Hey there Family,

 

We’re delighted to give you an update and a sneak peak at some of the content for Come Hell or Highwater- from the book’s designer Shanna Germain!

The design for Come Hell or Highwater is nearly complete! This is a really cool supplement that includes a handful of dark new adventures, in-depth settings that you can plug-and-play into any campaign, and some deep dives into various important locations in the podcast, written by none other than Cam and Steve themselves!

Here’s a small sample of what you’ll find inside:

Perhaps characters would like to accept an invitation to attend the spectacular, the marvellous, the incredibly creepy! Doctor Nathaniel’s Traveling Marvelment, where nothing is as it seems, not even Doctor Nathaniel. Or maybe they’d like to make some money delivering a crate of very special moonshine directly to the one person who really, really deserves such a “gift.” Horse tracks, blood bonds, monsters from the lake—these adventures are full of opportunities to scare and delight players (and, of course, to hopefully make them cry).

“You know you’ve found your forever family when your world around you is about to end and you’re determined to stay alive together, promising to have each other’s back through thick and thin. Through the darkness and the danger. Through better and worse. Through so, so much worse". ~from “Monsters Among Us,” an adventure in Come Hell or Highwater.

What’s going on at the factory down the road? And how does that tie into the nearby town? Why is everyone fleeing the old farm and whispering about the woods around it? These sections feature details settings, including descriptions, NPCs, adventure hooks, and more, making them easy to use in a campaign and in any part of Appalachia.

“The factory looms with ochre-lit windows near the river soured with its run-off, smokestacks billowing steam or roiling black smoke, the drone and clatter of machinery drowning out cricket-song and howls of coyotes in the nearby hills. Inside the roar is overwhelming. Human-made devices whir and thrum with infernal intensity. Workers orchestrate these beasts with a mix of dazzling aplomb and resignation, pride in the warp and weft of their work, but muscle-tired and weary. The factory gives and the factory takes away. 

But, lord, does the factory take. Twelve-hour shifts with hardly a break. The same repetitive tasks corrupting the joints and emptying the mind. Stifling heat in summer, biting cold in winter, the air thick with cotton fibers or toxic dust. The machines punish every slip— bloodying knuckles, severing a finger, removing a scalp. Something in the soulless gears and labyrinth of levers bespeaks darker intention, a malign energy looking for release through the nearest living conduit. Always the clatter. Always the drone. Always the unmerciful stench and the heartworn labor of another minute, hour, day. All the while, the floor boss stalks the rows with a hawked and witching eye, or looks down from a rickety parapet, just another man, or perhaps a minor god perched there by the hand of a grim avatar, to dispense its judgments, to gather its children”.

Always wondered what was behind (and inside) the Devil’s Divide? Wished for a detailed description of the Walker House? Ached for a map of The Home? These sections (written by Cam and Steve) are full of behind-the-podcast details of the places, people, and things that you know and love (or love to hate).

“The Clutch is a place of hidden lives and secrets not always dark, but often more complicated than folks care to take the time to understand. It’s not a big place, nor is it hard to find. Just go about five miles down Bear Wallow Road and look for a wide spot where, for as long as anyone can remember, folks have dumped old farm equipment. Carts with no wheels, busted plows and other agricultural cast-offs are discarded here in the middle of nowhere, abandoned to become someone else’s problem. This graveyard of busted axles and warped moldboards obscures a turn onto a narrow footpath that is all but invisible to the uninitiated. Push through the weeds just a bit and players will find the quarter mile dirt road leading from the town of Baker’s Gap into a shadowy holler where folks who have been discarded by society make their home, at least for a little while. Welcome to the Clutch”.

Fancy delving into more surreal magic and character driven goodness? There’s less than a day left to pledge for Invisible Sun Indigo and Electric. Discover magic that’s truly magical and experience the rich and surreal world of Invisible Sun. Enter the Actuality here.

 

Thanks for supporting this project, Family!

 

The MCG Team. 

 
 

Hey there Family,

 

We’re expecting a reprint of the Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game corebooks (they have been hugely popular!), so if you’re waiting on this in your order, there will be a slight delay. The list of rewards which are available to redeem is here.  

 

As a reminder for anyone who has not yet done so for existing products, here’s how you redeem your rewards.

 

Some great news: Dig Your Own Grave is now in layout and it's very soon going to proofing. Alongside this, the manuscript for All Your Gods Are Dead is in editing.

Shanna Germain lifts a bit of the curtain for All Your Gods Are Dead to tell us what diabolical things lurk within:
 

As promised, All Your Gods Are Dead is stuffed with goodies for the GM, including new creatures, artifacts (including cursed artifacts), cyphers, and OGoA-specific GM intrusion suggestions. There’s a whole section with tips for planning and running horror games, as well as a slew of new optional rules. Characters can now perform rituals, make poor choices, possess or be possessed, and tempt Jack’s Fate. The Jack’s Fate rule is designed to connect the PCs with one of the most influential and important characters in the setting, as well to further strengthen some of the themes that swirl about the game—the idea that bargains and deals can be made for almost anything, but all of them have a cost. And that cost is almost never what you expect.

Characters who come into contact with Jack might get offered a deal. They get to call upon Jack three times for help. And when that’s done? Well, then Jack gets to call on the characters right back. And if you know Jack, you know he’s going to show up and ask for help at the worst possible time (and in the worst possible way). To seal the agreement, Jack gives the characters a rare artifact, a mental pendant. The artifact is so powerful it can bring a character back from death—but at a cost, of course.

The pendant isn’t the only artifact that you might be able to get off Jack. He carries Jack’s cards, a set of business cards that can be magically altered at the drop of a hat, as well as a satchel that lets you reach in and pull out a small, useful item like a lockpicking kit, a snack, a crowbar, or even a light weapon any time you need it.

 “Jack took his wallet from his inside jacket pocket and pulled out the business cards he and Doc had planned on using in their attempt at relieving the sweet old lady in question of her more unusual possessions. Doc watched as Jack shuffled the two bits of paper like playing cards, then closed his hands over them and squeezed. When he released them, they no longer identified Misters Underwood and Fields as traveling antique buyers for an auction house out of Glamorgan. Doc’s card now looked much more official and bore an austere black and white fede watermark along with a false name. “Contracted laborer” was printed beneath it. Jack’s now bore the seal of the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, a relatively new federal office that folks down here wouldn’t know from Adam. He handed Doc his new credential and grinned”.

Old Gods of Appalachia Podcast ~Season 4: Episode 69: Nice and Easy

 
 

 Escape this world of shadow and lies—enter the astonishing world of the Actuality.
 
If you’re hungry for more mystery and more magic, then why not check out Invisible Sun: Electric and Indigo?
 

 Thanks so much for your support!
 -Team MCG

Hey there family,

 

We’re having a very productive winter and are pleased to let y’all know that of our three new books, Dig Your Own Grave is now in editing, and All Your Gods Are Dead is in the final stages of design, and is beginning development.

Check out what Old Gods of Appalachia RPG designer Shanna’s been working on:

The writing and design for Dig Your Own Grave is complete, and it's in the process of being edited as we speak! The stories and poems from our guest writers--including Cherie Priest and Lee Mandelo--are incredible, and they lend so much atmosphere to the book. Additionally this book has all the things you might expect for a player resource: more cool descriptors and foci (who doesn't want to play a character who Steals the Nickels off a Dead Man's Eyes or who Whistles in the Woods?); a ton of new equipment ideas; tips for playing in horror games; and a whole bunch of player intrusions and connections.

 

But my favorite bit is the optional choose-your-own adventure style character backgrounds. There are eight of them, and each of them gives you two points where your character made a choice. This is Old Gods we're talking about here, so of course none of those choices are easy and there's no way to walk away unscathed. Here's the opening bit from one of the backgrounds called Deal Broker. What choice do you make?

You were once down on your luck, in almost all the ways a person can be. Your job fell away, food went scarce, your family had mostly died off or disappeared or become ragged in the way that those who are bound by the thin threads of blood sometimes do. You became the last of your line, a name ready to die out and be buried forever. 

But you had one light: love.

The love of another human that burned so bright and pure and perfect that you would do anything to make them happy. Anything at all.  

When they asked to you make things better, in any way you could, you knew it was time. The night of the hunter’s moon, you walked into the trees and did that ritual. The one you were never supposed to do, the one that made your sweet mamaw strengthen her wards. The one that made your eyes water and the hairs rise along the nape of your neck just to think about it. The one that would have made your love say, “No, not that. Anything but that” if you’d told them—but you didn’t. 

You went, trembled voice and shaking hands and a roil in your belly like a wild river on the rise. 

And when the beast answered, when it shoved through the trees and soil like your worst nightmare’s worst nightmare, and it said, “Ask,” you went ahead and did.  

And when the beast whispered its cost, not into your ear, but into your heart’s terrified beat, when it said, “I will take your first-born child in payment,” you said, “Yes.” 

Because there was no child. Not then.

But there is now. And she is sweet and tow-headed and the joy of both of your lives. Thanks to the deal, your work has blossomed, your love has held, your life is as close to perfect as a broken, breathing thing can be.  

And now: now the beast is coming. It is here. It is ready to complete your bargain.

Do you Give Your Child to the Beast? (Go to page xx)

Do you Break Your Bargain? (Go to page xx)

The following existing rewards are all now available to redeem if you've not redeemed them already:

   

Chances are, if you’re into horror podcast or RPGs, you’ll want to check out what we have in store for The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game.  Check it out!
 

The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game takes horror on a unique and chilling arc, as you investigate what seem to be unconnected supernatural encounters. But links between these disparate horrors soon emerge, revealing a bigger—and more chilling—picture.

 

The real twist comes as the PCs realize they aren’t just combating this web of horror—they’re being affected by it. These powerful malign forces can be defeated—but how much of their humanity are the PCs willing to sacrifice?

                The Web weaves. Will you find yourself within its tangles?
 
Our next campaign delves deeper into The Magnus Archives and its fully funded and live now!

 

 


 

Happy holiday season, family!

Winter has arrived in here Kansas! There is a chill in the air, and everyone hustles home at the end of the day, trying to beat the encroaching darkness. But with the holidays right around the corner, bringing love, light, and warmth, maybe the darkness is worth it. We hope that, no matter what you’re celebrating, you have a warm and cozy December!

This is a tradition here at MCG: we give you a $10 coupon for the MCG Shop. Use it to get a little something for yourself or a loved one—or turn it into a donation to one of three charities we’re supporting this holiday season. We make the donation (100% goes to the charity) and you pay nothing!

This year, we're supporting the Southern Poverty Law Center, Heart to Heart International, and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund!

Before we here at MCG shuts down for the holidays, we continue to work hard on the supplements you brought to life through this campaign. Initial development on All Your Gods Are Dead—designed for GMs and chock full of the entities and items you’ll love to put in your game—has begun! We can’t wait for you to unleash the legion of powerful creatures, array of NPCs, and slew of new cyphers and artifacts we’re putting in this book on your victims players. 

Last month, we told you that Bruce has finished the development pass of this campaign’s first supplement, Dig Your Own Grave. Dig Your Own Grave expands your character options with all-new descriptors and foci, as well as detailed backgrounds and connections that help establish your player characters even more firmly into the setting. This book is now heading to editing!

Sign up to be notified of The Magnus Archives Roleplaying Game: Tangled in the Web and get an exclusive Magnus Archives patch FREE with your Pledge! 🕸️🕷️📼

Love MCG’s horror? Love supporting horror podcasts with unique and captivating voices, twists, and monsters? You won't want to miss out on this chance to get new statements, lore, and adventures by TMA creator Jonathan Sims!

Thanks again for your support!
—Team MCG