Werewolf Games

Kristian asked if the popularity of yesterday’s blog (people actually commented!) would lead to more Lock ‘n Load Publishing werewolf games. Hey Kristian, we are already huge fans of werewolf games! Just a couple of years ago we released a “Monster Scenario” for our Lock ‘n Load game system. It was meant to be somewhat of a spoof on the segment of the gaming population who love huge games with lots of playing pieces. Such endeavors are called monster games, and I had promised a monster scenario for Lock ‘n Load aficionados. I delivered, but the monster wasn’t in the size of the scenario, but rather its inhabitants. It went something like this…

Svetlana, Rumania, October 7th, 1944

The men of 15th SS Panzergrenadier Battalion wanted revenge. Two nights ago men of the battalion, garrisoning Svetlana, had been overrun. The attackers massacred the SS troopers and then withdrew from the hamlet on the banks of the Doeder River, leaving the eviscerated remains of the Germans on the dusty streets. Tonight the SS would return in search of their comrades’ killers. They would find them… and be sorry that they did.

Lock ‘n Load has always stressed the story behind the battle, and when the SS soldiers entered Svetlana, the game-triggered events revealed a pack of werewolves. The scenario was great fun, with hard-bitten German soldiers in a desperate fight with a raging pack of werewolves. I was ecstatic. We released the scenario as a free download, and sat back to await the fans’ acclaim. Unfortunately, the crickets are still chirping. It was a led balloon, down in flames, as popular as a screen door on a submarine, praise was as rare as virginity among wh… well, you get the idea.

Of course there is also Aftermath. A game directly inspired by Underworld (Note to self…write a blog entry without mentioning Underworld), Aftermath is set in a post-apocalyptic world where vampires battle werewolves, the remnants of n American expeditionary force skirmish Iranian militia, and gangers fight NYC cops. Aftermath had the bad luck of birthing simultaneously with my company’s transition from developer to publisher. The attendant workload swamped me and buried Aftermath under a pile of paper. I sincerely hope to raise it from its papyric (I made that word up.) tomb one day.

And then comes The Rising. Not the book, which has been renamed that Strange-World-War-III-Book-That-Also-Has-Creepy-Stuff, but a card-driven role-playing game based on the book. I guess I should rebadged the game also. How about That Strange-World-War-III-Game-That-Also-Has-Creepy-Stuff? We can call it TSWW3GTAHCS for short. In TSWW3GTAHCS gamers control characters attempting to escape Eisenbach (of Eisenbach Gap fame). You must play cards to move through the city, fighting Soviet soldiers, werewolves, vampires, and demons along the way. It’s in development, with some of the initial concept art completed.

So there you have it, from Lock ‘n Load scenarios, through Aftermath, to that Strange-World-War-III-Book-That-Also-Has-Creepy-Stuff, we’re all over the werewolf scene. Glad you asked, Kristian.