Sazboom Software

Media Nocte Game

Media Nocte (Mid of Night in Latin) is a Videogame Tabletop RPG adventure that spans three different old school pen and paper roleplaying genres, Fantasy, Horror, and Cyberpunk.

Media Nocte Open

Media Nocte Open is an open source engine built to help support the conversion of old school adventures into a solo digital experience.

Latest Release: Pre Alpha Tech Demo TD1.3

Media Nocte Open: Godot 4.7

Fort on the Edgelands Screenshots

The following are sample shots from one of the three Eras of the Media Nocte Game. Here we see an old school DnD adventure named Fort on the Edgelands using the Basic Fantasy ttrpg system.

How can someone today experience a bit of the magic of a classic Tabletop Roleplaying Game as a solo player? For half a century, people have been telling stories and sharing adventures in basements around the world. Epic stories with iconic characters in fantastical settings told with physical dice, paper maps, and notebooks filled with clues from conversations and hints at deeper mysteries. These are stories people want to experience but don’t have a gaming group with which to play them. Media Nocte is an attempt to bring some of those stories to modern solo vidoegamers.

So What is Media Nocte? Well, Its...

...A Videogame Tabletop RPG (VTRPG)

CRPGs and JRPGs are great fun. They let the Computer do what it does best, automate away the complexity and manual labor of tracking physical aspects of a tabletop roleplaying game. These games are fast paced, optimized experiences meant to maximize the action in the shortest time and effort possible.

While they can be great fun, It is also not a TTRPG experience. Some of the fun of a tabletop rpg is slowly rolling physical dice and adding them up. Some of the fun of a TTRPG is making a physical map of a dungeon and getting it wrong. Some of the fun of a Tabletope game is taking endless notes of conversations with NPCs, most of which are complete dead ends.

The computer would be faster at rolling dice for you, but Media Nocte has you roll the dice yourself because rolling real dice is more fun. The computer can track your quests more accurately for you, but Media Nocte asks you to write them down yourself in your own notebook because notebooks full of notes are cool. The computer could draw you the full map for you easily, but Media Nocte asks you’re asked to draw your own because having a stack of hand made maps is thrilling.

The result is a slower, more deliberate videogame that asks you to pretend you’re sitting at a table with pen, graph paper, polyhedral dice, a snack, and a drink — the computer facilitates the experience rather than automating it away. Media Nocte is a tactile videogame that takes its time.

...A Solo Game for Multiplayer Adventures

Media Nocte takes the idea of a modern Virtual Tabletop (VTT) like Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, or Foundry, and simplifies it for a solo experience. The foundation is built from open-licensed TTRPG systems based on classic old-school games, with classically inspired adventures, modules, and missions layered on top — all tied together by an overarching Meta Mystery designed for a solo player to have an epic tabletop experience.

...A Meta Story

Media Nocte tells one epic tale across three different Eras of gameplay and two different Realities. Two multi-cosmic forces, Lights Answer and The Dark Solution, battle across the Multitude to answer the First Question posed by the Omniverse: who is stronger, Creation or Destruction?

You play an Avata — a unique soul able to connect with and influence one or more Avatum (“Player Characters”) in another world — using that connection to help each Avatum defeat a Primeval sent to tip the balance of an entire universe toward the Dark Solution.

Media Nocte is built on a homebrew multiverse tabletop RPG setting by Aaron Worsham called *Avata Arcanum*.

Media Nocte Open is an Open Source VTRPG Engine

Media Nocte isn’t built to tell one story from one game — it sits on an Open Source Game Engine that can help retell any old-school TTRPG adventure as a solo experience for any ttrpg system with added support. Media Nocte Open is an MIT Open Software licensed game engine that anyone can use and improve to make solo VTRPG games. Today Media Nocte Open supports Basic Fantasy (BF), an open source system capable of running original D&D-style adventures. Planned support includes Basic Roleplaying (BRP) — the system behind Call of Cthulhu, focused on investigation — and Runners in the Shadows (RitS), bringing classic cyberpunk missions.

Learn More

Interested in learning more about this project? Want to contribute to the Media Nocte Open Engine? Interested in bringing your favorite Adventure, Module, or Open Licence game system to Media Nocte? Email aaron at sazboom d o t c o m

Join the Discord

Want to connect with other TTRPG hobbiests and game developers? Want to discuss Media Nocte and other Old School TTRPG projects? Email aaron at sazboom d o t c o m for an invite to our private Discord server.

AI Disclaimer

Media Nocte is made with the help of AI, but only in the code and only alongside a seasoned programmer as a pair.

Media Nocte does NOT use AI for any other creative aspect of the game.

All art is licensed (Inkarnate) or drawn by hand ourselves.

All Voice Acting and Music will be licensed by professionals.