The Comeback Inn is proud to announce the second in the series of Thonian Empire Province Sourcebooks. Written by Havard and friends, this sourcebook details the northwestern border province of the Thonian Empire. Here DM's can find material for campaigns where the players can:

• Take the battle against the Iron Duke, Taha Marcovik to his own home ground.
  
• Help free slaves forced to work in the brutal mines of the Thonian Empire.
  
• Visit the dwarven duchy of Evedhur, home of Arkalist Khazakhum, brother of the legendary Regent of the Mines
  
• Explore the wonderous inventions of the Gnomes and Dwarves of Evedhur
  
• Explore the shady pirate ports of the Duchy of Rockaway and visit the court of the eccentric Duke Dindlor Dragoneye

Research into the most obscure writings of Dave Arneson have gone into the writing of this sourcebook, while still making it playable and fun!

Compatible with all editions of D&D.

Go here to get the free download

Trouble Downloading? Read this first!

Please let us know what you think of this sourcebook here!

Edit: See also the Fall of the Dwarves Campaign Expansion, designed for use with this sourcebook.


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-Havard

Hehe, sweet! ...So, you brought Sanctuary into Blackmoor because you knew I would like it?

Very artfully selected content, my friend! This will be the base for many interesting discussions among us, I'm sure!

Rafael Wrote:Hehe, sweet! ...So, you brought Sanctuary into Blackmoor because you knew I would like it?

Hehe, not exactly, but I know you like Thieves World, so that is a bonus

For this book specifically and for future books to some extent I have made an effort to integrate the following sources:


1) Other obscure writings by Dave Arneson:
This is where the 1985 Thieves World boxed set, Flying Buffalo's City Book Series and Don't Give Up The Ship come into the picture. Although they were not written with Blackmoor in mind, I feel like elements from these books (at least the parts written by Dave) would be fun to be included into the larger world surrounding Blackmoor. It seemed nice to create a framework where these tidbits would feel at home. That also helped me fill out some blanks where other source material didn't provide many clues such as...

2) The First Fantasy Campaign, the DA Modules and Supplement II
The most important source for The Thonian Rand is DA3 which gives quite a bit of info as well as some parts of DA1. I also wanted to incorporate elements from the FFC and Supplement II when I can. These sources really laid out the main framework for the setting. The Rogues and Rascals section of DA1 is filled with tons of contents. For instance, the character of Ibis Shatn is now fully described in CBI-2, but in DA1, the information about her is hidden within the section detailing Barnabas the Wanderer.

3) Zeitgeist Games Books:
The ZGG books cover much of the same ground as the DA modules, but also adds other elements. I want these Thonia books to feel consistent with the world described in the D20 line as well as older sources. In addition, the D20 books try to fit so much into the small area of the Northern Marches that it can feel a bit crammed together sometimes. The benefit of having a larger world than the ZGG lisence permitted is that every element from the D20 books can get enough room to feel grounded with the setting. In the case of CBI-2, this is especially true for Clock & Steam. That book have the author, Rodney Thompsson a lot of leeway, but came with a disclaimer that the contents were to be considered optional. With the Duchy of Evedhur I was both able to expand on the lore and backstory of Dwarves and Gnomes, but also able to integrate much of the lore provided in Clock & Steam so that not all of the events and characters from that book would have had to be placed within the realm of the Regent of the Mines. The book is sufficiently vague so that moving some locations into the Thonian Rand doesn't really feel forced. The events linked specifically to Blackmoor have been avoided, but for example the towns of Ploff's Peak and Lato were probably intended to be placed in Blackmoor, but since that was never mentioned explicitly, I feel that enough leeway was given for me to move them to Thonia.

Quote:Very artfully selected content, my friend! This will be the base for many interesting discussions among us, I'm sure!

I am looking forward to that! Discussions is what the Comeback Inn was created for


-Havard

Lovely labour of love! Thank you!!!

Havard Wrote:For this book specifically and for future books to some extent I have made an effort to integrate the following sources:

If you ever want to get more into TW, hit me up. I ran my last two campaigns there, and, in terms of run-of-the-mill weekend D&D, it's probably going to become my standard setting now, for the forseeable future. So, I know the lore quite well, by now. One-to-one, I don't think Sanctuary's cultural background (from the short stories and novels) fits all too well, but some other elements could be incorporated in future treatments of the setting.

Quote:For instance, the character of Ibis Shatn is now fully described in CBI-2, but in DA1, the information about her is hidden within the section detailing Barnabas the Wanderer.

That's what I consider the most interesting part of what you're doing here, regardless of your specific treatment of the setting: Basically, you give a workshop on how to creatively re-adjust older and obscure content. That's a lot of time you spent there collecting intel, and that's what makes reading the booklet - pretty great, actually.

Quote:3) Zeitgeist Games Books:In the case of CBI-2, this is especially true for Clock & Steam.

Again, as I said above, the way you realign this in a way that takes the edge of it/makes it conventionally playable is a textbook example of good game design. C&S, as many late-run ZGG games, was a pretty good book: The problem was, as far as I can remember, that fans plainly didn't know what to do with the info presented there in the context of Blackmoor.

Havard Wrote:I am looking forward to that! Discussions is what the Comeback Inn was created for

Alas, if there was time for it, only! I had almost overlooked this thread, as well!



***Oh, yeah, dear lurkers: This is not me blowing steam into my fellow admin colleague's behind. Anyone who knows me a little bit is aware that my single rule is to be honest, even to the point of being brutal as I do it. So, I wouldn't mind at all telling Havard if I didn't like the booklet; but I DID like it, and quite a lot. While the setting described in there is certainly sketchy, it's thoroughly playable, and could be a really geat addition to any BM game, precisely because it's so well-researched. This is how you treat content from difficult, obscure, or small sources - a bit like an archeologist, but always with a coherent pattern in mind. I'm happy about this purely as a fan of Blackmoor, which is something that doesn't happen all too often.

Go download this one, and READ it!

We're getting reviews!

https://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com ... -rand.html

-Havard

As posted on social media yesterday, I am getting to the final stages of the 3rd book in this series. Working on these books is a learning experience. Because of this I think each subsequent book is going to be better than the previous one.

Still, I am looking for feedback from you guys. Are there things in this sourcebook you would like to see more of in the next one? Are there things you would like me to do differently? How big do you prefer your PDFs to be? I am currently at 22 pages, but still have the NPC and monster sections to complete.

-Havard

Region map added to file section.

-Havard