Mage Hand Press

Insomnia 0.8

Added 2024-06-01 05:31:00 +0000 UTC

We’ve been hard at work on Insomnia for the last couple of months, but things have quieted down as we catch up on art and knock out some bonus content. Here’s what’s new:

Insomnia Storytelling Engine

This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever created, bar none. The Insomnia Storytelling Engine is designed to give you all the help you need to ratchet up the tension and involve the players in the storytelling process.

The engine comes in two parts: Beats for players and the Doom Clock for GMs. The former gives players narrative objectives to help them craft engaging stories, and the latter gives the GM a tool to build ever-increasing tension. You can omit either half of the engine without consequence, and you can use them in conjunction with any other roleplaying game.

I’m tempted to publish the engine separately from Insomnia, because it's entirely system-neutral and my playtesting with it has been nothing short of extraordinary. I’ve had players choose to cut off their character’s arm, adopt a phobia of a river, and introduce entire new locations to the setting -- completely unprompted aside from their beats. Let me know what you think, and whether you get a chance to use these tricks at your table!

New Art

We’re slowly working through character portraits for every NPC in the book! Grismoor was first on the chopping block and its cast of characters is very nearly complete. This is going to be a long-haul sort of art project, but if you look at what we have so far, I think you’ll agree with me that it’s worth the wait!