This is going to be a first. I'm going to suggest you watch a Kickstarter video because it's damn good. How much does it have to do with The Driftwood Verses itself? Damned if I know. Looks great and it's nice and short. Go and watch it. I'll wait.
Back?
It was good, right?
If The Driftwood Verses setting comes close to half the atmosphere in that short video it will be amazing.
So, what are / is The Driftwood Verses?
The Driftwood Verses is a gloomy, nautical fantasy campaign setting for old-school tabletop role-playing games. It's directly compatible with Lamentations of the Flame Princess and more broadly compatible with a large selection of traditional systems. The contents can be used as a stand alone setting or slotted into your existing kitchen sink fantasy campaign as a distinct region in a larger world.
The setting was conceived as a Dark Sun-esque re-skinning of standard D&D tropes, starting with the conceit that "whales are dragons." It has since developed into something well beyond that original idea. The major inspirations include stuff like Moby Dick, Dishonored, Sunless Sea, Dune, The Scar, and the Monster Blood Tattoo series.
The book focuses on a blighted maritime region called Walfismeer. It's an impressionistic fantasy setting, a collection of symbols and metaphors come to life. Anachronisms abound. Grizzled mariners pilot haunted, tentacle-powered iron ships across a sludge-poisoned sea. Sinister roachmen quad-wield black powder pistols in hungry cities ruled by vice and bloodsport. Secretly trained navigators employ esoteric disciplines to guide vessels across a mysterious psychic barrier called The Reef. Desperate meerfolk raise sonorous hymns to Leviathan in deep-sea, whale-corpse cathedrals.
This is NOT another rehash of the typical age of sail/talk-like-a-pirate setting. It's something slightly weirder. It's like Melville's Nantucket meets Leiber's Lankhmar with an oil-spill-chic soundtrack by Tom Waits and Bathory rattling in the background.
I'm in for the Print plus...
Has this guy done a successful Kickstarter?
ReplyDelete2 successfully fulfilled Kickstarters prior.
DeleteClint has a proven track record on Kickstarter. His zine has also been tops. I think this is going to be really pretty great.
ReplyDeleteIm a big fan of Clint's zine and his previous adventure. The KS has reached its funding goal and is about $1300 away from unlocking its 30 pg. supplement book Undertow.
ReplyDeleteThis one sounds really interested. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
ReplyDeleteThey had me at "Monster Blood Tattoo". That was a YA fantasy trilogy that really kicked some ass. And the illustrations and cartography were phenomenal, done by the author himself.
ReplyDeleteI can't recommend the series enough.