Gamemaster's Guide to Kaidan - final layout

[Gamerprinter]

So I'm working on the final page layout for my upcoming Gamemaster's Guide to Kaidan (setting guide) to obtain the printers proof, prior to the full print run to fulfill the Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror Kickstarter. Art by Skoeger. I have 3 maps in this guide, and I wrote the developer's note near the front of the book. Notably F. Wesley Schneider, the Editor in Chief for Paizo Publishing (creators of the Pathfinder RPG) wrote the forward to this guide.

For those who don't know I began development of Kaidan, here in the Community World Project, but then moved it out to publish it on my own. Kaidan is published as an imprint under Rite Publishing, and after a successful Kickstarter, a couple years ago, it's finally nearing it's end. Kaidan is a more authentic Japan analog steeped in Japanese ghost story tradition. It is my published homebrew. There have already been released an introduction trilogy of modules, The Curse of the Golden Spear, 4 one-shot modules, 3 racial guides, and 2 class/faction guides. The setting guide has been a long time coming, now it's just about here.

Can't wait to have this printed book in my hands!

GP

gm-guide-kaidan-cover.jpg

[Redrobes]

WOOT ! - Well done GP that looks amazing. I recall the Kaiden position on the map. I put the CWBP1 on one of our zoomy maps but since you wanted Kaiden more commercial then it was not included in the CC-BY bit of the CWBP but the island far to the left of Ansium in the middle of the ocean was reserved for the position of Kaiden.

Good luck with sales of your module booklet or book. I know you have some deep knowledge of japanese mythology to share so I bet its a corker.

https://www.cartographersguild.com/l...php?type=cwbp1

[Gamerprinter]

Its a 204 page book with a B/W interior to keep costs down. While most of the books will soft-bound, I am getting a hard bound version at release. Here's some of the interior art by other freelancers on the project...

GP

Daitengu Final.jpgArmor display final.jpgRITE-Publishing-Chptr6-romance(1).jpgRITE-Publishing-Chptr7-61-psmith.jpgsamurai_gate_002.jpg

[Falconius]

Very, very cool to see a finished homebrew, and the art work looks great. Congrats.

[Greg]

Looking really really nice, GP! I bet nothing's going to beat that feeling of when that fine-looking book turns up at your door.

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, guys!

For those that don't know Kaidan is an archaic Japanese word that means "ghost story" or "strange occurrence" it comes with many dark Japanese horror tropes, 19th century and older ghost story tradition, a twisted version of the Buddhist reincarnation cycle combined with the social caste system and a karma score so that your station in life is entirely dependent on acts you committed in your previous life. When your character dies he/she is dead, spells like raise dead, reincarnation (by spell) and resurrection do not function, your spirit is bound for the cursed reincarnation system.

Kaidan tries to be more authentic to Japanese history, culture, religion, folklore and mythology than other Japan analogs. It is a very spiritual land, more so than most settings, and probably one of the most esoteric settings you'll ever encounter. Of the products released so far, they are highly rated by the industry reviewers, and considered by some their most favorite Pathfinder RPG setting out there. Of course, I'm biased, but here's a link to all current Kaidan products so far... read the reviews!

GP

[Gamerprinter]

I finally completed the page layout for the GM's Guide to Kaidan, and created the PDF/X files for the guide and the full cover design - sent to Rite Publishing, so the guide can be sent to the printers and we can get a print proof, before final release. The guide is 204 pages long, with B/W interior and full color cover (as shown in first post). I was waiting on the author to send me the back page blurb for the back cover.

For a teaser, here's the forward to the GM's Guide to Kaidan by F. Wesley Schneider, Editor in Chief, Paizo Publishing...

This isn’t the domain of zombies, serial murderers, and cyclopean aliens. You won’t find the dread of Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, or Dracula here. Don’t expect the relentless visions of Audition, Parasite Eve, or Uzamaki either. Hundreds of years and tens of thousands of miles will pass before those young terrors take shape.

Before them came something more fundamental, more visceral, embodiments of fears passed down through stories, faith, and instincts born of a world more full of mysteries and shadows.

That is the world of Kaidan.

You might be familiar with the children of these terrors, films such as Dark Water, Ju-on, or Ringu, unnerving glimpses into an age and place where inky waters hide backdoors to Hell and no one escapes karmic revenge. Abandon what you think you know about terror, your preconceptions about hawthorn stakes and steepled sanctuaries, and step into the nightmares of a world both unsettlingly alien and absolutely true. For all the depth and dark artistry poured into Kaidan, the dread here isn’t born purely of imagination, but of fears that once and still do walk corners of the Earth, sleep-stealing menaces for which many readers will be utterly unprepared.

I know, because I wasn’t.

As one of the architects behind Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder Adventure Path, I direct and produce significant portions of that publication’s two yearly campaigns. The Jade Regent Adventure Path—the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game’s foray into Asian-inspired fantasy—proved especially exciting and challenging as it meant delving into the fiction and folklore of a tradition far different and geographically distant from our usual roots in European legendry and Western literature. Longtime readers of Pathfinder Adventure Path—especially the Carrion Crown Adventure Path—likely know my predilections for world folklore and gothic horror. As such, I’d read Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things—an English speaker’s easiest entry point to the traditional ghost stories of Japan—and numerous works by the father of the Japanese mystery story, Edogawa Rampo. Add to those a smattering of horror anime and manga, and I well know how much of an expert on Japanese traditions and terror that doesn’t make me—and to pull off the Jade Regent Adventure Path, experts were what I needed.

Rite Publishing’s Heroes of the Jade Oath had already attracted my attention, blazing a trail into the same realms of Asian fantasy we intended to travel with Pathfinder. Tracking that fantastic work back to its source led me to Frank Carr, Steven D. Russell, and Mike Tumey, all of whom ended up contributing fantastic work to the Jade Regent Adventure Path, bringing with them a depth of research, experience, and authenticity no unacclimated designers would have been able to muster for a project with such rapid deadlines. It didn’t take more than an assignment or two for that group to note my relatively dark tastes and suggest I check out their campaign arc introducing the world of Kaidan.

I’m not sure that inviting one into a realm of deathless child despots and dishonored samurai, spider-bodied witches and jealous forest guardians, broken vows and poisoned ambitions, can be considered particularly friendly—or, in my case, particularly fair—but I dove into it nonetheless. It was not what I expected. Most forays into Asian fantasy attempt to be comprehensive, losing nuances of mood and motive behind impossibly deadly swords and simulated wirework. I found that Kaidan discounts the completist’s vision of Asian fantasy, instead focusing on the horrors and hopes of a single nation, exploring Japan through elaborations upon that nation’s folktales and nightmares. This skewed vision of a half-familiar world goes far beyond recasting knights as samurai and goblins as kappa, choosing another, more poignant touchstone: dread. Layers of mystifying traditions and mysterious beliefs become fascinating nuances, daring readers to explore and learn how a culture so distinct from our own cultivated fears both remarkably familiar and spine-chillingly alien.

That what began with The Gift, Dim Spirit, and Dark Path has culminated in this book is no grim miracle. Rather, it’s a testimonial to the scholarship and passion of author Jonathan McAnulty, the dedication of the book’s contributors and editors, and the support of a wildly enthusiastic community. Whether you’ve come to Kaidan seeking adventure in a world rich in mood and dark detail, or to lose yourself in terrors unfettered by centuries of Western clichés, you’ll find a gaming experience like no other, one that presents a world of unique beauty, powerful beliefs, and honored tradition, but then dares to harrow the nightmares and dark desires of a cultural psyche gripped by delusion, rage, desire, and terror—a psyche that, for most of us, is uncomfortably unfamiliar.

This is the world of Kaidan. Beware, because this nightmare is not your own.