Kings of War the Roleplaying Game is live on Kickstarter! Pledge now to help us fund an RPG set within the epic fantasy world behind the extremely popular Kings of War miniatures game.
The Kickstarter will fund the production of a printed edition of Kings of War the Roleplaying Game. This full-colour hardcover rulebook of approximately 320 pages will not only provide new content for Pannithor, but will also feature the TriCore ruleset; a lightweight ruleset designed to empower both GMs and players alike with the ability to use the system to keep the game focused on both the characters and narrative.
The core book takes a look at the factions from a new perspective and offers several ways to create characters from amongst your favourite. It also offers a comprehensive timeline and full crossover comparability for Dungeon Saga, Vanguard and Kings of War. Backers who pledge for a print copy will now also receive an exclusive cover only available during the Kickstarter campaign.
But that’s not all! Thanks to our friends over at Mantic, we’re adding a digital copy of the Kings of War: Vanguard rulebook to each Gift of the Elohi pledge. PLUS the Dungeon Overlord pledge will now provide a 15% discount code for the Mantic webstore once the project funds for extra savings all round!
Thank you all so much for your feedback on the quickstart, which has allowed us to tighten the rules and add more high-quality art to the book. Please do spread the word about this project to your readers and followers. The campaign is live now, and can be reached here:
The world of Pannithor is one that has ever been trodden under the heels of armies marching to war. Its tapestry is rich with epic tales of brave generals marshaling their troops to face down nefarious warklords. In Red Scar Development Blog 04, drawn directly from the most recent Update for the Kings of War RPG Kickstarter, we take a look at the crossover potential with other games set in the Kings of War universe.
Crossing Over
As there have been a few questions about this topic, we’re using Red Scar Development Blog 04 to take a closer look at the crossover potential for the roleplaying into the other Kings of War related systems that Mantic produce. Having spent time on the Kings of War: Vanguard rules committee, the potential to hop between systems with the same characters was always something I wanted to explore. Crossover rules for Dungeon Saga, Vanguard and Kings of War will feature in the Corebook. As with the miniatures-related questions, I can confirm that you won’t need to use the crossover rules to enjoy the main roleplaying game. The Kings of War RPG will always remain just that at its core: a pen-and-paper tabletop roleplaying for epic storytelling.
Ranging Out
We appreciate that many folks would like to use the expansive ranges of miniatures and dungeon terrain they might have, however, and have those skirmishes, battles, and fast-paced dungeon crawls mean something beyond the game’s end. I know I certainly do! The framework for the crossover rules can already be seen in many of the features and abilities of the system itself. NPC power levels, for instance, follow the conventions of Vanguard – which themselves are also related to Kings of War – and plenty of Keywords and traits are take some of their inspiration from their sister mechanics. With core conversion rules contained in the rulebook (which can be taken or left as GMs see fit), that enables us to provide crossover scenarios and their potential outcomes within the epic campaigns that we have planned beyond the Corebook funding.
With an epic title like Kings of War, we wanted to focus on the players driving equally epic narratives from the moment we sat down to plan the RPG’s scope. Each campaign will aim take the players on a journey that will set them up as powers to be reckoned with in their region. If that’s where they choose to go, of course. We’re all about options for play, rather than telling folks how the game should be played. Within that journey and throughout that growth, there will be ample opportunity to scour a dungeon for a unique and powerful item, fall foul of roving warbands, and lead massed armies into battle (this last option will have a narrative component in the rulebook too).
Pressed for Time
In our often time-poor lives that face various scheduling issues, think of it this way. The group can only meet for an hour instead of three or four for their regular slot. No problem! Let’s crack open Dungeon Saga with our characters and track down that ancient tome we need. Some of the group can’t make it, but there’s a roving band of Abyssals threatening town that need dealing with. All good, let’s lead a task force out using Vanguard. A huge force of orcs and goblins has come boiling out of the mountains. Let’s muster our troops and have some fun tackling it in Kings of War. As already mentioned, each campaign will highlight points were these options can be explored, including GM guidance for good and bad outcomes. This includes potential dungeon layouts and scenario-specific rules, etc.
Dungeon delving is dangerous work.
We’re working with the system experts to make sure the character crossover rules are robust, then we’ll be opening them up to the wider community for input. It’s important that we get this feature right, and for that we need to get as much feedback as possible. I hope that helps explain the scope of what we’re intending! But it’s also important to keep remembering that this is an RPG first. We’re excited to be including them and they will definitely enhance the game for people who want to experience the entire Kings of War range, but the game and campaigns run perfectly well without them.
Pannithor has a turbulent history wracked by war and conflict. From the arrival of the Celestians, to the seemingly endless war between the Shining Ones and their twisted reflections, this is a world that has rarely known peace.
For the first time ever, Kings of War the Roleplaying Game allows you to explore Pannithor like never before. The setting for Kings of War explodes into life like never befroe thanks to the TriCore mechanics.
Follow the link above or the small ‘K’ in the top left corner of the video below to join in:
Mantic’s Ronnie Renton also hopped on camera to introduce the kickstarter and talk about just how excited the crew are that Pannithor is finally getting it’s own roleplaying game.
Auguries have been cast, the stars have aligned, and prophecies have come to fruition. Thanks to the mighty powers of the Shining Ones, the Kings of War RPG will be @ Gen Con!
What is Gen Con?
Gen Con 2019
Gen Con is the premier tabletop gaming event in the world. Over 60,000 people will be making their way to the Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, from the 1st to the 4th of August. With all manner of games and gaming experiences available, Kings of War the Roleplaying Game now joins the list of those you can try for free!
How Do I Join the Kings of War RPG?
Simply head to the Gen Con website. Click on the Find Events tab on the left of the page. Search for the Kings of War RPG session using one of these three codes:
RPG19165543 – Friday 8am Session
RPG19165543 – Friday 1pm Session
RPG19165527 – Saturday 8am Session
Hurry, though, because places are extremely limited!
Join the Kings of War RPG Action @ Gen Con!
Mantic Open Evening
Mantic will also be hosting an Open Evening. There’s plenty on offer there too, including more demo games of the Kings of War the Roleplaying Game. A ticket for this event snags a whole host of goodies, so make sure to book in soon!
Join Pannithor’s mightiest heroes and start forging your own legend with Kings of War the Roleplaying Game this coming weekend.
We’re taking a departure from the rules development side of the blog for Red Scar Development 03. Mark Barber of ‘Steps to Deliverance‘ fame has joined the team and written a guest blog to introduce the plans that are afoot!
Development Blog 03: Beyond Deliverance
Fantasy RPGs have stood the test of time for several decades now, with a reported spike in popularity in recent years. Following news that Mantic’s Kings of War setting will soon be a world open for exploration and adventure in this format, fans of the game across the globe have already been showing their excitement with a steady stream of social media comments. However, I’m even more excited than them because I’ve somehow wangled my way into an opportunity to write for it!
So, what am I doing, where do I begin, and what’s the process?
My task in all of this is to write a campaign aimed at a party of good or neutral aligned player characters (PCs) which will link a number of adventures and span an extended period of time within the game. After chatting through a few options with the fine minds at Red Scar, we decided to come up with a campaign which will thread in and around the events occurring in the Kings of War novel ‘Steps to Deliverance’. Doing so will give the players an opportunity to have an indirect involvement with some of the key events in the novel and allow them to interact with some of the established characters.
With that in mind, the first step I’m undertaking is the planning of a rough story arc for the players (and that’s currently Top Secret!), which includes the setting for the campaign itself. Given that the novel is set in the rural northeast of Basilea, that is the obvious place to start. Fortunately, there is a good amount of reference material to draw from in the core rulebooks for both Kings of War and Vanguard, plus some contained in previous sourcebooks. The map of Basilea lays out the basic geography, so, with Mantic kindly approving the plans and schemes I wrote in ‘Steps to Deliverance’, the next step is to delve a bit deeper into the area of the world the players will find themselves in during the course of the campaign.
Available Now!
The Shining Bulwark
The Hegemony of Basilea is a rather unique
place. Whereas the Kingdoms of Men are classed as ‘neutral’ in their alignment,
the Basileans are most definitely ‘good’. This is backed up with the history of
Basilea; a faction who are literally the chosen people of the Shinning Ones —
the good deities of Pannithor. We also know that Basilea is a nation of great
wealth, power and security. So, in a nation favoured by the gods themselves
with securely defended borders, is there really any opportunity for adventure?
The answer is yes! Very much so.
Starting with the most obvious threat, the
Abyss itself — the figurative and literal gateway to hell — is northeast of
Basilea, and not by that far, marking this part of the noble country as the
closest to the Abyss and therefore the most under threat from attack. The
mountainous terrain in the area makes it difficult to build an extensive wall
of defenses, so there are always gaps that Abyssal or orc warbands can exploit
to cross the border. Though this doesn’t mean that the spawn of the Abyss or
hulking orcs will be found wandering the streets of Basilean towns, it does
mean that they are well-placed to cause havoc and mayhem; the sort of calamity
a group of heroes would be required to stop. The Abyssals have a long reach,
however. Anybody familiar with Vanguard will know they can and do make use of
arcane portals to travel great distances, so it is possible for the Abyssal
threat to appear in the very heart of Basilea in smaller numbers.
Options, Options
If Abyssals and orcs aren’t your thing, the
opening Kings of War novel revealed that the foothills and mountains of the
region known as Tarkis are also home to networks of subterranean barrows and
burials sites, many filled with treasures from ancient civilizations. But the
trouble with the dead is they don’t always stay that way. This region of
Basilea has a history of troublesome undead roused from their slumber by greedy
adventurers. And then there are the Nightstalkers who murderously haunt the
isolated farmsteads, manor houses, and mines of rural Basilea. In short,
there’s plenty for the up-and-coming adventurer to warm up their sword arm
against!
Now, all of that is useable information for
anybody who wants to plan a Kings of War or Vanguard campaign involving
Basileans and their host of enemies. So what makes an RPG different? In RPGs,
there’s a lot more to the game than just fighting. To dig deeper into that element,
I needed to scratch my head a bit more about what day-to-day life is like in
Basilea.
Nightstalkers Threaten the Very Fabric of Pannithor
Fantastic Reflections
Lending from history, there are certain
themes running through the societies of both classical and medieval Western
Europe and, judging on the aesthetics of the Basilean military, that seemed a
pretty good place to start. Whilst the Hegemon retains overall control as the
head of state and the head of the church combined, there is also a
democratically elected Duma who theoretically represents the people’s will. So,
even with a democracy of sorts in place there is a dictator-like figure at the
top, and this fits in rather nicely with a caste system built on social status being
heavily influenced by birth.
Does this matter in an RPG? Absolutely!
Players may have envisaged an anarchic society where physical strength and
martial aptitude allow their character to say and do as they feel — and other
campaigns may very well delve into this type of setting — but that isn’t going
to happen in Basilea. In a secure state with a strict class system, the law is
the law. Even in a situation where it is enacted by corrupt individuals, the
PCs will have to be clever in how they conduct themselves socially. In other words,
if you are thinking of creating a powerhouse barbarian character armed only
with a greatsword and a mullet, think twice before committing! In this setting,
those social and intelligence-based trades and Keywords will really come in
handy.
Touching Base
To sum up, we’re in the early planning of this part of the Kings of War RPG, but right now we’re looking at players roaming the very frontiers of a civilized and affluent nation, fighting the good fight against a host of evil adversaries as well as being caught up in the politics and power struggles of a society on the very fringe of the Hegemon’s authority. Success will depend on skill in combat, the aptitude to survive the harsh environment, and the social skills to exploit situations as they present themselves in the fickle local politics of the area. But, it is early days! We are always open to suggestions, ideas, and comments, so if there is anything you really want to see in this campaign or, indeed, any other, please contact Red Scar.
We hope you enjoyed Development Blog 03. We’ll keep you informed on progress!
