"May I Enter" Is A Different Sort of Vampire Game (Now On Kickstarter)

The night is dark, and full of terrors... some are nameless things that haunt the shadows, and whisper on the winds. Some, though, are things we know. Things who are bound by rules and laws that can be used to remain safe from them... and in some cases which can be used to kill them. There is a night walker who feeds on the hot blood of the living, who cannot walk beneat the sun, and who cannot cross living waters. They cannot see their reflections, the sights and sounds of faith are anathema to them, and most importantly, they cannot enter without permission.

There have been a lot of RPGs about vampires... but May I Enter really does appear to be something different.

And the answer is, yes you may...

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

So What Is "May I Enter"?

While I would highly recommend folks check out the Kickstarter for May I Enter to get a more complete answer to this, the short version is that it's a game based on Powered By The Apocalyse that takes inspiration from OSR-style RPGs where you all play vampires. However, while there is very much the same dark tone we're all used to in games where players take on the role of these infamous bloodsuckers, in May I Enter the game focuses on vampires who have been Bound. Helen of Troy (yes, that Helen of Troy) laid down a Binding that tied most vampires to a code they could not deviate from. And at the heart of this Binding are vampires who must serve, rather than command. Creatures who must ask, rather than take. And while you have great power at your disposal, and you wish to change the world for the better, you can only do that if others bid you to do it.

So, more "Forever Knight" than some vampire games...

Humans aren't the only things these Bound vampires have to content with, though. There are the Unbound members of their kind who are true monsters, dark fae with their strange word games and unfathomable logic, and a bevy of other things that haunt the dark edges of the world... except werewolves. They aren't real.

And at the core of it all there are primordial vaults that contain ancient, forgotten secrets that your vampires will need to recover... both to use them as tools, and to keep them out of the wrong hands. And these vaults often act as parallels to what is happening in the world above, invoking the ancient alchemist's balance of As Above, So Below... or perhaps it's the other way around?

So if you're someone who likes the idea of a vampire game, but you want something with more streamlined mechanics, a unique world setup, and where you get to play monsters who are trying to be the good guys without people looking down their noses at you, I would highly recommend checking out May I Enter. The Kickstarter has a few more weeks at time of writing, but don't let it pass you by!

Also, if the name Josh Heath looks familiar to you, and you're a fan of the game Vampire: The Masquerade, you've probably seen some of his other work before. And if you haven't (but would like to), I'd definitely recommend taking a look at the Dark New England Bundle, which has 5 one-page chronicle jumpstarts for your World of Darkness game!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Questions About Crowdfunding? Tabletop Mercenary Will Be Tackling That Topic Soon!

As regular readers know, in addition to running this blog, I make videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel. And while I've talked about my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, offered insight and advice for the World of Darkness, and I've got the unboxing for my new RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic debuting this Friday, one of the series that I've been hard at work on recently is Tabletop Mercenary. And, as the name implies, this show is all about how to make a living working in tabletop RPGs for a living.

And so far the most commonly-requested topic for the series has been people asking me about Kickstarter. So I wanted you all to know that I'm listening, and I've got a clever plan to deliver on this topic.

And hopefully it will help other folks out, too!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

You Have Questions, I Have Someone That Has The Answers!

While there have been a lot of questions for a lot of different topics, the most common one thus far has been how to fund your RPG (or related project) through Kickstarter. And since my most recent release was successfully Kickstarted over a year ago, folks would naturally assume that this is a topic I know something about. However, I'll be the first to admit that I partnered with High Level Games specifically because I wanted the professionals to help me with that aspect of things. I could write the game myself, no sweat, but getting it funded was outside of my experience.

But fortunately for folks out there, Josh Heath has agreed to be a guest on the episode where we find answers to all your Kickstarter (and more general crowdfunding) questions!

Shut up and take my money!

So here's what I need from all of you!

- Leave Your Questions in The Comments: Here or on social media, both are acceptable.

- Share This Article: The more people who see this, the more questions we'll have to answer!

- Subscribe to Azukail Games, And Watch The Show: The more numbers we get, the better off we'll be!

If we can manage all of that, I dare say that we'll be able to collate, catalog, and ensure that we have the proper answers for the most commonly asked questions. However, if you have questions about stuff that isn't Kickstarter related (whether it's BackerKit, Patreon, or any of the other funding services and platforms out there) make sure you put those in your comments as well! If you're wondering about it, I promise you there are some other folks out there who are wondering as well.

Also, if you have a moment, consider checking out our most recent episode of the show where I discussed affiliate marketing, what it is, and why it should be a part of your strategy as a TTRPG designer.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

"Book of The Wyrm Companion" Is Gross, Horrific, and Awful... Go Get It Now!

Of all the corners of the World of Darkness, the one inhabited by the Wyrm and its servants is certainly one of the darkest. Corruption, mutation, depravity, and awful, cosmic horrors lie at the bubbling, blistered heart of the Wyrm, and it warps everything that looks upon it. A tide of protoplasmic, inhuman, alien awfulness that stains the soul, and taints your very being just by knowing it's out there, it is a horror the likes of which mortals can scarcely contemplate.

It takes an enemy that inhumane, which is anathema to anything good or relatable, to make the garou seem like heroes, after all.

Bringing that kind of enemy across to your players, however, can be difficult. Not only that, but it's very easy to fall into the cracks and either become too unrelatable, too grim, or too uncomfortable for those around the table who came here to have fun. Which is why I would recommend that anyone who wanted to strike a better balance should immediately get themselves a copy of Book of The Wyrm Companion for their shelf.

Seriously... go check it out!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

What Is This Book All About?

As the introduction section says, this book is a collection of things that could have been their own, separate splats, but which the creators chose to put into a single volume. There's additional, specific fomori that are inhuman, advice for creating First Response teams from Pentex, an entire section about running PCs as fomori (described as a kind of dark X-Men game, which definitely caught my interest), and a lot of other stuff that walks a fine line between gross and satirical.

I am what they made me.

The book it put me most in mind of (and which I picked up a copy of from my Friends of The Library resale room a few years back) is Freak Legion. However, while there's still a lot of content in there that I think people who want that kind of body horror/cosmic horror in their games would find useful, Book of The Wyrm Companion just slathers on extra stuff. There's a dozen different flavors of horrific in this thing, and there's a double scoop of terrible in store for anyone who grabs it.

Now, with all of that explanation and praise out of the way, I would point out that this is also a book with a BIG content warning right up front. While the creators attempted to give it a darkly humorous polish in some places, and to make it feel more like satire in others, there's no mistaking this for anything other than what it is. This is a grimoire of the inhuman, the monstrous, and the disturbing. For folks like me, who want WoD games to feel like horror games, that's going to be exactly what you want in your tool box. For those who may want games with cleaner morality and less disturbing content, though, this may be a bridge too far.

Let the buyer beware, this is one of those WoD tomes that comes with a warning label. The creators put it on there, and I'm reminding folks that they know their business.

Consider Some Supplemental Stuff To Go With It

This volume has a lot of contributors who all put their sweat and effort into different parts of the project, but Clinton Boomer and Josh Heath are both on the list. Talented folks who work extraordinarily hard, I have worked with both of them on previous WoD projects. And since we're talking about the Wyrm and all the awful, nasty things it makes, I figured I'd mention some of them here.

Where my Glass Walkers at?

Company Picnic is a tale Clinton penned a while ago, and it came out as part of all the efforts in and around the Tales From The Moot collection. I know that he and I enjoy writing fiction set in the World of Darkness, and if we can boost the numbers on these tales we'd be happy to lay down some fresh text... perhaps even touching on other spheres of the setting while we're at it!

Another project Clinton and I shared was the 200 Black Spiral Dancer Kinfolk list. This supplement was the capstone to the 100 kinfolk project, which is currently available as a bundle if you like a good deal!

Lastly, if you need extra bad guys to go along with this book, consider grabbing a copy of Evil Inc.: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries. There's all kinds of corporate wickedness in there, and it pairs beautifully with the more obviously corrupt aspects of the Wyrm! There's even a sample audio drama from it below, if you want to take a moment to listen...

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!