In Emberdawn Studio’s Demon Ascendants, the player characters have demon ancestries. It’s a non-traditional fantasy world without orcs and elves but plenty of monsters.
The Stockholm-based publisher’s first Kickstarter asks for €50,000 to find in an all-or-nothing campaign. That’s ambitious but the backer tally is tracking upwards and you can see their progress.
There’s a free-to-download and 19-page preview of Demon Ascendents available without email capture to check out if you are curious. It shows a tabletop RPG that simultaneously looks both traditional and pushes away from the typical fantasy.
Demon Ascendants has seven playable demon bloodlines, each with powers and nine core classes. You can mix and match.
The RPG system is d20-based, where you roll directly against your stats and aim to roll over. Combat is affected by decisions and actions players take outside their turn. Damage is not dependent on a dice roll. There are guard manoeuvres your character can deploy, and rather than advantage modifiers, there’s the Edge Die.
Combat rules, character creation, monster stats and demonic abilities. The core rule book has it all! Everything you need to run an adventure in the world of Demon Ascendants in a single book. It includes: 300+ pages, All playable demonic bloodlines, rules for gameplay, character creation, combat and GMing, all playable classes, 250+ demonic abilities and features, 70+ physical abilities and attacks, 60+ dangerous monsters, tables for weapons, talents and advanced skills, 100+ upgraded weapons, gear and magic items, amazing illustrations and art.
Backers get access to the add-ons with a pledge of €1, and the core PDF, along with the Wrath of the Realms adventure, is the reward at €25.
Those supporters who step up to €65 also get the core rules in hardcover.
The deluxe set unlocks at €95, with dice, a softcover of Wrath of the Realms, and everything that’s come before.
The €125 tier adds battle maps and a GM screen, while the €185 also produces a collectors edition of the core rules and a hardcover of Wrath of the Realms.
The top tier is €235 or about £201, bringing also the demonic mutations card pack.
Emberdawn Studio estimates a September 2024 delivery.
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