[PR] Will You Brave the Coming Storm?

talien

Community Supporter
"The Tsar is dead!"

The cry echoes across Torassia: the cruel tyrant fell in a battle with undead troops, abandoned by the two princes in his time of need. The empty throne creates anarchy and chaos, as the princes and the Tsar's advisor battle for the right to rule. As if that wasn't bad enough, the worst winter that Torassia has ever experienced leaves frozen corpses in villages everywhere. It's a race against time as Sergei, the Tsar's commander in chief, gallops southwards to reach the capital before the forces of hell get their first.

Will you brave the coming storm?

Tsar Rising is a d20 fantasy adventure for eighth or ninth level characters.

* "Up there with The Longest Night, Death In Freeport and The Spear Of The Lohgin for fascinating setting, dark atmosphere, NPC depth, and cohesive yet complex storyline," said Simon Collins at EnWorld. "Hopefully we will see more of this quality from Monkey God Enterprises."
* "The adventure is interesting enough (and could probably be run with a resourceful or large party that's less than 8th level) but somewhat limited," said Spike Y. Jones, editor of GURPS Russia, at the Open Gaming Exchange . "The setting material, on the other hand, promises many more adventures, or even a permanent campaign location. While one or the other wouldn't have justified the price tag, the combination is worth the price."
* "The book is incredibly well written, especially the narrative text that is read aloud to players?it's not flowery, pulls no punches, and aptly describes the situation to players," said Mark Bruno at RPG Action.
* "What can I say.. This product is great in all aspects, ranging from the artwork to the story plot," said Einar at RPG United. "Even some of the new monsters fell into my taste, this is a product well worth it's money."
* "There's a pretty fair amount of material here in 60 pages, enough for a GM to snap out another adventure or two in the lands of Torassia," said Jon Mott at RPG.net. "I'd like to see a follow-up, as there's a lot to this land and its people. Overall Tsar Rising is a worthy effort."
* "I liked it," said Maz Fallah at GamingReport.com. "I think it's well done. And I'm just waiting for an excuse to send some players up north?"

Buy Tsar Rising today at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=097080945X/michaeltrescaA/
 

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I imagine it hasn't sold all that well. While it might be great (though I personally believe the exact opposite of what Simon Collins says about a product), it's kind of an odd subject.

I mean, how many people are running campaigns involving Tzars in Russia (or fantasy version of Russa)? How many would want to?

Generally, adventures don't sell all that well, especially adventures are tied into a setting like this is.
 

I didn't pick it up because I'm not interested in a fantasy based module of Russia. Massive sourcebook? Maybe. Module that takes lots of time and effort to customzie for my use? Nope.
 

Portability

Although I didn't start this thread, as the publisher I feel driven to comment. We really liked the story and writing that went into 'Tsar Rising.' Despite some slight misgivings about the adaptability we felt it deserved publishing. Needless to say, the reviews were very polarized. Reviewers that were focussing on the story and production loved it, those who were considering portability and ease of use hated it. Because of this, and because of feedback from gamers like yourselves the next Torassian adventure 'The Dancing Hut' is much more portable. It should be ready by GenCon. I hope you will give it a chance. Despite being set in a fantasy Russia, I think it will be easily integrated into most games.

David K Hurd
MonkeyGod Enterprises
www.monkeygodenterprises.com
 

Well I say kudos to MonkeyGod for taking a chance and pushing the standard fantasy envelope beyond the typical western european conventions. I personally haven't picked up my own copy of this yet, but it's been on my wish list for some time.

As far as portability goes, it should be fairly simple to set it in a distant country or isolated valley, forgotten continent, remote island, alternate dimension or whatnot. There should be no reason why a given fantasy world shouldn't have more than one dominant human culture. Again, I haven't read the product (yet), but this sort of integration would seem reasonable to me from the reviews and posts I've read. Anyhoo, just my $.02

Cheers!
 


Hi guys!

So sorry to get back so late on this. My ability to get in the forums has been extremely limited due to the user limit, and yesterday every response I wrote kept disappearing.

1) Yes, the post exists because it is blatant PR. Additionally, quite a few issues impacted the distribution of Tsar Rising. It didn't get a fair shot in game stores; I have yet to be able to purchase it off the shelf at the Wizards of the Coast store near me, which carries every single D20 product known to man or beast. Except Tsar Rising.
2) Tsar Rising has sold about a third of its total print run. Of course I'd love to see the entire run sold. :)
3) Oddly enough, quite a few folks on the Enworld and Mortality boards have indicated they want adventures set in fantasy and mythologically-inspired settings based on real-life cultures. Given that D&D was influenced by a lot of Russian mythology (e.g., Baba Yaga, the Dancing Hut), it's unfortunate that mythological Russia is seen as a setting people wouldn't want to play in.
4) As David was kind enough to point out, I've modified the second adventure, "The Dancing Hut" to ensure that the module, while still Russian-inspired, is not so rigidly placed in the setting. It consists of several vignettes that can be broken up into separate encounters as well as portable villains that can be used outside of a Russian setting.
5) Frilf: You ain't seen nothing yet. Hot on the heels of The Dancing Hut is the Arctic book, which will have a section about Siberia-esque settings.
6) Sorry, it's not a TORG book. :)

Mike "Talien" Tresca
http://www.retromud.org/talien
 
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