Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game

Happy New Year, Featherheads!
over 7 years ago – Mon, Jan 02, 2017 at 06:38:46 PM

For our first update of 2017, we thought a peek into one of the many Manchester City Districts might stir your imaginations as we move closer to getting Vurt into your hands.

There are 32 City Districts of Centre in Manchester proper, which is just one of the 15 boroughs of Greater Manchester, each of which has been described in detail in the setting section of the Corebook. This will provide material for literally countless sorties into Manchester’s vast urban wilderness. 

Harpurhey 

Noteworthy Locations: Gotherswick MegaPlex, Purton Estates, Namchester estates, The Embassy Club. 

Years ago, Harpurhey was neglected and dangerous, a place where one simply didn’t loiter after dark. Once Manchester’s population exploded and every square inch of habitable land became premium real estate, most of the landowners in Harpurhey combined their assets and sold to a development company that razed most of the former housing and commercial structures to the ground. Just a short while later, it seemed like the entire district had been re-imagined and rebuilt from scratch. There is little of historical value left, but the streets are clean and the petal clocks run on time.

If it wasn’t for its unfortunately close proximity to Crumpsall and Cheetham, Harpurhey would likely be a world-class tourist destination. Much of the infrastructure funding allocated for neighboring Crumpsall and Cheetham is redirected here. Both the Purton and Namchester housing estates have apartments that are affordable enough for the upper-middle class (or what’s left of it), and the tallest of the 8 large buildings is 65 stories tall. Parking structures for housing and local businesses are well designed and keep the traffic moving a bit faster than other districts. Manchester PD and other private security forces make sure that the undesirables from Cheetham, Crumpsall, and ToyTown stay out of Harpurhey.

The district is home to a diverse, relatively liberal-minded population that has become increasingly upset with the way Manchester PD uses the district as a buffer zone between bad areas and their HQ in neighboring Moston. There is talk about forcing them to go around Harpurhey to conduct their daily raids, or compensate the residents. Multiple times a day, swarms of armored MPD vehicles roar down Monsall Road towards the River Irk for yet another raid.

 Despite the sweeping gentrification and police presence, Harpurhey is rumored to be a claimed territory of two competing criminal organizations-- the Scalliewaggers and Plague Poets are deadly gangs, so make sure you’ve got an “in,” or at the very least a plan for how to convincingly express your neutrality if you run afoul of one or the other! 

Here’s one of our newest illustrations, showing a group of MPD FleshCops and Shadowboxes keeping a Vurt-U-Want parking lot presentable. Chances are good that this unfortunate Robo will be dumped at the border of Toy Town without his cart! 

I know your dice have been vibrating in anticipation of your first steps into the streets of twisted Madchester! So, to recap an earlier announcement, we have decided that all digital materials will be sent out to backers in advance of the delivery of physical rewards, getting you the tools to start gaming as soon as possible. In addition to that, we’re hard at work getting the extras like the chapbook of original Jeff Noon short stories, the digital token pack, and soundtrack polished up for your grubby robodog paws. We’ll get you some sneak peeks before too long!  

Stay tuned, Kittlings! 

Ravendesk

 

 

Backerkits are on the way!
over 7 years ago – Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 08:37:21 PM

Hello Backers!

As many of you already know from the comments section, we are using a powerful third-party tool, Backerkit, to manage your pledge information, and survey questions. This will also allow us to open up a preorder option to those who missed the campaign and want to get their order in before the game ships. So, keep your eyes peeled for an email from Backerkit in the next few days, prompting you to create an account and fill in your survey information.

Because Backerkit is a third-party tool, it is, strictly speaking, optional. If you are strongly opposed to creating a free account with them, please send us an email at [email protected] and we will manage your information manually. 

On another subject, we are very close to sending the book off to the printers with our final redesign. As soon as we submit the document to the printers, we will update you all with a projected delivery date and put the finishing touches on the extras that will be coming your way. If you've been perplexed as to the nature of the delay with Vurt, it has been because we are taking extra time to fine-tune some areas we were unhappy with. I can assure you that we're 120% focused on getting the game to you as soon as possible, and it's coming very soon! 

Thank you all for your patience and understanding, we are really excited to get this book into your hands and start playing some Vurt!

Ravendesk

Words from the Blurbs
over 7 years ago – Sun, Aug 14, 2016 at 03:04:07 PM

Hello all, we're right on track to have the printing finished and en route to KS backers by the end of Summer.

When we first sent the document to the printer, the proofs came back and were simply not acceptable. We adjusted the color and took the opportunity to make a few other additions too while we were at it.

We'll be posting an update soon with a shipping timetable, we're just waiting to get the proofs back and give it the final go-ahead. We'll be sending surveys along shortly to make sure we have your correct shipping information.

Everything is written, and we have commissioned almost 300 original, full-color images. Yes, three HUNDRED. Full Color. That is simply unprecedented, and we said from the get-go that we would take the time to do this all the right way. The book is absolutely packed with amazing images of Vurt-y goodness and you'll all see how much work and passion has gone into development. We're so proud of how it turned out, and can't wait to share it!

And the games at GenCon were so, so much fun!

In addition to that, we are going to manufacture custom Vurt XP ceramic chips for Vurt: The Tabletop Role-Playing Game, which wil be available on our Ravendesk web store. More to come, stay tuned fellow TTRPGers!

Go, Go Cypher System!

Sleep is for the Dead
almost 8 years ago – Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 07:57:04 PM

PLAY TO WIN! PLAY TO WIN! PLAY TO WIN!!!

We're getting the first internal test copies of the corebook in the next few days, and that will be our go ahead for getting Studio 2 the greenlight for printing and fulfillment. So close! The book layout looks great, we're getting everything perfect for you! We'll be running our first official sessions at GenCon, it's going to be a blast.  

Now that the book is written, the art is done, we are out of the development phase and into the production phase. You will be receiving the survey emails in the next few weeks, and the first copies will be arriving in the mail late this summer. We’re already preparing to produce more Vurt products, we have our Manchester Sourcebook and Adventure campaign in the works. Details to come, dear kittlings!  

P.S. We currently are running a Kickstarter for Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla for the Savage Worlds system. Check it out now! Fear not, not a single ounce of focus has been taken away from Vurt. We’re still 100% featherhead.

Play to Win, MadChester!
almost 8 years ago – Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 12:29:22 PM

We’re in the homestretch now, Kitlings. Playtesting has finished and was a joy. We’ve now tested all the NEW Descriptors, Foci, Cyphers and grittier game mechanics. Combat is unforgiving, and forces a terrifying realism into each round. And it makes sense. You see a ShadowCop lift up a Flame Rifle with an inpho-beam scope and aim it at you, are you going to stand there and pull out your old-ass Brillig .22 pistol? Or your cricket bat? Or your brass knuckles? No, you’re heading for cover before the ShadowCop has a chance to pull that trigger because you know what happens when anyone stands toe-to-toe with weapons drawn. It’d be quick and ugly and not something you’d crawl away from. Now, if you are armed to the teeth and have a few friends as backup, then by all means, draw that pistol and start talking shite to the ShadowCop. See which of you is crazier. That is one approach at least. But if you want to hit Tier 2 and above, it’s going to take strategy and a focus on survival.

But fear not, featherheads, technology has improved the weapons and the armor as well, and now there are “eyes in the sky” everywhere (both BlurbFlies and drones), so moving from point A to point B in the biggest city in the Real World takes guts, focus and planning. 

There are entire districts of Manchester that are so self-contained that many of the residents have never ventured outside the neighborhood. Why would they? Need food? Call the Whoompy-drone or open a package of self-heating Pronto-Curry. Need entertainment? There are Vurt-U-Want minimarts that sell legal feathers and over-the-counter pharma everywhere. Need to feel real contact? There are Pink Shimmy-Plexes all over the place for the group featherlovers. What you need is only a few blocks away. You’re going to see how detailed the neighborhoods and districts of Manchester have been laid out in the corebook, how many NPCs and Locations and other wonderful info we’ll all have to play with.

Jeff Noon’s short stories are finished for the book as well, and they all tie into the corebook timeline of 30 years after Scribble’s adventures in the novel Vurt. The characters in these new short stories are NPCs in the adventure and setting sections of the corebook. One of his stories you’ll read includes a description of a character’s “power” that was so strange and amazing we built an entire Focus around it. You fellow Noon-heads are going to flip!

The overall feel and tone of the corebook has come together as well as we get the last of the writing done and work on laying it out with the last of the incoming art. We’ve accomplished what we set out to do; capture the essence of Vurt without turning it into a standard cyberpunk game. Don’t get me wrong, I personally LOVE cyberpunk settings, but Vurt was never a “standard” anything. It has all of the good parts of the genre, but with a bold, Noonian twist that makes it fascinating. We’re Yanks taking on a beloved and uniquely BRITISH setting, and we made sure not to lose sight of that. The amount of research and writing has been monumental, but it’s been worth it. Manchester is mapped out in great detail and makes any adventure or pick-up game you play easy to jump into.

The setting section of the corebook will also contain information on the entire Real World, including the North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica and Gyre-land (the newest continent). Maps, NPCs, adventure suggestions, background info, population breakdowns and main industries, we got it all. You might just reference it during gameplay, or you may create an entire International adventure that takes you all over the Real World.

Then there’s the Vurt World… One does not simply walk into the Vurt and open a map. There are entire sections in the dream lands and nightmares of the Vurt that have their own geography and specifics. But going from point A to point B in the Vurt in a standard sense is impossible. There are people who dedicate their entire lives to mapping out the Vurt and trying to tie it together to figure out how to cross from feather-to-feather, hacking sideways in dreams and hiding and discovering secrets. Those are the Cartographers, and they are often indispensable when exploring the Vurt World. They can figure out shortcuts and glean hints that others simply cannot. They are dedicated scholars of the field of Vurt, and their tireless efforts have guided many a team in and out of feathers too dark and dangerous to be tasted. Want to be a Cartographer? You can! It’s a Focus in the game, part of what you might add to the build. So much more on this and other goodies in the corebook…

Last thing on this update for you lovely Lads and Lasses out there is a warning. In the Vurt World, there are monstrous beasts literally made out of nightmares that populate the individual worlds of the different feathers. They are all unique to the specific part of the Vurt World they hail from, but Cartographers have recently found that many of these beasts are finding ways to cross from one feather to another, making the Vurt World even more dangerous than it was. There are even reports of some of these creatures crossing over into the Real World via swap, and this has caused confusion and terror.

So much to show you, so much waiting for you, and it’s all right around the corner! I’ll leave you Kittlings with some “Cartographer’s Notes” on a few of the better known denizens of the Vurt.

Sweet Dreams,

Alexander