Kaidan campaign setting (PFRPG) Kickstarter Project

Harrrbinger · Jul 19, 2012

Kaidan campaign setting (PFRPG): Last year, Rite Publishing, with the support of Cubicle 7 Entertainment, released “The Curse of the Golden Spear” trilogy of modules for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. These critically acclaimed adventure modules introduced players and Game Masters alike to the island realm of Kaidan. Now [they] are ready to take the next step: the production of a campaign guidebook, detailing more fully the people and places of Kaidan.

An oriental fantasy-horror setting, Kaidan derives its mythos exclusively from the legends and histories of Japan. The very word, Kaidan, is Japanese for ghost story, or spooky tale, and such a name is apropos. Ruled over by an undying shogun in the name of an immortal child emperor, Kaidan is a land of trapped souls, restless dead, vengeful demons and afflicted spirits. In Kaidan, death is never the end, but only one more unhappy spoke in a bleak and twisted karmic cycle. Here, adventurers are sorely needed, if only to hold back the darkness a little longer.

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gamerprinter · Jul 19, 2012

The goal is to create 3 Kaidan Campaign Setting books, as : full color soft cover, with B/W interiors.

Tier 1-2 (150 - 200 page) Complete Gamemaster's Guide to Kaidan
Tier 3 (150 page) Complete Players Guide to Kaidan
Tier 4 (90+ page) Kaidan Bestiary

The GM's Guide will take a top-down view of Kaidan, with an overview of the islands' history, cultures, religions, economics, it's specific dark curse and it's ramifications with Divine Magic. The book will cover the 3 major islands and many of the smaller islets of the Kaidan archipelago - including it's 17 provinces, and some of the more unique locations found there. We want to include Haunted locations, curses, insanities, drugs, hazards, special terrains and much more.

The Player's Guide will be from a more personalized perspective reviewing the way of life from the various social castes, superstitions, suppositions - a slightly skewed view of the reality of the setting without revealing the dark secrets that the players will learn over time as they play in the setting. All character options from races and new classes, to archetypes, traits, feats, spells, and equipment will be included in this tome.

Finally a Bestiary featuring illustrations by Mark Hyzer, with 3 pages of entry and stat block for each monster or template. We will gather all the beasts from our modules and supplements, then create brand new monsters that fit a dark fantasy Japan setting, best.

The more backers participating means, once we achieve Tier 4, we get a larger bestiary.

We hope to achieve all of that. However, if only the GM's Guide gets funded, then that is what we'll produce.

gamerprinter · Jul 20, 2012

Both as incentive and as an explanation, the reason for the jump from Tier 1 to Tier 2, with only 50 more pages for the Complete Gamemaster's Guide to Kaidan is maps, about a dozen of them. Our hope is to include a dozen specific interesting locations in Kaidan, in addition to the full archipelago and regional maps of the islands.

The following is one of the locations I hope to place - if we make the budget. This is the tengu village of Akayama (red mountain). These will have it's own dedicated gazetteer page describing the locations within.

Nine Bridges of Akayama map

Enjoy! And I hope we made the budget to include these.

gamerprinter · Jul 22, 2012

3 days in and we're at 56% towards the Tier 1 goal. Thank you everyone for backing this so far, and hope more join or at least help spread the word.

gamerprinter · Jul 22, 2012

For those unfamiliar with Kaidan and the currently available line of Kaidan setting products from Rite Publishing, check out our free one-shot adventure, Frozen Wind released last Halloween.

As for testmonials, consider these excerpts from some of the past reviews of our products...

Excerpt from a review of 30 Haunts for Kaidan:

"It's my favorite Pathfinder setting so far! ...I’m a big fan of Japanese folklore and if I’m going to play a D&D-esque game, I prefer a more esoteric setting like Kaidan."
Alex Lucard, DieHard GameFAN.

Excerpt from a review of The Gift, Curse of the Golden Spear 1:

"...the subsequent horror-encounters are demented, dark and deadly and rank among the finest I've read in quite a while - Kaidan manages to walk the tight rope between horror and fantasy with a deceptive ease and furthermore accomplishes the feat of being unique and captivating as both a setting and an adventure. Fans of Ravenloft HAVE to check this out. Fans of Gothic Horror should check this out. Fans of the darker aspects of Japanese folklore and mythology have to check this out."
Endzeitgeist

gamerprinter · Jul 23, 2012

The following is an illustration of a Same-Bito (shark shapechanger), one of the many illustrations by Mark Hyzer we plan to include in the Kaidan Bestiary if we get the chance to create it in this Kickstarter.

gamerprinter · Jul 23, 2012

On Day 5 we are at 60% towards our Tier 1 goal, or 34% to Tier 2.

Steve Russell has added a few more payment tiers and added some/all of the Kaidan PDFs released so far as bonus material for pledging.

We thank you all, keep pledging and keep spreading the word - this is bound to be successful!

gamerprinter · Jul 25, 2012

Sitting about 70% to first goal.

If we can make it to the Player's Guide, not only will the great new classes and archetypes from the 3 race guides (kappa, tengu and henge)and the 2 factions guides (samurai and yakuza), there'll be new options for ninja, monks, and more exotic classes like necrotic-infused warriors, accupuncturists, yurei hunters (specialized in handling haunts and ghosts), exorcists and spirit necromancers.

There are lots of cool stuff we want to put into your Pathfinder campaign.

Please share with your friends and support our Kickstarter project!

gamerprinter · Jul 26, 2012

Kaidan is designed using authenticity in Japanese culture, folklore and legends, even our maps emulate the styles of Japanese wood block print art.

This is a close up view of one of the islands of Kaidan, called Yonshu:

Yonshu Map

Wicht · Jul 27, 2012

Each of us involved in the project, from designer (me) to editor (Dave Paul) to cartographer (Michael Tumey), are looking forward to the opportunity to do this. If anyone has any questions about Kaidan, feel free to ask them - and we hope that you can at least like our Kickstarter page on any social media sites you are involved with and help us get a few more eyes on the page.