Jason Andrew and JN Childs of Mighty Narwhal Productions have a new tabletop RPG system campaigning on Kickstarter. Jason and JN agreed to talk about their new system, the campaign, and who is working on it.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Thanks for reaching out to discuss this. What project are you kickstarting?
JASON ANDREW (JASON): We’re Kickstarting a new roleplaying game engine, Morra Universal Cinematic Game System, that works for online play, tabletop, and LARP.
JN CHILDS (JN): The project is called Morra Universal Cinematic Game System, and it’s a rules-light system that uses universal tropes and ideas from our consumable media.
EGG: This is a universal rules-light system. Before we get into the mechanics, why create a universal system for any genre as opposed to a focused RPG system and setting?
JASON: We made easy-to-understand tools and methods for people to create their own worlds without the hassle of creating new rules for whatever world they created. The rules are settings agnostic. If someone is strong, they are strong. Why someone is strong is given context by the nature of genre. You might be a cyborg, an alien, or a monster. Everything in the rules uses the scaffolding language of cinema. The games are run by Directors, and you have Dramatic Moments, budgets, and special effects. The language of film is the global universal language of modern time. If a movie is big, then you know that people around the world have seen it and had that experience. If things go well, we plan to release a number of genres to play in the future.
JN: We created an overarching system to include the various aspects of media. We all come from differing backgrounds and experiences, so we wanted to capitalize on that diversity. Making a rules light system with a focus on different genres means we can bring in authors with unique styles and goals, as well as work with licenses from all types of media to bring our favorite properties to life. We’ve all had a bit of wish fulfillment with the shows we watch or the books we read, and we wanted to carry that over to a project we loved in a way that was universal.
EGG: The Kickstarter will come with a few ready made genres, what are they and do any of them have a secret sauce to make them stand out from other settings?
JASON: We have three settings that come with the core rules: Mystical Rome is an alternative-history fantasy setting where ancient undead wizards (the Soothsayers) fight the War of Infinite Regress and change time itself leading to a classic sword-and-sandals adventure. Ravenswood Academy is a magic school setting where you play student magicians in a world where one day the elder gods will come and consume your planet.
JN: The third genre in the core book is Punching Nazis. It’s inspired by the pulp adventure stories of the 40’s and 50’s, as well as comics from the era. While they aren’t in the Core Book, we also have the licenses for Zorro and The Shattered World, and one of our upcoming genres, Cassiopeia is a horror movie space opera inspired by films like Dune and Event Horizon. They really stand out as experiences because of their basis of media.
EGG: You have an alpha test rules set for Morra on DriveThruRPG. What’s the response to those alpha rules been like?
JASON: I think we had some things to learn. We built, rebuilt, and refined the system. We had a 100 player event in 2019 in Seattle. Then, for 2020, we had to pause for a bit, but refined everything through a Discord game. We had a large group of gamers looking to break things (as a very much needed distraction for 2020) for a year. We learned what worked, what players needed, and expanded as needed. Some systems came about as a response to needs.
JN: I think people were excited by a system that was built with customization in mind. Most people want to create home brew settings and campaigns, and sometimes it’s hard for them to make what exists work with what they want exist. Most people are super excited by that aspect. Having the Alpha rules out there also helped us address concerns about consent, safety, and player well-being because we opened up a dialogue and people were able to express their thoughts. Also, extra time in the wild means every period and comma has been subjected to the court of public opinion. The fans have pointed out more than one thing we’ve overlooked a few times. The Alpha slice means we’ve really refined the system with the help of the people excited to play it.
EGG: Mechanically, how does the system work?
JASON: Everything boils down to the simple concept of a Dramatic Moment. In a movie, the camera only focuses on something when it’s dramatic. The formula (the Action Pool) is simple Attribute + Skill + Wildcard (a bonus award through a piece of equipment, a Macguffin, or a quality). The Director assigns the Difficulty Rating. If the target is a member of the cast, then it goes off their plot armor, which is generated from Attribute scores.
JN: One of my favorite parts of the system isn’t a mechanic. While we have rules for how to calculate rolls and determine if something succeeds or fails, before you even get into that you’re going to sit down in the Writer’s Room. You script out what you want to do, and how you anticipate the fallout from success or failure. This gives everyone at the table a chance to “write” a scene together. Not only does an individual shine in their own Dramatic Moment, but they have the buy in from their Director and fellow players. This also helps people negotiate their boundaries in a scene so they can focus on having fun once it starts. A mechanical part of how this plays out are Consequences. If a character fails a Dramatic Moment, they take a Consequence equivalent to the Attribute in the scene. For example, if there’s a gunfight and the character doesn’t dodge, they take a Body Consequence and then set a condition which resolves it– in this case, probably some first aid from a wound. Characters are Knocked Out of the Story if they get more Consequences in a category than they have Attribute points for it. Even then, like in the movies, they can come back when dramatically appropriate: they survived the impossible through some means or another, making one heck of a twist ending for the other characters.
EGG: Does it scale for personal encounters to, say, starship battles?
JASON: It does! When you create a genre, you set the budget of the world. It’s based on budgets for real movies from Independent to Blockbusters. You might have a Batman genre that’s lower budget because you want a gritty year one style of game. That’s going to limit the Attributes, Skill, and Cinematic Qualities they can buy at character creation and with Experience Points. If you later want a Batman V. Superman genre, you might increase the budget to allow for Superman and Batman to buy all of the crazy toys he might not be able to afford on a gritty Independent movie.
JN: Aside from setting the budget for the genre, we also have different levels of Sets. So, you can have a powerful “Set” to represent space and the grandiose nature of a battle in such a location. The same with personal encounters: you create a smaller set with the features that you want to make it feel like a more intimate environment.
EGG: Within the Kickstarter, what stretch goals are coming up for this project?
JASON: We already paid the writers and artists, but we’d love to give them a bonus. We have a scaled setup to do more genres in PDFs and then a couple of Omnibus editions. There is a tier where you automatically get every new genre in PDF form. Right now, we have Salvation Falls, which is a unique genre about monsters going through murder rehab and trying rejoin humanity. “Ragnarok: Last City of the Old Gods” is about survival, the Viking mythos fantasy-style, at the end of the world. And the legendary Phil Brucato (WoD: Mage: the Ascension) may be doing an extreme horror genre for us if we get there.
JN: We’ll also have Cassiopeia, as we mentioned earlier, where we get to play in the sandbox of numerous types of horror to create a space opera. Some other items we know we already have the resources for are Game Master Screens, game aids (Decks of Consequence, Pins, Dice, etc), and a bestiary. We really want to make our game as customizable as possible, right down to the tools you bring to the table or LARP.
EGG: Your company, Mighty Narwhal Productions, is made up of a variety of creators. Who is involved and what have they worked on?
JASON: There have been a crapload of people involved. A ton of us were from the first version of By Night Studios and produced Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire the Masquerade and Werewolf the Apocalypse like myself, JN, April Douglas, Jeffrey Fowler, Renee Ritchie. I’ve worked on a lot of different things like Shadowrun, CoC, and World of Darkness stuff. We also have some fresh faces like Jase Hulsey, Jess ‘Razz’ Menton, Matthew Montalto, and Michael J. Martinez.
JN: Some of our writers have experience in World of Darkness or Green Ronin. I’ve personally worked on/for World of Darkness, Paizo’s Starfinder, Steve Jackson Games, Arkhane Asylum, and various other projects.
EGG: Beyond the Morra Cinematic Game System, what else are you working on?
JASON: Next we’re doing Zorro Powered By Morra with three unique genres: classic Zorro, a team up genre ala steampunk Avengers, and a cyberpunk Zorro. We also just signed the rights to my favorite fantasy novel from the 80s, but I don’t think I’m allowed to say.
JN: You can say! We have the license for The Shattered World, so we’re looking forward to bringing those stories to life. Then we’ll be seeking out some other properties that we want to convert to our system!
EGG: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me. Where can fans follow this campaign and your other work?
JASON: The planned release date for the Kickstarter is 5/1/2021.
JN: Here is our Coming Soon page.
The Morra Tabletop and Live Action Roleplaying system from Mighty Narwhal Productions
“A custom, universal gaming system built on the themes of Movies and Television.”
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG and Amazon.
Latest posts by Egg Embry (see all)
- New Gamemaster Month 2023 - January 20, 2023
