A duet storytelling game about a forbidden relationship between two elite operatives on opposite sides of a multiversal time war.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Announcing our final duo
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Feb 22, 2025 at 09:01:34 AM
Announcement time! We're now just 72 hours from the end of the Against Time and Death Kickstarter (if time means anything) and what better moment to introduce our final dynamic game design duo! Read on for the big reveal...
(You know, Dr Strange kinda has a lock on 'multiverse' gifs...)
Announcing our final superstar game design duo: MacGuffin & Co.! Sasha Sienna and Jonathan Sims make up the last of our four playset teams, and I'm obviously extremely excited to have them on board!
The countdown begins. With 72 hours to go, the final push has begun. I've got some art and links for you to share widely, to help give the campaign the best finale we can!
New design duo: MacGuffin & Co.
Launching us into the last 72 hours of the campaign, I'm pleased to announce our final powerhouse game design duo is...
MacGuffin & Co. are the award-winning games design duo of Sasha Sienna and Jonathan Sims. They make distinctive TTRPGs with bold layouts and striking art that are easy to get to the table and accessible to players of all types: from tentative newbies to dice-chewing veterans. Their work includes two-player wizard-bashing adventure game Pitcrawler, system-neutral micro-settings collection Odd Jobs and river-myth tarot-fuelled fantasy game Upriver, Downriver.
You probably already know Jonathan from a little thing called The Magnus Archives (!), but the reason I invited Sasha and Jonathan to join the crew was their brilliant book Odd Jobs. It's a book of 11 system-neutral RPG micro-settings, each illustrated by a different artist or artists, with player character suggestions, NPCs, secrets, and a short adventure seed arc.
I adore Odd Jobs - it's beautiful and inspiring and exactly my kind of thing. I keep threatening to run a little game jam with my friends where we each pick a micro-setting from the book, build a micro-RPG to support it, and then play a set of micro-campaigns. Maybe one day! In the meantime, though, I'm excited to see how Sasha and Jonathan bring that tiny worldbuilding verve to Against Time and Death!
Playing Against Time and Death: Letters
In the last two updates we discussed setting scenes and taking action in Against Time and Death. Now let's talk about the last part of every exchange: writing a letter.
The first player (the Orbit) has set a scene somewhere in the multiverse, and the second player (the Axis) has done the time war thing, their character taking some action (big or small) to twist the scene. But - surprise! - the Orbit's character was there all along, watching, trying to intervene to thwart their rival. And now, perhaps for reasons they don't themselves understand, they take the opportunity to write a secret letter...
Sneaking This Is Us gifs into Kickstarter campaigns since 2023...
Turning back to our example, I framed a scene in late-1800s London as Saanvi prepared to announce a new international forum for peaceful cooperation. Becky Annison's character, Instigator, planted a deadly virus in Saanvi's lunch, aiming to infect this international gathering and, ultimately, spark a war. But my character, Curator, was there as well...
At the top of the stairs to the British Museum, framed by its towering neoclassical columns, Saanvi turns and looks out at the forecourt. She draws her packed lunch from her bag — dearest Phoebe and her delightful sandwiches — and begins to eat. Too early for lunch, of course, but Saanvi has a long day ahead and a bit of extra sustenance won’t hurt.
She smiles again. Sunlight glints off her earring as she chews.
“Dear Instigator,
It’s remarkable how much information you can compress into a single burst of light, if you know its intended recipient has the sophistication necessary to unpack it. You do have the necessary sophistication, I hope? If so, linger with me in this moment. Bask in it, or at least imagine that I am doing so. I think we can all learn something from my victory.
We saw you plunging in and out of this strand, like a needle through fabric, stitching together your little scheme. Oh, I won’t pretend it was easy — you are so very nimble, I’ll grant you that. But as you stabbed and pulled at the strand, the shape of your plan revealed itself. Imagine my amusement! All your flitting about adjacent to Saanvi and you never slowed down to look, really look. And so you missed the obvious. Yes, I was Saanvi! I have been all along.
Why, I wonder, are your side always in such a rush? When was the last time you stopped to enjoy the sun on your face?
I suspect deconstructing this deadly poison of yours will cause me a spot of indigestion. No bother. I’ll be right as rain in no time.
Yours patiently,
Curator”
I then played a King of Spades, narrowly beating Becky's Queen of Diamonds.
Here's what I was trying to do with this letter:
In the opening paragraph of the letter, I had some fun describing how Curator delivered this secret message to Instigator. This bit isn't required, but it's a fun way to show off your character's ingenuity and, perhaps, something of their personality. (It's also a callback to This Is How You Lose the Time War, which is a nice bonus!)
Having narrowly won the round, I included a bit of light taunting - something to establish the tone of the relationship between Curator and Instigator, and something for Becky to react to.
I also praised Instigator and her methods - I'd only narrowly won the exchange after all!
Just as Becky recontextualized my scene with her action (turning Saanvi's day of triumph into one of potential disaster), so I recontextualized her action by revealing that Saanvi was in fact Curator all along! I didn't have this in mind at the beginning of the scene, but in thinking about ways that I could triumph over Instigator's plan, this option leapt out at me as a fun one. This highlights a key principle when playing Against Time and Death: hang on to your ideas lightly, because they might be changed and changed again. Even in the course of a single exchange! This is a big part of the fun of the game - seeing what surprises the other player springs on you, and dreaming up ways to surprise them.
Finally, I used the letter to ask Instigator some questions. This is a correspondence, after all!
The cards we played mean that my faction, Museum, wins this exchange in the Time War. But since the winning card was a face card (jack, queen, or king), we've also increased the ambient Chaos level. I'll talk a bit more about what these things mean in a subsequent update, but for now it's enough to say that the status of these various dials will determine how the endgame looks for our operatives.
And that's it! That's an exchange in Against Time and Death: setting the scene, taking action, and writing a letter. The Orbit and Axis now switch roles and repeat, for a total of eight exchanges across a full game. And let me tell you, it goes by fast!
The beginning of the end...
We now have just 72 hours to go in this campaign. We're already fully funded thanks to you brilliant people, but let's see how far we can go! There are a few things that you can do to help:
Talk about the game on your socials. I've included an image below that you can use to help make things look pretty.
Shout the game out on your blogs, streams, or YouTube videos. As always, if you'd like me to come on and chat about the game - or anything else about indie ttrpg design - I'm always ready!
Blowing up the multiverse
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 04:31:28 AM
It's Friday! Here at ickbat games HQ that means it's the best day of the week: game design day! Of course, actual game design is suspended for the duration of the Kickstarter campaign, but thinking about game design sure isn't. What have you been thinking about?
Yeah, same!
Right, what have we got to talk about today?
Taking action in Against Time and Death. Last update we looked at how to frame scenes anywhere in space and time. Today we look at taking action, where an operative uses all their power - subtle or mighty - to bend the multiverse to their will.
Announcement imminent! At about 5pm GMT tomorrow (Saturday) we're going to start the countdown to our grand finale with the big announcement of our final game design duo. Tune in to find out who they are - any guesses?
Playing Against Time and Death: Action
Last time we discussed setting scenes in Against Time and Death, using a playtest game I played with Becky Annison as an example. Today, let's talk through the next step: taking action.
Once the first player (the Orbit) has set a scene, the second player (the Axis) takes action. Usually - although not always! - the Axis will try to twist the piece of the multiverse that the Orbit described so that it favours their faction's outlook. This is where the time warrior's art comes into play. What can they do, what small tweak or dramatic intervention can they put into motion that will bend the course of the future in this place towards their faction and away from their enemy?
Let's look at our example. You may recall that last time I set a scene in late-1800s London, as our character-of-the-moment Saanvi heads into the British Museum for the announcement of a new World Scientific, Philosophical, and Environmental Advisory Council (WoSPEAC?). This strand of the multiverse currently leans towards my faction, Museum.
Now it's time for Becky's agent of innovation to mess all that up:
This felt like a strange one from the start. Not that you would ever question orders but this world looks so much better on the surface from three steps to the side. All those people coming together with their ideas, blending them, listening to each other. Sounds like it would accelerate everything just nicely. But we have the whole of history to use as our sandbox, and the thing that makes the greatest leaps, the biggest pivots, that propels humans to do the unthinkable isn’t gentle collaboration. It is war. If we want to blaze into the future we need to set each other on fire. Sometimes, literally.
I am not here to disrupt the new Council, not exactly. Whether or not it exists is irrelevant. I am here to find the biggest possible trigger for war.
Not an easy task in this strand, but there are pockets of fear in all human civilisations. Pockets of people who feel that they would be doing much better if not for someone else. It took me over three years to locate and cultivate the right loose group of such pockets and then seed them with one of the new technologies this strand has developed early. A viral gene technology. The idea is to spread an infection which keeps people apart and sows doubt. The Council is the biggest international gathering that has happened in this world so far and is the perfect time to unleash it.
Saanvi strolls across the forecourt of the British Museum in the chill air of a bright Spring morning, she can’t help but smile. She has no idea that the packed lunch her wife lovingly made for her has a payload that will fragment the world and start a thousand wars.
Becky then played a Queen of Diamonds from her hand, to represent her agent's effort.
(The action I've presented here is abridged - if you'd like to hear the full version, with a bunch of juicy extra detail, check out this episode of Black Armada Tales.)
So what was Becky doing with this scene? A bunch of clever things:
On the simplest level, she took action: she planted a virus that will start a war that will change the history of this strand in the multiverse, making it more suitable for her faction.
She used inner monologue to give us a glimpse into what her character is thinking. This is an incredibly valuable technique - you have so few opportunities to communicate in a game of Against Time and Death, it really helps to take every one.
She put forward a manifesto for her character: "the thing that makes the greatest leaps, the biggest pivots, that propels humans to do the unthinkable isn’t gentle collaboration. It is war." This is wonderful because it gives me something to react against. Does my character disagree? If so, how can I frame scenes, take action, and write letters to persuade Becky's character to my view? Is that even possible? Will I be persuaded?
She took what I'd seeded, and twisted it. I gave Becky Saanvi, a hopeful character about to do something momentous; Becky planted a deadly payload in Saanvi's packed lunch. This kind of reincorporation and recontextualization is perfect for a time travel game, and great fun - it turns every exchange into an opportunity to surprise and delight each other. Becky even went so far as to reuse some of my words, casting them in a new light, which I loved: "Saanvi strolls across the forecourt of the British Museum in the chill air of a bright Spring morning, she can’t help but smile."
Finally, Becky played a Queen of Diamonds. That's a high card - it's going to be challenging for me to beat. But face cards (if they win an exchange) also cause the ambient Chaos level to rise, and Becky leaned into that possibility with the description of her action.
I learnt so much about my own game by playtesting it with Becky - she taught me the power of many of the things I've described above. And I've taken that experience and distilled it into helpful guidelines that you can refer to whenever it is your turn to take action in your game.
Tune in next time to find out how Curator, Museum's agent, reacted to what Instigator did!
Media roundup
We've had a couple of things pop up in the last few days that I'd love to share with you all. Is this the smallest media blitz of all time? Very possibly. Small but mighty!
Against Time and Death preview by Nick Munro. Over on KeenGamer, Nick has written up a very thoughtful overview of the game, including some quotes from me. The writeup is based on Nick's own experience playing the game, and it's a wonderful window into what this multiversal time war is all about. If you're looking for an independent perspective on Against Time and Death, Nick's got you covered, and I'm very grateful to him for taking the time. Thanks Nick!
Quest for Zines by Lex Morgan and Philip Reed. Lex and Philip are running a fascinating project for ZineQuest: it's a zine of interviews with indie roleplaying game creators, many of whom are running projects during ZineQuest. It's a fascinating insight into games and game designers, and a really excellent way to discover projects you might have missed. I was lucky enough to sit down with Philip for an interview, and had an absolute blast - a bunch of really insightful questions that cast light on Against Time and Death and my inspirations. Highly recommended if you'd like to know more about the game, and how I think about game design!
The endgame approaches
I'm still really pleased with how we're ticking along. In the last week, Against Time and Death became my most funded Kickstarter ever, beating out Chiron's Doom (£4,036) and Stealing the Throne (£4,206). My heartfelt thanks to all of you for that! We've got about 4 days left, so the next milestone is to see if we can beat Chiron's Doom's backer count (325).
I think we can do it! As ever, you can help by spreading the word wherever you find gamers, sci-fi readers, and lovers!
Maybe don't say it quite like that, but you get the idea...
- Nick
Time travel in action
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Feb 17, 2025 at 11:09:59 AM
Time flies when you're fighting a time war, hey? Hard to believe we're already a week in. We're ticking along nicely (223 of you wonderful people already!), but let's see if we can't give it a little extra nudge during the slower middle period...
Amirite? Anyway, here's the tl;dr for today's update:
Setting scenes in Against Time and Death. Using an example from a playtest game with Becky Annison, I talk through what scene setting looks like in Against Time and Death.
More cool Zine Month projects. Zine Month rolls on, and so does the list of zines that have caught my eye!
Help me spread the word. A small call to action!
In case you missed it: new Duet tier. For Valentine's Day, I opened up a new Duet backer tier. One zine for you, and one for your rival/friend/lover.
Playing Against Time and Death: Scenes
Let's talk a little bit about gameplay in Against Time and Death. I'm going to use some examples from a playtest game I played with Becky Annison of Black Armada Games. If you'd rather listen to the game than read about it, we recorded it for the Black Armada Tales podcast, available here.
We'll skip over setup - imagine we've built our multiverse, invented our factions and agents, and we're ready to get into the action. For this game, I was playing Curator, an agent of Museum. My faction's defining concept was nostalgia. Becky was playing Instigator, whose faction was Incubator, defined by innovation (a lot of 'I' words there, which makes perfect sense now that I think about it!).
There are eight exchanges in a game of Against Time and Death, each following the same pattern: one player (the Orbit) chooses a scene prompt and frames a scene somewhere in the multiverse, then the second player (the Axis) takes action within that scene, playing a card from their hand to represent their effort. Finally, the first player (the Orbit again) plays their own card, judges the results of the scene, and writes a letter to their rival.
The standard scene prompt looks like this (different prompts open up as the game evolves):
Describe a location or event anywhere in space and time. This location or event currently favours your faction’s vision, so colour your description accordingly.
In my game with Becky, I kicked off the first exchange. Here's the opening scene I framed:
London, at the end of the 19th century, because sooner or later every time travel story visits this grand, monstrous, striving city. This London is three strands over from the one you know. In this strand, England sent its scholars and artists across the globe rather than its soldiers and traders. It learned from the people it met, and invited them to visit England, to bring their culture and their science and to share these things in an air of open, friendly, and equal collaboration.
Saanvi is one of the ones who came, and she fell in love with the city’s cosy drawing rooms, welcoming tea houses, and myriad learned societies dedicated to the betterment of all humanity.
It is an important day for Saanvi. She and a hundred other scholars, diplomats, and cultural advisors have been working together – carefully, cautiously, mindful of their commitment to equality – and today they will unveil their vision for a new World Scientific, Philosophical, and Environmental Advisory Council. As she strolls across the forecourt of the British Museum in the chill air of a bright Spring morning, she can’t help but smile.
There are a few things I was trying to do with this scene:
I started with somewhere relatively familiar (London, the late 1800s) to put us on solid ground. We can get weird later, if we want!
I made it a bit different (an alternate past), to emphasise that we're playing in a multiverse where anything can happen.
I made it feel like the sort of place that Museum, my faction, might like. This is the "currently favours your faction's vision" part of the scene prompt.
I made it hopeful. This isn't a requirement, but it's a cheeky little trick. I know that Becky is going to try and twist (or break!) this part of the multiverse so that it suits her faction rather than mine, and by making this seem like a nice place I'm trying to make her job just a little bit more challenging! (Sue Elliott used this trick to great effect in a subsequent playtest...)
I introduced a named character, with a personality and a motivation. Scenes about people are so much more interesting.
And with that, the stage was set for our first exchange! I pinged Becky to let her know that it was over to her, and then I waited to see what chaos Instigator would cause in my timeline...
We'll come back to this example in a subsequent update, to see what taking action looks like in games of Against Time and Death. In the meantime, what action would you take in this scene?
The Zine Month multiverse
Zine Month rolls on, so it's time for a few more projects that have caught my eye. Today I'm going to tempt you with two zines from fellow Aussies, one from a member of the Against Time and Death team, and one from another member of the Feb 11th crew:
Growing Thylacine by Pidj Sorensen. Pidj is a ZineQuest veteran, and never fails to produce gorgeous little risographed zines. This year's sees you embodying parts of a growing clone of the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger. It's a fascinating concept - I can't wait to play it. Pidj's projects are always instant-backs for me!
Pilot Episode by SmallRedRobin13. I first came across SmallRedRobin13 via Buried Deep, her intriguing hack of Stealing the Throne about uncovering a family's secrets. Her ZineQuest project is another clever concept, this time about the cast of a new sitcom pilot, a time loop, and a dawning horror. It's not funded yet, so check it out and give her some support!
Midnight Marathon by Adam Vass. Why crowdfund one zine when you can crowdfund five! Adam is going to make five brand new games, each focusing on a different brand of horror: Blood Lock's tense vampire standoff, cryptid hunters looking for the Michigan Dogman, and so on. It's a wild scheme, but you know Adam can pull it off!
Lost Phantosmia by KeganExe. Time for some OSR? How about a system-neutral urban dungeon crawl through a haunted perfume factory, including a Perfume Lich (!) and a dose of class warfare? It's a great pitch, I'm developing a real love for wire-bound zines, and it hasn't yet funded, so get in on it!
Spread the word!
Things are going great, but we're well and truly in the mid-campaign quiet now. If you've got a spare moment and you're excited about Against Time and Death, please do shout about it somewhere other people can hear you. You could, for example, jump in on this Bluesky post. Or you could invite me to hang out on your podcast or stream. You could even find someone you'd like to fight a time war with and send them the link. Every little bit helps!
- Nick
Be my Valentine?
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 04:47:17 AM
It's Valentine's Day, and I woke up to excellent news: Against Time and Death is a Kickstarter 'Project We Love'!
Let's celebrate with an update - here's the tl;dr:
New Duet backer tier! Grab two copies of the zine, one for you and one for your opposite number in the time war.
Announcing the next powerhouse duo to join the team! Spoiler: it's A Couple of Drakes, Shawn and Navi!
Another art sneak peek from Paul Tomes! A special treat if you make it to the end...
New Duet backer tier
It's Valentine's Day, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than by sharing a duet game with someone special - a partner, that one friend who always goes with you on indie ttrpg adventures, that person you know who loves This Is How You Lose the Time War, someone you'd just like to play more games with.
And so I've added a new Duet backer tier. Backers at this tier will get two copies of the zine in print, and two download keys for the PDF. One for you and one for your future rival in the time war! You can even let them know using this special Valentine's Day image...
(Virtuoso and Maestro backers, hold on tight to your current tiers to make sure you get your annotated zines. Everyone will have an opportunity to add extra zines to their orders when the BackerKit pledge manager goes live - this is just an opportunity to do so a bit early!)
New design duo: A Couple of Drakes
It's time to introduce our third powerhouse game design duo. You know them, you love them, it's the Drakes!
Navi and Shawn Drake are a pair of game-writing cryptids who haunt a crumbling mansion along the Aleghenny River. They are to blame for Court of Blades, Dead Belt, Fe Borg, and various other highly-thematic crimes of passion.
I first came across the Drakes via their collection of Blades in the Dark scores Hour of Chains (one of them is called 'Gondolier in 60 Seconds' for goodness' sake!), and I've been a fan ever since. They've got an incredible knack for making stylish games that sit smack in the middle of my thematic sweet spots, and are perennial cheerleaders for other indie designers. I'm particularly excited to see what concepts they pitch against each other in their playset!
Art sneak preview
Right, you've made it this far - time for a reward. Behold, another sneak preview from the digital pen of Against Time and Death's incredibly talented artist Paul Tomes:
A work in progress image from artist Paul Tomes
Paul's working title for this one is 'SCIENCE', to which I can only say 'yes!'
A closing note from Nick
We're heading into the fourth day of our campaign (to win the time war), and I'm really pleased with how it's going so far. The middle phase is where we start to slow down a little, so this is a perfect time to get out and give the campaign a little boost. Anything you can share via your social media channels is gratefully appreciated (tag me in!). And if you host a blog, podcast, actual play, or anything like that, give me a shout - I'd love to talk! Come find me on Bluesky, discord, or itch!
Onwards, backwards, and sideways!
- Nick
The time war has already begun!
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 09:55:19 AM
Well folks, here we are: 24 hours in, and Against Time and Death is already 241% funded.
My sincerest thanks to all of you. I'm so grateful for your support, and for all of the launch day posts, reskeets (is that a word?), comments, and kind words. I'm excited about this game - it's been so much fun to playtest, the art Paul is putting together is stunning, we've got some really talented folks involved. I think you're going to like it!
More Virtuosos coming soon
I'm very aware that by the time anyone in Australia crawled out of bed, all of the annotated zines had been snapped up (except the juicy play-a-game-with-me tier, hint hint). That always makes me sad, and so I have a special pre-Valentine's Day gift for my Antipodean and Southeast Asian friends:
New 'Maestro' annotated zine rewards we go live on Thursday February 13th at 5:30pm AEDT. That's 2:30pm in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Perth; 5:30pm in Melbourne and Sydney; 7:30pm in Wellington. They will be the same as the Virtuoso rewards: PDF and annotated print zines. Get them before time runs out!
Let's talk playset designers!
One of the parts of this zine that I'm most excited about is the quickstart playsets. Thanks to all of you, I get to throw money at some of the finest game design duos in the business, to see what they do when they're let loose on the building the multiverse phase of Against Time and Death.
At launch, we announced the first of these dynamic duos: The Storybrewers, Hayley Gordon and Vee Hendro. It's always a delight to work with other Australian game designers, and their own bio perfectly summarises the reason I thought they'd be a great fit: "they share a dedication to storytelling and heartfelt, emotional games."
Now it's time to properly introduce our second duo: The Brain Trust!
Adam Vass and Will Jobst (they/them each) form an award-winning duo known as The Brain Trust, hosts of the popular design podcast and co-creators of games like This Discord Has Ghosts In It, Campfire: Anthology Horror Storytelling, and plenty more. Listen to The Brain Trust podcast and keep up with their collabs at Braintrust.rocks.
When I was thinking about rad design duos for Against Time and Death, Adam and Will immediately sprang to mind for their genre savvy and their no holds barred gonzo aesthetics - perfect, I reckon, for a game about epic multiversal time war! I'm so glad they're on board, and can't wait to see what they come up with!
So... any guesses who Powerhouse Duo #3 might be?
The Zine Month multiverse
Possibly the best thing about launching a campaign during ZineQuest/Zine Month is being part of a community of other designers doing exactly the same thing. There are a huge number of cool zines crowdfunding right now, so I'm going to try and highlight a few that have caught my eye.
The Feb 11th Crew. I'm proud to be part of the Feb 11th Crew, a group of ace game designers and zine makers who all launched our campaigns on the same day. We got together and prepared a Rascal News press release covering 14 zines - check it out to find your new favourite! Special thanks to Nimaël for putting the press release together - they're crowdfunding a set of three zines called Broken Oaths right now!
Solarcrawlby Galen Pejeau. Friend and frequent collaborator Galen Pejeau also launched his game on Feb 11th, and it's going to be a great one! Solarcrawl is a hopeful OSR exploration game set in a fantastic space age. As usual, Galen's artwork is going to be gorgeous (just check out the Kickstarter page!). I've also been lucky enough to see some of the development of this one, and I'm very excited about it.
The Words We Leave Behindby Craig Duffy. Would you believe there are two time wars crowdfunding now? Craig's take on the source material is focussed on the butterfly effect - how small changes can ripple through the time stream, writing an epic story across time and space. Craig and I shared a stall at Dragonmeet in 2024, both of us pitching our time war games, and now we're crowdfunding them together too!
Let me leave you with a question
Just three small things before I go:
Please continue to share the campaign however you can. Tell your friends, recruit a rival to fight the time war with, talk about your love for This Is How You Lose the TIme War, whatever it takes. Every little bit helps!
Thank you again for your support so far. Glad to have you on board!
When you fight your first time war, which two concepts will you pitch against each other?Earth/sky, birth/death, loyalty/individuality... Answers in the comments below!
