Thursday, December 17, 2020

Lumberlands


Erik Jensen's Zinequest entry Lumberlands delivered not too long ago. It's not yet available in physical copy, but that's coming.

Lumberlands is a region of Erik's Wampus Country setting, for which we are still, lo these many years later, awaiting some sort of overview setting publication. I had the privilege of playing a number of sessions in Erik's Wampus Country campaign back in the days of Google+, and so I was eager for Lumberlands.

Can it be you've never heard of Wampus Country? Well, allow me to sketch it in brief: It's an old school D&D setting that borrows its visual trappings from the American history, folklore, and fakelore to a large degree. Its fighters might be more Mike Fink or Davy Crockett (subject of the Disney series, not the real-life Congressman), than Aragorn or Conan. Still, it would be a mistake to think of it as merely "Frontier Fantasy." It has that as it's base, certainly, but Wampus Country exploits the fruitful incoherence that is D&D at its core and weaves in all sorts of sources, so that many sorts of character types and potential adventures are possible.

But anyway: Lumberlands! Lumberlands narrows the Wampus vibe geographically to a fantasy take on the Pacific Northwest and Paul Bunyan-y concerns, while in no way being bound to the imaginative parameters of that inspiration. It details the differences between the version of the classes in the setting (i.e. the traditional ones with a lumber- prefix and flannel-centric illustration). It sketches the human habitation of Squeemish, but also the squirrel city of Baudekin and the dimensionally unstable region of Portal-Land. 


There are monsters with pun names (clever ones!) and a selection of humorously sketched hench-folk available for hire. And Sasquatches, which are actually arachnoid aliens. 

As you may have guessed Lumberlands does not take itself to seriously, so if grim is your only mode of roleplaying well it isn't for you. But the rest of you, I urge you to check it out.

4 comments:

James Mishler said...

Is there a site from which it can be ordered if one did not get in on the Kickstarter? All the updates are for backers only, and there do not seem to be any links anywhere on the Kickstarter page...

Trey said...

I believe when the physical copies come out they will have that information. I don't know why they aren't making the pdf more widely available.

Erik Jensen said...

Physical copies are available via 'zine' resellers like Spear Witch, Floating Chair, and Exalted Funeral. The pdf will be available once PoD is ironed out, we've had some delays on that while ensuring that the PoD proofs look right.

James Mishler said...

Thanks Erik, I saw it pop up the other day, bought the PDF and POD. Totally worth the price of entry! I love all the new and totally different. highly creative interpretations that were made for classic concepts (shan't be more spoilerific than that). Great work!