available here. You can find us on Discord here. [Or at] Twitter: DHornGames [or] Facebook: DrinkingHornGamesLLC. Thanks for talking to me!
Terrors and Tommyguns: A Cosmic Horror Noir RPG from Drinking Horn Games
“A Cosmic Horror Noir Tabletop RPG set in the 1920s in which monsters and other Terrors walk among us unseen.”
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