Unknown Worlds is a narrative forward TTRPG designed from the ground up to support creative, cooperative worldbuilding. The Core Book provides the rules and systems while the Field Journals detail wonderous settings across many times, places, and genres.
Unknown Worlds is a table top roleplaying game that focuses on narrative power, creative play, a flexible action system, and most of all MAGIC!
The core of Unknown Worlds is the Pillars System, a simple to learn and easy to play at the table system that keeps the action moving, the stories flowing, and the rules checking to a minimum.
The Core Rulebook provides all the rules needed to play and each Field Journal provides a different campaign setting and genre in which to set the group's adventures. All of these settings exist within the same continuity, though separated by many years and many miles.
This game has been a passion project for us for many years, starting before the pandemic and something we hope to continue to work on for years to come!
Characters in the Pillars System are modeled on three Pillars: Blood, Soul, and Voice. Each of these Pillars tell the player how many dice to roll for every check in the game.
Each Pillar is made up of three Traits:
BLOOD is made of Grace, Strength, and Endurance.
SOUL is made of Perception, Creativity, and Spirit.
VOICE is made of Intellect, Social, and Willpower.
Pillars are used to:
Determine the dice rolled for every check in the game.
Track your mana (the resource you use to power magic)
Three Field Journals are planned for launch and available through this Backerkit campaign! Many more are planned and already in development. Each setting is fully compatible and supported by the Core Rulebook.
Small Town Magic: Set in the mid-80s in small town America
The group creates a small town campaign setting.
Powerful magic and monsters hide in plain sight.
Vibes of excitement, adventure, mystery, and wonder.
Victorian Horror: Set in 1860s London
The group creates a ward in Victorian London
Unspeakable horrors lurk in the shadows and alleys
Horror, desperation, and foreboding creep into every game session.
Cozy Quests: Set in long past mystical animal villages
The group creates and nourishes a magical village full of animals.
The stakes are low, the quests are wholesome, and the muffins are ready.
Cozy, cute, cottage-core goodness set in an adorable magical village.
We have been developing, writing, and playtesting Unknown Worlds for several years and are so excited to be getting into the hands of players everywhere. The Core Book (with all of the rules) is ready to go and the first three Field Journals are in editing/layout!
Releasing 2025 (Development complete, in editing and layout) Unknown Worlds Core Rulebook (320 page black & white, 6.14x9.21 hardcover) Field Journal: Small Town Magic (174page color, 6.14x9.21 hardcover) Field Journal: Victorian Horror (174page color, 6.14x9.21 hardcover) Field Journal: Cottage Core (174page color, 6.14x9.21 hardcover)
Unknown Worlds: Core Book
Cozy Quest: The Journal of Brightwater
Victorian Horror: The Journal of Simon Fox
Small Town Magic: The Journal of Clementine Finnley
Achievements Game Developer Paul here. I’m in charge of Achievements. Let’s do this!
Game Guide Screen, unlocks at $4000 I’ll gather all the charts, tables, and quippy quotes I can and make printable sheets to stuff into those really cool customizable GG Screens. Would I do this anyway? Nope. I don’t like screens, but maybe you do! But if you show love to the campaign, you can have a cool screen for your trouble! YAY!
Book of Powers, unlocks at $5000 There are a lot of options in Unknown Worlds for how to do magic! 13 Secrets in the Core book, a new one in each Field Journal! That’s 16 secrets already…. And as long as you don’t tell the rest of the developers I can safely admit I hid a few extra secrets… I mean, each of the 6 Elementalisms is really it’s own secret….so that’s 21 secrets. Three Tiers each… and let’s say 5 power examples from each secret from each tier. That’s about 315 powers. But if the campaign is up to $5000, I’m going to be so happy it won’t feel like work to pull these together. This product will be a PDF and a print-on-demand book. That means, if we unlock this the PDF will go to most of our backers for free!! (check which pledges include all of the digital unlocks!)
Book of Keepers, unlocks at $6000 Want some Keepers? How about 101 keepers? Keepers for your use as characters. Villains. Mentors. Use them however you want! Will there be art for each keeper? Probably not. Unless you want some ugly stick figures! I can do that! We’ll get a few pieces of cool art, but this product isn’t about shiny. It’s about not having to design your own Keepers all the time! This product will be a PDF and a print-on-demand book. That means, if we unlock this the PDF will go to most of our backers for free!! (check which pledges include all of the digital unlocks!)
Atlas I: Towns of Magic, unlocks at $7000 This will be a collection of 12 small towns set in our Small Town Magic setting, fully detailed with maps, locations, NPCs, and story hooks. A couple of these towns may be designed by people who work with us through this campaign (The Unknown Worlds Mapper add-on). Each of the towns will be crafted by our developers (perhaps inspired by our own home towns, or the collaboration with Unknown Worlds Mappers). This product will be a PDF and a print-on-demand book. That means, if we unlock this the PDF will go to most of our backers for free!! (check which pledges include all of the digital unlocks!)
Atlas II: Wards of Horror, unlocks at $8000 Just like the Atlas I but I changed a few words: This will be a collection of 12 London wards set in our Victorian Horror setting, fully detailed with maps, locations, NPCs, and story hooks. A couple of these horrible places may be designed by people who work with us through this campaign (The Unknown Worlds Mapper add-on). Each of the wards will be crafted by our developers (perhaps inspired by our own nightmares or the collaboration with Unknown Worlds Mappers). I am really hoping people take the Unknown Worlds Mapper add-on to help with this one. Because if I am being real, the Victorian Horror setting kinda freaks me out a bit. Thanks Jennifer and Quinn. This product will be a PDF and a print-on-demand book. That means, if we unlock this the PDF will go to most of our backers for free!! (check which pledges include all of the digital unlocks!)
Atlas III: Villages of Coziness, unlocks at $9000 Just like the Atlas I but I changed a few words. Note I changed them very differently than the ones I changed for the horror setting: This will be a collection of 12 cute, cozy, wholesome mystical villages full of intelligent animals and low stakes fun set in our Cozy Quests setting, fully detailed with maps, locations, NPCs, and story hooks. A couple of these magical, happy, wonderful, safe places may be designed by people who work with us through this campaign (The Unknown Worlds Mapper add-on). Each of the villages will be crafted by our developers (perhaps inspired by our own daydreams or the collaboration with Unknown Worlds Mappers. This product will be a PDF and a print-on-demand book. That means, if we unlock this the PDF will go to most of our backers for free!! (check which pledges include all of the digital unlocks!)
As a small group of game designers we needed help to get our vision produced. We hired a great graphic designer, paid artists, and a most excellent editor. Crowd funding is allowing us to bring this game to the table in a way that would just not have been possible for us with a traditional business model.
We are planning to use DriveThru RPG to print and fulfill our game. This allows us to focus on creating content and gets our backers quality books, printed in the United States. DriveThru will also handle the distribution of the digital items included in every backer's order.
Anvil 8 Games is a small game design studio and publisher based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We believe games are powerful, transformative, and most importantly should be for everyone.
At Anvil 8 Games we strongly support artists, writers, and creators and do not use, nor allow any of our employees or collaborators to use generative AI in our projects.
After the initial release from this Backerkit campaign, which includes the Core Book, and the first three Field Journals, we have a whole lot more planned and in progress!
UPCOMING FIELD JOURNAL RELEASES (in active development): Moons of Jupiter Retro-futurism, space shenanigans!
Enclaves of New York 1990s New York with a focus on vibrant communities and big city magic.
Camelot Eternal The mystical realm of Camelot!
FUTURE RELEASES (in early development): Atlantis Rediscovered (Tier IV Magic in the modern world!) Ancient Atlantis (High Fantasy 20,000 BCE!) Camelot Eternal (Camelot as a Realm of magic unbound by time and logic) Fabulous Seas (Unhinged adventures in the mystical age of pirates) Golden West (The American West in the mid 1800s) Travelers (1920s American traveling bands seeking lost and hidden magic) Re-Emergence (Post-Apocalyptic Magic) Magic Unlimited (Weird Fantasy in a world full of magical realms in Earth's far future)
Shipping will be calculated and collected after the campaign through the Pledge Manager.
Awesome Shipping Option: Some of our books will be ready for personal, hand delivery at Midwinter Gaming Convention.
When? The Core Book, Small Town Magic, and Victorian Horror will be ready January 2025.
Cozy Quests will be ready as soon as January 2025, and as late as April 2025. To be honest, the timeline of this release is tied directly to being able to hire help for editing and layout required to move forward quickly!
The Digital and Print on Demand Add-on Achievements will be available in Q2 2025.
