Hermit Skull, creator of Star Bastards, has just launched his new Kickstarter campaign for his latest Two-Fisted Fantasy adventure gamebook: The Sword of the Bastard Elf.
The half-human Bastard Elf has been turfed out of home at the cruelly young age of 60 and needs to find some place to crash! Using only his (limited) wits, (pitiful) skills and whatever he can swipe from his horrible stepfather Jeff (who he will NEVER call Dad no matter how many times his mother asks) he must set out on an epic quest across a perilous fantasy world packed with vicious monsters, dangerous pitfalls and completely untrustworthy denizens. Will the Bastard Elf reconnect with his human father (the enigmatic Wandering Milkman), become famed and filthy rich through his heroic deeds or die in a ditch very near to where he started out? Well, that’s up to you, a couple of dice and your two rock-hard fists to decide.
This tongue-in-cheek tribute to the early 80s gamebooks will allow you to explore the County of Nonce – a land where humans co-exist (badly) with dwarfs, goblins, pixies, fairies and undead.
Will you get lost in one of the great woods and stumble into the Pixie Glade? Roam the Endless Plain of Fortune? Scale the Skytrap Mountains? Tumble through the threadbare fabric of the universe and into the Daemonic Planes? Wash up in the huge trading metropolis of Bilgeton, or turn up floating face-down in the Bilge?
The Kickstarter incorporates pdf and print options, and includes additional game extras, gubbins and backer opportunities, such as: item cards (used for crafting), a bestiary (lore book and monster manual), custom dice, wooden USB stick, t-shirt etc. You can also help the author as a playtester, make game suggestions, have your face appear in the book, or write/design content for the adventure. The finished book will also contain a full ruleset for a light multi-player RPG, which will allow players to get stuck in to the interesting world of The Sword of the Bastard Elf!
If you’re a fan of completely unhinged fantasy romps, then this should be your type of gamebook. The Kickstarter campaign ends on December 14.