Horror in the Windy City RPG Setting for Whispers in the Dark
Created by Matt Corley
Horror in the Windy City brings the excitement, intrigue, and beautiful chaos of the time period to your table using the 5e rules you already know as adapted by the acclaimed Whispers in the Dark RPG.
The beautifully illustrated 180+ page book is a fully realized campaign sourcebook covering Chicago in the latter half of the 19th century. There are new rules, backgrounds, a new alignment system, NPCs, scenarios, and more. In short, it’s everything you’ll need to take your party of investigators to Chicago. It will be up to them to find their way out.
Extensive Worldbuilding. Horror in the Windy City is written to provide the GM with everything needed to play multiple campaigns in its borders.
The major events, and the forces behind them, are explored with scenario hooks and evocative details for the GM present to their players.
Chicago’s historic neighborhoods and locations: Englewood, Lake Forest, St Charles, The Cabbage Path, the Stockyards, Wrigley Field, Lake Michigan, and others are presented with scenario hooks, and NPCs of note.
The Dreamlands' incursion into Chicago has had profound effects on the city. Particularly in areas of heightened emotions, tension, and violence. Find out what’s happened, and continues to happen, behind the veil of sleep.
No story of Chicago is complete without an in-depth look at the public clubs, secret cabals, gangs, and gangsters running the city. From the public faces, to the puppeteers pulling the strings, dozens of new NPCs and organizations are detailed.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Penultimate Update (probably)
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Sep 29, 2020 at 11:34:36 PM
Off to Layout!
The Altar
All content has been written.
All art has been created and placed.
All edits have been reviewed.
We are in final layout.
We're still on pace for a PDF release by Halloween. My typical process is to have the PDF in the wild for 3-4 weeks so folks can get their eyes on it before I submit it to DTRPG. Once submitted DTRPG reviews the layout, approves it, I order a proof, I review that, and then it's released to the public. That process, due to Covid-19, takes about 2 months now.
I'll do everything I can to speed this up, but it's largely out of my hands but I've made the necessary sacrifices and have my fingers crossed for a speedy turn around. The next update will be the release the PDF :)
Thanks,
Matt
Blood & Brimstone Kickstarter is LIVE!
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 05:54:09 AM
So this happened this morning! My next Kickstarter is liveand we couldn’t be more excited to bring you The Fearing: Blood & Brimstone written by John F.D. Taff expanding his The Fearing universe with an all new, illustrated novella.
“I used to think the creepy kids trope was fun and now I’m just fucking terrified. Hats off to the King of Pain, once again, for knowing how to level up all our casual fears.”
Welcome, reader. What is The Fearing, you might ask?
The Fearing takes place in modern times, in a world very much like ours. With one notable exception. It’s the place where all of the deepest pieces of ourselves live, despite our cultures or religions—archetypes or universal symbols such as The Great Mother, the Shadow, the Hermit and the Tree of Life. It’s also the seat of our deepest emotions—love, hate, serenity…and fear.
Now imagine that all fears, everything from the most commonly shared fears to the most deeply personal are released onto the earth, all at the same time.
The chaos, the apocalypse caused by this is The Fearing.
"The Fearing isn’t only Taff’s best book to date, it’s the kind of book you put on the shelf reserved for the ones that really did something to you emotionally, intellectually, physically. A modern master at play."
—Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box and Malorie
The Fearing was originally released serially in 2019 by Grey Matter Press, in four separate novellas that form an entire novel. Blood & Brimstone takes place firmly in the timeline of the completed novel. It tells the story of Timothy Jacoby and Tam Washington, two of the novel’s primary antagonists, who show up in Books Three and Four. It expands and deepens their stories, and hopefully the novel as a whole.
"Folks, I'm delighted to say that Blood & Brimstone expands Taff's amazing mythos and offers everything a great tale should: breathtaking suspense, closely-observed characterization, incisive social commentary, shocking twists, and the sort of nightmares that can only spring forth from a gloriously unhinged imagination. Add to this some absolutely haunting artwork, and you have a bona fide winner."
—Jonathon Janz, author of The Siren and The Specter, The Raven, &The Dark Game.
"This beautifully written, gorgeously illustrated novella from the mind of John F.D. Taff is one of the most powerful entries in The Fearing saga to date. Taff knows which buttons control your deepest fears and he plays with them like a maniacal toddler with a TV remote. The Fearing: Blood & Brimstone is an in-depth gaze into the reptilian heart of evil incarnate and the must read novella of 2021.
—Shane D. Keene
Support as you're able with pledges, shares, likes, Tweets, and so on. Every single interaction helps and thank you!
We're So Close!
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Sep 11, 2020 at 05:27:53 PM
First things first, my apologies for the tardiness of this update. I've been sending updates out via my newsletter, and should have been including that info here. Rest assured we're in a great place and PDFs will be released in October as planned. I like to have the PDFs in the backers hands for a few weeks prior to ordering printer proofs to get more eyes on them.
The Devil's City has been sent to all backers that ordered it. (This is old news that bears repeating)
Editing is complete on all but the final scenarios and the statblocks for those scenarios. That is in process and should be complete in the next week.
Manuscript compilation and art direction are done excepting the final edits on the above. When I have the edits they'll be added to the doc and it will be sent to layout within a day.
Horror in the Windy City is larger than expected (I'm happy with that and hope you are too). I expected the book to come in around 175 pages and we're over that page count without art or maps, so we're looking at a ~200 page book.
The is one piece of art that should in this weekend, and that will complete the art assets. There are 70+ pieces of art in the book and of course the maps too :)
If you have any questions, concerns or comments just let me know. Thank you for the support!
Matt
Horror in the Windy City Update and Call for Playtesters
almost 4 years ago
– Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 04:13:46 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
The Fearing: Blood & Brimstone
almost 4 years ago
– Tue, Jul 07, 2020 at 09:58:50 AM
"The Fearing isn’t only Taff’s best book to date, it’s the kind of book you put on the shelf reserved for the ones that really did something to you emotionally, intellectually, physically. A modern master at play."
—Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box and Mallory
“I used to think the creepy kids trope was fun and now I’m just fucking terrified. Hats off to the King of Pain, once again, for knowing how to level up all our casual fears.”
John F.D. Taff’s supernatural serialized epic The Fearing continues!
The Fearing: Blood & Brimstone is a novella that fits firmly in the timeline of The Fearing. It tells the story of Timothy Jacoby and Tam Washington. When they first appear in The Fearing Book Three: Air & Dust, readers had no idea where they’d come from or what they were doing when the events of The Fearing began. Blood & Brimstone tells this story. How an insurance salesman and a hairdresser team up at the end of the world to become the maniacal military leaders readers know.
If you’ve read The Fearing, then Blood & Brimstone expands and deepens the story. If you haven’t read The Fearing, well, strap in. Blood & Brimstoneis the perfect jumping-off point to read the entire epic.
A limited-edition hardback novella, illustrated by Stefan Koidl with a cover by Francois Vaillancourt, will be Kickstarted Sept. 15th. There will be ebook and paperback options, and the campaign will have budget friendly options for international backers.
When the campaign reaches 100 followers one will be randomly chosen to receive a print copy of any book in the Saturday Morning Scenario catalog. Open to followers from around the world.
