Embers of the Long Dark

A frozen-world campaign frame. Daggerheart™ Compatible.

A complete campaign frame for a world that lost its sun built for tables who want a survival in a cold, unforgiving world with custom mechanics and a good amount of winter horror.

Your party has a shared pool of Warmth. It buys rests. It also buys boiler repair, bribe, a stranger's life at the gate and the thing you need right now instead of the thing you'll need in three days. There is never enough, and it is always the party's choice whose need gets met.

Every fight leaves you colder. Every night on the Ashen Roads costs fuel you were saving. Every act of mercy is a Warmth lost.

This is not a grimdark frame. It's a frame about people deciding over and over and over whether they're still the kind of people who let strangers in. Are they still the people who will save the child freezing on the ground giving them a Warmth for another day? Or will they forsake the giant cities to their fate? Whatever they decide, history will remember.

Tier 1 is finished, and it's free. Homebrewery.

The complete Tier 1 layer is available, including the entire frame itself, the Ember Pool and Storm Countdown rules, class guidance, the inciting adventure... 12 adversaries, 4 environments, weapons, armor, items, consumables, and a table of hooks. It's enough to run a full Tier 1 arc, start to finish.

I'd rather you judge the work than my pitch. Download it, read it, run it. If it isn't good, don't back this.

The writing and design for the full four-tier book is my job and I'm doing it regardless because I really really enjoy it. Although it takes a lot of time and effort and I'm doing this on my free time, I'd wish to spend more time on it. Possibly weekdays. What I can't do at all is illustrations. I want a real artist, properly briefed and properly paid, doing original work. No stocks, no ai, no generative art. This includes portraits, weapons, NPCs, cities, MAPS! (yes, maps if I can find a cartographer) and so much more.

This campaign exists because a book about the cold deserves to look cold, and that costs money I just don't have.

Everything in the free Tier 1 layer, plus:

The Order of the Gauge and the Last Light stop being uneasy neighbours. The Sundering stops being history and get a full background. The White and fringe settlements get a better background and explanations. And... what the hell are those Pylons...?

I really would like to have the time to properly playtest these.

Including the ones that aren't places like a storm, a famine and catastrophes.

Weapons, armor, items, and consumables, with the Warmth economy.

The thing this campaign is for.

Set in the Long Dark that I will write designed to be read, played out, or just enjoyed over a fine glass of hot tea.

It will contain some tips and tricks for economy management with Warmth and not punishing your players all the time.

I want to write a bunch of original story hooks and quests people can just pick up and play through. Even my daughter has a story I would like to put into this. I'm not even kidding. It's actually a very interesting story. But, you'll have to see how that goes...

I already have at least 8 fully worked out stories in this frame that I would like to see come to the light through this frame.

The party shares a new resource called Warmth. They can have up to Number of Players in the Party +1 of that resource. A short rest in the wilds costs 1. Resting near places of warmth like a Furnace (don't try to think about what fuels the flames) refills the pool. When you run out of Warmth you next rest is a Cold Rest. You recover, but the cold gets in and buries itself deep into your bones and you lose something while you awake from an uneasy sleep. Warmth can also be used to trigger powerful actions on specific items or given freely to those who might need it more than you.

This is the main engine of this Campaign Frame. You can read more about it in the campaign frame description in the link above.

This work includes material from the Daggerheart System Reference Document 1.0, © Critical Role, LLC, under the terms of the Darrington Press Community Gaming License. More information can be found at daggerheart.com. There are no previous modifications by others.

Darrington Press™ and the Darrington Press authorized work logo are trademarks of Critical Role, LLC and used with permission.

This project is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Darrington Press or Critical Role.

Frostpunk is a trademark of 11 bit studios. This work is inspired by the game and by the framework Age of Umbra campaign frame. This work is an independent creation inspired by the frozen-world survival genre and is not affiliated with or endorsed by 11 bit studios.

All images in this Campaign are from, Wikipedia, Pixabay, Magnific and New York Public Library Digital Collections and drawn by me.

No AI was and will be used in the production of this book and its art.