Last year I wrote and published the roleplaying game Spectre of the Beast, about the spectre of violence in civiliaztion, and the role that death and suffering plays in its "progress." I'm now working on the new, fully-fleshed-out edition of the game, which I hope to have written and published this year.

This means a final round of playtests!

In the game, you play champions of fictional cultures that you create, who will change the world through their ambitions. You play through their stories and the victory or defeat of their ambitions, see both the positive and negative effects on their society, then play another round of stories with new societies in a new Epoch. You do this until the final resolution of whether Civilization as a whole ascends to a utopia or collapses into ruin.

How you can help:

1) If you live in the Portland area AND HAVE NOT PLAYED SPECTRE WITH ME BEFORE, join me for a weekly playtest run of 6-10 weeks. We'll be focusing on rapidly-resolving multi-Epoch play. When that concludes, I hope to do a run of slow-resolving multi-Epoch play, with the same or different group.

2) Wherever you live, organize a playtest without me present. I'm particularly interested in the results of multi-Epoch play in whatever form; I've got pretty good data on single-Epoch play at this point. both groups that have played and have NOT played Spectre previously would be super-valuable.

You can purchase the PDF on the above RPGNow link for 2 bucks. If you just can't afford that, AND ARE SERIOUSLY COMMITTED TO PLAYTESTING, message me; we'll talk. Also send me a message if you want a print copy; it's 5 bucks plus shipping.

I'm looking forward to the final baking on this game. Thanks to everyone who has and continues to support it!

Peace,
-Joel