The latest revision of the Void and Steel playtest document is now available. Functionally, it is very similar to the Death Frenzy playtest document released last year, with a few tweaks for clarity and to improve gameplay.

In addition, the graphics have been partially overhauled to reflect the new title and have been re-formatted to make trimming them out easier. Also, the file size has been greatly reduced, from 43mb to just under 3mb. Click the link below to download.

Void and Steel Playtest – 6/28/2011

(UPDATE: The playtest document has been fixed, the Move cards should read correctly now. If your cards read 0/0/0 in the bottom row, please download the new file or change them to read 0/1/1.)

My long-in-development chambara RPG Death Frenzy has a new name: Void and Steel. I dearly loved the old name, but I cribbed it from the anime as a working title…so it was never meant to last. I turned various names over and over in my head over the last week, and this is the one that stuck. I’d also like to announce that a new version of the playtest document will be available tomorrow at noon EST. I was planning on releasing it today, but I want to clean up a few things and fix a handful of typos. In the meantime, here’s the new logo!

Full announcement coming soon, but if you want the details check out this thread at Story Games.

I just put the final touches on the initial playtest document for the Death Frenzy Combat System.  The first round of emails have been sent, so if you requested a playtest file and haven’t received it please let me know. If you wish to participate in the playtest, please send an email to: musashi@yellow-menace.com.

Here’s a note I posted to boardgamegeek.com with regards to player balancing:

[...] the game is designed for two-player play at the moment. The game should be able to accommodate more players mechanically, but right now I’m trying to see how the basic mechanics work before balancing for multiple players.

If you do want to add more combatants to the mix, here’s what I’d suggest: each player needs a set of nine basic Move cards, and you’d probably want to add more Wound and Maneuver cards to the deck…with more than two players, you’ll likely go through these more quickly.

I’m working hard on polishing up a playtest document for the combat portion of Death Frenzy; this .pdf will include the complete combat rules and a full set of cards so you can print and play. I’m not sure exactly how this will be distributed, but primarily I plan distributing it to some local gaming groups and then farming it out to interested parties via digital distribution.

If you’re interested in playtesting Death Frenzy, please contact me at musashi@yellow-menace.com.

The second game I am working on is a chambara role-playing game tentatively called DEATH FRENZY. This game will utilize card-based mechanics to allow players to simulate Japanese period swordplay films like Yojimbo and Hara Kiri. The game will be subdivided into two systems – a combat system and a narrative system which can be played separately or combined to provide a customized gaming experience. The current plan is to sell each separately and as a combined package, giving gamers three options to experience the game.

I first mentioned Death Frenzy publicly on my podcast last week, which you can find here. Death Frenzy is currently 1 – 2 months away from alpha testing.