A tabletop fantasy adventure RPG centered on a village community.
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I'm gonna save most of the gushing gratitude and bewilderment for tomorrow. Right now, I just want to introduce our final playback:
This was the first playbook that I wrote for Stonetop, and I thought it'd be fitting to post it here last. As I mentioned in the Kickstarter video, this whole Stonetop thing was originally-originally a D&D campaign, back before I'd ever played Dungeon World or Apocalypse World. One of the players, Brian, made a paladin a named Einion. Einion was based on this mini, with it's big old hammer and book. Brian called the book the "Chronicle of Stonetop." He gave Einion the title of "Judge."
This is how traditions get born.
Fast forward a few years. I started working on Stonetop as a "campaign playset" for Dugeon World, and shared it with a few folks who I'd met on the old Dungeon World Tavern (back in the days of Google+). Michael Prescott said something to the effect of "This is really cool, but the local bean-chewing farmer vibe clashes pretty hard with Titanius the Paladin riding in astride his warhorse, no?"
Damn. I thought. He's right.
So I sat down and made a playbook for Einion, that paladin that Brian portrayed, the Judge. And that led us to here.
The Judge is a mix of an enemy of chaos, a tough-as-iron tank, a team player, and a lore-keeper. Like the Lightbearer and Blessed, they get to define a lot about the role of their deity, and how she is worshipped in Stonetop. The Judge also gets to define the nature of the Chronicle--no mere book, but an actual place in the village, where the town's records are kept.
If you're wondering "why doesn't the Judge have a move for passing judgement?" it's because I always thought it was more interesting to give the playbook lots of narrative authority in this regard, but no mechanical weight to back that up. The Judge is great at handling straight-up threats to civilization and agents of chaos. But how well do they handle the heated dispute over the one neighbor's goat who keeps eating the other neighbor's tomatoes? The dice aren't going to answer that, not really.
Anyhow...
I just went digging, and was able to find the first public PDF I'd posted for Stonetop. It included a snippet of the setting overview, a piece of the Steading Playbook, and that first incarnation of the Judge playbook.
We've come a long way. Jason's been a huge part of that, encouraging me to make the setting weirder and less familiar, to think bigger, to write more clearly and concisely. He took my barebones playbooks and made them into things that I think are gorgeous. He found Lucie, who has made the characters and the world of Stonetop come alive in a way I only dreamed of when I started. I'm incredibly grateful to both of them.
But, really, it was the playtesters that pushed this game where it really needed to be. Both the gang who played in my long-running home game, and the dozens of groups who volunteered to play and give feedback--they've all been invaluable in making this game come together. We would be here if it weren't for y'all.
And of course, we wouldn't be here without all of you, the backers.
The Judge was always a playbook about community, and Stonetop has always been a game with the community at its heart.
And here we are.
Welcome to Stonetop, neighbor.
The final-day push is well underway, and we continue to welcome newcomers to our not-so-small, not-so-isolated village. Welcome, one and all!
I've noticed that we're piquing the interest of folks who are intrigued by the setting and premise of Stonetop, but who aren't familiar with Powered by the Apocalypse games. It's definitely a style of play that can feel strange if you've never experienced it.
Even if you're a PbtA veteran, each game comes with it's own agenda, principles, moves, and unique perspective. Stonetop is no different.
So, here's the current draft of the "Running Stonetop" chapter.
This is not the full extent of the GM rules, guidelines, and advice. There are further chapters that look at each of the player-facing moves (rules) in detail, with examples and clarifications and guidance for how to resolve them at your table. There are chapters that get into the types of preparation you might do, and how to run specific parts of the game. But this is the chapter and the framework that the rest of the game is based on.
No amount of reading can perfectly convey what it's like to actually run or play a particular game. And, heck, you might just enjoy watching good old hearth fantasy.
Hobbes is currently still working on the Annotated Actual Play for Stonetop (the $47.5K stretch goal). But it's a ton of work, and it'll take time for those to roll out. (Thanks, Hobbes!)
In the meantime, I ran a "long con" of Stonetop a few years ago, as part of the Gauntlet Con online gaming convention. We recorded the sessions and you can find them collected here:
https://spoutinglore.blogspot.com/2018/10/stonetop-at-gauntlet-con-2018.html
Keep in mind that:
With that said, these sessions were a joy to run, and if y'all ever get a chance to play with David, Horst, Taylor, or Greg, you should jump at the chance!
As always, I'm happy to answer questions! And that you all sooooo much for your continued support and enthusiasm!
-Jeremy
Every time I come back to this page (and let's face it, it's been pretty often today), the numbers keep ticking up. We passed 2,000 backers around lunch time, and 10 hours later, we're over 2100. That kind of growth feels almost... magical.
Speaking of magic, and growing things, I think we're passed due in meeting...
This playbook took a lotof work to develop. The Seeker actually took longer to write, but that was only because I had to invent the whole major & minor arcana system first. Looking at my design notes, the notes for the Blessed are at least three times as long as the notes for any of the others. That's probably because there were two completely different versions of the playbook.
I knew that the Blessed would be an overtly "magical" class, but I wasn't sure at first how I wanted that magic to work. At first, I was enamored with the idea of runes and writings--sacred marks. That was originally the primary mechanism for their magic.
Mechanically, though, the sacred marks ended up feeling too similar to the Lightbearer's Invocations. And the idea that the Blessed's magic primarily came from sacred marks made them feel more closely tied to the Makers than to the spirits and the natural world.
So, the second draft--the one that evolved into this version--made the Blessed into much more of a spirit-talker, a sorcerer, a nature priest. There's no more "spell list," but rather a number of moves that let them do magic. The idea of "marks" remains woven into a number of those moves, but it's not their core schtick. Their core schtick is dealing with spirits.
The Blessed's magic is meant to be reminiscent of shamanism, folk-magic, and witchcraft. It's potent, but it's also fairly subtle. The only truly overt, flashy magic they have is Danu's Grasp--and that only works on spirits or perversions of nature.
There's a bunch of stuff that I really like about how the Blessed finally turned out. I like how Amulets & Talismans, and Veil, and Wards & Bindings all make you wait to roll until the magic is tested. I like how Spirit Tongue and Call the Spirits open up and entire field of play that isn't there for other playbooks, and how it can create unexpected solutions (or problems) for the PCs. I like the extraordinary qualities of their sacred pouch. I like how a number of their moves have creepy little undertones where you could see a Blessed "going bad" and using their powers for ill.
Along those same lines, I'm quite pleased with how the Blessed's choice of background, combined with their choices for The Earth Mother, can really shape what Danu's roll is in the village and the world. If the Blessed picks Raised By Wolves, and says that Danu's shrine is given wide berth by most, and that folk leave her offerings of blood, burnt flesh, and metal nails... that's a very different vibe than an Initiate of Danu, whose shrine is dripping with offerings from the locals, offerings of whisky, rain water, and incense.
How about you? Which of the Blessed's moves or backgrounds strike your fancy? What would your sacred pouch be like? What clever ways would you put your moves to use?
Happy to answer questions, of course!
-Jeremy