Crowe and Hargrave had hunted Mazacael through the tunnels of the Circle line for what seemed like days, evading his brainwashed cultists, piecing together the clues foretelling his coming resurrection. What they needed was the final piece of the puzzle, held in the clutches of an ancient rusalka at Blackfriars, where the Fleet empties into the Thames. Cut off from the rest of the agency, and running low on silver bullets, direct confrontation was out of the question. Stealth would have to serve – if Mazacael even suspected what Crowe and Hargrave were about… well, it would end poorly.
As some of you may have seen, my Twitter and Facebook feeds have lately had the odd shot of a work-in-progress board game called ‘Coldharbour’. It’s a side-project/labour of love at the moment – something I can do in my spare time that isn’t writing, but is lurching its way towards a tangible goal (namely, a working, enjoyable board game – hooray!).
What is Coldharbour?
Based on a series of what-will-be-in-the-future bestselling novels (hey, I can dream, yes?), Coldharbour is a cooperative game that casts players as agents of a secretive paranormal agency, responsible for investigating paranormal mysteries in the tunnels of the London Underground. The wrinkle is, there’s also an all-powerful adversary stalking the tunnels, gathering power from these self-same mysteries to fuel his or her diabolical plan. If the players don’t solve enough mysteries in time, then something very nasty happens to the world.
Beyond that, I’m not sure what to say at this point. Development’s at a very early (but very promising) stage, and a lot might yet change. So what can I say? Well, each of the agents and adversaries is drawn from the Coldharbour fiction (or, in some case, my broad notes about where the Coldharbour fiction is likely to go), with a range of aptitudes and special abilities that’ll help each game play out differently. Likewise, the mysteries themselves, while not wholly random, have a vast number of combinations (100,000 or so, last I checked). Most importantly, I want Coldharbour to be a game that’s easy to pick up, and can be played, start to finish, in about an hour – all while maintaining a sense of challenge and progression.
If I remember (and if I get time) I might go into more detail in future. In the meantime, keep an eye out on @thetowerofstars and www.facebook.com/thetowerofstars
