About
The Runewild - A Dark Fairy-Tale Setting for 5E
$14,726
423
Beyond the kingdom of Aruanda, there is an untamed land. It is a place where witches walk, where goblins cavort, where the borders between the realms of mortal and fey grow thin. For some, it is a place of unspeakable wonder; for others, only madness and death lie within its trackless depths.
It is the Runewild, and it is both beautiful and cruel.
The Runewild Campaign Setting is a dark fairy-tale hex-crawl for use with the 5th Edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game. Designed for character levels 1 through 10, it provides locations, encounters, and NPCs to support a campaign lasting months or years, or to be adapted into other campaigns. The full-color book will be at least 160 pages long and includes:
- A history of the Runewild and its surrounding settlements.
- 100 detailed encounter areas for player characters to explore.
- New optional rules for exploring and resting.
- Advice for running a hex-crawl campaign.
- A new feat: Fey-Touched.
- 8 new Runewild-specific backgrounds (including hag-owned, Runewild folklorist, time-lost knight, and polymorphed animal).
- 13 unique magic items (like witch embers and the staff of clarity and confusion).
- 32 new monsters (including clockwork dwarves, fey lions, giant forest sloths, and the terrifyingly beautiful Golden Bodach).
- Detailed descriptions of the histories, motivations, and weaknesses of the witches of the Runewild, including the Whitebone Sisters; Missus Switch, the swine hag; Korthsuva, the Witch of Hours; and the hag-queen Griselda, Mother of Ogres.
- Dozens of random tables designed to help GMs make the Runewild campaign their own.
Forest of a Thousand Stories
The Runewild Campaign Setting is a hex-crawl first and foremost, but as the player characters explore the Runewild, they're sure to find themselves caught up in the many conflicts that threaten the ancient forest. Here are just a few of the larger story arcs that might become a part of your Runewild campaign:
Ianto the Red: A powerful bandit lord named Ianto the Red controls a network of murderers and thieves who plague the roads between settlements. Rumor has it Ianto traded his soul to a coven of witches in exchange for eternal life.
The Thistlewhip Children: Cort and Cora Thistlewhip's seven children are missing. Unbeknownst to their parents, the children undertook a quest for King Wobbly-Odd, a Runish lord who fell prey to a fey curse centuries ago. Unless someone recovers the children, the Thistlewhips may become lost in the Runewild forever.
The Broken King: In the heart of the Runewild, a mysterious figure known as the Broken King assembles an army of goblins. No one knows what the Broken King wants, but the trail of petrified victims his goblins leave behind may provide a clue.
The Witch Queen Griselda: Humans and elves united to defeat Griselda's forces during the Witch Wars, but the hag herself survived and fled into the Cronemarsh. Now she plots revenge and rebuilds her network of allies. Griselda rarely leaves her home, but an ancient curse demands she visit the dreams of anyone who slays a witch within the Runewild's borders.
To learn more about the Runewild, you can check out our free previews:
Preview 1 - Missus Switch, Swine Witch: The history and statistics of Missus Switch, the Swine Witch, as well as a detailed description of the school house where she teaches her porcine pupils.
Preview 2 - Highvale Blade and Twisted Tome: The Runewild is a place steeped in powerful fey magic. These magic items show how some harness it safely, while others let it get out of control.
Preview 3: Beasts that Lurk in the Runewild: This preview features four new beasts that live in the Runewild: the helpful fey lion, the thought-stealing fiddlehead, the enigmatic Seven-Tail, and the terrifyingly beautiful Golden Bodach.
If you want to see even more, you can back the project and access the current draft of the book by going to this backer-only post. We've written the entire book and gone through several rounds of revision, but we plan to do at least one more revision using your feedback.
Finally, we have two products already for sale that tie in to the Runewild.
The Goblin Market: A magical marketplace full of strange treasures and goblin vendors eager to part the heroes from their coin. (Note: we will incorporate most of the material from The Goblin Market into the final book.
The Marriage at Midsummer: Two star-crossed lovers have gone missing from Caerfell's Midsummer Festival. Their families are at each other’s throats. Deep in the Runewild, a mysterious figure called the Bishop promises to unite the couple. But the Bishop actually has other plans. This is the first in the Seasons of the Runewild series of adventures.
We love the ways crowdfunding can involve our backers. Everybody who backs at any level can read the current draft of the book and provide feedback. For those who want to play an even bigger role, we offer two backer reward options:
Denizen of the Runewild
The Runewild Campaign Setting will contain a table featuring one hundred random fey denizens of the Runewild. We want to give you a chance to be part of that chart. If you select either the PDF and Runewild Denizen or the Print and Runewild Denizen reward level, you can create one entry on the chart that includes your fey creature's name, the type of fey, a brief description, and the creature's goals. (All descriptions may be modified for length, tone, and established setting cannon.)
Part of the Art
If you want to be even more involved with the creation, you can pledge at the Part of the Art level. At this level, we will also include an illustration based on either a photo or description you provide. We will add the NPC to the book, and you can provide as much or as little guidance as you would like. (By pledging at Part of the Art, you grant permission for us to use your likeness in the Runewild Campaign Setting and promotion for it, but not in other products.)
In addition to the basic pledge levels to the right, there are several upgrades and add-ons available. To receive these, just increase your basic pledge by the amount below. When we send out the rewards survey we'll ask which add-ons you requested.
$3 - Marriage at Midsummer
The first of the Seasons of the Runewild adventures, already available. Two star-crossed lovers have gone missing from Caerfell's Midsummer Festival. Their families are at each other’s throats. Deep in the Runewild, a mysterious figure called the Bishop promises to unite the couple. But the Bishop actually has other plans.
$3, $5, or $7 - Runewild Poster Maps
These 18 x 12 inch poster maps depict the Runewild in full color. There are three variants.
The GM map includes a hex grid with the locations of all encounters. The player maps include only the information characters would know. Player maps come in two varieties, one with hexes and one without.
You can choose one map for $3, two for $5, or get all three for $7.
$5 - Hardcover Upgrade
The basic print level is for a softcover book. With this upgrade you receive a hardcover book.
$10 - Premium Color Upgrade
The default print option will be for standard color. While standard color looks great, premium color can be richer and sharper. For more about the difference see this article.
$30 - Extra Print Copy
To get more than one print copy, just add $30 for each additional copy. If you want to upgrade multiple copies to hardcover or premium color, you'll also need to add those upgrades again for each copy.
The Runewild Campaign Setting already includes 100 detailed encounters, but there are still some blank hexes on the map. For every $100 we raise beyond the initial goal, we'll add another encounter location with input from our backers (up to a maximum of 50 additional encounters).
We also have several larger stretch goals:
UNLOCKED! $6,000 - All Through the Long, Dark Night: the third Seasons of the Runewild adventure.
UNLOCKED! $7,000 - A major location with keyed map added to the Runewild Campaign Setting.
UNLOCKED! $8,000 - Springtime Comes to Kidwelly: the fourth Seasons of the Runewild adventure.
UNLOCKED! $9,000 - Another major location with keyed map added to the Runewild Campaign Setting.
UNLOCKED! $10,000 - Yet another major location with keyed map added to the Runewild Campaign Setting.
UNLOCKED! $12,000 - PDF of GM screen inserts with the most important tables.
$15,000 - PDF print-and-play deck of Runewild cards each with a fortune, blessing, curse, and deck of many things counterpart.
Special Kickstarter-Exclusive Goal
In addition to the regular stretch goals, we have a special stretch goal that is based on the number of backers who contribute to the levels that contain the Kickstarter-exclusive book.
If we reach 100 backers at those levels, we will add a variant cover to the Kickstarter-exclusive edition.
The focus of this Kickstarter Campaign is the Runewild Campaign Setting, but we also want to create adventures you can use to introduce players to the Runewild, either as a one-shot or part of a larger campaign. Each adventure centers around a different seasonal celebration in a different settlement around the Runewild.
The Marriage at Midsummer: Two star-crossed lovers have gone missing from Caerfell's Midsummer Festival. Their families are at each other’s throats. Deep in the Runewild, a mysterious figure called the Bishop promises to unite the couple. But the Bishop actually has other plans. This is the first in the Seasons of the Runewild series of adventures. (Already released and available as an add-on.)
Bonedigger: The townsfolk of Ill Hollow practice a strange tradition: each Harvestide, they bury an animal's bones in a false grave to prevent Bonedigger, a witch's ghostly hound, from finding his mistress's true remains. This year, however, something has gone wrong. Not only has someone dug up the real witch's grave, but a local youth who hoped to spot Bonedigger has gone missing. (Everyone who pledges $3 or more will get a PDF copy of Bonedigger when we release it, just after the Kickstarter campaign ends.)
All Through the Long, Dark Night: Every year the village of Widderspire gathers around Widderspire Pond to celebrate the winter solstice. This year, frost imps attack the celebration, leaving the villagers entombed in ice. To save Widderspire, the heroes must brave the depths of Widderspire Pond, pass through a magical portal into the fey realm, and rescue a powerful fey named Ember John. ($6,000 stretch goal)
Springtime Comes to Kidwelly: Before spring can begin, the halflings of Kidwelly must lure a fey creature called the Monax out of its burrow, but this year the Monax is nowhere to be found. Unless the heroes locate those responsible for the Monax's disappearance, Kidwelly may be locked in winter's grip forever. ($8,000 stretch goal)
William Fischer (Author): William Fischer has been creating strange and terrifying worlds for role-playing games for over 30 years. You can find more about his work at www.niznocspeaks.wordpress.com.
Joyce Maureira (Illustrator): Joyce Maureira (@joyker) is a Chilean comic artist and illustrator. Her professional career developed around role playing, tabletop and trading card games. She's participated as an artist for Fantasy Flight Games, Sine Nomine Publishing and Steve Jackson Games, and she's currently working on a personal comic project. www.joycemaureira.com
Craig Hargrave (Editor): Craig is a freelance editor and proofreader who got his start working on Robin D. Laws's Hillfolk series (2014 Diana Jones Award). This will be Craig’s latest project with Sneak Attack Press after previously editing the Broken Earth series (2014 Silver ENnie - Best Electronic Book), Abstract Dungeon and Drakonheim City of Bones.
Matthew J. Hanson (Publisher): Matthew is the head of Sneak Attack Press, and has written RPG material for Kobold Press, Green Ronin Publishing, Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, EN Publishing, Expeditious Retreat Press and more. He won a 2014 silver ENie Award for Broken Earth, another setting funded through Kickstarter.
Fulfilled by DriveThruRPG
We use DriveThruRPG to fulfill our PDF and print orders. This allows us to get books out to you faster, and because they have printers in the United States and United Kingdom, we offer free shipping to the US and UK, and reduced shipping to the rest of Europe.
Risks and challenges
While we have a draft of the full book, there is still work to do. We still need to do at least one more revision, complete the art, put together layout, and print the books. Each step takes time. We've made our best estimate of how long this will take, but this is just an estimate, and the actual books might take longer.
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Funding period
- (30 days)