#nightfall games

This is SLA Industries (1993). That’s pronounced “slay,” incidentally, a fact that should give you some insight into the overall temperament of the game.

Let’s see if I can do this in the character limit. The titular company is run by Mr. Slayer, a pumpkin-headed supervillain, and it sits at the center of a horrible, violent universe. The company headquarters is surrounded by post-apocalyptic city ruins called Cannibal Sectors that are filled with all manner of mutants, monsters and serial murderers. Players are freelancers (of COURSE, why would there be paid benefits in a dystopia) who hunt monsters and take part in office politics.

There is a laundry list of super obvious influences. The goth and industrial music scenes are big one — lots of Siouxsie’s with big guns (and top hats) in the art. 40K is another, both in some of the art and in the waist-deep approach to lore. It being a product of Scotland, I expect 2000AD is in the mix, though not as front and center as I would have guessed. There’s some cyberpunk elements (the megacorp, for one), but SLA’s prime science fiction is more in line with the schlocky dystopias of Death Race 2000 and The Running Man, especially in the game’s notion that the players are probably on-camera through most of their exploits, an eerie (if likely entirely accidental) anticipation of reality TV. All of this is filtered, to varying degrees, through the aesthetics and sensibilities of early 90s manga and anime. The result is a big old stew pot of the likes of Rifts and Battlelords, but slathered in nihilism rather than bombast.

A new RPG centring on Dracula and other creations of Bram Stokers is on the way

Stokerverse, the first RolePlaying Game based on a franchise award-winning writer Dr. Chris McAuley created with Dacre Stoker, is coming soon from Nightfall Games. “This is a visceral Victorian environment with twists on classic characters and an authentic continuation of the original Dracula narrative,” says Chris. The StokerVerse is the brainchild of international bestselling author Dacre…

'The Terminator RPG' is the official roleplaying game based on 'The Terminator' movie and associated graphic novels published by Dark Horse comics.

Join the Human Resistance. The world is a wasteland—broken by the machines we built. Our own creations, our own hubris. Not in some distant future. Today. Now. The machines think they have won.  But there is one last chance for humankind, a secret weapon that Skynet in its infinite calculations could never have anticipated—you.

Play in any time zone—including the 1980s and future war. All the main characters from the movie, such as Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, and the T-800 are included, as is content from the graphic novels and all all-new, never seen before Terminator variants and hardware.

The rulebook includes two mission packs, enabling you to relive 'The Terminator' movie and to join the fight to bring down Skynet in a not-so-distant future war.

Programming the Future. The setting team is led by 2020 ENnie and UKGE award-winning author Andrew E.C. Gaska (ALIEN RPG) and our rules team by Benn Graybeaton (Conan and Infinity RPGs). Art direction comes from Dave Allsop (SLA Industries) and layout design comes from Gaska's BLAM! Ventures studio (Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, Nike Future Park).  

More than a game. 'The Terminator RPG' is not just a role-playing game—it's a sourcebook for the first Terminator film and its expanded universe. Settings writer Andrew E.C. Gaska is known for his development work on the expanded universes of ALIEN, Predator, and Planet of the Apes. Like those projects, 'The Terminator RPG' extrapolates from hardcore existing canon to create a living and breathing world with a multitude of possible and probable timelines. Any Terminator fan will want this gorgeous book on their shelf, whether they intend to play or not.

In ‘The Terminator RPG’, you play resistance fighters struggling against the machine onslaught of Skynet in an alternative and post-apocalyptic version of today—the once "far future" of the 2020s. You can take the role of rebel time travellers sent back to various points in time to stop Skynet from altering history. You can even play natives of any historical time period, targeted by Terminators and trying to stay alive as a future hell is unleashed around you.

The book is designed as a toolbox to allow the Director to create their own campaigns or one-shots, including detailed multipage campaign arcs, campaign seeds, mini-missions, NPCs, weapons, detailed locations, and enemy characters.

You have the option to play either pre-generated characters or to create your own—tailored to your preferences, weapon choices, and role within your team. If your character is killed, a new one can be brought in from the future, past, or present. That new character can be many things—including even an alternate you from a divergent timeline.

The game has been built from the ground up to both evoke the tone of the film and place you in the middle of the action. The terror and desperation of facing unstoppable killing machines are yours to bear. Only united with your fellow resistance fighters can you hope to defeat them.

'The Terminator RPG' features the Nightfall Games’ S5S system, first seen in SLA Industries 2nd Edition. The S5S is a d10-based rules system. At its core, this system uses a pool of dice, one Success die, and five Skill dice per player. The more skilled your character is in the task being attempted, the more likely you are to succeed and "succeed big."

The rules set has been tailored specifically to The Terminator setting. Combat, survival, and investigation are all dealt with in the rules, along with vehicle combat, time travel, and computer hacking, allowing your character to take control of the conflict with unique skills and training. You'll need all of this and more to take the fight across the timelines and survive.

'The Terminator RPG' will be a lavish 192-page hardcover book with full-colour illustrations throughout, giving you an engrossing study of the expanded world of 'The Terminator'.

Much of the writing is now in the editing stage. Dynamic design and page layout has already started. The book includes a detailed overview of the future war, the history of the key characters, the game rules and stats, a hardware section (including a novel system to ensure only appropriate weapons and hardware are included at a particular time point). Other chapters will include character creation, a Director's Guide, and pre-constructed missions including NPCs and Terminator variants.

This Quickstart PDF offers a 'rules lite' look at the new system and provides seven pre-generated characters and an introductory scenario for up to five players. Go give it a go!

Kickstarter campaign ends: Mon, April 5 2021 11:59 PM BST