The Ravens Nest

…But That Won’t Stop Me

All you have to do is click that big-ass pic I put up there and it takes you right to the front page but the lander is the pinned post.

As I’ve said, I probably shouldn’t write this but that’s not going to stop me.

Let’s just get it out there and then come back to the main point.

The Nocturneverse is apolitical. That means there are no real-world politics anywhere in our stories and that is done by design.

The easiest route we could have chosen was to take what we have, buy a cover from someone on Fiverr and then boom…Go To Storyteller’s Vault!!! It’s Up For Sale!

Sure, easy. No problem. We would have been published two weeks ago if not sooner.

Well, the publishing might have gone easily. Since that thing belongs to Paradox Interactive/Onyx Path (the current IP holders) they would have to approve all works. Granted, they could have rejected it outright, that’s a possibility. They could have asked for heavy edits which is a likely outcome but they wouldn’t have been heavy edits of expression of mechanics or the elimination of names and reformation of sects and groups. They could have even just approved it outright without the edits, though unlikely.

The biggest problem with that is, assuming, hypothetically that things went smoothly and few edits I wouldn’t have a problem with would be requested before publication, publishing to Storyteller’s Vault grants Paradox Interactive an exclusive license in perpetuity to use the work you created…and anyone else.

That means someone out there would probably get it in their heads to make Draven or Ronnie possibly shoe-horned into one of the many “speshul” groups out there today rather than creating their own.

This is something both and I have both despised for the last several years, watching legacy characters cheapened, ruined and marginalized out of some wild revenge fantasy on the parts of the writers. These are the same people that see you have a Lambo and then, rather than ask how you got it, they proceed to open the door, pull down their pants, relieve themselves on your driver’s seat shut the door and walk away. Let’s not get it twisted, here, folks, that’s what’s been going on.

While I really don’t have that much to go on, let me show you the reason I never went with VtM 5E:

This is in the later appendix of VtM 5E and…well…

Ramsay said it best right here. If this is your stance that everything is political, then we ask that you find something else you enjoy. Twitter/X comes to mind. You’ll find all you want to fight about in there. In here, it’s off-limits. Leave that shit at the door. Alternatively, you can just start your own shared universe with that and best of luck to you.

That’s not-negotiable. That’s the biggest guideline that I personally have. Since leaving Twitter, I’m actively blocking any and all politics in my feed, no matter which supposed “side of the aisle” it comes from.

Granted, none of that stops you from getting a game like this one and writing your own stories and whatnot, that’s fine. You can even call it a Tale of The Nocturneverse and have it chock-full of anti-whatever but will we consider it canon? I won’t. At all. I’m just letting you know. These are games and stories of personal horror, not politics. No arguments, no bullshit. The matter is closed. Let’s move on.

The second guideline that I would have is, root your stories in folklore. It’s so much more open and interesting and you can play with it if you like. Creative liberties and licenses are fine but please respect the source material. At present, we’re trying to keep a better majority of the folklore we cite and include by about 80% or better. This makes the world richer and more alive and lived-in than anything else written and it holds up better. Plus, it’s all legally-defensible if Paradox Interactive decides that your work or ours is “too close.”

We do possess the means to tell them to fuck off and die in a fire for all we care.

On AI, we’re fine with the use of it for illustration or song approximation purposes but the writing must be done with human hands, heart, intellect and means. We recommend starting this on paper, in a notebook. The slower, more deliberate pacing will improve your stories. If you don’t want to use AI for anything, that’s fine too. As long as your writing is yours, we just don’t care. If you have the ability to illustrate and soundtrack your own stories, even better. We know the illustrations and music will just be a “close enough.”

I know what you’re thinking. How do I write something like this from a game and then make it my own? Good question and allow me to show you a shining example from a man I know personally and he’s here on Substack.

Meet . He wrote a novel that I personally consider Nocturneverse (or Nocturneverse-adjacent) since he wrote The Doppler House (Grab a copy of the man’s first ever work and enjoy!) and continues it with his work on City of Faces. There’s a reason I say that and it’s summed up in this photo.

To clarify: There’s nothing specific in terms of game terms or mechanics. What I’m talking about is that Hunter plays with Fae Folklore in this work and, let me tell you, he approaches it respectfully and he shows the side of the fae and sidhe that most stories won’t; just how terrifying they can be.

The Dopplers, as he calls them (doppelgangers) are found in all kinds of folklore from the Germanic and Eastern European all the way to Scotland where The Scottish Celts called them “Changelings.”

Source: Ancient Origins Dot Net (Changelings/Doppelgangers)

The character of Benny steps in to help her friend Connor after he’s nearly killed in an accident around one of these creatures. Benny, in this case, would be a hunter. That’s why Hunter’s book is juxtaposed against two games because that’s just where my mind went, being familiar with these games.

I’ve told Hunter about these games and I’m sure he’ll confirm, he’s never played them.

So in terms of the folklore (which no one can copyright or trademark) Hunter nailed it pretty flush to the wall. I recommend his book because it will give you an idea of just what the tone is for something like The Nocturneverse.

Can’t write? Don’t know how? Guess what? Hunter is your man! He’s actually teaching writing classes and this man has more books under his belt than I do and at half my age or better.

The man makes me wanna step my game up.

Joe’s prose makes me want to step mine up.

Practicing with The Nocturneverse makes sense for anyone. You, as well.

Take some of Hunter’s classes if you need to, get some valuable one-on-one time with him and sharpen your skills without dulling them.

The coolest part of The Nocturneverse, and the reason I mentioned Hunter’s work, is because your characters don’t have to interact with any of ours. They can be their own thing, their own stories, their own part of the world but it’s just set in the same universe where the stories of folklore happen to be true.

If your vampire is Strigoi or something from a different culture with different folklore, that’s exactly what we’re talking about. If your wizard is of a different flavor, alright. If your promethean/Frankenstien’s monster is different, cool. If your monster hunter is different, alright. If you would like to use our characters, then simply contact us, we’re going to have guides for our characters and soon. We simply won’t allow our characters to be fundamentally changed by what you write unless we incorporate those changes first.

In any case, all of this really got started well over a year ago and has progressed to what you see now. What started as just games turned into a literary universe that RK and I can nerd out on or we can just send you right to the stories. And we do.

You can grab both or even just one. Put it on your phone and pull it up to show off to friends, family and other lovers of the horror genre.

For those who still think this is cartoonish from the description, I invite you to read and give us the opportunity to prove it’s anything but. In the meantime, enjoy the clips I made mostly for fun.