Book Review: The Feywild Job by C. L. Polk

 A solid piece of D&D tie-in fiction; a missed chance for more

After the heights of 2nd- through 4th-edition Forgotten Realms tie-in fiction, where we got dozens of books across a quarter century, Wizards of the Coast seems to have gone into a bit of a lull in the setting over the decade since 5e bedded in (at least as far as characters not named Drizzt are concerned). That ‘90s TSR fiction is what I cut my fantasy nerd teeth on as a pre-teen and younger teenager; I have very fond memories of it. So I was pleased to see Wizards of the Coast return to tie-in fiction and return to a book set (at least partially) in the Realms. I was equally pleased to see they’ve tapped C. L. Polk, a writer with a great backlist, to write The Feywild Job.

The premise is that two pairs of adventurers are essentially blackmailed by a “client” into a reverse heist: steal a MacGuffin back from someone and return it to its proper place before anyone notices it’s gone. Each pair is led by half of an old duo of thieves—the warlock Saeldian and the bard Kell. That partnership fell apart a decade before the book started, when feelings started to develop between them. This was a problem for Saeldian’s warlock pact (the deal with an Archfey which gives him his powers), which requires him to never fall in love, so he walks out, and the next time he sees Kell is at the start of this heist. The two tagalongs are Kell’s orc druic companion Lorzok and Saeldian’s rogue companion Jubilee. This leads into a heist plot, a potential second-chance romance, and some very of-the-moment cozy-adjacent vibes.

A shift to cozy-adjacent romantasy might seem an odd choice for D&D tie-in fiction, but in a lot of ways I think it actually honours the tradition of the field. The heist-quest plot thread is absolutely classic TSR tie-in stuff. The point of tie-in fiction is at least in part to attract new audiences to the TTRPG product, and romantasy—and its audience—is a potential untapped market for WotC. And to dive into some deep lore, in fact one of the earliest examples of D&D tie-in was what we’d now call romantasy. A spinoff of the early ‘80s Endless Quest Choose Your Own Adventure books was 6 HeartQuest books. Before Drizzt, before the Dragonlance Chronicles, we had CYOA romantasy aimed at teenagers. So the choice of genre seems both perfectly judged for the current moment and a well judged nod to tradition.

And it all works quite well without being a total triumph. If I’d read this as a 13-year-old just realising he was queer at the height of TSR Forgotten Realms fiction, I’d have loved it. And it is a solid, largely well executed example of both a cozy romantasy and a piece of RPG tie-in fiction, but it isn’t more than that, either. I’d certainly put it in the top quartile of D&D fiction ever released, but with the greatest of respect, that isn’t the world’s most searching standard, and I don’t think it quite matches the absolute best of the old 2nd- to 4th-edition tie-ins (notably the best work of Erin Evans and Elaine Cunningham, for example). For the rest of the review I want to talk about why it reaches that upper quartile and why it also doesn’t, in my eyes, extend beyond solidly pretty good.

Polk is a technically excellent writer, and the prose in the book is very well done. A nice eye for imagery, a bit of personality to the narrative voice. One of the risks of D&D fiction is you can sometimes hear the dice rattling in the background, but the integration of spells, combat, and shared world elements is done seamlessly here—this may seem like damning with faint praise, but it really isn’t. It’s a key element of RPG tie-ins, and it is not often done as smoothly as Polk does it here. A number of the action set pieces are done very well, and the lick of horror imagery in the back half of the narrative is well judged and effective. Our non-binary lead in Saeldian is also written sympathetically and subtly. In a lot of ways The Feywild Job is a really good piece of writing in this genre.

But some of the bigger picture elements are not quite at the level of the sentence-by-sentence work. The major forward plot drive for the book is the heist element, and I really just wanted more of it: the planning, the traps, the complications. The first quarter of the book provides a bit of that, but for a book whose title creates an expectation for heist-heavy narrative, it was a little underdone. If you create the expectation, the reader (or I, at least), wants it to be fulfilled. What fills the narrative space not taken up by the heist is the second-chance romance plot between Saeldian and Kell, and unfortunately it doesn’t really compensate. For a romance of this type, understanding the nature of the first breakup, getting a good grasp on motivations and pining and missed opportunity is in my view essential to the whole thing working. And given the nature of that romance plot, the backstory is a little too thinly sketched to get the full effect. There are also a few misplaced details that just leave the break, and the level of bitterness being carried by both parties, feels a little contrived. Finally, for a book with four main cast members, the two leads’ companions are done a little dirty; both Lorzok and Jubilee have glimmers of real interest and very obvious possibility for more in Polk’s capable hands, but just don’t get the time or page space to be fully developed. The unrealised potential really does frustrate.

There is a place for 3-star fiction that doesn’t push—particularly when I was younger, I read a lot of it, I enjoyed a lot of it, and to a lesser degree I still do now. And The Feywild Job is firmly in that bracket. Perhaps because of the nature of tie-in fiction, perhaps because of the reasonably tropey cozy and romance elements, perhaps because of the combination between all of those and a moderately undercooked heist, it just doesn’t rise above it. It’s not a page count issue—it’s a reasonably typical length for this sort of book—but somehow it does seem to be trying to do a bit too much a bit too briefly.

Ultimately, if this is the quality of D&D tie-in we're going to get in the future, we should all be happy: it sets an enjoyable, highly competent standard. The Feywild Job is exactly what it needs to be. I just found myself the slightest bit disappointed it wasn’t more.

Highlights:

• Well crafted prose and engaging imagery
• Tie-in fiction which speaks to both tradition and the current moment
• Just a whiff of missed opportunity

Nerd coefficient: 6/10.

Reference:  Polk, C. L. The Feywild Job [Random House Worlds, 2026].

POSTED BY: Eddie Clark. Professional nerd by day, amateur nerd by night. @dreddieclark.bsky.social

Let's have a look at Tales of the Valiant, an alternative to D&D 5e

The rules of Tales of the Valiant are backwards-compatible with 5e, but include several improvements both in pure mechanics and in presentation of information

If the repeated blunders from Wizards of the Coast got you tired of Dungeons & Dragons, there are compatible options to pick from. On May 7th, news came out that Kobold Press had released the Reference Document for its upcoming TTRPG Tales of the Valiant (ToV), a backwards-compatible clone that aims to replace D&D 5e. Kobold Press has been working on this project since early last year, after the official D&D publisher, Wizards of the Coast, fired multiple shots at its own foot in its ill-advised attempt to change its licensing terms to gain more control over third-party creations. One consequence of that disaster was the drafting, at Paizo's initiative, of the Open RPG Creative (ORC) license, which is much less aggressive than Wizards of the Coast's own Open Game License (OGL). Another consequence is the ongoing emergence of 5e-compatible game materials by independent publishers. Kobold Press is just the latest publisher to launch its alternative to 5e, so this is a good moment to compare editions and see what new ideas are to be found in ToV and other similar games. As can be expected from a Reference Document, the one just published by Kobold Press contains only the minimal rules to play ToV. But it's detailed enough for the reader to get an idea of what the game is like.

The core mechanic has undergone no change from D&D: characters have the usual six ability scores and modifiers. Rolls can be improved by Luck, which is this game's version of D&D's Inspiration mechanic. In addition to PCs earning Luck points for good ideas or good roleplaying, they also gain a Luck point on any turn in which they fail an attack or save roll. While D&D only lets PCs have one Inspiration at a time, ToV lets PCs accumulate up to 5 Luck points. In D&D, a PC spends their Inspiration to gain advantage on a roll. In ToV, that effect costs 3 Luck points. ToV also lets PCs use fewer (or more) Luck points to instead add a bonus to their roll equal to the number of Luck points spent.

For character creation, ToV introduces a system of Lineages and Heritages instead of D&D's races and subraces. According to the ToV conversion guide, a Lineage refers to biological traits (such as size, speed, and senses) and a Heritage refers to cultural learning (such as languages and proficiencies). In addition to this system, ToV has Backgrounds, which, as in D&D, correspond roughly to the occupation that the PC had before taking up the adventuring life.

• The Lineages listed in the ToV Reference Document are: Beastkin, Dwarf, Elf, Human, Orc, and Halfling Smallfolk. Alignments no longer exist, and choice of Lineage has no effect on starting ability scores.
• The Heritages, which, again, must be understood as the circumstances of a character's upbringing, include: Cosmopolitan, Cottage, Diaspora, Grove, Nomadic, Slayer, Stone, Supplicant, and Wildlands.
• The Reference Document only lists Criminal, Scholar, and Soldier among the available Backgrounds.

Character classes are the area where changes from D&D are most noticeable. Subclass features now have a uniform progression: all characters get them at 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 15th levels.

• Barbarians get proficiency with herbalism tools. Barbarian Unarmored Defense gives an AC of 13 + Con regardless of Dex. The Fast Movement feature lets Barbarians automatically move up to half their speed upon rolling initiative. Feral Instinct has been moved from 7th to 6th level. Brutal Critical also applies to a natural 19 on the attack roll. Relentless Rage has been moved from 11th to 14th level and is a little riskier to use. Persistent Rage has been moved from 15th to 10th level as an optional feature; 10th-level Barbarians can choose to instead rage instantly when rolling initiative. Indomitable Might has been replaced with a feature that improves Str and Con saves and grants extra damage against objects and structures. In the Berserker subclass, Frenzy no longer causes exhaustion; in fact, 7th-level Berserkers can ignore any exhaustion while raging. Berserkers get proficiency with Intimidation for free. Intimidating Presence is now a bonus action and is harder to resist; it also grants extra damage against frightened enemies. Retaliation can now be used in response to any type of attack, regardless of distance, and even if the enemy misses.
• Bards lose proficiency with hand crossbows and gain it with all Finesse martial weapons. Tool proficiency has become a little more flexible. Starting equipment no longer includes the option of a longsword, but has wider tool options. Bards know one more cantrip than D&D Bards of equivalent level. The Bardic Inspiration die now increases to a d12 at 14th level instead of 15th. Bard Expertise has been moved from 3rd to 2nd level, and its expansion to more Skills has been moved from 10th to 6th level. The Song of Rest Celebrate Life ability can be used at any time as an action, but heals fewer hit points and has a limit of daily uses. Cutting Words is now a standard feature of all Bards, while Jack of All Trades is exclusive to the Lore subclass. The Countercharm Clarity of Thought ability grants temporary immunity to becoming charmed, but has a limit of daily uses. Font of Inspiration has a new power that lets Bards grant an Inspiration die as a reaction to a failed roll. Magical Secrets has been moved from 10th to 9th level and from 14th to 13th level. At 10th level, Bards get the option to let allies either recycle a failed Inspiration die for later use or apply their Inspiration die to alter damage dealt or received. At 20th level, Bards can regain a few more uses of Bardic Inspiration than in D&D, and this ability can be used on any turn. In the Lore subclass, Bards can grant allies advantage on specific ability checks, have a wider selection of Feats Talents, learn more Rituals and can cast them faster, and keep successful Inspiration die from Peerless Skill.
• Clerics get the choice at 1st level to either gain one more weapon proficiency or learn one more cantrip; either choice deals extra damage. Channel Divinity gets one extra use at 13th level. Turn Undead Turn the Profane now works against Fiends too. The chance of success of Divine Intervention now progresses more slowly per level. At 10th level, Clerics get the option to get either immunity to disease and poison or resistance to radiant or necrotic damage. At 20th level, Divine Intervention can be used once per day instead of once per week. The list of domain spells for the Life subclass is now even more focused on healing effects. Divine Strike has been removed, but the Life subclass has a new power at 11th level that lets the Preserve Life ability remove diseases, poisons, and some conditions. The War subclass also has a more focused domain spell list. It offers a wider selection of Feats Talents and, instead of adding bonuses to attack rolls, as in D&D, it has powers that give advantage on attacks and increase rolled damage.
• Druids are no longer forbidden from wearing metal, and their weapon proficiency is expanded to all simple weapons. They know one more cantrip than D&D Druids of equivalent level. They also get a 1st-level healing power and, at 10th level, the choice to either speak with animals permanently or regain a use of Wild Shape once per day. Timeless Body Nature's Grace has been moved from 18th to 17th level and lets Druids survive without food or water. Druids start with fewer uses of Wild Shape than in D&D, but go on to gradually get many more. Wild Shape is limited to a number of known animal forms equal to the Druid's proficiency bonus, and the progression of allowed animal CRs is slower, but at 14th level, animals with a CR of 2 become available. Wild Shape also lets Druids regain expended spell slots instead of transforming. There's no direct analogue to D&D's Moon subclass, but the new Shifter subclass lets Druids choose stronger forms at earlier levels, speak while transformed, make extra unarmed attacks, and gain some elemental powers.
• Fighters get Second Wind Last Stand at 1st level instead of 2nd. It heals more hit points and can be used more often, but only as a reaction. Fighting Style has been removed. The new Martial Action ability gives Fighters a bonus action in every turn to execute one from a list of combat maneuvers. Action Surge gets more uses at a faster rate than in D&D. Fighters get a third attack at 9th level instead of 11th, and a fourth attack at 17th level instead of 20th. The Indomitable Defiant ability has been moved from 9th to 10th level and no longer needs a reroll; 10th-level Fighters can choose between having this ability or being able to end a condition on themselves. At 20th level, Fighters gain a power that increases damage once per turn. There's no direct analogue to the Battle Master subclass, but the new Weapon Master subclass lets Fighters reroll damage once per turn, execute specialized maneuvers, and score critical hits on natural 19 rolls.
• Mechanists are a new, non-spellcasting class that resembles the D&D 5e Artificer and the PF 2e Inventor. They get 10 hit points per level (more than either Artificers or Inventors), proficiency with medium armor and martial weapons, and Con and Int saves. They can learn an object's magical properties by touch. With the Shard of Creation ability, they can craft a permanent, transformable piece of magical matter that can turn into a weapon, a shield, or any object of comparable size (the allowed size increases at higher levels). Similar to the D&D Artificer's Infuse Item ability, the Mechanist's Augment ability can be used to add magical effects to objects. Mechanists know fewer effects than Artificers of equivalent level, but can have more enchanted objects at a time. At 10th level, Mechanists get the choice to either make a touched target vulnerable to all damage or heal a touched target; either ability is usable once per day. Similar to the PF Inventor's Armor subclass, the Mechanist's Metallurgist subclass grants the power to create a unique suit of armor with enhanced properties.
• Monks lose the option of a shortsword as part of their starting equipment, but gain the option of a sling. Unlike Barbarians, Monk Unarmored Defense remains unchanged from D&D. Deflect Missiles has been moved from 3rd to 1st level. Monks start with more Ki Technique Points than in D&D, but the progression slows down to become identical after 9th level. Flurry of Blows allows one attack with a monk weapon in addition to the usual choice of two unarmed attacks. Slow Fall has been moved from 4th to 9th level. Evasion has been moved from 7th to 6th level. Stillness Purity of Mind is now a bonus action and has been moved from 7th to 10th level; Monks can choose between this ability or the standard Purity of Body. Tongue of the Sun and Moon Astral Teachings now costs Ki Technique Points to use. Perfect Self Boundless Technique can now restore Ki Technique Points in any turn. In the Open Hand subclass, the new Focus Intent ability lets Monks alter rolls made by creatures nearby. Wholeness of Body heals fewer hit points, but can be used more often. Tranquility Tranquil Soul now costs Ki Technique Points to use. Quivering Palm costs 4 Ki Technique Points instead of 3 and is less lethal.
• Paladins no longer prepare spells; now they have a repertoire of known spells with the same progression as Rangers. Divine Sense can be activated more often, without spending any action, and lasts for one minute instead of one round. Lay on Hands is a bonus action if the Paladin uses it on themself. Fighting Style has been removed, but Paladins get a smaller version of Fighters' Martial Action ability. Channel Divinity can be used more often at higher levels. Aura of Courage has been moved from 10th to 9th level. The expansion of Paladin auras has been moved from 18th to 17th level. The Improved Divine Smite Radiant Strikes ability has been moved from 11th to 10th level; Paladins can choose between this ability or using Lay on Hands to let an ally spend a hit dice. At 20th level, Paladins gain a 30-ft aura, usable once per day, that grants resistance to nonmagical damage and automatic success on death saves. In the Devotion subclass, Turn the Unholy Sanctifying Light also works against Aberrations and Fey, is resisted with Charisma instead of Wisdom, and causes blindness instead of fear. The oath spells of this subclass are more focused on protective effects and fewer in number than in D&D. Purity of Spirit has been moved from 15th to 11th level. Holy Nimbus has been moved from 20th to 15th level, now grants advantage on all saves, and deals more damage.
• Rangers get an option of tool proficiency. Instead of the Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer, and Land's Stride abilities, 1st-level Rangers gain a mode of movement (climbing or swimming) and advantage on all checks to track, and unreduced speed in difficult terrain. Similar to the PF 2e version, ToV Rangers get a 1st-level power that increases damage against an enemy that the Ranger has magically marked as their prey. Fighting Style has been removed, but Rangers get a smaller version of Fighters' Martial Action ability. Primeval Awareness Empowered Mark has been moved from 3rd to 6th level, no longer costs a spell slot to use, has a range of only 60 feet, and can only be used against a marked enemy, but now reveals the enemy's exact location. Instead of an improved mundane hiding ability, Rangers can turn invisible. Feral Senses Keensense has been moved from 18th to 14th level.
• Rogues have their weapon proficiency redefined as all simple weapons and martial Finesse weapons. At 10th level, Rogues have the choice to either receive even less damage on saves or get a wider selection of Feats Talents. Critical damage increases at 13th and 17th levels. Slippery Mind has been removed. In the Thief subclass, the Supreme Sneak ability has been replaced with Appraising Eye, which lets the Rogue discern the properties of magical items at a glance. With the new Trap Specialist ability, 11th-level Rogues can attempt to disarm a trap (even a magical trap) as a reaction when it's activated.
• Sorcerers have their weapon proficiency expanded to all simple weapons. They know one fewer cantrip than D&D Sorcerers of equivalent level, but end up with one more spell slot for 6th- and 7th-level spells. Font of Magic has been moved from 2nd to 1st level. Sorcerers learn one more Metamagic option. Careful Spell can now protect more targets. Distant Spell has a longer range. Twinned Spell costs 1 more Sorcery Point. New Metamagic options let the Sorcerer increase a spell's area of effect, change a spell's damage type, cause half damage on a successful save, improve a spell attack roll, avoid losing concentration, or gain temporary hit points. Sorcerous Restoration Sorcerous Renewal has been moved from 20th to 5th level as a scaling ability. At 10th level, Sorcerers get the choice to either add a bonus to ability checks or learn a spell from another spell list. A 14th-level power lets Sorcerers absorb the energy from incoming spell attacks to regain Sorcery Points. At 20th level, Sorcerers can share the effect of ongoing spells with another creature. In the Draconic subclass, a few combat spells are added to the Sorcerer's repertoire depending on the selected lineage. Dragon Wings has been moved from 14th to 11th level. Draconic Presence has been replaced with Draconian Vengeance, a power that makes a target vulnerable to one type of energy damage.
• Warlocks gain proficiency with medium armor and shields. Warlocks now have a repertoire of known spells with the same progression as Rangers, and regain their spell slots only with a long rest. All Warlocks get Eldritch Blast by default, and its damage progression is faster. The progression of known Invocations is also faster at higher levels. Attack and damage rolls made with Pact of the Blade can use the Warlock's Charisma. The options for Pact of the Chain replace the sprite with the blink dog. At 3rd level, the redesigned Pact Magic ability lets the Warlock cast a few spells per day without expending spell slots. Later abilities include choices to add more known spells beyond the standard number. Mystic Arcanum is now an Invocation that must be selected. Eldritch Master can now be used during a turn of combat without expending an action. In the Fiend subclass, the extra known spells are mostly fire-themed. Dark One's Blessing grants more temporary hit points.
• Wizards have their weapon proficiency expanded to all simple weapons. Arcane Recovery no longer restricts higher spell slots. The new Magic Sense ability detects magical creatures, items, and effects within 30 feet. Signature Spells Rote Spells has been moved from 20th to 5th level. At 6th level, Wizards can swap some prepared spells with other spells from their spellbook. At 10th level, they can choose to learn either Rituals from other spell lists or spells from other spell lists. The new Spellguard ability grants advantage on saves against spells and resistance against spell damage. Spell Mastery can now be used only once per short rest, and only works with the spells selected as Rote Spells. The new Archmage ability gives Wizards a way to regain expended spell slots. Wizard subclasses don't seem to be tied to the traditional eight schools of magic. The one listed in the Reference Document is the Battle Mage tradition, which is similar to the way the Remaster version of PF 2e themes its Wizard subclasses. However, whereas the PF Battle Magic school just grants some extra known spells per level, the ToV Battle Mage offers a wider selection of Feats Talents, a power to create a magical shield around the Wizard, the option to exclude allies from the area of damaging spells, an ability that redirects the Wizard's failed spell attacks, and improved damage with spells.

ToV has taken several cues from how magic works in Pathfinder 2e. There are now just four spell lists: Arcane (Bards, Sorcerers, Wizards), Divine (Clerics, Paladins), Primordial (Druids, Rangers), and Wyrd (Warlocks). To avoid confusion between character levels and spell levels, the latter have been renamed spell circles. Rituals are now their own category of magic, counted separately from a PC's known spells.

An interesting new system in ToV is Weapon Options. These are combat maneuvers that can be performed with certain weapons. For example, the Hamstring maneuver is available with the sickle and the handaxe, while the Ricochet Shot maneuver is available with the sling. Many of these maneuvers exist in D&D 5e as class options for Fighters, but in ToV they're open to all characters.

Other noteworthy changes from D&D 5e include:

• The options for light armor add brigandine, described as made of metal-reinforced cloth. Armors are tagged with properties, such as Noisy, which gives Disadvantage on Stealth rolls, or Cumbersome, which require a minimum Strength to wear.
• The list of tools has been condensed. For example, what D&D classifies as carpenter's tools, mason's tools and woodcarver's tools is handled in ToV as a single set of construction tools.
• The limit of magic items that can be attuned to a character is now their proficiency bonus instead of a fixed number.
• ToV adds meticulously detailed rules for PCs who want to socialize, craft, research, train, or work. These rules are more generous than the much briefer ones in D&D 5e; for example, crafting progresses at a rate of 10 instead of 5 gold pieces per day, and training costs 1 gold piece per week instead of per day.

The last area where ToV improves upon D&D is in graphic design. The Conversion Guide mentions monster entries as a topic where special care was put into ease of readability, but the change can be felt all through the Reference Document. Even in the sections where the mechanics of the game remain the same as in D&D, the rules have been reworded for clarity and precision, the formatting of the text helps the eye catch the dependencies between sections and subsections, and the order in which topics are presented follows a more logical criterion of relevance. This is in marked contrast with D&D 5e's notoriously convoluted prose.

As I said above, Tales of the Valiant is not the only creation born from this movement to break away from the restraints of both the official Dungeons & Dragons rules and the licensing ambitions of Wizards of the Coast. Other 5e clones worth checking out are Level Up: Advanced 5e by EN Publishing, Iskandar by M.T. Black Games, and the upcoming project codenamed C7d20 by Cubicle Seven.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

Review: The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson

It turns out you can have a lot of fun this many levels of adaptation in. Who knew?

It’s a novel based on a movie which is itself based on a tabletop role-playing game. In reading this book, we are three layers into the adaptation-mania that is cultural production under late-stage capitalism. I got this on a roll of the dice from a library, mostly because I had liked Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and to my great joy I found that it was actually quite good, and that under the swashbuckling heroics and magic we all love from D&D there’s some really smart stuff in it.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: the Road to Neverwinter (another curse of cultural production under late-stage capitalism: SO. MANY. COLONS.) is written by Jaleigh Johnson, an author I didn’t have any experience of. Well, whatever she did before, it prepared her well for this, in the way I understood why Lucasfilm chose Timothy Zahn to save Star Wars after reading his Conquerors trilogy (a series I love).

The Road to Neverwinter is a prequel to Honor Among Thieves, detailing how the merry band of misfits that had broken up by the start of the film got together in the first place. As you may suspect, it’s a heist, and plot-wise there’s nothing groundbreaking (but it must be said that D&D codified a lot of these tropes, so they’re everywhere). The author more than makes up for that in how well she captures the voices of the film characters; you can imagine Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez and Hugh Grant saying all their lines, and it helps you get in that goofy fun mood the way the movie did. Even better, Johnson totally sells you on the notion that these people could make an adventuring team (someone should make a movie about that). She also has the knack of humor, and I guffawed several times. It’s good for the soul.

What really struck me about this book is that Johnson understood that she’s writing a novel adaptation of a film adaptation of a tabletop game, and that therefore there is plenty to play with in terms of the ways people create fictions. Firstly, there’s the frame story of Edgin recounting the story to his daughter Kira (about nine years old at the time), who was involved in several of those events and wants them told a certain way, which has all sorts of implications for modern fandom (and perhaps throwing a little shade at some fans). Beyond that, it gets rather spoilery to discuss it in depth, but there are several layers of representation and performance and adaptation and whatnot that add a clever subtext to the whole thing.

And, of course, there’s the certain je ne sais quoi that I can’t put any other way than ‘feels like a D&D game.’ The film had it, and this book has it too. Johnson does a good job of making the world feel like a D&D game while still working as a novel, and there are several personal interactions that feel joky in the way that players who know each other are. That isn’t usually how you write pseudo-medieval fantasy, but here it helped with the vibe. The whole thing feels a bit wacky and improvised, and I mean that in a positive way.

The Road to Neverwinter felt like warm soup when you have a cold; in a world this dreary, you need something filling and wholesome and warm. It’s a fantasy romp in the proudest tradition of D&D and a good thing for when your RPG group isn’t in session if you have the hankering for it. It rounds all this off with a self-awareness that enhances proceedings rather than encumbers them, and it complements the film like hand in glove. If you enjoyed the film, you’ll enjoy this.

--

The Math

Highlights: witty dialogue, subtle but clever meta-weirdness.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10.

POSTED BY: Alex Wallace, alternate history buff who reads more than is healthy.

More Latin American content for your TTRPG sessions

Expand the scope of your adventures with the wealth of content in Boricubos and Koboa

A couple of months ago, I introduced you to the fantastic world of Kuauhtla by Fifth Sun Press, a game setting inspired by Mesoamerican culture, that can be integrated into D&D 5e. Today I bring you yet more awesome Latin American books to add to your game: Boricubos by Legendary Games, a game setting based on the mythologies of the Caribbean islands, and Koboa by The Word Refinery, a game setting based on the mythologies of South America.

I spoke with designers of both games to go into more detail about their creations.

Art from Koboa

Arturo Serrano from Nerds of a Feather: How did the original idea for your setting emerge?

Miguel Colón (designer of Boricubos): This is a setting that has conceptually been in the works for probably a decade. Rough drafts of ideas have been lying around several notebooks and have been worked on, scrapped, tossed out more times than I could count. I am Puerto Rican and have always wanted to work on something that represented my culture. Don't get me wrong, I love the base settings most use when playing 5e and Pathfinder. I grew up with them, after all. But I also grew up with various stories surrounding the Taíno. The mysteries within Puerto Rico were vast to me. In particular, I imagined El Yunque, the rainforest there, and thought of what it'd be like to have the island come alive as much as the people.

Adrián Mejía (designer of Koboa): I've been thinking a lot about why I didn't see a lot of Latines in fantasy over the last few years. Then, during the start of the part of the pandemic where many of us were avoiding all human contact, a friend told me he wanted to play D&D for his birthday. I set up a game for us to play and decided it was time to play in something distinctly not European. This campaign helped flesh out and begin the idea for Koboa.

Art from Boricubos

AS: Where did you look for the writers and artists for this project?

MC (Boricubos): Our teammate Jason Nelson was adamant about making sure that it was primarily Latin American writers and artists working on this project. I know quite a few of them and have to say that it was a pleasure to see some of the work done on monsters, adventures, and more.

AM (Koboa): South America. Our team has spent many hours on Twitter, Instagram, and art-sharing platforms to find South American talent that could join us in our project.

Art from Koboa

AS: At what stage of development is the project at this moment?

MC (Boricubos): At the moment, Boricubos has been released for Pathfinder (both first and second editions), as well as 5e.

AM (Koboa): We launched our Kickstarter on May 9th. [Note from Nerds of a Feather: The Kickstarter was spectacularly successful.] We have between 30% and 60% of the book ready, and will be using the Kickstarter funds to finish the product. We have a preview document that is 5e-compatible, and we intend our final product to be compatible with 5e, Kobold Press's Core Fantasy Roleplaying System, and Pathfinder Second Edition. [Note from Nerds of a Feather: The Koboa rulebook is being produced in English, Spanish, and Portuguese versions.]

Art from Boricubos

AS: Which real-world cultures inspired your world?

MC (Boricubos): I incorporated stories told to me by family and friends, as well as independent research on both the Taíno and Carib peoples, in Puerto Rico and Cuba in particular. From there, things expanded. As there are different playable ancestries within Boricubos, it was important to further individualize them so that they could take on different and distinct roles in the setting. You have the Coquían, who act as spiritual leaders; the Baracúden, who are warriors and protectors; the Taínem, who are unsurprisingly based on the Taíno themselves. I even incorporated elements of what it'd be like if there were a sect of the island entirely breaking away from tradition and not because of an outside influence. That is where you get the Iguaca, who are masters of magic and mercenary in their allegiances, going as far as to invent the currency used in the setting, where there wasn't a physical currency before.

AM (Koboa): We have taken inspiration from many real-world cultures in South America. We want all people of South America to not only see themselves and their culture represented in our world, but also celebrated.

Art from Koboa

AS: How did you ensure a respectful representation of elements from real-world cultures?

MC (Boricubos): There is a careful balance here. As someone who is very entrenched in the culture, I had to make sure I represented what I loved about some of the stories I was told, some of the research I did, and some of the things that I came up with individually. This all blended together quite nicely, I believe. Ultimately, it is not my role to speak for every Puerto Rican, other Latin Americans, or anyone, really. I am trying to represent something deeply personal to me, share with others something that would make them interested in doing their own research, and present a new point of view for people. It's very hard because, in order for the setting to work, there have to be things that are inspired by the actual culture, but also things that are completely independent. I think the best thing for people to take away is that Boricubos represents some stories and legends, but is not a one-for-one recreation.

AM (Koboa): It is an ongoing process. We have built up a team of South American designers, writers, and artists with extremely diverse backgrounds and experiences. Additionally, all our content (writing, art briefs, illustrations, etc.) goes through two or more cultural and sensitivity consultants, to ensure we don't inadvertently represent elements of culture in ways that are harmful or offensive.

Art from Koboa

AS: What unique rules do you introduce for character creation?

MC (Boricubos): Boricubos introduces a wide variety of ancestries to play, with many new options for classes. This is where I put quite a bit of time and effort, since each individual ancestry is different and the class options have lore built into them. For example, it was not enough to make a subclass for the Rogue called "Arcane Trickster," add mechanics, and let you figure out what that meant. There are parts of the setting built into every class option, such as Clerics gaining access to a subclass called the Behique. They are not mere priests, but spiritual leaders who work as doctors within Boricubos. They have a very specific role to play in society, so it may not be appropriate for every Cleric to be a Behique. That's the sort of thing I love: mixing lore with mechanics.

AM (Koboa): In Koboa, people can change their body through magical artifacts called Form Maps. In this way, somebody born a certain way can choose to change themself into something else. To represent this, we have created the mechanical concept of Forms. In many ways, Forms work like Races or Heritages or Ancestries. However, Forms are made to be mixed. In many systems, I've noticed that playing a character that combines different heritages limits your options to the predefined "half-somethings," or that you need to ask your group for permission to do something the rules don't cover thoroughly, if at all. We designed Forms to be mixable from the start.

Art from Koboa

AS: What unique rules do you introduce for combat mechanics?

MC (Boricubos): Our goal was to provide a new setting for the games listed; we didn't want to rewrite the system entirely. So new options that fit the mold given by the games were great, but it was out of our scope to introduce much in the way of new combat mechanics.

AM (Koboa): Koboa brings many imaginative creatures that create unique combat experiences. We have also created many interesting subclasses based on our cultures, that may approach combat in unique ways. One class we are playing with, the Rhythmatist, specializes in moving during combat and keeping a particular rhythm during a fight, gaining benefits as they move around the battlefield.

Art from Koboa

AS: What unique rules to you introduce for spellcasting?

MC (Boricubos): While I do have scrapped notes for new magic systems, it felt like it might be a bit out there to introduce something entirely new. After all, Boricubos is meant to draw people in who have never seen a setting that was not European fantasy. It would be harder for them to want to experience the setting itself if it forced a bunch of new mechanics to learn. That said, there are quite a few new spells to play with, as well as a Shaman class that integrates all this.

AM (Koboa): We are very excited about the spells we've designed for Koboa so far. One such spell, called plant eyes, allows a character to create a plant with eye-like seeds that they can see through. It is based on the guaraná plant, which, if you haven't seen it before, very much looks like it has many, many eyes. Additionally, one class we are designing, the Bruje, focuses on casting spells in sometimes unpredictable ways.

Art from Boricubos

AS: In terms of the player experience you wish to create, what does it feel like to travel through your world?

MC (Boricubos): Excitement, adventure, and a sense of novelty. Boricubos purposely distances itself from many, though not all, European fantasy conventions. This is a world with a rich history within itself. Boricubos is actually isolated from the world at large and is highly distrustful of outsiders, limiting access to a single port and town to anyone not born within Boricubos. So anything that you see on the island was carefully crafted by the land or its inhabitants.

AM (Koboa): We want to create a living, breathing world, vibrant and proud of our heritage. We want players to see the rich culture of our lands and to experience our unique stories through a narrative that centers us.

Art from Boricubos

AS: What traditional gaming assumptions should one unlearn when entering your world?

MC (Boricubos): Boricubos is in a civil war with itself. The people. The gods. There is a lot of distrust going on, and the setting draws upon some aspects of the Dirty War in Argentina and the Stasi in East Germany. Boricubos is a beautiful land, the people you meet will be friendly, but almost everything is dangerous in this time of war. People you know may try and stab you in the back because their god is at war with yours. One day you may wake up and find that your neighbor has disappeared because they were taken by religious fanatics. But here's the big thing: there is no right or wrong. The two sides of the civil war are tragic in that neither wants to be fighting, but it feels like they have to. The gods that started the war are in a state of misunderstanding as well. In fact, there was a conscious choice to make sure that both sides were led by good-aligned deities. Boricubos asks you to consider something a lot of settings don't: what if the person you're fighting isn't evil at all? What if they're just desperate and scared and only fighting you because, if you don't try to kill them, one of your allies would?

AM (Koboa): We designed Koboa to be about reclaiming our past and what was stolen through colonization. This contrasts with some traditional playstyles of TTRPGs where the players are conquerors looting new lands.

Art from Boricubos

AS: What interesting locations are you particularly proud of?

MC (Boricubos): Boricubos is an archipelago that has many distinct islands. Some are inhabited by the Anabaguas, who are best described as humanoid hibiscus flowers. Their lands are better preserved, as they are tied to nature and are loath to destroy it even for resources. They allow it from other peoples, but only because they have an understanding that not everyone can simply live without such things as wooden tools and the like. Some parts are more developed, with coastal cities and trade hubs. There are even islands dedicated to the praise of the gods, which is crucial in the setting. Unfortunately, those latter islands are also some of the deadliest, as the civil war that is embroiling Boricubos means that something as simple as traveling to a shrine may be a dangerous ordeal.

AM (Koboa): I'm extra happy with a location called The Infinite Process. The Koboan territory of Gran Marcelia is well known for its use of law magic and the bureaucratic processes that law magic has enabled. After the war for their liberation, the Marcelians took dangerous weapons used by their enemies and sealed them away in a vault, protected by law magic so that only authorized people could enter it. As time went on, they made more and more complicated rules for accessing different parts of the vault, and used more and more law magic to enforce those rules. Eventually, the tangled strings of law magic took on a life of their own. Now no one can access the vault, as the rules required to gain access are close to impossible to fulfill, and even more difficult to understand.

Art from Boricubos

AS: What awesome folk monsters should we expect to meet?

MC (Boricubos): Boricubos was made by a diverse team and has an additional companion book dedicated to Latin American monsters from a wide variety of cultures. So we have everything from Puerto Rico's chupacabra and Mexico's llorona to Guatemala's quetzal. It is quite astounding, the collection of monsters you can find here.

AM (Koboa): The enchanted dolphin is a fae that takes the shape of a dolphin. However, they can change themselves to appear like any other humanoid. They like to cross the boundary between their fae realms and the mortal realms to visit humanoid towns and basically be tourists—although maybe the worst kind of tourists. They can leave whenever they want, so they have no issues causing chaos and havoc to maximize the fun of their experience.

Art from Boricubos

AS: What has been the response from playtesters and buyers?

MC (Boricubos): It's amazing. People were extremely supportive of Boricubos and [the book on] Latin American monsters, and quite frankly, we are so glad we get to share this with the people whom the book represents culturally, as well as those who are delving into non-European fantasy for the first time.

AM (Koboa): We haven't had buyers yet (stay tuned for the Kickstarter for that), but playtesters have been having a lot of fun. Our playtesters have enjoyed our designs and our unique world.

Art from Boricubos

AS: What's next for your game setting? Are you planning any additional rulebooks in the same world?

MC (Boricubos): We have to keep cards close to the chest. Can't promise anything, of course, but I can say I have spoken with Jason Nelson about potentially doing more in the future. There is no timeline currently, and no guarantee that this will happen. This sort of project is a massive undertaking, so it wouldn't be good to go ahead and make bold promises with no intent to deliver.

AM (Koboa): We'd love to create more content for Koboa. We have designed far more creatures than will fit in the first book, and so we'd love to have a whole compendium of creatures be our next project. But we'll have to see how the Kickstarter goes. My hope is everyone is as excited about the project as we are.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

You'll want to try Kuauhtla, a Latin American-inspired setting, in your next RPG session

Latin American culture can provide inexhaustible inspiration for heroic fantasy

The Rainbow Age of speculative fiction is also reaching the tabletop gaming scene. We're seeing a fantastic variety of new settings, lore, and worldbuilding principles, caused by an explosion in diversity among game designers and artists. The most notable recent cases are Pathfinder Second Edition's launch of its African-themed setting The Mwangi Expanse and its South Asian-themed setting Impossible Lands, while the massively acclaimed Coyote & Crow is a standalone game set in a never colonized North America.

So, what about Latin America? As it happens, there's a rich selection of new material being produced. Today I'd like to show you a game setting inspired by the myths and traditions of the many Indigenous cultures that live in this vast land: Jungles of Kuauhtla by Fifth Sun Press. I spoke with one of its designers to learn more about what makes this setting unique.

Arturo Serrano from Nerds of a Feather: How did the original idea for Jungles of Kuauhtla emerge?

Mike Chell from Fifth Sun Press: While I started running out official adventures when I first became a DM, after some messy attempts at learning the rules, I quickly found that modules lacked much of the detail I was looking for. Characters were meant to travel for several days and no direction was given, so not long afterwards I began making my own campaigns.
A habit I had developed as a DM was to open my new campaigns with a monologue, often timed to a music track, where I could set the tone and kickstart my players into character.
Kuauhtla was sort of backwards-engineered from me hearing a song and imagining the campaign to which it could have been an intro, that song being, and I'm being serious, Banana Boat Song by Harry Belafonte. It's very much a workers' anthem to me and I saw in my head an image of some dockworkers loading crates onto a zeppelin at a port in the sky. I'll admit I'm not sure where this technological side came from.
After that, it was a step-by-step process. I was running a Ravenloft horror campaign at the moment, but my mind kept returning to this scene—I built onto the world piece by piece until I noticed my creativity had left that horror project entirely. I had friends in South America and even a long-distance partner in Brazil at the time, jungles and pre-Columbian civilizations fascinated me, so I suppose that's where these cultures first came into the mix.
I sat down and got to writing. Not soon after, my party was buzzing down the Uru'arama in the infinite jungles.

AS: Where did you look for the writers and artists for this project?

MC: The creators of Kuauhtla, at least when it was still only a campaign setting for me and my friends, were always just ourselves. We had a great time with it, and we became really proud of what we had made, so proud that we wanted to share it. As soon as we had this idea, we knew that we'd need to get in contact with more Latin American creators, especially for the illustrations.
One of our writers and translators, Bruno, was already in our circle, but for artists we had to scour the internet. We tried to look for Latin American illustrators who had incorporated some aspects of their culture into their art, and we found many incredibly talented people. Some of our artists expressed interest in joining our team, as in getting more hands-on with the project after seeing what we were up to, which was a major stroke of luck for us.

AS: At what stage of development is the project at this moment?

MC: Right now I suppose we've moved into a marketing stage. The ideas of Kuauhtla were solidified even back before we "went public," so to speak; I can be a quite meticulous worldbuilder when I run a campaign. Everyone on the team is trying to save up as much as we can for any kinds of sponsorships. We're all working long, hard hours to give us the best chance we can get for funding. So far we've been very lucky with the support we're getting from other creators who find the project interesting, and we're incredibly grateful for that.
Trying to get people's eyes on the project takes up most of my time now, but I still write on the book itself when I can; even if we don't get funded, we'll continue to build Kuauhtla for ourselves. After all, we were loving it long before any of this.

AS: Which real-world cultures inspired the world of Kuauhtla?

MC: When we're pressed for time, we say "Latin American," but that's an annoyingly broad term.
We've chosen to view the world of Kuauhtla through the lens of a human civilization called the Cities Above, and as the humans of the setting, they harbor the most direct references to real-world cultures. In their ancient history, they consist of multiple in-game groups seeking refuge from the deadly jungles. They resemble pre-Columbian civilizations like the Aztec and Maya, but also more tribal peoples like the Tupi.
After this point in their history, we ran into something of a dilemma. In reality, these pre-Columbian cultures were not allowed to naturally grow after the horrors of European colonialism spread. The history of Latin America is deeply linked to these atrocities, but we didn't want to inject real tragedies into the history of our setting.
The path we chose was for the Cities Above to independently adapt aspects of modern Latin America, which of course includes hints of European architecture and influence. In the end, Kuauhtla is meant to celebrate Latin America's people, both their past and their present, so we want to include all that this enormous culture has to offer.
To exclude what Latin America becomes post-colonialism or to include some magic conquistadors to spread European influence felt wrong, so we simply chose to imagine a fantasy world which can focus on the beauties and not the horrors. Here the ancient evolved into the semi-modern independently from outside influence over centuries, gaining Mexican-styled pueblos in the scrublands, and dense cities inspired by places like São Paulo and Bogotá with old architecture to match.
Since the Cities Above grow naturally, they retain many parts of the ancient cultures, so even the most modern cities can resemble the old Mayan plazas.
There is one more influence that comes into play for the modern age of Kuauhtla. An industrial revolution is sweeping the Cities Above, and we've chosen the American Art Deco style to represent this new age, with a little of the general industrializing Europe to back it up.
All that being said, we do not want to whitewash the real cultures that still push through immense struggles because of imperialism; we want to make clear that Kuauhtla is a fantasy world which chooses to put the focus elsewhere. In the real world, the tragedies should not be ignored or forgotten. This is partly why we intend to donate to ACT, the Amazon Conservation Team. It's our way of giving back and supporting the communities who carry on the cultures we were inspired by.

AS: How did you ensure a respectful representation of elements from real-world cultures?

MC: We knew the only way to truly represent these cultures was for those of us not linked to them to take a step back. We already have writers from Brazil and Chile, but we're committed to bringing more Latin American creators along so that every culture has had a representative thereof look over our work.
Writing is one thing, it can be looked over and edited more freely, but for our art we ensure that only Latin American artists illustrate these themes. To edit or alter an illustration would almost certainly make it less cohesive, so we ensure it's appropriate from the start.

AS: What game systems is Jungles of Kuauhtla compatible with?

MC: As of right now, only 5th-edition Dungeons and Dragons. For the future, we hope to adapt it to Pathfinder 2e as well, but because of the differences between the two systems, it would almost require a separate book. Of course, we intend to fill our campaign guide with as much lore as possible, so an experienced DM could make easy use of the world in a homebrew campaign of any setting.

AS: What unique rules does Jungles of Kuauhtla introduce for character creation?

MC: There are a plethora of new lineages and subclasses to pick from, along with backgrounds and feats, as well as more specific options like eldritch invocations and fighting styles. Some of these we are particularly happy with would be the Gadgeteer rogue and the Primeval druid. The Gadgeteer rogue uses the new technology of the Cities Above to create things like bombs, listening devices, caltrops, and grappling hooks. It allows a player to take over the battlefield and gives them tons of new options to deceive and spy.
A Primeval druid, on the other hand, learns an ancient art from the jungles, which allows them to transform only part of their bodies into animal tools and weaponry. They become monsters as they mix and match the thick hides of crocodiles with the poison of a dart frog, or perhaps grow the forearm of a fearsome gorilla. It's a generalist among the druids, who can fit well into many roles but not quite master any one discipline except grotesqueness.
Backgrounds aren't the most exciting things, but as a setting with an eye for the little details, we knew we had to let players be ordinary people. The classic lineup of backgrounds is often quite restrictive. Our options, such as the Worker and the Proprietor, allow characters to be farmers, store owners, janitors, or market stall merchants. Anyone can be an adventurer, after all.
Lastly, humans are of course not alone on the mountains. They're joined by elves, gnomes, and so on, as you might expect. But they are also joined by the alien Owa, who claim to have arrived on a meteor made of a magical metal. They possess psychic minds and an inhuman culture, so the Owa's districts within the dense cities are hard to miss.
There are also the semi-nomadic Kolash, living on the snowy peaks. Their bodies are made from a porous blue material similar to aerogel, which makes them weaker, but also allows them to bounce around and even fly for short periods of time thanks to a gas stored beneath their skin.
You'll find the llama-men, the Quchi, shepherds of nature, and its fierce protectors. They wander on a holy mission trying to spread the wisdom of preservation to the humans, but they've had to take drastic measures as industry is born.
The jungle also brings new and unthinkable creatures for the players to choose. For example, the Miktlan, demonic spirits with no corporeal form. Feared by all, but in fact among the only fiends to not be evil, the Miktlan can only live by possessing dead bodies and using the powers and skills their hosts once held—until they break, and a new vessel must be found. Your friends will never die for nothing again.

AS: What unique rules does Jungles of Kuauhtla introduce for spellcasting?

MC: Something new we've come up with that evolved from ideas I'd utilized in my own sessions are Specializations. In Kuauhtla, certain spellcasters can go down a path to learn unique talents—this is not something you choose, like a subclass, but instead something you become when you practice certain spells. These spells have unique rules and limitations, and can only be learned by one or two classes.
For example, one of our Specializations is called Witchcraft, and can only be learned by druids or by warlocks who have chosen a new invocation. Witchcraft allows you to make a limited number of magical items, such as potions that can be drunk or thrown at people, or fetishes that can bind spirits to the witch's will. However, to make these items, you have to find a list of ingredients in the game world that will often require additional effort or maybe even a whole session to get your hands on. Substituting ingredients for similar things may work, or it may put you in grave danger—each spell has listed effects for adequate or poor substitutions.
Specializations are best suited for long-term campaigns where the art can slowly be picked up and grow alongside a character. To strengthen this idea, all Specializations also the change the caster if used frequently, giving both negative and positive permanent effects.
For another short example, clerics may practice Mysticism, communing with forces beyond the understanding of even the gods. Such entities can grant enormous power, but you risk madness, death, or worst of all: their attention.

AS: What unique rules does Jungles of Kuauhtla introduce for combat mechanics?

MC: We had made a whole new system for spellcasters, but we knew that the martial classes really needed more new stuff to keep them fresh. Since the start of D&D 5e, all that's been added to them is a few reworks, one or two fighting styles, and subclasses, of course. To us, that just doesn't match the infinite possibilities of the spell system.
But we came up with a solution. Something I've always thought was a little sad is that most weapons have no reason to be used. The list of options is long, but it all boils down to a handful of optimal choices. To combat this issue, and add more to the martials, we've given these classes new special actions that can only be taken with certain weapons.
For example, if you're an acrobatic monk or rogue, you may use a longsword or spear to perform a plunge attack from above your target, dealing extra damage. Experienced fighters or barbarians might use a war pick to negate metal armor. These options make martials seek out a varied arsenal, and give them a reason not to stand in front of an enemy and trade simple attacks until combat ends.

AS: In terms of the player experience you wish to create, what does it feel like to travel through Kuauhtla?

MC: First and foremost, we wanted a setting that appealed to something important to us as players as DMs: details. In most of your standard settings, how do people live? What do they know about the world? Hell, who even rules the country they stand on? Maybe these things aren't relevant for most sessions, but we believe the stories a party can weave become much more interesting when everyone understands their surroundings. A well-detailed world can allow players to make revelations about lore; it can let their backstories easily intertwine with each other's and with any story the DM wants to tell without them needing to bend over backwards. Whenever you explore Kuauhtla, the details will be there to back you up. You can of course choose to ignore them, but removing things on the go is far easier than adding them.
Our world is defined by its dichotomy. That's not to say you only have two options for your experiences, but every diverse location exists either on the mountains, giving close enough proximity to safety and civilization, or in the jungles, where no place is ever truly out of reach of death's iron grasp. There's an insurmountable disparity between the two areas—the mountains are dangerous and exciting in their own right, but nothing survives permanently in the jungle.
When you wander the Cities Above, you'll pass over beautiful country roads, viewing immaculate horizons and quaint brick villages. For me, it's how I imagine paradise, ripe with history and intrigue, delicious food and fresh air. Centuries isolated on the confined mountains have let thousands of mysteries accumulate in every little town and forest, creating especially dense collections in the bustling cities which give the country its name.
It's the perfect place for lower-stakes games, political games, as well as most of your standard D&D stuff. After all, the mountains are only safe in comparison to the jungles; it's still a fantasy world.
The jungles are another story. Really, they can be thought of as an infinite dungeon. There are temporary safe havens and plenty of loot to be found, but below the canopy the wildlife has entered an evolutionary arms race. Imagine what incredibly specific survival strategies already exist here on Earth, and now turn it up to eleven and inject it with magic and psychic powers. Beasts and plant life like this means every step could be your last. You'll uncover ancient abandoned temples and glorious cities filled with the humans whose society has adapted to such a hostile place. Here the adventures are big and bombastic, high-risk, high-reward sessions where you can claim legendary artifacts and discover the truths of the universe—truly, it's a land of gods, where the most epic stories can be told on a daily basis.
I guess to sum it up, we hope Kuauhtla will make you feel something. Whether you're relaxed as you talk to the owner of an old family business, tense as you speak with a government agent, or frightened as you walk through the jungles, we will take the steps to make sure your sessions are brimming with emotion.

AS: What traditional gaming assumptions should one unlearn when entering the world of Kuauhtla?

MC: Normally, while playing a TTRPG, you might roam around without knowing much of the place around you, even though your characters often live in the same regions. There's nothing wrong with books that give you broad-stroke worlds that can be easily filled by a DM with a lot of time and creativity, but the world of Kuauhtla is a place that doesn't forget the little things. Because of our choice of mostly describing only a single country, albeit a somewhat large one, we're able to tell you at least a little about almost everything the Cities Above have to offer. Just like when playing a game in a setting based on a movie, you'll quickly learn and understand the world of Kuauhtla.
When you walk through it, you can see every little detail as part of the story, both the one your DM might be telling and the story of Kuauhtla itself. The setting can evolve like a book as you move through it, because DMs will be informed of all the little pieces and how they fit together.
This style of worldbuilding allows natural stories to emerge. It's great for DMs who want a solid system of consequences or reactions from the world, and it works wonders for player backstories and motivations.
Another strength this gives our world is engaging cities. Playing through campaigns in the past, I've always found even the most detailed towns quite empty, amounting to little more than shopping sessions. When you're in the Cities Above, every settlement feels different; it becomes its own environment, like a forest or a cavern, with its own unique threats and opportunities. These are places for practicing politics, forging alliances, and going on more roleplay-based adventures. Through cooperation with experienced DMs, we can offer the rules, advice, and resources that make cities fun and exciting places to travel to.
In a more concrete sense, something different about Kuauhtla is how it handles the planes, to use a D&D concept. The divine and otherworldly exists in the mundane world; you can find and touch it, though that may be ill-advised. Other planets far away in space often serve the same roles as planes do in other settings. There are, however, still more unique places that can be reached, which forgo the rules of reality, but they serve as less central to the setting's cosmology.
Building on this, we also decided to have most people not be knowledgeable of the otherworldly. No one knows what happens after death, they don't know of all of the gods and don't really understand them either. There are a lot of answers which will be included in the book that even the great scholars of Kuauhtla don't know of. To help players mimic this, keeping the mysteries mysterious if they want to, sections of our book are color-coded. You can see if a page talks about deep arcane mysteries or technological advancements, and if you don't think your character would know those things, you can avoid those parts. Of course, if you are, for example, a religious expert, you can seek out that knowledge specifically as well.

AS: What interesting locations in Kuauhtla are you particularly proud of?

MC: It's very hard to choose, but as a writer I keep returning to a few places that give me a lot of ideas. There's a city called Yaotlan that once surrounded a great institution of learning in ancient times. The Yaotl people were warriors who weren't keen on a life of study, but they'd found mutual benefits from living near this place.
Over time, more and more of the Yaotl learned magic from this institution and it permeated their culture—they became intertwined with this place and were soon some of the most magically gifted people in the Cities Above. When a rival family took power over their mountain and threatened their sovereignty, a split occurred among the Yaotl. Some would bend the knee, while others refused. As tensions rose, those who wanted freedom used their magical prowess to raise Yaotlan into the sky and jam it into the side of the mountain. It was far enough below the plateau that their rivals dared not travel there for fear of the jungle.
Centuries passed. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Cities Above, Yaotlan flourished, and shifted course from the rest of humanity. More isolated than ever, with a population full of passionate, paranoid, and ambitious mages, it became something new entirely. The people changed themselves by arcane manipulation, strengthening themselves, making them something beyond human. At first they fought to defend themselves against the beasts from below that would come to attack the city for food. Their population dwindled, and those who survived were the strongest, the most reclusive, and the least human.
Everyone in the Cities Above assumes Yaotlan long devoid of life, but no one has been there since it moved down the mountain—or at least no one has returned.
Another location I adore is Tolodo, the City of Streetlights. It's the capital of the Cities Above and has been the seat of power for around 500 years. Modernity was born here, and it is evolving at a pace too quick for the city to keep up. Chaos has overtaken the city and its stability is hanging on by a thread due to all the factions growing inside of it: there's the politics, the technology, gangs and cartels, immigrants fighting to gain power in the system, the poor and the wealthy—it's a melting pot where anything could happen. Thousands of paths and stories emerge from the dense streets and spread out all over the mountains.
As the seat of power, the High Council, a group of seven enigmatic politicians who rule the Cities Above, have the most presence here. They're one of my favorite tools when running campaigns in Kuauhtla. To the public, the Council is mysterious but trusted; they were originally publicly elected and had a member from each of the six mountains, and they were born out of a time when trust in government was at its lowest. Dethroning monarchs and peacefuly uniting the mountains made them public heroes.
But things changed. To learn their full story you'll need to read through the book, but now the public isn't even aware of who the seven members are. Only some among them have ever been seen, but even they are certainly not open books. The High Council frantically collects knowledge in secret and runs the Cities with an iron fist disguised as a gentle hand. Don't be deceived: they are brutal utilitarian rulers who would cross every line to keep the Cities safe, and most of those lines were crossed long ago.
Of the sessions I've run in Kuauhtla, Tolodo has played a part in maybe half of them, whether that means performing a heist, dealing with the government, unraveling cartel plots, or just renting an apartment for your party. While other locations create the perfect environments for certain sessions, anything can happen in Tolodo.

AS: What awesome folk monsters should we expect to meet in Kuauhtla?

MC: The nature of South America is filled with fascinating creatures that, if only described, I'd venture most people wouldn't believe exist. You can imagine what that means for the myths that have sprung out of here. Adding on to the ancient religions of Mesoamerica, and the melting pot of cultures in the Caribbean, I'd say that these regions birth some of the most incredible folk monsters that are criminally underused in fantasy.
A majority of the creatures we've found have been undead, various ghosts and ghouls with unique backstories and abilities. We're certain to include some of these, but we're trying to focus on the more monstrous, since terrifying beasts are a big part of Kuauhtla. One such creature we've found is the Yacumama. It's a Quechua myth of an enormous serpent who is mother of all creatures of the water. There are similar legends from Indigenous cultures in Brazil and North America, and since little has been written down of these legends, we've filled some of the gaps by adding aspects of them as well.
In Kuauhtla, the Yacumama was believed to be an ancient godlike creature who ate the Earth to form all the rivers. It was wide enough to swallow a tree without stretching its jaw, and long enough to encircle a village. It had small lungs for its size, but they were still enormous, and the creature could suck in its prey by drawing breath—or blow them away so hard it could knock them out cold. Moving through water, over the earth, and even into stone, nowhere was safe from the Yacumama.
To scare it away, large horns would be blown that mimicked the battle cry of a now unknown beast. Loud noises made the Yacumama retreat, but in the deadly jungles, making so much noise could mean your end.
Perhaps the most frightening part of the Yacumama is that it is no god at all. The snake was nothing but another one of the billions of beasts that stalked the jungles, each worthy of worship in its own right. On the mountains, monsters were more clever, more human. Worst of the monstrous plagues upon humanity are the creatures that were once mortal. One such demon is the Huay Chivo. In real myth it was a Maya legend, a beast-man who knew sorcery and could turn himself into animals, which is a common power for Mesoamerican creatures. Generally it eats livestock and causes trouble.
We went for a more in-lore backstory that makes all Huay Chivo be cursed mortals influenced by the powers of very mighty and evil gods. This influence has turned them insane, leaving behind all of their humanity except for a creative mind. Huay Chivo are clever, conniving demons who love inflicting pain and misery. Like most monsters on the mountains, they tend to stay out of the cities and instead roam the countryside. There the children all sing nursery rhymes that remind them of how to flee from the demon of blood and shadows.
An encounter with a Huay Chivo is most often a surprise. They set up traps and lures to bat in unsuspecting and innocent folk that they can torment and kill. Due to their curse, they can manipulate shadows into a real substance that can be formed into walls and negate magical powers, as well as conjure a flame made of blood that can deal wildly low or high damage. It is an intimidating demon, and most of the time it will be more focused on causing you misery than actually killing you.

AS: What has been the response from playtesters and buyers?

MC: So far, it's been overwhelmingly positive. We have a version of the book which consists of my notes about the setting before we started this project, which includes much of what we hope to put in the campaign guide. There have been a lot of changes both to our campaigns and our character options—nothing is perfect at first, but over time we've reached some really good points for a lot of our material.
On the setting itself, we've also heard only good things. I'm sure there will be many critics when things are fully open to the public, but even from strangers who have seen Kuauhtla we've heard that it is unique and a refreshing step away from the classical fantasy world. All of us who play it in my campaigns are big fans of attention to detail, in-depth backstories, and things like that. Kuauhtla has certainly filled that gap for us.

AS: What's next for Jungles of Kuauhtla? Are you planning any additional rulebooks in the same world?

MC: We're trying hard not to get our hopes up, but we could write a dozen Kuauhtla books if given the chance. Say we do get funded, the next step after our campaign guide would almost certainly be more modules. There's one or maybe two proper modules that'll be included in the guide, but we want to create something large scale with hundreds of branching paths and locations—that'd be the dream. After that, who knows? Perhaps more player options? Or maybe even something set in a land far away from the Cities Above. One book couldn't possibly include everything we want to share about Kuauhtla.

POSTED BY: Arturo Serrano, multiclass Trekkie/Whovian/Moonie/Miraculer, accumulating experience points for still more obsessions.

P.S. Other Latin American-inspired RPG content you might like to try: Koboa, Boricubos, Ngen Mapu, The Way of the Pukona, Nahual, The Elephant & Macaw Banner, New Fire, Brave Zenith.