Time to be Valiant
Kobolds, Clones, and Kickstarters, oh my!
Hi all.
There’s some very big news today about a new Kickstarter and my own involvement with it, as well as someone else’s who is dear to me. I also promised an answer to my Attack of the Clones question from last time.
But first, let me repeat my PSA: If you came here via a Facebook ad offering a free PDF of the Player’s Guide to Norrøngard and you haven’t received it yet, please check your spam folders for emails from DriveThruRPG. Plenty of you haven’t downloaded it yet, so I want to make sure everyone knows where to look!
Now, today Kobold Press launched their Kickstarter for Tales of the Valiant. This is their 5e-based roleplaying game system that they are promising will be open source for anyone to use, whatever happens with D&D. They blew passed their funding goal of $100,000 in the first 27 minutes of the campaign, and as I write this, they are at nearly $409,000. I’d already planned for my next major release to use this system (which is backwards compatible with 5th edition). But there’s some news I’ve been sitting on for weeks.
Lazy Wolf Studios is a publishing partner, and we’re part of the Kickstarter! The Partner Adventure Pack add-on features 8 adventures for Tales of the Valiant, one of which is the Banner of the Bull from Yours Truly.
Here is the full list of partners participating in the Kickstarter ad-on:
Banner of the Bull by Lazy Wolf Studios, for level 1
The Penumbral Vestibule by Ghostfire Gaming for level 1
Treasure of Shipgrave Reef by Ghostfire Gaming for level 1
We All Fall Down by Ghostfire Gaming for level 1
The Undead Gala by The Vineyard Project, for level 3
The Eyes of Hovchu by Koboa, for levels 1 to 4
Magic Siphon by Necromancer Games, for levels 5 to 7
Lairs of the Under Realms by Frog God Games, for levels 1 to 10
My contribution, Banner of the Bull, is a 1st level adventure. It’s set on the border of Norrøngard near Araland. As an adventure on the far edge of where we’ve been so far, it will be a bridge both into the new RPG system and into the wider world of Qualth. We will continue to explore new realms with the next big adventure path, which kicks off at the end of this year or early 2024 with A Crisis in Castlebriar. Meanwhile, here is the cover for Banner of the Bull, with amazing artwork by Florian Stitz.
I also mentioned someone dear to me is also in the Kickstarter. My nephew Jonathan Anders is a linguist by training. He’s crafted epic poetry for me three times—for my novel Frostborn, for my adventure Vengeance of the Valravn, and for my anthology, Tales from Stolki’s Hall. He’s also devised a ConLang (invented language) for a project at Meta. And now he’s creating the draconic and kobold language for Kobold Press. They interview Jonathan about this today, and they play a snatch of kobold so you can hear what it sounds like. Check out “Draconic in 8 Seconds” and give a read/listen!
Finally, last time I asked, regarding Attack of the Clones, “Where does the initial sequences on Geonosis come from? What fantasy film was inspiring that? Hint: You don’t have to look very far. Just a couple years before. Looking forward to your answers!” So it’s time for an answer:
Let’s see. We have Kenobi, going to see his mentor, Count Dooku, to tell him about his suspicions of a dark power rising—only to have the Count attack him, hoist him up it the air, and reveal that he has joined with these dark forces. He then imprisons Kenobi in his big, scary-looking stone tower, beneath which his inhuman army toils.
Sound familiar? It’s The Fellowship of the Ring folks. Gandalf goes to see his mentor, Saruman, to tell him about his suspicions of a dark power rising—only to have Saruman attack him, hoist him up it the air, and reveal that he has joined with these dark forces. He then imprisons Kenobi in his big, scary-looking stone tower, beneath which his inhuman army toils.
Lucas didn’t just take the sequence of events. He took the look of the tower. And he took the actor, Christopher Lee! I told you that you didn’t have to look very far. The Fellowship of the Ring was 2001. Attack of the Clones was 2002.
Here endeth the lesson. And the newsletter!
Stay tuned for the short story anthology, Tales from Stolki’s Hall, which goes up on Kickstarter on May 30th!
And thanks for reading!
