Gen Con 2024 Recap – Part Two

Flashback to Thursday (Day 1)

If you missed Part one, you can find it here.

In writing this blog, I realized I left out one of the things we did on Thursday, and that was to attend the Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman Dragonlance 40th Anniversary Panel. I ended up getting there about 1/2 way through it (which meant I needed to pick up my copy of the book at the booth rather than at the panel, but luckily that process was smooth enough), but I was still able to listen to them talk about about the journey to this point… though, every time they said 40 years I felt a little bit older. Chronicles were some of the very first novels I read once I discovered the joy in reading. In many ways Dragonlance was more of a gateway to roleplaying than anything else I’d done, enabling me to see exactly what it meant and how these numbers and names on a few sheets of paper could be transformed into living/breathing characters. A process I still try to employ in my writings.

We all went into the panel thinking this was the last ride for the duo of authors within this world, so imagine our surprise when later that day it was revealed they’d be writing in Dragonlance once more, this time going way back in time to Huma.

I haven’t started in on the new trilogy yet, but now that this 3rd book is in my hands it is next on the reading list!

 

 

Friday (Day 2 cont.)

Old Gods of Appalachia

We pick up with my favorite session of the weekend. Horror games are not something I get a lot of opportunity to play overall. In my experience they seem to lend themselves more to shorter campaigns (stories), or perhaps it is just I’ve only been a part of a handful that have lasted longer than a few sessions. Whenever these sessions open up, I’m excited to see what opportunities they might provide.

The other thing I’ve definitely noticed about any horror or horror adjacent game is you have to have buy in from the players. And by that I mean you need to all be on the same page as to whether you are going to take it seriously or if you are going to effectively do a version of Scary Movie (or insert your Horror B-movie of your choice). We were lucky on Friday night (plus the best horror games are done at night, right?) where we had an excellent GM. His ability to set a scene and weave the right amount of tension throughout the session really made for an excellent experience. And all six of the players were pretty much bought in on the story. While there were definitely a few moments of laughter, it did exactly what you wanted it to do, give you a tiny pause from the impending doom that certainly awaited you.

We played the adventure “Best Leave Them Ghosts Alone” and without giving any spoilers, I felt like it had room within it for everyone to have a moment to shine. The story had some combat but also allowed for the roleplaying moments I really appreciate during these gaming weekends. After the game we spoke with the GM for a maybe twenty minutes and looked at the various products Monte Cooke had to offer. I thought about buying the book, then thought I shouldn’t, then we left the room… only for me to get about 10 feet and say f- it, and go back and buy it. I’m looking forward to reading through it and maybe get one of those short campaigns going at some point.

 

Saturday (Day 3)

13th Age

I was listening to the podcast Reading D&D Aloud when I heard Rob Heinsoo, co-designer on the 13th Age RPG. They had just finished up their Kickstarter for the 2nd edition, and in discussing the system he mentioned something called a Escalation Die, where every round it increased by 1 and added to your To Hit rolls in an effort to both end combat a little quicker and increase the ability of the heroes to potentially win the fight. I’d never heard of such a thing, and it made me wonder about the system in general.

Saturday, as originally planned, had a lot of free time with Daggerheart being the only game we’d secured to start. When I mentioned this to Egg, he said he might be able to get us a game of 13th Age through some of his media side contacts. Sure enough, we secured a two hour session… with Rob Heinsoo!

Normally with two hour sessions you get pregenrated characters, but Rob wanted us to see a bit of the character creation, so while the abilities and powers had been listed out on the character sheet – the “cool stuff” was coming up with our “One Unique Thing”. Basically, 13th Age has you come up with something extremely special about your character, and in theory, it could be anything you’d like. Anything is a large box to figure out, so Rob gave a couple of examples (which I wish I could remember them all), but the one that told me you could dream big was:

I am a former god who has fallen from the patheon.

I mean, you can’t get much bigger than being a god.

So we went at coming up with our Unique thing. Egg had his bard whose instruments were from skinned trolls (so the playing kept them from fully regenerating). Lee had a Draconian whose claws were his weapons. And I was playing an Elf Ranger…

As an aside, I’ve thought about Elves in our roleplaying games. Here are beings who are effectively immortal. And I always wonder how they could possibly live so many lifetimes without going mad from the pain and loss of loved ones. From the sheer amount of memories weighing them down. In my mind, I’ve thought it might be cool if every 100 years or so you must return to your homeland and have a Renewal Ritual performed that would excise some of those memories from you. It might not be a complete mind wipe, but by reducing some of your experiences, it would let your mind reorder itself.

In that vein, I said my Elf had forgone such a Renewal and now suffered from swiss cheese brain. All those memories are in there, but they come and go as they pleas making it so there would definitely be a lot to roleplay if this was an ongoing campaign.

Rob listened to each of our Uniques and you could see his mind racing to find threads to potentially use as well. Even though this was a 2 hour session, I felt like he’d have come up with a full campaign based on some of those ideas.

The actual play was a brief encounter where we fought some wannabe dwarves and got to experience 13th Age a bit. Given the lineage to D&D we had a leg up on much of the terminology, but it was still interesting to see how things like the Escalation Die worked. I liked that even if you missed in an attack, you still did some damage (3 for my character). Having damage be more based on your level and not on whether you had a Longsword or Short Sword worked well – one less thing to track, I think.

Rob Heinsoo has such an exuberance for the material (and for roleplaying in general) you couldn’t help but be sucked in by him. I’m a bit envious of any of those who get to have him as their GM for that reason. I’d like to thank him for taking the time to do the session with us, and show us a little bit about the game itself. They are still finishing up the 2nd edition (but you can still pledge here), but I’m super interested in seeing how it turns out.

Deadpool Roleplays the Marvel Universe

I still remember the good old days where if you played Marvel then there was a huge chart that needed referencing. This session had no huge chart… so I guess we need to figure out how to play this game?

Another 2 hour session, but there were a couple of roleplaying style opportunities within but mostly focused on the combat systems. Which appeared to work… fine. I did like that you roll 3 6-sided dice with two white and one red. The Red one has a MARVEL logo as the 1, but if you roll that it acts as a 6 and a Fantastic (critical) on which many of your powers and abilities do something extra with. I played Winter Soldier, so mostly it was a damage enhancer. Damage also keyed off whatever number was on the red dice.

There were really 2 “bad” things for this scenario:

The first was the example characters were Miles Morales, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Winter Soldier, Annabelle Riggs… who? Egg had her as his character and asked me (the comic guy) if I knew anything about her. We later figure out she has about 25 total appearances before this, and I have read a total of ZERO.

Look, in the main game if you want to stat out the lesser known characters – great, go to it. But at a convention, we should really focus on name recognition first.

The second “bad” was the character of Dagger (which Lee had). Her powers affect an ability stat called FOCUS, which is what you draw on to use your super powers. However, in this scenario we are going up against Gun Thugs and Taskmaster, who are melee types… which meant her powers weren’t going to do very much at all. Again, in a longer session/campaign, someone who can make it so the villain can’t use their powers because it has been depleted makes a ton of sense, but in this environment it was more of a feel bad.

Overall I thought the system worked well enough and would actually love to go through character creation just to see how that worked.

Daggerheart

Which brings us to the last game of the night and the trip. This is the Critical Role system which is still in a Beta (if I understood correctly) so this version may be vastly different when it is released in 2025.

I mentioned that sometimes the players and the GM mess really well at a convention and the game takes on a really good flare of its own. For me, this was another example of it. I think this was fostered as well by the fact that while we had the combat moments, we probably had a bunch of moments which allowed us all to focus on roleplaying. In fact, I made a decision that had I known how long the scene was going to last, I might have not done it.

My character was a Cat person, ranger type (a lot of that going around on Saturday for me apparently). Another of the party was a more grizzled veteran. After our first battle, someone asked him for pointers for the dinner we were going to have and he gave a couple of nice answers… so I said – “Remember the scene in Jaws where the kid mimics his dad while they are at the dinner table… that’s going to be me at this meal”. However, I’m not used to playing in person, being an online player these days, but then it occurred to me – I could just act it out.

So I did. The other side of the table noticed it immediately (the person I was copying sat to my left), but soon enough he not only realized what I was doing, he started f-ing with me. Dangling his arms, crossing them in weird ways, and placing them on the table in random ways. I was having fun, Egg snapped a picture of us at one point, and it was a good bit that really didn’t distract (too much) from the other players moments as well.

And the scene lasted for over an hour.

That’s a long time to keep up the bit. When we finally reached a scene change, I offered an apology to the guy “I hope I wasn’t annoying you.”

“Not at all. I appreciate your commitment to the bit.”

“Yeah, if I had realized I’d need to keep doing it for that long, I might have made a different choice!”

As to the system, there were things I liked and other things I’m not entirely sure of. Instead of a D20, you rolled 2d12s for skill and combat checks with one being a HOPE dice and the other being a FEAR dice. If you succeeded and the HOPE dice was higher, you accomplished your goal and got a HOPE point to spend on one of your abilities. It seems like another thing to track (and it is) but it also feels like something you’ll actually use a fair amount as opposed to Inspiration (which I never remember). Other things had to do with the damage/armor system which I think could be streamlined a little more. Egg’s character died toward the end of our adventure and it seemed like the rules did him no favors there.

Overall, I really liked the session. I liked aspects of the system. And the GM and players were great to play with. A win!

 

Sunday (Day 4)

Always a somber day no matter what convention you’re at. Some Sundays are a sort of sprint through the Dealer’s Hall in order to see the 4 or 5 rows that we’d somehow not managed to get over to during the weekend. This time was not one of those. Since most of our games started around 2PM, we actually had a good amount of time to make our way through the maze and see everything we wanted to see (a couple of times). After a final pass and couple of goodbyes, we made our way back south to Atlanta where I managed to walk in my front door at about midnight (much, much shorter drive on the way back).

***

John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.

He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!

Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.

His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.

He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com

6 RPG Kickstarters You Should Back – Lankhmar Savage Seas of Nehwon, Sovereign Stone, THE BOOK OF DARK SECRETS, The Overworld and Beyond, A Delve in a Cave, and New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley 2e

This week let’s look at two Savage Worlds, one Call of Cthulhu, one 5e, and one 13th Age RPG Kickstarters. In each of these, there is a moment of continuity where these campaigns build on prior work from continuing Lankhmar to giving Elmore and Miskatonic Valley new homes to continuing the learning curve of a new creator to the finished version of an adventure, or just another great product from a company I covered toward the beginning of this column’s life. These continuations are worth checking out.

 

Lankhmar Savage Seas of Nehwon, a Fantasy RPG by Pinnacle Entertainment Group
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“Fritz Leiber’s best-selling tales of Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser come alive in Pinnacle’s Savage Worlds Lankhmar: City of Thieves setting!

A Kickstarter Booster for Lankhmar: City of Thieves!

In the City of Sevenscore Thousand Smokes, danger lurks down every dark alley. Sinister sorcerers summon terrible forces in their crumbling towers. Treacherous rogues of the Thieves’ Guild prowl the Plaza of Dark Delights. Assassins from the Slayers’ Brotherhood work the Tenderloin District. And hunched figures skitter beneath the streets, waiting for their chance to rise.

Now your party of warriors and scoundrels can expand their adventures beyond Lankhmar to the high seas of Nehwon. They might venture to the Sea of Stars to confront priests of the ancient and terrible Mokrath, or book passage to Rime Isle and fall prey to “The Thing From Below.”

The Savage Seas of Nehwon contains everything a Game Master needs to create incredible tales of high sea-based adventures for Lankhmar or ANY fantasy Savage Setting, including:

  • The Seas of Nehwon: Overviews of the Inner Sea, Outer Sea, Frozen Sea, Sea of Stars, Sea of the East, and Lankhmar’s docks and harbors.
  • Characters: New Edges, Hindrances, powers, and Setting Rules dealing with ships and the sea.
  • Ships: Statistics for the various ocean-going vessels of Nehwon, Setting Rules, naval maneuvers, and rules for savage storms!
  • Adventure Generator: A complete adventure generator for creating your own fantastic Savage Tales!
  • Savage Tales: Sea-based adventures in Fritz Leiber’s incredible style, such as “Jewel of the Deep,” “Queen of the Sunken Realm,” “Bride of the Golden Isle,” and more!
  • Denizens of the Deep: New beasts to drag your heroes from the decks of their ships to the briny depths!

 

We want to support our settings after the core releases and have been trying to figure out how for a while. So we’re trying a “Booster” as an experiment. You might think it’s easy for an established company like Pinnacle to just put new product into the retail chain, but it’s not (See  “Why Kickstarter?” below).

Right now, Kickstarter is still the best place for many of our customers who don’t have a local game store, or whose game store doesn’t carry Savage Worlds, to find out about and pick up our games. We’ll still do our big, full-on Kickstarters just like we’ve done before for our new settings and other big projects. But creating all the Stretch Goals and extra products we need to support those doesn’t make sense for a follow-on book, so we’re doing something a little different…the Booster.

If it works out, you’ll see more of these. (We’ve got books for The Last Parsec and Savage Rifts® already in the works.)

So what does all that mean for you? Pledge for Savage Seas and we’ll give you the Booster Rewards listed below (including a REALLY cool adventure written by Shane Hensley that follows on with the work he did on the original 1992 TSR boxed set for Dungeons & Dragons!)”

The 1996 TSR boxed set for Dungeons & Dragons, written by Shane Hensley!
The 1996 TSR boxed set for Dungeons & Dragons, written by Shane Hensley!

 

Egg’s Thoughts:

 

My first introduction to Savage Worlds was the free Savage Worlds: Test Drive 2015 quickstart set in Lankhmar. The price point combined with the familiar setting let me sample, and enjoy, Savage Worlds. I’m excited about this Kickstarter boost (and the concept of “boosts”. I hope to see more of them). In this age of kickstart-and-forget products, where a project may obtain amazing levels of crowdfunding, produce the book, but never delve into a follow-up book, I salute Pinnacle Entertainment Group for expanding their Lankhmar setting/license. Demonstrating their investment in the setting keeps me interested in it (knowing there’s more material to work with) so I can’t wait to see the Savage Seas of Nehwon.

 

You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here.

You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.

 

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THE BOOK OF DARK SECRETS – D&D 5e Pathfinder Adventures by Dark by Dezign
Ends on .

“2 Fill-in Adventure Anthology Books for D&D 5e and Pathfinder Compatible RPG adventures. Each book Print + Digital and each 200+ pages!

THE 2 BOOKS of THE BOOK OF DARK SECRETS Project
THE 2 BOOKS of THE BOOK OF DARK SECRETS Project

(all credits + well-deserved thank you’s are in the About Me section)

5+1 FREE PREVIEW PDF links – VERY Important. Trust me, Buddy…

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/27f8ntfofs8oklq/AADuJzcxsHP48DW2FlqxN2HQa?dl=0

THE BOOK OF DARK SECRETS project is composed of 2 books that are to be in digital pdf and high-quality printed softcover or hardcover formats. Both books will be 200+ pages long. Each of the 2 books is D&D 5e and Pathfinder-compatible and for PCs between levels 1-20. NOTE – There is more to each book than just adventures. Please read to find out more. Here are a few more characteristics for each book:

THE LOST TOMES - Volume 1 + DEMON BOX of RAYNETH
THE LOST TOMES – Volume 1 + DEMON BOX of RAYNETH

THE LOST TOMES – Volume 1 – 16 adventures based on a secret society known as THE LOST TOME SOCIETY. This society is made up of 16 of the very best NPCs the players might ever come across. Experts in their chosen fields, and all of them have some form of a tarnished history and back story. The 16 founding members of The Lost Tome Society are making amends for their misdeeds by hunting down the greatest and most powerful relics, artifacts, magic items and pieces of lost lore while destroying evil along the way. PCs are tasked to on adventures of 16
very diverse types, genres, as well as a different look, tone and feel
kind of variety.

The 16 LOST TOME SOCIETY founding members.
The 16 LOST TOME SOCIETY founding members.

Each of the 16 adventures is based around a founding member’s special skill set and the missions that correspond to said skill set. There is a FREE, 45-page PREVIEW BOOK that can be downloaded from Dropbox, but in a nutshell, these 16 adventures are based around the following:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/428501801/1639442857?ref=8r6u5b&token=bbf144db

01-BOUNTY HUNTING – Manzius Stone
02-ASSASSIN’S TOOLS – Manrick Crow
03-ARTIFACTS & RELICS – Odessa Roark
04-CARTOGRAPHY – Fernandius Kase
05-TAROT OF BELAGOS – Dharna Brim
06-DEMONOLOGY – Moggrett Null
07-MAGIC WEAPONS – Professor Langellan
08-SIEGE WARFARE – Darnius Rex
09-MONSTER HUNTING – Crazy Keturchkin Dyatlov
10-TRAPSMITHING – Cribner Larkett
11-LOST SPELLBOOKS – Abner Totleben
12-HERALDRY – Melody Lynn
13-MYSTERIES & ODDITIES – Rhodale Scribner
14-MAGIC ITEMS – Cynthia Bebansin
15-TREASURE CHAMBER – Benaltec Orr
16-ALCHEMICAL & ELIXIRS – Cyd Neade

• 16 Bios on each of the 16 founders of THE LOST TOME SOCIETY

• 16 short adventures based on the 16 founders’ skill sets

• Multiple pieces of ART, MAPS, DIAGRAMS and PLAYER HANDOUTS

• Map of The Lost Tome Society and where the members and scholars eat, sleep and play

• Compatibility charts that show how each of the 16 founders thinks of each other

THE BOOK OF DARK SECRETS - Volume 1 - The 20 Sigils of Power
THE BOOK OF DARK SECRETS – Volume 1 – The 20 Sigils of Power

 THE BOOK OF DARK SECRETS – Volume 1 – 20-26 short, fill-in adventures between 5-12+ pages each. Perfect for when the DM/GM runs out of adventure content, the session ends too early, or the campaign needs a bit of a fresh boost. 20-26 D&D 5e and Pathfinder-compatible adventures for PCs between levels 1-20.

A collection of 5 + 1 FREE PDF samples can be found below. Please note that these 5 + 1 FREE PDF samples are from previously published DBD titles and are NOT actual content that will be in either of these 2 books. ENJOY!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/27f8ntfofs8oklq/AADuJzcxsHP48DW2FlqxN2HQa?dl=0

• The 20 SECRET powers of THE AMULET OF POWER
(pictured above)

• 20-26 short adventures that are all 100% BRAND NEW, UNIQUE and diverse

• Multiple pieces of ART, MAPS, DIAGRAMS and PLAYER HANDOUTS”

 

Egg’s Thoughts:

 

Matthew A. Bogdan of Dark by Dezign is all-energy. I reached out to him for an interview on the Open Gaming Network (here) and he opened up and shared facts, hard numbers, and what he was looking for from this project. Each book offers interesting adventures for 5e and Pathfinder that have a unique feel. I believe that he is going to deliver on his campaign and, likely, over-deliver. I can’t swear they’ll be thicker books that roll out for Halloween, but I suspect it heavily. But, don’t take my word for it, read the interview I did with him or his interview on Dan Davenport’s site.

 

You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here or at the OpenGamingStore here.

You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.

 

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A Delve in the Cave: 5th Edition Adventure by Signal Fire Studios
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“A curse. A cave. A crawl. 1st level scenario for the world’s most popular roleplaying game!

I’m returning to my personal and professional gaming roots with a 32-page adventure for 5th edition of the original fantasy roleplaying game—a cavern crawl built to please hack-and-slash groups and storytellers alike!

I started playing fantasy roleplaying games in 1982 at seven years old. (Yes, THAT fantasy RPG.) As an adult I accidentally stumbled into a career publishing supplements and adventures for THAT game along with designing RPG systems of my own. Check out my Goodreads page or visit my website for more info.

Last year I was in Texas for a regional game convention, and while in my booth I scribbled out two pages worth of adventure notes for 5th Edition of the world’s oldest and most popular roleplaying game (yes, THAT one) and ran a few players through it before we packed up and drove back to Atlanta.

Then I sat down and typed about ten thousand words. Very quickly this became a real thing. The adventure premiered at the Origins Game Fair in 2017 with an Early Access edition.

Interest and sales of the Early Access version surprised me, and we’ve gotten great response to from groups that have run through it.

We want to offer a high-quality product and keep the price low for tabletop game retailers and the folks who shop at them. Our initial goal will let us pay everyone who’s helped with this product a fair wage, print enough to sell through distribution channels, and keep our business going. If we blow past the initial amount we will offer stretch goals that enhance and upgrade the product for everyone!

The Early Access version is complete, which means every backer at the $5 level or higher will receive a fully-playable PDF once the backer surveys are complete. These files will be automatically upgraded to the final version once the adventure has gone to press!

The “dungeon crawl” in the cave takes up most of the Early Access edition. The final version will expand the town of Shadowhaven where the story begins, providing adventure hooks to get the heroes involved in the mystery that threatens the community—as well as a potentially dangerous journey to the tomb of the town’s founder, whose bones rest in a cavern under a hill. The encounters and ending will be rewritten slightly and adjusted based on playtest feedback.

"Coblynau" by Lindsay Archer — a new fey creature!
“Coblynau” by Lindsay Archer — a new fey creature!

The black-and-white map of the main dungeon is complete, as well as a few interior illustrations. These will be supplemented by additional artwork and a full-color poster version of the map by artist Ben Mund (Serenity Atlas of the ‘Verse) that can be printed at 36″ x 48″ that will provide an attractive set-piece for gamers who enjoy a visual and tactical experience.”

 

Egg’s Thoughts:

 

I followed the early edition of this game and its IndieGoGo campaign here and here. I enjoyed the DIY version of the crawl; now, I’m looking forward to the finished product.

 

You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here.

You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.

 

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New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley 2ed for Call of Cthulhu by Stygian Fox Publishing
Ends on .

“‘New Tales from Miskatonic Valley’ 2nd Edition produced under license for the Call of Cthulhu RPG by Chaosium Inc.

New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley returns!

Lauded as authentically Lovecraftian and much loved for of its mood and style, New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley returns with a full-colour second edition. With its new art, varied formats (PDF, Kindle, softcover, and hardback), and an extra scenario, this Kickstarter will make its rightful return to print, uplifted to Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition.

Call of Cthulhu is the Registered Trademark of Chaosium Inc., and is used with their permission. www.chaosium.com

Miskatonic River Press released New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley to great acclaim and it quickly became a favourite among Call of Cthulhu Keepers. Its faithful adherence to Lovecraftian themes and its location along the dark river it takes its name from, meant a return to an authentic home for many players who cut their anti-mythos teeth on earlier adventures set in the valley.

Started by Keith ‘Doc’ Herber and Tom Lynch, it quickly marked MRP as a company to watch. Tragically, Doc passed away while working on a subsequent title (Our Ladies of Sorrow with Kevin Ross) but Tom kept his dream alive and grew upon it with further books. Sadly, MRP closed its doors a couple of years ago and the titles have been out of print as Tom Lynch focused on writing fiction and his family.

Last year, Stygian Fox purchased four titles from Tom Lynch/MRP in order to bring them back to players of the world’s greatest horror game and in turn, we aim to release new and updated versions of New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, More Adventures in Arkham Country, Our Ladies of Sorrow, and Tales of the Sleepless City.

In New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley, there are currently six scenarios and we aim to add a seventh set in the valley or Innsmouth (although Innsmouth isn’t in the Miskatonic Valley it is such an integral part of Lovecraft Country as to be hard to ignore). The original is black and white and 130 pages. We aim to increase that to 160 pages and to make it full colour with all new art.”

 

Egg’s Thoughts:

 

This product represents a rebirth. On EN World, I touched on some of the issues that Miskatonic River Press experienced with another CoC Kickstarter – including the end of MRP. What Stygian Fox Publishing did by purchasing MRP’s contents and creating this Kickstarter represents the restoration of one of the better licensed 3PP Call of Cthulhu products. By going this route, Stygian is letting gamers enjoy books that might have faded away, and I salute them for doing this.

 

You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here.

You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.

 

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The Overworld and Beyond (13th Age RPG Planar Adventures) by Dread Unicorn Games
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“The Overworld and Beyond, planar adventures for the 13th Age Roleplaying Game by the legendary Ash Law.

Journey to the Planes with Ash Law!

The Overworld and Beyond presents planar-hopping adventures for the 13th Age roleplaying game. It includes a backwater setting that includes towns, wilderness, and gates to other worlds, all ready for you to incorporate into your gameworld.

Adventure for All Tiers of Play

  • The Carrow Hills a perfect sandbox for adventure-tier play. Hooks, rumors, and NPCs are all interwoven to create a setting where the locals think being close to other planes is just the way thing are.
  • Attack of the Koblins a champion-tier adventure. What are these strange creatures warped by transdimensional energies, and why are they striking out at innocent people?
  • Further Adventures in the Carrow Hills give the GM a collection of champion-tier adventure hooks that tie into what’s happened before, and foreshadow the epic-tier challenges ahead.
  • Into the Overworld presents the party with an epic-tier problem that won’t be solved without traveling to many planes

There’s a 5th-6th level adventure that has PCs up against forces from another world.

There’s a 9th-10th level adventure that has the PCs traveling to myriad other planes: the City at the Edge of Dawn, the Elemental Realms, the Fleshscape, the Green, the Lightless Realm, and the Middenlands.

The project includes pages of adventure hooks, a bestiary, 13 Weird Worlds, 13 Peculiar People, and more!”

 

Egg’s Thoughts:

 

A new planar option for 13th Age is a win, but why I think this’ll be a great product is because of their prior work, The Gods Have Spoken. I covered Dread Unicorn Games The Gods Have Spoken for 5e here (13th Age edition available here). That game is alive with quirky detail and fun art. If The Overworld and Beyond approaches that level of good, it’ll be well worth adding to your library.

 

You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here.

You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.

 

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Savage Worlds Sovereign Stone by Applied Vectors
Ends on Fri, June 1 2018 5:17 PM EDT.

“This project brings Larry Elmore’s Sovereign Stone to the Savage Worlds game system.

Loerem is a world of beauty and enchantment created by renowned fantasy artist Larry Elmore, with development from New York Times best-selling authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Through Elmore’s vivid visual renditions of unique personalities, clashing nations, fantastical creatures, and enchanting landscapes alongside a saga weaved by Weis & Hickman, the culmination chronicled the mortals’ struggle to master the unfathomable power of the Sovereign Stone given them from the gods — an artifact forged for peace among races but which ignited war between brothers.

Applied Vectors LTD are pleased to be bringing this wonderful world into the Savage Worlds fold. This Kickstarter is to fund the development of the game and cover writing and layout costs. This will be built from the ground up specifically for Savage Worlds (this is no mere conversion).

This game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group at www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds and all associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Used with permission. Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality, viability, or suitability for purpose of this product.

The game requires a copy of Savage Worlds that can be purchased from the Pinnacle Entertainment Group store.

The Sovereign Stone

The Sovereign Stone is a lustrous crystal pyramid of four triangles that form a quadrangle at the base and come together in a point at the apex. Approximately sixteen inches tall, the artifact is carved of a single piece of crystal. It was given to King Tamaros of the Vinnengalean Empire, and in order to broker peace, he separated it into four equal pieces. One quarter went to the humans, one to the elves, one to the orks, and the last to the dwarves.

Here is where the story grows murky, clouded over with rumors and tales, few of which can be believed. One thing that is known for certain is that an army led by one of the King’s sons marched on the city, and consequently the human portion of the stone was lost in a cataclysmic explosion which obliterated Old Vinnengael and left very few survivors, little accurate accounts are told of those last, terrible days. Much of what people know about King Tamaros and the Sovereign Stone is rumor and myth that has been building for the past two hundred years.

Since that day men have quested for the lost part of the Sovereign Stone to no avail. Old Vinnengael is now a cursed and abhorrent landmark. Few who venture there ever return alive, but still there are those brave or foolish enough to attempt it, drawn by the magic that pervades the city ruins and the riches said to be buried in the rubble.

There are accounts of a dark army marching across Loerem from the west, but few trust the tales. Still, some learned scholars have renewed their efforts to find the lost portion of the Sovereign Stone and reunite its parts in order to combat this or any other threat to the people of Loerem.

Do you dare trespass into Old Vinnengael or are you brave enough to face the threat from the west?

 

Egg’s Thoughts:

 

Larry Elmore plus Savage Worlds equals gold! On Open Gaming Network, I have an interview with Ian Liddle (Applied Vectors) about Savage Worlds Sovereign Stone that gets into why I dig this project (link here).

 

You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here or at the OpenGamingStore here.

You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.

 

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Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com and Amazon.com.

Savage Worlds: Fast, Furious, and Fun! - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

 

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Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™

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Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:

Want your RPG Kickstarter reviewed? Have some RPG wanna-lancer thoughts to share? Contact me here or onFacebook (Egg Embry) or on Google Plus (+Egg Embry).