The Lantern is Now Tiered

Going forward, for those who are interested in seeing The Lantern PDF, copies must be paid for, either by joining the new $7 tier on my patreon or visiting Lulu. The free offer is no longer publicly available.

The response has been thoroughly positive. People recognise that there's an inherent value in locating session hooks into a narrative told from characters inside the game setting, providing a real, tangible glimpse into the lives and doings of those living within it. I personally believe that it's been a sensational idea: present the module not as a stale formula for the DM to follow, but as a structured step-by-step example of how a party may very well react when coming up to this door, reacting to an unknown sound or falling into some peculiar situation. What's strange for me is that I remain so close to the subject material that I'm finding it difficult to deconstruct just what I like about it so much. Those thoughts still elude me, so that I haven't constructed a blog post about it yet.

The September edition is almost done, though it's not set to be published until the 21st of August. As such, I've decided to offer it on the 1st of August for an additional $3 over the $7 asking price.  That's $10 total, which must be provided on patreon.  Those who already give me a $10 donation on patreon are set up, but if anyone else is anxious and don't want to save $3, you can get on board now and for every month going forward.

Final Days of the Lantern's Free Access

Just wanted to write a brief note: the first issue of The Lantern, issue for August 1635, will no longer be available for free on Patreon after July 22.  If you haven’t yet downloaded it, now is the time. After that date, it will remain available for purchase on Lulu:

https://www.lulu.com/account/projects/nv98em7

Thank you to everyone who’s read, commented, or shared kind words so far. Your engagement is deeply appreciated. I’m continuing work on the September 1635 issue, which will release on August 21, as planned.  A preview of the front cover will be provided on the 29th of July, though it can be seen at the end of the video I posted of Elric Swann's reading.

If you have questions about The Lantern, about its construction, its content, its intentions or how I came to conceive of it, then please ask.  I'll answer most any question, provided it doesn't touch on spoilers for future articles.

Let Me Ask the Room

Two questions for the general zeitgeist.

First—has anyone actually downloaded The Lantern's PDF?  Patreon doesn’t tell me, and I’d genuinely like to know if it’s reached anyone’s hands yet.

Second—of Exalted Funeral, Spear Witch, or Tuesday Knight Games, who’s worth reaching out to with this? I’m not asking who you like—I’m asking who’d actually look at it.

The Lantern, no. 1, in full, for the month of August, 1635

Due to inconvenient circumstances, I'm launching The Lantern on my patreon, presently.  It's the 15th of July for most of the world, and I won't have time to do this tomorrow.

You can find the Lantern here, on my patreon.  It will be free for download until noon, Mountain Time, on July 22nd.

Thereafter, it will cost $7 USD, which may be managed either though contributing that amount to Patreon, or purchasing it here from Lulu.  Lulu gets a cut if you do the latter, Patreon gets a cut if you do the former.  Alternately, you can choose to give Paypal a cut, but I haven't used them in a while and I'll have to update my account.

As it states on Patreon, The Lantern is a monthly publication supporting fantasy role-play through the presentation of an early 17th-century game setting. Each issue offers firsthand narratives, regional reports and supernatural accounts written in the style of the time. In this debut edition: an adventure to the Old Priory near Cruwys Morchard, with humour and unnatural dangers. Presented for players and game-masters seeking historical texture and uncanny peril.

This publication is written, illustrated and assembled by me, in support of a larger goal: to offer players of fantasy role-playing games a rich, lived-in 17th-century setting, as an aid to worldbuilding. To that end, it conceptualises people, places, time period and relationships between the land and the events taking place in it.

I hope you enjoy it.

The Priory at Cruwys Morchard

"The Lantern" has been styled as a periodical written and presented as a local news gazette edited and published by a curmudgeonly, strained member of the press, Geoffrey Fleetmarsh. The content he's created includes village gossip, explanations of weapons and training schools, the mechanics of spellcasting and a first-person adventuring account, each of which doubles as inspiration for those seeking to understand the setting from the point of view of those inside it.  Essentially, it's a guidebook on how NPCs live, what they care about, how they perceive their lives... and ultimately, how they might be depicted more immersively by the DM.

Elements of fantasy and game features are included into the text as though these things are perfectly every day and ordinary, while the characters and advertising is frequently poignant, humorous or darkly horrific.  I believe it's wholly unique in the whole lexicon of D&D based material.

The whole magazine will be offered free, as a PDF, through my Patreon on the 15th of July, two days from now.  The above presents pages 14 and 15.  The whole is 24 pages.  On the 22nd of July, I will remove the free offer and thereafter will be charging $7 for it.  A second edition of the "magazine," the September 1635 edition, will be ready for publication on the 21st of August, and it's my intention to continue releasing editions each month, for $7 a piece, for sale on Lulu.  Those contributing $7 monthly to my Patreon will be sent the new edition through their email on the 21st of each month.  Back issues will be available on Lulu.

A reading of one of the articles can be heard by following the link. Examples of the ads from the magazine are included (save one, which appears in the next issue) and a teaser for the "September" cover is also shown. The speech accent feels period-true, with a bit of a rural edge, something British-but-nowhere-specific. It's not meant to be Cockney or posh or stage Scottish, just from the world. I'd appreciate more page views on my youtube, comments and a like if you've got it in you.

And yes—this is now the focus. I’m stepping away from the unfinished long-form projects. That may disappoint a few of you, but the truth is this: those projects didn’t gain traction. Interest was soft. Support was polite. I won’t spend hundreds of hours building something no one will buy. If that’s a hard thing to hear, so be it.

This one—The Lantern—has legs. I think The Lantern is the smartest, most immersive thing I've ever done. I think it steals the heart and soul of the real game from the clumsy, stumbling module format, repainting the latter as something that has happened, not a pantomime meant to be staged.

Master Elric Swann Speaks on Weapons

A video on youtube, as a preview for The Lantern,  as promised in the Opening Card of the last post.

Launching:  https://youtu.be/ARhyMMjfvPE?si=6h2kzdVVR17esb8-

Opening Card

 

The Lantern