Erinbour updates
At this point, you’ve probably heard me talk about, Erinbour, Heroic Journey’s new massive fantasy setting. With this post, my hope is to lay out our plan and get you excited about what we believe will be a fun way to present the setting that also allows us to create the game we always wanted.
With that said, let’s look at Erinbour, the last free nation in a world that is rotting from within. The wild is encroaching and this nation holds the final light in the darkness. Despite the rot, there’s also hope. Many races have found a home here after being driven from their ancestral lands by the Otherkin. These races, if they band together, can rally against decay and rebuild their world to its form glory. Erinbour, then, is the story of exploring ones past to reclaim its future.
Our plan is to tell the story two ways simultaneously.
First, we are planning a series of campaign books that follow a year-by-year explanation of each phase in the Erinbour myth cycle. This is similar in construction to the “Pendragon: Grand Campaign” in that it will allow GMs and players to interact with the world in a way that allows for their actions to mean something as well as include generational play.
All adventure and support material will be time stamped to fall within this structure. Much of this material will be self-contained, but each adventure will suggest ideas for how the PC’s actions can affect the structure of the narrative for the better or for ill. GMs can ignore this the metanarrative and run any and all adventures within Erinbour and make it their own fantasy setting. That’s great, too.
Currently, our plan is to have Four Phases of narrative. Phase One is where we will begin. At the start of the Phase, Erinbour is still shuddering under the effects of the war against the Otherkin, though society has reached a level of social development roughly equal to World War I Europe, with magic-based technology somewhere between a standard fantasy campaign and a high-tech magic/steampunk world.
During Phase One, PCs will experience the exploration of the wilds of the “Lost Continent” as the nation of Erinbour discovers the Places of Power. This will lead to the flames of an ancient war with the Ogres and Goblinkind which introduces us to Phase 2 and the return of the Lost King. Phase 3 will be more introspective as the quest to find the new god/goddess reborn will take center stage and, ultimately, lead to the reawakening of the Otherkin in Phase 4.
Each phase will consist of a Campaign Guide Book which outlines the year over year activities of important people and things happening and gives adventure seeds for things to do. In addition, we have planned several support books for cities and places of interest and several standalone adventures.
I know you are asking how we can support such a massive undertaking. Well we can’t without you. This is why we’ve decided to produce this setting and all ongoing support through Patreon. As long as we have a Patreon going, we will produce support for this setting. The plan is to release to our patrons first and eventually release via Pay What You Want roughly two months later.
Even more exciting, we are planning on producing this using the 13th Age Archmage system and are in works of procuring the licenses to do that. We will be launching the Patreon as soon as we get the final authority to use the 13th age Archmage engine license.
Thoughts questions and feedback are always welcome. Do you like 13th Age? What do you want to see from our massive fantasy world?