There is no winning in Heaven Harbor, a city consumed by corruption, greed... & demons. There is only surviving for as long as you can.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
November: Translation Update
over 7 years ago
– Tue, Nov 01, 2016 at 05:29:21 PM
I've heard from French creator Emmanuel Gharbi that the new French edition of Hellywood has gone to press. Congratulations to John Doe Editions!
Of course this means that all the final text and assets are now available for the English edition, and the translation is coming along nicely, though a few months behind the schedule we forecast.
Already completed: Introduction, Chapter One and Chapter Three.
Currently In-Progress: Chapter Two.
Chapter Two is the *HUGE* setting chapter that details Hellywood and its inhabitants. Work on this chapter is about 2/3 complete, which means over 40k words are done.
So What's the Schedule?
José expects to complete Chapter Two by the end of November and the game itself will be done in January or February. As José nears wrapping up the rulebook, I'll schedule the copy editing and layout so that the PDF of game can be provided as soon as possible. Right now, that looks like it will be March.
Thanks for your patience with this process.
Please Follow me on Kickstarter. This will give you notice of when I launch other projects and also when I support a project. There are a couple projects live on Kickstarter now that are worth your consideration. I am the co-publisher of one of these games, Upwind, a new RPG by Jeff Barber (designer of Blue Planet), so please take a look! I also encourage you to consider Perseverant, a new game by Ben Dutter.
New Artwork, New Group & New Project!
over 7 years ago
– Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 03:25:55 PM
This August update is coming a bit early, but I have the new artwork from Morgan to share, so there's no reason to wait!
Hellywood Voiceover Screen (artwork by Morgan Yon)
We're looking at different ways to samples pieces from this larger image to create covers for the Hellywood rulebook and for Justice of Angels, but this entire image appears on the GM Screen.
If your pledge doesn't include the GM Screen, then there's still time to add it or upgrade your pledge. Send me a message if you have trouble getting back to your BackerKit account and I'll reply with your link. Similarly, your friends can now pre-order Hellywood, so get them ready to play the game with you by sharing the link:
Patricia has posted a lot of great automobile photos that really evoke the noir setting. Please join the group if you're on FB and would like to participate in the conversation.
Prince Valiant® The Storytelling Game
I opened this update with a great piece of artwork and will close it with the same — this time a piece by Hal Foster, the creator of Prince Valiant®.
This project is closing in on its final week and we're over 600% funded! But every $2500 is a stretch goal for a scenario by a new game luminary. The list of authors already included stretches through the decades from Ed Greenwood (Forgotten Realms) to John Harper (Blades in the Dark). This is a great project for a new edition of kid-friendly roleplaying game that offers a host of new material.
I would love to have your support, so please take a look!
The original edition of the game from Chaosium was a softcover with b&w artwork, but the new edition will be a full-color hardcover to best present the amazing artwork of Hal Foster.
You should at least take a look at the project for the links to a lot of free material, like this essay by Robin Laws about why Prince Valiant® The Storytelling Game is among the 100 best family games ever published.
Pledge Manager Link Coming Soon
almost 8 years ago
– Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 02:42:45 PM
Pledge Manager: BackerKit
You should receive an email notice from BackerKit within 1-2 days of this update. I’ve submitted the Hellywood project to them for review (they double-check various aspects of the process, mainly to make certain I didn't make some silly mistake) and expect to go live as early as today.
This doesn't mean there won't still be a mistake or two in the process when the manager goes live. If you see something amiss, feel you're missing a reward, or anything else, then please send a message to me. There's one oddity in the process that may put two copies of the GM Screen PDF in your list of rewards, but this doesn't result in any extra charge or misapplication of your pledged funds.
There was a lot of product to enter! You folks offered amazing support for Hellywood and unlocked all kinds of stretch goal bonuses. The John Doe Editions project in France helped too!
Just take a look at this clipping from BackerKit that shows everything you receive with the $150 Virtuoso Voiceover pledge!
Within BackerKit you can also add items a la carte. This is an especially good opportunity to add copies of the rulebook as there is no additional shipping charge for project backers.
Translation Progress
I’ve been slow to complete the pledge manager, but translation has continued since the Kickstarter project ended. José Luis Porfirio is our translator. He’s already completed Chapter One and all the rules, and he’s currently working on the in-depth description of Heaven Harbor.
I’m excited to have José working on Hellywood as he’s an experienced translator with a number of other RPG translations, including Qin: The Art of War and First Contact: X-Corps. The Hellywood rulebook will be completed around the end of August, but I’ll have a more specific date for you in an update next month.
I’ll send PDFs of these books as quickly as the delivery of translated text for Hellywood and the other books allows. I don’t yet have an estimate as to how long the additional material (five scenarios, Leo Bruiser’s Files, etc.) will add to the delivery time of the printed material, but monthly updates will keep you in the know.
For now, everything is moving along very nicely!
New Project: Prince Valiant
It’s been a busy week between preparing the Hellywood pledge manager and securing approval for a new project launch. I’m pleased to tell you about a project to fund a new edition of Greg Stafford’s Prince Valiant® The Storytelling Game. Besides being the founder of Chaosium, Inc., Greg of course is the designer/creator of Glorantha, King Arthur Pendragon RPG, and much, much more.
I’m grateful for all the repeat backers who have supported many of my projects and hope that you’ll take a moment to look at this new project and/or spread the news to others.
The project launches at noon CST today, but you're welcome to preview it if you're seeing this update prior to noon:
Character Creation — Step Three: Attributes & Skills
almost 8 years ago
– Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 04:52:09 AM
The final step of character creation involves spending a pool of points on Attributes and Skills. But first things first:
Hellywood is Funded!
Thank you very much for your support!
We're also well on the way to our first stretch goal of the Scenario "The Glass Prison". The French project by John Doe Editions has already added a poster map of Heaven Harbor to your printed Hellywood rulebook, and they are just a few pledges away from adding Leo Bruiser's Files to all copies of Justice of Angels. Please considering upgrading your pledge to include JoA so you'll receive this additional 64 pages of player handouts as a FREE bonus. Here's a look at the French versions of these handouts. Those pledges push the entire project toward free scenarios for everyone. Add-ons like dice and cards do the same.
Social Stretch Goal Update
Don't the forget the social stretch goals from the prior update. It's especially easy to sign up for updates at the bottom of the Nocturnal Media website, so hopefully we can unlock that goal.
John Doe Editions' project unlocked an "Expresso Noir" that's not on our Kickstarter list because it's one that doesn't require translation. It's a list of Period cars to reference in your game to score points of verisimilitude.
Character Creation — Step Three: Attributes & Skills
A tough guy or girl has nine attributes. Each Attribute has a fixed score. This score is used as a betting pool to attempt to accomplish an action. The pool can decrease and increase by large amounts during the game, while the score itself remains constant, only increasing with experience.
Your character has a base score of 40 in all Attributes. During character creation, you may divide 400 points between them, though no score can be higher than 200 unless an exception is granted by the Voiceover or by certain Natures. The distribution is made in multiples of 5: you cannot allocate 52 points to an Attribute, only 50 or 55.
The nine Attributes are divided into three categories: physical, mental and social. Each category contains a Resistance Attribute (respectively Toughness, Guts, Cool).
Here is a list of the nine Attributes:
Physical Attributes
Dexterity: A character’s know-how and manual dexterity, his ability to handle objects and materials. It’s ideal to perform rather complex actions like picking a recalcitrant lock.
Muscle: It represents brute force, combative pugnacity, speed and agility — the overall energy of the beast. To strike strongly or accurately both depend on muscle.
Toughness: It’s the character’s resource for survival and physical might, his ability to make physical efforts.
Mental Attributes
Brains: A character’s ability for abstraction, improvisation and memory, his cunning and knowledge.
Mojo: This is the “animal magnetism” that makes the men act foolish and the ladies swoon. Mojo also designates the character’s affinity to the world’s supernatural forces.
Guts: It represents the character’s nerves and courage. It’s what he needs to be able to draw a gun under fire without trembling.
Social Attributes
Mug: It represents the character’s aura, physical presence, the capacity to intimidate, to intimidate by inciting the most primitive reactions.
Chutzpah: A character’s eloquence and verbal ease, or the ability to swindle your neighbor or to seduce through fast talk.
Cool: The mastery of self while in public, the capacity to take any sarcasm, insult or accusation and remain wooden and apparently undisturbed.
In principle, Attributes are enough to perform or attempt any action. However, a character’s skills define his or her strong points: the areas in which the character is better than other people. it is not necessary to have a skill to perform an action it covers.
Skills are rated in three levels – professional, expert and virtuoso – and each modifies the way the dice are read. At character creation you have 9 skill levels to divide between the skills of your choice. However, beginning characters may not have a skill of level 3 (virtuoso).
There's No Perception Skill
You’ll note that there is no Perception skill or the like. This is another small and ingenious innovation of Hellywood. Any skill can be used to modify a perception roll. The skill must simply be applicable to the action and it derives from another of the character’s areas of expertise. For instance, Investigator allows attentively searching a room, Bouncer recognizing a disguise, Thief listening to doors, or Driver to read a distant or mud-covered license plate.
Next Update?
What aspect of the game would you like explored in the next update? Some aspect of the game system? More information about the Justice of Angels campaign? Please leave a comment to let me know.
Five Free Scenarios & Bookmark in Sight
almost 8 years ago
– Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 04:52:02 AM
Thank you and welcome to all the new backers, and thanks too to those who have upgraded their pledges and pushed this project through two stretch goals in the last 12 hours. There are still 6+ hours to go, so here are some reminders and updates.
Silk Bookmark
We're getting close to the silk bookmark for the Hellywood rulebook. This is the next stretch goal and the last one that's currently posted in the project text, so I've added a new stretch goal below.
Who Gets the Free Scenarios?
There are currently five free scenarios.
PDFs of all bonus scenarios go to backers at pledge levels $45+. So if you're backing for a physical rulebook, then you'll receive these rulebooks. If you're backing for PDF rewards, then you can consider the $50 HELLYWOOD MICROFICHE.
Backers at pledge levels $100+ will receive the bonus scenarios as a printed book. Backers at the VIRTUOSO VO level will receive a premium leatherette edition to match the other books.
Sixth Scenario at $22,500
This seems like a stretch indeed, but the goal after the bookmark at $20k is a sixth scenario at $22,500. Instead of selecting that scenario myself, if we hit the goal, I'll create a poll so that backers can choose from these three:
Fatale: Now 52, Gloria Hicks, a former star, is back in Heaven Harbor for an incredible show and her last chance to boost a declining career. Problem is that a lot of people from the mafia to old lovers seem to want her dead.
Heart of Stone: A shootout at Charlie’s Corner bar leaves victims, including the daughter of Victor Milton, assistant to the D.A. engaged in a crusade against corrupt cops. Charlie Barstow, owner of Charlie’s Corner, seeks the help of his old friends.
Requiem for Elizabeth: Who killed and mutilated a young woman in this lovely neighborhood? What about the rumors of a rampaging monster and an evil sect?
FAQ Updated
I'll also update the FAQ to answer questions regarding some of the other stretch goals and bonus materials, so take a look there for more answers.
And thanks again. This project is closing with a bang.
