Four weeks ago, the Nordlond Sagas campaign launched. It had the strongest start of any of my eight Kickstarters to date, and funded in the first week. That means all the books under development (see below) are being produced.

There are a lot of folks following the campaign right now, which is awesome. In fact, there are over 500 of them. Combine those following but not yet pledged (420) with those who actually pledged (347) and the stage is set for the Nordlond Sagas to be my best campaign ever with over 750 backers. Both in terms of numbers and dollars if we got everyone!

The Nordlond Setting: Under Development

Here’s the quick-and-dirty of the four books under development. Check the main campaign page for some images and further details.

The Dragons of Rosgarth is  a quest adventure. The PCs have to do something that the jarls and their huskarls don’t have the wherewithal to do themselves (likely due to the issues over at Nordvorn). It details Jarngarðr, the “Iron Garden,” likely the most industrialized town in Nordlond. This book is included with the basic campaign pledge. 64 pages.

Forest’s End takes place on a fairly in a relatively new settlement, detailed in the book, called Skogurenda: Forest’s End. The village described can serve as a useful adventuring location. It also contains at least three dungeons to delve, finally putting the dungeon in the Dungeon Fantasy RPG part of the setting! This book is included with the basic campaign pledge. 80 pages.

Norðlondr Fólk provides several new racial templates, and expands on a few existing ones, to bring more setting-appropriate racial options to the setting. Half-elves, dwarves (dvergr), and proper elves get tweaked, a few new races are introduced, and a whole variety of half-breeds and hybrids get introduced with Norse-friendly flavor. Animal-inspired races such as crosses between humans and bears, wolves, ravens, and boars, plus various mixes of Aesir, Demon, Dragon, and Alfar blood with the ever frisky human population. This book is included with the basic campaign pledge. 16 pages.

Hand of Asgard is a character expansion book. It presents template modifications for each of the 12 gods detailed in Hall of Judgment and Nordvorn for Clerics, and about two dozen Holy Might powers flavored for them. These are available for Holy Warriors as well.  This book was added mid-campaign and is available as an add-on. Increase your pledge by $13 to get it in both Print and PDF. 16 pages.

The Nordlond Setting: Already Published

The Nordlond setting was established in two prior funding campaigns, and three books already exist. If you missed both of those, the Allar Sögurnar (all the electrons) and Allar Bækurnar (all the books) pledge levels let you catch up in one fell swoop, if that is your desire.

Hall of Judgment introduced Nordlond. It features a quest adventure, and includes several sample locations for other butt-kicking (Logiheimli and the nordalfar warrens), plus the titular hall. It contains the grappling concepts expanded in Fantastic Dungeon Grappling, enhanced survival rules, a bestiary of over 30 creatures, and pre-generated characters letting you get right into the game. Hall of Judgment established the use of the excellent Caverntown model of what to talk about in a city location. This book is available as a post-campaign add-on. 128 pages.

The Citadel at Norðvörn is like Caverntown, but more so. It details one city, two important towns, and several sample villages (plus a village generator). A relationship map covering four competing factions to forms a web, allowing the GM to instantly improv reactions to the PCs actions. Each faction has goals and relationships described in the book. This book is available as a post-campaign add-on. 128 pages.

Fantastic Dungeon Grappling tweaks and expands the concepts in Hall of Judgment, which themselves greatly refined the rules from GURPS Martial Arts: Technical Grappling to enhance speed of play. It hits the actions needed to round out “these are the kinds of things you want do to with a grapple.” It also provides examples of new grappling magic spells, and a page of examples on how to adjudicate new grapple-centric moves that players or monsters might be clever enough to come up with. This book is available as a post-campaign add-on. 8 pages.

Schedule

As noted: the campaign ends this Saturday, October 12, at 10:30 pm Central Time. After that, here’s how I hope it goes down:

• Oct 12: Kickstarter Campaign Ends
• Halloween Week: Backerkit phase opens for surveys, shipping, and pre-orders
• Mid-November: Backerkit “closes” and cards are charged[1]
• End November: PDF review phase[2]
• Mid-December: PDF feedback due
• Before Xmas: PDFs sent out and final files sent to printer
• End January: Printing
• End February: Moving books through the world
• End March: Arrival in-hand

[1] Backerkit won’t really CLOSE until the final printer files go out, so I know how many orders to place, and whether we get the offset print run at 300 physical copies ordered.

[2]The PDF review phase will see about 10% of the backers get preliminary files, probably without full art. These are chosen based on a combination of how much was pledged (total pledge amount, not pledge level) plus a random factor, so that the highest pledge levels get priority, but lower pledge levels are not locked out. This phase is IMPORTANT, and everyone who provides useful feedback receives credit in the book.

Support the Nordlond Sagas!

There’s a lot of great material in this campaign, and if you enjoyed the prior elements in the setting, you’ll like the new ones as well. Jump on board, and help make this Kickstarter – my eighth – the best yet. Stretch goals make the two adventure books even longer . . . and I know the authors have the material to cover them!