For the 2017 ENnie Awards at Gen Con, I won the dream date/auction to sit with Cubicle 7. It was an excellent night as that was my first meeting with their crew including Andy Peregrine (I talk a little bit about it here). Since then, I’ve connected with Andy in articles (here, here, and here). Andy has always been a talent in RPGs including his role in the Doctor Who RPG and as the line manager for the upcoming Dune RPG. When he announced his newest RPG, I knew I wanted to here about Opera House.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Thanks for taking some time away from the stage to talk with me. You have a Kickstarter for your new RPG entitled Opera House, what’s the pitch?
ANDREW PEREGRINE (ANDREW): Well, the game is set in, as you might imagine, an opera house. Not just any opera house though, the ‘Royal Grand Opera House’. It’s a huge ‘Gormenghast-like’ theatre with a vast stage, huge auditorium and backstage tunnels and layers that go on for miles. Your characters have joined the theatre, either as performers, or backstage staff. When you joined you foolishly opted to take on ‘extra duties’. It had a small salary bonus so you thought ‘why not?’. It would probably just mean sweeping up or putting the chairs away at the end of the rehearsal.
Unfortunately, it’s a lot more complicated than that. It is your job to deal with saboteurs from other theaters trying to ruin the show, ghosts trying to drain the audience, cursed props trying to kill the actors and even strange creatures that come up from the basement. But these are extra duties, you still have to do the job you came to do too, and there is no excuse if you miss something!
EGG: What system will this RPG use?
ANDREW: I’ve been playing around with a lot of ideas for what system to use, but I eventually settled on what I know. It doesn’t have a name but it’s a modified version of the same one I created for Hellcats and Hockeysticks. Essentially you have a pool of D6s and as long as one of them beats the difficulty number (from 4-8) you have succeeded. As you might imagine, rolling 7 or 8 on a D6 is pretty tricky. So for tests that difficult you will need to trade in dice from your dice pool. Every 3 you take out of your pool grants all the remaining ones +1. It’s very simple, but most importantly very fast, which in the insanity of a chaotic show is vital for game play.
EGG: For those that don’t know you, what’s your background in theater? How has that influenced this project?
ANDREW: I’ve been working in theatre for (if anything) slightly longer than I’ve been a gamer. My parents are retired English and Drama teachers and so were involved in a lot of amateur drama groups when we were younger. So my brother and I caught the bug early. However he enjoyed acting and I preferred backstage. Since leaving school I’ve been lucky enough to build a career in professional theatre, across a variety of backstage roles. At the moment (COVID allowing) I work in the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket as the Deputy Chief Electrician. Like most other people in the industry, I’ve worked in all manner of places in between, from Legoland to the Millenium Dome and each new place has taught me something new. Theatre is an amazing job, and an industry in horrific crisis at the moment and it’s been a privilege to be a part of it. Pretty much every job I’ve done has added another layer to Opera House. It’s something I’ve had on a back burner for many, many years and in all that time it’s been gathering more stories.
EGG: Beyond theater, you have an impressive RPG resume. For those who aren’t aware, what are some of the big projects you’ve worked on?
ANDREW: I’ve been writing freelance for a fair number of years (often while operating a show at work) which has given me the chance to be part of a number of projects. I developed the second edition of Victoriana for Cubicle 7 and got to work on their version of the Doctor Who RPG, one of my all time favorite things across time and space. I’ve also been part of three versions of a Firefly RPG which was another dream project. More recently I’ve been a part of EN Publishing on the 2000AD line which is both crazy and a lot of fun. But of course the biggest thing I’ve been a part of is managing the Dune: Adventures in the Imperium RPG for Modiphius, which I can’t wait to show people.
EGG: I know I’m ready to learn more about your Dune RPG. Getting back to the game, how much theatrical knowledge will this RPG require of the players?
ANDREW: Hopefully, none at all. While Opera House is a game, it’s also a theatre sourcebook, and not just for actors. I’ve taken a look backstage across every aspect of theatre, from making costumes and building sets to rigging lanterns and sound equipment. The book explains what everyone does and why they do it, as well as how they do what they do. I also take you through the entire process of putting on a show, from the first auditions to the final performance. I think a lot of people who only know theatre from the point of view of the performers will be taken aback by how much more is going on backstage.
EGG: Will this be a one-person show or are you working with other creators?
ANDREW: Well, the writing is me but I couldn’t do it alone. I have an amazing graphic designer, Mark Stewart-Birch, who’s created the look of the book and its now in the hands of my layout master Andy O’Hara. I’ve also roped in Jon Hodgson of Handiwork Games to make a Kickstarter video for me, even though he is as busy as he is talented! For art, I’ve been exceptionally lucky and gathered array of vintage theatre photographs, and supplemented that with a few from colleagues working on other shows.
EGG: What’s the format going to be? Will it be presented as something uniquely theater like a playbill or the like?
ANDREW: The book was going to be a small size book as I like the format. But upon printing out a copy I realized it was way too big. It seems I got a bit carried away writing. So it’s going to be the standard letter size hardback we’re all used to for RPGs. I’d love to do something weird or limited, but I mostly want to get it out there. Having said that, if things go well I might think of something.
EGG: Will this Kickstarter for Opera House create only the core rulebook or will there be additional acts?
ANDREW: It’s always hard to tell. The game is designed as a standalone single book. But I can’t say I won’t think of something I’ll want to add. So I wouldn’t rule out the idea of another production but for the moment it’s a single performance.
EGG: What stretch goals are you planning?
ANDREW: Stretch goals are always tricky as I don’t want them to hold up book production. But I have thought of a few bonuses. The first will be a map of the Royal Grand by Mikael Brodu, then I plan to pay my team a little better if we do really well. Once past those levels I can go a little crazy, but I’m hanging onto those ideas for now.
EGG: Beyond this project and Dune, what else are you working on?
ANDREW: Well, Opera House and Dune has taken most of my time, even in lockdown. But I’ve been doing some work for Cubicle 7 on some old favorites and written a small Cthulhu supplement for Chaosium which I’m really looking forward to talking about.
EGG: Thanks for talking with me. Where can fans follow you and this project?
ANDREW: Thanks for having me, as always! You can find me on my Facebook page for Corone Design, and I sometimes remember to post on Twitter. I’ve just released the coming soon page for Opera House which you can find here.
Opera House from Corone Design (Andrew Peregrine)
“A tabletop Roleplaying game and theatre sourcebook set in the surreal Royal Grand Opera House.”
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