Showing posts with label shane hensley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shane hensley. Show all posts

Thursday, 22 October 2026

Franchise Familiariser: Deadlands

Tabletop roleplaying games are currently back in vogue. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition continues to be the biggest fish in the pond, with a revised edition released in 2024, whilst games like Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk RED, Mothership, Mork Borg and Dragonbane continue to do well. But another venerable RPG recently (ish) returned with a new edition (with a minor new revision arriving soon). What is Deadlands? What is it about? We have you covered with a Franchise Familiariser course!

The Basics

Deadlands is a horror-steampunk-alternate history franchise that debuted in October 1996 as a tabletop roleplaying game. Since then, it has spun off novels, comics and multiple editions of the tabletop game, but no live-action or video game adaptations as yet (despite interest and attempts).

The game was developed by RPG writer Shane Lacey Hensley, inspired by a painting by the artist Brom depicting a Confederate vampire from the World of Darkness line. Hensley set up a new company, PinnacleEntertainment Group, to publish the game. Two industry veteran friends of his, Greg Gorden and Matt Forbeck, come on board early on to act as writers, editors and even investors in his company.

Launching in October 1996, the game was an unexpected smash hit success, given the poor state of the tabletop industry at the time (Dungeons & Dragons was just starting to undergo the convulsions leading to the collapse of TSR and its buy-out by Wizards of the Coast several years later), and won an Origins Award. Deadlands sold well enough to warrant no less than forty-nine sourcebooks and a revised edition (launched in 1999), as well as spin-off roleplaying games Deadlands: Hell on Earth (1998) and Deadlands: Lost Colony (2002). A collectible card game, Doomtown, was launched in 1998 and ran until 2001. The roleplaying game also generated an accompanying miniatures line and its own focused wargame, Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars, which began in 1997.

In 2001 Deadlands was relaunched as Deadlands d20. It abandoned the use of the original, popular rules system and switched to the d20 rules system popularised by Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, under the Open Game Licence. Although new companies had found financial success with d20 games, established companies were fiercely criticised by long-term fans for making such a move to chase dollars at the expense of existing fans (who saw no reason to move to a whole new rules system and spend more money when the existing rules were still fine). The move was also of arguably limited utility: many D&D fans who came on board with 3rd Edition showed a reluctance to move to a new game, even one using compatible rules. As a result, Deadlands lost many of its established fans and failed to pick up many new ones.

The financial losses stemming from the d20 experiment were substantial and Pinnacle almost went under; the company was refounded as Great White Games to alleviate these issues.

In 2003, the Deadlands rules, specifically the simplified set used in Great Rail Wars, were revamped and republished as Savage Worlds, a generic rules system with no established setting. Like earlier generic games like GURPS, the idea with Savage Worlds was to have one central rules system and players could then pick up a number of different optional settings and games to slot into the core system. Savage Worlds was warmly-received, with a number of different games and settings released for it in the first few years.

By 2006 Great White Games was able to revert to the Pinnacle Entertainment moniker. In that year Pinnacle released Deadlands: Reloaded, effectively a second edition of the game using the Savage Worlds fork of the rules system. Numerous supplements and expansions followed. Hell on Earth was also relaunched, and in 2012 was joined by a new spin-off game, Deadlands: Noir. In 2020 the game was relaunched as Deadlands: The Weird West, aka “Deadlands for Savage Worlds Adventurer Edition” (SWADE), compatible with the latest edition of Savage Worlds. This is the current version of the game being supported, with additional adventures and sourcebooks following.

A small selection of the original 1st Edition Deadlands sourcebooks, courtesy of Wayne's Books.

The Canon

The Deadlands canon consists of four roleplaying games (with a fifth in development) broadly sharing the same timeline. Time travel and parallel universes exist in the setting, allowing for retcons and lore changes between versions of the games without getting too caught up in minutiae, an in-universe phenomenon known as “the Mandela Effect.” Each roleplaying game exists in multiple editions, broadly speaking the original (now dubbed “Classic”), the Reloaded edition that used the first version of the Savage Worlds rules system, and the modern editions that use the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition rules system (SWADE).

The five roleplaying games in the setting are Deadlands (sometimes called The Weird West to differentiate it from the others), Hell on Earth, Lost Colony, Deadlands Noir and the forthcoming Dark Ages.


Deadlands

Classic Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: The Weird West Roleplaying Game (1996) • Deadlands: Weird West Player’s Guide (1999) • Deadlands: Marshal’s Handbook (1999) • Deadlands Classic: 20th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook (2017)

Classic Sourcebooks: The Quick and the Dead (1997) • Book o’ the Dead (1997) • Smith & Robards (1997) • Hucksters & Hexes (1997) • Rascals, Varmints & Critters (1997) • Twisted Tales (1997) • The Great Maze (boxed set) (1997) • Marshal Law (1996) • Ghost Dancers (1998) • Fire & Brimstone (1998) • City O’ Gloom (boxed set) (1998) • Law Dogs (1998) • Devil’s Tower 1: The Road to Hell (1998) • Devil’s Tower 2: Heart O’ Darkness (1998) • Devil’s Tower 3: Fortress of Fear (1998) • Tales o’ Terror: 1877 (1998) • Lost Angels (1998) • River O’ Blood (boxed set) (1998) • Boomtowns (boxed set) (1999) • Marshall’s Log (1999) • Doomtown or Bust! (1999) • Bloody Ol’ Muddy (1999) • Back East: The North (1999) • Back East: The South (1999) • South O’ The Border (1999) • Canyon O’ Doom (1999) • Rascals, Varmints and Critters II (2000) • The Agency – The Men in Black Dusters (2000) • Ghost Busters (2000) • Hexarcana (2000) • The Collegium (2000) • Rain O’ Terror (2000) • The Great Weird North (2000) • The Black Circle – Unholy Alliance (2000) • Dead Presidents (2000) • Lone Stars – The Texas Rangers (2001) • Epitaph #1 (2000) • Epitaph #2 (2000) • Epitaph #3 (2000) • Epitaph #4 (2001)

Dime Novel Adventures: Perdition’s Daughter (1996) • Independence Day (1996) • Night Train (1997) • Under a Harrowed Moon Part 1: Strange Bedfellows (1997) • Under a Harrowed Moon Part 2: Savage Passage (1998) • Under a Harrowed Moon Part 3: Ground Zero (1998) • The Forbidden God (1998) • Adios, A-Mi-Go! (1998) • Skinners (1999) • Worms! (1999)

d20 Core Rulebook: Deadlands: d20 (2001)

d20 Sourcebooks: Horrors o’ the Weird West (2001) • The Way of the Brave (2001) • The Way of the Dead (2001) • The Way of the Gun (2001) • The Way of the Huckster (2001) • The Way of the New Science (2001) • The Way of the Righteous (2001)

GURPS Deadlands Core Rulebook: GURPS Deadlands: Weird West (2001)

GURPS Expansions: Dime Novel 1 – Aces and Eights (2001) • Dime Novel 2 – Wanted: Undead or Alive (2001) • Hexes (2002) • Varmints (2003)

Reloaded Core Rulebooks: Deadlands Reloaded (2006) • Deadlands Reloaded Player’s Guide (2006) • Deadlands Reloaded Marshal’s Handbook (2006)

Reloaded Sourcebooks: Marshal’s Screen (2009) • Trail Guide: The Great Northwest (2010) • Trail Guide: South o’ the Border (2010) • Trail Guide: Weird White North (2011) • 1880 Smith & Robards Catalog (2011) • Ghost Towns (2012)

Reloaded Adventures: Coffin Rock (2008) • Don’t Drink the Water (2009) • Doomtown: A Fight They’ll Never Forget (2009) • The Flood (2009) • Murder on the Hellstromme Express (2009) • Night Train 2: For Whom the Whistle Blows (2010) • Saddle Sore (2010) • Devil’s Night (2011) • Blood Drive 1: Bad Times on the Goodnight (2012) • Blood Drive 2: High Plains Drovers (2012) • Guess Whose Coming to Dinner (2012) • The Last Sons (2012) • Return to Manitou Bluff  (2012) • Blood Drive 3: Range War! (2012) • The Inheritors (2013) • Stone and a Hard Place (2015) • Dead Men Walkin’ (2015) • The Tombstone Seven (2015) • All the Purty Little Horses (2016) • The Twilight Protocol (2016) • The Land Beyond the Busted Doorway (2016) • Sawed ‘em in Gomorra (2016) • Paradise Lost (2017) • Good Intentions (2017) • Knights with No Armor (2017) • A Tale of Two Killers (2020)

Reloaded Dime Novel Adventures: Beast of Fire (2005) • Deadshot (2006) • Frostbite (2006)

SWADE Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: The Weird West Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (2021)

SWADE Sourcebooks: Hell on the High Plains (2023) • The Abominable Northwest (2025) • The Mysterious Maze (2026)

SWADE Adventures: Showdown at Sundown (2021) • Blood Drive (2021) • Crater Lake Chronicles (2021) • Horror at Headstone Hill (2021) • Night Train (2024) • Carnage in the Cascades (2025) • Curse of the Maze Queen (2026) • Red Tide (2026)

Short Story Collections: A Fistful O’ Dead Guys (1999) • For a Few Dead Guys More (1999) • The Good, the Bad and the Dead (1999) • Wendigo Tales: Savage Stories of the Weird West (2025)

Novels: Deluge: A Novel of the Flood (John Goff, 2008) • Ghostwalkers (Jonathan Maberry, 2015) • Thunder Moon Rising (Jeffrey Mariotte, 2016) • Boneyard (Seanan McGuire, 2017)

Graphic Novels: The Cackler (2016) • Rise of the Black Circle (2025)


Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars

Core Rulebook: Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars (boxed set) (1997) • Deadlands: The Great Rail Wars Revised (2001)

Expansions: Reinforcements (1997) • Derailed (1998) • A Fist Full of Ghost Rock (1998) • Dogs o’ War (1998) • Cry Havoc (1998) • High Noon (2000) • Raid on Roswell (2001)

 

Deadlands: Hell on Earth

Hell on Earth Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: Hell on Earth (1998) • The Wasted West (1998)

Hell on Earth Sourcebooks: Brainburners (1998) • The Last Crusaders (1998) • Children o’ the Atom (1998) • Road Warriors (1998) • Toxic Tales (1998) • Radiation Screen (1998) • Cyborgs (1999) • The Junkman Cometh (1999) • Shattered Coast (1999) • Iron Oasis (1999) • Monsters, Muties ‘n’ Misfits (1999) • Waste Warriors (2000) • Spirit Warriors (2000) • Denver (2001) • City O’ Sin (2001)

Hell on Earth Adventures: Hell or High Water (1998) • Something About a Sword (1999) • Urban Renewal (2000) • The Boise Horror (2000) • The Unity (2002)

Hell on Earth Dime Novels: Leftovers (1998) • Killer Clowns (1999) • Infestations (1999)

Hell on Earth d20 Core Rulebook: Hell on Earth d20 (2002)

Hell on Earth d20 Sourcebooks: Horrors of the Wasted West (2002)

Hell on Earth Reloaded Core Rulebooks: Hell on Earth Reloaded (2012) • Hell on Earth Player’s Guide (2012)

Hell on Earth Reloaded Sourcebooks: Hell on Earth Companion (2014)

Hell on Earth Reloaded Adventures: The Worms’ Turn (2014)


Deadlands: Lost Colony

Classic Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: Lost Colony (2002)

Classic Sourcebooks: Lost Colony Companion (2002)

SWADE Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: Lost Colony for Savage Worlds Adventurer’s Edition (2020)

SWADE Adventures: A Billion Miles from Home (2019) • Widowmaker (2020) • Hellstromme Triumphant (2020) • Maw of Oblivion (2024) • Mad World (2025)

Lost Colony Novels: Banshee Screams (2002)

 

Deadlands: Noir

Core Rulebooks: Deadlands Noir (2012) • Deadlands Noir Player’s Guide (2012)

Adventures: The Old Absinthe House Blues (2013) • The Case of the Jumbo Shrimp (2013)

Dime Novels: Tenement Men (2012) • Blood & Roses (2013) • Memories of Yesterday (2013)

 

Deadlands: Dark Ages

SWADE Core Rulebooks: Deadlands: Dark Ages Core Rulebook (forthcoming)

SWADE Adventures: Sins of the Father (2023)

Graphic Novels: Merlin’s Champions (forthcoming)

Brom's original cover art for the 1996 release of Deadlands.

Backstory

In 1863, the American Civil War peaked with the Battle of Gettysburg, a decisive confrontation between the United States of America and the rebel Confederacy. But on the day of the battle, a mystical ritual ruptured the walls between this dimension and one beyond, the Hunting Grounds, the home of incredibly powerful entities known as the Reckoners. The Reckoners were able touch our world, unleashing chaos, evil and darkness. The dead began to rise, strange creatures appeared and an uncanny sense of fear began to spread across North America. The greater the cumulative level of fear in the world, the more powerful the Reckoners became.

Shortly after this event, a massive earthquake tore California apart, dropping most of the coast into the ocean and forming a shattered landscape of ravines, whirlpools and canyons: the Great Maze. In the walls of the Maze, explorers found an incredible source of energy and power, ghost rock. Capable of burning far hotter than coal and for far longer, ghost rock opened amazing new avenues for scientific research and engineering. New technology appeared, including steam-powered gatling guns, gyrocopters and steam tanks. Stories of “strange happenings” around ghost rock were dismissed, or even accepted as the price of harnessing this new power. The Civil War raged on, far longer than anyone expected, before the North finally gained the upper hand and defeated the South in 1871 (although many swear blind to having memories where the Civil War continued into the early 1880s).

Deadlands chronicles the “classic” Weird West, the original incarnation of the setting. The original edition of the game was set in 1876, the very mild revised edition in 1877, the Reloaded edition was set in 1879 and the current SWADE edition updates things to 1884.

Deadlands: Hell on Earth is a sequel to the original game. Set in 2094, Hell on Earth postulates that the Reckoners finally succeeded in entering the world in 2081, triggering the Last War, a cataclysmic conflict that devasted the world. Hell on Earth is set in the Wasted West, a post-apocalyptic North America where magic and technology have become intermingled. The world has largely been laid waste but, curiously, having entered our world the Reckoners soon after vanished, and a key part of the metaplot ties into finding out what happened to them, as well as traditional post-apocalyptic concerns.

Deadlands: Lost Colony runs simultaneously alongside Hell on Earth and is also set in 2094. However, the setting is another planet altogether, known only as Banshee. Using a mixture of ghost rock and magic, an expedition was sent via wormhole to this planet. Discovering it to be rich in ghost rock, humanity began colonising and exploiting the planet, leading to conflict with the native species, the Anouks. More than three million humans were on Banshee when the Last War took place, sealing the wormhole and leaving them trapped. The game depicts more of a classic science fiction setting, with some spaceships, laser weapons and more advanced technology, mixed with magic. The game’s metaplot kicks in when it is revealed that the Reckoners were banished from Earth shortly after the Last War…but they were banished to Banshee, and their arrival obviously is not good news for the inhabitants of the planet. Fortunately, since Banshee is in a much better state than Earth and has a smaller population (depriving the Reckoners of the vast quantities of fear they feed on), there is also the possibility that they might be finally vulnerable on Banshee. The SWADE edition of the game updates the timeline to 2096 and hints of a final way of defeating the Reckoners.

Deadlands Noir is a limited-run RPG that updates the setting to the early 20th Century, and is thus an interquel, set between the original Deadlands and Hell on Earth. The rulebook provides information on running games from the 1910s to the 1950s, and is a moody, noir-infused game where intrigue and investigation is favoured over combat. Elements such as Prohibition, World War I, gangsters and jazz music feature.

Deadlands: Dark Ages is a forthcoming game that acts as a prequel to the entire Deadlands saga. It is set in Dark Ages England in 877, a thousand years or more before the original game, and taps into Arthurian legends. Morgana le Fey will be a major character in this game. Despite being a prequel, time travel (which canonically exists in the setting) allows for events in Dark Ages to impact on the other time periods and vice versa, and possibly allows characters from one game to travel to another.

A map of the Weird West by Cheyenne Wright.

Setting

The primary Deadlands setting is the continent of North America in the latter half of the 19th Century, specifically the area known as the Wild West, approximately an area extending from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean incorporating the Great Plains, the south-western deserts, the Rocky Mountains and the coastal regions of California and the Pacific North-West.

The geography is more or less identical to that of the real world, with several notable exceptions. A massive earthquake destroyed the coast of California in 1868, obliterating most coastal cities and settlements. What was left behind was a maze of water canyons, bays, inlets, towering sea stacks and vast seams of ghost rock. The resulting terrain became known as the Great Maze. Fear of a recurrence was offset by the immense wealth to be gained by mining ghost rock, resulting in a crazed rush reminiscent of earlier gold rushes. The City of Lost Angels became the dominant settlement of the region, benefitting from the resulting westwards rush.

In terms of geopolitics, the United States remains the dominant force on the continent, especially after defeating the Confederate States in 1871. However, control of the western states is somewhat tenuous, and Native American tribes have regained autonomous control of two regions: the Sioux Nations, which expand across western Dakota, most of Nebraska, eastern Wyoming and south-eastern Montana; and the Coyote Confederation, in eastern Oklahoma and south-eastern Kansas. In 1866 Utah declared itself the independent nation of Deseret, a religious nation under Mormon leadership.

As well as political entities, there are also powerful factions within those entities to contend with, such as the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Texas Rangers (both now oriented towards supernatural threats more than mundane ones), and various newspapers and do-gooders determined to expose what's "really happening" out west, though the folks back east are still distracted by reconstruction and other issues.

With the Civil War over, the Great Rail Wars have begun: several major and numerous minor rail companies were established with a competitive goal: to drive railheads all the way from the Mississippi to the Pacific, allowing for fast cross-continental travel and delivery of ghost rock, gold and trading goods back east. The Rail Barons would turn out to be utterly ruthless, competitive to the point of lunacy and almost untouchable in their power, using means both mundane and supernatural to ensure they would come out on top. The rail companies include Bayou Vermillion (noted for their use of zombie labour), Black River, Union Blue and Iron Dragon.

The Deadlands world also features significant differences to our own when it comes to technology. Ghost rock, a supercharged (and, some say, supernatural) form of coal, has allowed for the creation of advanced steam technology, including steam wagons, faster steam trains, steam-powered gatling guns and even steam-enhanced gyrocopters. Alongside the standard six-shooters and horse-drawn wagons, more exotic, weird technology is starting to appear in the West.

More concerning are the Reckoners: enigmatic beings of supreme power, the Reckoners were sealed away from our world but that seal was broken in 1863 during the Battle of Gettysburg, when their influence was able to seep into and touch our world once more. Since then, supernatural events have become more commonplace. Magic, though unpredictable, works through strange rituals and processes. The dead – the Harrowed – can rise again to torment the living. Wendigos, jackalopes, wallcrawlers, ghouls, sasquatches, maze dragons, gremlins, pox walkers and Texas skeeters, among many others, have become increasingly common and unnerving threats.

To overcome these threats, the various groups of the Weird West have a powerful resource to call upon: you. Or rather, any number of well-meaning adventurers, heroes, antiheroes, cowboys, cowgirls, huxsters, hexslingers or mad scientists who are ready to heed the call to adventure and take on the forces of evil armed with noting but their wits and guts, and maybe a gatling-cannon-armed steam gyrocopter.

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Friday, 16 October 2026

DEADLANDS celebrates its 30th anniversary

The classic tabletop weird west roleplaying game Deadlands has celebrated its 30th anniversary. One of the most iconic tabletop roleplaying games of all time, the game has weathered changing financial fortunes and numerous failed adaptations to the screen to remain a mainstay of the TTRPG market.


Launched in October 1996 by Pinnacle Entertainment, Deadlands used a novel rules system built for fast, six-shootin' action mixed in with magic and weird science. The game combined different die types with cards for greater randomisation and a whole magic system built around deck-building (this was streamlined later on). The game was notable for its setting, which mixed Wild West action, Lovecraftian horror, steampunk science and black comedy. Think of Army of Darkness meets Unforgiven meets The Difference Engine with zombies and you're most of the way there. It's not for nothing that the legendary Bruce Campbell himself provided the introduction for the revised edition of the game in 1999.

The game had a revised edition in 1999, two sequel TTRPG games (Deadlands: Hell on Earth, set on post-apocalyptic Earth, and Deadlands: Lost Colony, set on another planet) and a spin-off miniatures game using a simplified version of the rules, The Great Rail Wars, but an attempt to pivot to the d20 rules system (derived from Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition) in 2002 backfired spectacularly and nearly drove the company out of business. Regrouping, the company used The Great Rail Wars rules as the basis for a new, universal rules system, Savage Worlds. The company then released new versions of Deadlands for Savage Worlds, namely Deadlands Reloaded in 2006 and Deadlands: The Weird West in 2020. Both have been successful.

Pinnacle funded a 30th Anniversary edition of the game via Kickstarter back in February, which will include a behind-the-scenes and art book and a new integrated rulebook which merges the current Savage Worlds Adventurers' Edition rules with the Deadlands-specific setting material, to make a much more approachable one-stop entry point to the franchise.

Hopefully we see the game expand further in the future, although the oft-mooted video game and TV adaptations remain elusive.

Saturday, 13 September 2025

Pinnacle Entertainment launches DEADLANDS: THE DARK AGES Kickstarter

Veteran roleplaying company Pinnacle Entertainment has launched its Kickstarter campaign for Deadlands: The Dark Ages, the latest spin-off from its popular Deadlands roleplaying game.


Deadlands, a horror-steampunk-Western, was created by Shane Hensley and released through Pinnacle Entertainment way back in 1996. The original version of the game, which expanded over thirty sourcebooks, a mild revised edition in 1999 and spin-off miniatures game The Great Rail Wars, was hugely successful, popular and critically-acclaimed. In 2001 the company pivoted with Deadlands d20, a version of the game using the same rules as Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. This was monstrously unpopular, and the commercial failure of the game almost drove Pinnacle out of business.

They made a comeback several years later by using the streamlined version of the Deadlands rules from Great Rail Wars to launch Savage Worlds, a generic or universal rules set that could be applied to any kind of setting, from space opera to epic fantasy to steampunk to historical. The game was a big success and in 2006 they released Deadlands Reloaded, a revised version of the game acting as a setting for Savage Worlds. This was also highly successful. In 2018 they released the revised Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) and in 2021 released Deadlands: The Weird West, the current version of the setting.

Deadlands postulates a break from established history during the American Civil War. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the hordes of dead soldiers come back to life and start spreading across the country. Shortly thereafter, a huge earthquake destroys most of California. In the ruins prospectors find "ghost rock," an unusual substance that triggers both a "ghost rock rush" and huge leaps forward in technology, particularly for the way it supercharges steam technology. Supernatural creatures start appearing across the continent (and, it's at least hinted, the world). Magic suddenly becomes real. The result is a setting that resembles the real Wild West, but one in which magic and steampunk technology also coexists. The setting can be described as a Western meets Lovecraft meets The Difference Engine. The setting is noted for its huge tonal variation (it can move from adventure to horror to comedy) and its well-described array of factions and personalities.

The original game spawned several spin-offs. Deadlands: Hell on Earth is set in the post-apocalyptic future, asking what happens if the forces of evil win and reduce the Earth to a "deadland," a world of fear and despair. The vibe here is more Mad Max. Deadlands: Lost Colony is set in space, on a colony planet settled before the Reckoning took place on Earth. Deadlands Noir is set in an alternate, possible 1930s where the focus is more on gumshoe detectives in the back-alleys of places like Chicago and New York, and the forces of evil have to be much quieter and more subtle.

Deadlands: The Dark Ages is both a prequel and sequel to Deadlands, set in 877 on the island of Britain. Morgan le Fay has been retroactively resurrected thanks to events in the mainline Deadlands setting, a thousand years further in the future. Her return changes history (which may or may not result in ramifications in the extant Deadlands settings), but it also spawns opposition, namely the return of Merlin with the goal of stopping her schemes. He recruits bold adventurers to help take down Morgan and return history to the right path (more or less), whilst they also have to fend with issues such as Danish invaders and civil insurrection.

The Dark Ages range will launch with a core rulebook, a graphic novel called Merlin's Champions, the Accessories Box including dice, bennies, tokens, archetype cards, action cards, maps and some 3D terrain. The Cursed Village set adds more terrain, enough to build a full village (cannily, the 3D terrain can be repurposed easily for other roleplaying games). Optional accessories include metal dice and item cards. There are an array of options for physical products and PDFs (and both).

The Dark Ages Kickstarter has already hit its goal, with additional stretch goals expected. The campaign will run until 4 October.