RPG author Luka Rejec has a chilly new roleplaying setting from WTF Studio; Longwinter. The setting is broken into two volumes, the Longwinter: Visitor’s Book and the Longwinter: Referee’s Guide, which detail the alpine barony and its terrible god, Winterwhite. Each of the PDFs are available at DriveThruRPG for $13.00.
About the books:
Longwinter: Visitor’s Book
Longwinter is the two-book RPG sandbox of a mountainous winter country on the cusp between the old and the new, the edge of modernity, the stepping stone of a new age. New mines and industries are opened, light breaks the gloom of ancient ruins, change comes to sweep away the cobwebs of history. But cobwebs do not go easily into the dust.
This winter will be memorable.
This book contains common knowledge and mechanics for all the players: heroes and referees. The Referee’s Book contains tools for running Longwinter at the table. The idea behind splitting Longwinter into two books is to make it easier for the players to share the world, while preserving the challenges and random events for the referee alone.
The setting is profoundly close to that of Witchburner (by the same author and artist).
This gazetteer includes:
- ~100 pages of content.
- over 40 colour illustrations.
- a rather pretty map.
- rough history from the oldest times to the wars that tumbled the ancient regime and led directly to the current federal arrangement.
- powers and major factions, the dominant baronials and the oppressed oldfolk, the terrifying wolffolk and the mysterious old architects.
- economy and society, and cultural touchstones in the mountain barony.
- three towns and eight villages, characters and curiosities in each.
- mountains, forests, rivers, and lakes.
- simple modular rules for handling mountainous terrain and the cold weather.
- terrain and weather complications.
- a buy-and-sell list for would be visitors.
- a vignette to set the mood.
- and an appendix of inspirational music.
Longwinter: Referee’s Book
Longwinter is the RPG sandbox of a realm that has broken its vows to Winterwhite and will now pay the cold price.
This book contains secret knowledge and mechanics for the referee.
This sandbox includes:
- ~110 pages of content.
- some colour illustrations.
- 3 variations of the Brezim map to represent changes as Winterwhite’s curse bites harder.
- faction trackers for the 5 key factions and over 40 events to represent different groups growing or waning in strength depending on player actions.
- detailed weather and event tables to simulate a living setting.
- detailed encounter tables for night and day, which grow harsher as Winterwhite’s curse grows stronger.
- several more tables to generate corpses, caches, vaults, and memories of summer.
- optional playing card-based escape mechanic with 54 different locations, challenges and characters encountered in each location.
- alternatively, the escape section serves as a resource to mine for winter locations, challenges, and characters.
Be aware:
- This is a book of factions and winter encounters for the full-fledged mini-setting detailed in the Longwinter Visitor’s Book.
- The content is mostly system-neutral. It references some 5E or d20-style conventions, but should work with most low-power systems easily.
- Many of the encounters, and particularly the escape, will not work with characters resistant to cold, capable of flight, or otherwise able to avoid the environmental challenges.
