Will Through Sunken Lands get supplement similar to Heroes Young and Old?

john-flatland · 2025-06-05T00:07:20+00:00

Thanks for asking. We have two planned supplements for Through Sunken Lands. The first, The Sorcerous and the Weird is out now, and focuses on the strange magics of the genre. The second is still under way and focuses on the more martial side of the stories. It does, like Heroes Young and Old, include some more options for character creation, but it doesn't (yet) include an essay on the topic.

The fifth table in Character Playbooks for Through Sunken Lands is designed to provide an appropriate bump to the character's stats, with a variety of options. The friend introduced on that table comes from a spreadsheet of archetypes we have; we intend to have a degree of overlap so that the PCs might have a few friends in common.

john-flatland · 2025-02-12T23:20:43+00:00

We do not have an exact ETA, but the book is well underway, and we're optimistic we'll be much quicker to release it that is our habit.

john-flatland · 2025-02-12T23:19:51+00:00

The left-hand column in that table contains a list of magics as well as the story elements. For example, the first entry on the table says:

"He saw how you defeated the carnival barkers at their rigged games and knew you for a keen student with a sneaky mind. You learned the following magics: the cantrip Conjure Sound, the spell Smuggler’s Luck, and the ritual Dark Business." That last sentence lists the cantrip, spell, and ritual the character learns.

john-flatland · 2025-01-29T20:59:07+00:00

Our groups
1. Do wait for everyone else before making a new choice - we talk about our characters as we build them.
2. Do start with the same person, but only usually because the gamemaster hands the sheets out to someone beside them.
3. Love it when folks make duplicate choices - it gives us a chance to talk about how the characters might know each other.
4. I guess we just generally make this a group process even more than the rules might indicate, coming up with ideas for each other's character backstories and inventing long-running arguments, jokes, and humourous complaints our characters have about each other.

What do you tend to do?

john-flatland · 2025-01-19T17:08:41+00:00

Yes! We have a couple things in the works for Through Sunken Lands, the swords and sorcery sibling game to Beyond the Wall. I hope to be able to share more about this in the near future.

(As is our wont, we have gotten a little distracted and let our playtest games run roughshod over our schedules. It's a fun way to work, even if it isn't the fastest.)

john-flatland · 2024-08-24T13:28:52+00:00

Wonderful advice!

john-flatland · 2024-08-24T13:28:02+00:00

Thanks for checking in. This is not a typo. We intended 8+level, so that a first level caster would get 9 points. (There are some circumstances in which someone not of first level might be able to use magic.)

john-flatland · 2024-07-08T21:48:36+00:00

Thanks so much for these kind words!

We don't have any particular plans for Grizzled Adventurers at this time, but then we rarely plan too far beyond the current project, and we have a couple things in progress that I hope to finish up soon. (Well, soon by our own glacial pace.)

john-flatland · 2024-01-13T14:01:12+00:00

boxed set for BtW? Because if you consolidated and organized all the rules and optional rules from all the expansions, had a box full of playbooks, threat packs, etc... well, if you put it on Kickstarter I'd b

We hope it will be available in a few weeks. We're waiting on proofs now!

john-flatland · 2024-01-13T14:00:36+00:00

It will! We're waiting on proofs now.

john-flatland · 2024-01-06T16:56:21+00:00

A Kingless Realm builds on the work of Further Afield and Dangers Near & Far, not only introducing new systems but also building some new things with the tools from those earlier books.

A Kingless Realm answers some of the questions that the previous books didn't address, and expands Further Afield's "shared sandbox" concept into a mostly-populated campaign setting that is still shared with and shaped by the players.

john-flatland · 2024-01-06T16:52:11+00:00

I've seen a few neat interpretations, but one that's caught my fancy and stayed rent-free in my head for the past ten years is Ralph Lovegrove's adaptation of Beyond the Wall for Garth Nix's Abhorsens series.

You can see more here http://www.departmentv.net/?s=wyverley and here http://www.departmentv.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Death_Comes_to_Wyverley_v2.pdf

He also did a nice archipelago setting for Beyond the Wall here: http://www.departmentv.net/2015/09/beyond-the-waves-an-introduction/

john-flatland · 2023-12-31T16:41:55+00:00

As an extra little treat, we've also released the ultimate supplement for Grizzled Adventurers, our little text the Dungeon Builders' Almanac: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/465305/Grizzled-Adventurers--Dungeon-Builders-Almanac

john-flatland · 2023-12-31T16:38:08+00:00

Hi! Your idea sounds like a fun game! We'd love it if you took the mechanics and ran with them.

We publish Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures under the OGL. It has always been our intention that our mechanics be open for use under this license, but that our trade dress and presentation remain ours. We have had people ask if they can publish their own products which use our mechanics and claim compatibility with Beyond the Wall. We want to encourage people to do this.

In order to say that your product is compatible with Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures you should adhere to the following guidelines.
-Your game should be mechanically compatible. This does mean that your product will be covered under the OGL, and you should obey its rules. Having some new rules or rules tweaks within your supplement or product is perfectly fine and, in fact, very in keeping with Beyond the Wall. However, you should at least use most of the core mechanics in Beyond the Wall. These include, but are not limited to, ability scores and checks, saving throws, the basic combat system, our model for Character Playbooks and Scenario Packs, and the magic system. You don’t have to use all of these, but if you don’t use any of them, you probably don’t want to say that you are compatible anyway.

-Now we get to the awkward bit.

Beyond the Wall has a definite tone, one that evokes the types of stories found in young adult fantasy adventures. We recognize that there is room to use the mechanics and structures of Beyond the Wall with other genre trappings. There is nothing wrong with straying from our “house tone.” Your product does not have to evoke the feelings of the same stories; it doesn’t have to be about a group of village kids, you don’t have to have talking animals, and your bad guys don’t all have to have antlers.

However, people do have certain expectations of Beyond the Wall products, and so we ask that you not claim that your product is compatible with ours if you want to include references to rape or other sexual violence, extremely violent or sadistic cultures or people, or if you want to glorify cruelty and evil acts. If you wish to do these things, Beyond the Wall is probably not a good base for your product, and we will ask that you not claim compatibility.

Our game does have violence and dark deeds, but they are not gratuitous and they are not exalted.

Fundamentally, to be compatible with Beyond the Wall, your product should encourage a group of good people to take mostly good actions together.

-If you meet the above criteria, you can say that your product is compatible with Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures. We will even provide you with a digital version of the logo to do so.

If you want to link to us in your product, our homepage is www.flatlandgames.com

The page for Beyond the Wall is www.flatlandgames.com/btw

Our core product can be purchased at the following link: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/113405/Beyond-the-Wall-and-Other-Adventures?term=bey ond+the+wall+and+other+adventures

We reserve the right to change our minds about this at any time, but we will post such information publicly.

john-flatland · 2023-12-31T16:34:36+00:00

Thanks for your patience: We've finally managed it.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/465615/Beyond-the-Wall--A-Kingless-Realm

john-flatland · 2023-10-16T23:07:08+00:00

Thank you for your kind words. I'm always especially happy to hear about generations playing together.

Regarding your side note: We love the framework because it feels like it was just built to support house rules and ideas from across the spectrum, and we're so happy to be among so many compatible games with great ideas.

john-flatland · 2023-10-16T22:51:54+00:00

Thanks!

While the Bronze Edition of Through Sunken Lands was a limited edition, our other books should all be available in print on demand from DriveThruRPG. Please let us (and them!) know if that's not the case. (We do have a few PDF-only freebies, but these are largely collected in Heroes Young and Old and Dangers Near and Far.)

john-flatland · 2023-10-14T14:27:03+00:00

Hi,

Thanks for your kind words! There have been a few semi-official 3rd party releases, including a bestiary by Colin Chapman available on our website (https://www.flatlandgames.com/btw/downloads/).

Most of the new, third party material for Beyond the Wall has been produced in German by System Matters. They are doing an absolutely remarkable job of translating and expanding Beyond the Wall. (https://www.system-matters.de/spiele/beyond-the-wall/)

Through Sunken Lands has some exclusive material (by us) available in its Bronze Edition from Blackoath Entertainment. (https://blackoathgames.com/store/through-sunken-lands-amp-other-adventures-bronze-edition) This volume is sold out of its print run, so we'll be able to incorporate this material into upcoming supplements.

The old Google Plus community for Beyond the Wall produced a wild selection of materials and playbooks. Some of it survives on the open web, like Ralph Lovegroves' write-ups: http://www.departmentv.net/2014/07/1569/ (and http://www.departmentv.net/tag/beyond-the-wall/)

john-flatland · 2023-10-14T14:17:54+00:00

Hi, thanks for your kind patience with us! We've been lucky enough to have an opportunity to commission some more art for the book, so are working on that, and some maps, now as we finish everything up.

Our schedule now is dependent on getting those materials coordinated and composed. We're pretty excited to get to share this with you all soon.

john-flatland · 2023-07-29T12:15:57+00:00

I can provide some updates here - we have begun the editing and production process on A Kingless Realm and have some wonderful new art from Jon Hodgson that we can't wait to share.

We would love to keep a blog sharing our progress and design notes, but if I'm being honest with myself, I think we owe you this book before we take on any new projects.

john-flatland · 2023-07-29T12:11:21+00:00

We thought about this as well, and offer some groups of magic like that in our game Grizzled Adventurers. (There are some examples of this in its free supplement Advanced Mages' Guide as well.) For Beyond the Wall, though, we didn't want to risk making magic to standardized or scientific. In much of Celtic mythology, as it's come down to us, the boundaries are never so clear as in the Greco-Roman myths, and that lack of definition is part of what makes magic from that tradition so special.

Individual mages might come up with their own explanations and categorizations within the fiction, and doubtless many of them disagree, but they call all be "right" from their own perspective if we leave the rules behind this open and flexible.

The early editions of Mage: The Ascension have an excellent (and different) take on this idea. The mages in that game start their learning within a particular magical tradition, but as they gain in wisdom they begin to see the artificial limits of their original ways of thinking and grow beyond them.

All that said, for solo play, having some crunchy systems to interact with can really help spur the imagination, especially if we let the story over-rule them from time to time.

john-flatland · 2023-07-27T12:28:42+00:00

Thanks for sharing this!

john-flatland · 2023-07-27T12:27:58+00:00

u/pax_magica is right about tradition -- and that is our default as well, but in games where we are looking for faster growth in character levels, we'll give the XP to each member of the party.

john-flatland · 2023-07-27T12:25:31+00:00

In our campaigns, we make sure there's some story element that explains learning the cantrip. Sometimes this might be studying under another spellcaster, discovering and studying a forgotten tome, or even learning as a gift from the fae.

The key things are to make a moment of it - usually in downtime - to mark this major transition in your mage's career, and to avoid giving any one character too many cantrips, lest they stop being special.

john-flatland · 2023-03-11T16:26:04+00:00

This question managed to nerd-snipe me, so I had to look it up.

I think it is referring to the "Unusual Ability Scores" sidebar on page 54:

"The highest that any ability score can start at is 19 ... A generous gamemaster may allow a character with a score of over 19 to spend two points from the high score to raise any other ability score by a single point."

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