Someone brought this game to a meet-up a little over four years ago and I've been trying to track it down ever since. So glad I finally found it!!!!!! This setting is such a blast and this remains one of the most creative rpgs I have played. I can't wait to run this again with my friends!
Happy you found us!! Thank you for the kind words. Make sure to download all the free adventures on the Winternet Collection https://zonware.itch.io/winternet, and www.Zonware.net for more resources :)
Hey I like this game so much I literally got a tattoo from it.
It's flexible, smart, and welcoming to new players. It gives the person running the game sensible and accessible tools to do so. It's good for a one-shot or a campaign and lets you be as wild or as normal as you'd like to be in your play.
There are a ton of premade adventures to run your crew through, but it's super easy and straightforward to build them yourself. The game has enough rules that you get to chew on something, but not so many that it bogs down play, and they're flexible enough to cover anything you might encounter.
Hey friend! I've been trying to reach you via email, I don't have your address!! Itch.io is very weird about this, with certain payment methods it just doesn't ask for your address and I have to email you.
Shoot me an email at fortra@zonware.net with your address. I'll get you some free goodies, sorry about the long wait!
Today(08/15/22) I received my physical copy of Dead Halt! I am very excited to start playing your wonderfully creative game. Thank you very much for the included patch, as well. It looks really neat!
I purchased both volumes (the 1999 expansion core book). I bought the duo from an independent store in my town. Did the physical version normally come with a PDF version? I would have appreciated reading it all on my tablet. Thank you for the answer !
I don’t have a perfect way to distribute PDF’s with store copies but I will happily send you a PDF to go with it like I do for all my itch copies! Shoot me an email at claydogh@gmail.com and we’ll get it sorted :)
Just played a game of this at Con of the North ran by Matthew Rose and we had a blast, great game and great promotor of your product. My question before I purchase one is are there more specifically written adventures for this system or what are the future plans for specific adventures? How much are you going to support your product with more content? ( A good problem to have, I want more! lol)
Great question ClydeFrog! Currently there are six free Dead Halt Adventure Arcs in the Winternet Collection, two more only avaliable on Floppy Disk, as well as a big print book of adventures (5 are contained along with a bunch of floor designs) called Happy New Year 1999 coming out very shortly.
I think you are worried that I, like most, create a game and then move onto a new one. For some reason I am stuck in the Hotel, I love it so much. There will be lots of content coming out for Dead Halt over the coming years, it will never truly be finished I don't believe.
I am planning another game at the moment, but it will be fully compatible with Dead Halt... more of a, "End Game Content" sort of thing. Even when that comes out, Dead Halt will continue, as they will stand hand in hand.
Do you have any materials that might recommend how to adjust difficulty? I'd love to be able to make a small monster manual for myself that I can throw into any scenario when I run Dead Halt, but I have an unclear view of how to balance fight-based encounters without too many other enemies to model after (and considering what weapons my players could have) without a lot of trial and error. Any suggestions help, thanks!
Thanks! If you need more prompts that would be helpful for an HM/GM like me, let me know and I can think of some specific examples I'm planning! I think what I need most right now would be ~
Example of a "small, medium, and large" enemy "stat blocks"
Example of how to apply "small medium large" enemies into encounters re difficulty: for example, being able to populate an area with many enemies vs one big enemy, or how to determine a "small encounter" vs a "boss encounter" - the D&D concept of "difficulty rating" is helpful there I think..! The Cord Collector and Guile are great, but they have pretty wildly different stats (especially Wound Thresholds) so I'd have trouble knowing how difficult they are without doing a lot of trial and error rolling dice with fakie characters by myself
Example of enemies using "ranged vs melee" (or I guess in the scenario of Dead Halt, enemies being up front with combat vs using the environment)
Where can we find the gashapon item descriptions? The book says they can be downloaded from the Zonware website, but I don't see anything like that there. Thanks!
Absolutely delightful setting, fun and whimsical art, and engaging mechanics. It gives me Paranoia vibes in the best way, toeing the line between silly and sinister. I hope to have many madcap adventures in the hotel!!
Hello! The blurb on this page (above) says: "Easy to run, as the GM can borrow modules from any other game and allow the elevator's doors to open into it. Tomb of Horrors is a bit wackier..." (etc.). Can you kindly describe how this works in terms of game mechanics? If I buy Dead Halt, what is needed to have a floor open on to a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, a Call of Cthulhu scenario, etc. What sort of game mechanic conversions should I expect? Thanks! - Brian C. in Massachusetts mograg@hotmail.com
Hi Mograg! Good question! Essentially as I was building Dead Halt I was using other adventure plot lines so that I didn't always have to make up my own. The "conversion" aspect of this is simple, as Dead Halt is quite rules light what I would always do is take the story line, maps, and creatures and use those, and as creatures don't have super lengthy stats in DH I would use their main attack quirk or whatnot as their effect agains the Crew.
Dead Halt is meant to be super easy to jump into, and how I do this is I grab an adventure book, start reading at the beginning of an interesting arc or part of the adventure, and then let it fuel my ideas as my players react. The best part of this though is that it is going to be wacky no matter what. If you run the story and dungeon of Tomb of Horrors, in DH your players might have TNT and guns and other wild tech.
Its makes for some incredibly silly and really enjoyable games, as players get incredibly creative. (I have run TOH in DH by the way... It was hilarious.) Long story short, Dead Halt is very casual and open ended. You have to have an open mind and be very creative, there arn't a lot of stats, number crunching, or anything like that, but it can lead to some wonderful stories you never expected to have.
So wonderfully fun and wacky. Took a crew of absolute beginners through a mission and they had an absoutely fantastic time. My only complaint is that we need moar adventures! Wen Dead Halt adventure zine?
So glad you got to play it! Steal some old dnd modules in the mean time (I ran Keep on the Borderlands in DH, it was wonderful) but, ZineQuest 2 is in exactly one month... hint hint
Easy to pick up and play! We didn't waste any time getting into it; as soon as you sit down you're playing the game. Great for one-off adventures on a cold winter night in, but comes with tons of stones to turn over for a longer campaign. There's more to the Hotel than meets the eye...
this game was so fun to run through :) our whole group made a cast of quirky characters (I played a ratfolk with a staff she was trying to use for magicks) and we went through the albatross adventure included with the zine. love the npcs and how everything is designed with intense retro clunkpunk in mind, can really feel all the heart in it!
← Return to Roleplaying Game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Do you ship outside the US/your country? I'd certainly be willing to cover any extra shipping costs that might apply.
I do! It’s covered in the shipping already :)
Someone brought this game to a meet-up a little over four years ago and I've been trying to track it down ever since. So glad I finally found it!!!!!! This setting is such a blast and this remains one of the most creative rpgs I have played. I can't wait to run this again with my friends!
Happy you found us!! Thank you for the kind words. Make sure to download all the free adventures on the Winternet Collection https://zonware.itch.io/winternet, and www.Zonware.net for more resources :)
Hey I like this game so much I literally got a tattoo from it.
It's flexible, smart, and welcoming to new players. It gives the person running the game sensible and accessible tools to do so. It's good for a one-shot or a campaign and lets you be as wild or as normal as you'd like to be in your play.
There are a ton of premade adventures to run your crew through, but it's super easy and straightforward to build them yourself. The game has enough rules that you get to chew on something, but not so many that it bogs down play, and they're flexible enough to cover anything you might encounter.
Definitely worth picking up!
Thank you friend 😭
i ordered print versions of both books 48 days ago. Can someone help me check on my order??
Hey friend! I've been trying to reach you via email, I don't have your address!! Itch.io is very weird about this, with certain payment methods it just doesn't ask for your address and I have to email you.
Shoot me an email at fortra@zonware.net with your address. I'll get you some free goodies, sorry about the long wait!
Great update. But would love to see a new book in future.
There will be one! Just takes me a long time to get all the ideas together :)
Simple fun game with a very unique setting.
I think you were the first to ever review Dead Halt. Thank you very much, I appreciate the kind words :)
Today(08/15/22) I received my physical copy of Dead Halt! I am very excited to start playing your wonderfully creative game. Thank you very much for the included patch, as well. It looks really neat!
I hope you have a wonderful time in the Hotel, let us know how your adventures go!
Hi !
I purchased both volumes (the 1999 expansion core book). I bought the duo from an independent store in my town. Did the physical version normally come with a PDF version? I would have appreciated reading it all on my tablet. Thank you for the answer !
Hi PPCC!
I don’t have a perfect way to distribute PDF’s with store copies but I will happily send you a PDF to go with it like I do for all my itch copies! Shoot me an email at claydogh@gmail.com and we’ll get it sorted :)
Thank you so much ! I just wrote you an email.
Just played a game of this at Con of the North ran by Matthew Rose and we had a blast, great game and great promotor of your product. My question before I purchase one is are there more specifically written adventures for this system or what are the future plans for specific adventures? How much are you going to support your product with more content? ( A good problem to have, I want more! lol)
Great question ClydeFrog! Currently there are six free Dead Halt Adventure Arcs in the Winternet Collection, two more only avaliable on Floppy Disk, as well as a big print book of adventures (5 are contained along with a bunch of floor designs) called Happy New Year 1999 coming out very shortly.
I think you are worried that I, like most, create a game and then move onto a new one. For some reason I am stuck in the Hotel, I love it so much. There will be lots of content coming out for Dead Halt over the coming years, it will never truly be finished I don't believe.
I am planning another game at the moment, but it will be fully compatible with Dead Halt... more of a, "End Game Content" sort of thing. Even when that comes out, Dead Halt will continue, as they will stand hand in hand.
Enjoy your time in the Hotel!
Do you have any materials that might recommend how to adjust difficulty? I'd love to be able to make a small monster manual for myself that I can throw into any scenario when I run Dead Halt, but I have an unclear view of how to balance fight-based encounters without too many other enemies to model after (and considering what weapons my players could have) without a lot of trial and error. Any suggestions help, thanks!
This is a very good question... you have our gears turning.
Please stand by.
Thanks! If you need more prompts that would be helpful for an HM/GM like me, let me know and I can think of some specific examples I'm planning! I think what I need most right now would be ~
Thanks for thinkin' on it!
Where can we find the gashapon item descriptions? The book says they can be downloaded from the Zonware website, but I don't see anything like that there. Thanks!
*Update*
THEY ARE READY. Thank you for your patience, please enjoy. http://www.zonware.net/winternet.html
Are you hacking my emails? Just the other day sent out an email to my co-writer "Help! We need to finish that massive Item list!"
Sorry its not up yet, we are working hard to have it up this week!
Absolutely delightful setting, fun and whimsical art, and engaging mechanics. It gives me Paranoia vibes in the best way, toeing the line between silly and sinister. I hope to have many madcap adventures in the hotel!!
Dead Halt was originally a hack for Paranoia many years ago :) Glad you are enjoying the game!
Hello! The blurb on this page (above) says: "Easy to run, as the GM can borrow modules from any other game and allow the elevator's doors to open into it. Tomb of Horrors is a bit wackier..." (etc.). Can you kindly describe how this works in terms of game mechanics? If I buy Dead Halt, what is needed to have a floor open on to a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, a Call of Cthulhu scenario, etc. What sort of game mechanic conversions should I expect? Thanks! - Brian C. in Massachusetts mograg@hotmail.com
Hi Mograg! Good question! Essentially as I was building Dead Halt I was using other adventure plot lines so that I didn't always have to make up my own. The "conversion" aspect of this is simple, as Dead Halt is quite rules light what I would always do is take the story line, maps, and creatures and use those, and as creatures don't have super lengthy stats in DH I would use their main attack quirk or whatnot as their effect agains the Crew.
Dead Halt is meant to be super easy to jump into, and how I do this is I grab an adventure book, start reading at the beginning of an interesting arc or part of the adventure, and then let it fuel my ideas as my players react. The best part of this though is that it is going to be wacky no matter what. If you run the story and dungeon of Tomb of Horrors, in DH your players might have TNT and guns and other wild tech.
Its makes for some incredibly silly and really enjoyable games, as players get incredibly creative. (I have run TOH in DH by the way... It was hilarious.) Long story short, Dead Halt is very casual and open ended. You have to have an open mind and be very creative, there arn't a lot of stats, number crunching, or anything like that, but it can lead to some wonderful stories you never expected to have.
Hope this helps!
This is great - thanks! - Brian C. in Massachusetts (mograg@hotmail.com)
Hi! I just ordered a physical copy and I wondered if a tracking number was available?
I send them with stamps so unfortunately not, but I ship daily, so yours should be there soon!
No worries, thanks for the reply!
Hi, just wanted to let know my copy arrived today, I love the package, and the zine looks great!
RAD! Please enjoy, and go hop on the WinterNet download to get some adventures :)
are you still shipping zines?
Sure am! Got one going out today. Just reprinted too!
How long does the physical copy typically take to ship?
Depends on where you live obviously, but I ship out basically next day if not same day :)
So wonderfully fun and wacky. Took a crew of absolute beginners through a mission and they had an absoutely fantastic time. My only complaint is that we need moar adventures! Wen Dead Halt adventure zine?
So glad you got to play it! Steal some old dnd modules in the mean time (I ran Keep on the Borderlands in DH, it was wonderful) but, ZineQuest 2 is in exactly one month... hint hint
Easy to pick up and play! We didn't waste any time getting into it; as soon as you sit down you're playing the game. Great for one-off adventures on a cold winter night in, but comes with tons of stones to turn over for a longer campaign. There's more to the Hotel than meets the eye...
Bizarre yet familiar!
Super beginner friendly, and wacky enough to entertain veteran RPG players all the same.
this game was so fun to run through :) our whole group made a cast of quirky characters (I played a ratfolk with a staff she was trying to use for magicks) and we went through the albatross adventure included with the zine. love the npcs and how everything is designed with intense retro clunkpunk in mind, can really feel all the heart in it!