The solo-roleplaying steampunk gamebook series Steam Highwayman continues with Volume II: Highways and Holloways, the second book from creator Martin Noutch. Now seeking funding on Kickstarter, Highways and Holloways uses passages, codewords and items interlinked with Volume I: Smog and Ambuscade to create an adventure that doesn’t finish at the end of the book.
Set around Henley, Wallingford and the Chiltern villages, Highways and Holloways sees you take to the air on extended missions, engage in factional rivalry, encounter dozens of combats, meet a dangerous sky pirate, build new friendships and discover new secrets, find ghost-ridden vales, bitter noblemen, vengeful revolutionaries and inspired inventors! New gameplay mechanics will create a more interactive landscape, with more opportunities to rob and fight, a more persistent and threatening Constabulary and the opportunity to take to the skies in one of the airships flying from Rotherfield Greys.
Will you join with the feared Captain Coke, or deliver him to justice? Will you side with the Coal Board in their machinations against the Telegraph Guild? Will you rise through society to mix with the gentry and beat them at their own games of croquet?
Highways and Holloways features 1500 passages (270 pages) and is approximately 145,000 words in length. The text is already written, so backers of this campaign will fund the design of the cover and internal illustrations, which will again be provided by illustrator Ben May. Also, during the campaign backers will be given the opportunity to help choose which sections deserve to be illustrated in Ben’s intriguing pen-and-ink style.
Although Highways and Holloways links to the first volume, it can be played as a stand-alone adventure. However, for anyone new to the series, there are many benefits in owning both books, so you can pledge for copies of each of the two volumes to take advantage of the interlinked gameplay.
The Kickstarter campaign for Volume II: Highways and Holloways will conclude on August 17th. You can also read our review of Smog and Ambuscade or check out Martin Noutch’s website for further information and updates.
Pingback: Off to a Good Start – Words and Ideas