The Midgard Campaign Setting fan community is growing faster than an ill-advised alchemy experiment in Maillon! It’s an active, vibrant community, full of people who want to take what we’ve created and run with it in exciting and fun directions. So we thought, why not make it easier for them?

To encourage fan sites and free fan-created projects using Midgard and other Kobold Press IP, we’ve just launched the Kobold Press Community Use Policy. This policy covers free, fan-created material only; if you want to do a commercial project, check out our Freelancer Guidelines.

Along with guidelines on what fans can use and how, we’re also offering the first Kobold Press Community Use Package of resources. This first package contains 10 of the Midgard setting’s most iconic characters — and we’ll be adding new packages over time.

Tell us what you think in the comments! And if you have a Midgard fan project underway, or if this inspires you to start one, please let us know. We’d love to see it.

On Friday, April 12th, I hosted the fifth monthly Queer Geek! Ladies’ Gaming Night in Seattle, Washington. Usually we all get together and play board games, but this month I invited Paizo out to run the attendees through some Pathfinder games. GMs from Paizo included Crystal Frasier, Liz Courts, Sarah Marie Teter, and Erik Keith, and Pathfinder Society GMs were Anna Murray and Dorothy Lindman. We had a great turnout—there were 30 players in six Pathfinder games, and many of the staff from Paizo came out to support their fellow GMs and have a few beers. Paizo provided some goblin plushies, shot glasses, and gaming material for giveaways to the players. Games played included the Beginner Box and variations thereof, and a couple of Pathfinder Society intro scenarios. Many of the players expressed interest in playing more Pathfinder and possibly doing continuous campaigns at future events.

When I started facilitating a monthly Ladies’ Gaming Night at the Raygun Lounge here in Seattle, I had no idea how popular it would be. The initial response was electric—women who I never knew were into gaming wanted to come out and meet other geeky women to play games with. My attendees vary from seasoned gamers to those who are looking to try a new hobby. Our first event had about 40 women show up, and there are new women every month.

I started Ladies’ Night so that women gamers would have a night to hang out and meet each other. While we are definitely out there, sometimes it’s hard to find us, especially for those who are intimidated by being the only woman in a room full of men. I host the event through Queer Geek!, and I encourage any LGBT-friendly female-identified individuals to come out and game with us. Men are welcome as well—Ladies’ Night is inclusive, and I ultimately want to bring our wider gaming community closer together.

It’s been great getting to game with an awesome group of women over the past few months, and I look forward to doing another Pathfinder night as well as other special events in the future.

Please do take a moment to venture forth to the official SOTY award site, take a look at the current nominees, and vote! The Kobolds would, of course, appreciate your vote for Kobold Press. Feel free to spread the word far and wide, too!

We are ever small, but fierce, and we thank each and every person who reads the site or who submits articles for their help in making this a wonderful place to be for those who enjoy fantasy roleplaying games. Stay fierce, friends of the Kobolds!

UPDATE: Corrected link to point to voting page!

Shelly, thank you for all the treasures you’ve shipped and the all troubles you unsnarled as the Mistress of All Minions. Folks, it’ll be rocky for a bit, but we have a plan to keep shipping going as best we can until we either remove the Kobold Store or find local help with shipping. (The current plan means giving the Overlord a third shift. That should work, right?) So we hope you’ll excuse any delays while Wolfgang comes up to speed on some of these things.

Although she’s hanging up a couple of her hats, Shelly will continue to be involved with the business as the company’s Finance Manager; or as we prefer to say, Keeper of the Coinage. Thank you, Shelly, and take a bow!

Our esteemed panel of judges read and debated over the pitches, and now they’ve narrowed down the options to five, which you can now read. Before we jump into the pitches, we want to take a moment to thank all of those who submitted a pitch. YOU are what made this contest such a fun and interesting one, and everyone at Open Design and Kobold Press thanks you for the time and effort you spent on crafting your pitches.

Now, without further ado, here are the final five as chosen by judges Wolfgang Baur, Brandon Hodge, Ben McFarland, and Wade Rockett. They are presented in alphabetical order by the pitch’s author’s last name.

Seventeen Steps of the Dancing Master by Jeffrey Erwin

A Pathfinder adventure for 9th level characters.

“…friend or foe, kin or stranger, whomsoever shall abide all the night from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. within the Palace of Casafiore on any anniversary of my death shall be heir unto all my treasure, house, and titles.”

“bon’speranza’ – Don Ziphero Casafiore.

A noble Bibliotoro of Triolo, Don Ziphero was infamous, hated, admired, notorious. A gambler, expert dancer, tutor of young women, roué, charlatan, doctor, novelist, and publisher – no few of his books being put under the Black Ban and locked in the vaults of the great library – he left no wife – though many lovers – and no acknowledged heir – though many namesakes and no few uncanny doubles scattered among the populace, both high and low in birth. None were named in his will. Instead, his estate belonged to anyone who passed a single evening, night, and morning, within his ramshackle palace on an island outside Friula.

Many hoped to win his extensive lands and his collections of priceless volumes, art, and magic, and many sought the friendship of the old reprobate as he lay dying in his vast bed. So convinced were some that he had chosen them that duels broke out at the reading of his will, and rivalries still boil beneath the surface of the Bibliotori.

Most who have dared to enter Casafiero have perished or vanished. None have survived unscathed. What seemed wit now seems a cruel joke, and the name Zephiro has come to signify revenge beyond death in the lore of fair Friula.

The Seventeen Steps consists of the seventeen rooms of the decaying palace, studded with shifting spaces, secret passages, deadly automata, illusions, extradimensional spaces, and thousands of books – some more dangerous than they might seem, sleeping on the sagging bookshelves. The waters – and denizens – of the bay of Friula have seeped into its lower chambers, while deep within the palace, the masked and embalmed Don Ziphero awaits his occasional visitors and victims.

Triumph over the cunning of the master of Casafiore offers many secrets, wealth enough to achieve great works of magic or conquest, and fame beyond measure. Fail, and enter the ledgers of the lost and forgotten: the numberless victims of Zephiro’s last jape.

Poisoned Winter by Michael Lane

A Pathfinder RPG event-based adventure for Level 10 characters with options for Mythic play.

Frost falls. Life fades. Winter comes. Jezebel schemes.

Queen Urzula is the pride of Krakova. A symbol of purity and aspiration for women. A perfect target for the Princess of Poison Winters.

This adventure provides the GM with a sandbox of events and set pieces throughout the City of the Mermaid weaving a tale of horror and hope over the span of a Krakovan winter. From the Day of First Frost through the Melting of the Last, the PCs, newcomers or residents of Krakova, unravel the plots of the cult of Jezebel and stop the temptress from claiming the Queen for her palace in Hell.

Events begin during an unexpected early snowstorm when the cult targets one of the PCs for assassination on an icy bridge over the Yoshtula River. The next day it becomes apparent that a seemingly unconnected group of the Slahta (Krakovan nobles), priests, and scholars were targeted and all but the PCs are now dead. King Eynryk’s “mice” and the PCs investigate, but aside from minor discoveries, the trail seems cold.

Ghost Night brings a source of information and potential allies to the city. As winter tightens its grip on the city, a splinter clan of the infamous Black Gypsies arrives in Krakova. Distant relations of Kariv slaughtered when Jezebel was birthed, Mama Kalder leads a clan pledged to thwart Jezebel during her terrible hunts on Midgard. The PCs’ attention is drawn to the Church of Wotan and the approaching Winter Ball and only their timely intervention stops what seems to be an assassination attempt on the King by one of Wotan’s high priests, a corrupted pawn of the cult.

Briefly it seems the threat has been eliminated. But when the priest returns as a huecuva during the Lantern Festival and the PCs work to save a city torn by blatant attacks and calculating temptations, they uncover evidence of a greater conspiracy still unfolding. As the last snows melt on the rooftops of Krakova, the action climaxes with the PCs stealing into Breesek Palace in a race to catch Jezebel’s high priestess before she snares the Queen — a pursuit taking them right into Jezebel’s palace in Hell for a terrifying final confrontation with the Princess of Poison Winters herself.

The Cursed Collection of the Archmage Moor by John “Ross” Rossomangno

Moor’s Museum is an extensive collection of curiosities gathered from across the known world by the Archmage Jothias Moor. Not only is it an unparalleled resource for arcane study, the collection is a testament to the archmage’s exceptional triumphs.

Now, no one has seen Moor in over a week. The museum’s doors remain closed. Ominous sounds emerge from within, and fear grips the city. The ruling council seeks heroes bold enough to enter the warded halls of the museum to determine the archmage’s fate.

Synopsis

After time to gather knowledge about the museum and the eccentric archmage, the party enters Moor’s Museum. As they explore, the party must contend with the security measures designed to keep would-be thieves out and some of the more dangerous exhibits in.

This map-based adventure encourages the heroes to investigate as they see fit. They can search for a means to deactivate the security system, look for the archmage and clues to his disappearance, or contend with a band of cultists that have taken the opportunity to infiltrate the museum and loot its most dangerous treasures.

The characters discover that a crafty devil, Yettetsin, manipulated the archmage with the promise of new arcane oddities, stoking Jothias’ greed to lead him astray and claim his soul. The devil has drawn the archmage through a portal into a dangerous nether realm. In his absence, the wards that contain the fell power of his collection are weakened. Unless Jothias’ is rescued, the potent energies in the museum will be unleashed upon the city.

Key Features

Yettetsin provides the DM with an active, visible enemy who confronts (and taunts) the party throughout the adventure prior to their final battle with him.

The cultists in the museum can fulfill several roles based on a group’s play style: the comic relief of bumbling infiltrators, a dark and apocalyptic threat that can only be stopped by Jothias’ return, or even potential allies to the PCs if they are convinced that they must unite against Yettetsin.

The museum and its exhibits create a plausible reason for a variety of unusual, magical creatures to be encountered throughout the adventure, along with arcane traps that must be dealt with directly or act as hazards in key encounters.

Finally, there is no way to have a museum of magical oddities without an animated dinosaur skeleton or two. Consider yourself warned.

Hangman’s Hill by Heine Stick

(Investigation/horror/dungeon, level 5)

For years the witches Mibella and Cissindra have terrorized the region with their black magic and vile rituals. Now, two members of the vile coven stand on trial, tied to stakes ready to burn, as they await the judgment of the inquisitors. The chill winter air is filled with cheers of joy and justice as the sentence is passed. The two witches have been found guilty and the punishment is death by cleansing fire. As the flames engulf the witches, they scream foul words, cursing the village to an eternal of bloodshed. A sudden blizzard engulfs the town square and vicious beasts attack the townsfolk. When the blizzard finally lifts, the witches are gone.

Terrified by the disappearance of the witches and the curse they put upon the town, the townsfolk plead with the PCs to aid them. They ask that the PCs find the witches and end their reign of terror. The PCs’ initial lead is the townhouse where the two witches were caught and as they investigate the townhouse and overcome its challenges, they learn of a dark plot to summon the restless spirits of Hangman’s Hill, using named villagers as bait. Worse yet, the PCs learn that several of the named villagers have disappeared.

The race is on to locate the witches before they complete their ritual. The PCs discover the location of the coven’s lair as well as the name of a third witch and they set off to find the witches and end their nefarious plot. Along the way they combat ghoulish henchmen and ferocious beasts as their journey takes them through dark forest and freezing moor before they finally arrive at what has become known as Hangman’s Hold.

Entering the keep to confront the witches, the PCs must first overcome devious traps planted by the witches as well as the hauntings of a tragic past before finally standing face to face with the two witches and their hag sister. The final confrontation in the ruined keep will present a challenging battle against three determined opponents as well as the keep itself as the PCs’ activities risk collapsing parts of the structure.

The Crown of Charon by Sersa Victory

A Pathfinder RPG Adventure for Characters of 13th Level

It began with a curious thought shared over a campfire – “where does Charon, Ferryman of the Dead, secret away the valuables offered to him as a toll?”

Speculation continued for many years, and rumors of the location of Charon’s treasure gripped adventurers throughout the realm. The stories changed with each excited telling, but one fact remained the same – Charon’s hoard, accumulated untouched across millennia, is among the vastest in the planes.

It was not until Ka-Urur, death priest, revealed a truth to those who sought Charon’s vaults: mortals who die and remain unburied are cursed to walk the shores of the River Styx forever, and it is on these shores that Charon’s own demesne can be found. For a small share of the recovered treasure, the priest offers to poison any who come to him and leave their corpses, unburied, in his walled garden.

At dawn, he would call the dead dungeoneers back to the mortal realm – and, along with them, any valuables they’d claimed.

The Crown of Charon is a dungeon-delving adventure in which the characters explore a three-tiered inverted pyramid that rises from an island in the River Styx. Their goal is to plunder as many of Charon’s vaults as possible before Ka-Urur calls them back to the land of the living at sunrise. While within the Crown of Charon, the characters will encounter such things as:

• •          the globe of wraiths, a nether force field that, the characters learn, will prevent their resurrection unless the three soul urns are shattered
• •          Eïda, a once-imprisoned half-couatl half-angel spirit who freed herself from a gem given to Charon 10,000 years ago
• •          a kraken mohrg that lurks in a flooded labyrinth of trapped mausoleums
• •          a golem formed from the same clay from which the gods wrought humans, etched with every mortal wish that never came true
• •          a pair of conjoined balor demiliches
• •          the Timekeeper, a hooded skeleton who wanders the Crown carrying a quickly-emptying hourglass
• •          many more puzzles, traps, tricks, guardians, and fantastic chambers

While primarily a dungeon crawl, the adventure features several roleplaying challenges and many opportunities for player interaction and character development. The module also contains brief special rules for treasure generation and optional scoring rules should the adventure be run as part of a tournament.

~ ~ ~

Congratulations to each of these finalists, and thank you very much for your pitches!

Now, go vote! You can pick more than one pitch when you vote, so if you like two, pick two. If you like them all, then pick them all. If only one suits your fancy, then choose one. Voting ends at 6 p.m. (Pacific) on Friday, January 4th, so go vote now!

Marc is a professional graphic artist and designer by trade. In his copious amount of spare time, he also does freelance illustration, writing, and graphic design. (sleep is highly overrated!) He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, teenaged son, and two very spoiled cats.

Marc started playing D&D as a kid in the late 70s—good old 1st Edition AD&D! He and his friends also played many other RPGs back then—Marvel Superheroes, Champions, Elfquest, FASA’s Star Trek, Star Frontiers, the list goes on—but it always came back to AD&D! Marc faded out of gaming sometime after 2nd Edition came out—partially because 2nd Edition just didn’t quite do it for him (he did play 2nd Edition a little though and certainly enjoyed some aspects of it) but also because his gaming friends all turned into grown-ups, got real lives, and moved away when Marc wasn’t looking!

The 3rd Edition of D&D really pulled Marc back into the hobby again, and he has since become a HUGE fan of the Pathfinder RPG.

Marc is fortunate enough to have worked with lots of great game companies, including Super Genius Games, Raging Swan Press, Last Unicorn Games (back in the day), Jon Brazer Enterprises, Tricky Owlbear Publishing, of course, Kobold Quarterly / OpenDesign.

He is extremely excited with his new role as Kobold art director—his graphics studio way in the back corner of the Kobold mines is almost set up (he just wishes the studio wasn’t quite so close to the bathroom!).

Recent Graphic Design Credits for Open Design /Kobold Press
- Your Whispering Homunculus
- The Midgard Bestiary (Pathfinder RPG)
- Monsters of Sin series
- Dark Roads & Golden Hells
- Journeys to the West

Art / Illustration Credits

Kobold Quarterly Magazine
- Various issues
Open Design
- Zobeck Gazetteer
- Tales of the Margreve

Frog God Games
- One Night Stands 5: Scorned

Raging Swan Press
- Mysterious Places
- Bleached Skull Gnolls
- Lizardfolk of the Dragon Fang
- Stock Art: Shields

Super Genius Games
- Mythic Menagerie: Engines of Destruction
- Genius Guide to Races of Wind and Wing
- Advanced Options: Cavaliers’ Orders
- Mythic Menagerie: Howl at the Moon
- Krazy Kragnar’s Magic Staff Emporium

4 Winds Fantasy
- Tome of Monsters
- Deus ex Historica

Purple Duck Games
- Legendary III: Legendary Items
- Legendary IV: Legendary Shields

Black Blade Publishing
- Lost OSRIC Bestiary cover

Interaction Point Games
- Kingdom of Legend holy symbols

Last Unicorn Games
- ARIA: Canticle of the Monomyth RPG
- HERESY: Kingdom Come

Writing / Game Design Credits:

Kobold Quarterly Magazine
- “Spell-less Ranger” (Pathfinder base class) – Kobold Quarterly #11
- “Beast Leaders” (Pathfinder) – Kobold Quarterly #18
- “White Necromancer” (Pathfinder base class) – Kobold Quarterly #19
- “Shaman” (Pathfinder base class) – Kobold Quarterly #21

Open Design / Kobold Press
- New Paths – The Expanded Spell-less Ranger
- New Paths – The Expanded Shaman

Super Genius Games
- Genius Guide to the Vanguard
- Genius Guide to Exalted Domains (3 volume series)
- Advanced Options: Cavaliers’ Orders
- Advanced Options: More Cavalier Orders
- Krazy Kragnar’s Magic Staff Emporium

Raging Swan Press
- Lizardfolk of the Dragon Fang
- So What’s It Called, Anyway?

Tricky Owlbear Publishing
- Learning Curve: Apprentice Level Characters

Purple Duck Games
- Legendary IV: Legendary Shields
- Legendary VI: Legendary Armor

Adamant Entertainment
- 30 Character Motivations

Wayfinder
- “Of Steel and Spell: The Battle Scion” (Issue 5)
- “Magic of the Inner Sea: Arcanamirium Bond Masters” (Issue 3)

Five years ago, I was writing Living Greyhawk adventures as a volunteer for the RPGA. We were trying new ideas and having fun, but I wanted to do more. I joined Empire of the Ghouls as a senior patron and started learning with the community at Open Design. I playtested, I punched up stat blocks, and when I saw a chance to write an adventure, I asked Wolfgang, “Put me in, coach, I won’t disappoint you.”

That was Tales of Zobeck, and we busted it out for the Silver ENnie; I was ecstatic. I kept contributing, writing, doing what I could for as many different publishers as I could manage. When I was asked to lead a project at Open Design, I jumped at it. I posted the call for patrons and passed out flyers, and I know I held several patrons hostage at the Kobold booth at Gen Con, explaining how we were going to make a great book, but we needed them to make it happen.

And we did it. We busted past our funding at Gen Con, and I went home hoarse and grinning, just like I did this time. For that gift, I want to say, “Thank you.”

Thank you to every patron who believed in the core of this project. Who voted, who brainstormed, who contributed, who playtested to make this the outstanding book it is.

Thank you to Glen Zimmerman, who perfectly captured my imperfect descriptions. Thank you to Gill Pearce and Jonathan Roberts, who turned our rough maps into the perfect heist sketches and beautiful isometrics. Thank you to Chris Bodan, the dark sensei who made our writing-fu strong. Thank you to Crystal Frasier, the Fairy Godmother who managed my inexperienced storyboards so well and spun together the perfect layout and trade dress for Streets of Zobeck to wear to the ball. Thank you to a great crew of fellow contributors who took a theme and a raw vision, and showed it could have so many facets—from Matt Stinson’s desperate alchemist and gearforged dreams, to Richard Pett’s deliciously twisted employers and settings, to Mike Franke’s bloodthirsty killer and a man hoping to cheat an infernal bargain, to Christina Stile’s perfect heist and decadent love triangle—you all came together to create a rich and entertaining book. I wanted to create not only a great set of gritty, urban adventures, but a vibrant slice of Zobeck with wonderfully useful locations and characters that gamemasters would steal just to cameo in their own games. I think we succeeded far beyond my hopes and expectations.

As I said when I accepted the ENnie, this has all felt like a dream—one I’m deathly afraid I’ll wake up from at any moment. So before I do, let me say thank you to everyone who has picked up and run Streets, reviewed it, and voted for it. You’ve made this dream reality, and you’ve shown once again that the Open Design model can create award-winning work. Here’s hoping I can stay asleep for just a little bit longer—I feel like there’s a few more stories out there I’d like to tell . . .

Thank you,

—Ben

PS—Because I know I couldn’t have done this alone, I’ve gotten my fellow designers to chip in their thoughts on Streets of Zobeck and share what they thought about the project. Enjoy!

Mike Franke. Streets was a creative avalanche that began with an idea: “We want noir and the paladins better stay home.” I was immediately hooked by the possibility of creating a dark and gritty urban world. Once we began, the patron ideas just seemed to build on each other until we had something great. Underworld items and spells led to dark locations, scoundrel NPCs and finally morally ambiguous adventures. I was inspired by Ben’s restless spirit called the Dragged Woman, intrigued by the possibilities of the Old Stross Bathhouse, and could not wait to explore the Cartways Black Market. For me, the end result was more than just a bunch of related ideas and adventures; it was a dark and gritty world waiting to be explored.

Richard Pett. I’m honored and delighted that Streets won an ENnie and to have been part of the team that delivered this great collection. Once again, it’s proved to me that the thing I love most about Open Design is the thing I most fear about it—the pitches for adventures are all totally anonymous, reputations count for nothing. Only the quality of the adventure counts. To prove a point, whilst the twisted and devious Rust is here, Dorian’s Palace of Diverse Pleasures, my second submission, sank without trace.

Being part of the team is always an invaluable education, and right now I’m working on Sorrow, part of the upcoming Midgard Tales, done through the same process. The last round of pitches was tough; there is a lot of talent out there and some fantastic adventure ideas. I’d urge anyone thinking about learning how to work on adventure design to join us.

Christina Stiles. Streets of Zobeck was the first patron project I decided I just had to pitch for. There was just no way I was letting this one get past me. The gritty, dark adventures and the opportunity to define more aspects of Zobeck called to me, and ideas flowed. In “Flesh Fails” I happily incorporated the Palace of Painful Pleasures and a cult of Marena into Zobeck, and I explored the outcomes of Konrad von Eberfeld’s machinations started in Steam & Brass. And, of course, I created a hideous, garish painting to instigate a heist adventure in “The Fish and the Rose.” Of my NPC creations, Jayzel the bard has become an integral character in my Zobeck campaign. With Ben McFarland’s deft hand at the wheel, this project just knitted seamlessly together as if the Great Rava had weaved it all herself.

Matt Stinson. “My favorite memory from Streets of Zobeck was when I was about to turn in my NPC, Joony, and asked my friend Glen Zimmerman to draw up a sketch of him to turn in with my write-up. The next thing I know Glen is doing the art for the whole book. It was really great watching him show a new piece of the Zobeck’s underbelly every week.

To see how excited we are about these awards, just take a look at designer Ben McFarland, who is holding the award given for Streets of Zobeck.