The Arcane Library has launched a crowdfunding project to fund the official setting for the Shadowdark roleplaying game, as well as three new issues of the Cursed Scroll zine. The Kickstarter raised over $1.2 million in it’s first 24 hours and you can reserve a copy of the two volume set for The Western Reaches (with PDFs) for an $85.00 pledge or score just the PDFs for a $59.00 pledge. If you’d like to score everything on offer in the Kickstarter – including issues 4-6 of Cursed Scroll – you can do that for a $229.00 pledge through April 9th. Expected delivery on the PDFs is this July with the physical books and zines to follow in December.
About The Western Reaches:
Drive back the darkness in a perilous land of cursed forests, haunted deserts, and brooding jungles. Your legend awaits!
The Western Reaches are an unexplored land of fragile civilizations, majestic landscapes, and forgotten horrors that lurk in the dark.
In the Reaches, you could play as:
- A painted witch from the steppes hunting for the secrets to deeper magic
- An armored knight from the City of Masks guarding frontier villages from attack
- A silent monk from the mountains searching for the assassin who killed his teacher
- A scarred pit fighter from the desert looking to make her fortune outside the arena
- A quick-witted explorer from the jungle who can find any artifact for the right price
- A seafaring warrior from the northern isles who fights for the glory of the Old Gods
This sandbox setting is fast, elegant, and flexible in the signature Shadowdark style. You don’t have to memorize lore; you’ll discover it as you go. The world moves and grows with you as you explore it.
- Plunge into the cursed Gloaming Forest, searching for the mysterious knights who are said to stalk the demon-infested woods.
- Capture a pirate ship off the coast of the Tal-Yool Jungle and sail it north, stopping to explore long-lost isles full of strange creatures and forgotten artifacts.
- Ride a silver camel through the Djurum Desert, following a treasure map you stole from a mighty sorcerer’s tower in the fabled city of Alkesh.
- Delve into the fathomless depths of the Shadowdark, far beyond the reach of the sun, to learn what terrible wonders and alien horrors dwell in the deep.
- Scour the fetid Myre Swamp for old Uncle Grigor, who will teach worthy witches how to increase their sorcerous power.
- Wear your finest costume to the ball at the royal castle in the City of Masks; there, you might be able to speak with the Duke himself.
- The Western Reaches are a vast and varied land brimming with high adventure, grim secrets, and lost treasures.
- Characters could pursue knowledge, riches, salvation, power, revenge, or more. Their story is theirs to write!
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