Against Time and Death

September update: edits complete!
6 months ago – Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 02:37:43 AM

Time. What even is it? Another month has flown by, and it's once again time for your regularly scheduled Against Time and Death update. It's been a pretty exciting month, so let's get to it. Like the man in the chair says...

Current status

• Against Time and Death is on Party of One Pod! Have you listened to it yet?! Because I have, and I love it! You can read more of my excited observations below...
• Edits complete! Yep, they're done! I've finished reviewing and responding to all of Melody's comments, so we now have an almost complete draft. The last step is for Melody to review my changes and make any small tweaks, but we're not far from text complete now!
• Layout template complete! I took some leave from my day job to play with zine layout, which is a very fun way to spend a few days. Highly recommended! I now have a template I love, ready to go when the text is complete. No doubt there'll be some tweaks when we go from template to actually layout out the zine, but we're in excellent shape for when that happens.

Against Time and Death on Party of One!

That's right, the inimitable Jeff Stormer played Against Time and Death with actor, writer, and podcaster Michael Turrentine on the Party of One podcast! The operatives Oak and Echo fought for the past and the future, and you should listen to it immediately!

It's an absolute delight of an episode - Jeff and Michael really grasp the heart of the game, and drive towards it at maximum speed. Though they're only able to play through three exchanges in the allotted time, they find a way to touch on conflict, confluence, difficult choices and deliciously ambiguous endings. Their shared excitement about their story just fills my heart right up, particularly since this was Michael's first experience with tabletop roleplaying games (!).

At one point, Jeff says 'I'm going to ask you, Echo [Michael's operative] and Michael, a simultaneous question', and that right there is what I'm striving for in the mechanics of the game. 

This is a real bucket lister for me, folks. I've been listening to Party of One since 2016, and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't dreamed about one of my games being featured. And now it has! Just a huge thank you to Jeff and Michael for playing Against Time and Death - if you're reading this, either of you, you made my month! Once you've listed to this one, dive into Party of One's back catalogue ; with hundreds of games featured, I guarantee you'll find a something new to love.

The final playset teaser

I've just realised that I never teased the final playset (earlier teasers here), courtesy of the gonzo geniuses at the Brain Trust. I think it's time. Don't you?

I bet you'll never guess which concepts these operatives are fighting for! Ideas in the comments...

Next steps

• Melody reviewing final manuscript. Melody is giving the manuscript a final look over. I'll then make any final tweaks based of her comments, and we'll be text complete!
• Layout. When the text is finalised, I'll transfer it into the layout template and get it sorted for printing. This is a part of the process I really love - I'm just an enthusiastic amateur, but tinkering in Affinity Publisher is always a good time!
• So much admin. There's an awful lot of fiddly admin to do as we move towards fulfilment - finalising any shipping changes due to tariffs and GPSR, setting up BackerKit to deliver PDFs and gather your addresses, ordering packing materials, that sort of thing. Time to get stuck into it!

We're getting there, folks! Just one thing left for this update...

- Nick

August update: slow and steady
7 months ago – Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 11:11:25 PM

It's time (heh) for your regularly scheduled Against Time and Death update! It's been a slow month - I lost several game design days to holidays (good) and the dentist (bad). But the manuscript is ticking along, and I can see it getting better as I implement Melody Watson's edits. So satisfying!

Current status

• Art (truly) complete! Paul’s job is done! That’s the stunning cover, seven brilliant full-page internal illustrations (only two of which you’ve seen!), and a striking bookmark design, all wrapped. Everybody go follow Paul, whose work is fundamental to the feel of this game. 
• Edits still progressing. Given the limited time I had available in August, progress was pretty good. The manuscript is looking great - Melody has done an amazing job surfacing all the unspoken assumptions in my first draft. I’m into the real inner workings of the game now, finalising edits on the How to Play the Time War section. I do so love responding to editor’s comments - it’s so interesting seeing your text through the eyes of a talented reviewer.

So that’s where we’re at currently. Slower progress in August than I’d hoped - such is the life of a solo game designer with a day job, I suppose - but we’re still on track.

Enforced distance: a playtester’s insight

Over on the ickbat games discord, a friend of Against Time and Death shared a really interesting insight from their current playtest. They noted (paraphrasing, obviously) that whenever they received a letter from Orbit their impulse was to respond immediately, just as they would in any other epistolary game. Contrary to that expectation, Against Time and Death insists that you do a bunch of other things before you can write that response. In a way, the playtester observed, the game's rules were fighting against their natural instincts.

I spent a bit of time thinking about this. The feedback is, of course, completely correct - the game does prevent you from responding immediately to a letter, and that is different to most epistolary games. On reflection it occurred to me that this serves an important purpose in the design: it drives the operatives (and, to some extent, the players) apart, enforcing distance between them. By the time you have a chance to respond to a letter, more things have happened - there is no clean, uncluttered, direct dialogue between operatives.

And really, this is the central theme of the game. Can you bridge that distance, despite everything that is working to prevent you?

It's a really interesting thing, to suddenly understand an important part of your own game design in a new way. Shout out to the discord member who provided this incredibly insightful feedback - I'm very grateful!

A brief note on US tariffs

Some of you may be aware that President Trump has signed an executive order ending the $800 de minimis tariff exemption. Previously, goods entering the US (from most markets) with a value below $800 were exempt from paying tariffs. Now all goods entering the US (with some exceptions), regardless of value, will be subject to relevant tariffs. At this stage, the exact logistics of this change are unclear, and many postal services this side of the pond, including the UK’s Royal Mail, have temporarily suspended deliveries to the US.

I just wanted to say that I don't yet know what the exact implications of this change are for US backers with print rewards. It’s possible that printed materials (like this zine) are exempt from tariffs. It’s also possible that the cost of delivery will go up, but it’s unclear by how much, nor is it clear how tariffs will be collected if they apply. It’s all very confusing right now. 

The good news is we still have time. It’ll be a few months until shipping begins, by which time I hope things will be much clearer. As always, I promise I’ll communicate as clearly as I can throughout.

Next steps

• Finish edits (for real, this time). Achievable goals! 

That’s all for this month. Don’t forget that backers can access the playtest draft from the pinned update on the Kickstarter page - if you play a game, I’d love to hear about!

Stay timely,

- Nick

July update: the middle bit
8 months ago – Sun, Jul 27, 2025 at 04:44:53 AM

Hi folks! Time for some Against Time and Death news. We're in the somewhat unglamorous middle bit of producing a game, but we're making good progress!

(As I write this, I am hours away from seeing The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I really hope it's good, because then I'll have one more excuse to work on my Interdimensional Council of Reeds game!)

Current status

• Art (essentially) complete! It really is an absolute joy working with Paul on the art for this game. In the last month, he's also started mocking up designs for the exclusive bookmark for pre-Valentine's Day backers. 
• Final playset (essentially) in! I'm just waiting on one last detail from our final team of multiverse playset writers: a missing operative name! Although, now I think about it, [blank] or [redacted] are pretty cool operative names...
• Edits progressing. Melody has done some truly fabulous work editing the draft manuscript, and I've been hard at work tackling those amendments. All the easy ones and a bunch of the tricky ones are now complete, leaving me just with the thorniest decisions. I'm confident by this time next month Against Time and Death will be text complete!

Writing player advice

Ever since Chiron's Doom, I've experimented with including player advice in my games. My main inspiration here is undoubtedly Bite Marks, where Becky Annison's advice on building and running a werewolf pack is both brilliant and fundamental to the feel of the game. But here's the thing: knowing whether you've written good, actionable player advice is actually pretty hard.

With Against Time and Death I started with a set of four Player Principles. These principles were in the very first draft of the game, intended to concisely capture the key things players should be thinking about while they play:

• Think on impossibly grand scales: all of time and space is your plaything.
• Think on incredibly minute scales: the smallest change can have the biggest impact.
• Always remember that every action is being examined by your superiors.
• Allow yourself to be seduced by your rival’s view of reality.

The rest of the advice comes from actually playing the game. I learn a lot about my own games from playtesting. I'm incredibly lucky to have a couple of really great playtesting groups, and seeing them engage with something I've designed really helps me to understand what my games are about.

When I'm playtesting a relatively complete game, I tend to look for two things: places where the players aren't sure what to do (the roleplaying equivalent of blank page syndrome), and places where they do something surprising and delightful. In the former case, I'm looking to provide advice that will help smooth over any similar moments of uncertainty. In the latter case, I'm looking to bottle some of the undeniable genius of my playtesters and pass it on to you!

Anyway, this month's middle bit is brought to you by editing this piece of player advice, of which I am particularly proud:

Remember that you are playing a game with another person—the scenes you frame (and the actions you take, and the letters you write) are as much about challenging and delighting them as they are about providing their operative with a dramatic and exciting multiversal playground.

Next steps

• Finalise text. As I mentioned in the status update above, only the thorniest edits remain. Once I've worked through those, I'll likely bounce the draft back to Melody for her thoughts on my updates. While she's taking a look, I can move on to the next step...
• Begin layout in earnest. I had a (very) small tinker in July, but layout is a rabbit hole I can quickly disappear down, so I decided to put it aside until the rulebook text is complete. When that happens, I'm all in!

And that's the plan for August. Just two things, really powering towards a complete zine. Once that's done, I'll turn my attention to setting up the BackerKit pledge manager (so I can collect postage and delivery addresses). We're getting closer, folks!

See you... in the future!

- Nick

June update: edits are in!
9 months ago – Wed, Jun 25, 2025 at 01:22:42 AM

Okay, so last month it was pouring rain, and now...

One of my favourite things about living in the UK is that there are actual seasons, but sometimes that means you have to endure a heat wave in a place that is not built to handle heat waves. What I wouldn't give for a nearby beach right now...

Current status

It's been a big month in Against Time and Death development. Here's the tl;dr.

• Edit complete! With a reality-splitting crash of thunder, Melody's edits landed in my inbox last week. I haven't had a chance to properly review them yet, but this is the good stuff and I cannot wait to get stuck in.
• Even more art progress. Also last week, Paul shared another piece of interior art with me, and he's now added 'gothic romance' to the game's palette. Military sci-fi, cyberpunk, spy thriller... Paul is taking us on a tour of a thematic multiverse while maintaining a consistent through-line and I am here for it.
• UKGE happened. A successful con by all accounts, not least because I was able to share some Against Time and Death bookmarks with people. Some of those people have subsequently joined the campaign, pushing our funding tally up to an even £6,000! Welcome aboard, new backers - we're excited to have you here!

UKGE highlights

The start of June was UK Games Expo, the UK's largest tabletop gaming convention. This was my first time at the con, and let me tell you: 42,000 people is a lot of people. I spent the whole weekend helping out at the Black Armada Games stall, where Josh and Becky kindly made some space for my stuff alongside their own range of top-notch games. I had such a great time - so much fun talking to so many enthusiastic gamers.

I thought I'd share just two small highlights related to Against Time and Death from the con:

• I met Paul Tomes in person! Paul dropped by the stall, and despite working together for almost two years now (!) we've never actually met face-to-face. It was a genuine delight to chat with him, and it gave me an opportunity to thank him in person for all of his work making Against Time and Death look so amazing. I'm sorry to say that in the excitement of the moment I completely forgot to grab a selfie, otherwise I'd share it with you all here!
• A conversation about This Is How You Lose the Time War. I had promotional bookmarks for Against Time and Death on the stall. People grabbed them throughout the weekend, but one encounter stands out. A fan of This Is How You Lose the Time War told me that they read the book aloud with their partner, one of them taking on the role of Red and the other Blue. What a brilliant, charming, delightful thing to do! Even better, they brought their partner back to the stall the next day so that we could collectively squee about how great the book is. I have a feeling they joined the Kickstarter campaign after the con, so if you're reading this now, thank you for for one of the genuine highlights of my weekend!

Playset teasers

Time for some playset teasers (emphasis on the 'tease'!). Let's catch a glimpse of three sets of rival time warriors. 

First up, we've already met the operatives from The Storybrewers:

Now it's time for a pair of rivals from MacGuffin & Co:

And finally, from A Couple of Drakes:

Anyone care to speculate on what the paired concepts might be that each operative is fighting for? If anyone guesses right (or close enough), I might share a little more next month...

Next steps

Let's take a look at what I've got planned over the next month:

• Review and implement edits. As soon as I can, I'm going to dive into Melody's edits and start updating the manuscript. Once that's done, we'll be text complete, which is a huge milestone!
• Finalise art. We're heading down the home straight, with roughly 90% of the game's art complete. One more image to go, I think.
• Layout progress. I'm keen to make some progress on the layout for the zine, in whatever form that ultimately takes. It's a challenging one -- Paul's given us such distinctive art, I really want to do it justice with the feel of the rest of the zine.

A thought to close: I just got back from a screening of Ballerina, and next time you're framing up a scene for the Axis you could do much worse than keep the John Wick movies in mind.

Till next time, whenever that is! (It's next month. On the 25th of July.)

- Nick

May update: draft complete!
10 months ago – Sun, May 25, 2025 at 02:43:49 AM

Remember last month, when I said there was sunshine? Well…

Now I’m thinking about a game of Against Time and Death where the opposed concepts are Summer and Winter…

Current status

• Zine draft complete! Writing went well last month, and so I was able to send a complete draft off to Melody for editing. This is a significant milestone for the project, and it felt good to hit it!
• Even more art progress. Thanks to Paul we now have six of eight internal illustrations locked in. Sketches of the last two are looking fabulous — I’m really looking forward to hearing about everyone’s favourites when the zine is in your hands.
• Playsets in (almost). I’ve now got three of four playsets from our brilliant design duos, with the fourth concept pair locked in. I think you’re going to love these, folks. Let me know in the comments if you’d like a few more teasers…

UKGE: come say hi!

I’m going to my first ever UKGE! I’ll be helping out on the Black Armada Games stall, which I’m reliably informed is Stall 2-822 (Stall 822 in Hall 2). As this is my first UKGE, I have no idea where that is, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out!

I would absolutely love it if you dropped by the stall and said hi. We’ll obviously be selling Black Armada’s catalogue of excellent games, including the shiny and new second edition of Lovecraftesque (look out for the Echoes of the Past add-on scenario pack featuring a cosmic-horror-in-space scenario by me!). You’ll also be able to pick up the following zines by me (while stocks last!):

• Chiron’s Doom. An ill-fated expedition to a mysterious monument. Inspired by stories like Annihilation, Piranesi, Event Horizon, and Diamond Dogs, this one is built for solo journaling but works for up to 3 players (more on that below!).
• Stealing the Throne. The OG giant robot heist RPG. And who wouldn’t want to steal a giant robot?! (Incidentally, I happen to think it might be the best ttrpg engine for explosive one-shot heists out there…)
• Stealing the Throne: Daring Thief Edition. As if stealing a giant robot weren’t hard enough, imagine doing it alone?! This is the solo version of Stealing the Throne, and it’s a bit of a rarity. Only available in print at cons!

Chiron’s Doom on Black Armada Tales

Speaking of Chiron’s Doom, the Black Armada Tales crew are currently playing it on the podcast! Here’s a link to the first episode, in which Crestia Nine-Lives, Deliverance Grindmarch, and Morton Doe launch their gothic space opera expedition to the ominous monument.

As you probably know from our Against Time and Death episodes (Museum/Incubator and Sea/Stone), I’m one of the Black Armada Tales crew. This game of Chiron’s Doom is particularly exciting for me because I’m not actually part of it! Josh, Becky, and Ead are playing it without me, which means I get to experience the highs and lows of their expedition as a listener rather than a player (one of a game designer’s great joys, hearing their games played!).

I’ve heard the first two episodes so far, and the crew are absolutely crushing it — it’s a superb showcase for the game, and for the Wasteland Divinium playset that Becky wrote for it. It’s also a perfect demonstration of how you can play the game with multiple players. Give it a listen — it’s great actual play!

Next steps

• Melody works her editing magic. A good ttrpg editor wears many hats, making text clearer and more evocative but also elevating the game design itself, making actual gameplay better. Melody is a great ttrpg editor.
• Paul works his art magic. And Paul is a great artist! Really, I am so lucky to work with so many talented people, and I can’t wait to see the full suite of Paul’s completed art.
• I start some layout experiments. It’s a busy month for me, but while Melody and Paul are at work with text and art, I’m going to start noodling around with some layout concepts. Alongside all the other parts of making a game, playing around with layout is my favourite! I can easily lose hours (days) to Affinity Publisher.

And that’s us for another month! Progress continues to be good, and remember: if you play the game, let me know about it!

Is it just me, or does this gif give off serious Against Time and Death vibes? Now I’m wondering what it would be like to play a game where the operatives are two multiversal incarnations of the same person…

- Nick