The RPGnet Interview

MLT: Well, I'm twenty-seven years old and I'm studying game design and project management at the moment, parallel to my writing. Earlier I studied social anthropology at the university.

MG: How does your own role-playing history look like? How did it get started and howoften do you play today?

MLT: I started when I was about nine. The first RPG I played was the Swedish version of D & D. But I tired of fantasy pretty quick and then moved on to sci-fi and then horror. Most recently I've been testing my own games in different iterative processes, but as often as I can I try to play other games as well.

MG: Any favorite games?

MLT: To be honest I don't really have any favorites as such. For me it's often a question of what mood I'm in. Sometimes I love a good session of CoC, while at other times we set up a game of SLA or Shadowrun.

MG: Now, tell us about Noctum.

MLT: Well, Noctum has been a process, and still is. I started to write the first version five years ago or so. At that time I had no idea what I was getting myself into, or even how to design a game or how to create a layout. Basically I wrote some text, shoved it inside a makeshift layout and managed to sell it. But by the second edition, and the sourcebook Sodalitas I started to get the hang of things. One can say that the Swedish versions where a big part of my learning curve and the end result were the third edition, which will only be printed in English. All in all, the setting, layout and mechanics of the game really came into its own in the third edition.

MG: How come you developed Noctum in the first place and what's your inspiration?

MLT: Well, when I first started it was just a set of rules. Then the horror theme came in. I wrote it because there was no horror game that could be played in the various ways I wanted. Our gaming group always had to tweak the myth of a game, or come up with a lot of new mechanics to handle a certain style of play or theme in an existing horror game.

For instance, when one of my friends saw the first Resident Evil movie he wanted to create a campaign very much inspired by this setting. At the time we we're playing CoC. In order for him to create the setting he had to change a lot of things. He wanted to add military style action, a strain of virus that slowly took over the body and so forth. In the end he ended up with an entirely different game. This of course wasn't that strange as the world of Resident Evil and CoC are miles apart, but we really had fun playing. But later on we wanted to make a system for a Silent Hill kin of setting and for that we constructed a second set of rules which could be plugged in to the CoC mechanics. And this was the kind of thing that happened pretty often, especially when we wanted a real feel of survival horror.

So my goal when designing Noctum was to create a game which had its own unique myth, but with a system that could be used to support most horror stories and themes. One of the hardest things was to keep the focus in the design. I didn't want to create a run of the mill generic horror game that tried to be all over the genre in a messy kind of way. Basically, the game can be played using different styles of play. The styles differ greatly and while the main myth and cosmology of the game is left intact, the styles decide which aspects of the myth that is in play and how these affect the characters. Basically, before you start to play the group should discuss which kind of subgenre of horror they wish to experience and build their characters accordingly.

When it comes to inspiration it varies widely. Horror movies and books are a given, as well as other games, both digital and tabletop. But many aspects of the game came from newspaper headlines and reports on the tv. Many of the horrors in the Noctum universe have been spawned by the depraved acts that people commit against each other, as well as the neglect we so often see in society. Abuse, serial killings, poverty, starvation, inferior health care, greed, human trafficking, drug addiction, the list goes on forever. Simply put, some of these things have manifested in different ways in the Noctum universe. How would a flesh and blood manifestation of a drug overdose and pure pain look like and what would it want? This aspect would be very much in focus if using the Morose Miroir style of play, for example. The Noctum wiki contains some information on the styles.

MG: Any particular mechanics you used in order to shape the game?

MLT: The main system is pretty straight forward and based on combining 2D10s with a score in order to beat a difficulty. However, automatic success plays a rather big part. In most cases, like when a roll won't add to the suspense, or during some investigative scenes, the automatic success comes into play.

There are both thematically important characteristics and game mechanical systems which have been developed. For example, the measuring of adrenaline in the character is something we created a system for. Myself and some of the game testers thought it was quite suiting to have a way of keeping track of adrenaline and Fight or Flight reaction in a horror game. Then there are other things such as a skill and handbook on how to go about profiling serial killers. There's a deprogramming/indoctrination mechanic as well that comes quite handy when dealing with crazed cults and zealous sect members. And instead of dice, a set of cards are used when dealing with ritual magic and psychic abilities.

There's additional material such as the downloadable Noctum soundtrack, APB's and autopsy reports that can be used as handouts. We learned that it was pretty damn cool to be able to have a ìrealî murder book filled with reports and files when we played homicide detectives, private investigators and whatnot. You then have a record of the cases you have worked and this also lets the storyteller connect old cases with new ones in the stories. You suddenly notice similarities in the tox-screen, or similar lacerations. It spices things up when you can actually read the report as you have it in front of you. When it came to the character sheets we tried to go for a look that would resemble a pause/select menu in a survival horror video game. All material is available at our webpage www.wicked-world.se. We got it up and running a couple of weeks ago.

MG: Did you do everything yourself?

MLT: No way! Text, gamed design and layout were my bit. But the design would be impossible without a lot of input from the testers. Good and perceptive testers are one of the most important elements of any game design process and iteration loop. And without my proofers, whom I didn't have access to when writing these answers I might add, I would neve r have pulled it off. English isn't my first language after all. Then there's a lot of support from family and friends of course. I also had the privilege of working with two great illustrators, Reine Rosenberg and Therese Larsson. Their art have been pivotal in setting the tone.

MG: Mongoose Publishing? Did you contact them or did they contact you?

MLT: I was in negotiations with an American game company for quite some time, but this led to a ìHave your people talk to my peopleî kind of situation. So my lawyer had to write up a lot of paperwork, which was sent to the other company for approval, and then back to us for changes and so forth. In the end it was actually this company that told me about the Flaming Cobra imprint. So I sent a mail, I think my first contact with Mongoose was made with Kelly George. I mailed her, telling her about the game, which wasn't even finished at the time. After that I sent them a non-proofed text with a mock-up of the layout I was developing, along with some more information. After that I started to talk with Matthew Sprange and things just rolled on from there.†††

MG: How does the future look? Any other role-playing games cooking or is Noctum the only thing on your mind?

MLT: I love playing games and I love designing them, whenever I'm not in the pub or in class I'm writing. Currently I'm writing on ten or so projects. Out of ten there's usually material for about one or two good games. I always write different games, saving them and then use them as a sort of game theme/mechanics junk yard, picking out the goodies. At the moment I'm also working on a heap of source material for Noctum, but there are two other games that are beginning to take shape.

MG: Then thank you for the interview and good luck with everything.

Cheers!