Darkness wins as Nolan Locke’s Exquisite Corpse funds its grimdark and system-agnostic guidebook

I remember not blogging the first Exquisite Corpse as although it looked great, it was not clear why Geek Native readers would care about it. The creative team ended up cancelling the project.

The relaunch of the nautical-themed grimdark has found success in hours. The project team listened, adjusted, and now it’s crystal clear what you’re getting. You’re getting expert help in worldbuilding with tabletop RPGs in mind. You can back the arty project on Kickstarter.

We can lay on that “what do I get?” thickly as there’s a free download of the book’s complete sample text.

The character Nolan Locke is a guide. Nolan writes about the flooded world of the Weiroads, but it is up to you to decide which of the mariners’ memories are right, and you’ll build your own story within the grimdark world as a result.

If you pledge for the hardcover, you’ll get the PDF when the campaign ends and that offer was made before the goal was met.

Here’s what you get;

• 39 ship battlemaps for 8 unique ships
• 30 interconnected characters with illustrations and backgrounds 
• 30 unique items with illustrations and lore
• 30 monsters with illustrations and lore
• 3 cities unique to Weiroads with cultural, political, and religious backgrounds
• 3 unique environments with illustrations, lore, and hex-crawl maps 
• A new world to explore and customize 
• Tables for world-building 

Nolan Locke’s Exquisite Corpse is a fully illustrated book that introduces you to RPG story design. You’ll explore story design components and elements that you can combine in any order to craft an exciting and unique game for your players. You can use this book regardless of what game you play — it’s about the story, not the rules.

As with Kickstarter, you can support with cash and social shares at any level to help the artists and designers make their project.

If you find $25 in support, your name appears as a credit, you get the PDFs of the Exquisite Corpse, the world map and battlemap set in PDFs.

International backers (outside the United States of America in this case) get the hardcover added to that at $5, with fees added.

USA backers get that for $55 but also get the print of the Weiroads World Map. At 24″ by 36″, that map is too large to send worldwide. Nothing stops USA supporters from going for the lower tier, but this map tier is locked to the United States.

Nicholas Ross and the team estimate the project will enter the delivery phase by November.