|
MatthewJHanson's page
Organized Play Member. 152 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists.
|


Sneak Attack Press has just launched our latest Kickstarter campaign for Graveyard of the Gods.
Floating on the astral plane are the calcified bodies of gods long dead. Yet a spark of their divine power remains. These god corpses are rich in magical resources waiting to be plundered, but they also give rise to strange environments and dangerous monsters.
Graveyard of the Gods is an anthology of adventures for Pathfinder 2e and D&D 5e. Each is set on the massive corpse of a dead god. These adventures favor exploration and wonder, and you can run them independently or string them together for a campaign.
Adventures include:
Junk Racers by William Fischer – Eventually, all lost things in the multiverse find their way to the corpse of a long-dead god of junk. What becomes of all that trash? It's turned into magical race cars of course! Heroes can join racing teams of kobolds, hobgoblins, or a half-dragon, or they can compete as a team of their own. (Level 4-6)
Temple of Knowledge by Matthew J. Hanson – All that remains of this lost god of knowledge is their head. At the Monastery of the Tree, the monks record the predictions that grow on the prophecy tree. Meanwhile, a mine of magical ion stones has dug too deep and disturbed a sentient crystal living within. (Levels 5-7)
Valleys of Mists and Roars by Eran Aviram– A lush jungle grows on the corpse of a god of the wild. Dangerous beasts fill the land, the crew of a crashed ship begs for help, while an undead cult tries to steal divine power from the god's remains. (Levels 6-8)
Isles of Mettle by Tristan Fishel – A dead god of war is sundered in two, his petrified intestines bridge the two halves of his body. Warriors come to test themselves in eternal battle, always reborn in the Pool of Valor. But recently a ruthless warlord has seized control of the Pool of Valor, tipping the balance of power on the isles. (Levels 7-9)
The Crushing Hand by Jay Africa – Years ago, an asteroid city collided with the hand of an ancient god. Now the hand is slowly crushing the city. Anybody who could leave has. Heroes might try to rescue more survivors, broker peace among the city's many factions, or fight the planar parasites spilling over from the dead. (Level 9-11)
Dreams of Astral Evil by William Fischer– On the corpse of a god of elements, four factions representing air, earth, fire, and water have each claimed a portion of the cavern within the god's body. These factions maintain a tenuous balance...one the heroes could easily upset. (Levels 12-14)
The campaign is nearly complete! We've got just 35 hours left to back.
Plus, we are nearly at another major stretch goal to update a third adventure and unlock a print collection option.
We've just hit a major stretch goal to update another adventure: Beacon in the Dark.
The heroes venture deep into the underdark to reclaim an dwarven fortress, but a band of drow will do anything to stop them.
We've reached our funding goal!
Now we're on to funding stretch goals for more adventures!

Sneak Attack Press has launched our latest Kickstarter campaign for the horror-themed adventure Good Little Children Never Grow Up.
Everybody in Hedgebird knows that the old DeMay orphanage is haunted, but that did not stop the Perseville family from moving to town and buying the place. Nor did it stop the Tarnak boys from venturing inside. Now the children are trapped inside, and to get them out the heroes must confront terrible ghosts from the orphanage’s past.
Good Little Children Never Grow Up is a horror themed adventure for low-level character. Originally Published for Pathfinder 1st Edition, this Kickstarter campaign will update it to the edition and add all-new full-color art and maps.
In addition to the adventure, Good Little Children Never Grow Up includes:
- 24 hand outs for players. Thanks to the restless spirits within the orphanage, each character only gets part of the picture
- 4 new or modified monsters
- 1 new magic item
- 1 ghostly blessing
After two days, we're nearly funded. You can put us over the top and get a great adventure.
We have just about 24 hours left in the Lock and Key Kickstarter campaign and have unlocked a third book in the series chosen by the backers, plus we've added a print pledge level to get all three books in the series as a single print book.
We've reach a major stretch goal to fund a second product in this series, this time featuring rope.
Plus, we're well on track to hit a goal before the end of the campaign to fund a third book chosen by the backers.
The Lock and Key Kickstarter campaign has just reached its stretch goal to include a Pathfinder 2 version.
Since the dawn of fantasy roleplaying games, opening locks has been a staple of adventures. This mini-supplement for the worlds most popular role playing game is filled with information about locks and how to open them.
It includes:
- A real-world history of locks and keys
- Ideas for a fantasy history
- Variant Locks – Including real world items like false keyholes, and fantasy items like talking locks
- A random key generator
- 2 new traps
- 4 new magic items
- 1 new spell
- 3 new monsters
Check out our Kickstarter page to back Lock and Key.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
|
Several years ago, we published Terrain Toolbox for the first edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Now we're running a Kickstarter campaign to update it and have just unlocked our stretch goal to bring in to Pathfinder 2e!
Terrain Toolbox provides 48 sample terrains you can drop into combat, like a blood mage's circle, solid clouds, and lightning pillars. Each sample terrain includes cosmetic and rules variations, giving you hundreds of possibilities. Plus the book offers advice to create your own terrain.
You can learn more about our Kickstarter here. Please let me know if you have any questions I can answer.
Thanks for the kind words.
And yes, Broken Earth does not really support the gonzo Gammar World style apocalypse. I hear that Warlord of the Apocalypse may do that better when it finally comes out.
For what it's worth, my company (Sneak Attack Press), just put out a book called Broken Earth that sounds very similar to what you're doing.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
|
Sneak Attack Press is looking for a few Pathfinder (and/or Savage Worlds) writers to contribute to our upcoming series of ebooks, Broken Earth: Tales from the Great Lakes.
Tales from the Great Lakes will be a series of short .pdf products, ranging from 2,000-5,000 words long. They will detail new locations in Broken Earth world all of which border the Great Lakes in between the United States and Canada (Superior, Michigan, Ontario, Erie and Huron). Each .pdf will feature details about the location, NPCs who live there, and plot hooks that occur there. They may also include new creatures or other game mechanics. Writers should be familiar with the Broken Earth setting.
If you are interested in writing for Tales from the Great Lakes, please send the following to matthew@matthewjhanson.com
- A one paragraph summary of the location you would like to write about, including at least one adventure hook.
- A list of previous writing credits (it's okay if you don't have any).
- A writing sample featuring descriptive text and at least one NPC or creature stat block for Pathfinder or Savage Worlds.
Payment will be 2 cents per word upon acceptance of the final draft. If you do the rules conversion yourself there will be a small bonus based on the amount of stat blocks in the product. Otherwise you can just write for one system and we will convert the product in house.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
|
Sneak Attack Press is proud to release Broken Earth, a post-apocalyptic adventure-setting produced under the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatibility license.
Bombs fell. Billions died. Now you must pick up the pieces and rebuild this Broken Earth.
Broken Earth is an adventure-setting that takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth. Heroes struggle to establish a community and protect it from slavers, mutants, and rival towns. As an adventure setting, Broken Earth includes many compelling locations and adventures, but also gives the heroes freedom to explore the world.
The book gives the GM everything you need to run a prolonged campaign in the Broken Earth setting, including locations, NPCs, adventure hooks, mutant monsters, and a detailed first adventure that brings the party together.
PDF versions are available now. Print copies are coming in April and can be preordered at the Paizo webstore.
Drejk wrote: Will there be Canadian invasion? Pre-apocalypse[se? The details are left a little vague, since the main action takes place a few generations later. (And we prefer to call it an "annexation")
Post-apocalypse? The PCs are welcome to invade Canada all they want.
Sneak Attack Press is excited to announce the release of the Broken Earth Player's Guide.
Bombs fell. Billions died. Now you must pick up the pieces and rebuild this Broken Earth.
Broken Earth is an adventure setting that takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth. It deals with a small fraction of the world, what was once the northern Midwest of the United States, and a tiny bit of southern Central Canada. As an adventure setting, Broken Earth includes many compelling locations and adventures, but also gives the heroes freedom to explore the world.
The Broken Earth Player's Guide describes everything that players need to create characters for Broken Earth, including new feats, traits, powers, and setting rules.
The campaign book should be released in late December 2013, and will contain the information in this book plus additional setting and adventure information.
Sneak Attack Press is excited to announce the release of Hunting Deathcloud, a mini adventure for the Pathfinder RPG.
The elves of Solduron have long known the dragon Deathcloud sleeps somewhere deep in the Whispering Forrest, but for decades none have seen her. That all changed three days ago when Deathcloud appeared and destroy an elven outpost. Now the elves need heroes to journey into the Whispering Forest, rescue captive elves, and put an end to Deathcloud once and for all.
Hunting Deathcloud is an adventure for 10th-11th level characters. It is set in the Whispering Forest, an ancient woodland that can be dropped into nearly any setting. You can run it either as a one-shot or as part of a greater campaign.
It features:
• 3 Combat encounters
• 1 Extended Exploration Encounter
• 3 New monsters
• 2 New magic Items
Now available from the
Paizo webstore.
Now we've got less than one hour left, and we're less than $300 away from the$6,500 stretch goal! It might sound a little crazy, but I still think we can do it. After all that's just...
10 backers at $30 level, or
6.67 backers at the $45 level, or
3 backers at the $100 level, or
1.2 backers at the $250 level.
Surely it can't be that hard to find a pregnant woman who wants to give the gift of post-apocalyptic adventure to her unborn child! Can it?
We'll see in an hour!
Thanks Oceanshieldwolf! Backers of any amount are important!
Five and a half hours left!
Thanks DSXMachina! I appreciate the continued to support. We've just broken another stretch goal, so we're increasing the page count and adding some additional content to the adventure.
We've got about 29 hours left now and there's another stretch goal in sight. If we raise just over $700 before the campaign ends, we'll not only increase the adventure even more, we'll also open up a hardcover option.
DSXMachina wrote: That's brilliant well done. I love the idea of hand-drawn maps, that's one thing that really encompasses the spirit of the KS. Just to make sure it's clear what I'm doing for the maps. I'm using pre-existing maps from the present day, then adding notes to them by hand. The idea is that some survivors of the apocalypse found these maps and then updated them to reflect their current conditions.
You can see an example of what I'm talking about here.
We've hit our goal! Broken Earth is going to happen! Up next are some stretch goals. We're less than $700 away from adding 16 page more material giving PCs more to explore!
With less than three days to go we've added some unique add-ons.
Anybody getting a print version of Broken Earth can also add a map or atlas annotated to provide in-character information to the players and their PCs. Each of these will be hand annotated and no two will be the same.
To learn more about the add-ons, check out this update!
Thanks Christina and DSXMachina.
We've got the fifth and final preview now available for download.
We've just got one week left to go!
Less than $500 to the goal!
Preview 4: Mr. Fix It is now available. Not that it contains some spoilers, as it gives details about the first "boss" of the adventure.

William Wood wrote: This looks pretty cool! Could you give an idea/hint of some of the other new races besides the Freaks? The other race that I've fully designed is the simians, which as the name suggests are intelligent ape people. It's possible I might add one or two more (a robot or bio-driod is the most likely), but I'm not sure yet.
Oceanshieldwolf wrote: Night haunts are cool. Wolf sized bat mutants with vestigial flight and sonar-based vertigo blast. Nice! Thanks!
The Silver Prince wrote: Stumbled across this thread and I love the idea! I'm a big fan of the Fallout series, as well as 3.5 Gamma World and needless to say, I want this book. Quick question though, which of the core classes from Pathfinder are going to be used? Or is there going to be a suite of new classes? The plan is to use the core classes with archetypes to handle the changes to a PA world. By default there's no arcane or divine magic, but we will be using Dreamscarred's psionics. Here's a list of what we're thinking for classes:
Core:
Barbarian
Fighter
Rogue
Other Paizo:
Gunslinger
Cavalier
Alchemist
Third Party:
Psionic Classes (Dreamscarred)
Spell-Less Ranger (Kobold Press)
Anachronistic Adventurers (Super Genius Games)
Of course you the GM is free to add and take away options.
Thanks Hart!
We've got another preview up now. This Broken Earth preview introduces one of the new races presented in the Player’s Guide, a mutant branch on humanity’s family tree, know as the freaks.
You can download it directly from Sneak Attack Press, or get it at RPGNow.com.
We're less than 1,000 away from the initial goal. I'd love it if we could hit the initial goal by the halfway point (next Tuesday).
Preview 2: Night Haunts is now available.
In it we meet one of the terrible mutant creatures that PCs are likely to encounter in the post-apocalyptic setting.
Thanks psionichamster and Lithrac. With your help (and 54 other backers) we just hit the half way point!
We plan to release a short preview of Broken Earth every week during the Kickstarter campaign. The first is now available, it features a possible starting community for the PCs, the Iron Shelter.
Download it here.
The Broken Earth Kickstarter Campaign is now live!
We've got some great backer rewards, but one I want to call out is the Early Bird Special. It's the same as the basic softcover book, but it's five dollars cheaper and limited to just twenty backers. One's already been taken (in less than an hour since launch!) so get your Early Bird Special before they're gone!
Sneak Attack Press will soon launch a Kickstarter campaign for our next book, Broken Earth.
Broken Earth is a post-apocalyptic sandbox adventure compatible with the Pathfinder RPG. Heroes may be wasteland scavengers, tribal nomads, or shelter dwellers who spent their entire lives underground. Once united, the PCs are tasked with exploring the remains of upper Midwest and helping to rebuild a civilized society. Broken Earth uses modified versions of the exploration and kingdom building rules presented in Ultimate Campaign.
The Kickstarter campaign will begin in just a few days, but in the meantime you can like our Facebook page to get all the latest updates, or you can check out our cover image (by the talented Malcolm McClinton).
Thanks for the feedback everybody. I think I'm probably going to work on this for a couple months and then run a Kickstarter Campaign for it.
Another question that occurs to me: In your perfect PA game, what level of Gonzo would you want? If I end up taking a tool-box type approach, I can probably include multiple options and leave it to the GM to decide, but if I include a setting I'll need to have a default level.
@Thomas, The Canadian Chromatic I sent you a PM with my email. Let me know if you don't get it.
@Darksyde My original through was more straight sci-fi, maybe using psionics as a form of "magic." If more people were into fantasy hybrid, I might be swayed.
Even with the sci-fi I think I rely on PFRPG for a lot of the heavy lifting. An archetype for barbarian, fighter, and rogue can make them fit right in.
I'm thinking a modern/sci-fi game set in the near-ish future. Somewhere in the Mad Max/Fallout/Gamma world vein.
Also I'm hoping to have control of the project, so I don't think trying to revive WotA is the best route for me. (But thanks for the suggestion).

1 person marked this as a favorite.
|
So I've got this small company called Sneak Attack Press and I'd thinking about possible next steps to take with it.
One possibility that I'm thinking of is doing something post-apocolyptic with Pathfinder. I thought I'd throw it to see if there's any interest and see what exactly people might want.
One thought it to do just a big rulebook. Or two (PC and GM). Or three (PC, GM, Monsters). This approach could either come with a specific setting or be a toolbox approach.
I've also through about focusing more on adventures. This might have smaller GM and PC books, and an adventure path plus some short .pdf side quests. For the content of the adventure path, I'm thinking of either a post-apoclyptic "Kingmaker" where you help return civilization to the wastes, or travel-heavy adventure where the PCs explore a good section of the country.
I'm leaning a little bit towards the second option, partially because Warlords of the Wastes is more like the former. At this point it likely is never coming out, but if it does the adventure approach is less redundant with that.
Any of this appeal to anybody? Any other ideas?

Sneak Attack Press is excited to announce our newest book: Advanced Encounters: Alternate Objectives.
Alternate Objectives is the latest of the Advanced Encounters series. Like all books in the series, it provides advice and tools for the GM to create more memorable encounters. Alternate Objectives focuses on creating battles where they PCs have goals beyond slaying the bad guys: things like rescuing prisoners or obtaining a powerful artifact before the opponents.
Alternate Objectives details several types of objectives and things to consider when building them. It then describes other elements that could be relevant in a range of encounters containing alternate objectives but are not tied to specific objectives. Finally Alternate Objectives provides six sample encounters along with adventure hooks and variations. These include:
Stealing a necklace off an enemy's neck and getting away.
Escaping from a collapsing ice cave.
Extinguishing a fire while battling elemental bugs.
Protecting a prince from assassins.
Holding back efreet long enough to open a portal and escape the City of Brass.
Convincing a fallen angel to return to the light before he kills the PCs.
Yes, as Knifestorm mentioned it's now in the public domain.
When I started Sneak Attack Presses, I decided I did not want to lose money, so the first few books we did were completely public domain art. As we grow that's changing (the interior art in Terrain Toolbox is all original), but CDF's painting just captured what I wanted so perfectly that I don't think I'd want any other piece.
(Amusingly I recently saw a Kickstarter Project that also had the same idea.)
Thanks to our recent Kickstarter Campaign, Terrain Toolbox is now available for the Pathfinder RPG (and with all new interior art!)
Terrain Toolbox is the first in a planned series of books that offer advice and tools for GMs to create more memorable encounters. Terrain Toolbox is designed to increase the creative use of terrain in your game, making battles more dynamic.
The book begins with general advice for designing terrain effect and special abilities. It discusses why we use terrain, different things terrain can do, and how the terrain might change throughout an encounter.
Terrain Toolbox also contains forty-eight sample terrains, including a blood mage's circle, solid clouds, and lightning pillars. Each sample terrain includes advice on how to use the terrains, and most include mechanical and cosmetic variations.
We've blown past our $1,600 stretch goals, so now everybody who pledges to the Kickstarter campaign gets two books for the price of one! At this point you'd be crazy not to sign up. ;)
But there's less than 30 hours left to go, so you'd better join soon.
If you want to learn more, I also did a recent interview for GeekSourcing focused on Alternate Objectives.
We are only three days left until we wrap up this drive! It's already been a great run, and thanks to everybody's support, we have blown way past our initial goal!
If fact, as I write this we are less than $70 from hitting our super stretch-goal of $1,600. This doubles your reward by giving you a copy of Terrain Toolbox in addition to Alternate Objectives. I think we're going to make it, but it's not quite a done deal yet.
If you've been on the fence about contributing, the time is now! Let's make this a great final three days.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
|
Because I have some free time on my hands...
Bacon in the Dark
Adventurer Background
The drow stole your bacon.
Player's introduction
Go get your bacon!
Encounter 1: Kill Drow, Receive Bacon
You see some drow ahead of you. They have your bacon!
Creatures: 1 drow noble commands three drow warriors to transport the stole bacon.
Drow Warrior (3) CR 1/3
135 XP each
hp 5 each (see Pathfinder Beastiary)
Drow Noble CR 3
800 XP
hp 20 (see Pathfinder Beastiary)
Treasure: Your bacon!
Conclusion
Mmm... bacon.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
|
Mmm... bacon...
I know what our next adventure will be about.
We've reached the $1,000 goal!
Now that we've got that done, it's time to focus on our $1,600 goal. If we reach that goal everybody who contributes will double their reward by adding a copy of Terrain Toolbox. We'll use that money to create all new interior art and layout for Terrain Toolbox. Those at Inside Access level will help decide which terrains they want illustrated!
Sneak Attack Press is proud to release our latest adventure, Beacon in the Dark.
The dwarves of Karn Ungil seek to reclaim their former outpost of Ballo Dar from drow invaders. They are sending a small group of spellcasters to sneak into the heart of the outpost and reawaken its magical defenses. The dwarves of Karn Ungil ask the player characters to escort this expedition through the twisting tunnels of the Underlands. While drow attack the group, they face a greater danger. One of them has already betrayed the group from within.
Beacon in the Dark is an adventure for characters level 7-8. It is set in the Underlands, and can be dropped into nearly any campaign or run as a one-shot.
If features:
2 Combat Encounters (including defending a besieged fortress)
1 Skill Encounter
1 New Incantation
Click here to get it now!
We've reached our first stretch goal, so that means we'll commission some professional cartography for Alternate Objectives! We're less than $170 away from our $1,000 stretch goal for original cover art. I think odds are good that we'll make it in the twelve days we have left to go. So you know what that means: Time for another stretch goal!
If we reach $1,600 before the end of the fundraiser, we can redo the interior of Advanced Encounters: Terrain Toolbox with all original art. AND I will do a Pathfinder conversion of Terrain Toolbox.
AND best of all, everybody who has pledged will receive a copy of the book for no additional cost! (Your copy of Terrain Toolbox will be the same format and rules system as Alternate Objectives unless you specify otherwise).
Endzeitgeist wrote: Dumb question: What objectives do you plan to cover? Any ToC-style list yet? Thinking about joining after having reviewed your adventures... As many as I can think of! And I'm always open to suggestions. In fact brainstorming more objectives will likely be a topic for the "Inside Access" forum.
So far I've already written:
Hold (Stay in the area for a certain amount of time)
Protect (Keep bad guys from killing NPCs/destroying MacGuffin)
Escape (Run away!)
Prevent (Stop the bad guys from doing something mean, like opening a [portal to the abyss).
Obtain (Get the MacGuffin)
P.S. Thanks for the reviews! Feed back is always appreciated. (I've already fixed the couple of conversion glitches you mentioned in your Good Little Children review for example).
We did it!
Thanks to you all, we have met our initial funding goal in just eleven days! Alternate Objectives is a go and will have some great art!
But that doesn't mean that this campaign is over, because we've got some great stretch goals. Next up is $800 for some professional cartography. The way things have been going, I'm confident that we'll reach this goal too!
Sneak Attack Press is proud to announce that for Alternate Objectives, we have taken the Kicking it Forward pledge. The idea is pretty simple. By taking the pledge we promise to give 5% of future profits back to fund future Kickstarter projects.
To be clear that NOT 5% of the money we raise on Kickstarter. It is 5% of all of the profits (after expenses) that the book earns for the life of the product!
You have all been so generous to us. We hope to give back.
In just a few days, we're already 60% of the way to our initial funding goal! Thanks to everybody who has supported us so far, and there's still plenty of time to join!
|