[SUPPLEMENT] A Voyage to Fomalhaut (NOW AVAILABLE!)

A Voyage to Fomalhaut
E.M.D.T. 100!

I am pleased to announce the publication of A Voyage to Fomalhaut, a 48-page setting primer, and the 100th EMDT release! This guide is suitable for both players and GMs, and presents a setting with strong sword & sorcery and sword & planet influences. The guide updates and expands on the 2008 writeup in Fight On! magazine #03, reflecting the one and a half decade of gaming that has taken place in the setting since that point.

“Fomalhaut is a world whose origins coincide with the discussions that formed the modern understanding of old-school gaming in the mid-2000. Inspired by the rediscovery of Judges Guild (particularly Wilderlands of High Fantasy), the “Appendix N” books, and the stranger aspects of old-school play, it is a distillation of influences that make these games distinct and powerful.

This is a setting of bold sword & sorcery, where the Techno-Hellenic age fell in destructive interstellar wars, and was succeeded by one of iron and bronze. Here, the descendants of Man have fractured into a myriad strange societies in a changed world, some warlike, some reclusive, and some surprisingly civilised. Philosophy, religion, and cultural variety are rife with exception and local colour. But “in every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same” – and for all its strangeness, this setting, and the adventures you can find therein, should be immediately recognisable to fans of sword & sorcery adventure.

And where adventures are concerned, Fomalhaut can offer them in abundance: in barren wastelands dotted with the remnants of fallen empires, on wine-dark seas where splendid isles and reclusive civilisations await, in teeming cities where life is cheap and the sword can gain what even money cannot buy, deep underground in forgotten vaults and subterranean lands; and perhaps even beyond – in strange dimensions and the domains of mirages and dreams. Men of many devices shall win it all, while those who shrink back shall be forever forgotten!”

More detailed setting information and a preview of the deities section is found in this post.

The booklet includes the following materials:

• An introduction to the setting 4000 years after its foundation by a starfaring civilisation, and some 3200 after this civilisation’s downfall.
• A writeup of Fomalhaut’s gods and ideologies, and the practices of worship for Clerics, divine champions dedicated to a god’s cause, as well as laymen. 28 deities are discussed from Kang the Thousand-Eyed, rapacious God of Adventurers; and Mereskan the Bat-God, patron of thieves; to the Followers of the LOGOS, a sect of philosophers dedicated to the arts of mathematics and geometry; and the Idolators of Dhakam, a barbarous cult worshipping crumbling idols in the wastelands.
• A description of Fomalhaut’s regions, with its colourful mosaic of civilisations. Visit the ruined landscape of the Worn Lands, discover the mysteries of the Plateau of Ong whose cruel monks allow no stranger intruding on their domain to live, and sail seas hiding fantastic islands and fallen utopias.
• A brief guide to adventuring in the setting, with its people – from the mammoth-hunting cavemen of the northern ice wastes to the decadent descendants of the Empire of Mung, masters of ancient technologies.
• A two-sided setting overview map, with one side drawn by Sean Stone.

A Voyage to Fomalhaut features cover art by Peter Mullen, and interiors by Cameron Hawkey, Graphite Prime, and various Golden Age illustrators (including some by the incomparable Virginia Frances Sterrett). The print version of the supplement is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

NOTE to Garycon attendees: the gazetteer will be available at the con at the Black Blade booth. Say hi to Allan and Jon!

Not so Beyond Anymore, is it.