The Campaign Builder's Guild

We will be releasing several side products along with Kaidan, Curse of the Golden Spear, the Gift: Part 1, including Class books for Yakuza, Samurai and Shinobi, as well as Race books for Kappa, Henge, and Tengu.

Since I have a pencil illustration of a kappa done by Mark Hyzer, Steve Russell at Rite Publishing suggested doing a B/W cover design - as that best shows B/W art. So I just created a cover design for that product (which will be released before the first adventure.)

I wanted to give it a distinctly Japanese look. Plus this is the first time I get to use my logo design (albeight in B/W only.)

Here's my cover design, what do you think?

GP

   

I really like it, can't wait to see the colored version!

I like all the Asian inspirations of the setting, I used to play Guild Wars and they made use of Kappas, Tengus and whatnot. I really liked the Tengu.

Great job!

P.S: The logo looks pretty cool too, even though I already said that In its thread.

Quote from: Magnus PymI really like it, can't wait to see the colored version!

I like all the Asian inspirations of the setting, I used to play Guild Wars and they made use of Kappas, Tengus and whatnot. I really liked the Tengu.

Great job!

P.S: The logo looks pretty cool too, even though I already said that In its thread.

Though I've never wiki'd it here, I have dozens of threads on Kaidan on this board. Probably the oldest is called something like "Critique a feudal Japanese Horror..." something. (Almost 2 years old is my guess).

Anyway, I'm half Japanese, been to Japan several times, I have relatives there. I've been playing D&D all my life, well for the last 30+ years. In all that time, I've always enjoyed oriental settings, however, IMO, most designers don't get it right. In my exposure to Japan, horror is intrinsic to how the Japanese view the supernatural, most published settings don't capture that. So with Kaidan, this is what I intend to do. Since Pathfinder RPG is OGL, and pretty much the D&D I'm familiar with, as well as having a huge fanbase, I thought that becoming a 3pp for that and creating the first authentic Japan-inspired horror game - lots of Japan gaming fans might appreciate a published setting like that.

I've always loved kaidan (Japanese ghost stories), and Tengu have always been my favorite yokai - Japanese monster, though I am familiar with many.

I've researched Japan all my life, but seem to have done a ton more recently than I ever had before.

Since I'm also a pro cartographer for game maps, Kaidan is a vehicle to let me showcase my maps, as unlike most adventures (maps are expensive freelance work), I can pump up my adventures with tons of maps. My first adventure features 14 maps in all. Plus I've spent some money commissioning pro artists to create cover designs, interior work, and oodles of monster art. However, I can only afford so much, so I've been supplementing the adventure with my own art - like the yojimbo illustration (but that won't be in this adventure - I'm saving it up for the samurai caste classes PDF I will release next month.)

Anyway, I've poured my soul and time for the last 2+ years working on Kaidan. I actually published it once, but had a contract dispute with a different co-publisher, that wanted to own it and relegate me to author (!), I bought his 'half' ownership and got control of it once again. Finally through connections from freelance mapping, I hooked up with Steve Russell at Rite Publishing because he has access to professional writers, designers, editors - he works closely with Open Design Project and Kobold Quarterly. This time, I'm doing it professional, and the whole adventure will even be available as a hardback full color book sometime in late summer being done by Cubicle 7, another partner of Rite Publishing. Except this time I own it completely, just splitting profits with Steve, any additional costs are shared (web hosting, etc.) But he has a much wider exposure and a solid reputation - Kaidan has a far better chance to succeed that me alone.

Anyway, long story short (I don't know how to do that), Kaidan's first adventure will be released toward the end of the month, along with the Kappa book posted above.

I'm excited!

GP

I'd be excited if I were you too.

It's insane the amount of tiem one can put into soemthing he loves, eh? I just started this hobby and since I discovered you guys (The CBG) I'm on it practically 20 hours a day. Of course inspiration come and go, we all knwo that, we all experienced that... I'm taking advantage of the constant flow and hoping to get something solid done soon. (I'm not talking about completing anything here, jus a solid base at least).

You can't make long stories short... that's the point of it being a long story :P

Man, I should REALLY read the mechanics of this Pathfinder thing, I keep hearing good things about it. Maybe it'd be better than Elegant10. Although that one I've already been convinced.

And yeah, totally agreed about the horror japan supernatural thing there. I'm not half, not entirely japan, don't have relatives and haven't been there. But they're popular enough for me to know! :P

The kappa of Japan have some unusual aspects to them. For one they look like a cross between a human, a frog and a turtle, having a backside only turtle shell on their back (as the illustration depicts.) They also have a hollow spot on the top of their heads that hold sacred water that maintains their strength - as they are known to be very strong for their 3 foot size. Kappa are said to be skilled in wrestling and breaking bones. The trick to making them an available PC race for Kaidan was a challenge. We didn't want it to be over powered, nor overly weak.

In our kappa design, the hollowed spot on their heads can be held tight with muscles around it, so 'bowing' doesn't cause them to spill their water. It takes a grapple and a called Combat Maneuver to try to spill their water (by turning them upsidedown), each attempt if successful causes 1d4 STR damage. Once they reach 6 STR this way, their water is gone and they are no longer affected, but still very weak. Complete immersion in water for one round returns lost STR from this kind of attack.

At higher levels Kappa gain healing bonuses while standing in water, they eventually gain water breathing, and progressively improve their Swim speed, which is much faster than their 20' walk speed.

Kappa have a +1 Natural Armor bonus at 1st level due to their shell, this improves with level progression. Certains optional traits can be traded with some of Kappa class features.

Trying to allow 'bone breaking' and not breaking the game, a kappa has a special attack maneuver that lowers their AC for a round, allowing them to unarmed strike or use kappa nunchaku to do an attack that lowers the hardness of struck objects (bones are consider hardness 4).

At 5th level the kappa gains a 'Leg Breaking' maneuver, as a standard action combining its special attack above, it can cause 1d4 DEX damage, with a 5' loss of speed per DEX point lost, with enough DEX damage the opponent no longer as a speed, and might take days to recover. This sounds effectly like getting your legs broken - with a faster healing, but its D&D so it shouldn't be too harsh (Gr. Restoration fixes this right up, of course.)

At 10th level the kappa gains 'Arm Breaking' or STR damage. At 15th, 'Rib Cracking' or CON damage. Then finally at 20th level as a capstone, on a successul critical hit on 19 or 20, using the maneuver, break your opponent's neck - killing them instantly. This fits well to the 'bone breaking' concept, yet not 'game breaking', I don't think.

The kappa has fighter, monk and sorcerer archetypes.

While one could chuckle the first time you meet a kappa, if he breaks your legs, you won't forget and you probably won't chuckle the next time you see one.

GP

Congrats again, GP. Always very impressive what you've done here.

Was quite surprised to see kappa as playable race.

Wish I could draw that well.

Quote from: NomadicWish I could draw that well.

Me too, in case I forgot to mention that :)

Quote from: Phoenix

Quote from: NomadicWish I could draw that well.

Me too, in case I forgot to mention that :)

Still trying to get beejazz to draw the ME races for me. I should really take some art classes it's been so long since I drew with pencil that my skills have faltered horribly.

Quote from: PhoenixCongrats again, GP. Always very impressive what you've done here.

Was quite surprised to see kappa as playable race.

Believe me, in trying to maintain a sense of horror, I prefer a humano-centric world. But I know players who only build halflings for their characters, so an attempt to appease those who prefer exotic races, I felt determined to create several unique Japanese player races: kappa, henge and tengu. At the same time I didn't want to come up with something cute. Kappa being the most challenging of all, because they look quite silly. Henge aren't far from silly either. I know many gamers who hate 'furries' for character races.

Jonathan McAnulty, my lead designer and myself worked hard to create these races that fit with Japanese folklore, maintain their tropes, and still come off as a serious, even threatening race.

I also plan to create a separate Obake Bestiary, 'obake' being monsters of Japan. There will be several yurei ghost templates, jiki-ninki ghoul, bakeneko demon cat, kirin, ryu dragon, oni demons from the traditional 'ogre magi' type to the many female demons - yuki-onna, hebi-onna and many others. My favorite oddball monster is the Same-bito shark shapechanger. I figure 16 to 20 monsters in total. All illustrated by Mark Hyzer, the guy who did the kappa illustration.

The Kaidan class books I'm building will each by a caste or subculture book each featuring multiple classes that fit the culture its designed for. The first book already greenlighted will be the Yakuza. While most would simply say, they're rogues and call it day. I want to emphasize a leader/controller type called a machi-yakko, a typical kyodai rogue type, a fighter guard, and a sorcerer tattoo artist.

L5R, and Oriental Adventures 3.0 had tattoo monks. That doesn't work for me, as tattoos back then and still today are considered taboo, worn by lower class scum. So monks bearing tattoos just didn't fit. Yakuza are known for the their full body tattoos called Horimono or Irezumi. 'Myo' is the Japanese word for magic, so my Yakuza sorcerer is called a Horimyo or Tattoo magician.

The second class book will be the Samurai Caste, which will feature my Yojimbo from my other recent thread, as well as a cavalier type samurai called a Hatamoto (bannerman) which fills the more traditional samurai role. I am also including a courtier bard class called Meika which work for the Imperial Court. Finally the state controlled wizard of the court called the Onmyoji. This guy has an affinity with Shikigami (least oni) demon familiars and use origami paper folding as a major material and somantic spell component (the folding of the origami figure is the somantic part).

The third and final class book will be Shinobi subculture. Shinobi are the more common type of ninja of Kaidan. I will probably create a Ninja prestige class as well, though the other shinobi will be archetypes for bard, monk, ranger, rogue and sorcerer.

GP

Here's another Mark Hyzer illustration for Kaidan - the Same-bito shark shapechanger. This one is an awesome drawing!

 

Holly Molly this drawing is very nice.

QuoteBut I know players who only build halflings for their characters, so an attempt to appease those who prefer exotic races, I felt determined to create several unique Japanese player races: kappa, henge and tengu.

Hey, that's an interesting fact. Shall keep that in mind.

I can't wait to see your works released.

Origami driven magic is so many kinds of awesome I can't fully grasp it. What sorts of ideas do you have for that one?

Quote from: NomadicOrigami driven magic is so many kinds of awesome I can't fully grasp it. What sorts of ideas do you have for that one?

Well Summoning Magic seems the most obvious, but I was thinking of dividing the various kinds of magic under the headings of different animal types, then a corresponding origami folded figurine is the base for each kind of magic. So Crane Magic might include: Fly, Levitate, even water related spells, while Flower Magic might include: Enlarge, Shapechange, Enchantment magic. Other spell components can either be imbedded into the paper itself, or various powders could be poured into the center of a paper square, then folded inside of the figurine shape.

I'm even contemplating creating Origami golem, a paper figurine, enchanted and enlarged that could serve as artificed summoned creatures, ability to enter narrow spaces (its paper afterall), but then is susceptable to fire attacks. Imagine the paper cuts though! :p

It's a weird concept, but does have a cool factor involved as well.

GP

That is awesome... ooo oo I know, pour black powder into one and use it to launch a fireball. Heh.