RPG setting are often a mash-up of two great tastes that go great together. Dungeons & Dragons began as a way for the creatures to enjoy Lord of the Rings with their miniatures rules. Deadlands takes several genres and slow cooks them in a meaty chili of western tropes, spooky monsters, and steampunk gadgets. Shadowrun mixes dark cyberpunk future with fantasy creatures and abilities for the unforgettable image of an elf in a trenchcoat swing a katana at a dragon.
One of the more interesting mashups to come out of Kickstarter is C.A. Suleiman’s Tales of the Lost Citadel, which takes a classic fantasy world and puts it through the meat grinder of a post-apocalyptic zombie apocalypse. RPG fans looking to explore this setting beyond the shared world anthology can look forward to the RPG recently announced in a partnership between Suleiman and Green Ronin Publishing, due out in Winter 2018.
“The story from the Tales of the Lost Citadel that convinced me that this setting was really something was Ari Marmell’s Requiem, in Bells,” said Nicole Lindroos, General Manager of Green Ronin Publishing. “Ari has a great style that conveys rich detail alongside the action of a story without falling into dry exposition. It’s the first of the framing stories in the anthology and did just what it was supposed to do: it sucked me in, answered some of my curious questions, and made me want to peel back further layers to go deeper into Zileska and the last refuge of Redoubt”
“Two things I am extremely fond of in roleplaying settings are non-traditional takes on dwarves (going back at least to the ‘communist dwarves’ of Chainmail’s Sundered Empire setting) and bestial humanoids that are portrayed as something beyond monsters to be slain. Lost Citadel hits both of these personal sweet spots for me and I especially can’t wait to see the material and revelations about the ghûl spin out through the game material.”
The Green Ronin team will be adapting the world using the rules for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition rules, making this not only an easy way for fans to get into the game but an excellent resource for other Dungeon Masters looking for ways to add a bit of darker flavor to their own D&D world.
Featured image courtesy of Green Ronin Publishing
What’s your favorite dark fantasy setting? Let us know in the comments!
Rob Wieland is an author, game designer and professional nerd. He writes about kaiju, Jedi, gangsters, elves, Vulcans and sometimes all of them at the same time. His blog is here, his Twitter is here and his meat body can be found in scenic Milwaukee, WI.