Urban Horror In A Corrupt City: A Setting & Adventure Path for 5E, Pathfinder, and S&W

Frog God Games has sent along an enormous ten-page preview of The Blight: Richard Pett's Crooked City. For D&D 5E, Pathfinder, and Swords & Wizardry, this book details a decadent and corrupt city. Richard Pett created Dungeon Magazine's The Styes, worked on Paizo's adventure paths, and originally created this city for Pathfinder. A Swords & Wizardry conversion followed, and now a 5E version is coming! This enormous 900-page book contains a poster map, a full guide to the city (with new classes, player options, races, and 13 city districts) plus an entire urban horror adventure path called Levee, "set within the rotten and degenerate urban confines of the city, where the PCs must scratch and claw their way to survival starting at 1st level and continuing through 9 adventures all the way to 10th level and above."

Below is the D&D 5E version of the ten-page preview. When you've finished looking at that, head on over to the Kickstarter and back it! It has 13 days to go and is two-thirds funded. It's $50 for the PDF or $135 for the hardcover, but for that you get 900 pages of setting and adventure path, which is a big, big book - bigger than Monte Cook's Ptolus: City By The Spire, bigger than the War of the Burning Sky compiled adventure path, bigger than Hero System 5th Edition Revised, bigger than Tome of Horrors Complete and Rappan Athuk, bigger than Talislanta 4E, and nearly as big as The Slumbering Tsar (which edges it out at 937 pages).

 

[mach1.9pants]

The latest, post 80k, update had this:

I should also mention, since it has been asked and had never been formally stated in the product descriptions for add-ons and stretch goals: If we sell a thing in PF and S&W rules, then there will be a 5e version as well. Right now, for the books, there will only be a 5e pdf version, but as soon as we hit that $100k goal, those will all become available as 5e print products as well. Anyway, just in case there was any confusion I wanted to go ahead and get that info out there. And I have updated the KS text itself to reflect this. So tell all your 5e friends what's going on here. Make sure those who are backing for the main book are aware that the add-ons and stretch goals can be had in 5e as well.

As pointed out above the players guide thingy is pathfinder only, mostly cos it is full of prestige classes etc. But that is only one of several add ons

 

[variant]

Usually I just pass over campaign settings people write because they are all very generic in their attempt to be somehow different. This one actually caught my attention. I certainly would like to know more about the world. Not sure $150 is something I would want to spend on a single book though.

 

[qu0zl]

Variant, I'd read some of the updates on the kickstarter. The writing, atmosphere and uniqueness come through very well and would give a better idea if it's something you'd enjoy.

I'm running a campaign in the Frogs Lost Lands campaign setting and it is a fairly generic but dark fantasy setting. All the better to accept all their massive works, I guess. And it's the works themselves like Slumbering Tsar or Cyclopean Deeps that are the special bits imo.

The Blight is a even less typical fantasy appearing part of it though

 

[mach1.9pants]

I'll second that motion, to best understand what you are getting, go to the Kickstarter and read the updates. Rich is going through an A to Z of The Blight. What he writes days so much more, and so so so much better, than what us mere mortals can ( though I'm happy being mortal and somewhere within the realms of normality, Rich I'm not so sure about...)

 

[Luz]

All the adventures definitely are. I believe it's everything except the players handbook as that is a collection of all the new player pathfinder rules crunch and there won't be enough of that in 5e to require the book.

I just upped my pledge to include The Crucible and Bloody Jack modules. Both sound awesome but I was hard pressed to choose as there are some great add-ons.

Just over $17,000 to go before we get the 5e hardcover.

 

[rich pett]

Huzzah! Luz, and thank you kindly. It's good to hear the possibility of when with the 5e rather than if, I really hope we can bring the 5e folks a printed book and access to those juicy limited ones too. Keep spreading the word and come over and have a look if you haven't already, variant there are lots of updates as Flash says over there to give you a good idea of the setting...

 

[Charles Wright]

Update just posted by Greg Vaughan: (There WILL be a 5E print monster book no matter if we meet the the ability to do a print version for 5E... still hoping, though, as we're only 15k short right now).

More Stretch Goals Unlocked and A BLIGHT MONSTER BOOK!!

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The last 24 hours has seen us top $84,000 and unlock both The Blight Player's Handbook and Brandon Hodge's occult adventure extraordinaire The Crooked Nail. Now we are barely over $1,000 away from Richard Pett's free Blight novella Scoured to the Bone and just over $3,000 away from Bill Webb's vaunted entry into the Blight with his gruesome adventure Children of the Harvest.

In addition, as has been our tradition with breaching stretch goals in this campaign, I've added some new ones to further whet your appetites, and these are perhaps the most significant ones yet (other than the obvious granddaddy of stretch goals, which is to make a 5e print version of The Blight). Why are these so significant, you ask? Because they are the addition of a new monster book - The Tome of Blighted Horrors.

This softcover book includes the 24 new monsters and templates already included in the Bestiary chapter of The Blight (also found when that chapter is replicated in The Blight GM Guide), but adds 8 additional monsters to it (bringing the total up to 32) plus adds examples of encounters and sample lairs. These new monsters and the sample encounters and lairs will not be found anywhere else except within this book; it is the only way to get this expanded material. And, as you'll note in the continuing stretch goals, the number of new monsters in the book just keeps going up until there are a total of 56 monsters in it (all still for the same original price of $12) just before we hit the 5e print version stretch goal at $100,000.

But wait! There's one more thing! This is a monster book, and Frog God Games loves our monster books -- especially those of a Tome of Horrors variety. So we're breaking from stance on 5e print versions with this book. By that I mean, even if we do not make the $100,000 5e print version goal for this Kickstarter, The Tome of Blighted Horrors will still be produced in a print version for 5e along with Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry. Allow me to repeat that:

The Tome of Blighted Horrors will be in print for 5e, PF, and S&W even if we don't hit the 100k 5e print goal.

So join in and spread the news to 5e fans everywhere. Even if they don't want a whole campaign setting or a pdf, they might still like a book of new, twisted, and depraved monsters, the likes of which could only be found in the Blight.

Greg

 

[Luz]

Count me in, I've signed on for the Tome of Blighted Horrors and The Crooked Nail. Brandon Hodge has written some wonderfully creepy adventures like Feast of Ravenmoor and From Shore To Sea, both of which gave my players nightmares. Can't wait to see some of his work for 5e.

You guys are awesome.

 

[qu0zl]

Brandon Hodge has written some wonderfully creepy adventures like Feast of Ravenmoor

Oh, that's really interesting, Luz. Thanks.

Here's a review I posted on paizo.com back in May for it:

I've had so much fun GM'ing this. The party I'm running it for is still only half-way through the module but I've had so much fun that I wanted to post a review up now.

It's quirky, weird and there's plenty of opportunities to really creep your players out. In a fun way There's also a wonderful opportunity for 1 of your players to get separated from the group without anyone knowing what's happened to them. One of my players did what his character would have done and stumbled right into it. It's adding to the dramatic tension during the break between sessions.

So far it's been really RP heavy, which has been very fun. The 2nd half is clearly going to be a lot more hack'n'slash. I can't picture it being as much fun as the first half but that's just because the first half is so much fun. I'm another vote for creepy southern accents from the GM - think Deliverance, The Hills Have Eyes, etc.

Fun.

I'll definitely get this adventure, now that you've helped me put 2 and 2 together.

 

[Greg V]

The Last 60 Hours and the 5e Catch-22

We're down to the final 2-1/2 days of The Blight Kickstarter, and we've not only funded recently but have been smashing through stretch goals.

We're now over $85,000 and seriously eyeing that $100,000 stretch goal where The Blight suddenly becomes a 5e print product! But here's the rub:

There are a lot of 5e fans that are still not ready to commit to a print version of the book until they're sure that there will be a print version of the book, and there can't be a print version of the book until there are enough 5e fans that are committed.

So that's our Catch-22. And I don't think that the 5e fans that are on the fence have unreasonable concerns. I mean, unless you'd like another version of the print book just as much and would be content with a 5e pdf, then that's a lot of money to invest in the possibility of hitting the goal. I fully understand.

But this is the point where we really need you to step up so we can get there. And if at the end of the campaign it appears that we are coming up short, then by all means reduce your pledge accordingly. You can do that at any time prior to when the Kickstarter ends. But we really need you right now so that other 5e fans can see the trending as well.

Remember, this product was written before 5e was released. So we didn't originally have the option of writing/releasing it as a 5e book and had never intended to make such a massively huge and expensive book as a test-case of the 5e market. But the overwhelming demand of 5e fans feeling slighted or disappointed that we had not included them in The Blight showed us what you wanted and made us put our money where our mouth is. So we committed early on to doing a 5e conversion of The Blight and including it's pdf in the campaign. Doing this is not free. At 550,000+ words that is A LOT of paid editing and conversion work that we can't back out of once it has been contracted. And FGG is not a massive company that can just throw thousands of dollars here or thousands of dollars there on a whim without the risk of it hurting our bottom line very badly.

We have mentioned previously in our comments that even though the KS funding goal for this project was $75,000, even from the start, before adding the additional expenses we really needed about $78,000 to reach the break-even mark for the costs associated with producing this book; we just thought that $75,000 was already so high and didn't want to cause any fans or potential backers to be dispirited by the daunting level of the goal and left it at $75,000 as a result. That means that $78,000 was the first time that Richard Pett actually sees any direct payment for the writing of The Blight since we entered into a royalties deal with him. With the addition of the 5e conversion expenses, we're probably realistically just now reaching the level of profitability where Richard and FGG make any money on the book. That's why we had to make the 5e print stretch goal so high, because it adds to substantially to the cost of the project.

Right now we've got 62 backers sitting at the $1 pledge level. I suspect that a very significant portion (if not virtually the entire group) are 5e fans who are waiting to see if the $100,000 goal is reached. If those 62 fans increased their pledge to the $135 print copy level, that would push our funding up over $93,000. We've got 148 backers at the $50 pdf-only level. Some percentage of them (maybe half?) are likely 5e fans waiting to see if we reach $100,000 before committing to the print version. If between a third and a half of them increase their pledge to the $135 print copy level, we're already over $100,000. And none of that includes the myriad add-ons and stretch goals that are available to the 5e fans as well. Plus the already-a-print version-for 5e of the Monster Book that becomes available as soon as we hit the $92,000 stretch goal.

I think you can see where I'm going with this. And I'm primarily addressing our 5e fans here, that great horde of fanatic gamers whose faces and names are only now beginning to come into focus as FGG takes these early tentative steps into a market that officially only opened yesterday. We love you guys, and we want to make the books that you like. Just like we do for our long-standing PF and S&W fans. We have committed and made the investment in you. We don't want to trick you, and we don't want to cheat you. If the $100,000 goal isn't going to be met then we want you to reduce your pledges so that you don't get stuck with a product that you don't want. FGG is all about our customers, and once you've been on board with us a little while or have had a chance to talk to some of our current customers you'll see that. But we are asking a favor of you. We've committed; we're all in here. The Blight 5e is happening whether in pdf or pdf and print. What we're asking is that you take a chance on us as well and make the leap. We need you to make it to the golden $100,000 goal. We need you to pledge for the $135 level. We need you to buy any add-ons that look interesting to you. We need you to spread the word to all those 5e fans out there that we don't know yet and don't know who Frog God Games or Necromancer Games are. We need your help, and now is the time to do it if we're going to make it.

We sincerely thank you for all that you've already done and the faith that you and all our existing fans have already placed in us. We're just asking you to help us get over this last hurdle and make this book a 5e print reality.

Check out the Kickstarter here.

Greg