About a year ago, I had the idea that is the seed of the Hellspace project: what if scientists opened a portal to a Hell dimension and instead of being instantly overrun by demons, we totally kicked their asses? I started to write a short story in that vein, but because I happened to be reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel at the time, it came out as a sort of Victoriana space thing.

I brought this idea, along with a rough timeline for how England conquers the solar system with the help of space-bending portals into Hell, to ISS with the question, “How do we make this a game? Should we even bother?” Epidiah and Jim were rather receptive and eventually we came up with the idea to tinker around with FATE and use that. I just finished running a short Spirit of the Century campaign, so the idea was appealing. We then bantered a bit about power levels and how to make a Victorian character and what exactly a Hellspace adventure might look like.

There’s still much to do, between fleshing out the setting and hammering out rules, so we might not get to playstorm this one for a few months. However, in the meantime, I’d like to make one thing abundantly clear—I don’t want this to be another “steampunk” game. The technology of the setting will be pretty modern and the tone more “space opera” than anything else. Plus demons.

Time is but a stream I go fishing in.

-Henry David Thoreau

I have found repeatedly, of late years, that I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect.

-Henry David Thoreau

Time & Temp has been on my mind for about a year now. I would occasionally noodle with it, trying to find where the balances were, but most of this work was done in the dark without the practical illumination of the ISS and its sweatshopping.

Until now.

Behold, as the Imagination Sweatshop brings all of my insecurities and miscalculations into sharp focus and reveal them to be . . . I might be getting a bit ahead of myself.

In T&T you play temps hired by Marigold Staffing and contracted out to Brown Chronometric Engineering, Inc., to stride through the ages and actualize paradox solutions. You are reality’s only line of defense in the war between freewill and the rigidity of causality. And your only reward is the hard earned satisfaction of a job well done (plus $11.50 an hour and moderate health package that includes comprehensive immunizations against histories most prolific diseases).

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So I had an idea for a game. The gameplay will be tactical dungeon crawling, somewhere between a boardgame and a roleplaying game. The twist is that you’re not fantasy characters battling fantasy monsters, but Christian warriors in medieval times battling back the minions of hell who are spilling over into our world. Even greater than the risk of getting killed is the risk of being corrupted by the horror you face. PCs are constantly given the choice to risk gaining corruption in order to be more powerful. More power means a better chance of survival, but too much corruption and your character is hopelessly lost to the powers of evil!

Here is some cheesy flavor text I wrote up:

Anno Domini 1000. It is almost one hundred years before Pope Urban II will declare bellum sancrum against the infidel in the east, but even now a holy war rages. It is a war more dreadful and more secret than the crusades will be. For it is a war against the devil himself. In dark catacombs, demons try to make footholds in Europe. Holy warriors must hold them back and close their gates so that no more can come. But there is more to fear than claws and fire and gnashing teeth. The greatest weapon that Satan wields is the anger and pride in every man’s heart. For, in the midst of savage and terrible battle, these can corrupt men’s souls and turn them into the very evil they have been sent to do battle with.

The game is called “He Who Fights With Monsters” and, in the spirit of playstorming, I wanted to get it to the table and see how my ideas worked. And that’s just what we did yesterday!

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