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Decision Point: 2025

The cover of the "TTRPG Nefertiti Overdrive 2.0" which shows the iconc characters in battle poses before the legendary Sphinx statue on the right, and a stylized rendering of Queen Nefertiti on the left, with a blood spatter along the base.

With Nefertiti Overdrive 2.0 finally complete—the last adventure went out to backers a couple of months back and is now available to the general public—I’m once again looking at my “Game Development” folder trying to decide what to prioritize.

The main effort is to Intervention: Tomorrow’s Yesterday, a cyberpunk TTRPG that is more robust, with a more structured framework than most of my story-forward games. The players still get a fair amount of narrative control, but the structure for characters is more set, with pre-defined Roles, Skills, and Gear. It’s somewhere between Fate and D&D 5E, and is the most structured game I’ve ever tried to publish. I’ve designed them or kit-bashed them, but never pushed this far along with playtesting and an intent to eventually publish it.

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Sic Semper Tyrannis: an Adventure for F#ck ‘Em Up

The cover for the F#ck 'Em Up TTRPG adventure called Sic Semper Tyrannis, which shows some special warfare operators, heavily back lit, advancing through smoke.

My sound and fury signifying nothing has arrived.

A black ops team returns home to find that the tyranny they thought they were fighting abroad has taken root in their own home. These are patriots but to a concept of the nation that is inclusive, equitable, and lawful. That’s not what they see. What they see is encroaching fascism. They see a tyrant taking root.

When a trusted friend and ally disappears, the team investigates, only to learn that it was their own government. And their own handlers and government contacts? They don’t see a problem.

But there is a problem. And the team knows the answer.

Sic Semper Tyrannis.

Note: This is a work of dystopian fiction, but it ain’t that far from stuff we’ve been seeing in Western “democratic” countries. If you—the reader—feel affronted because you think it’s pointing to you and your beliefs as reprehensible . . . I don’t know what to tell you. The actions of the antagonists in this story are indeed reprehensible. Have you seen the skit from The Mitchell and Webb Look called ‘Are We the Baddies?’ If you feel personally attacked, maybe find that video, think about its message, and then have a good, hard look in the mirror.

Note the Second: This product is free because it hasn’t gone through all the components of publishing that cost real money—like editing and layout. If you think it can be improved, tell me how. Leave a comment where you found this and let me know what you suggest.

This is just me screaming into the void, but hopefully it has some intrinsic value.

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The March Up Country

The final adventure in the Fall of the House of Kashta series—which is a fictional chronicle of the Assyrian invasion that capped off Ancient Egypt’s 25th Dynasty, as told from the POV of action heroes—is now available on itch.io.

Cover for the TTRPG adventure The March Up Country

Far from Kush, in the city of Abydos, enemies surround and hunt the Princess and the heroes of the Kushite Dynasty. They must cross Upper Egypt, a land the dynasty once ruled but is now the domain for the Assyrians and their local proxy, the Saite Dynast—the new pharaoh by right of conquest.

Using wits, iron, and the love the people still harbour, the heroes seek to return to their home in Kush, to join their king and their kin, and to foil the plans of their enemies.

A mere handful versus thousands.

No problem.

The March Up Country is one translation for Anabasis, Xenophon’s story of 10,000 Greek mercenaries trapped deep in Persia. This adventure echoes that theme. It is the latest in a collection of adventures for Neferiti Overdrive 2.0 set during the fall of the 25th Dynasty of Pharaonic Egypt which started in Proof of Death and continued in Judged, Get Netiqret, and the Icon of Amun-ra. While designed for Nefertiti Overdrive 2.0, this adventure can be used with the first edition.

Two more adventures are in the pipeline. The first will be Daughter of the Sun, an update of the post-King Tut adventure that focused on the fate of his wide/half-sister. After that will come In A Sea Of Dunes, which pits a group of veterans against the authorities as one of their own because the target of a greedy governor.

As with all SEP games, this system requires cooperation at the table and a shared goal of telling a great story. It is the premise of SEP systems that the game experience should be fun for everyone and no player should be made uncomfortable unless that is a part of the experience of which they were informed and to which they agree. Shared respect and consideration among all participants are key to achieving a satisfying and enjoyable game for everyone at the table. If you disagree, this system and SEP games more widely are not going to meet your expectations or complement your play style.

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F#ck ‘Em Up

Just letting you know that SEP has released a free game called F#ck ‘Em Up. You can find it here.

Cover for F#ck 'Em Up TTRPG

Things are f– . . . messed up. Really messed up. Violence is everywhere. Order is nowhere. The only good people are the ones without weapons. You’re not a good person. You have a weapon . . . well, probably more than one. Or maybe you’re the weapon. It doesn’t matter: you’re not a good person but you are out there helping those that are. Why are you doing that?

Who the heck knows? Do you? Probably not.

So, there you are—you and your crew—all alone against the world.

In F#ck ‘Em Up, you play part of a crew opposing the status quo and protecting the innocents from the purveyors of brutality. Characters need to work together to gain the greatest advantage. The violence they apply can be physical, mental, or social as they seek to evoke change. There is no specific setting, but the struggle is against an oppressive status quo in support of those who are doing no harm.

As with all SEP games, this system requires cooperation at the table and a shared goal of telling a great story. It is the premise of SEP systems that the game experience should be fun for everyone and no player should be made uncomfortable unless that is a part of the experience of which they were informed and to which they agree. Shared respect and consideration among all participants are key to achieving a satisfying and enjoyable game for everyone at the table. If you disagree, this system and SEP games more widely are not going to meet your expectations or complement your play style.

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Turning the Engine Over

Wow, quiet around here. I wonder why.

Oh. Right. Me.

Okay, so the key enterprise for SEP right now is finishing Nefertiti Overdrive to deliver to the backers. That is actually out of my hands as it is out for layout (with Todd Crapper of Broken Ruler Games).

The cover for the Found and the Lost which has a warrior in a snowy forest watching an eclipse

Part of the Nefertiti Overdrive Kickstarter was the updating of adventures, and I’ve finished both Proof of Death and Judged. I’m in the midst of updating Get Netiqret, and have at least three more: The Icon of Amun-Ra and The March Up Country will complete the story of the fall of the 25th Dynasty, and I’ll also be updating Daughter of the Sun, the adventure focused on Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s widow—the daughter of Nefertiti. Once all that is done, I’ll embark on a completely new adventure: In A Sea of Dunes. 

The other project is a system—tentatively titled The Found and the Lost—that has been alpha-playtested and seems fit for purpose. I’m not keen to Kickstart that, but I might do it with a low target as Kickstarter can provide a marketing advantage. I’m generally not bringing a lot of the audience for my crowd-funding campaigns. A lot of the backers come from the platform itself.

Deep in the backburner is version of Centurion that is devoid of the historical information and is just a presentation of the system; an update of Kiss My Ass; a complex system on which I have modules for fantasy, modern military action, and cyberpunk. I don’t know if any of those will ever see release.

This place is quiet, but that’s not because nothing is happening.

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State of the SEP

It’s been quiet here—no surprise there—but I have been steadily moving forward on a collection of projects.

If you haven’t been tracking it, the Kickstarter for Nefertiti Overdrive 2.0 was successful. The text is written, but it’s now going through a cultural consultant, it then needs to go through an editor, get set for layout, and then have an index completed for it before it’s released. That’ll probably be the end of the summer or early fall 2024.

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Nefertiti Overdrive 2.0: It’s Happening

Back in 2015, Sword’s Edge Publishing crowdfunded Nefertiti Overdrive: High Octane Action in Ancient Egypt. It has since been one of SEP’s most popular games. So much so, that we had an update in 2022. That’s only two years ago, but the 2022 update was a “soft” update—most of the text did not receive a revision or a review.

SEP is currently seeking to finance a real update of Nefertiti Overdrive, including having both a cultural consultant and an editor have a go at the text. Further refinement of the mechanics led to the decision to work on a further update, and the funds will also help to format a print version—which the soft update never had—including getting the text properly indexed.

If you have enjoyed Nefertiti Overdrive, I hope you’ll help us deliver Nefertiti Overdrive 2.0. Please consider supporting the Kickstarter or spreading the word about it.

You can find the Nefertiti Overdrive 2.0 Kickstarter at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1153118353/nefertiti-overdrive-20

Here’s the Quickplay!

4761 Nefertiti Overdrive 20 QuickplayDownload
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Overdriving with Nefertiti

Nefertiti Overdrive Cover

I’m back, and I’m bringing Nefertiti Overdrive with me!

Nefertiti Overdrive may be the game I’ve written that I hear about the most. It may be the concept—high octane action in Ancient Egypt. Maybe it’s the mechanics, heavily influenced by Cortex though not a Cortex game. Maybe it’s just the title. For whatever reason, people seem to remember Nefertiti Overdrive.

And I have a fondness for it to. It has generated some pretty amazing memories, with players really getting extravagant with the story-telling because they were not just given licence, but rewarded for doing so.

Why am I bringing up Nefertiti Overdrive? Because I am working on it again. I needed to do a print run, and in conversations with a very smart person, I decided I should crowdfund this and aim for offset printing and even a hardcover version.

If I’m going to crowdfund, I might as well take the chance to revisit the rules. My previous update did not fully satisfy me, and I had a lot of changes that I had noted needed to be made. Now I have a chance to make those changes. I’m in the process of doing that right now.

And since I’m crowdfunding, I can get some help improving the text. Maybe even get some more art—though I am hoping I can use the amazing art by Kieron O’Gormon from the original, which was really iconic.

However this happens and whatever form it takes, there’ll be a new Nefertiti Overdrive and there’ll be a Kickstarter to fund an offset print run.

You’ll see it here—or maybe on Bluesky—when this moves forward at all.

And if you have ideas for podcasts or anything like that you think I should get on, let me know and let them know too!