Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla - The Savage Worlds Tabletop RPG

Now we're R'lyeh cooking with gas!
almost 8 years ago – Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 09:34:13 PM

Fellow Cultists, erm, I mean... 
Friends,

Now that we have unlocked 3 major community goals (Custom cards, Bennies and miniatures), it's time to reach our main project goal and start unlocking those stretch goals. We have so much ready to offer in terms of additional content. 

Some of the great questions we have been getting center around the source material, the famous personalities we'll be meeting, and the historical era we are going to be entering.

To most, a fast, furious and fun jaunt through the Roaring Twenties is enough. Jumping in an autogyro and swooping down for a rescue landing atop Miskatonic University, armed with amazing TeslaTech; that is what this game is all about. You can also combine it with other Savage Worlds settings or TTRPGs, really make it your own! Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla the Tabletop Roleplaying Game is all about the joy of sharing an adventure with friends. Your sessions can be lighthearted and fun, or as dark as the ElseWhere. You don't need to be a history buff to have fun, or be a scholar of Lovecraft's fiction. This game is open to all.

However... For those who really love getting into the speculative historical fiction that Herald offers, we've got a treasure trove of fascinating facts and connections that tie everyone into the battle against the invading forces from beyond the stars. And we are going global. This is way bigger than Providence now, my friends.

We'll take you to the back alleyways of Tangier, show you Marie Curie's laboratory in Warsaw, accompany Trilussa through the secret tunnels under Rome, see what's really inside the basement of the Bauhaus school in Weimar. You will develop protective elder sign talismans with artists like Kandinsky and Klee, Miro and Munch. Josephine Baker will show you Paris, you'll meet with young Chancellor Churchill in London, plan for war in the upper rooms of Harlem's Cotton Club with mythos-hunters Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Cab Calloway. Go toe to toe with an up-and-coming Capone in his Shoggoth-infested Chicago. Deliver coded letters between fellow Cthulhu-fighters like young Jorge Luis Borges and Ernest Hemingway. Mark Twain tells you that Bohr, Noether and Planck need help deciphering that page of the Necronomicon that seems to solve the electron spin issue of Zeeman's effect. Accompany Clara Bow and a young Alfred Hitchcock in a zeppelin ride to Los Angeles to join Fritz Lang, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin on a mission to investigate an avatar of Nyralathotep. Quick! Take a train west in the Republic of China to where the TchoTcho of Tibet are appearing in greater numbers. Tackle the mysteries of lost Dagon, the Plateau of Leng, and the madness of R'lyeh. Travel with a hand-picked team of the best and brightest of the 1920's to the bottom of the world, slipping under the Antarctic ice shelves in a prototype S-boat built by Glenn Curtiss and Nikola Tesla. If you are a history nerd (like I am, obviously!), then this game is going to be like candy. 

Lastly, for those wondering if HP will be a racist in the game like he was in reality, I'd like to point out that the comic book series by John Reilly does not shy away from that issue. Lovecraft's world-view was as twisted as a Gwarloth's flagellum, no doubt, but history shows that with an existential common enemy/threat (Cthulhu in this case), we humans quickly re-prioritize what we feel threatened by. Xenophobia against invading Star-crab Mi-Go Fungi from Yuggoth is okay. In fact, it's what will allow us to survive. When push comes to shove, we humans stick together when cornered as a species. HP and some of the others in the 1920s might have to learn that life lesson a bit more quickly in-game. 

More updates to come! Thank you for your support and please tell your friends so that we can make this fiction a reality. We have so many cool stretch goals waiting!

                                                                                                                   Alexander

Ravendesk at Comic-Con San Diego!
almost 8 years ago – Sat, Jul 23, 2016 at 10:30:46 PM

We are at San Diego Comic-Con, spreading the word of Herald and people are really enjoying it! If any of you happen to be at SDCC, stop by the Action Lab comics booth (#1725), we’d love to see you. Here’s a fun picture of me (looking dorky), Shane Hensley (Mr. Savage Worlds himself) and John Reilly (writer of  the Herald comic). Shane stopped by the booth to talk Herald and picked up Volume 1 and 2 of the series-and yes, those are TeslaPistols we’re holding! We’d already defeated several Mi-Gos and Shoggoths by lunch. 

To celebrate the fact that we've passed the half-way mark, we're posting some community goals which unlock when you "like" the Herald RPG Facebook page and guess what, you've already unlocked the first one! If you haven't done so yet, go check out the page!  https://www.facebook.com/HeraldTTRPG/?fref=nf

We're preparing to announce more stretch goals, Ad-Ons and other goodies that we have waiting in the wings. We can’t wait to share it all with you. More updates to follow. 

For now, it’s back to booth #1725, where the kickstarter video is playing on loop and we get to talk about how great the Savage Worlds system is and how perfectly it fits with Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla. John Reilly and I are also going over all the adventures and one-shots he’ll be writing for the book. It’s been a blast, we’re so excited to get started on production. Let’s get to this goal and unlock more and more, filling the 1920’s with Lovecraftian madness and a huge cast of historical characters to join in the fight! We’ll end with a quote from Mark Twain, because it’s classy, and it’s what he’d want us to do. 

"Character is the architect of achievements!"

Hot Dawg! You folks are organized lightning.
almost 8 years ago – Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 05:46:01 PM

Wowie! 126 Backers! You hotsy-totsy Dewdroppers and Flappers are the bee's knees!

DAY ONE of the campaign has been a wonderful success and the large number of backers shows us just how many folks out there really see how exciting and fresh this Savage Worlds game will be.  

We truly understand what a huge responsibility it is to make Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla the Tabletop Roleplaying Game as epic as it needs to be. Happily, we have a huge advantage right out of the gate- The original creators of the Action Lab comic book series are all part of the core creative group of this project. This ensures artistic continuity and the liberating ability to explore every bit of the world of Lovecraft & Tesla's 1920's. We are all ready for this grand adventure.  

John Reilly, writer/creator of the series will be the lead writer for the TTRPG (TableTop Role-Playing Game). Tom Rogers and Dexter Weeks, the fantastic artists from the comic book series will be our lead artists, and have already begun work on the project, creating the artwork for some Add-Ons we will be able to produce once we hit our goal and start unlocking all of what we've planned.  

Thank you so much for showing your support and enthusiasm We here at Ravendesk Games are excited that so many of you also see what potential we see, and how much FAST, FURIOUS, FUN this game will be. We will keep everyone well updated, stay tuned for some announcements for Add-Ons and other Community Goals. We're going to make these 1920's ROAR!!!  

Let's close with a quote from Mark Twain, as he would likely have much to say after seeing such a great number of good people show concern about the very real threat of Cthulhu:

Spread the word, Cthulhu's on the run now!   

Alexander Lepera