Nightfall Games at Tabletop Scotland, Musketeers Vs Cthulhu, Maggot Machine and the future

It feels like Geek Native is just back from the expected lull in activity due to Edinburgh festival season and the unexpected impact of a van’s wing mirror, and we’re getting ready for the next big event.

Geek Native will be at Tabletop Scotland this year from the 25th to the 27th of August in Perth. Girdy will roam the Dewars Centre for content to ‘entertain’ our social channels.

One of the exciting publishers also attending is Nightfall Games, who publish the Terminator RPG, SLA Industries and have been working with Babylon 5 and Fox’s 9-1-1’s Claudia Christian on a new project.

We got to talk to Benn Graybeaton of Nightfall just ahead of the show.

Can you please give us an introduction to yourself and Nightfall Games?

My name’s Benn Graybeaton, I’m the Senior Rules Dev for Nightfall Games. I’ve been interested in TTRPGs since seeing the original cover of Forest of Doom at age 5. I started writing with Modiphius as a part of Alpha 1.3 of its 2d20 system, did some line management for them and moved over to Nightfall Games when I was offered a spot on the Terminator team. I’ve done some consulting on other systems and love talking crunch with other creators.

Nightfall Games has been around since 1993 producing its flagship RPG SLA Industries (which can roughly be described as a Dystopia’s Nightmare Dystopia) It was purchased by an upstart American company called Wizards of the Coast prior to Magic the Gathering and bought back by the original owners (Dave and Jared) who brought SLA back in 2019 with SLA 2nd Edition.

You announced, or at least teased, Musketeers Vs Cthulhu at UK Games Expo. Can you tell us more about the setting now?

Faced against the horrors of the mythos, can you keep your fellow musketeer’s sanity’s intact enough to maintain a firing line? Will it do any good? Can you keep the vow of “One for all” when staring down the dark young of Shub Niggurath and if you die CAN you even be remembered?

Musketeers Vs Cthulhu is an action-packed setting where the Musketeers known from the tales of Dumas take on the eldritch horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. Unlike the wild swashbuckling characterised by games like 7th Sea, Musketeers VS Cthulhu treats the daring feats of the musketeers as the dangerous tactics of elite warriors and not the simple every day found in most of modern interpretations of the genre.

In Musketeers Vs Cthulhu you’ll face dastardly foes and seek to defeat their machinations while Paris itself runs the risk of being pulled into the abyss. 

Does the game use Call of Cthulhu 7e rather than Basic Roleplaying system for its rules? Is there a difference? Can you help readers understand any differences? 

7th Ed. Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed and BRP are very similar, but the Call of Cthulhu is tailor made for occult horror. As a licence it has access to all the horrors that Call of Cthulhu is famous for, rather than BRP which is expansive into multiple genres. A clever GM could use either but Call of Cthulhu is recommended. 

What’s Claudia Christian’s involvement? 

The short story that provides inspiration for the adventures inside Musketeers Vs Cthulhu was written by Claudia Christian and Chris McAuley. Claudia has been very supportive of the interpretation and has kept us on the right track. She’s even doing the Kickstarter video for us. 

And Maggot Machine? Is that the right name for the sequel to Demon Dog? 

Maggot Machine is not, as it might initially seem a sequel to Demon Dog. It does use the Mork Borg system (with a few wee tweaks) but it has a sci-fi setting that only Dave Alsop could have envisaged. Weird mutants, Cybernetics you can catch if you get bitten by the wrong beastie, and a civilisation hiding underground. Fans of SLA, Cy-Borg, and indeed Demon Dog should love it!

How tough is it being a publisher the size of Nightfall Games right now?

With everyone facing a steady increase in costs, not only does it cost more to get a product to market, but that market is smaller than it was last year. Luckily most RPGs are tremendous value for money. You buy a book and get a year or twos worth of entertainment out of it. 

We’re lucky to have a lot of support behind us and we are grateful every time a fan puts their hand in their wallet or simply comes on over to the discord for a chat. Our fans have been so awesome that we’ve been able to extend the Terminator licence for another two years. 

It’s fair to say times are tough, but when the going gets tough…

What might make it better?

I think that a structural improvement in the standard of living is needed. RPGs are entertainment and as such a luxury product compared to green vege and tinned beans. Alas it’s not like we can cut the prices. We’re all being hit by the same problem. We think the solution comes from not putting all your eggs in one basket and creating awesome games that people can afford. While we’ll keep producing high end RPGs like SLA, for those that can’t afford the £40.00 sticker price we’ve got the equally amazing Demon Dog for £25.00. 

Are you seeing any trends emerging in the tabletop space that interest you?

I find solo-play an interesting phenomenon. It’s definitely not for me (I grew up on Fighting Fantasy so it might be over-indulgence) and I’ve yet to see a rule system that I think could be used by any of our properties, but I keep looking. Other than that, I love seeing local RPG communities starting to come up. Kēmu Whakatau O Aotearoa is something that I wish existed back when I lived in NZ.

I am very interested in having regional creators do content for Nightfall Games so Afrocentric RPGs are interesting, not only because I get to interact with new and interesting creators but also because of the content, which is often things that raised in NZ I hadn’t previously been exposed to.

What’s in the future for Nightfall Games?

Well, we’re looking at our publishing model to find a good way to get contributors paid their worth. We anticipate a lot more creator partnerships or hybrid relationships rather than traditional freelancing agreements. There’s a lot of talented people out there with great game ideas who just need a bit of help to get their products to market. We’re not actively soliciting for new ideas just now, but when we work out a model that’s fair and practical, we’ll be reaching out.

Game wise, more SLA, more Terminator (though we might deviate from the movies now) more weird and wonderfuls and the rest will depend on time. We’re a small team so time is our most precious asset.

Is there anyone else, company or person, you think might be coming to Tabletop Scotland that you’re particularly keen to meet?

TTS is where I catch up with old mates and meet new ones. I’m hoping some of the people I’ve met virtually will show up and say hi, but as for industry folk I usually just wander the stands and see what I see.

Where else might people be able to catch up with you?

All my links are on my linktree, but Discord is your best bet, look for Graybeaton and you’ll find me. Nightfall games can be found on my Link tree too.