Wednesday, February 15, 2023

The Realm Kickstarter is Live!

 Very pleased to announce that I will be kickstarting a submission to Zinequest this year, alongside talented illustrator Thorø Larsen.


The Realm is a domain play ruleset most directly inspired by my experience running the Acmori campaign. It is compatible with most classic dungeon games while still letting a PC "matter." In battles, the numbers on your normal character sheet will be relevant. In setting your realm's agenda it will pay to make decisions that facilitate your normal career of dungeoncrawling and adventure. The presumed scale of the Realm is small and always in the eye of the characters, so a player continues to experience the game by playing a character, albeit one who may rule a country, rather than as a disembodied national spirit as in some strategy games.

I like to say the Realm is a game for "romances, sagas, and chronicles," and what I mean by that is that it is intended to simulate the dramatic, personal, lethal stories that mean a lot to me-- tales of King Arthur and his knights, the legends in the Book of Kings, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and others. In these narratives, a character can be a champion out of scale with real life, yet never be too far from ignominious death and never above the personal drama of duty, entanglements, and betrayal.

I think this product is valuable because it solves the problems of how to run a domain game, at least in the dramatic milieu that moves me. I know the game works because I've played it for over a year and have been playing games like it for a decade. If this blog has given you any value over the past few years, I'd appreciate if you'd consider telling your friends who might be interested about it. If you are interested yourself, the link is here: http://kck.st/3YUJwew

If you have a blog or a podcast or something and you'd like to shoot the breeze about domain games, I'm happy to talk to you about it.

No comments:

Post a Comment