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Update: White Wolf shares their perspective of this press release and how they envision their role within the World of Darkness to come. Read it here –
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Additional details can be found here – White Wolf Notice of Subscription Closure.
Two RPGs and two gamebooks to look at this week. One a Tunnels & Trolls solo adventure, one for 5e, one using Modiphius’ 2d20 system, Momentum, and an original choose your own adventure gaming system gamebook.
Comet over Echo Rock, a 5th edition adventure level 2-4 by Sinopa Publishing
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“A gritty adventure, old school dungeon crawl, published under OGL/SRD 5.1. Original art, print, pdf, and more! DnD 5e rpg OGL Fun!
Tarot Adventures, Book Two: Comet over Echo Rock
Comet over Echo Rock is a gritty adventure and also contains setting information for Glenfallow, as it stands after the liberation of Glenfallow Keep by Pieron and his friends. This book details new non-player characters, changes to the area, and adds information of use for extended game play. With this book you get a piece of setting you can drop into any world for your use, along with a tough adventure.
This adventure is setting neutral, meaning it doesn’t rely upon setting specific information and is suitable for use in most fantasy settings.
This book includes art created specifically for the adventure. The art done for this project consists of black and white, as well as some color images, and consists of an array of styles with each illustration done specifically for the scenes they enhance.
Available in PDF and print formats (soft cover premium color, and hard cover premium color collector’s edition). All backers receiving a copy of this adventure will also receive copy of the Encounter Scale System ™ map pack created for Comet over Echo Rock. The ESS map pack, is a black and white printable PDF file that allows you to print and assemble maps that are scaled for miniature use.
Designed to be a difficult to deadly challenge for characters of second through fourth level of ability, this adventure requires courage, cunning, and strength to overcome. This is a gritty adventure, designed to challenge your group.
Written as a follow up story to The Draw of Glenfallow, this adventure builds upon the relationship characters develop with Pieron, the newly installed lord of Glenfallow Keep. Characters who have not played through The Draw of Glenfallow have an opportunity to build a relationship with this newly minted lord. Characters who survived and helped elevate Pieron to his new station can further enhance their standing in his eyes and may firmly establish themselves as trusted heroes.
In this book, the characters are once again asked by Pieron to come to his aid. While Pieron is busy rebuilding Glenfallow Keep and overseeing the settlement of his lands, dark forces are making themselves known in the mountains to the north. Dwarves seeking to reopen the Echo Rock silver mine have been killed, and their fellows are calling for the blood of the monsters who struck them down. Pieron wants the monsters in the mine destroyed and the player characters are just the people for the job.
There is treasure to be had, innocents to avenge, and political clout to be earned. All that need be done is to triumph where all others have failed. Climb the mountains to face deadly peril. Wield steel and magic to put down the monsters of the north.
What secrets will you uncover in the stygian depths of the mine?
Victory over the monstrous creatures in the mountains brings glory and wealth for those characters brave enough to undertake the challenge, and skilled enough to survive.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
W.S. Quinton is a nice guy, and I’ve offered him feedback on this Kickstarter. As such, I’ll hit the highpoints and let the rest speak for itself:
You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here.
You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.
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DestinyQuest IV: The Raiders of Dune Sea by Megara Entertainment SARL
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“A new DestinyQuest gamebook by Michael Ward, published by Megara Entertainment.
DestinyQuest is a new style of gamebook that draws on modern fantasy action games such as World of Warcraft and Diablo, and fuses them with the old-style ‘choose your own adventure’ books of the 80s.
In DestinyQuest, readers use an innovative map system to experience exciting quests, battle fearsome monsters and discover valuable rewards.
Throughout their adventure, the reader can customize their hero from hundreds of collectable items and special abilities, allowing them to take on ever-greater challenges as they seek to build their hero from a starting newbie to a legendary champion.
More information about DestinyQuest on the official website
http://www.destiny-quest.com/
January 2018 interview with Stuart Lloyd:
http://www.lloydofgamebooks.com/2018/01/destiny-quest-iv-raiders-of-dune-sea.html
YouTube review of the series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy0I9ioLfZU&t=31s
All you need to play DestinyQuest is a copy of the book, a handful of six-sided dice, a pencil and some paper – then you are ready to embark on an epic narrative adventure where you are the hero. You get to make the decisions for your hero, deciding where they will go, what they will do, and how they will react to the myriad of challenging dilemmas that will be set before them. Book Four of DestinyQuest pushes these choices even further, ensuring that no two adventures will ever be the same.
No. Every DestinyQuest book is written as a standalone adventure, but together they create an ongoing narrative that tells a larger story. While readers will always benefit from having experienced the other adventures in the series, it is not essential that you have any prior knowledge of the characters and game world. If you want to take your first plunge into DestinyQuest with Book Four, then there’s nothing to hold you back. Grab your sword and backpack, and get ready for an exciting ride!”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This is the first of two gamebooks/choose your own adventures/solo adventures on this list. This is the fourth novel in the series and if you’re looking for an expanded series where you make all of the choices, DestinyQuest is a great option.
You can see examples of their work at Amazon here.
You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.
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Elven Lords Revisited: a Make 100 Solo Adventure by Flying Buffalo Inc
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“Decades ago, Danforth and Stackpole created a unique solitaire adventure for Tunnels & Trolls. We’re back to make a great new version.
Back in 1990, writer Michael Stackpole and artist Liz Danforth put together a solo adventure book for the Tunnels & Trolls™ fantasy role-playing game, published by Flying Buffalo Inc. Called Elven Lords, the book brought players back to the city of Gull, popularly known as “the City of Terrors.” Facing cutthroat thieves, barbarians, smugglers and pirates, or the horrors infesting the elven tombs to the north, the solitary hero found all the adventure they could handle!
The solitaire game booklet came out as a signed limited edition of 1000 copies, never to be republished. That version of Elven Lords has been out of print for many years now, a prized and difficult-to-obtain item sought by collectors.
It is time we revisit this adventure.
We could not reprint the old edition, even though fans asked repeatedly. We said we wouldn’t, and we won’t. But Kickstarter’s Make/100 project made for a real opportunity: we could create a new, enlarged prestige edition. Players would get the old content—everything they had missed out on before—with fresh new writing and art in a first-class edition.
As the original writer, Mike has agreed to write more adventures in the setting, looping them into the existing storyline. Liz brings fresh art to the project, with brand new images, little-known paintings, and her famous line work drawings colorized by collaborator-artist Steve Crompton and others. By making this book part of Kickstarter’s Make/100 projects, an expanded Elven Lords solitaire adventure with full-color interior art becomes possible.
This exceptional version of Elven Lords will be offered in a signed, limited edition of just 100 copies, never to be republished. In years to come, it too will become a prized and difficult-to-obtain collectors item.
Having a fun game to play is the core reason for wanting an adventure like this. A quality game is our top priority, and we intend to deliver that. (We hope to exceed your expectations, in fact.) So we understand that not everyone wants a collectors edition of “something for fun” just to put on a shelf.
Choose a format that suits your wallet and the way you want to play. In addition to the color edition, we will produce a matching print edition with no color, showcasing Danforth’s iconic black and white art. The paintings will be redrawn into line art, as necessary, and every image in the color version will have its counterpart in the black and white edition. This unlimited version will not be signed or numbered, and it will be in print as long as demand exists.
For those who want the color illustrations but not as a physical, collectible book, we will make the full color edition available as a downloadable PDF for your computer, phone, tablet, or other electronic device. Playing electronically is seamless, with each Go To choice taking you straight to the paragraph that you should read next.
And when we say “no one gets left out?” We really mean it, even if you have never played Tunnels & Trolls before. You get everything you need to play right inside the book.
Tunnels & Trolls uses simple rules and mechanics, but we pared that down to the essential “mini-rules” so you can play immediately. Take yourself into the City of Terrors with the main T&T rulebook if you have it! But if you are new to the game, get your feet wet with this adventure and the mini-rules before you jump into the deep end. We even offer a couple of pre-created characters, so nothing slows you down.
Just add dice. (Regular six-siders are all you need.)”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This is the second of two gamebooks/choose your own adventures/solo adventures on this list. This is a reprint of a classic Tunnels & Trolls solo adventure. Revised and expanded, this is a chance to recapture the original feel of crawling through the City of Terrors.
You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here.
You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.
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John Carter of Mars – The Roleplaying Game by Modiphius
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“Adventures on The Dying World of Barsoom. A planetary romance tabletop roleplaying game from the mind of Edgar Rice Burroughs
With scarcely a parting glance I turned my eyes again toward Mars, lifted my hands toward his lurid rays, and waited…” – John Carter, Gods of Mars
John Carter of Mars – Adventures on The Dying World of Barsoom is a planetary romance tabletop role-playing game. We’ve created it under license and with the cooperation of the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the original Barsoom novels. We’ve also had guidance of Scott Tracy Griffin one of the leading scholars of his works to ensure utmost authenticity. Using a pulp-action inspired narrative variant of Modiphius’ 2d20 system,Momentum, John Carter of Mars allows players to take the role of various adventurers and heroes as they travel, battle, and romance their way across the wondrous and dangerous world known to its natives as Barsoom. Play as John Carter, the princess Dejah Thoris or the fearsome Thark warrior Tars Tarkas – or create your own new heroes from a wide variety of options.
You can download our free Quickstart from DriveThruRPG or Modiphius.net
We’ve spent the last two years working on the John Carter of Mars roleplaying game as a labor of love, everything you see in the project is of utmost quality, from the beautiful landscape book to the stunning resin 32mm multi-part miniatures. We hope to unlock additional art budget to fill our core book with stunning works, to unleash the Swords of Mars campaign book which will include the battle rules for miniatures but also a full RPG campaign. We also want to bring you dozens of gorgeous miniatures to let you see our beloved heroes in action and lots of great geomorphic adventure locations such as airships and ruins.
The core book is being laid out in stunning US Letter size landscape format which allows us to create extra long landscape artworks bringing Barsoom to life in vivid detail. Produced in our European print house which is renowned for its excellent hardback binding quality we can assure you of a truly beautiful book to last the ages. The Collectors slipcase is designed in portrait format so you can store your book upright if desired and will also house the Swords of Mars Campaign book once unlocked.
This will be just the beginning of an all encompassing John Carter of Mars tabletop games line with a planned boardgame coming next.
The core book is fully written, and now in layout, depending on what other books are unlocked in the line, we will be aiming for one shipment in the summer prior to a retail release in the fall. As soon as the Kickstarter closes and payments have been processed you will be given access to the complete documents for the core book as well as the full PDF before we go to print, to provide last minute proofreading.
“As I gazed upon it I felt a spell of overpowering fascination – it was Mars, the god of war, and for me, the fighting man, it had always held the power of irresistible enchantment.” – John Carter, Princess of Mars
Included in the core book are:
Egg’s Thoughts:
We’re in a pulp era. Flash Gordon just hit for Savage Worlds. Onyx Path Kickstarted Cavaliers of Mars. Now, Modiphius brings us John Carter of Mars using their 2d20 system. If you have any love for pulp sci-fi, the options are waiting for you.
You can see examples of their work at DriveThruRPG here.
You can support this Kickstarter campaign here.
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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).
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com and Amazon.com.
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
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).
This week, I’m looking at Kickstarters for the second editions of RPGs including one set in the World of Darkness, one using the FATE Core system, and one crossing over from French to English. Let’s check’em out.
Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition by Onyx Path Publishing
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“Contribute to help create, publish, and distribute the 2nd Edition of the CHANGELING: THE LOST tabletop roleplaying game.
There will be dragons and there will be sirens and there will be all the armies of the otherworld sent to bring you back. But you will slay them and you will shun them and you will stand on the battlements of your fortress as they break against your walls of thorn and iron.
You will be free.
You know the stories. The hero leaves his village on a terrifying journey, or the waif finds her way through the cold, dark woods. In the end, they kill the giant or shove the witch in an oven.
But what happens next?
In Changeling: The Lost, you take on the role of an ordinary person who has seen the extraordinary. Lured or abducted by the alien Gentry, you have passed the gates and Hedges between our world and the vast fantastic.
In Arcadia, the Gentry changed you. They forged your flesh and sewed your bones, and they gave you a role to play. You were a lover or a servant or a monster. But it was never your story.
Having run from your Keeper and climbed your way back through the Hedge (and didn’t the thorns bite more than they did going in?), you’re back in the world of pizza and Facebook and nuclear anxiety.
Your eyes are open now. You can see that magic is not the sole province of Faerie. The world is alive with wonders most people never see…and rife with horrors that count on that unwariness. It’s all part of your life now. You take the good with the bad, the magic with the monstrosity, the beauty with the madness.
It’s not always an easy story, not always a happy story. But now it’s your story.
Changeling: The Lost began in 2007, and amassed some of the most passionate fans the Chronicles of Darkness has ever known. Now, it’s reborn in its second edition, which tells new tales and builds on lessons learned in the past ten years. We’re jumping back into the brambles, and letting the scar tissue from last time protect us.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This campaign is for the second edition of the Changeling, a part of Onyx Path’s World of Darkness. A decade into its lifecycle, everyone can gauge their interest in the setting. For my part, I’m interested in it for it’s basis in historic folklore that some feel was the superstitious explanation for autism and other challenges. I’m curious to see how this influences the project.
You can find their work on DriveThruRPG here.
To support their Kickstarter campaign, click here.
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Warsong Second Edition for Fate Core by Higher Grounds Publishing
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“Every choice has a consequence in this game-changing tabletop RPG where destiny is literally in your hands.
Warsong Second Edition is a game about cataclysmic war. A game that looks into the face of destiny, and decides for itself. It is a game about mythic deeds, and choosing free will over fate.
Destiny is a choice.
The Viziers guide the flow of our world toward its inexorable doom. The armies of the world amass and gather, intent on destruction and death. Only you can choose the path of your own fate. By your actions, you choose the course of history.
The burden of free will is yours alone. The chains of destiny cannot hold you.
You are free.
In Warsong Second Edition, you play as one of the Viziers, ancient shape-shiftingQuicksilvers, dread undead Neverborn or one of the other primordial inheritors of the world. It is your free will that will shape the course of history and decide whether the world will fall by its own hand, or rise up from its ashes. The ancient powers are but memories, and the people fight for the right to rule.
The skeins of destiny have begun to fray and the Ancient Viziers have disappeared along with the old gods, leaving destiny in the hands of their heirs. You are one of the children of the primordial powers, born the promise of destiny, and bound to its power.
Armed with the power of magic and the ability to shape destiny itself, the Viziers, divine offspring of both god and man, stand as the world’s last defense against the forces of entropy and their own self-destruction. The gods, ancient viziers and primordial powers have disappeared, the nations refuse to stand united for a promised future and bitter rivalries burn as brightly as ever while the world’s life force dwindles down to ember. It won’t be an easy choice, but it will be yours to make.
Warsong Second Edition began in 2013 as a play-test sample world built along with Pathfinder guidelines. Over time, it became a game of its own and Kickstarted on June 25 2016. Since then, it’s become a dynamic world that has gathered some of the most passionate fans Higher Grounds has ever seen. Now, a bit over a year after the game’s release, a revised and expanded second edition is nearing completion. Renewed in its second edition, Warsong Second Edition takes a year of reviews, feedback and criticism and puts those lessons to work.
Today, Warsong Second Edition is ready to jump back into the fray as a distilled and refined game using the Fate Core System rules, ready to ride the skeins of fate once more.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This is Warsong 2e’s second campaign (I looked at the first one here). As I said with the first one, “Need a FATE game? Does the premise sound interesting and you’d like to try the first edition of the game for free? Click here.”
You can find their work on DriveThruRPG here.
To support their Kickstarter campaign, click here.
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Capharnaum – The Roleplaying Game by Modiphius: Mindjammer Press
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“Fantastic Arabian Nights adventure in a world of deserts, dragons, and crusaders!
Welcome to the Capharnaum kickstarter! Help us fund the release of the English version of this fantastic roleplaying game in a beautiful 400-page hardback, and also expand into a complete line of adventures, supplements, and support material into 2018 and beyond!
With your help, our initial goal is to fund the release of the 400-page hardback core book of CAPHARNAUM – TALES OF THE DRAGON-MARKED, a complete standalone fantasy roleplaying game. Our initial release is in beautiful two-colour print, with sixteen gorgeous full colour plates; but rapidly we hope to reach the stretch goal of releasing the entire book with full-colour artwork. We already have the text ready for editing and layout, and anticipate releasing the core book in PDF format in March 2018 and in print in April 2018.
Capharnaum also has a range of supplements and adventures which we would like to produce, including a player’s guide, screen, bestiary, atlas, and epic campaign, plus many standalone adventures. We hope that we’ll exceed our initial funding total and be able to release these additional books to you as Kickstarter stretch goals.
Why not check out Capharnaum today, in THE TEARS OF AMPHAROOL, our free Quickstart Rules and Introductory Adventure!
CAPHARNAUM – THE TALES OF THE DRAGON-MARKED is a fantasy roleplaying game set in an imaginary Arabia-like world. It borrows from the tales of the One Thousand and One Nights, as well as semitic legends and the ancient and mediaeval epics. Capharnaum doesn’t aim to be a historical game, but a heroic one, a flamboyant refraction of historical, cultural, and mythical themes, filled with light and thrilling adventure!
In Capharnaum, you play the Dragon-Marked, heroic individuals with a special destiny, born with a birthmark on their backs in the shape of a dragon’s claw. The Dragon-Mark announces to the world that you are capable of astonishing feats, for good or evil. Chosen by mystical dragons in accordance with an unknown divine will, you are offered a place in the great game of the gods. You’ll be cast into colourful adventures, political, military, and magical intrigues, and much more…
Capharnaum is a simple yet profound game. We all know the tales of Sinbad, of Ali Baba, of Aladdin and Scheherezade – we grew up with them, they form part of our personal culture. The world of Capharnaum is familiar, easy to pick up and play.
And yet – scratch the surface, and a whole world opens up. Meticulously researched,Capharnaum aims to provide fantastic takes on real-world Mediterranean cultures, from ancient Greece and Rome, Egypt and Sumeria, right through to the crusader kingdoms, dark age and mediaeval Europe, the kingdoms of Africa, India, and the distant East. Uniquely,Capharnaum is centred upon a fantastic version of the Middle-East, where all these cultures meet, clash, come into conflict with the profound cultures of the peninsula of Jazirat, and where something new is being born.
As the Dragon-Marked, you transcend cultural differences. You’re united by an unknown, mystical, yet common destiny. Side by side with people who would otherwise be your foes, you adventure in this vibrant, chaotic land, where the fate of the future is at play, and where you are destined to change the world…
Capharnaum uses a tried and tested custom game system which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, with a second edition of the original French roleplaying game. Our Kickstarter includes all of the updates and rules modifications of the second edition game. It’s a d6-based system, a modified dice pool with a semi-roll-and-keep mechanic. Simple yet flexible, it combines skills and attributes in rolls against difficulties, resolving into levels of success or failure in a highly cinematic style. It’s grounded in traditional concepts of hit points, armour values, wounds, and healing, but also expands into genre-specific rules tweaks such as Dragon Dice and Constellations which let you really feel the power of the Dragon-Marked course through your character.
One of the key components of the Capharnaum system is the concept of paths: mystical associations which you belong to, which represent your view of your role in the world (your “character class”, to some extent), but which also provide you with cool and increasingly awesome abilities as you play.
Advancement is built into the Capharnaum system. As one of the Dragon-Marked, you’re already an individual with great potential – but this is an age which calls for Heroes, and the rules let you rise to the occasion and change the world!
In Capharnaum, in the fine tradition of Middle-Eastern story-telling, we call the game master “Al-Rawi”, an Arabic word meaning “the Story Teller”. When you play Capharnaum, you’re not only playing a roleplaying game, but participating in an ancient tradition millennia old!”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This translation is based on the 2nd edition of the game.
“The Tears of Ampharool are actually the 2nd edition mechanics. […] The English version of Capharnaum will use the 2nd edition mechanics, which features several streamlinings on 1st Ed, particularly with regard to initiative, the calculation of magnitude, and Babouche-Draggers.” – From the comments on the Capharnaum quickstart
[Editor’s Note: Egg’s reaching for this week’s second edition theme.]
In terms of a setting, it brings something under explored (compared to Europe) in RPG, Arabia. That’s what sets this apart, it isn’t another pseudo-Western European setting. If you want to try out how different it is, they have a free quickstart here.
You can find their work on DriveThruRPG here.
To support their Kickstarter campaign, click here.
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Want your RPG Kickstarter reviewed? Have some RPG wanna-lancer thoughts to share? Contact me here or on Facebook (Egg Embry) or on Google Plus (+Egg Embry).
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com and Amazon.com.
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
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 on Facebook (Egg Embry) or on Google Plus (+Egg Embry).