[Kickstarter] Kaidan campaign setting (PFRPG)

[MichaelTumey]

Congratulations on getting funded! Hopefully I'll be able to pitch in soon, but you know how bills can be!

I know it - make sure you remember this is for our fun hobby, no sense putting a hardship on yourself for the sake of fun. Pledge if and when you can afford to do so.

Here's something Jonathan McAnulty, Kaidan's lead designer/author posted on the Paizo boards. I thought it worth repeating here:

Those who read the latest update know that we are offering our $40+ contributors free Kaidan adventure scenarios, featuring adventures I have written for convention use.

I thought I might say a word or two about these to maybe entice some to up their pledge.

The first free adventure, the one we are, for certain going to give to our $40+ contributors, is entitled, "Up from Darkness," and begins with the line, "You awaken in darkness..." It is somewhat an homage to A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, but is also fully its own scenario.

"Up from Darkness," is a solid one-shot adventure which will take 4-8 hours to complete. It features some fun, non-standard PC mechanics to simulate and showcase what I think is one of the truly unique aspects of the Kaidan experience. It is, in my opinion, the best one-shot I have written to date, and those that played through it all enjoyed it immensely. Some of the quotes from those that completed the scenario include, "That's just disturbing!" (my wife said this after playtesting), "But I don't want to be evil any more!," "Ow, My Brain! My Brain! It hurts!" and "Well worth the price of admission!" One of the funnest parts of the scenario is that it allows the GM, guilt free, to savagely and repeatedly kill the PCs. And that's all I'm going to say about that...

If we reach the $7000 mark, the scenario we release is entitled, "The Tolling of Tears," and is a mystery adventure featuring ghosts, ghouls, and a cursed temple-bell.

Something to look forward to!

[Starglyte]

Love the concept and I always like supporting Japanese inspired settings, but not being a fan of Pathfinder in the slightest, much setting fluff will there be compared to Pathfinder crunch?

[MichaelTumey]

Love the concept and I always like supporting Japanese inspired settings, but not being a fan of Pathfinder in the slightest, much setting fluff will there be compared to Pathfinder crunch?

While the GM's Guide will contain Pathfinder based mechanics regarding haunts, hazards, curses and the like, much of the setting rules is just that 'setting specific' and have nothing really to do with Pathfinder per se. Half or more of the guide book will consist of subjects like government, religions, social caste system, economics, setting history, as well as a gazetteer of the archipelago of islands, and specific interesting locales - all that is fluff.

Without an official percentage, I'd guess 20% Pathfinder, the rest setting rules and gazetteer.

If we can fund the Player's Guide, make no mistake that book will be more than half Pathfinder character options like Traits, Archetypes, Alternate Classes, Races, Feats, Spells and Equipment - it is a player's book afterall. Still that too will contain considerable fluff regarding beliefs and suppositions by the residents of Kaidan.

While the Bestiary is definitely PF monster stat blocks and template formulas, each monster entry will consist of 3 pages of content, so lots of background detail, strategies, etc.

I know that at least one of our Kickstarter patrons play only 4e, and one of the reviewers to our free one-shot released last Halloween was converting the adventure for use in Legends of the Five Rings. There is certainly some PF mechanics, but largely the setting, fluff-wise anyway, should be adaptable to any RPG system. (Also, while I haven't decided to do so or not, the folks at Iron Crown Enterprises wants me to either release a HARP/Rolemaster version, or license them to do so...)

I chose to do this in Pathfinder because I am familiar with 3x based rules, PF rules, and for marketability, as a PF designed product, it has a huge customer base to target - compared to other systems, and particularly friendly to 3pp support.

As an aside, I just designed 4 banner ads that will be distributed to various RPG outlets via Gamerati - so you should see some Kaidan Kickstarter ads soon. The ad campaign will be begin August 15, running the remaining 30 days of the Kickstarter...

[Starglyte]

Thank you for the quick reply. The setting does sound very interesting, I will give it a closer look.

[MichaelTumey]

I was exploring the various religions of Japan, trying to gain insight in how to make a Japanese setting more authentic by better understanding the religion. Most oriental settings hand-wave eastern religious concepts - I wanted to go deeper. In exploring the concept of Buddhism, I learned that those who do not become enlightened are trapped in one of six hells, each associated with a different sin: Heaven (complacency), Asuras (jealously), Human (freedom of choice), Animal (instinctual desires), Hungry Ghost (greed), and Hell (rage and torment). While in modern thought these are different states of mind, originally one reincarnates to one of these hells following death, with a new opportunity to try and achieve enlightment and escape. This is called the Wheel of Life.

I looked at the 'sins' of the six hells and had an epiphany. I wanted to bring in the Japanese social castes heavily into the setting, and I saw a pattern between those castes and the six hells of the Wheel of Life. Instead of different planar hells, each social caste personified a specific hell. Heaven = noble caste, Asuras = samurai caste, Human = commoner caste, Animal = yokai races (non-humans of Kaidan), Hungry Ghost = Hinin caste (tainted lowest class, includes the Yakuza), and Jigoku is the one true 'planar' hell, actually one of the levels of the Abyss.

There is no resurrection mechanics in Kaidan, only a cursed form of reincarnation - allowing for PC careers across multiple lifetimes. But the reincarnation mechanic isn't clean, there's a chance of being sentenced to Hell, there's a greater chance of becoming a trapped soul and becoming a yurei ghost, and the noble caste of Kaidan is 'owned' by undead aristocrats created as undead as a result of a powerful divine curse uttered at the moments before the suicide of an entire imperial house - at the founding of the Kaidan setting. Which means you can't reincarnate into a noble, you automatically become a ghost. You can take a yurei ghost template, until such time as the means of laying you to rest, allows your spirit to once again travel the Wheel of Life to a new living destination.

As one adventures in life, one acquires postive or negative karma points (usually 1 per level at most) based on lawful or good actions vs. chaotic or evil actions - looking at over all performance for each PC over that time period. Acquiring both positive and negative karma cancels each out. However, any consistent build-up of karma points acts as a modifier to your reincarnation roll following PC death. The karma point system works as a cycle of 180 points, as soon as you acquire your 181st, you start over with 0 karma points. Your karma score at the moment of death following a reincarnation roll determines where your spirit will be, what social caste to become based on this roll.

Although there are a lot more details and Japanese authenticity built into the setting, the above is really what defines Kaidan as it's own unique and horrific place.

[MichaelTumey]

We're at 75+% to our Tier 2 goal, and 43% to our Tier 3 goal - we'd really like to reach Tier 3 at the end of this project.

Hopefully the banner ad campaign which will start on Monday, after Gencon and run until the end of the Kickstarter project. Here is an example of one of the banner ads (leaderboard size):

[MichaelTumey]

A "would be backer" to the Kaidan project sent an Email to Steve Russell of Rite Publishing, asking this:

I'm really not a big fan of D&D and Pathfinder, and I'm really worried that a ruleset that fosters minmaxing and features a huge power difference between low and high levels might not be a good fit for an horror game, which supposedly is all about roleplay and atmosphere. If a low level monster (a good match for a low level character) becomes a laughable nuisance to the same character at high level, it destroys a lot of the horror feel to me. How was this addressed in your campaign setting? Or do we have a different definition of "horror"? (When I see horror campaign setting, I'm thinking something more along the lines of Cthulhu).

My response is rather long, but can be seen in the latest update to the Kaidan Campaign Setting Kickstarter...

[MichaelTumey]

And to shoot right back, if you guys aren't watching and contributing to the Kaidan Campaign Setting Kickstarter right now, you should be! Kaidan is a fantastic, fascinating, and utterly terrifying setting and Mike's done some phenomenal work (and exhaustive research) on it. Check it out! Lots of great material in there for Rokushima Táiyoo or I'Cath if you want to port it into Ravenloft, or just take the whole thing a make it an exotic new cluster!

The above was a response on the Drawing a Map thread, and I cannot think of a better endorsement for Kaidan, than from the gothic horror expert and Editor in Chief at Paizo Publishing.

I was so pleased, I just asked Wes Schneider if he'd be willing to write a forward to the Kaidan GM's Guide - and he has agreed to do so, just finalizing that at this time. We will probably have another update to the Kickstarter announcing this specifically.

Keep up on pledges, we still have a ways to go!

Michael

[MichaelTumey]

An early September bump for Jester...

We've got 12 days left, and are just shy of $6000 (only $1020) from our Tier 2 goal.

[MichaelTumey]

Update #6 has been posted to the Kickstarter Page to officially announce F. Wesley Schneider's backing as a pledger, and that he will be writing the foreward to the campaign setting guide.

Thilo Graf has reposted his reviews on NerdTrek.com of The Gift, Curse of the Golden Spear: Part 1, as well as a review of our free one-shot module, Frozen Wind. Thilo will be posting reviews of modules 2 and 3 of the Kaidan trilogy over the next few days - to help spread the word on the Kickstarter.

We have 10 days left and we dearly want to release a 200 page campaign guide thick with maps, but require $990 more in pledges to reach that goal. Please participate if you have not thus far, or at least help get the word out.

Michael

[MichaelTumey]

The Kaidan Campaign Setting Kickstarter has only 4 days left. We're still shy of our next goal by $670.

Jonathan McAnulty, the lead designer and writer has posted a tentative outline for the Kaidan Game Master's Guide, as follows:

Kaidan Game Master's Guide
A suggested Outline

note: The following is subject to change without notice to the general public.

Table of Contents
Foreword Primus (Schneider)
Foreword Secondus (Tumey)

Introduction: Welcome to Kaidan
In which we peruse and overview the setting.

Interlude the First, providing a brief bit of colorful fiction

Chapter 1: A Brief History of Kaidan
Being a discussion of the coming of the Kami in the time before time; of the coming of the Yokai, the Anu and the Korobokuru; of the rise of the children of the Sun; of the the Colonization of Wa; also and account of the Oni Wars, the rise of the Samurai and the Shogun, the Curse, and a summary of Kaidan today

Interlude the Second, providing another bit of fictional entertainment

Chapter 2: The Races of Kaidan
Containing a description of the prominent race of the islands, humans, as well as descriptions of the yokai, korobokuru, and other races such as the Kami and the Oni

Interlude the Third, in which we read yet another piece of fiction, this time with a more spiritual bent

Chapter 3: The Religions of Kaidan
Being a scholarly account of Yokinto, Zaoism, the Yamabushi and other cults and sects of interest.

Interlude the Fourth, in which we again retreat into fiction

Chapter 4: The Politics of Kaidan
A discussion of the six realms of Kaidan and how they interact with themselves and with one another. These realms being the Nobles, the Asuras, the Realm of Humanity, the Hinin-Eta, the Animal realm, and the realm of the Oni.

Interlude the fifth. Another short piece of colorful fiction describing a scene of breathtaking beauty

Chapter 5: The Geography of Kaidan
Being a lengthy accounting of the regions of the archipelago, including towns, villages, customs therein and flora and fauna surrounding the same.

Interlude the sixth, still yet more descriptive verbiage to set the mood.

Chapter 6: Life in Kaidan
In which we provide information concerning the meaning of being Kaidanese, including the attitudes, customs, and experiences of its people.

Interlude the seventh, in which the fiction becomes rather creepy

Chapter 7: Death in Kaidan
Being an account of the truth and nature of the cycle of death in Kaidan so that the GM may best handle the necessary and frequent demise of would be heroes and villains.

Interlude the eighth, in which our fiction aided escapism contemplates a deed of daring-do

Chapter 8: Adventuring in Kaidan
Containing all the necessary ingredients for a dutiful GM to provide motivation, equipment and challenges for his players.

Interlude the ninth, our penultimate offering of mood shaping fiction

Chapter 9: The Magic of Kaidan
Being an esoteric and meandering contemplation of the arcane and divine energies of the islands and of the beings that utilize these energies; also containing a sample of spells unique to the lands of the noble dead.

Interlude the tenth, containing a final bit of fictional flavor

Chapter 10: GMing in Kaidan
Being scholarly essays on the oriental mindset, horror, honor and the proper tone for a foray into Kaidan.

Appendix I: The Calendar of Kaidan
Appendix II: Glossary
Appendix III: Patron Page

[MichaelTumey]

We've almost reached our Tier 2 goal of $7K, with only $92 to go and 70 hours left!

We are so close! If several somebodies up their pledge or if we can get 2 or 3 new pledges we'll achieve it!

Fingers crossed...

[MichaelTumey]

Tier 2 achieved! Woot!

Steve changed up how we'll do the Player's Guide, while we have a little over 60 hours left - the Player's book will be created in 32 page increments at $1250 each (art, writing, editing, cartography). If we can gain any additional pledges or existing pledgers up their pledges we might be able to release something else, besides the GM's guide. We can hope can't we!

Thanks again for all the pledgers. Once this closes on Saturday, on the following week, all pledgers will be given access to the Kaidan section of the Rite Forums to help participate in design. So this ain't over yet!

[MichaelTumey]

Last plea attempt here! Only 2 hours left, and $382 from a 64 page Kaidan Player's Guide with overview of the setting and player options! Remember pledges of $40 or more get's you 2 one-shot adventures, a 200 page GM's guide, and the Players Guide. $45 gets you all Kaidan content previously created (in addition to the above): In the Company of Kappa, In the Company of Tengu, In the Company of Henge, Way of the Yakuza, Way of the Samurai, #30 Haunts for Kaidan, The Curse of the Golden Spear trilogy of intro adventure modules. That's a lot of content for $45.

Now is the time to join in, if you can!

Edit: FUNDED at $9133 - yippee!

[MichaelTumey]

For those patrons who contributed $40+, a free one-shot module for 4 characters of 7th level, called Up from Darkness by Jonathan McAnulty is completed and will be emailed to all appropriate recipients. Think a comparison to "Den of the Slave Lords" combined with continuous TPK's and no GM guilt - this adventure focuses on the reincarnation mechanic to the hilt.

Cover art for adventure:



One of the 3 maps included: Inochitanto (upper levels)



Enjoy!

Michael