Stretch Goals

Taking reasonable suggestions, but otherwise looking to reach the target first, and additional funding will go on more, and more diverse, art.

• £3,500: An introductory, pregen adventure set upon the night of the comet.
• £4,000: An introductory, pregen adventure for your first day and night in the city.

£2,000,000 - PbtA conversion (because I hate PbtA) :-P

Completed Goals

WE ARE NOW GOING TO BE 100%

Project Summary

Hi!

I'm James Desborough, people call me 'Grim' (long story).

I'm a veteran of the RPG industry with over 20 years of experience, working for companies like Wizards of the Coast, Steve Jackson Games, Cubicle 7 Entertainment and more. I also run my own company, Postmortem Studios, where I publish my own material and help RPG artists and new designers to get their work out there.

Wightchester is an idea that has been percolating for several years, and I've been working on it in the background for some time. I've finally decided to get the project done, and as such I'm raising some money to help bring the project to the fullest possible fruition.

I want to try something a bit different here, a fully detailed and effective horror game, suited for low-fantasy. A setting where blades and gunpowder are more important than magic, and where the magic that does exist demands a price. Not a hex crawl, or a conventional adventure, but a free-roaming setting where you - the players - can decide what you want to do.

• Do you want to try and escape?
• Do you want to create a fortified place to live within the prison?
• Do you want to clear the entire city of the undead and earn your release?

Good luck with any of those.

If you back this project you will help create a landmark book and setting, as grand as any mega-dungeon or city-state that has come before, but with a dark and foreboding edge of grimdark survival horror.

What We Need & What You Get

The book is already over half-written, with the general shape of the city spelt out and many of its locations already described.

What we need at this point is time, time to devote fully to finishing the book, commissioning extra art and cartography and running through editing and other passes to polish up the book as a whole.

• £3,000 to cover previous work paid for and to cover the time spent to finish development.
• Any further funds to go towards additional art and cartography.
• Even if I don't reach my final goal, what funds are contributed will ensure a final product is produced, just not with the same amount of time or quality devoted to it as I would prefer.

Stretch goals will provide additional conversions of monsters and non-player-characters for additional systems such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Mork Borg. The base book will have rules for 5e D&D and my 'Grimdark' rules-set for the same.

Other stretch goals might include handouts, adventures, free Postmortem Studios material and more.

The Impact

This is, I think, a landmark project with an unprecedented level of detail to it. A landmark in more than one way, I think it will influence other settings and campaign books in the future, and you can be a part of it.

I have crowdfunded several projects in the past:

• A regular scholarship program for underprivileged artists.
• A history book.
• Three RPG games.

I always deliver, even when problems arise and projects are delayed, with good communication and compensation where I feel it's necessary.

I want your help to add another, major, successful project to the list.

Risks & Challenges

No project is without risk, and we're not a large company. We've definitely had some issues with projects in the past, but we've always pulled through it to provide a product.

I do suffer from severe clinical depression, which comes and goes in severity, but can make my capacity for work severely lessened. I have factored this in, giving myself enough time to deliver, regardless.

I do have existing commitments that also eat into my time, running paid, streamed games online regularly. August is relatively free of that commitment and again has been factored in. I have cleared my desk of virtually all interruptions from this project (another reason I need the money to pay for the gap in production).

I have, in the past, had problems with bottlenecks from using a single artist, writer or other assistant professionals. This time I have been sure to include a variety of artists in the project, and the majority of the artwork is already complete.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you can't contribute, you can always share the project on social media, mention it in your videos or invite me onto your channel or podcast to help me promote the crowdfunder and talk about the project itself. Whatever I can do to help you help me, let me know.