PDF Release: BackerKit Soon
over 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 16, 2022 at 12:16:07 AM

Hi everyone,

I wrote this update before spending 2 weeks at GenCon, but never sent the darn thing. My sincere apologies!

PDF Release 

The PDF is out and with backers. If you backed the project, you should have been sent an email with a discount code to our store. 

We'll sort Itch/DriveThru codes in the near future, but for now our website is the best place for us to host it. 

Enjoy the game, and do let us know what you think and especially if you manage to use it at the table. 

If you find any typos or have any issues, go ahead an email [email protected] and we'll implement and changes before we go to print!  

Any issues with your discount codes, please check your SPAM FILTER then ping an email to that same address. 

BackerKit

We were working dead hard on the BackerKit, up to the final moments before we flew to America to attend GenCon. 

There's a couple of components left to sort out, and a few shipping rates still to finalise, but we're hoping to do a Smoke Test this week, and get surveys out to backers as soon as possible. 

We'll speak soon with more info on the game, and maybe some early previews of the stretch goal content we managed to hit.

Thanks, 

Zach

Sector Generation
over 2 years ago – Mon, Jun 27, 2022 at 03:48:11 PM

Hello again! 

I've grabbed Nick to talk about how you generate a city in Gangs, one of the few things you can't see inside the enormous quickstart/preview edition we've released on the SoulMuppet website, which you can grab here! 

Setting Generation

Titan City is vast, too vast to ever map in any meaningful way, it contains multitudes, and multitudes of multitudes. This would create quite the burden to play with in its totality of course, so instead we will be providing a few simple but effective tools to create and manage your very own slice of Titan City.

The stars of the show are the Factions and Sectors of Titan City.

The Factions are the other powerful groups in Titan City, representing the branches of the vicious Enforcers, other Gangs and stranger groups still. The book comes with 36 of these Factions to be sprinkled into your games, sketched out with everything a Narrator needs to present them, including a selection of key NPC members, the defences and Assets they can bring to bear against the Gutters, and Hazards they can inflict on them too. We’ve aimed for heavy on flavour, but light enough for you to easily develop and expand yourself.

The Sectors represent the physical spaces of Titan City, from the dank depths of the Rootings, to the desolating Fringeways, the crushing fullness of the Heartwards, and the glistening luxury (relatively speaking) of the Spirewise. Each of these four ‘wards’ of the city come with 6 types of sector to personalise and detail these spaces, such as the enormous High Rise sectors of the Heartwards, and the Desolate Sectors of the Fringeways. Maps of these sectors will be constructed with a table of hex-maps, each hex depicting a valuable Claim, and each cluster of hexes representing a Sector, to help you visualise the territory you’ll be struggling and bleeding to control.

Finally, we also present a procedure for bringing these elements together to create your campaign. All you’ll need to start are a few Sectors and Factions, and a Starting Dynamic, the general situation facing the other Factions that your players can become embroiled in, or exploit for their own gain. Rather than detailing a multitude of steps for painstakingly building a holistic vision of Titan City, we aimed to create something that will create a concentrated kernel of it, something easy to digest. Should the Gang outgrow their starting territories, guidelines are also provided for adding additional Sectors and Factions to the game, growing at the pace of play.

The aim of all these tools is to allow groups to get to playing the game quickly whilst providing enough substance to create an engaging setting and game right off the bat.

A Final Word

That's us! We finish in just over 48 hours. Please share widely so we can hit the funding goal, and maybe hit those fancy stretch goals we were aiming for! 

Thanks 

Zach

90% Funded - New Alt Cover and Stretch Goals
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 24, 2022 at 07:45:03 PM

Please continue to share the project widely. Folx talking about the project with enthusiasm is the best way to make sure we fund, so post away! 

We've got less than a week left and are nearly 90% funded. It's time to talk about stretch goals and what we'll do if/once we fund! 

Alt Cover 

Everybody I've spoken to loves the Kickstarter exclusive alt-cover we're doing, but it is a bit minimalist. 

I spoke to my pal Rollin Kunz, a lover of Warhammer inspired maximalist carnage, and he agreed to put together a new alt-cover for us.

Rollin did Orc Borg, which I was lucky enough to be a producer for. The new cover is similarly loud and violent and vibrant! You'll be able to choose it as your preferred cover if you backed at the £60 or £80 pledge level, and we'll include it as an option in Backerkit. 

Here it is: 

Stretch Goals

We've got 3 stretch goals planned to take us up to 20k. 

£16 - Faction Pamphlets

At 16k, we'll hire a series of writers to make a set of new Factions. These will be a digital only add-on, but we'll put physical pamphlets on Backerkit if they're done in time. 

The writers are:

• Emmy Allen is a British trans RPG writer, whose work tends to feature body horror, fairy-tale whimsy, feminine horror and lots of random tables. Some of her work includes Dungeon Bitches, The Gardens of Ynn, Esoteric Enterprises and the award-winning Stygian Library. 
• Brian Yaksha is writer who has written for and touched upon Rakehell, Spoils of the Gorgon Coast, Brinkwood: The Blood of Tyrants, CY_BORG. Putrescence Regnant, Dolmenwood, and Age of Sigmar: Soulbound: Champions of Order.
• Wendi Yu is "wanted" "dead" or mostly "alive". She was last seen as the creator of games such as here, there, be monsters! from SoulMuppet's LATAM Breakout Kickstarter, the punk mutant adventure Marvelous Mutations and Merry Musicians and the religious conspiracy Apotheosis Janitors. She's a tranny by skill, a brazilian by chance, and a monster by trade.
• Noora Rose is the founder of Monkey's Paw Games and wears many hats: writer, editor, layout artist, distributor and curator. She's contributed to such projects as Sin: a Spire supplement, Tide Breaker, Trophy Dark, Mnemonic, and Moonlight on Roseville Beach.

18k - Operation Deck

At 18k, Nick will create a new series of NPCs, operation targets and obstacles. We'll put into a printed card deck that will be available either as an addition to the top tier pledge or as a BackerKit add-on. This handy tool will keep prep as absolute zero, allowing you to create a Operation on the FLY as you are running Gangs. 

20k - Hyperfuture Haruspex 

At 20k, we will create the first issue of HYPERFUTURE HARUSPEX. This semi-regular zine series is planned to expand on content for Gangs of Titan City. We'll include a PDF in every pledge, and a discount on the print edition when it becomes available.

Nick has lots of ideas about we're going to make (robots? new adventures? new cybernetics? things on the moon???). We've got too many ideas for one zine. Comment below if you've got any other ideas for things you'd like to see in a supplemental zine! 

A Final Word

Please continue to share the project widely. Folx talking about the project with enthusiam is the best way to make sure we fund, so post away! 

Thanks 

Zach

Progress Update + Quickstart
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 11, 2022 at 09:34:41 AM

A few fun updates. 

The Game Is Done 

Yesterday we finished layout and went on to proofing. This Kickstarter was delayed (mainly by other projects), so by the time we started crwodfunding gangs it was nearly done. You'll get the proper version once we're funded and finished with proofing. 

You can see the table of contents here: 

Quickstart

Nick and I have been hard at work on the Quickstart so we can show you more about the game. 

You can download it now on our very own store or on DriveThruRPG for FREE. I'll put it on itch soon to! Here's how it works: 

GOTC Quickstart Rules 

A full PDF ruleset, containing rules for the Game, Gutters and Gangers, as well as how to run a campaign. This is a fancy PDF filled with art and well laid out. This is what the final book will look like. 

We didn't include the full rules for Character, Gang and City generation, so there's something to get in the full release of the game. 

Gangs_Playtest 

Instead, we added a small PDF with 6 pregen characters, 2 potential gangs, and a set of claims + rival gangs for you to run a short campaign. 

It's not representative of the final product, and is more like a starter adventure. 

Please read the game. Please play play it. Please please please talk about it. 

Stretch Goals

I've had some requests for stretch goal info. I don't like talking about stretch goals until we fund, because it suggests funding is a certainty. It isn't. We need your help to share the game widely so more people jump on board. 

We've been covered by lots of news places, with some thoughts on the game and its influences. There's even some sexy new art in a few of them, if you go digging: 

https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/news/gangs-titan-city-rpg-kickstarter

https://www.enworld.org/threads/rpg-crowdfunding-news-–-return-to-dark-tower-endless-realms-incredible-items-and-more.689086

https://gizmodo.com/roleplaying-tabletop-indie-games-news-momatoes-kickstar-1849024443

https://www.geeknative.com/142784/grimdark-urban-rpg-from-soulmuppet-gangs-of-titan-city/

Speak soon! Planning to get Nick to write us some updates about his favourite bits of the game, and maybe ply the mind of our artist Ben for the influences behind gangs! 

Thanks

Zach

UKGE + Updates Editing
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 04, 2022 at 09:50:20 AM

Hey 

Project is going well and we're well along our way to funding. We're at UK Games Expo at Birmingham's NEC this weekend, so I've been a bit light on social media + updates. 

The book is progressing well, we just started proofing, which means we should actually have the PDF ready by the time the project funds later this month. 

If you're lucky enough to be with us, we're letting folx flip through the book and grab whatever they want. 

I'll be back with more serious content updates next week when I've recovered from the convention. 

In the meanwhile, join the chat on our SoulMuppet discord. Also, drop any comments below about things from the game you want to hear more about. 

Thanks 

Zach