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As we teased an in earlier update, the Samurai Sheepdog team was involved in a chat session over on RPGnet, discussing the Fall of Man in more detail. We fielded a lot of great questions about the Fall of Man and what is involved with the setting and we wanted to share the details of the chat in case you couldn't make it. Here is a link to the transcript.
We wanted to let everyone know about the chat we will be involved with tonight through RPGnet. The Samurai Sheepdog team will be chatting live with everyone about the current Kickstarter for Fall of Man, other products we have in development and anything else of interest. We invite you to stop by and ask any questions you may have. We welcome the interaction. Just click on the link and join us tonight from 8-10 pm EST.
I am probably missing a few things on this list but here are a few of the people involved with the book and their experience. Ed Greenwood is best known as the creator of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Ed remains very active in the Realms both through Wizards of the Coast and fan-created websites like Candlekeep. He first contributed to the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting as part of the star-studded design team on the Campaign Setting. Ed has worked on many projects involved with Pathfinder, either directly with Paizo for the RPG line, fiction with the Pathfinder Tales or with numerous Pathfinder compatible projects by third parties. Clinton Boomer is one of many rising stars in the RPG industry who has gained notoriety thanks to Paizo's RPG Superstar competition. Boomer was one of the final four contestants in the 2008 competition and has since contributed to a number of Pathfinder products. He is also well known for co-writing and co-directing the popular D&D PHB PSA series on YouTube. Boomer has also written a number of notable non-Pathfinder sourcebooks including PC Pearls, Reign of Discordia: Death in the Starlit Expanse, and Kobold Quarterly. Richard Lee Byers holds a master's degree in psychology. He is the author of more than fifteen books, including tie-in novels in the Forgotten Realms and Warhammer settings, comic books, and Pathfinder Tales web fiction. Brian Berg ran the very successful Kickstarter for his project Laying Wastes: A Guidebook to Critical Combat which was Pathfinder compatible. Brian has a good knowledge of the Pathfinder system and all it entails. Hal Greenberg was a contributor to Laying Wastes, giving him a working knowledge of the system. Although Samurai Sheepdog has not run any Kickstarters before, Hal Greenberg has been a part of two successful ones, Laying Wastes and The Awakened and was also involved with another successful crowdfunding project for Bluffside with Troll Lord Games. He brings a wealth of knowledge with him about the process and about game design in general.
We posted this over on Reddit in response to some questions about the game. Maybe it will help shed a little light on our thoughts when we were developing the game and give everyone some background. A number of people have requested to know what sets Fall of Man apart from other post-apocalyptic settings including Gamma World, Rifts, Savage Worlds, and Shadowrun (which is not really post-apoc but we include it anyway). The quick answer is tone, but there is so much more to it that I’d like to go into some detail. First let’s talk about the other settings, which currently co-exist on the market, and they co-exist because they are different enough to each find a niche. Before I give summaries of each, please recognize I’m just giving an overview. In no way if I miss a key element of your favorite setting does it mean I think these are all these settings have to offer. They are just quick summaries. One other caveat is that your GM sets HOW the game feels. You might have a light-hearted romp in Gamma World, where your characters are prancing on ponies, firing laser beams at cloud monkeys, and next door another GM has you in a game with an Escape from New York feel. Without further ado, let’s first talk about “fluff” or setting/plot story info: Gamma World: Gamma World takes a path pulled from the 60-80’s post-apoc settings, but has its underpinnings more in a (TV) Buck Rogers/Logan’s Run outside the main cities or battlefield earth without (or perhaps with for some GM’s) aliens. However it is set far in the future. Its Reese’s Cup is a mix of Fantasy, Post-Apoc and Sci-Fi. Shadowrun: Shadowrun is not so post-apoc but pre-apoc(ish). Its Reese’s Cup is Blade Runner, 80-90’s internet/virtual reality feel mixed with its type of fantasy. Savage Worlds: More of a rules system then a setting, a number of Savage Worlds are post-apoc. I think the biggest thing here is Savage World tends to stay human-centric. Rifts: Rifts is awesome in its embrace of the Lovecraftian, and is chock-full of great items, gear and stories. Like Gamma World it is set far in the future and has energy weapons, juicers and its Reese’s Cup is full of Blade Runner meets Mad Max meets a bit of Spacehulk, meets some fantasy. Fall of Man: Fall of Man is primarily about conflict. Conflict between what we would call “the real” (current technology, Earth’s various religion belief systems, etc) and the “unreal” (magic, a pantheon of gods, monsters, horrors from our dreams, etc). Its setting time sits extremely close to the apocalypse of its storyline and unlike others, it was not nuclear war apocalypse, but a meteor which should have destroyed the world. That distinction matters because the world DID NOT survive. Instead what “saved” the world is the crux of Fall of Man. Magic. Midnar, the enigmatic being that created Gothos as an offshoot of Earth and its people was the one that saved Earth. All was fine with the coexistence of the two worlds, until Satan’s Maul threatened the survival of Earth, and in turn, Gothos. Midnar had to choose – do nothing and allow Earth to be destroyed, in turn destroying Gothos or sacrificing his creation and allowing many of the creatures, and Gods, of Gothos to cross back over to Earth before he allowed Gothos to bear the destructive forces of the meteor. Since Midnar, after a long time had passed, was still weakened from the power he spent in his creation of Gothos, it was not a perfect transition/protection leaving Earth in much ruin and Gothos utterly obliterated (but enough survived to allow for cool dimensional crossover adventures). The Reese’s Cup of Fall of Man would be magical fantasy mixed with the real ruined world of the near future. Crunch: All the other settings bring together their worlds with distinct rule systems. However we wanted to make the barrier to entry as low as possible. Fall of Man has crunch rules to assist in obtaining a gritty feel but more importantly they are designed to work with multiple systems. The best known of which is Pathfinder. Thus the GM can lay the rules onto their preferred system and get going with the feel. This distinction is imbued in both story and crunch, and gives GM’s a sandbox of content which can stay consistent to the voice they want to use. This sets up a series of possibilities for GM’s who have wanted to do post-apocalyptic but had difficulty shoe-horning their players into doing it.
We at Samurai Sheepdog and the Fall of Man team appreciate any and all support for our Kickstarter and for the product itself. We look forward to showing you more about the setting and the system that has us so excited. Stay tuned Oceanshieldwolf...even you might change your mind. :)
The Kickstarter is moving along and we are happy with the progress so far. As we teased last night though, we would like to make a special announcement about the Fall of Man team and someone we would like to welcome. We are elated and excited to announce that award winning RPG Game Designer JIM BUTLER will be making his return to RPGs by joining us on the Fall of Man setting. He brings many years of game design, editorial, and creative direction experience to the table and will offer a unique perspective to the new ruined Earth. Jim worked at TSR as editor and game designer, ultimately making the move to Seattle to serve as brand manager for ALTERNITY and the 3rd Edition launch of the Forgotten Realms for Wizards of the Coast. He also founded Bastion Press, where he led the creation of many products under the Open Gaming License. He never lost his love for tabletop gaming—he’s currently running a Pathfinder® game on Roll20—and now joins the Fall of Man team. "I am excited to be working with my old friends Doug and Hal to develop the Fall of Man into the kind of setting where players and GMs alike eagerly await the next game session." To say we are excited that Jim is joining the Fall of Man team would be an understatement. Welcome to the team Jim!
When the world was to end, inexplicably, it did not. The year is 2061, 30 years since the meteor known as Satan’s Maul slammed into the Atlantic Ocean, causing what scientists predicted should have been an extinction level event. However, Earth had ties beyond those known to man. When all our technology had failed us and our world was being torn asunder, it was magic which stitched and scabbed the world whole again. Today technology and magic fight a silent war for domination; the One God of Earth battles the many gods of Gothos; the magic world merged with earth to sustain it and humans fight for survival in a world now infested with orcs, dragons, elves and even more nightmarish creations. Welcome to the Fall of Man. The Fall of Man Kickstarter is LIVE. From the award winning members of Samurai Sheepdog and featuring the writing talent of Ed Greenwood, Richard Lee Byers, Ken Shannon, Doug Herring and many others, the Fall of Man RPG promises to be a great addition to any gaming shelf. What is it and what do you get? Fall of Man is a post apocalyptic-gothic-horror-fantasy RPG set on ruined Earth. The Fall of Man Corebook with all the knowledge you need to play right at the beginning for Pathfinder and PDF conversions for 13th Age, Fate and Castles & Crusades (SIEGE). A Kickstarter Exclusive 32+ page bonus book full of additional "crunch" content for your players.
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