Monte Cook Games' Darkest House Is Designed For Online Play

Monte Cook Games' newest Kickstarter has just launched. It's a plug-in horror location/interlude designed to work with any game system, and built for online play.

The house itself can fit in any game by simply placing a door -- they give examples of the apartment at the end of the hall or a strange unit in the station quarters sector. In that sense, the house exists in all worlds.

As a digital product, everything is shareable and formatted for the screen, with plenty of handouts, images. It has been deigned with VTTs in mind, as well as Zoom or Discord.

The house itself has several dozen rooms. You get two an app, and two PDFs -- the GM's Secrets of the House, and a Player's Guide. The GM downloads The Darkest House (mac or windows ZIP files) -- you can actually download a little demo, which is the intro page.

It's $45, or $85 with exclusive additional content.

The Darkest House

A descent into horror for 5e or any RPG that will make your campaign and characters better—optimized for an awesome online experience.

www.kickstarter.com

 

[imagineGod]

As someone who loves Cypher in all it's forms, I've found the prices of the Cypher books completely in line with other RPGs, notably the physical releases. They books have been well made, the art is fantastic, the editing generally really good (more so than a number of other RPG books I own). So while I do see Monte Cook Games releasing some high end stuff like this or Black Sun, their "regular" line seems completely in keeping with standard RPG products. 40-60 bucks for a well made hardcover.

PAIZO at $59.99 (over 600 pages full color hardback) Most expensive core book
MONTE COOK at $149.99 (over 600 pages hardback) equivalent size Ptolus for Cypher book.

One company is basically telling Players, if you do not have high disposable income, go away!

Mic drop.

 

[imagineGod]

I do not know how many pages finally will be in Coyote and Crow, but the creative team are all Native Americans helping native tribes, and price their books at $50 hard back including PDF.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

PAIZO at $59.99 (over 600 pages full color hardback) Most expensive core book
MONTE COOK at $149.99 (over 600 pages hardback) equivalent size Ptolus for Cypher book.

One company is basically telling Players, if you do not have high disposable income, go away!

Mic drop.

Comparing a core book to a book that was stated to be a premium special book... if you compare core book to core book it isn't nearly so back

Cypher System Core rulebook is $69.99 - 10 bucks more expensive I grant you, and while the page count it a bit less... the game needs less to be able to run it.

I remember when Ptolus was first released for 3rd ed, they said it was a premium product, just like Invisible Sun meant for high end consumers. You can play his games and keep to a budget (I do). But he also releases these big high end items, designed for expensive market - I see them the equivalent of the Leather Bound / special editions of books that many RPG companies do.

So yeah, they do have some expensive stuff... but they have a lot that isn't.

 

[Paragon Lost]

I decided to pass on the MCG Kickstarter. They've got at least 4 that they've not completed if I'm recalling, three of which I'm currently backing. I'm just getting a bit tired of how long their Kickstarter's tend to run. Not only that how the stuff comes out in a long, drawn out piecemeal fashion is utterly frustrating for many reasons. I'm currently in around $855.00 for MCG Kickstarters that aren't finished being fulfilled. Ugh.

It was this same gut irritation that made me cancel backing Liminal Shores Kickstarter which would have tossed another $185.00 on top of the $855.00. Again, none of this counts shipping and since they ship piecemeal it adds up to quite a bit more. :/ So while I actually love MCG stuff, the look, layout and quality and that you get the pdfs for free along with the physical products I've had decided to stop backing their Kickstarter's for the time being.

Edit: Remember MCG charges extra for pdf's for their products normally. So Kickstarter's are a nice deal since they're included free if you're backing. It's one of the things that has made me back their previous Kickstarter's even though I had the same frustrations listed above. I've just decided enough was enough.

 

[imagineGod]

Comparing a core book to a book that was stated to be a premium special book... if you compare core book to core book it isn't nearly so back

Cypher System Core rulebook is $69.99 - 10 bucks more expensive I grant you, and while the page count it a bit less... the game needs less to be able to run it.

I remember when Ptolus was first released for 3rd ed, they said it was a premium product, just like Invisible Sun meant for high end consumers. You can play his games and keep to a budget (I do). But he also releases these big high end items, designed for expensive market - I see them the equivalent of the Leather Bound / special editions of books that many RPG companies do.

So yeah, they do have some expensive stuff... but they have a lot that isn't.

I have the original Cypher too and a really great game that. I lost faith with Monte Cook, not with Invisible Sun that so many complained about, but with Ptolus for Cypher that I really wanted. It is way too expensive for no valid reason, when a cheaper book could have been made, like you said Cypher does not require so many rules, and the statblocks will not eat into page count with Ptolus Cypher.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Most of Ptolus is not statblocks. I would be surprised if the Cypher version of the book is significantly shorter.

 

[MGibster]

PAIZO at $59.99 (over 600 pages full color hardback) Most expensive core book
MONTE COOK at $149.99 (over 600 pages hardback) equivalent size Ptolus for Cypher book.

One company is basically telling Players, if you do not have high disposable income, go away!

I don't know why you see it in those terms. I see it as Monte Cook saying, "Here's what I'm going to charge for this premium product so that its creators can enjoy the fruits of their labors." What do you consider a high disposable income? In one case you railed against Monte Cook for having a $45 tier Kickstarter as it was for the "rich demographic" but you're okay with $60 from Paizo.

 

[imagineGod]

I don't know why you see it in those terms. I see it as Monte Cook saying, "Here's what I'm going to charge for this premium product so that its creators can enjoy the fruits of their labors." What do you consider a high disposable income? In one case you railed against Monte Cook for having a $45 tier Kickstarter as it was for the "rich demographic" but you're okay with $60 from Paizo.

You miss the point, completely. I compared compatible products and prices in multiple posts previously.

For example, the Coyote and Crow team of all Native Americans are very outspoken about taking care of their contributors, and yet they are able to charge $20 for a PDF. The same sort of PDF that Monte Cook feels must be sold at $45; that is just Capitalist profiteering. Now, obviously, if Monte Cook Games are unashamed Capitalists like Jeff Bezos of Amazon, fine, if you are into those sort of profiteering tactics.

Next, if we are looking at expensive books, Paizo offers over 600 pages at $59.99. But an equivalent Monte Cook book of over 600 pages for Ptolus is being sold on the Monte Cook website for $149.99. Once again, that is profiteering from Monte Cook, since Paizo pay their writers just as well as Monte.

 

[Morrus]

You miss the point, completely. I compared compatible products and prices in multiple posts previously.

For example, the Coyote and Crow team of all Native Americans are very outspoken about taking care of their contributors, and yet they are able to charge $20 for a PDF. The same sort of PDF that Monte Cook feels must be sold at $45; that is just Capitalist profiteering. Now, obviously, if Monte Cook Games are unashamed Capitalists like Jeff Bezos of Amazon, fine, if you are into those sort of profiteering tactics.

Next, if we are looking at expensive books, Paizo offers over 600 pages at $59.99. But an equivalent Monte Cook book of over 600 pages for Ptolus is being sold on the Monte Cook website for $149.99. Once again, that is profiteering from Monte Cook, since Paizo pay their writers just as well as Monte.

You need to calm down. I get that you resent not being able to afford this product. There are things in life I can’t afford, too. But the constant accusations are just amounting to threadcrapping now. Drop it.

 

[Tantavalist]

While this sounds like a great idea, the fact that MCG is the one doing it kills the concept for me. The fact is, I just no longer have trust in that company to give me a good product in return for my money.

This isn't just griping from someone who can't afford Monte's games. This is from someone who bought every Invisible Sun product and loved them because they really did live up to the hype. Great setting, and the system is Cypher 2.0 with everything I liked about that ruleset there and the problems I had with it fixed. Finally, Monte did something right!

Aside from the price tag and the fact you have to buy the product twice if you want the pdfs. And how they won't allow people to share anything they made for online play of IS. And... OK, it's still a Monte Cook game. But it's one of the best games I've come across (meaning that of course MCG lock it behind a giant paywall where most gamers will never encounter it).

Then they finished the line by releasing The Threshold.

This sounded like some sort of Multiverse sourcebook for IS, describing what lay beyond the cluster of realities that IS was based in. What it was in reality was a novella of less than 100,000 words that Monte had written years ago when he first had the idea that became IS. Which was published in the same format as the IS rulebooks and priced the same as well. It's not even a very good novella. At the end of the book were two pages of rules material describing any magic the main guy had used that wasn't in the other books. And a single page on The Threshold which amounted to: "What lies beyond the Threshold? It's a deep, dark mystery that nobody knows for sure! So you make up whatever you want and it's canon at your table Mr. GM!"

Just to rub it in- Invisible Sun has had little coded clues to game material sprinkled through the books throughout the game line. The fans have a community based around decoding them. By the time The Threshold came out they'd cracked most of it. The coded bits here were basically messages anticipating reactions to this and taunting readers for reacting that way. "Why can't he make a proper game book?" and so forth.

So no. As far as I'm concerned I'm not buying another Monte Cook game ever again and I would advise against anyone else doing so. They can produce some quality stuff when they put their minds to it, but they can also start believing their own marketing hype and acting like they deserve to make sales and any customer not satisfied is the one with the problem.

Still don't regret buying the Black Cube and everything else up to The Threshold. But I'm also never buying MCG products again. Not with how many other options there are these days.