Gauntlet Con, Tome of Mysteries, Dark Streets & Darker Secrets, Tides of Gold

Michael Sands Interview

Monster of the Week: Tome of Mysteries Review

+1 Forward podcast talking about the Tome of Mysteries

Heads up: Michael Sands and Steve Hickey did an interview for the +1 Forward podcast talking about the Tome of Mysteries.

You can give it a listen over here: 

https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/1-forward/monster-of-the-week-tome-of-mysteries

The Tome of Mysteries Monster of the Week Expansion is now for sale on Amazon! And Drive-thru RPG!

Monster of the Week: Tome of Mysteries---Street date is May 13th!

Open the Tome—if you dare!

https://www.evilhat.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=79&products_id=352

In the Monster of the Week roleplaying game, hunters must solve all manner of mysteries before they can save the day. The Tome of Mysteries expands their options—and magnifies their peril-—with a wide variety of GMing advice, essays, rules, and mysteries from the Monster of the Week “Roadhouse Regulars” online community.

Tome of Mysteries requires Monster of the Week to play. In this supplement, you’ll find:

• Eight new alternative Weird Moves that go beyond Use Magic.
• Four new Hunter playbooks: The Gumshoe, the Hex, the Searcher, and the Pararomantic.
• Support for weird phenomena type Mysteries like those found in Fringe or The X-Files.
• Tips and techniques used by experienced Keepers.
• 29 fully detailed mysteries ready to drop into your game.

Grab your friends and your gear.
It’s time to unlock the Tome of Mysteries!

Monster of the Week SUPPLEMENT INFORMATION

Number of players: 2-6
Age of players: 12+
Length: 2-8 hours
Type of Game: Roleplaying Game
Languages Available: English
Product Number: EHP0046
ISBN: 978-1-61317-171-4
Suggested Retail: $25
Game Designers: Matthew Aaron, Aaron Burkett, Kane Cathain, Sean Clancy, Jason D’Angelo, Bruno Dias, Felix Girke, Marek Golonka, Luke Green, Bryanna Hitchcock, Sophie Lagacé, Zed Lopez, Paul McBride, Arturo Martinez, Jamie Sands, Michael Sands, Daniel Steadman, Jacob Steele, Chris Stone-Bush, Chloe Sutherland, Mark Tygart, and Michał Werder.
Release Date: May 2019

More from Evil Hat!

Monster of the Week:
Tome of Mysteries
(Ships May)

Open the Tome—if you dare! In the Monster of the Week roleplaying game, hunters must solve all manner of mysteries before they can save the day. The Tome of Mysteries expands their options—and magnifies their peril-—with a wide variety of GMing advice, essays, rules, and mysteries from the Monster of the Week “Roadhouse Regulars” online community.

Tome of Mysteries requires Monster of the Week to play. PDF included free with preorders, available immediately after your purchase. (Stand-alone PDF will be made available closer to the release date in May.)

• Preorder now! Your order will ship in May.
• Check out the core Monster of the Week book as well!
• Listen to the beginning of The Adventure Zone's Monster of the Week campaign: Amnesty
• Learn more on our site.

Tome of Mysteries Pre-order is Here!

Monster of the Week: Tome of Mysteries [Book+PDF] [Preorder] [EHP0046] - $25.00 : Evil Hat Productions Online Store

BOOM!

Open the Tome—if you dare!

In the Monster of the Week roleplaying game, hunters must solve all manner of mysteries before they can save the day. The Tome of Mysteries expands their options—and magnifies their peril-—with a wide variety of GMing advice, essays, rules, and mysteries from the Monster of the Week “Roadhouse Regulars” online community.

Tome of Mysteries requires Monster of the Week to play. In this supplement, you’ll find:

• Eight new alternative Weird Moves that go beyond Use Magic.
• Four new Hunter playbooks: The Gumshoe, the Hex, the Searcher, and the Pararomantic.
• Support for weird phenomena type Mysteries like those found in Fringe or The X-Files.
• Tips and techniques used by experienced Keepers.
• 29 fully detailed mysteries ready to drop into your game.

Grab your friends and your gear.
It’s time to unlock the Tome of Mysteries!

SUPPLEMENT INFORMATION

Number of players: 2-6
Age of players: 12+
Length: 2-8 hours
Type of Game: Roleplaying Game
Languages Available: English
Product Number: EHP0046
ISBN: 978-1-61317-171-4
Suggested Retail: $25
Game Designers: Matthew Aaron, Aaron Burkett, Kane Cathain, Sean Clancy, Jason D’Angelo, Bruno Dias, Felix Girke, Marek Golonka, Luke Green, Bryanna Hitchcock, Sophie Lagacé, Zed Lopez, Paul McBride, Arturo Martinez, Jamie Sands, Michael Sands, Daniel Steadman, Jacob Steele, Chris Stone-Bush, Chloe Sutherland, Mark Tygart, and Michał Werder.
Release Date: May 2019

The Ghoul on High Castle Street

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SfIz970wyuK16fR-sMhfa5olHMf9LIRX

A Monster-of-the-Week mini-mystery for your amusement!

Tome of Mysteries 2019!

From an Evil Hat press release (https://www.evilhat.com/home/refocused-resized-hat-mode-activated/)

Projects that remain with us from now through 2019 include:

• Monster of the Week: Tome of Mysteries: Michael Sands from Generic Games, designer of Monster of the Week, has been working on a supplement for the game for a while now. We’re happy to confirm that we will publish this as well. Layout is currently underway.

Monster of the Week Mystery Starters Free Archive

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7cav44145d9NEU5NE55U1d0RHc

New Monster of the Week Mystery Starter

Alien Hunt

Michael Sands: Yeah, it's always reassuring to hear "It's definitely not aliens."

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1P5nNDWng9qzVcVibmPFY5ypuo7DXuVNE

Peterson on Horror Module Creation

"It’s Still Sparta" Monster-of-the-Week Mystery Review

Marek Golonka seems like a very nice person. Many Tabletop Role Playing pundits will not publish even mildly negative reviews. They make you enemies, they discourage authors from sending you free stuff and they depress fellow hobbyists who are generally doing something creative for love while forced like most of us to still work dull jobs to pay the rent. Marek Golonka is the first person I know of to go forward and publish professional mysteries for Monster-of-the-Week besides Michael Sands and she submitted them to me for my “expert” approval. I should have made excuses and written up a review praising Gardens of Ynn like everybody else and simply noted her chutzpah. I didn’t. I published lukewarm reviews of her first two Monsters of Europe mysteries.

I found her first two mysteries were professional but uninspired. A European write-up of their version of the Bell Witch incident (The Haunted Case of Eleonore Zugun) is simply not terribly meaningful for Americans. It was followed by Blood in Budapest; a valentine of sorts to that city. I wondered why did she use tired Romanian inspired vampires instead of something from Hungary’s own rich mythology instead? Both mysteries also suffered from the fact that they were long and overstuffed with material the writer dearly loved but foreign to the lean and mean appeal of Monster-of-the-Week’s usual two to five page mystery format. I felt like I should have received at least a small mystery arc or thematic mystery collection for this length and price. My general reaction was guilty indifference.

Marek Golonka bravely sent me her third mystery for review.

I am happy to say indifference was not my reaction.

It appears that the third time is the charm.

Most of her basic problems are now solved. Marek Golonka’s third mystery is a wildly creative adventure sending the hunters on a quest into classical myth. It is sort of like a Supernatural episode where Sam and Dean travel back in time to the Old West or an alternate reality. The length of the mystery and additional material is justified by the strangeness of the setting: the players are not in Kansas anymore!

If you want to send your hunters into the world of greek mythology this is your ticket to ride. I still think she would be better served in the future by writing mystery arcs in a more compact format and adding additional game material like a new playbook with each mystery; the crushing reality of Tabletop RPG PDF supplements is the current price point is still arguably too high. Very few authors make any real money in this market. A Patreon or Kickstarter publishing model for a bigger product "might" serve the author better. My review copy also had no art; I don’t know if this is the case in the finished product. 

However, anything with content this wildly creative deserves “kudos” and is inspiring. Maybe my desire to send my hunters the Planet of the Apes is doable after all!

You can find copies of Its Still Sparta here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/250707/Its-still-Sparta

New Monster of the Week Mystery: Terror at 30,000 Feet

Playing around with formats for a MotW mystery...IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE!

(When in need for a sudden single player mystery steal from the best!)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jkALItkx8LX8qiwIvOlHcK0ZiSROBYSk

Dirty Fate? Dirty Monster Hunting?

John Wick's Dirty Dungeon

Each player adds elements to the dungeon by describing how they learned about this element - dungeon survivors, old maps, books, whatever. Each time they add something to the dungeon, a d4 is added to the pot. In the dungeon, players may take out a d4 whenever and add it to a die roll.

While the players are adding to the dungeon, the DM gets a bead every 10 minutes (or whatever time period you like).

Everything the players state is true.

The DM may spend a bead during play to make any player statement false.

So, basically, the players build the dungeon from the ground up, and then adventure through it. However, because the DM can change elements at any point in time, their plans are not foolproof.

Any ideas how to apply this to Fate or FAE? Maybe as a "Heist" game?

Or maybe Monster-of-the Week?

New Monster-of-the-Week Mystery: The North Shall Rise Again

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bH3MKxVJGczhqYOaH8rcM0wr8fYtopst

Stranger Things

New Monster of the Week Mystery: Escape from Carcosa

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18LKroCrHC6qTXA9FLlCnp2Q10FUztBOL