Moving Forward with Machine Gods

Hello, everyone! I feel I need to clarify a few things regarding Machine Gods, its future, and why I am doing what I'm doing with the game. As you all know, I am about to launch a Kickstarter to fund the conversion of the game to the Mörk Borg system (Tuesday 28th!). When I first announced this, the support was essentially unanimous, so I know I'm doing the right thing. As many of you know, D20 rulesets are generally not my preferred systems to work with or play, and when I do so, I do it because they are familiar to most people in the RPG scene. The problem is, precisely because I don't enjoy the standard D&D D20 rules, I end up tweaking them, a lot. Which in hindsight defeats the purpose of using it in the first place: if I tell people this game uses a D20 ruleset, they come with certain expectations. But then they see the changes I've done to the formula, and while some people don't mind or even like them, a lot of people (most) dislike or even hate them.

This was the case with Machine Gods (and to an extent Choir of Flesh, which uses the same core D20 ruleset), particularly the Dynamic Target Number mechanic. My goal with this mechanic was to have the world scale with you, which I know it's already a controversial move; we all like to feel more powerful as we grow our characters. This is something that I was aware of, but that the core rules of Machine Gods didn't reflect; I had plans for an Advanced Rules book that would address that, and I actually implemented those ideas into the core Choir of Flesh rules, with the Masteries and whatnot. In my mind, Machine Gods was a light game that people would mostly play as one shots or very short campaigns, so I didn't think it would matter if your character didn't feel more powerful all the time (even though you did still grow in power through gear and other effects, of course). In any case, the result was a lot of negative feedback. People hated the DTN, and even though I included the static TN we all know and love, the one plucked directly from D&D so people could use that one if they didn't want to use the Dynamic one, I spent literal hours explaining myself, telling them why I did this and not that, why this worked this way and not this other way.

So when I, as a designer, spend hours explaining myself and justifying my design decisions to my customers, I get the message that I screwed up. It doesn't matter why I did it, if people are telling me it doesn't work, or they don't like it, I have to listen. So I did, I decided that I would no longer work on D20 rulesets because it isn't working. The problem is, people really enjoyed the Machine Gods setting, and despite everything it actually sold okay. Not Ker Nethalas or ATDW levels of okay, but enough to cover my expenses and make a bit on the side, which is all I can ask for these days. So as you know, I looked for a way to move forward with the game. My original instinct was to adapt it to my D100 Momentum Engine, but that would have been an enormous task, and a complete different version of the game. No, I wanted to be able to offer it as a free upgrade, because hundreds of people had already purchased a copy of the game, and telling them that that version of the game was done and that they had to buy a different one if they wanted to keep exploring the setting didn't feel right. Furthermore, using the Mörk Borg rules, which are still D20, isn't that big of a departure from the original ones, and most aspects of the game have been preserved, or even expanded. I don't think this is a radical change, and the rules fit like a glove into the setting and existing procedures.

So why am I writing all this? Well, because now I am getting messages (admittedly just three so far, but I want to address it publicly for those who might feel the same way) from people who actually liked the original rules and are pissed that the game is moving forward with the MB rules. My immediate reaction to this was "where were you when I spent hours publicly arguing about the original rules? I could have used some support". And trust me, I get it; I obviously prefer my own rules to the MB rules, I'm sorry. I work really hard on my games and systems, so I will always prefer my own (except Rolemaster, which is perfect and the gold standard of game design as we all know). But like I said, I have to listen to what people want. Blackoath is a business, and if my customers are saying something doesn't work, I need to listen. I will, of course, always try to keep my original vision and direction for a game, but I know how important it is to listen to feedback. So to all of you who actually enjoyed my original Machine Gods rules: thank you, you are the best, but it was not working out. You will still have them, you can still play with them, but moving forward, all future Machine Gods material will only be written for the new MB-compatible version of the game.

With that said, I really hope you all join me in this new era of Machine Gods, starting with the upcoming Kickstarter, launching just in a few days! I am incredibly excited to show you what I have in store for the game, and with your support, we can really turn this game into a huge success.

See you all on Tuesday!

Alex.