Parsons, KS. – February 3, 2011
-- Announcing Spectrum's Upcoming Lovecraftian Horror RPG!

Spectrum Games is pleased to announce Macabre Tales, a horror role-playing game that seeks to faithfully emulate the type of "weird stories" penned by H.P. Lovecraft during the 1920s and '30s.

According to designer, Cynthia Celeste Miller, "While it's true that there's no shortage of Lovecraftian horror games on the market, I've always felt that they attempt to replicate not only Lovecraft's tales, but also those of his peers and successors who have written stories of the Arkham Cycle. My goal was to design a game system that stuck to the original source and emulate it to the fullest."

Macabre Tales forgoes the use of dice in an effort to better model the meticulous, exacting nature of Lovecraft's stories, opting instead to employ the use of dominoes.

Says Miller, "The domino game mechanic is set up so that the player has more control over the outcome of the character's actions. It's much less random, but luck still plays a part in the equation. There's just enough luck involved to keep you on the edge of your seat."

You can download Spectrum Games' free 9-page sneak peek of Macabre Tales here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=88159

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Spectrum Games was founded in 2001 and has since published many products, including Cartoon Action Hour, Omlevex, Tomorrow Knights, Midway City, Cartoon Action Hour: Season 2, Slasher Flick and Wild West Cinema some of which have been nominated for various awards. Visit us on the web at //www.spectrum-games.com.

What does Macabre Tales do that CoC does not?

Any specific reason for using dominoes and not, say, a jenga tower?

Quote from: Spinachcat;437662What does Macabre Tales do that CoC does not?

Seems to be a one-on-one story game based on a peculiar, exclusive take on strict HPL canon (i.e. without the Dreamlands part of the equation):

From the preview:

QuoteOne-On-One Gaming

The majority of Lovecraft’s most memorable stories revolved around a single protagonist encountering horrors, strange antagonists, and making terrible discoveries. As such, Macabre Tales assumes that one narrator and one player will be involved. Optional rules for adding more players can be found in this book, but the default assumes a one-on-one style of play.

QuotePlayer-Centric

(...) From a game mechanics standpoint, only characters controlled by the player make checks to see if they succeed or fail. The success of supporting characters depends on the needs of the story unless directly opposed by player-controlled characters. This means that the narrator isn’t spending a large portion of the game making checks, which puts the focus back on the primary character of the story.

QuoteSource Material

Over the years, other authors have contributed to the Arkham Cycle by adding their own philosophies, angles and entities to the mix. Much, if not all, of this material has been accepted as Cycle canon by fandom and gamerdom at large. In Macabre Tales, only the material written by Lovecraft himself is considered canon. This includes the revision work that he essentially penned himself (e.g., “The Mound”).

(...) It’s also worth noting that the game doesn’t deal with Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle in any detail. Certain elements of it may be mentioned here and there, but we wanted to make this book as focused as we could and the Dream Cycle is a whole different beast entirely.

QuoteThe Domino Effect

Few things in Lovecraft’s stories were random. Everything was meticulously orchestrated and planned out. The momentum in any given story was driven primarily by the protagonist’s skill, intuition and research rather than arbitrary randomness. This is fine for fiction, wherein the author knows precisely what’s going to happen, but for a role-playing game, there needs to be plenty of surprises for the participants. Otherwise, what’s the point of playing the game?

Still, this aspect of his fiction can’t simply be ignored in a game that seeks to emulate it. As a result, we have minimized the amount of chance involved in the game.

Fortunately, we have developed a method of maintaining suspense and a sense of uncertainty, despite having played down the randomness. This was accomplished by doing away with dice-rolling altogether and implementing the use of dominoes. In essence, the player gets to choose his own “die rolls” from the dominoes he has in his possession.

QuoteOne-Shot

Lovecraft was never big on recurring protagonists and neither are we. Macabre Tales was designed to accommodate one-shot adventures rather than facilitate long-term campaigns. For this reason, we have gone to great extremes to ensure that getting a game up and running takes very little time and effort. After all, who wants to invest a lot of time prepping for a game that’s only going to last one session?

In a similar vein, the game doesn’t facilitate character advancement. In Macabre Tales, the reward isn’t in beefing your character up; it’s in taking part in a memorable horror story.

Quote from: CynthiaCM;437620Parsons, KS. – February 3, 2011
-- Announcing Spectrum's Upcoming Lovecraftian Horror Storygame!

Fixed

Has'nt pretty much every game company milked HPL to death by now? why they cant just admit CoC is the best interpretation out there is a mystery.

Quote from: Spinachcat;437662What does Macabre Tales do that CoC does not?

Foster a different style of game play, for one thing. CoC does what it does admirably, but it's still about a bunch of investigators going out and solving cases in the end. And while much of Lovecraft's work treads that territory, most of his stories are about everyday folks drawn into the unknown by happenstance or simply by looking in the wrong darkened corner.

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;437673Any specific reason for using dominoes and not, say, a jenga tower?

It was simply one of many design choices. The way I used dominoes in the system, particularly with "tension scenes", gives a more methodical feel than dice or a Jenga tower. It's not inherently better... but different.

Quote from: CRKrueger;437692Fixed

Umm... not quite. While it does have "story game" leanings, it's still very much a role-playing game.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;437706Has'nt pretty much every game company milked HPL to death by now? why they cant just admit CoC is the best interpretation out there is a mystery.

Maybe because "best" is subjective and one size doesn't necessarily fit all. It's like asking why people can't just admit that Levis is the best interpretation of blue jeans and stop producing other brands.

Call of Cthulhu does nothing for me. It's a great game (otherwise nobody would like it), but I don't think it captures the feel of Lovecraft's stories terribly well. But, see, that's just my opinion.

That being said, I didn't design Macabre Tales to be a "better game than CoC". I designed it so that there would be a Lovecraftian horror game that I would like to play.

Quote from: CynthiaCM;437823Umm... not quite. While it does have "story game" leanings, it's still very much a role-playing game.

CCM doesn't really do Storygames, although she does do genre-emulation games, quite good ones. (Slasher Flick, Cartoon Action Hour) for example.


I really want Macabre Tales (sadly I have no dominoes, either.)

Lovecraft and dominoes for the win.

Quote from: Silverlion;437856CCM doesn't really do Storygames, although she does do genre-emulation games, quite good ones. (Slasher Flick, Cartoon Action Hour) for example.


I really want Macabre Tales (sadly I have no dominoes, either.)

Exactly.

I'm not a fan of Lovecraft OR dominoes-as-randomizer and I wanna check this out off of the strength of Slasher Flick and Cartoon Action Hour.

Maybe for gencon they could do a limited edition run that comes with a set of domino's for those who really want a copy but dont have any or dont know a place to buy them that isnt miles away?

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;437941Maybe for gencon they could do a limited edition run that comes with a set of domino's for those who really want a copy but dont have any or dont know a place to buy them that isnt miles away?

If you're in the States, you should be able to get a set of dominoes at any Wal-Mart or Target.