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

 

[Aldarc]

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!

This is part of my issue with the latest MCG Kickstarters and products of the past few years. Behind the the luxury product price point and Monte's verbose writing for Invisible Sun was Cypher System 2.0, a glimpse at Monte Cook vision for evolving the Cypher System. But most of the Kickstarters and products seem to have been for more of the same Cypher System, albeit expanded for more genre rules (e.g., fairy tales, super heroes, generic fantasy adventure, etc.). Which is fine, but the Cypher System feels like it's just running around in circles in one place rather than making any effort to progress forwards. And when I have engaged some of the Cypher System online community and content creators about how MCG could evolve the game or criticisms of the current system, I tend to get a lot of backlash that the game is already perfect, which I don't even think that Monte Cook believes is true. So a lot of my enthusiasm for the latest MCG products (and the community) at this point has been running on vapors. I keep hoping that there will be a Kickstarter or product that will rekindle my interest, but that sadly hasn't been the case the past few years.

 

[Schmoe]

Huh. It looks interesting and novel. From what I'm reading, it looks like a DM-driven Myst-like game with shared electronic resources. I could totally see that being a fun experience that is enhanced from what the typical online game is. I'm not sure I'm going to back it (mostly because I don't spend much on RPGs these days), but it's cool to see people really trying to innovate in the online space.

 

[Dire Bare]

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.

Soooo . . . MCG has put out some great products, and some not-so-great products . . . like every publishing company ever . . . okay.

I can see this as hesitancy to get in on the Kickstarter campaign . . . wait for the product to hit retail and gather some player reviews . . . but "never again"!?!?! Okay.

 

[jaycrockett]

I don't play online, so I guess it's not for me, but I do appreciate that Monte Cook Games experiment with the format of RPG products. Going to try and check out the demo.

 

[Paragon Lost]

This is part of my issue with the latest MCG Kickstarters and products of the past few years. Behind the the luxury product price point and Monte's verbose writing for Invisible Sun was Cypher System 2.0, a glimpse at Monte Cook vision for evolving the Cypher System. But most of the Kickstarters and products seem to have been for more of the same Cypher System, albeit expanded for more genre rules (e.g., fairy tales, super heroes, generic fantasy adventure, etc.). Which is fine, but the Cypher System feels like it's just running around in circles in one place rather than making any effort to progress forwards. And when I have engaged some of the Cypher System online community and content creators about how MCG could evolve the game or criticisms of the current system, I tend to get a lot of backlash that the game is already perfect, which I don't even think that Monte Cook believes is true. So a lot of my enthusiasm for the latest MCG products (and the community) at this point has been running on vapors. I keep hoping that there will be a Kickstarter or product that will rekindle my interest, but that sadly hasn't been the case the past few years.

Exactly the same sort of interactions I've had with many who are fans of MCG's material. I get it, I own a majority of their products as well, but they aren't perfect and there is room for variations on the mechanics but don't tell the true fans that. They'll tar and feather you and drive you out of town. Yelling, "that's not what the Cypher System is meant to do!" etc. It's annoying because honestly I really enjoy the mechanics, there is a simple elegance to them that I could see being used to expand and do other things with. <Shrugs>

 

[Lord Mhoram]

But most of the Kickstarters and products seem to have been for more of the same Cypher System, albeit expanded for more genre rules (e.g., fairy tales, super heroes, generic fantasy adventure, etc.). Which is fine, but the Cypher System feels like it's just running around in circles in one place rather than making any effort to progress forwards. And when I have engaged some of the Cypher System online community and content creators about how MCG could evolve the game or criticisms of the current system,

HERO 5th released genre sourcebooks that were a lot like what Cypher is doing - advice on genre, new rules (kept to a minimum) to run that setting, and sometimes a setting to show you how it works. I actually found that to be the best approach to releasing material for me (I know it isn't for everyone). Mostly because I never was required to purchase a supplemental rulebook or an upgraded core book, or have my current books become obsolete with updated rules - so I really appreciate Cypher approaching things this way.

However, and more to your point that I quoted, I've only been playing for a year or so. I still haven't plumbed the depths of what is possible with the system. And I agree there are flaws that could be addressed, from my experience, they haven't broken the game - but then I started with the revised rulebook, so I don't know if that made any changes.

I wouldn't mind a companion book that fixes some of the flaws, as long as those fixes do not invalidate previous supplemental books; but in some ways given how few specific rules are in the genre books, that doesn't seem a problem.

 

[jaycrockett]

So downloaded the demo and played with it a bit. First off, whatever it's pros and cons, this is not a pdf. This basically a website compiled into a standalone app. (It comes with a couple of pdf's as well).
So this is an interactive adventure with links to throw text and images to online users (and now sounds too, that's pretty neat). As someone who doesn't use a VTT I don't know how big a deal that is. I am a heavy user of zoom and teams at work, if I were running it through that I would just share my screen and throw the stuff up there. That would be much better than a pdf, and I guess slightly better than a website.
It is a cool way to peruse the house by clicking through the maps of each room.
The thing that I'm really interested in though, that's not in the demo, is this house specific rules system where you can bring in any character in and back out of the house. Definitely interested in getting more on that.
As for the adventure itself? I'm sure that's entirely up to your preferences. I personally tend to love Monte Cook's settings, but not his adventures so much. This of course is a bit of both. But...the first room I clicked on traps the players inside, with there being exactly one and only one way to leave, involving seeing something in an image you show, and I hope your gamma settings are good on your screen otherwise forget it. But again I haven't seen the rules involved so maybe there are spot checks involved and not just a player test.

Anyway I'm definitely watching the project, probably not for me, but who knows, if the app adds other goodies maybe I'll be tempted.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Hey, all Charles from MCG here. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about TDH, to the best of my ability. Or about anything else for that matter, I guess.

Mistwell and Whizbang (go Hokies!): I think you're dramatically underestimating the amount of content in The Darkest House. If you ran it as a one-shot, you'd be unlikely to touch more than 25% of the content (as it currently stands--it's growing through the Kickstarter). It's not a campaign, and it's not a mega-dungeon, but it does give you ample room to visit it many times without duplicating much of the content. (And even if you did--a lot of it has substantial replay value.) It also gives you ample reason--characters emerging from the house may find that it's affected them, and their worlds, in ways that may draw them back in. . .

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hey, all Charles from MCG here. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about TDH, to the best of my ability. Or about anything else for that matter, I guess.

Mistwell and Whizbang (go Hokies!): I think you're dramatically underestimating the amount of content in The Darkest House. If you ran it as a one-shot, you'd be unlikely to touch more than 25% of the content (as it currently stands--it's growing through the Kickstarter). It's not a campaign, and it's not a mega-dungeon, but it does give you ample room to visit it many times without duplicating much of the content. (And even if you did--a lot of it has substantial replay value.) It also gives you ample reason--characters emerging from the house may find that it's affected them, and their worlds, in ways that may draw them back in. . .

My sometime co-DM is getting close to backing it, with the idea that a haunted family house that the player characters left behind on their way to Ptolus may attempt to call them back "home." (This is why you don't allow dysfunctional warlocks who grew up in creepy Gothic houses to join your party.)

 

[seankreynolds]

My previous group went into the House on two or three different occasions. My current group has gone into it twice and PC doesn't want to go back (it literally killed and consumed his former love in front of him as "payment" for something). Each time we've gone in, maybe the entry room was the same, but the place shifts around so much that ever visit was a new experience with new locations.