Progress continues to be made on the Saurids Sourcebook, which if you aren’t already aware is the next primary book we’ve got planned for Kickstarter. The current plan is to run that campaign after the first next year – we haven’t narrowed down exactly when yet, but my intention is to give a short break after the holidays to recover before that goes into effect, so stay tuned for more specific info.
Given that time is rapidly approaching, I thought I’d do a quick general overview of some of the things we’ll be including, so you’ll have an idea of what to look forward to. Of course, I have to keep a few specific surprises in the back pocket for when the book comes out, so don’t expect this to be an exhaustive list, more just a highlight reel of some of the general subjects.
For pretty much the first half of the book, we’ll be delving deeper into each of the primary cultural groups – the Plains Patriarchs, the Mountain Matriarchs, and the Forest Egalitarians. We’ll be getting into some more of the specifics of what makes them different, what similarities they have, what their histories say about how they came to be in their current state, and what their goals and motivations are. There’s also a chapter planned to touch on the other cultural groups outside of the three main ones, namely the Kistalmi and what information is known about the Aquatics (get ready for some really weird stuff there – under the water is a pretty mysterious place, and under the water on an alien planet is just going to compound on that).
After the cultural discussion and everything you need to help make the people and areas of the Saurids feel more alive for your players, we’ll be getting more into the actual game mechanics. The first chapter of the second half is going to be devoted entirely to that purpose – you’ll be getting new Professions, new Skills, new Equipment, and all those other little goodies you’ll want to fill in on your character sheet. We’re also going to have a chapter devoted to Creatures and Spirits – the Saurids do have an entire new host of animals they’ve domesticated, after all, and it’s going to be necessary to go over those to really understand how they live. Given how aware their culture is of the spirit world, that also plays a significant part. This chapter will also spend some time talking about the fae – yes, we’ve established the fae in this world if you missed that in the Companions, and Earth isn’t the only world they’re interested in – and how they manifest themselves through the myths and legends of Saurid history, because they’ve definitely got a hand to play in it.
We’ll also be taking a look at some of the specific Tribes. These are subsets of the larger cultures (and in some cases, mixes between them), breaking up the overarching cultural groups to give some more specific motivations and attitudes towards each other and outside groups, covering the more immediate influences on an individual Saurid. In many ways, these will fill a similar role for the Saurids that Secret Societies do for characters from Earth, in particular covering their KAV spells for those that are magically inclined.
There are a few other goodies we’ll be including references for and sprinkling through out the book, including some more information on the history of the Saurids as they came to this part of the Gruv (you’ll have to do some piecing together going over each group to work out the general idea, and even then there will be some gaps you can fill in for your campaign), and an expanded lexicon to give you some more words for their language.
As things come together and we get closer to the actual Kickstarter, I may be dropping a few sneak peeks at things in these blog posts, so keep an eye out for those in the days to come. In the meantime, I’ve got more writing to review, so I’d best get back at it.