Author Topic: Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game  (Read 7942 times)

Ravendesk Games

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Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
« on: August 13, 2015, 01:47:58 PM »
Hello Exilian!

Ravendesk Games is very excited to announce Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game, currently on Kickstarter!

Vurt the RPG is based on the Arthur C. Clarke award-winning science fiction of Jeff Noon.  The setting for the RPG begins in Bloody Olde Manchester, UK, a grimy utopia gone slightly mad.  Like the internet of today, the residents of this not-to-distant future world are addicted to playing in and exploring "the Vurt," an other dimensional space in which people dreams are a reality.  By placing a feather into your mouth, you can enter the Vurt and quest for knowledge, secrets and rewards which can be brought back into the real world, but be very careful, for the Vurt is no ordinary dream.  The Vurt is a dangerous place and you can become lost or even killed within the dreams and nightmares created there. 

Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game is among the first games to license the Cypher System ruleset by Monte Cook Games. This is the same ruleset at the heart of Numenera and The Strange - both of which not only met their crowdfunding goals but beat those goals many times over up and down the street. The Cypher System is a perfect match for Jeff Noon's Vurt setting. The focus on GM storytelling allows the party to change world and even the characters themselves without needing to fumble with changing mechanics in and out of dreams.

The trio of adventurous nerds at Ravendesk Games are developing Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game in collaboration with author Jeff Noon, who is not only contributing original material and concepts for the game, but also exclusive short stories and limited edition signed loot that will be available to Kickstarter backers only. (“Limited Edition” means that you better hoof it to the Kickstarter campaign page double-quick.)

If you’d like a quote from Jeff Noon himself, we don’t think you can beat this one: “The team at Ravendesk have delved into the novels with great creative passion and expertise. They've explored every aspect in fine detail, staying 100% true to the spirit of the imagined world, whilst at the same time allowing the characters and locations to really live off the page. I'm happy to be contributing short stories and other material to the gaming books. In all honesty, I think these guys know more about my novels than I do!” The response from Ravendesk Games: “OMFG”

Have a look at more of the project and our teaser video on the Kickstarter campaign page!

It is our pleasure to be invited to post our project on Exilian and we look forward to posting more details soon.

Thank you! 
 :gollum:




Jubal

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Re: Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2015, 07:11:44 PM »
As I said by PM, the art is particularly striking/stunning and the setting looks interesting.

A few queries since I don't know the setting (I guess the closest RPG I've played might be Shadowrun)...
  • Is pretty much everything human in this? Are there non-human life forms? Some of the figures in the trailer are clearly non-human but I don't know if those are vurt/dream thingies or what things look like in realspace!
  • Why Manchester? Does the specific city make a lot of difference?
  • As a suggestion, the trailer video has the voice a little quiet, I was struggling to make it out over the slightly jagged backing music.  :)
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Pentagathus

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Re: Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2015, 08:23:07 PM »
The kickstarter page says there are recombinant part human things and aliens from the vurt too.
Is the vurt feather a recent discovery in this world or has it always been used? Is it a magicalish thingymabob that physically transports you to a dreamworld or does it simply (heh not really simply but meh) alter the users mind state?

Glaurung

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Re: Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
« Reply #3 on: August 17, 2015, 01:29:07 PM »
A few queries since I don't know the setting (I guess the closest RPG I've played might be Shadowrun)...
  • Why Manchester? Does the specific city make a lot of difference?
It's Manchester because that's where the book is set, and in turn that's where Jeff Noon (the author) is from. Though I'm fairly sure that the Manchester in the book is not exactly like the real one, even when the book was written in the early 1990s.

I can see I'm going to have to dig out my copy of Vurt and re-read it...

Ravendesk Games

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Re: Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2015, 05:48:28 PM »
Hey guys!

I'm so sorry, I forgot to subscribe to the post and just turned it up doing a google search. 
The good news is there is still the better part of the last week left on the KS campaign if you are interested!

To answer your questions:

Is the vurt feather a recent discovery in this world or has it always been used? Is it a magicalish thingymabob that physically transports you to a dreamworld or does it simply (heh not really simply but meh) alter the users mind state?
Great question!  Feather-tech is new, the way that the internet or online PC gaming is new.  Vurt is set in an alternate future, in which this new tech has taken hold of society the way computer-tech has taken hold of us now. It's become a necessity the way the internet is to us now- everyone uses it, everyone is glued to it and it's become an addiction.  Feathers are not magic, they're high-tech. These feathers, placed in the mouth employ nano-technology to bind to the nervous system of the user and shift the person's mind into a parallel universe called "the Vurt." At a low level, these "dreams" are just the mind projected into the shared dream-space of the Vurt, but as you get into more dangerous territory, the stakes go up and a person can become trapped or killed within a feather, or worse, vanish physically into the Vurt and be exchanged for something from the other side..

As I said by PM, the art is particularly striking/stunning and the setting looks interesting.

A few queries since I don't know the setting (I guess the closest RPG I've played might be Shadowrun)...
  • Is pretty much everything human in this? Are there non-human life forms? Some of the figures in the trailer are clearly non-human but I don't know if those are vurt/dream thingies or what things look like in realspace!
  • Why Manchester? Does the specific city make a lot of difference?
The people of the Vurt world of Manchester (and the rest of the world) are 5 modes of being (or races if you like).  Humans, Dogs, Robos, Shadows and Vurt.  There is an explanation which I won't delve into in this answer for exactly how this is possible, but the most common mode in the world is any combination of the two- A robo-dog, a dog-man, a shadow-human, etc. Pure modes are increasingly rare in the world.

Like Glaurung said, Manchester is the setting from Jeff Noon's novels, but the entire world is at your disposal in the RPG.  The corebook will focus on Manchester as a sourcebook.  Chroma, Italia- The City, San Francisco- Cao Paolo, Brazuka- the entire world has become twisted in the same way. You can expect to see sourcebooks of other locations in the future, now that the game has funded!!


So, we've funded and we're in that critical last week of the Kickstarter.  If you're interested, come take a look at the page and back us!  Better yet, share us with your gaming people of social media!
There is tons of info about the game, along with interviews and articles if you explore the KS site.

Thanks guys!  /subscribed this time.

Lee Pruitt
Project Manager, Ravendesk Games

Jubal

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Re: Vurt: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2015, 12:09:39 AM »
Robo-dog, robo-dog, barks at whatever a robo-dog can! :P

It all sounds good - I should actually read the book at some point I think...
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...