Come At They Necks

In Come At They Necks, you are sexy cool vampires living together in a giant mansion where you spend most days minding your business. Rumor has it, a bunch of Haters plan on breaking in and killing you all as you lay snoring in your coffins. 

But you ain’t their grandma’s vampires. Today’s undead love jewelry (especially silver) and seasoning (especially garlic). Also irrelevant: stakes and crosses and sunlight and mirrors. The only way those Haters can stop you is by decapitation. And really, what are the chances? 

Welllll, now that you think about it, it has been weeks since your last feed. But now’s not the time for light-headedness & vertigo. Keep your head on straight or your head might get knocked off.

Come At They Necks is an action-packed combat-heavy print-and-play tabletop role-playing game for 2 or more players created for the 2021 #BIPOCVampJam. 

• COME UP WITH YOUR OWN ATTACKS. The possibilities are endless! Each character will have their own one-of-a-kind short-range, long-range, and multi-target attacks... and that's not to mention unique moves that come from interacting with the environment or landing group attacks.
• COME WITH IT. Take down your enemies with one blow. Roll Resilience to attack, counter, or dodge your enemies.
• COME AT THEY NECKS. Players can feed on NPCs to regain HP.  Roll Rhythm to avoid being interrupted.
• COME CORRECT. Don't lose your head! Roll Willpower to stay alive or call on your friends to help.
• COME AND SEE how character elements such as attitude and outfit can influence your attacks and abilities.

NOTE: Because this game is very flexible in terms of storyline and combat parameters, I have avoided listing content warnings or age ratings. I recommend that GMs identify necessary content/trigger warnings for their playgroup and implement safety tools in-game and post-game. The RPG Safety Toolkit can be found here: https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1583202183294.pdf

Developer's Notes:

For me, Black culture means being the creative and artistic zeitgeist of America, and oftentimes, popular culture around the world. We are trend-setters and our dialect, apparel, mannerisms, behaviors, and attitudes are routinely adopted by others. In my sole opinion, a big part of the Black experience is "putting on," i.e. carrying yourself in a way that makes you look and feel immortal, because otherwise our precarious lives would hardly feel worth living. Being constantly aware of your impending death encourages you to to find freedom in expression. Yes, there are problems inherent in being valued in society primarily for your humor and aesthetic ingenuity, but for now, I sought to make a game that chose to celebrate rather than criticize this.

When I think of vampires, I don't think of manipulative, leechy mofos. I think of how difficult it is for the Other to find peace in this world. I think of having your whole life ahead of you and realizing that there are people out there who want to make monsters out of you, who want to take that life away. I think of us, fighting for our right to live in peace. Come At They Necks is born of that spirit, that insistence that we will make a way in this world—and will look damn good doing it—or will die trying. And what's more super than that?