The Development of Welcome to Promise – Part Two

A brand-new starter set for Edge Studio’s Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game is coming, leading investigators south to the foetid bayous of Louisiana. Welcome to Promise releases later this month, and to give game masters (and potential players) a hint of what lies in store, we shared part one of an interview with Lead Developer Leah Hawthorne and freelancer Keith Ryan Kappel earlier this week. Part two of that interview continues below, as Leah elaborates on what goes into creating a starter set like Welcome to Promise:

Keith Ryan Kappel (KRK): Without spoiling too much, what inspired the story, characters, and the rest of your work in Welcome to Promise? 

Leah B. Hawthorne (LBH): So I am a big fan of horror, thrillers, science fiction, mysteries, and suspense media. Specifically, I really love the concept of the shows Lost (created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof) and From (created by John Griffin). I was fascinated by the idea of making a scenario where you’re trapped somewhere and in this place, the rules are different. My dad, Shaun, had a saying he came up with when he was a kid that stuck around—NRDNA, meaning Normal Rules Do Not Apply. I take that to heart when I create both at Edge and in my personal life— art can be anything you want it to be, and it doesn’t have to be done one way or another, art and the creative pursuit is yours to make it as you wish.   

Don’t worry, we don’t change all of the mechanical rules or anything. But this place the investigators find themselves in definitely operates differently than what they’re used to, and they’ll need to figure out how to survive and complete certain tasks to find a way out. The way we designed this place gives the players a limited area they can interact with and gave us the opportunity to do more with that area and give that area more detail than we might be able to do if an adventure had the standard risk of players wandering off into the distance at any given moment. I only wish I could have done even more with Promise, but it did need to be a realistic size for a starter set! 

I also took inspiration from my research into Creole culture, Louisianian voodoo and its history, and a certain albino cryptid! 

KRK: The players in Welcome to Promise get to take on the roles of five iconic investigators from the Arkham Horror universe, and incredibly, one of them has a dog! “Ashcan” Pete Washburne is one of the five investigators, and his dog Duke is present and features in one of his special abilities. He’s joined by Marie Lambeau, Jim Culver, Preston Fairmont, and Minh Thi Phan as they try to unravel the mysteries of Welcome to Promise.

What led you to choose these five specifically? What makes them work as a group? 

LBH: The process of choosing which investigators to include in a product is also a really intensive process! We try to balance several factors when deciding who to use and ask several questions to slowly make a pool of possible candidates and then narrow the pool down to the final selections. Some of the questions we ask ourselves are (typically in this order): 

• Does this character have a backstory tie-in we can use, like a regional connection? If not, can we create one that is plausible?  

• Have we already used that character? If so, is there another character that would fit equally as well that we haven’t used before? 

• How does this group of investigators work together, both from the perspective of roleplaying and how they’ll function mechanically? What archetypes make sense for this character? Do they have a diverse set of personalities? 

• Are we doing our due diligence to best represent a demographically diverse group of characters? 

As for the specific characters in Welcome to Promise, we started with being certain that we wanted both Marie Lambeau and Jim Culver, who both have ties to New Orleans. Knowing we wanted those two characters for sure, we went through the investigator roster with Marie and Jim (and their archetypes) in mind.  

For reasons I won’t get into (to avoid spoilers!), Minh Thi Phan was also an easy choice. At that point we had two types of musicians and a seeker on the roster, we wanted a character more geared towards melee combat. During a meeting someone suggested “Ashcan” Pete and Duke, and the deal was sealed then and there! The idea of being able to give Duke his very own NPC card (and level-up options) was super exciting. “Ashcan” Pete gave us a guardian-type character to work with, plus a furry companion who’s favorite thing is being with his buddies and biting bad guys! 

After that, we had a pool of a few different investigators we could use for the final member of the team, and we came to the conclusion that Preston Fairmont was the best choice. We had an easy way to tie him into the adventure (he has a very fancy car and owed Marie big-time) and helped round out our team as a more flexible character with both social knacks and ranged combat ability.  

KRK: Quick follow up! When you find yourself with a chance to play, which investigator are you most excited to play as, and why? (Obviously, I’m taking “Ashcan” Pete.)

LBH: Well, I would definitely want to pick “Ashcan” Pete and Duke, but since you’re picking them…I think I’d genuinely really enjoy playing Marie Lambeau. She uses some new knacks for the musician archetype (which you’ll learn more about in a future product!) that are pretty fun. Shout out to Sam Gregor-Stewart for his work on those!  

But, if I’m completely honest, I’m usually the game master at my table. And when I’m not, I like to let everyone else pick their characters first, because I’ll have fun with just about anything. I think part of the joy of being a player for me is trying to step into the shoes of a character and bring them to life with my own flair. So I’d be happy with playing any of the characters in Welcome to Promise, because each of them has their own unique “thing” they have going on which would be interesting for me to explore.  

KRK: Okay, last question! When can players find the Welcome to Promise starter set for Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game at their friendly local game store? 

LBH: Welcome to Promise releases July 31 of this year! I’ll also mention that folks attending Gen Con this year in Indianapolis will be able to sign up for a demo of the product and pick up a copy on-site! I’ll even be running some of the games and be at the check-in desk regularly, so please come say hello—I love meeting all of Arkham’s curious investigators. 

Well, you heard it here first, folks! It sounds like you can pick up the brand-new starter set soon! And after you’ve played through Welcome to Promise, you should check out all the other Arkham Horror: The Roleplaying Game products and the free demos and resources available on edge-studio.net! Until then, keep your feet dry and stay in the blue light! –Keith Ryan Kappel