The Empire of Ys is a baroque Renaissance setting that is at the heart of Beyond Dread Portals, which is coming to Kickstarter next week. This page-long summary briefly explains the worlds and guilds that make up the Empire.
Sign up for notification when the Kickstarter opens next week. Back within the first two days and you’ll receive and early Backer’s Gift (The League of Explorers Character Roster, 20+ premade characters for your games) and be entered into a prize draw.
Beyond Dread Portals is coming to Kickstarter next week.
If someone puts you on the spot and asks about the game, Roll D20 and consult this table!
| Roll 1D20 | Fun Fact! |
| 1 | Fun Fact about Dandies in Beyond Dread Portals. Not only do they fight threats to civilisation from beyond the magic portals, but they look wonderfully stylish and flashing while they do it. |
| 2 | Did you know the ancient decedent and ever-shifting architectural wonder that is the infinite ring-city of Ys is now ruled by an undead Autarch? |
| 3 | Ys has many Guilds which regulate and coordinate the professional people of the Empire. They struggle to expand their influence across the Five Worlds. Sometimes, that influence is used for nefarious reasons. |
| 4 | They say the League of Explorers cannot call itself a guild because of its sloppy attitude and wanton behaviour. Serious academics say that pedants shouldn’t be allowed to smear an organisation essential to the safe exploration and defence of the realm. |
| 5 | Wizards in Beyond Dread Portals can be many things. House Wizards of the Five Families, Academic researchers who provide extra magical support for expeditions, glowing Priests of Dawn, not to mention cheeky fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants chancers from the League of Adventurers. They may share a class, but each character is an individual. |
| 6 | Beyond Dread Portals uses a rule system that should be familiar if you’ve played the World’s Favourite Fantasy system at any point. It just doesn’t require much pulling out of hair and focuses on having a good time. |
| 7 | The setting is a weird fantasy Renaissance City, with all the intrigue that entails, which has a tenuous grip in the worlds beyond the magical portals that it’s magicians’ control. Is this the basis of a viable Empire? |
| 8 | Goblins, in Beyond Dread Portals, are a fungal species from the world of Samara. They were added to the League of Explorer’s Bestiary after award-winning work by Associate Sage Sugunus de Arcani, which unfortunately spread them to the rest of the Empire. Classification Vermin. |
| 9 | Despite having an inbuilt setting, you can easily use the system for other worlds. For example, I’ve used it effortlessly for adventures set in King James I’s early years with Tudor adventurers working for Dr John Dee, dealing with supernatural threats from beyond. |
| 10 | Warriors trade in force of arms. They may have many class specialisms, such as Berserkers, Champion of Dawn, Heavy Infantry, Heavy Weapons Fighters, Sharpshooters, Swashbucklers and Swordmasters. Despite sharing a class, all Warriors are different. |
| 11 | There is an illegal trade in souls between the Hag Queens of Erebus and members of one of the Five Noble Houses of Ys. They regularly frame the Guard Dogs who guard the sealed Dread Portal to Erebus to cover up their crimes. |
| 12 | I’ve decided to reimagine an adventure, gamers of a certain age would have all played in the 80s, through the lens of Beyond Dread Portals and make it 100% more fun. See this post for more info. |
| 13 | Beyond Dread Portals is nicely contained in a single 6 x 9 book, about 280 pages. The book includes enough character options, spells, setting details and creatures for years of play without overloading the GM or players. Why take three books into the gaming session when you can take one? |
| 14 | Erebus is an endless living cave system. The Empire of Ys attempted to set up a colony there, but its environment proved so alien that they barely got a foothold. Due to certain hostile native species, the colony failed and was abandoned. While officially still part of the Empire, apart from the Keep on the Edgelands, the Imperial presence on Erebus retreated behind a closed portal. |
| 15 | Nespo is often confused with Erebus because both worlds are officially off-limits. The League of Explorers had high hopes when they discovered the vast ruined civilisation that the harsh desert had eaten up. They, and their powerful patrons, thought it would be never never-ending treasure trove of wonderous magic items and easy gold and jewels. They were wrong. Erebus is where the Autarch originates. |
| 16 | Of the Five Worlds in Beyond Dread Portals, Tethys is a water world of many islands. But beware, its seas are infested with pirates, and creatures that love not the land dwellers live under the waves. Here, the adventurous spirit of the League of Explorers finds one of its purest expressions yet one of its highest rates of loss. |
| 17 | The Guild of the Black Rose is a rather sinister Merchant’s Guild since it has the firm backing of the Autarch and its Agents. Since the takeover, it has swallowed up all competitors and now spreads its influence through establishing new trade routes throughout the Five Worlds. |
| 18 | Gods? Yes, there are Gods in Beyond Dread Portals, including the nameless Dead God who gave up his name to become lord of Everything. With the Empire of Ys under the Autarch’s control, he and his worshipers might achieve that goal. |
| 19 | So, do you want to crawl on your knees through the Dungeon or run free exploring the infinite number of worlds Beyond Dread Portals? |
| 20 | In the original draft, Dr. Mitch left out the stats for dragons and had to be politely reminded to include them. Don’t be as forgetful as the good Dr. Sign up to be notified when his Beyond Dread Portals launches on Kickstarter next week. |
Sign up to the pre-launch page to be notified when the campaign launches and be eligible for an Early Backer gift and entry into a prize draw.
This is a game of Beyond Dread Portals I’m bringing as a convention game to Grogmeet in November, and possibly as a short series of online games. Its also highly likely to be offered as a stretch goal for the upcoming Kickstarter.
Here’s the pitch…
Come, oh Adventurer, to the Edge of the Empire of Ys!
The Lion Keep is a magnificent border fortress made of yellow brick. It was transported through a giant magic portal from the world of Samara. It now stands in the never-ending cave system that is the world of Erebus. It has some of the staff and traders from its days sitting in the sunlit grasslands of the Lion Empire. The Ysian Guilds also have representatives with offices within the walls.
Officially, the Imperial occupation of Erebus has ended. The colonists are either dead or gone home, and the Keep is the last Imperial outpost on Erebus. But there are regular expeditions into the nearby Caves of Mayhem, sponsored by patrons from the Guilds or the Five Noble Houses.
Good job you are all seasoned members of the League of Explorers. Treasure and glory will be yours. Perhaps you’ll even track down and kill the fabled giant three-headed monster known as the Grognard!
Revisit an old-school classic reimagined through the baroque fantasy lens of Beyond Dread Portals. Take part in the intrigue and power plays of the factions of the fort stuck between unimaginable riches and horrible damnation contained in the nearby Caves of Mayhem. Adventure as third-level characters, using the streamlined and sensible D20 fantasy system created by Paul Mitchener (Liminal, Out of Ashes, Age of Arthur).
Beyond Dread Portals, Paul Mitchener’s take on D20 World Hopping Fantasy returns to Kickstarter in mid-September.
Sign up now on the pre-launch page to be notified when the Kickstarter opens and be eligible for early bird offers and prizes.
“I love my brick” – which is my copy of DCC and its pile of adventurers.
I have plans to run it at some point, a short adventure and a mini-campaign setting
One of those games that whenever I’m a bit down, I get it out and it cheers me up 🙂
Reassuringly and Robustly Old School for the Win 😀
I’m currently working on the last scenario of the Under Dark Spires adventure collection for Crypts and Things. It’s deliberately a crypt-based adventure (with things) that ties in several plot lines and themes into what should be an epic ending for the character’s adventures in the Dark Spires.
Here’s a peek from the Player’s Introduction.
The Obsidian Pyramid lies in the heart of the Bone Fields and can be seen for miles. Close up, the locals claim, it gives out an eerie hum that drives animals crazy. Treasure hunters periodically turn up in Fort Boneguard and declare their intent to make their fortune by robbing the crypt, which obviously holds the lost treasure of the Hu-Pi kings, who it is said built the pyramid. They party and drunkenly loaf about town. Bragging about how rich they are going to be. When they find out no one will give them a line of credit to extend their bar tab, they leave town in a sulk in the direction of the pyramid, never to be seen again.
All this gives the pyramid a fearsome reputation and a sense of unease that it’s only a half-day’s ride away from the Fort.
On a personal note its reignited my passion for writing the special blend of weird fantasy and horror that Crypts and Things brings out in me, which I don’t always find comfortable. The Obsidian Pyramid lives up to its name and is a dark place, filled with horrors unleashed by dark pacts in antiquity and maintained by insane cultists who worship the crypt’s blood-stained past. It’s a good place for even the most reluctant hero to make their stand against a madness that threatens to push the already dying world over the edge into screaming oblivion.
This is my much delayed, 90% written, mostly illustrated (by Dan Barker, no less), adventure/setting book for Crypts and Things. I’m in the “get this damn thing done” phase of things.
This update over on the Crypts and Things Remastered Kickstarter gives the overall state ot play.
This month, I’ve taken a bit of a step back to get a climactic adventure into the line-up.
These monthly updates will continue until the book, a collection of five adventures and setting information, is finished and out the door. I’ll also post more about the book’s content as I get close to release here. So if you are looking for a mini-campaign for C&T and other OSR games, this is your book!
Here’s Dan Barker’s cover.
Coming for 5th Ed/OSR games soon (eta approx June), Paul Mitchener’s Fires From the Deep, a Tale from the Sorcerer Under the Mountain about a Demon who has escaped from Hell and the adventurers (that’s your players) who are hunting it.
More information about the adventure here
Fires from Below, cover by Jon Hodgson
From the Beyond Dread Portals Kickstarter
It is with great regret that I’m cancelling the Beyond Dread Portals Kickstarter.
Since launch, its become clear to me that the campaign will not fund.
So I’m gracefully ending this current campaign at this point.
Your support has been overwhelming, as has the commitment of the production crew.
So I will regroup, replan and relaunch in the Autumn or early next year with a lower goal so the campaign funds quickly and attracts the attention that Dr Mitch’s game deserves.
When I relaunch the campaign, you’ll be notified via Kickstarter email, but also keep an eye out via my social media outlets (Facebook/Twitter and Discord channel, the link to which is on d101games.com).
Thank you for backing this campaign.
We shall be back.
Day 3 of the Kickstarter, and all backers now get a companion volume, The Tourist’s Guide to the Six Worlds, as a free pdf.
I’ve added four high-tier Dragon Reward levels to help fund the project quickly and grow the Guide.
Read about it here
