Pagan Publishing is a small, award-winning publisher of role-playing games, specializing in books and supplements for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
Through this Kickstarter we intend bring a new series of Call of Cthulhu role-playing game books to life- Horrors of War!
Horrors of War will be a series of Call of Cthulhu scenario anthologies set during wartime. The first book in this series “Horrors of War: A Covenant with Death,” is a sourcebook and scenario anthology set during the Great War, 1914-1918. We are launching this Kickstarter to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War on August 1st, 2014.
For the past seven years John H. Crowe and I have been designing and running Call of Cthulhu scenarios set during the Great War. You may have heard some of mine recorded as actual play podcasts over at Role-Playing Public Radio. Now we’re ready to begin releasing, what we expect will be, several Horrors of War volumes focused on the Great War. Later volumes of Horrors of War will focus on other conflicts in other times.
This first book, “A Covenant With Death,” will be a generalist book on the Great War and will include 8 scenarios, sourcebook material on the weapons and gear of the Great War, Air-combat rules, rules for creating both professional and citizen soldiers, and a Great War timeline, glossary and an extensive bibliography. All eight scenarios use the 6th Edition rules for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu role playing game.
The book will be produced as an 8.5" x 11" softcover, with glossy color exteriors and grisly grayscale interior artwork. Right now the edited material tops out at just about 200,000 words. While the scenarios are written and playt ested, Horrors of War still needs to be laid out, illustrated, proofed and printed. The money we raise here will go towards commissioning art, paying layout artists, and, finally, printing and shipping the book to our backers.
Our intention is to release “Horrors of War: A Covenant with Death” by February of 2015. In the interim, we will be releasing, exclusively to our backers, a PDF sneak peak of “Horrors of War” in the form of “Death From Above.” This fully illustrated and laid out PDF document will include a scenario set aboard a zeppelin, another scenario set aboard a bi-wing bomber, air combat rules and aircraft templates. “Death from Above” will be made available to our backers by December 24, 2014, just in time for the Centennial of the 1914 Christmas Truce on the Western Front.
We’ve tried to ensure that the players can represent every nationality involved in the Great War. We have scenarios where they can play British, Belgian, French, German, Russian, American, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Czechoslovak, Portuguese and Serbian characters, with Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish options in the works. Most of those will be represented in the first book, “A Covenant with Death.”
Check out our rewards and our stretch goals. And keep checking back. There may be additions made over time.
As mentioned earlier, you can check out the Great War Call of Cthulhu games I recorded with the folks from Role Playing Public Radio at the following URLs. Click here for "Dig to Victory." Click here for "Uboote Heraus part 1" and here for "Uboote Heraus part 2." Here for "The Night Mission." Here for "Shadows of Leuven." Here for "The Iron Devil." And here for "The Lord of the Peaks." Not all these scenarios will appear in “A Covenant with Death,” but feel free to chime in and let us know which ones you’d most like to see. And do keep in mind that these are playtests. The final products may be quite different.
We also have three stretch goals!
Right now we have three stretch goals
$18,000.00:Every print copy of the books gets a two-page, fold-out diagram of the L-58 Zeppelin for the scenario “The Last Flight of the L-58.”
This first goal has been met! The final product will include the fold-out diagram of the L-58 zeppelin! PDF buyers will also receive a large format, high resolution deck plan with their PDF version of "Horrors of War: A Covenant with Death."
$20,000.00:Everyone who pledged at least at the $20.00 PDF edition level to will receive PDF sneak peeks of scenarios from future releases of Horrors of War books. That's two complete scenarios free to everyone who bought in at least at the $20.00 PDF edition level.
This second goal has been met! Everyone who pledged at least at the $20.00 PDF edition level will receive sneak previews of two scenarios that will appear in future volumes of Horrors of War.
$32,000.00:The second volume of Horrors of War for FREE! If we reach $32,000, then everyone who pledged at the softcover print edition level ($45.00 for domestic backers and $60.00 for foreign backers) will receive the print edition of the second volume of Horrors of War for free, including shipping. That’s $80 worth of books and PDFs and even more value when you throw in shipping.
Folks who only want to purchase PDF editions will not be left out!
We are extending this offer to everyone who backs us at the $20.00 level to get PDF edition of Horrors of War. You'll get your PDF edition of the second volume of Horrors of War for free too.
I can’t give an exact release date at this time, but if we raise $32K then we should be able to get it out before the end of 2015.
Thank you again, and I look forward to delivering to you “Horrors of War: A Covenant With Death,” the first installment of our Horrors of War series.
Risks and challenges
As far as risks go, there aren't many. Pagan Publishing has been creating books for the Call of Cthulhu role playing game since 1990. We've got a wide range of talented and reliable contacts among Illustrators, layout artists, editors, and writers. However, since Pagan Publishing is pretty much a one-man band these days, the primary risk is me dying. I admit that if I fall over dead there isn't much chance of the project moving forward. So don't kill me.
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Funding period
- (60 days)