RV Games March Newsletter
Mitosis, William Castle, and John Waters
Violet here again with exciting updates from RV Games. This month we will be providing updates about our in development projects.
Mitosis - Launching on KS on April 4
WHAT IS MITOSIS?
Is it the biological process of cellular reproduction? Yes
Is it a physical demake of the game Hexxagon? Yes
Is it a Mothership pamphlet adventure? Yes
Is it an in-universe prop? Yes
Is it pretentious post-modern meta BS? Yes
Is it an art game that can be enjoyed by non gamers? Yes
Is it Mothership Jumanji? Yes
Mitosis is a Mothership pamphlet adventure and an in-universe board game. The pamphlet adventure is an escape scenario featuring mutated scientists and space pirates who have overtaken a research space station after being exposed to genetically manipulated versions of the bacteria from the board game. Use the game as a prop for the adventure, play it with your friends and family, use it as a small game to break up heavy gaming sessions, or buy it just for the fantastic art.
A Game by River Schenkat
Game Manual Written by Violet Ballard
Game Art by Curious Friend
Adventure Pamphlet by Chris Airiau
Adventure Pamphlet Art by Izzy B (@Sigmacastell on Discord)
Mothership RPG are trademarks of Tuesday Knight Games. For additional information, visit www.tuesdayknightgames.com or contact contact@tuesdayknightgames.com.
Why, though?!
The genesis of Mitosis goes back a few years. Almost two years ago, my partner River had brought me a cardboard prototype of an abstract board game that she had developed. It was a super addictive game, and she wanted it themed as though living bacteria were taking over the board. Fast forward to last Summer when the Mothership Discord held a lo-fi zine jam where folks made player-facing in-universe zines. The object was to create things that could be passed out to players at a Mothership table to do world building without dumping lore, the anti-canon perspective fleshed out as physical objects. Around that same time, someone released the “Compatible With Mork Borg” novel and people joked about releasing a “Compatible With Mork Borg” scented candle. This when I realized what needed to happen, what is more corporate horror than packaging bacteria made for biological warfare into a family board game. This is when I had the artist Curious Friend start to develop the theming for the board game, and I sought out Chris Airiau to start developing the pamphlet adventure to accompany the board game. So, it’s either a board game that comes with a ttrpg adventure, or it’s a ttrpg adventure that comes with a pretty slick gimmick.
Gimmicks?!
Gimmicks are not bad. They add a B-Movie flair to the pamphlet adventure. Two people influence my love of gimmicks: William Castle and John Waters.
William Castle put out an amazing volume of low-budget horror movies in the 1950s and 1960s including The Tingler and The House on Haunted Hill, both starring Vincent Price. The Tingler included embedding small aircraft accessory motors into movie theater seats to provide a tingling sensation when “The Tingler” is supposed to be crawling into the spines of theater goers. The House on Haunted Hill included a giant skeleton that was dropped from the ceiling to fly over the audience.
John Waters, the king of filth and Camp, was highly influenced by William Castle, and I’m a huge fan of his work as well. He would throw in gimmicks that were highly effective and quite often gross. For the movie Polyester, it included a scratch and sniff card that included very unpleasant smells, it was filmed in “Odorama.” I will make a game that includes a scratch and sniff card someday, but this is a major inspiration for going all-in on the in-universe board game and advertising. However, the Deluxe Edition of Mitosis will include temporary tattoos and a maze poster in the box as a nod to Odorama.
Orgy of the Blood Leeches
This game has gone through its first dev editing pass with Christian Sorrell. This is only the scenario description and our bestiary, but this has helped conceive of the adventure in a more focused way. It is a wide linear module, more Bioshock than a sandbox. It takes place in a setting, but it is a specific adventure in the specific place that’s designed as a campaign to be played over multiple sessions, it’s like a single season mini-series. We will have some very unique dungeoncrawler procedures for portions in addition to a Brindlewood Bay inspired procedural mystery and set areas, encounters, and puzzles. Most exciting is the explicitly Queer politics of the module.
The Progeny
This pamphlet is very gamey and encounter focused. It exists as a way to practice with mapping areas and with our dungeon crawl procedure for Orgy of the Blood Leeches. Orgy of the Blood Leeches is inspired by Shivers while The Progeny is inspired by The Brood. Since last month when we introduced this pamphlet, we have made a small amount of progress. We’re starting mapping for this now that we’ve figured out what kind of map it needs, and it should be ready to enter into the One Page Derelict Jam by the end of the month. It should be hitting DriveThruRPG and select retailers in late Spring or early Summer.