I followed Jack Shear’s Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque blog for a longtime. Then G+ died and it’s one of the places that I just lost contact with. Now, I’ve got urge for something a little different than “normal” D&D fare (more on that later) and started searching and thus enter Krevborna.

So just what is Krevorna? It’s a system neutral Gothic horror setting. That’s really it at it’s core but it’s well worth it. It pulls ideas from the classics as well as what many would suspect like Solomon Kane, Cpt Kronos, Brotherhood of the Wolf and so on. It’s dark without going all crazy GRIMDARK!!!

This is what I wish more setting books were like. It’s system neutral so there’s need to convert something and you mold whatever using easily. It’s more inspirational to a GM rather than telling every little detail. Each region is only a couple of pages with bullet points (for easy reading and reference), names, adventure ideas, and random encounters. The same goes for various monsters, factions and major NPC’s. Evocative bullet points for the GM to use with whatever rules they may wish. And it gives the GM to option to make setting adjustments as they wish.

I know many of you are probably wondering more about what the setting itself. So I’ll do my best to explain in totally non-academic manner. Throw Hammer and Universal Horror movies into a blender with Penny Dreadful and season with just a touch of Lovecraft for spice; throw in inspiration from Brotherhood of the Wolf, Brothers Grimm, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, and Sleepy Hollow. Then season to taste.

Krevborna is a land where the monarchy has fallen and the Church controls only a few areas. The rest is controlled by who or whatever the local noble is. So characters will face all sorts of nasties who just might have more than their supernatural powers at their disposal.

You can check out Krevbrna over at DrivethruRPG. Or you get some previews over here.