Blackthorn continues to creep and entwine itself into our lives. The evil of Father Fly is nearly unleased on our world. Let's make this happen!
$35 - Blackthorn rulebook, 4 pamphlet adventures, + 2 one page adventures! Help us maximize the pulp horror unveiled by the release of Blackthorn!
We are excited to get this out to everyone. As the rules and adventures continue to develop through the campaign, we have a playtest ready manuscript for Rite of Passage and soon Murder Birds and the Belfast Vampire Massacre are close behind.
Get ready to survive, or fall to an Irish lore vampire, psychic fungus, a rampaging shock of cassowaries, fly god cultists, and more!!
Thank you to all who have backed so far! We're excited to make this a reality!
First off, thank you everyone! We are beyond excited to bring Blackthorn to life. We have incredible contributors and a slew of horror to throw your way with the release of the core book.
With a wonderful 15 hours remaining I wanted to make sure to make an update clarifying all of the free rewards backers may receive for backing Blackthorn on Backerkit!
So this is short and sweet, but may help you make sure you get what you're wishing to receive from your pledge level. Also, hopefully relieve some worry about whether or not you will receive certain PDFs in case anything was unclear on the campaign page.
First up! Stretch Goals
Physical stretch goals are limited to the $35 pledge level "Blackthorn & Adventure Bundle". We are stoked to have unlocked two free adventures. This House is Now Your Home and Father Fly!
PDF versions of This House is Now Your Home and Father Fly will be given to all backers at both of the $15 pledge levels, and of course also to the $35 backers.
Next the Cross-Collab
If you back Blackthorn and Enter the Nolstalgitron at a physical level, you will receive the physical copies of two free one-page adventures + Stillfleet is throwing in a Stillfleet pin!
I talked to Stillfleet, and decided I will also distribute PDFs of Puddy Madness! to all backers who backed both campaigns regardless of whether it was at a PDF level or physical level.
Puddy Madness! and Plenilune Pier will only be available for double backers during the campaign. Meaning any late pledges in the pledge manager will not be eligible for the free adventures.
Wythe & Michael have been incredible partners to work with, and the cross-collab has been one of the highlights of Pocketopia. If you're into more comedic or laidback horror, Puddy Madness! is going to be a great fit! And, if you're into 80s and 90s cartoons and gritty superfuture scifi then Enter the Nostalgitron will be a great addition to your game library too.
You can check out the mechanics of Stillfleet with their free quickstart rules here if you want to make sure it's a great fit for you.
Lastly, had a question about the early bird special Revenge of the Boiled Hag, and that too will be delivered to physical backers as a physical one-page adventure + the PDF, and to PDF backers as a PDF only!
Stoked with how much we've unlocked with this campaign! We're going to be bringing some awesome adventures to you.
Thank you for all of the support so far! We are ecstatic that we unlocked This House is Now Your Home adventure, and with that we completed our pulp comic art trilogy of one shots! We're also excited to announce our next stretch goal: Father Fly!!
Let's quickly go over the one-page adventures!
I love a nice postcard adventure/module. JP Coovert's system agnostic dungeons, Perplexing Ruins NPC/Location cards for Fallen, and others. I wanted to cheat just a little though so we're printing 5.5×8.5" one-pagers. Same size as the zine, but wins us a bit more real estate for a bit more information.
For the pulp comic trilogy of one-shots I've lightly edited, as in blew up and recolored, illustrations from public domain comics and have used those as the inspiration for the adventures. Here's what we're looking at:
> Revenge of the Boiled Hag - A witch who was boiled to death has returned seeking revenge on the wicked descendants of the ones who killed her. (Early Bird Incentive Freebie)
> They Escaped From the Sea - Zombies rise from the sea floor in search of human sacrifices to bring to their old master. (Comes with the Blackthorn + Adventure Bundle + PDF All In pledge levels.)
> This House is Now Your Home - A demonic house sinks the rest of the city toward the depths of hell. The only way to stop it is to accept it's invitation inside. (First unlocked stretch goal. Physical comes with the Blackthorn + Adventure Bundle + the PDF comes with all other tiers.)
+ don't forget our cross-collab adventure, Puddy Madness! that comes free if you back both Blackthorn and Enter the Nostalgitron.
> Puddy Madness! - The Blob-inspired expanding mess of an adventure. This is the adventure we lean into horror comedy! (Cross Collab Freebie)
NOTE: Most people seeing this will have backed early enough to have received "Revenge of the Boiled Hag" free for backing in the first 48-hours, but if you missed it we'll make sure you can pick it up during the pledge manager.
And lastly, Father Fly reveal! Father Fly will be released as a one-page adventure if we raise $6000, and we'll upgrade it to a pamphlet adventure if we raise $7000! More about Father Fly next update :)
Thank you again for being with us here! We're stoked to be releasing Blackthorn, especially with a slew of different modules!
We're stoked to get Blackthorn out into the wild! We've been developing this game for a long time and it's passed several iterations. It all started as a hack of Cloud Empress, and Mothership, geared towards high urgency one shots, but now it is its own kind of terror.
Blackthorn is a d12+d6 mixed success system bleeding with narrative bits. It's focused on the characters reaction to supernatural danger and lets players lean into all sorts of character types to better tell a shared horror story. Settings for adventures span throughout the early-to-mid 1900s, but most importantly are centered on the local stage. A single area, a small community or subcommunity, and a lethal supernatural threat. We're stoked to launch the game with an array of adventures! We have three hard-hitting pamphlets and several dangerous one-page adventures to go alongside them.
Thank you for diving into the darkness with us! May your soul be protected against the supernatural!
