| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
Our giant source book for the fey just launched!
It's the continuation of The Faerie Ring, and there's powerful fey lords, new fey monsters, fey player races and character options, fey planes and cities, and more. Tons of the wonderfully weird for players and GMs alike.
Play as a fir bolg, bitterclaw, darkling, goodfellow, wyrd, putti, twilight child, black hat, kitsune, matabiri... maybe a sidhe. Bring some plane-hopping fey adventure to your game: Kickstarter for The Faerie Ring
Just uploaded a 41-page sample PDF for THE FAERIE RING. It's linked in our Kickstarter update #3. For the curious, it's fancy frolicking free fey fun!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm going to chime in as a fan as well. I am backing because I always hoped to see more from this series which began with such promise, then faded away almost as soon as it started.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I just joined the Kickstarter, Scott!
And I agree 100% with Wolfgang ... Zombie Sky Press' prior Faerie titles (as well as their other PF work involving spirit magic and alien/interstellar play) are all must-haves for those who want to enjoy & implement premiere quality fey material into their Pathfinder gaming endeavours.
I constantly use ZSP's Faerie Ring: Along the Twisting Way material in my Forgotten Realms Pathfinder campaign world. It's all excellent crunch, fluff, art and concept work. So I can't wait for this Kickstarter to be funded!
So glad everyone's enjoying our work!
We have an all-star lineup of talented designers, developers, and artists on this one, just itching to show you how ferocious and flighty and fantastic the fey are.
We posted a new update at the Kickstarter page for The Faerie Ring. This time we give more details on new fey player races. And there's an amazing kitsune illustration from Domenico Neziti!
I did a bunch of work for this-- excited to see it getting a KS launch!
-Ben.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just posted another Kickstarter update for The Faerie Ring. Including the text here for your reading pleasure:
One of the key aspects of The Faerie Ring, we built new whim-fueled locations filled with secrets and violence, intrigue and adventure. These tend to take three forms: the preternatural planes, the demesnes of the fey lords, and fey cities and other sites of power.
THE PRETERNATURAL PLANES
These are the Realms of the Fey. A new type of plane that's easy to slot into your campaign as a faerie otherworld. (The "Sample of The Faerie Ring" PDF linked in Update #3 goes into greater detail.)
The Preternatural Planes—countless in number and constantly changing—are inextricably linked to the Material Plane, existing on its very edges and orbiting like moons. Sheathing the Material Plane, they dance around it in complex patterns, each plane’s cycle as unique as the plane itself. At one extreme is the Astral Plane, stubborn and still, content to fill its given role and never budge its course. Others go so far as to periodically overlap and coexist with the Material Plane. And just as the analogous moons, the planes are constantly waxing and waning in relation to the Material Plane, advancing and receding in their influence.
They are entangled so closely with the Material Plane that they often behave as a single, highly complex plane. Perhaps, the Preternatural Planes are simply layers in a vaster Material Plane within which what we now call the Material Plane is but the dominant layer—for now, anyway.
For the most part, these realms are reasonably similar to the Material Plane, sharing many qualities but for a significant emphasis on some force or characteristic. The Plane of Shadow, for instance, resembles a Material Plane engulfed and twisted by shadow. Planar traits can vary widely, of course, and some Preternatural Planes are so bizarrely idiosyncratic that they seem baffling and unsettling to those from more “normal” realms. Scholars busily try to make sense of it all, of course, using science and magic to seek patterns to the mysteries, plotting the vastness of unlimited realities on complex maps and in intricate orreries that seek to mirror reality itself. Some secrets, however, may not be coaxed away from the selfish planes so easily, and it can be perilous to pry.
Here are merely a handful of the Preternatural Planes:
Aralu (or the Gaol of Always): The endless subterranean labyrinths of Aralu serve as a terrible, secret prison for the fey. No one admits to knowing its origins although, of course, one hears rumors. I’m told the chambered caverns seem to extend to forever, no one knowing just how far or the number of prisoners held within. Many of the inhabitants are artifacts of forgotten ages. What secrets must they must hold.
Dream (or Dreamtime, the Dreamlands, the Plane of Dreams): A meandering but pervasive realm of dreams and nightmares, this plane connects all those entities with the capacity for dream. A constantly changing realm, whose natives flit along, following the currents of dream.
Nibiru: The Hidden Crossing, the Lost Alleyways, Nibiru is the unseen framework of the multiverse. The behind-the-scenes byways that connect one plane to another. If you know how to get here, there's nowhere you can't go. Finding your way back is another story entirely.
Nowhere (or Plane of the Lost): Where do lost things go? Nowhere. All of the things ever lost can be found in Nowhere. And once things find their way to Nowhere, they typically stay. This junkyard realm is not an easy place to leave, for Mahu is the door, and he jealously guards what he considers his—which includes anything and everything within Nowhere. It is not just objects, though; creatures are caught within its borders as well, giving rise to odd ecologies as creatures of random races are forced to make do within the vast fields of junk.
Sea of Rahab: As if entrapping the darkest and most terrible depths of the sea, the Sea of Rahab is a watery nightmare created during the fall and rebirth of the Chaosbringer, Rahab. Forever, she occupies her throne within, choreographing the chaos. Of late, her twisted children stir more than usual and are beginning to cast their gaze beyond the borders to which they had grown accustomed.
CITIES AND SITES OF POWER
Within those planes are the fey cities and centers of power. This is where gather the masses for courtly feasts, launching raids on the humans, buying and selling of things that would make a golem blush, gathering of shadowy cabals, and more.
Here are merely a handful of important fey centers:
The Embassy: Nestled in the crossroads realm of the Eternal Twilight, the Embassy is the center of the faerie world. It serves as neutral ground where the various courts (both Seelie and Unseelie) meet, whether in grievance or revelry, in accord with ancient treaties.
Those lands peripheral to the Embassy are claimed by various of the more powerful fey lords and are anything but neutral ground, being typically strongly contested.
The Goblin Market: This massive, city-sized market is never in the same place twice with its dizzying array of exotic goods and its cutthroat mercantile ecosystem. It is a sea of fey and non-fey, all looking for that special something: a memory, an exotic slave, a forgotten dinner set, a lost god in a bottle, the way out.
Kalapa (in Shambhala): The submerged city of the matabiri is not really as the legends would have it. The tales of Shambhala as the land of the peaceful and pure were lies to draw in more test subjects. It is really a den of nightmares from which few escape.
Perdition: A vast necropolis, Perdition rests in Purgatory—a soul trap for the dead and a very unpleasant place. Here, the resident lost souls are lorded over by mysterious fey, the so-called angels of death. Are they jailers—or are they prisoners, too? All the plane’s inhabitants cling to mythical claims of a path out of Perdition but continue in their unending unlife as its citizens.
Tír na nÓg (in Mag Mell): The Morrigan's own twisting demesne city. It is the Escher-like home of her minions the sidhe. Her rule here is absolute, and you are always in terrible danger should you find yourself within its walls.
Xibalba: Mysterious walled city at the end of all time and creation. None have breached its walls to find more.
Zussael: The great city-state of the Darkling Dominance. Impossibly tall spires, swaying to the seeming breaking point, oddly angled alleyways, and a shifting layout, the shadowy darklings call this city home and headquarters.
DEMESNES
Fey sovereigns possess a connection with their demesnes from birth. These demiplanes are an extension of themselves: sovereigns are either born in the demesne’s tender grasp or immediately hear its call and seek it out. Their demesne is specifically linked to them. It is theirs. Its traits and landscape are completely controlled and alterable by the sovereign, slowly molding and remolding in tune to each sovereign’s subconscious over the course of a lifetime or rapidly shifting in response to conscious manipulation.
Sovereigns can travel back and forth from their demesnes at will and, seemingly, even draw power from them when needed. Each demesne can exist either as a pocket dimension (a demiplane with attributes according solely to its sovereign’s whim) or superimposed over part of another plane, again at the sovereign’s whim. For most sovereigns, this latter method is typically only possible with the Material and Preternatural Planes serving as host planes although certain lords have been known to travel the multiverse, latching on to whatever plane is available. When superimposed, the host plane is pushed from the demesne’s insertion point to its periphery, possibly creating an incongruous seam. Kept too long like this, the demesne risks becoming a permanent addition to the host plane: Manitou’s abdicated lands, for instance, have long since “taken root.”
Mogwoi sovereigns are alone in possessing no true demesnes. However, they can form permanent links with portions of the Material Plane; such a territory acts as a surrogate demesne and, indeed, is typically called their demesne. These mogwoi territories are typically remote and dangerous. Though not as malleable as the true demesnes of other sovereigns, they still respond and lend their power to their mogwoi lords in a limited capacity.
Should a sovereign be permanently destroyed, his or her demesne collapses if a demiplane. However, those demesnes that have bonded to another plane—and, of course, mogwoi territories—remain but become twisted and warped.
Here are merely a handful of demesnes:
Heartwood: Korapira’s demesne, the Heartwood lies as the hub of the Green Expanse, connecting all the old, dark forests of the multiverse. Its shifting boundaries suffuse with other forests and make possible passage even between planes. Of course, without knowing the paths of power, it’s almost impossible not to get lost, which can prove disastrous.
Korapira's living and growing Palace of Leaves, breathtakingly composed entirely from the surrounding forest, and the vast Gardens of Sheol, exquisite flowers and elaborate landscapes where Korapira's perverse experiments take place, take up its majority.
Scáthbaile: Queen Mab's demesne of Scáthbaile is a land of dreams and darkness, though this makes it sounds stranger than it is. The trees tower hundreds of feet high. The moon glides above the forest, fully thrice the size it appears in the familiar skies of mortal lands. Within the pale white halls of the queen's Shell Palace are hundreds of star sprites, who provide most of the illumination. Indeed, those sprites who have displeased her are often chained into Queen Mab's chandelier for days or even weeks.
Strangle Grove: Red jack's adopted demesne, Strangle Grove appears to have developed a spark of sentience. It has much more control over itself than other demesnes do. It is capable of morphing its features at an alarming rate and has developed quite the imagination over the years in shaping itself. Very much the predator, it devours those hapless souls that find themselves within its borders. It is allowed to pretty much do as it pleases as long as its actions support Red Jack’s goals.
Oh the demesnes are *creepy*...AND WERE SO MUCH FUN TO EDIT. :3
Now with 100% more Boomer, I hear.
Now with 100% more Boomer, I hear.
Absolutely! Boomer is joining our troupe of merry fey designers. He's working on some fun player options now.
We also have monsters! In addition to the lords and player races, we have the...
silent ones
yaksha
gaunt
pipe fox
windraker
faun
pooka
bigmouth
ghost fox
chittering creeper
cu sith
cwn annwn
cwn wybyr
feyhound
hagfish
liminal outland
sheol blossom
star sprite
gremlins (various)
gibbet poppets
doldrums
the furies
shimmer dogs
darkling beast
grue
...and more!
Plus, several unique monsters, like...
Jack-in-Irons
Daughters of Mahri
Mallt-y-Nos, the Dog Mother
Slaine, the Gray king
Puck
The Faerie Ring is moving along wonderfully toward being funded! Today, we'll post about fey magic and stretch goals.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
With 100% more me as well. :D
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Beyond the fact that the crunch-&-fluff content of this KS looks absolutely amazing and perfect for my gaming groups and I .... I'm also extremely impressed with the roster of the designers & developers participating in the project. Many of my 3PP favorites are in that All-Star group.
And Shemeska/Todd to boot! I'm stoked to see this thing get funded and beyond.
Do you think you will make it?
I do hope so. That's a fair amount of money being asked for during one of the worst times of year to run a Kickstarter, however. There are a lot of competing projects, not just in 3pp Pathfinder but in gaming and even beyond in geekery in general.
Traditionally, Kickstarters tend to have a curve. A lot at the beginning. A very dull middle. A lot at the end. My hope is the upswing at the end is much higher than the rise at the beginning.
Do you think you will make it?I do hope so. That's a fair amount of money being asked for during one of the worst times of year to run a Kickstarter, however. There are a lot of competing projects, not just in 3pp Pathfinder but in gaming and even beyond in geekery in general.
Traditionally, Kickstarters tend to have a curve. A lot at the beginning. A very dull middle. A lot at the end. My hope is the upswing at the end is much higher than the rise at the beginning.
I'm optimistic we can do it! The talent is top notch, and there'll be over 300 gorgeous, full-color pages. :)
We're seeing new backers every day. And we just announced the Magic Guide in the latest update. This is a third book for backers and details the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, ritual magic, and more distinctly fey magical options.
Mmm. Full color.
Me too. Scott, like the lovely Mr Baur, produces fabulous stuff.
Rich
AMAZING!
Looking likely but it's always tough. Man, I want this book to happen.
Me too! Your stuff was amazing to read (...and edit)!
Looking forward to this. I was fortunate enough to contribute to It Came from the Star and that book came out beautifully (and also hitting Endzeitgeist's Top 10 list for that year).
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Been busy getting another PDF sample together. It's a bit of the Manitou chapter along with the twilight children (a player race and one of his servitor races) along with an archetype just for them. I'll let you know soon where and when you can check that out.
And some wonderful stretch-goal news...
James Sutter, Architect of Paizo's First World(!) and a Super-Fine Storyteller, will write one of the new fey lord chapters.
AND...
Robert Schwalb, Creator of Shadow of the Demon Lord and a World-Class Devourer of Souls, will write one of the new fey lord chapters.
You can help make this happen.
A Jeff Grubb chapter added to the stretch goals!
And another preview is up at ENworld.
Over half way there. More soon!
Still need just over $8,500 to be fully funded, 7 days left...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I hope that anyone who is on the fence about this KS gives it another look. The sheer quantity and quality of this creative Fey endeavour looks to be absolutely off the charts. Plus, it's all All-Star cast of designers and developers working on this project.
While $ is kinda tight for everyone this time of year, this KS was an absolute no-brainer for me. Scott Gable's prior Fey-themed projects for Pathfinder rules gives me a strong indication that this project will be truly epic in scope.
New sample pages ready! Here's part of the Manitou chapter, which also includes the twilight children (or changelings) as a playable race. A sample archetype is included for these elusive fey.
Going to try to get in on this before it ends.
We've just added 12 fey adventures for 2016. Want a steady supply of shenanigans for gaming? Come to the Fey Side!
Check out our fey setting The Faerie Ring. We've got 6 days left to fund.
In the final stretch: Just 3 days left and $7110 still to go to hit full funding (not to mention the nifty stretch goals).
I was pretty worried about the Aethera Campaign Kickstarter too, but it had farther to go and still made it. The Faerie Ring is already over $1300 closer than it was only this afternoon. With only $5755 left to go, I think it's got a great shot of making it.
Edit: Still, if anyone wanted to post about it on Facebook or a blog, it certainly wouldn't hurt.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just updated the twilight child sample with some racial stats and feats for Pathfinder: The Twilight Children.
Twilight children are the lost and stolen and half-breed children known to many as changelings. Or the Fair Folk. Given their mixed heritage, they have a variety of options that will be further developed in The Faerie Ring, including taking on aspects of their lords (like Manitou).
... Play as a fir bolg, bitterclaw, darkling, goodfellow, wyrd, putti, twilight child, black hat, kitsune, matabiri... maybe a sidhe. Bring some plane-hopping fey adventure to your game: Kickstarter for The Faerie Ring
Scott ... I'm curious if you can give us a teaser as to what a "Black Hat" might be. Possibly related to Redcaps?
... Play as a fir bolg, bitterclaw, darkling, goodfellow, wyrd, putti, twilight child, black hat, kitsune, matabiri... maybe a sidhe. Bring some plane-hopping fey adventure to your game: Kickstarter for The Faerie RingScott ... I'm curious if you can give us a teaser as to what a "Black Hat" might be. Possibly related to Redcaps?
Yeah! The black hats are actually corruptions of the far darrig (which I wrote back in Kobold Quarterly). The latter are gnome-like tricksters that wield illusion from their hats. The black hats,though, have gone down the path of necromancy and death, and pull nastier things from their hats. In our setting, they both fall under the gnomekin subtype (which we would also include redcaps in).
So yes, they will have some similarities to redcaps, though less of the bloody violence and more of the steal (and sell!) your soul violence.
We'll be updating the far darrig and creating the black hats new. Both are player races. And there will be other gnomekin.
In the final stretch: Just 3 days left and $7110 still to go to hit full funding (not to mention the nifty stretch goals).
Roughly $3800 left with two days to go. Looks like it's going to make it just under the wire. Hopefully people realize the depth this supplement will add to their game.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This time, we wanted to show off some of our newest content with some darklings (a new player race): The Darklings.
(This one has 5E mechanics, but the flavor will be the same as for Pathfinder.)
Kindred to the shadow and tormented by their ancestors, darklings are strong-willed fey that call the Plane of Shadow home. They live in constant fear of their dark heritage, never knowing when their darkling curse will consume them, turning them into terrible beasts.
This draft is very much a work-in-progress, but we wanted to give an idea of where we're going with our 5E development. There will be more class variants and backgrounds and magic and other options for players. Along with, of course the shadowy monsters--like the grue!--and details on the city of Zussael for GMs.
And there's a new darkling illustration, also still in progress, in the latest update.
I'm as excited to see this new material come in as you are! ;D
JUST ONE DAY LEFT TO JOIN IN!
... Play as a fir bolg, bitterclaw, darkling, goodfellow, wyrd, putti, twilight child, black hat, kitsune, matabiri... maybe a sidhe. Bring some plane-hopping fey adventure to your game: Kickstarter for The Faerie RingScott ... I'm curious if you can give us a teaser as to what a "Black Hat" might be. Possibly related to Redcaps?
Yeah! The black hats are actually corruptions of the far darrig (which I wrote back in Kobold Quarterly). The latter are gnome-like tricksters that wield illusion from their hats. The black hats,though, have gone down the path of necromancy and death, and pull nastier things from their hats. In our setting, they both fall under the gnomekin subtype (which we would also include redcaps in).
So yes, they will have some similarities to redcaps, though less of the bloody violence and more of the steal (and sell!) your soul violence.
We'll be updating the far darrig and creating the black hats new. Both are player races. And there will be other gnomekin.
Wonderful, wonderful stuff, Scott! And thank you for the quick and evocative detail! I'm really heartened to see the Kickstarter gaining such strong momentum in its final hours. I was able to gently persuade one of my West Coast friends to jump on board earlier today. Also, every single teaser and showcase update has been pure gold ... so I'm really stoked to get the final product in my hands. Best o' the luck of the Fae, the rest of the way!
Woo-hoo! Less than $750 to go to hit the first stretch goal for a new chapter!
Well done