Harvest RPG - Grim Dark Fantasy Redefined

The Contents of Harvest

A Dark World, inspired by the likes of Berzerk, Lovecraft, The Witcher, The Brothers Grimm, Souls-Likes, Dragon's Dogma, and many others, with inspirations in terms of mechanics from Pathfinder, Mansions of Madness, Warframe, Path of Exile, among many others. 

It is one that hosts many horrific things fit for a Dark setting, and while any story may exist within the Omen System, it is mostly tailored for Grimm Settings. This being said, Harvest is designed for an older audience capable of dealing with challenging dilemmas and harsh themes; it is through those dark journeys that a stark contrast emerges, allowing for profound heroism and the grey morality of dependable sorts. 

Journey into an unforgiving world bereft of sanctuary by the feasting gods of man, and craft your own dark Tale. Venture through the twisting lands hosting convergences of horrific realities; melding forth hellish, fey, warped, and even eldritch landscapes which host abominations and tantalizing inhuman wonders fit to sunder the very Coil itself.

Fiends of the Coil

Across all Books within the franchise, you may host 300+ abominations; most, if not all, of them are completely scailable, allowing no encounter to ever feel the same and any creature to become an Archfiend or Certain Death encounter. 

Though with stronger foes come stronger boons. Steal their flesh and mark yourself with the esoteric fetishes, icons, and idols of their likeness to empower yourself with inhuman potential; even so far as venturing to the asylum to graft eldritch brains to your own; unlocking pale insights from beyond the void to gain anomalous, weird abilities and passives

Across all Books, there are 15 non-homogeneous races, all of which significantly alter gameplay. Forge your motley crew and dive into this dark world.

Places of Legend

Powerful Places of Legend exist; from an eldritch library that permeates outside of a multiversal complex, to a realm of reflections trapped within a blue mountain, altering fate for those who survive its expedition. What will you find upon your Tale?

Those Which Thrive

The game is more than a game. It is one of the deepest systems you are likely to encounter, yet it is modular. The Game is horizontally and vertically dense in an approachable way; it rewards players who dive into its systems and learn, encourages them to break the game, and helps the Arbiter manage the game so that it is almost never broken. At its base, the game is meant to grant a dark atmosphere with settings to allow it to be a meat grinder (should that be desired), but it allows the smart players to find ways to survive, if not thrive. Often, it creates intense moments of satisfaction, where every boss encounter can lead to heart-pounding wins. 

The base game features endgame progression and massive amounts of optional player-choice/chase, allowing any player the freedom to build as they like and reach the class fantasy they want. The Expansion drastically amplifies this, creating endgames within endgames and offering massive expansion for late mythic play. There is so much that you will be busy with for the next few decades.

 There exist many rules which allow for alternate rulesets and playstyles; difficulty scaling; even whole new gamemodes outside of a traditional form of gameplay, such as a " deadly race" mode similar to the game Talisman; an arena battler; ultimate hardmodes for masochists; a wave survival mode; Darkspire towers which are similar to Sword Art Online; all these things among many others; even alternate Campeign modes.

Special bosses, known as Archfiends, exist within the Coil; outside of the ones you can create. If the project succeeds, I plan to have a few STL figures crafted. 

The world's lore is ergodic in nature; a story that must be read from many angles to fully comprehend, laced with subtext, underlying messages, and a massive revelation that is sure to tickle many a lore nerd's fancy. The story was crafted with them in mind. 

To most, the game's items, quotes, state sheet elements etc will feel like set dressing, allowing the world to grant a feeling of dark exotisism alongside the liberty of crafting ones own story, free of any defined narrative outside of the base rule set of pervailing power structures; but for the people who love a story that makes you work for it, you shall uncover a narrative diving deep into a multitude of philosophies, esoteric studies and the true nature of the Coil and those living upon it. 

In this way, players and Arbiters can craft any story they desire without breaking lore, but those who seek to learn one of the many definitive interpretations shall be rewarded.

All I have ever wanted is for this project to exist. I set out to create high-quality content that delivers depth from the outset, so that, with adequate support, 3 to 5 books can be made hot and ready, risk-free. I have spent the last 3-4 years building it so that you wouldn't have to risk its creation; it is written. Balance testing among further edits shall still happen, but it is virtually fully complete; these tiers are a faithful promise; if math serves, reaching each of these will turn each thing into a reality. 

Should we reach the final tier, I will be able to create many more things. Even during a revenue drought, I can work alone, deliver for the world, and use spare funds for art and publishing. All I care about is ensuring this exists in the best possible form and that I can work on it purely. If this campaign reaches all tiers, I could see myself even releasing a massive expansion for free. I have so many plans for where this can go; the CRB, Bestiary, and Expansion only scratch the surface. Let's build world together. The entire base CRB will be offered as a fully playable beta as a gesture toward this massive goal.

YouTube Deep Dive

A Deeper dive behind the game with me talking about its creation, struggles, and ambitions. The video will direct you to the official YouTube page, which also includes a link to Discord in the description. Feel free to join; any follows/subscriptions will aid the project's success, as the biggest hurdles will be advertising and gaining visibility, next to art funding.

Much of what I might like to show cannot be showcased upon kickstarter. To view more of what the project aims to offer, travel to the many videos showcased upon the channel to learn more!

Upon the Shoulders of Art Giants

Upon completion of the project's funding, I am honored to announce that its artworks will rest in the trusted hands of renowned individuals, many of whom have had the pleasure of working for DND (WOTC), MTG, and Riot, among other studios. I deeply thank Joshua Raphael and his kind Arthouse of "Dive Bound Studios", which has been so kind as to help me with the cover art, among other things, with interest in working further, should things pan out well. 

Alongside this, we have individual artists whom I hold in high esteem; some of my heroes who I was honored to have their work lace my book. Notably, Eryk Szczygiel, who has perfected the art of crafting beautiful yet horrific depictions, which are perfect for this setting. He and many others are waiting in the wings if we achieve the funding for the artwork. 

Should the project do well, I guarantee you, we shall have some of the greatest artwork crafted for a TTRPG. With hope, I might even be able to get an old teacher of mine on here; given how much I've always looked up to them, I would be honored to have Anthony Jones on this.

The Music of Harvest

With anticipation for what this project could become, I reached out to Ren Vas Terul and his wife, Arunka, a great pair of musicians who have helped me create a few songs for Harvest as it stands. With hope, we can have a full album, and if an app is made, it will help players looking for ambiance. At worst, the songs shall still exist for those who want to play with something fitting.

Expansion Sneak Peek - RBQ

This Lovecraftian expansion is about as dense as the CRB and, like it, is practically fully written (aside from a few pages that require artwork first, such as map/dungeon layout). I assure you, it bolsters it well beyond the base Book.

Companion App

The most ambitious goal within this project is a Companion App. A tool which organizes character sheets; performs rolls; automatically calculates stats; drag and drop spells/items; A standard shop for players and Arbiters who want to allow players to passivly interact with in game vendors, with the ability for the Arbiter to create custom items within NPC Shops; Automatic Upgrades/Rank Ups; A character creator for instant-5 min quick creation;  random loot generator with full control over rarity/price/effects/upgrades/enchantments etc.; A battler system for initiative where the Arbiter can manage all monsters and players can simply press an ability/attack to deal damage/tell the Arbiter an effect; an ambient/combat music section hosting tracks from harvest amoung importable music; and if possible, a system so fleshed out, a computer might be able to play against a player with NPC allies for solo play; where players can even do quests outside the party for scaled loot/progression/story/etc.  An App "beyond" most others that really allows you to play the game fully with nothing but a phone, even if your friends are far away via an online connection. 

An App for the People

This app would be free. And you can unlock expansions, among other things, by buying the book; if you already own it, you can unlock them within the app. But beyond that, a subscription model as cheap as 5 bucks, granting you access to all content that the game has ever released; but here's the cool thing, your $5 builds a pool of equivalent points that can buy packs in the game. In other words, if you spend $60 over a year ($5x12 months) of subscription, you can permanently unlock something worth up to $60; deducting from your pool of points, and passively paying for future expansions, merch, or other things if the community wants anything like dungeon packs. Lastly, you can own the PDF and download it once you unlock it, so (god forbid) the app ever goes down, or I turn evil. You are protected and own the content YOU paid for, as it should be. All in all, it would be a great way to further fund the project, allowing more people to play things they can't afford, and eventually reach a point where they can step away and own the thing down the line. All I want is for this to exist, be the best it can be, and be easy to use for as many people as possible; that will help achieve that goal.

How 

I have a friend who is an incredible Game Dev. Was an amazing Concept Artist/Illustrator turned VFX/3D Artist who eventually became a Programmer, creating games and apps single-handedly. He is so proficient that he knows most programming languages, which has enabled him to work for game studios, NASA, the White House, VR projects, and website development, among other things. He has even created his own engine from scratch in an effort to appeal to studios such as Gearbox. I trust this man with my life, and so, should the money be raised, he has accepted to join the team to found a small group that can handle this task, supposedly with ease. He is one of the most dedicated people I know, and I am sure something like this could be completed without a problem.

VTT Integration

The ultimate goal is ease of use. If a companion app can't be made, I want to have a way to trivialize the gameplay; not that it is overly complex, but to remove the management so that players can focus more on interaction, story, and action. Even if the app can be made, I want this to be done. VTTs are an amazing way to play TTRPG. I, for one, have loved Roll 20 and am still using it for a 4-5-year-long Pathfinder campaign. We are about to utilize Demiplane for Cyberpunk upon the completion of our final Act.  I have played for years physically and digitally; I love physical more, but the demands of life often force people away, making the ease of connection harder; merging this project with a VTT would be a boon for a potential community, and I am deadset on making that happen, should this become popular/funded enough.

Join the Community - The Crypt

Talk among yourself and even me so that I can answer questions directly! Let's build a community together and turn a franchise into something from nothing! Join the Discord to keep in the loop for updates, showcases, and free access to content like Vocation Pages.

https://discord.gg/UJcps3rD

Visit our Website

https://www.the-realm-of-the-dead.com/about
An official home for everything concerning Harvest. Gain Access to a free version of the Beta Test here.

Merchandise

Further Support the project with merch. 

Full Disclosure: I won't be able to receive most of the funds due to the third-party service; each product would give me at most $5-$25 before tax. 

Backing the Kickstarter gives a MUCH more significant support towards the completion of the project; However, if you really want fresh dripped out swag to rock your support upon your sleeves, jump into fourthwall to grab Official Harvest Merch; all funds are used to feed back into the project, and will predominantly be used towards the artwork completion!

https://the-realm-of-the-dead-shop.fourthwall.com/

Extra Content Made

The game has been under constant improvement and revision since release. While not mentioned within the reward tier, Harvest now has 5 Books. A dedicated Vocation Book hosting 70 Vocations, and the Third Expansion hosting many new systems from custom Martial Arts, 5 New Races, 2 new Vocations, New Weapons of Eld/Uncanny Items/Encephalons, new Wayfaring Arms, and much much more. Artwork for the project is continuing to be made in the efforts to breath more life into the project even on fumes of resources. 

Much like the other 3, the majority of these works are pushing closer towards completion and mostly just require the Artwork (where if outsourced to the studio can be done exceedingly quickly.) With enough funding within the project; all of these works can be completed.