In the beginning.... (Part One)

When I first decided that I wanted to publish my own role playing game material I really had no clue what I was doing. It was in early 2007 and I had just discovered OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord and finally realized what the Open Game License truly meant. I then found our about www.lulu.com and something that existed back then called guru (not sure if it is still around, but it was a way to contact professionals, such as writers and artists, and hire them). It dawned on me. I COULD PUBLISH MY OWN BOOKS! Armed with a handful of not quite fully fleshed out ideas and a small budget (taken from my drinking money) I began to work on Forgotten Arcana.

Forgotten Arcana was an attempt to make a supplement for OSRIC that provided optional rules based on the rules from 2nd edition AD&D. It was executed horribly. The proofreading was bad, the writing was bad, the layout was horrid, the art was all stock images (except a few commissioned pieces), it was overall bad. But I didn't realize that and I went ahead a made a second book. Forgotten Arcana Book II: Artifacts and Adversaries. The intent of the second book was to provide stats for all of the monsters that were listed in the various spells and encounter tables in OSRIC that at that time were not in the OSRIC book. A noble idea.

Again poorly executed.

After that I moved on to my own setting for Berlin '61 which was based on the GORE rules from Goblinoid Games. It was a horror espionage pulp adventure game set during the cold war in East and West Berlin just prior, during and after the wall going up. It was better received, had two supplements and the adventure I wrote for it even won second (or third or some other runner up place) in Chaosium's Adventure Design Competition a few years later. The neat thing about Berlin '61 was that Chaosium actually picked it up and published it as one of their Monographs, so it technically became my first paying work. But much like Forgotten Arcana, Berlin '61 fell to the side and was forgotten by most.

Dark Heresy was released and for several years I was chasing that dragon. I wrote a short lived fanzine called Unearthed Apocrypha for Dark Heresy where I covered articles about Commissars, Dark Elves, the planet K'Otal, new rules and so forth. It lasted probably six or seven issues (and by issues I mean articles) and I even had a few people write their own submissions for Unearthed Apocrypha, most notably Nathan Dowdell who went on to actually write for the 40K RPGs and now works with Modiphius on such titles as Mutant Chronicles and Conan.

Dark Heresy was replaced by Dust, which I became heavily involved in. Heavily. I wrote articles for Dust Chronicles, became a playtester for Dust Warfare, became a writer for Dust Warfare and then one day I was contacted by Chris Birch at Modiphius who offered me a job writing Dust Adventures the Role Playing game. I worked with Chris Lites and we produced what I consider to be a pretty good game. Though Modiphius didn't put their support behind the project because of the results of a Dust Tactics Kickstarter SNAFU. So like all my other works, Dust Adventures fell to oblivion. But it was my first true experience as a game designer, and a paying gig that allowed me to learn the system and make connections. Such as Chris Lites.

I decided then to create my own products again, with my own setting and publish the damn thing myself.

Welcome to the Ice Kingdoms

Welcome to the Ice Kingdoms. 

The Ice Kingdoms is a fantasy adventure setting for Old School Role Playing Games, such as OSRIC and For Gold & Glory. The premise of the Ice Kingdoms is a far away land to the north of the world where a series of petty rulers wage wars against one another for dominance and to keep the dark powers of Pohjola at bay. 

The Ice Kingdoms. Get involved now! Sword and Sorcery fantasy action and adventure set in the far north.

Welcome to the Ice Kingdoms, a fantasy role playing game setting for old school games. Compatible with most modern D20 based role playing games and specifically aimed for classic games, the Ice Kingdoms provides all the information need to run adventures in the Thanelands. Including: New racial variants for Humans based on culture. New rules for class modifications. Detailed gods and pantheon and rules for priests of every deity. Monsters. History. Geography and more.... Pick up your sword and face the cold!

Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/peacekeeper_b

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ice-Kingdoms-Campaign-…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/6828478

Drivethrurpg: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/…/203510/Ice-Kingdoms-Campaign-… and http://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/203919

The map is available at http://www.printerstudio.com/…/101607316660-ice-kingdoms-ma…

We have some great content written by James M. Ward and Chris Lites with contributions from Moses Wildermuth and Scott Morgan as well as Caleb Congrove and many more. Some fantastic artwork by David Newbold, Marko Radulovic, RW Stenberg, Sayu González, Cory Shonuff Gelnett and more. Written to be compatible with the various editions of D&D from original to 1E and 2E (and all clones) and with notes on how to use with 3rd and 5th edition.

The Ice Kingdoms is a sword and sorcery epic campaign set in a world based on Viking and Greek mythology merged with the classic aspects of R.E. Howard's Conan stories. Please check us out.

Thanks to Kevin Reynolds for the image.