The Undead Gala is here! Check your email.
7 months ago – Sat, Oct 28, 2023 at 05:02:17 PM

Thank you so much to all of our community of backers and supporters! We've completed our intro adventure The Undead Gala and wished to share it with you all before it was posted on DriveThruRPG publicly or sent to Tales of the Valiant backers. It will contain a clickable $15 coupon for BackerKit pre-orders, so if you'd like to use that to upgrade your order with more add-ons, you're welcome to do that. The adventure will go on sale at DriveThruRPG next week - and we'd greatly appreciate if you gave us a rating/review after you've had time to read & play it. (With the included caveat in your review that you received a copy because you backed our Kickstarter.)

You will receive an email from DriveThruRPG with a link to download your copy!*

*If you do not receive an email, please shoot me an email to isfriday@gmail dotcom with the email address you used to back us on Kickstarter. I'll get it over to you ASAP.

In this 48 page PDF you'll find everything you need to:

• Introduce the setting to your table.
• Introduce La Chismosa as a villain.
• Build up the mystique and power of Aisling Rovehnna & The Confessor with their brief appearances.
• Introduce whisperborne as a lore component of the setting and (future) player option.
• Terrify your PCs with The Rot.
• Begin the party's journey toward either fighting or joining forces with The Vineyard.

Join the Discord and give us your feedback in the #vineyard-rpg channel! https://discord.gg/isfriday

My team would love to hear from you - I'll pass along your feedback to our contributors. While this adventure has been in-house and contractor playtested extensively, your feedback is going to improve the rest of the core book and future versions of this adventure. If you have questions for me or want to tell us your table stories, I'd be eager to hear them, too!

Happy horror gaming.

-Friday

Post Big Bad Con Update!
7 months ago – Thu, Oct 05, 2023 at 01:04:43 PM

Big Bad Con

Hello hello! I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Big Bad Con. I'll be releasing a podcast with some of my industry peers soon if you are curious about attending in the future. What does BBC mean for Vineyard RPG? Well - I was scoping out some new adventure writers and artists for our 2024 adventure releases on DriveThruRPG.

That's right: After the core book is shipped to backers we'll be publishing more adventures. My intent is for people to be able to segue to Vineyard content mid-campaign at their tables, insert one shots featuring the content to test it with your players, or to give you a starting point for a new campaign!

The Undead Gala

If you backed our Kickstarter: You'll be receiving your courtesy copy of The Undead Gala in late October. (This is before the Tales of the Valiant backers, because of our promise to you.) Once we send you the link you'll be able to download the adventure, play it, and if you have the spoons it would be great if you wrote us a review on the DriveThruRPG website. You will, according to website terms of service, need to disclose that you received it as part of your pledge to the Kickstarter.

Still, reviews mean a lot and help other GMs decide if it is the adventure for them. Any support in that way helps us a ton. Word of mouth is the #1 seller of RPG books. What's more? Every copy of Undead Gala will give its owner a $15 coupon to pre-order the core book on BackerKit. So people have good reason to check it out!

The Core Book Update

Our last two Lieutenants are being drafted currently by Basheer Ghouse and Noordin Ali Kadir. Once those are submitted, we'll have all Lieutenants finished.

Sebastian Yūe has finished the second draft on The Grapevine chapter which explains the history, lore, plot hooks, and actionable items for GMs to use in creating the Vineyard's propaganda machine. The printing press is a fun plot device with planned handouts and customizable PDFs for you to bring the slander to life.

I'll be back later this month with your download link for The Undead Gala.

September Update!
8 months ago – Sun, Sep 03, 2023 at 11:53:52 AM

Hey y'all,

Locations, locations, locations

For Vineyard RPG we are delivering a number of fantastic places for you to run your adventures. Here's a sneak peek of The Warrens & Hilltop.

History of the Warrens district (excerpt)

Once an industrious location for the people who worked at the market, shipyard, and all other enterprises that required skilled labor - this district now houses but ghosts of its past. Within the last century, the Vineyard has crept its way into ownership of a majority of establishments here. The tipping point for many families came 20 years ago when a ghoulish assault went unchecked for longer than many would forgive the Vineyard for.

While the rich flourished and moved on from this dangerous location, the people of the Warrens were never inclined to feel jealousy or resentment for those who abandoned it. Everyone knew and embraced that it was a scrappy place where laborers raised their own. Just as the money began to leave the District, the Vineyard filled in the void to keep commerce alive.

History of the Hilltop district (excerpt)

Hundreds of years ago the district was a druidic farming community that used their magic to fuel an affordable supply of food and medicinal herbs for the City. Once merchant families were able to leverage the advantages of worry-free sustenance, they began to buy out the beautiful gardens in Hilltop. This resulted in the official formation of the district as the families cooperating led to a complete change of hands. Walls were built soon after, and the nickname The Walled Garden sprung up amongst the less fortunate. The druids became employees of the families - cutting the supply of affordable high quality foods for the masses. Now their magic creates feasts for the wealthy, instead.

The Undead Gala adventure (free for KS backers)

I'll be forwarding a free copy of The Undead Gala to all backers. This adventure will be wrapped up into the Vineyard RPG full release, so I feel as though it would have been weird to not give it out. Stay tuned for that in October. You also would receive this adventure if you had backed Tales of the Valiant with the adventure pack add-on!

This adventure's PDF will come with a coupon that you're welcome to use on BackerKit. This won't change the price of your KS pledge, but if you want to get yourself an add-on at a discount, you can!

August Update!
9 months ago – Wed, Aug 09, 2023 at 01:09:02 PM

Hey y'all!

Here's what we've been doing:

The Undead Gala

We've finished the second draft of The Undead Gala - and if you want to help me playtest it please join the discord. I'll be running more playtests in August - and they're free!

https://discord.gg/isfriday

Here's what you need to playtest:

• A decent mic
• A Discord account (check out the #undead-gala-playtest channel)
• A Forge VTT account (they're free and I'll show you how during setup)

Most likely these will be morning/daytime US games as I run games in the evening for my business. Also keep in mind that every backer who bought the book will get to play the Undead Gala at your own table as it'll be included in the book! We're just shaping it up for early release to coincide with the Tales of the Valiant Kickstarter adventure add-on. It will also be available on DriveThruRPG in October.

Some art from Matt Duckett to share:

Dossier Overhaul

We wanted to really go overboard for Their Majesty Aisling Rovehnna's dossier and so we figured - why not provide more love to everyone else, too? In addition to some of the standard things you will find such as a biography, lair, and statblock - we've added more plots and encounters.  Originally we conceived 2-4k words for each dossier on our important NPCs. For Aisling: we're going to finish at around 7-8k, or 20 pages. Each Lieutenant Dossier should be around 5k words, or 12 pages.

A sneak peek at some of our Dossiers below!

Our Vineyard Lieutenants:

•  The Bodyguard, a poet and revolutionary who has the unfortunate task of protecting Aisling Rovehnna. (Noordin Ali Kadir)
•  Confessor Istillias, a religious fanatic who collects debts on behalf of Their Majesty in their torture tower. (Kienna Shaw)
•  La Chismosa, a murderous jester who desperately wants to be loved for her skills and loyalty. 
•  The Pallor, a fungal infection hivemind that spies on everyone through infection. (Dave Walker)
•  The Siren, a beautiful performer who became a debt collector for Their Majesty to maintain their vanity. (Sarah Madsen)
•  Solicitor General, an incredibly 'correct' legal advisor whose words become reality. (LegalKimchi)
•  The Surgeon, a double-agent who can remove Rot from people and build weapons from the spoils. (Chelsea Steverson)
•  Verity Feducia, the editor-in-chief for the various publications that spread the propaganda of The Vineyard. (Sebastian Yūe)
•  Zal, an accomplished warlord who leads a mercenary company within The City and wishes to strike out on her own. (Basheer Ghouse)

Thanks so much for backing us and I'm looking forward to showing you what we've been working on soon.

Meet La Chismosa & a Murder Suspect
10 months ago – Sat, Jul 08, 2023 at 09:38:53 AM

A quick update for y'all as we continue work on the Undead Gala, which will be offered as our introduction adventure in The Vineyard RPG. A level 3 murder mystery with optional combat, intrigue, gags, and lots of sexy people.

If you'd like to get in on the conversation and join the playtest for the Undead Gala, hop into Friday's Discord - https://discord.gg/isfriday

Artists:

Yorsy - https://www.instagram.com/yorsy_hernandez/

Allie - https://www.alliebriggs.com/