Cthulhu. Hastur. Who’s the Great Old One, and Who’s the GREATEST Old One?

Time to find out. It’s WRESTLENOMICON, the card game from veterans of Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, Epic Spell Wars, and Delta Green. Back it now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcdream/wrestlenomicon

New Wrestlenomicon Two-Player Cardgame Playtest Opens

art by Kurt Komoda

I've been super-busy finishing game design projects before a vacation.

One of the projects, a twisted little two-player card game from Arc Dream Publishing called Wrestlenomicon, is about to open a month-long playtest. The version of the game in this playtest has taken a turn toward the lighter side, away from a couple rules and abilities we decided were too esoteric.

If you're a fan of some of my other card games, or you enjoy two-player combat games, or if you have been aching for the chance to impale a fellow elder god with Cassilda's Thong or crush them under a Barrel Full of Byakhees, you can sign up for the playtest by visiting the Wrestlenomicon.com website!

I'm going to be traveling without much email for the next few weeks, so if you sign up and have any trouble getting the playtest kit, or have questions, contact Shane Ivey at shane@arcdream.com.

Wrestlenomicon!

[Hyades Head Slam, by Kurt Komoda]

Dennis Detwiller & Shane Ivey of Arc Dream Publishing came up with the idea of pitting Cthulhu vs. Hastur in a cosmic cage fight. They came up with dozens of funny card names and Kurt Komoda supplied wonderful illustrations. But the rules they started with didn’t live up to the concept and the art. Dennis & Shane decided they didn’t really have a viable game. And that’s when I got involved, meeting Dennis at a convention, hearing that they had a fully-illustrated game with no mechanics, and jumping at the chance to join the team.

I designed a couple systems that had interesting pieces but weren’t fun. Then I hit on the idea of presenting the fight as a battle between great slow-moving cosmic entities who launch attacks that unfold over time and space, arriving after the enemy has had a chance to see them coming and figure out what they might do in response. If it’s not actually a unique game mechanic, I don’t know other games that used the idea first. I’m sure I’ll hear whether the mechanics have unknown ancestors during this next piece of the process, a wide open-playtest.

If you’d like to be part of the playtest, you can sign up at Wrestlenomicon.com. This first (and perhaps only) playtest is going to run for something like five weeks. Assuming it goes well, the game’s developer, Sean McCarthy, and I will process the playtest feedback and get the game ready to roll. At some point thereafter, when they’ve recovered from other Kickstarter heroics, Arc Dream will run a KS for Wrestlenomicon . . . . since there’s definitely more that can be accomplished in this cosmic ring!

[[Fistful of Cultists, also by Kurt Komoda]]

Dream-Quest, Dreamlands cards

Here’s why I love Kij Johnson’s The Dream-Quest of Vellit Boe:

a)     Kij Johnson is one of my favorite writers, and the fact that I haven’t read all her books yet is a symptom of deliberately rationing her work over time—next up: Fudoki.

b)     The Dreamlands are my favorite part of Lovecraft’s mythos.

c)      Vellit Boe’s dreamquest works as mythos journey, perspective-shift social commentary, and a trip into the lives of real people in a surreal world.

d)    Brutal mid-paragraph shifts from normality to deadly violence. They remind me of the non-transitions in the movie version of No Country for Old Men. This is how violence slams into real life, not with musical cues.

Here’s why I love Heather Hudson’s Dreamlands Christmas Cards that are on Kickstarter for the next couple days, and can be found here:

a)     Hilarious use of the mythos' brightest corners.

b)    Cards that translate both in and out of fandom.

c)     Homage to Calvin & Hobbes. 

d)     At least one card that requires a scenario: (Santa Claus vs.) The Black Galley!