A new story-focused Lovecraftian card game is in the works, and it needs some good playtesters and feedback. I figured some of you fellows might be interested.

If you wanna help out, head over to the official Google Group:

http://groups.google.com/group/into-the-asylum

Here are some details about the game from the lead designer:

-- All cards, no counters and no dice.

-- Dynamic Map.

-- Lots of items and encounters possible.

-- Adventure game with investigation and combat but focused on story telling, not on mechanics.

-- Combat mechanics are as non-abstract, and as simple as possible to keep the ambiance and reduce downtime. The card play is quite literal. I am avoiding the usual "+1 fortitude, 2H/50% critical, gain 3 mana counters, discard during attack phase", which to me delves too much into the meta-game. There are stats but they are minimal.

-- The adventure is driven by a story mechanism which attempts to give some dramatic structure and hopefully give you the feeling that you are inside a story.

-- This story mechanism provides the game with events and pace(passing of time).

-- The story changes every time the game is played, has multiple endings, encounters are different, and even there are plot changes and twists. Of course each story set is ultimately limited, but sets are simple enough that crafting a good number of "expansions" is quite possible.