What’s in a game?
You play as the last remaining Highlander-esque immortals who have gathered together for one final showdown. Killing another immortal grants you their memories and their power in an event called The Quickening, a feeling unlike any other. You will fight to the very last, but this isn’t a game about fighting.
This game will be played through a series of flashbacks, much like the game Reflections by Third Act Publishing, with the same suspense and similar tower building mechanics of Dread by The Impossible Dream. The flashbacks will tell the story of your character and how you relate to all the other characters being played. The more scenes you can go through, the more story you will uncover. Also, while scenes play out, or between scenes, if you think of a secret your character would know that adds to your story but you don’t want the others to know right away, you will write it down and hold onto it, as this will come into play later.
At the beginning of a flashback, everyone in the scene together will select a goal that is worth between 1 and 4 pulls, depending on the difficulty. If you can get another player to complete a goal for you, at the end of the scene you will pull a brick and hold onto it for later use, then that player must pull bricks equal to the difficulty level of your goal. If the tower doesn’t fall, play continues to the next goal completed in the order it was completed. If the tower does fall, the death of the player that made it fall will happen, during the Final Gathering, at the hands of the person who caused you to draw a brick in the first place. At this point, The Quickening happens and you gain both any reserve bricks that player was holding onto as well as all of their secrets they’ve been building up throughout the game. Hold these secrets close, as they may transfer to another player if they happen to fell you in battle.
Though, there is another option. If the tower proves too unstable and you see your end is near, you can invoke a sacrifice by pushing the tower over purposefully. By doing so, you will set up a special scene with you and the person who would kill you were the tower to fall on a pull that either redeems yourself in their eyes or proves yourself to them. When that scene ends, you will have a choice of either giving your life willingly to them or give up your powers as an immortal to them, making yourself mortal in the process. Either way you are taking yourself out of the game, but it is done on your terms, not theirs.
To note, only one character may die in a scene. Once the tower falls, even if more goals were completed, play transitions to the next flashback.
The origins of this idea
This idea started in the middle of August of this year when user @Tigrannosaurus1 on twitter mentioned the following:
This made me think that this would make for a very compelling Dread game:
Which quickly escalated into this idea:
Which brings us to Our Final Gathering. It has evolved a lot since this initial idea, and has had a lot of work done in a relatively small amount of time. This article will be updated with further information if it happens to change, since the game is still in development, but I really hope you enjoy the concept that I’m putting together here. It should be a pretty unique experience, which is exactly what I’m trying to go for with my games.
Feel free to contact me and let me know what you think! I’d love to hear from you.
Lord Neptune Creates 