Posted on August 26, 2009 by jasonlblair
Welcome to the sixth of the 13 Doors: an exclusive look behind the door at the upcoming Little Fears Nightmare Edition – The Game of Childhood Terror.
Door #6: Keys to the World
World-building can be an incredibly fun part of the game creation process. It’s also what makes working on a game set in modern day, such as Little Fears Nightmare Edition, a strange creature. I mean, I’m not going to reinvent suburbia here. No one needs a detailed explanation of an apartment building or the function of an elementary school (I’ll leave that debate for another time and place). Cell phones, remote controls, video games, heelies, and strip malls are all part of modern American culture. While players can easily set a game in 1970s Africa or in a Victorian boarding house, that’s not something that I’ll be covering in the mainbook. You can set the game in their hometown (or their home country) where they will provide the detaiils. My job as the designer is to give folks the tools to take whatever reality they decide and twist it just the right amount for their game.
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Posted on August 19, 2009 by jasonlblair
Welcome to the fifth of the 13 Doors: an exclusive look behind the door at the upcoming Little Fears Nightmare Edition – The Game of Childhood Terror.
Door #5: Rebuilding Closetland
I knew from the beginning that I wanted Little Fears Nightmare Edition to be different than its predecessor. The original Little Fears was great, and I love it warts and all, but simply remaking the game held little interest for me. I figured, the original is out there, people have it and are playing it. I don’t need to do it again.
So when it came to creating Little Fears Nightmare Edition, I decided to go back to basics. The core premise of Little Fears is simple. My elevator pitch is, “It’s a game about kids fighting monsters.” Which it is. But that premise is open to a lot of interpretation. I took a long hard look at what that meant to me. I had an inkling already and as I pushed and pulled at it, it started to take shape. I knew I was going to have to kill a lot of darlings in order to give the Nightmare Edition its own identity and, frankly, to make the type of game I wanted it to be this time around.
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Posted on August 12, 2009 by jasonlblair
Welcome to the fourth of the 13 Doors: an exclusive look behind the door at the upcoming Little Fears Nightmare Edition – The Game of Childhood Terror.
Door #4: Creatures in the Library
If you’ve been following the updates on littlefears.com, you’ve seen that I’ve been talking about some of the books and movies that inspired Little Fears Nightmare Edition. I want to expand on that and not just talk about the things that inspired me—which I will continue to do on the website—but talk about what I was looking for in that inspiration.
Since before I was in its target audience, I’ve been drawn to that nebulous category called Young Adult Fiction. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I soaked up all I could, reading such books at Jane Yolen’s Pit Dragon Trilogy, the Not Quite Human series, Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, and Piers Anthony’s Xanth novels.
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Posted on August 5, 2009 by jasonlblair
Welcome to the third of the 13 Doors: an exclusive look behind the door at the upcoming Little Fears Nightmare Edition – The Game of Childhood Terror.
Door #3: Monster Factory
Little Fears Nightmare Edition is a game about kids fighting monsters. We already know about the kids, so what about the monsters?
The monsters in Little Fears Nightmare Edition can come from anywhere, that’s part of what makes them so much fun. Monsters can come from your own bad dreams, the fears of the players, urban legends, myths, cryptozoology, regular old zoology, a movie, literature—anywhere. Monsters in Little Fears are anything people fear. Fear is what gives them life, shape, form, power. Without people fearing them, they’re not really monsters at all.
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Posted on July 29, 2009 by jasonlblair
We continue the 13 Doors series today. 13 Doors is an exclusive look behind the door at the upcoming Little Fears Nightmare Edition – The Game of Childhood Terror.
Door #2: Kids These Days
Let’s face it: the thing that sets Little Fears apart from other horror games isn’t the setting. Or the Bogeyman or the monster under the bed. Sure, the fiction of Little Fears helps differentiate it from other games but the main difference, what really makes it unique, are the characters.
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Posted on July 22, 2009 by jasonlblair
Posted on October 29, 2008 by Flames
We’ve got a new monster by Jason L Blair (Little Fears, Emergence) for the Halloween Horror collection. Be sure to check out his other monster in the series, The Werewolf of Bedburg if you haven’t already.
Meh-Teh
Created by Jason L Blair
The Meh-Teh (or Man-Bear) is a cryptid commonly overlooked by enthusiasts of cryptozoology and paranatural studies. Often assumed to be the same as a Yeti, the Meh-Teh differs from its peak-dwelling cousin in a few ways.
The first way is the most obvious one and that is its hair color. While the Yeti tends to range from white to golden-blond, the Meh-Teh’s hair tends toward black or dark brown.
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Posted on October 8, 2008 by Flames
This new twist on the legend of the werewolf is brought to us by author and game designer Jason L Blair (The Long Count, Little Fears).
Beware the Beast of Bedburg, it has a hunger that is never satisfied…
The Werewolf of Bedburg
Created by Jason L Blair
Under a pregnant summer moon, a boy named Peter Stübbe, followed a trail that led down to the creek that marked the boundary of his family’s farm. Lying in the muddy water was the body of a brown wolf cub. As its life escaped further with every breath, its lupine features faded and slowly Peter realized that it was no cub at all—but the body of a boy no older than he was. Against his better sense, he picked up a long thin stick and prodded the wolfboy with it. With its last raspy breath, it lunged at Peter, biting him on his arm. Peter’s parents found their son the next day, laying unconscious beside the body of a dead boy. Swearing never to speak of the incident again, the father went about burying the deceased child immediately while his wife tended to their son.
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