Wednesday 12 September 2018

Rangers of Shadow Deep, Coming Soon!


A kingdom stands on the brink of destruction, as the vast realm known as the Shadow Deep slowly swallows everything in its path. As the army fights to contain the tide of evil creatures teeming up out of the black clouds, the kingdom’s best soldiers, the rangers, must venture down into the shadows to gather information, rescue prisoners, and ambush enemy supply lines. It is a desperate fight against seemingly overwhelming odds, but every little victory brings another day of hope…

As readers of Spellcaster will know, I have been quietly working on a new game that I hope to self-publish in the next few weeks. Rangers of Shadow Deep uses some of the core Frostgrave mechanics, but takes them in a new direction. First off, Rangers of Shadow Deep is designed to be played either solo or co-operatively, with up to 4 players all taking on the roles of rangers. Also, while the game is still very much a table-top miniature game, it takes one more step in the direction of role-playing. Each player creates their own ranger, choosing from a host of different abilities, skills, and spells. While the players are called ‘rangers’, it is easy enough to create a character that looks more like a knight in shining armour or a devious spellcaster. You could even play a ranger who is more of an academic, focusing on skills, while letting your companions do the majority of the fighting. Every ranger also has companions, the number of which will vary depending on the number of players, but these too will have their own abilities and skills.

Once the players have created their rangers, they can start playing missions. Each mission is like a mini-campaign and consists of two or more scenarios. In some cases, these will be straight-forward: play scenario 1 and then scenario 2. In other cases, each scenario has an important effect on the next one. Once the players have finished up the three starter missions in the book, they will be ready to tackle, Burning Light. This is the massive 9-scenario mission that forms the last quarter of the rulebook. During this mission, the rangers will explore the ruins of a convent in the Shadow Deep. The rangers will be able to choose what order they explore the different areas of the ruins, and the order they choose could have a profound effect on how easy or hard each scenario turns out. Each area/scenario gives the rangers the opportunity to find clues as to the resting place of an ancient artifact. 

Of course, as the rangers go through all of these missions they will gain experience, which will entitle them to increase their stats, abilities, skills, etc. Their companions will also progress, becoming more useful as they become hardened to the dangers of the Shadow Deep.

In many ways, Rangers of Shadow Deep is the next step in the development of the Frostgrave system, but, more importantly, it is a stand-alone adventure game, where players must work together to defend their kingdom against a seemingly unstoppable darkness.

I have completely finished the manuscript for Rangers of Shadow Deep, and I have all of the artwork as well. (All of it created by my friend Barrett Stanley). All of this material is currently with the designer. There will probably be a few back-and-fourths on the design, then I will give it one final editorial check, and then the game will be ready for release. I am hopeful that the game will be out in just a few weeks.

In the meantime, over the next couple of weeks, I will be showing off different parts of the game here on my blog, including creating a ranger and companions, and maybe showing off a scenario or two.

I am also hard at work on the first little supplement for the game, which will both give the players a new mission to complete, and also push the whole narrative of the game forward.

The game will originally be available as a PDF from RPGNow.com, or directly from me, with a print-on-demand version to follow at some future date. I hope I’ve got you interested!

41 comments:

  1. sounds Awesome really looking forward to what you come up with Joseph. will definitely want to get this in print.

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  2. I'm excited to give this a try!

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  3. This sounds excellent. Could you tease or reveal some of the foes required for the initial scenarios in coming days? I would love to get underway on painting some figures.

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  4. I can only say I read this all as very good news!

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  5. Sounds awesome I'll definitely buy a copy!

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  6. Sounds wonderful! Can't wait to play it.

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  7. So excited for this! Great to see more coop mini games coming out!!

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  8. I'm in- where do I get a print version.

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  9. Interesting. I've been experimenting with D&D solo play this summer. Looking forward to your system.

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  10. Is that the scent of unashamed self pimping !!!! ;-)

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  11. That kind of Tabletop system Sounds amazing and I can't wait to play a narrative Coop Miniatures Game with my friends! Hopefully we will see whole campaigns in the future, with a continuing, evolving story, maybe an online campaign where the players could influence the ongoing campaign via telling there outcome of the played campaign scenarios!? The possibilities are endless here!
    Iam looking forward to it :))

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  12. Great to hear this. I was looking forward to rangers of shadow deep since i read about it in spellcaster. Its a great move to go solo/cooperative! Too few good games out there. And finally a good cause to start my modular dungeon. Is it neccessary to be precise on your foorplans or is it more like frostgrave itself and its rather a rough layout for terrain? Keep up the good work. Kind regards, Aphelian

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  13. Solo skirmish game based on Frostgrave mechanics with RPG elements! I've been looking for something like this for years. I'm really excited for this, bravo dude.

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  14. Any chance that this would be able to support up to 6 players, if desired? I think the group I play X-Wing: Heroes of the Aturi Cluster with would be interested if all six of us could play...

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    1. You would have to do a bit of modification yourself, possibly up the threat level in most of the scenarios, but otherwise, mechanically, it would work for 6.

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  15. Sounds like an intriguing development on things. Will watch this space with interest.

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  16. Really looking forward to trying this out. I'm in.

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  18. My friends and I were discussing trying to find a game that blends a more RPG-style character progression with a tactical miniatures game. Sounds like you're delivering exactly what we're looking for. Thank you and looking forward to getting my hands on this when it's out!

    Cheers.
    rob

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  19. Looking forward to grabbing this once it hits the net.

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  20. This sounds like so much fun. Can't wait!!!

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  21. I can't believe I just discover your blog now... That's an amazing news !
    Does that mean the game won't be published at all by Osprey Games ?

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  22. As a guy with three kids and no concurrent time to game with other people, this sounds pretty awesome! I can't wait!

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  23. This sounds amazing - looking forward to seeing this!

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  24. Hopefully the system use 2x D10 instead of the D20. So the relative frequency of the results are more gaussian distributed. I like also to see a bigger chance of wandering monsters.

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  25. Cannot wait. Will definately be buying a copy.

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  26. not a fan of the unstoppable darkness part...can the darkness fear me as much as I fear the dark.....and can some missions look as if its the rangers who are the dark ?

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    1. I think that is more a matter of personal perception, and, in most cases, the ranger will be the toughest thing on the table, so, yeah!

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  27. Is there somewhere a bestiary ? I mean, a list of all " the bad guys " I need to prepare and paint in order to play the game in a satisfying way ?
    Is there options to replace some baddies by others if we don't have the minis ? (something along the line of : " put 3 rats instead of one zombie if need be ")

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  28. I bought Rangers of Shadow Deep for Kindle on Amazon. I can't seem to get the Character sheet to print. Is there a website I can go to do this? Thank you.

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