EGG EMBRY (EGG): It was good attending to sport with you at Gen Con, I loved Tales from Elsewhere: Clockwork fairly a bit. What’s the pitch for the sport?
PETER LANGE (PETER): Tales from Elsewhere is a system designed round math-lite, however violence-heavy action-horror gameplay. It’s a system that emphasizes cooperative, tactical decision-making from the gamers to outlive lethal eventualities offered by the GM. It eschews standard Hit Factors in favor of a visceral damage system that cuts straight to the ugly particulars. The Clockworld setting is a post-apocalyptic bizarre west world, filled with steampunk monstrosities, undead horrors, and eldritch abominations. 100 years after The Calamity, a mysterious apocalyptic occasion, the hardy survive of humanity band collectively to rebuild, and retake, the world that was stolen from them.
EGG: What impressed this sport?
PETER: I’m a lifelong fan of motion, horror, and western cinema, and my favourite movies had been vastly influential. Predator, Aliens, Tombstone, Unforgiven, The Factor – all of those had been formative for me. Video video games just like the Purple Lifeless sequence and Hunt: Showdown are in there, in addition to TTRPGs like Deadlands.
EGG: You went bizarre west, an space that Deadlands has cornered. There’s not judgment on this query, however how is Tales from Elsewhere: Clockwork distinct and unique in comparison with Deadlands?
PETER: I really like Deadlands; not a lot the techniques it’s printed beneath, however the vibe of it. What separates Clockworld from Deadlands is the extra grounded, gritty, and horror-focused expertise that it gives. Moderately than being precisely our world, it’s “a world not so completely different from our personal”, and one which was largely decreased to damage. The gamers are able to surviving and even undertaking wondrous issues by means of know-how or supernatural talents, however they continue to be extra grounded than the characters you’d see in a Deadlands story. In Deadlands, magical hucksters forged spells and weave magic by means of offers with evil spirits. That’s completely rad, however can be a bit extra fantasy than my most popular model of bizarre west. I wished one thing a bit extra down-in-the-mud, a bit extra intense. Bizarre West is available in many flavors, and I actually love all of ‘em. Clockworld is for people that need one thing a bit extra brutal, and bit extra visceral, than what notably taste that Deadlands gives.
EGG: Past going with the bizarre west, you selected an unique system. Why your concepts over, say, a d20-based choice like Outdated-College Necessities, MÖRK BORG, or Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Version, for instance?
PETER: Tales from Elsewhere really began as a hack of Cyberpunk 2020 many, a few years in the past. Over time, I moved away from the ultra-crunchy strategy I started with. The explanation I constructed my very own system, reasonably than leverage the same old d20, was the targets for the maths and system of my sport didn’t align with utilizing such a high-variability die. The d10 ended up serving my math-lite targets extra successfully, and the extra I iterated on the well being abstraction (wound system), the extra I diverged from the norm and the extra I wanted to distance myself from present buildings.
EGG: Are you able to talk about the engine you’re utilizing to energy the sport?
PETER: The core decision is a d10 roll over construction that’d be acquainted to anybody who has performed a d20 roll over system, like D&D. The sport is constructed on the muse of the idea of the “Rank”; it’s how a participant’s talent at one thing is measure, how difficult an enemy is, how robust it’s to beat an impediment or mislead some guards. The Ranks decide the Bonus you’d add to a Ability take a look at, the Issue (Goal Quantity) it’s essential meet to succeed, and the way lethal the accidents are that you just inflict. This construction is linear, easy, and player-facing; everybody is aware of how laborious the issues are that they’re attempting earlier than they roll, and the percentages of success and failure are straightforward to surmise. There aren’t any different numerical operations on your rolls; no different bonuses or penalties. Such impacts would change the Rank itself, scaling it up and down, reasonably than modify issues on-the-fly. It leads to a easy, easy, and simple to adjudicate construction for play.
EGG: You talked about that you just don’t use hit factors, what are you changing them with?
PETER: The Damage System is the well being abstraction the sport makes use of. All characters, whether or not gamers or monsters, have a sure variety of “slots” to obtain accidents. Accidents are narrative and mechanical packets which can be utilized on to the recipient, with no hit factors in the best way. These accidents have problems, like bleeding or agonizing, and the character is topic to these damaging circumstances till they’ll deal with the damage. As soon as the damage is handled, it’s not faraway from the sheet – that solely occurs you probably have downtime to relaxation and restoration in a secure place. The Damage Roll replaces the same old “harm rolls” of different video games. You roll a small pool of cube, the scale decided by your weapon and the quantity decided by your Ability Rank, and search for the bottom single consequence. If it’s a 4 or larger, you inflict Pressure, which is nothing greater than a scratch or graze. If it’s a 2 or a 3, you inflict a Severe Damage, and the problems related to that assault get utilized. In case you get a 1, you then inflict a Essential Damage, a extra dire and lethal consequence! The explanation these numbers had been chosen is in order that irrespective of the scale of the cube used, you’re at all times on the lookout for the identical outcomes. It additionally implies that smaller cube are extra “exact” than an unwieldy massive cube, which tackle the side of feeling clumsy and inaccurate.
EGG: What’s one factor of this sport that you just suppose is exclusive? One thing small that you just actually treasure about this gaming expertise?
PETER: Other than the Damage System, I’d say it’s the Luck System. Luck is a metacurrency that the gamers have that they use to reroll cube after seeing the outcomes or to make small narrative edits to the scene. They might “keep in mind” to have introduced that crowbar they’d must pry open the door, or “fortunately” have met the bouncer at this nightclub at a celebration final 12 months. To get extra of this useful resource, the gamers should lean into the horror. They must roleplay their accidents or fears, gripping their spillin’ guts and cryin’ out for assist, reasonably than do one thing productive. They will make small narrative edits to a scene to their very own detriment, inflicting their weapons to jam, a door to be locked, or an ally to activate them. It locations that management within the gamers’ palms, selecting how a lot they’d like to interact with that subsystem. It’s been an absolute blast on the desk.
EGG: You flew a crew from California to Indianapolis simply to run classes of your sport together with a “superstar” session. What was the reception for Tales from Elsewhere: Clockwork like at Gen Con?
PETER: That was our first time attending Gen Con ever, and it was great! Exhausting, and great. The reception was nice; all of the gamers on the tables we ran had a lot enjoyable, and it was a real pleasure to run so many video games for therefore many individuals. We additionally bought an opportunity to community with tons of content material creators and business veterans, which is extremely invaluable. Getting to speak face-to-face with those that I’d wish to collaborate with was very significant, certainly.
EGG: I concur with the suggestions in your sport, it was a good time! Past Tales from Elsewhere: Clockwork, what else are you engaged on?
PETER: We’ve got additional setting books which can be within the early idea/drafting phases. Specifically, our medieval horror setting code named “Medieval Insanity” has seen some work achieved, in addition to the trendy horror thriller setting code named “Satanic Panic”. However largely, my time is spent at my day job, engaged on Clockworld, or recording movies for YouTube.
EGG: Thanks for speaking with me. The place can followers observe your work?
PETER: The three predominant locations to look are our web site, our YouTube channel of the identical title, and notably the Kickstarter marketing campaign we’re working through the month of September.
Tales from Elsewhere: Clockworld – Motion Horror RPG
- Finish date: Thursday, October 2 2025
- “An action-horror, post-apocalyptic, bizarre west tabletop roleplaying sport with a brutal damage system and dynamic, math-lite fight.
Egg Embry participates within the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Video games’ Affiliate Program, Kobold Press Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Affiliate. These packages present promoting charges by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Video games, Kobold Press, and Amazon.
