ZWEIHÄNDER fans! As promised, we have a special treat for you before we close up for the holidays.

Far below the hustle and bustle of the streets of mankind lies a secret, a myth that few can determine whether is real or not. Whispers of rat-like men that control the aristocracy, a warren filled with terrible half-human monsters and the worship of a god lost to the annals of time are all hearsay and bedtime stories meant to scare. What is more terrifying is these are not myths, but the truth of the Skrzzak…

Find out more about the Skrzzak at the following link: http://grimandperilous.com/?p=793

Magick Items in ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG

There are legends of enchanted blades of mythical strength, armor which can withstand the most formidable of blows, rings which grant extra lives, mantles which cause one to become invisible and more. From artifacts wrought in the dawn age by the firstborn gods to grimoires bound in the flesh of men, hundreds of stories persist of ancient items of great Magickal repute…

Yet, most of these are simply stories. Sure, there are plenty of amulets out there that swindler priests will pawn off as being Magickal, swearing that such and such ring gave a little old lady two hundred long years of life before she choked to death on a crouton in her soup. They may even spin a hilarious yarn of a pair of silken boots that gifted their brother exquisite dance moves that landed him a local Aristocratic lady’s hand in marriage. The huxster will try to convince you that dropping this simple – yet expensive – coin into a tankard will automatically dissolve the poison from unrequited lovers and turn them into a sex-crazed maniac. But for every story, nine times out of ten, these are useless trinkets pawned off as magnificent objects. However, for the tenth one…there may be some truth to it.

Magick Items in ZWEIHÄNDER are unlike those of other tabletop role-playing games. Magick items are not found in shops nor sold on the open market. There aren’t artificer wizards churning out armor, shields, weapons and fetishes for other’s use. The art of enchanting items has been long lost, and not even the elder races understand how to craft them today.

Only the mightiest of champions in the histories; decidedly doomed heroes to be certain, have beheld items of true Magickal repute. The promise of power is enough to drive anyone mad – rest assured that these same “heroes” were villains through and through, abusing its power for their own mad design. Even if these items were to be uncovered, assuredly inquisitors and other would-be heresy branders would do everything in their power to seek them out and destroy them (unless they, too were ensorcelled by their promises of power).

http://grimandperilous.com/?p=807

Social intrigue systems in RPG seem to have a love it or hate it relationship: either Gamemasters love the complexity of the system or dislike its use (Forge-based RPGs). Universally, players and Gamemasters alike tend to take umbrage at systems which focus solely on "skill rolls" over role-playing to determine success. A few even employ social combat, albeit intensely mechanical in nature (Honor and Intrigue, Song of Ice and Fire). Many tabletop role-playing games don't even have social skills (early editions of D&D), instead leaning on player's ability to influence non-player Characters through role- play to get the job done. Some games, like Pathfinder, distill social interaction down to a handful of dice rolls, without giving players much agency or allowing role-playing to augment their chances of success. Heck – some systems actively discourage third person role-playing all together!

While we certainly see a place for these approaches, here at ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG, we think we found a great middle ground. We encourage role-play above all, with Skills augmenting the conversation yet not ultimately determine success or failure. Both first and third person role-playing is supported, and rewarded. In our optional Social Intrigue system, there are two simple approaches a Gamemaster can take:

SIMPLE EXCHANGE
This is whenever Social Intrigue warrants an expedient answer through use of a Skill. This is the most common type of Social Intrigue in ZWEIHÄNDER. For instance, either the player gets the lowest price possible for a piece of equipment using Bargain, manage to Charm a doorman to let them into an exclusive tavern or even Intimidate to scare off onlookers upon a scene of a crime in a crowded marketplace. These sort of Skill Tests are very simple for the Gamemaster to rule on, distilling down role-play into a single, binary result. While role-playing is still considered to be a factor, generation of success or failure determines the outcome. Social Class and the Character's Order & Chaos Ranks influence the Difficulty Rating.

COMPLEX EXCHANGE
Complex exchanges are reserved for specific interactions which require delicate wording, subtle threats and honeyed words to persuade another non-player Character to consider and approve of something they'd normally not agree to do. Before complex exchanges occur, all participants in Social Intrigue discuss above board what their objectives are and what's at risk. Once determined, each player selects one Skill to use – otherwise known as a Social Tactic – which will drive both the role-playing they employ and how it influences the emotions of the non-player Character they interact with. In this system, they make Social Tactics check before in depth role-playing begins. As before, Social Class, along with Order & Chaos Ranks, determine the Difficulty Rating.

The results of these rolls determine emotions, otherwise called Temperaments, that the Gamemaster writes down to help guide them on how to role-play the non-player Character the players are interacting with. Success and failure matter; one can generate favorable Temperaments, whereas the other can generate unfavorable ones. Once these Temperaments are generated, the Gamemaster references them throughout the interaction to determine how the non-player Characters interact with the players in return.

Download the Social Intrigue entry from the Game Master chapter here, and tell us what you think over at our web forum at Strike to Stun.

Hello again, ZWEIHÄNDER fans! As promised, here's our January progress report.

We are moving along at a steady clip, on track to finish up Bestiary by mid-February. The chapter is coming in at a monstrous 120 individual entries! This means that we'll have a bevy of creatures for Gamemasters to introduce into their game, ranging from challenges at Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Tiers. We've also introduced a unique band of foes into the mix, called the Elite Tier, who can be used as movers and shakers in your campaign.

In the Bestiary, you'll find many fan-favorites from the Old World, in addition of truly unique beasties of our own design. In ZWEIHÄNDER, creatures are classified by families (Abyssal, Animal, Beast, Humanoid, Mutant or Supernatural) and further categorized by Risk Factor, analogous to the Slaughter Margin from WFRP. Each entry in the Bestiary is fully fleshed out; this means that all stats and abilities will be present in the entry, so you don't have to go digging into other chapters to figure out how creature's traits function. Every creature, both small and large, receive at least 1/4 to a full page description of its appearance, ecology and tidbits of mythology to draw upon for your own grim & perilous campaign world.

Follow this link to see the entire listing of creatures! Perceptive readers may even find a hot link or three to nasties we've recently completed, which can be used in the free-to-play GRIMDARK Beta Edition now!

http://grimandperilous.com/?p=835

Hello again, ZWEIHÄNDER fans! Here is our April progress report.

The Bestiary became a monstrous task (pun intended) over the past two months with further edits and the addition of several new creatures. We revamped the entry for Abyssal baddies, up to and including expanding upon the lore behind Higher Demons, Lower Demons and their servants. This resulted in a ton of new narrative material, which was brought to conclusion late last week. You'll recognize Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay fan favorites, along with some of our own design. We'll showcase some of this material later in our update.

As of today, we officially have one entry left in the Bestiary! We need to button a few things up in the Game Mastery chapter, but otherwise we are tracking to have ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG complete before summer hits. We'll have more details in the coming days for our Kickstarter, but otherwise you can watch for live updates over at our Facebook page.

Finally, as promised, here's a look at two classifications of Demons – Higher Demons and Lower Demons. We've included one Demon from each, which you can use today in your GRIMDARK Beta Edition game! Head over to our home page to learn more: http://grimandperilous.com/?p=848

ZWEIHÄNDER fans! We have long stated that we refuse to go to Kickstarter until we had thoroughly play-tested final version of the rules. After 4 years, 8 months and 12 days, we are proud to announce that the final draft for ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG is complete!

ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG will be the first of its kind to market: an inspired version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, adaptable for any "grim & perilous" campaign set in the familiar Old World, the politically-inspired intrigues of George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice and Fire, the racial tensions of Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher, the criminal underworld of Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora, the war-torn adventures set in Glen Cook's The Black Company and other Renaissance-inspired adventures. Thoroughly play-tested by our internal team across nearly 240 game sessions and three major revisions, we are gearing up to bring it to the public by way of Kickstarter. We intend to use Kickstarter to help raise additional funds for artwork, editing and layout, along with providing you a way to get your hands on a Day One PDF release of the rules! Additionally, we'll use Kickstarter to help drive pre-orders for print-on-demand softcover and hardcover options with our partners at Lulu.com. We're aiming for a tentative Kickstarter launch date of July 25th. We are counting on your support to help bring this book to publication. Keep your eyes peeled, and if you haven't already, please go over to our Facebook page and LIKE it! You can also head over to our forum at Strike to Stun to tell us what you'd like to see in our Kickstarter.

In celebration, we're releasing a massive 45 page unedited preview of Chapter 10: Grimoire to you. This includes a full narrative and mechanical overview of how Magick works in ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG. You can also peek at a full list of Generalist Petty Magicks, alongside Prayers of the God-Emperor, the Arcana of Pyromancy and their related Elite Professions. Finally, this preview also includes two new Rituals and mechanics for using mysterious Wytchstone to aid in casting spells.

Download the preview here: http://grimandperilous.com/?p=860

ZWEIHÄNDER fans! Our Kickstarter is now officially live.

Thanks to each and every one of you for your interest, support and shared over these long years as we prepared the game for the public. We know you’ll enjoy ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG as much as we do, and hope to count on your support to bring a cool new indie tabletop RPG to market!

Happy gaming, and we’ll see you over at Kickstarter!

Best,
Daniel Fox
Lead designer

Congratulations!

Hey everyone, this is Tanner Yea, the co-author! I just got a new account, so it's barebones at the moment

But we have been fully funded in just under 5 hours! Not only that, we hit our first stretch goal, which adds 21 new images and 11 new Professions to the game! Next stretch goal is 8.2k, and is 21 more illustrations and the Slaves to Chaos appendix!

Thanks for all the support so far, we appreciate it so much!

We've just breach 8.2k! That means we add 21 more new illustrations, including some more in the Bestiary! We also now have the Slaves to Darkness Appendix, which adds the Skrzzak, Aztlan, Orx and Grendel races!

We'd also like to thank all the supporters for putting us on the second page of the What's Popular section on Kickstarter! This is beating our wildest expectations!

Stay tuned for more!

Chia-like, we have grown past 8.7k, completing our final (current) content goal! This unlocks 21 more illustrations, as well as Dark Astral: rules for playing in a grimdark future where mankind in spread thin about the stars, set upon on all sides by aliens, demons and each other! Since we have busted past these stretch goals, me and Daniel are going to talk tonight about some more great goodies we can offer you all! As of the moment, though, our next goal is 11k, upon which all $50 backers get their softcover upgraded to a hardcover! Very exciting!

Stay tuned for more!

Backed. Been waiting for some time for this one and it has CERTAINLY been through some thorough play-testing. :-) Super Excited.

Quote from: trechriron;909969Backed. Been waiting for some time for this one and it has CERTAINLY been through some thorough play-testing. :-) Super Excited.

Thank you so much for your support! We greatly appreciate it!

Just as I write this, the campaign has breached 16k! Wow wow wow, it's beyond our wildest dreams! We have a whole ton of new Stretch Goals listed (and even more secret ones in the works), and 16k unlocked the Reputation Point section and 37 illustrations for Abyssal and Animal monsters in the bestiary! Our ultimate goal is to get all 120 monsters illustrated individually! Our next goal is 17.2k, where we unlock the Custom Creature rules and 37 more monster illustrations, this time for Beasts and Humanoids!

As a reminder, backing at the $50 level will now get you a hardcover book! We also have two new tiers: 'Channel Power', which gives you the art complete PDF with no print, and 'ZWEIHANDER!' - which not only gets you five books, but you get a real, honest to goodness Zweihander sword! There is currently only one space in the Zweihander tier left! We also have an Add-On option for those who wish to add more books to their order!

Our final goal has been bumped to 33k, upon which we release the art-free PDF for the general public! We still have 28 days left, I know we can do it and make this book so dang amazing!

It's been a while since our last update, but we are know sitting on 27k! We are so very excited and humbled by everyone who backed, and we are here working hard to give you the best product available! All Stretch Goals have been unlocked, save the final one at 33k - which allows us to release the art-free PDF to the public! Those who pledged for that level will get bumped up to a free art filled PDF, and we are just 6k short of making it happen!

We are at that phase in a Kickstarter where we tend to coast on our numbers, but we are still growing daily! Please spread the word to any who are interested, and let's make that general public release happen!