Welcome To Tanares, Land Of Chaos
Finished at last – this is only about 90 minutes late! Enjoy :)

I requested art credits for almost everything that I’ve used below, but the folks at Dragori Games weren’t able to get back to me in time. Click on any of the images from this review to go to the Kickstarter campaign page.
Anytime a product with the combined talents of multiple industry heavy-hitters like Ed Greenwood and Skip Williams comes onto your horizon, you pay attention.
When that product made its funding targets in just 2 1/2 hours, you pay even closer attention. Clearly, the stars are aligning.
And when stretch goal after stretch goal get smashed, and the product offers incredible value for money, you start doing things that you otherwise would not – like previewing this article a week ahead of time just to warn people to pump up their finances.
The “product” in question (you’ll understand the use of inverted commas by the end of this article) is called Tanares.
What is Tanares?
This is a much more complicated question than it first appears, because Tanares is so BIG and so customizable.
- Tanares is a campaign setting comprising two volumes – one for players and one for GMs. And,
- Tanares is a set of adventures set in that campaign setting. A third volume! And,
- Tanares is a series of Miniatures (some of them about the same height as the sourcebooks, which appear to be standard sized)! And,
- Tanares is a board game! And,
- Tanares is a set of epic maps! And,
- Tanares is a set of simplified variations on the standard character classes designed to facilitate the introduction of new players to 5e D&D! And,
- Tanares is a set of new character classes (with extensive customization options) and new races which you can integrate into your own campaign worlds! And,
- Tanares is a set of new creatures for your PCs to encounter, complete with everything you need to bring them to life.
- Tanares is a system permitting solo, GM-less play!
….and that’s just scratching the surface!
There’s a lot there to dig into. Let’s start with…
The Three Books
There are three sourcebooks at the core of Tanares, from an RPG perspective (plus a fourth unlocked as a stretch goal).
Well, that’s how the Kickstarter campaign introduces the three books. So let’s dig a little deeper:
The Players Book
The first of the three books is the Player’s Guide. This includes a number of potentially interesting items in addition to the character classes and races already mentioned (and which I’ll look at in a little more detail later).
Team Play
The idea of a group of individuals forming a collective identity which unlocks new game dynamics – benefits, vulnerabilities, and so on – has been at the fringes of RPGs practically from day. It started the day an adventuring party first gave themselves a name, and in the process, began to establish a collective identity for themselves. That was either in the early 80s, or even earlier.
It’s something that I touched on in my Fumanor campaign, where I looked at the notion of state-sponsored benefits for those adventurers who registered as a group – which enabled the state to throw problems to groups who seemed best-fitted to solve them, and who were at loose ends. In truth, the economy was increasingly dependent on the infusions of wealth brought in from those who looted the treasures of the former civilizations, and this measure was reflective of the fact.
But those ideas only scratched the surface of the potential in that particular fringe; there’s a scarcity of detail in the preview (understandable since there’s so much to get through), but the implication is that there are specific benefits and consequences to be embedded within the game mechanics for things like cooperative actions.
Again, Fumanor touched on those, too – there were certain Feats that gave an advantage based on the number of allies who also had that Feat. It wasn’t a linear progression (I used a Fibonacci sequence) so that the numbers didn’t get completely out of hand, but it made a Goblin Horde something truly terrifying. But I always knew that there was a lot more potential to be unlocked in the broader concepts, and – at the very least – these would seem to be a step forwards toward achieving that potential.
New Spells, Items, Feats
These are practically ubiquitous in game supplements. While there may be some interesting new ideas, and some integration with the other new elements, this is probably the most ho-hum ingredient unless they’ve been deployed well.
What do I mean by that? If they’ve been used to confer a unique flavor and set of abilities to new classes and creatures and the like, and have been properly play-tested, they could be an asset because they would enhance the more directly-interesting content.
In isolation, these would only be noteworthy if they were absent. if effectively combined with the other content, and I have no reason not to expect that, then they could be as important a development in game design as giving each class its own unique spell list.
Guidance on Hunting Dragons (and, for the brave, Breeding Drakes)
I like the idea of new adventurers learning techniques from the old hands, and always have, but it’s always been difficult to implement without impacting on player freedoms. “This is the right way, the effective way” carries a strong flavor of “This is the ONLY way”.
So I’ve only ever partially succeeded at implementing this within my own campaigns through the concept of Mentors who occasionally set tests and training sessions for their Trainees, and who were otherwise available to dispense sage advice, background information, and flavor text on demand.
That means that I would be as interested in how this section is being done, from a meta-perspective, as by the intriguing content itself.
Headquarters: creation, maintenance, and upgrading
I’ve maintained for a long time now that D&D missed a bet when they threw out the idea of PCs building Strongholds when they advanced in levels – I think that happened with 3e.
An adventuring group constructing and gradually improving a safe base of operations simply seems so logical that it almost goes without saying – but full expression of the concept has had to wait on the development of the party-unified “Teamwork” concepts that I’ve already expressed interest in.
Since I have high hopes that the new mechanics in Tanares clears that stumbling block, it can only be hoped that this is an expression of what is possible once you have done so! All being well, the last hurdle has been cleared to make that logical development a formalized one.
Aerial Combat
For some reason, this has always been really hard to do in an RPG. Perhaps because techniques are dependent on outside-game infrastructure, like elevated platforms for minis, perhaps because the standard game mechanics tend to be two-dimensional in thinking because that’s so much simpler, perhaps for some other reason.
For that reason, I frequently integrate Board Games that successfully model dogfights with reasonable game-play, like Blue Max, into my RPG superstructure. Often, I won’t present full game mechanics integration, but use them for a ‘restricted look-and-feel’ for the combat.
If Tanares has truly cracked the Aerial Combat In RPGs nut, that alone would make it groundbreaking. Even if their solution is less than perfect, it would still be a significant contribution to the art of RPG design.
PvP Arena play
If there’s one addition to the game mechanics that I’m not so sure of, this is it. These mechanics could be absolutely brilliant, adding a new chapter to the standards of the Industry, pointing the way to integration with the CCG locomotive that could invigorate both. Or they could be a superfluous add-on. I can’t tell without reading the entire volume – so, until I do, I would employ wary interest in these, nothing more.
On the other hand, I can see how some groups would be strengthened by a means of settling PvP grievances in-game. So, for some, these might be the greatest thing since sliced Lembas.
The Campaign Sourcebook
The second volume is the Campaign Sourcebook. Tanares is described as a High-Fantasy setting, a “fragmented world in constant change.” Before a campaign begins, the GM can choose which “Avatar Dragons” are alive or dead (in any combination), which yields substantial changes to “the history, landscape, culture, and politics of the world.”
Very clever – random initial conditions have been a feature of a number of board games over the years, and this is adapts the concept to RPG Campaign generation.
But there’s content promised that could easily extend beyond this one milieu of RPG campaigns, and that would be of interest to most GMs out there (even some that don’t GM 5e!)
Plot Hooks & Adventure Ideas
Kudos for separating the two! A plot can extend through multiple adventures – I generally refer to these as “plot arcs”, a source of continuity that helps bind a campaign together.
Depending on how you read it, there can be over a thousand or ‘merely’ something approaching that number (with the balance being the adventure ideas and the content from the section below). When you think about the “Fragmented Reality” and the meta-level mechanics for campaign generation, this number clarifies into a new perspective, however: If there are (say) 5 special Avatar Dragons, each of which has two possible statuses in any given campaign, that gives 32 possible combinations; if 6, it yields 64. Thirty plot seeds for each of the former, or 20 of the latter, gets us close to that thousand in total.
Even so, this is an incredibly useful campaign creation tool. If you can ‘map’ any given campaign to just one of these configurations, however vaguely, these lists would become examples of the plots that would work in that campaign setting. And you can always filch and adapt ideas that don’t fit especially strongly for your own purposes.
Organizations & Locations
More readily adaptable to other game settings, you can never have too many interesting locations at your fingertips, and having interesting organizations to seed into your game world is almost as useful.
Eleven Detailed Provinces
Even if you aren’t interested (right now) in using Tanares directly as a campaign foundation, how these are organized can be as useful when applied to other campaigns.
And that’s without extracting contents from those detailed provinces for your own use: Tanares promises “hundreds of cities and points of interest”, plus sites of “extreme geography, like those that hide an elemental nexus, serve as an Avatar Dragon’s lair, or were ravished by a Malrokian Curse”.
The Penumbral Plane
A penumbra is the partially-shaded outer region of the shadow cast by an opaque object or a peripheral or indeterminate area or group. What that means in respect of “The Penumbral Plane” remains to be seen – does the name refer to the inhabitants, lurking on the edge of darkness? Or to the nature of the plane itself? Or both?
Either way, such names never fail to bring to mind Cthulhu and the works of Lovecraft and the lurking horrors on the fringes of reality that “Man is not meant to know”.
Unique new monsters ‘with unprecedented features’
Almost as ubiquitous as New Spells, but again, you can never have too many good ideas to draw upon. The “unprecedented features’ is both intriguing and worrying, because creatures are never playtested as thoroughly as PC-mechanics and never can be.
Let’s say (in a simplified world) that a playtest involves six encounters – it’s extremely unlikely that those six would be with the same type of creatures. Which would mean that the PC mechanics got six times the workout that each of the creatures did.
Scale it up: A playtest involves 600 encounters, over a campaign-length time frame. Now, it’s more likely that some creatures have come up multiple times – perhaps 10 or 20 times for common creatures, perhaps half-a-dozen times for uncommon creatures, and maybe only once or twice for significant but rare encounters (and that because plot manipulates the odds, or should). That gives ratios of 30-60 times (common), 100 times (uncommon), and 300-600 times (rare) for the ratio of PC testing relative to creature testing.
Fortunately, all these creatures don’t exist in isolation; what you learn from one, you can often apply to many or all others. This mitigates those ratios massively, maybe down to a ratio of two or three.
But, “unique features”. These restrict the applicability of those mitigations; and there’s only so much that you can do to compensate with additional playtesting.
The same is true of every creature supplement out there, of course, to at least some extent. That doesn’t make the resulting creatures any less interesting. But it is – or should be – a source of trepidation for GMs.
Rules for interesting travel (through space or time)
It’s about time that this element of traditional RPGs got a face-lift. Random encounter tables have been around forever, in essentially unchanged form. So if there’s a new approach spelled out in Tanares, it’s potentially as interesting and significant as the Aerial Combat rules. And a good place from which to move on to the third of the sourcebooks.
The Adventures Sourcebook
“Adventure In The Realms Of Madness” is more of a campaign than an adventure.
“When the ruins of the most powerful kingdom in history become open for exploration, player characters become involved in a frenetic treasure hunt” – that leads them to “the world’s deepest secrets” and “unique challenges” and “even a murder investigation followed by a trial,” and there’s a prison break in there somewhere, too, along with “surprising twists, portals, potent treasures and artifacts and dragon encounters.”
This isn’t a standalone product; you need both the other volumes to use it.
Plot Structure
The plot is described as a “branching, nonlinear story for characters of levels 3 to 12.”
There’s a rich background with many intriguing agents and moving parts.”
Which means that I would be as interested in how it’s all put together as I am in the actual content. There’s always another lesson to learn in the art of campaign and adventure design!
Dungeons
Not only are there (obviously) multiple dungeons in a logical framework that justifies their existence, you can add a dozen double-sided dungeon battle-mats specifically designed for this adventure (one for each chapter of the ‘adventure’).
But these aren’t just any battle-mats – these are full A1 poster-sized maps!
And you can add to that a whole lot of minis that take the environment into the third dimension. Eight of these form the basic “Adventure pack” of minis (some of them with multiple minis) and at least another six that have been unlocked as stretch goals.
While the minis can no doubt be repurposed, the notion of figures and dungeon dressings bespoke to this particular set of dungeons somehow elevates both to a whole new level of awesome.
New Races
There are four new races presented in Tanares.
Tak’Maku
The Tak’Maku sound like Vulcans reinvented for a D&D universe – minus the pointed ears. If anything, the artwork makes them look more like Thanos.
Described as seeking “a balanced, holistic life”, members of this race are “logical, literal,” and “rational”, with innate engineering skills that make available new gadgets and moving cities.
Gloomfolk
Drowlike in appearance, these are a “centaur-like scorpion species” which immediately brings to mind The Scorpion King from the second movie in the Mummy franchise.
They are described as having “a knack for improvisation” that enables them to thrive in chaos, they are experts with special poisons and venoms and in dwelling on the Penumbral Plane in communities that are “half-here, half-there.”
This seems to tie directly back to the concept of the Penumbral Plane itself, and makes this an extremely interesting choice on offer as a PC race.
Cirrus
Powder-blue skin characterizes the appearance of this race, while the masks and hoods somehow recall a blending of Middle-eastern desert cultures and Asian influences, posing interesting questions about their culture.
The write-up offered on the Kickstarter locates this race’s homes high in the mountains, which reminds me of another blue-skinned species in D&D – Frost Giants. But these are definitely not the same – a featured trait of the species are their wings (which grant full flight at 9th level) and voice-related powers including a power of Suggestion.
They are also described as inheriting both Angelic and Demonic features, and being extremely long-lived (perhaps near-immortal?), a blend that can be hard to achieve conceptually.
This race could be all over the place in concept, but if some central idea can bind these disparate elements together, they could be extremely interesting to explore, both as a player and as a GM.
Kemet
“Drow with glowing eyes” was my first reaction to the artwork, but then I took a closer look at the female example, whose skin is more pale and white.
The write-up posits several intriguing points that seem better suited to a class than to a species – “Deeply tied to portals and to the study of death and the occult” – it would be very interesting to me to see how such features impact upon a broader society as opposed to individuals.
“Part of this species is actually an Elven subspecies, while another branch lost its former fey ancestry and became an entirely new species” – more originality in the entire concept of two subspecies splitting off from different species to form branches of an entirely new species. Or it could be that the language has been mangled with some entirely new and inappropriate interpretation of the name – but, given the quality of the people in back of Tanares, what might otherwise be a leading theory becomes quite unlikely in comparison to some high-concept creativity.
They enjoy “a unique relationship” with their souls, which enables them to employ new traits – this reminds me extremely forcefully of one of my earliest posts here at Campaign Mastery, A Quality Of Spirit – Big Questions in RPGs, which advocates asking ‘the big questions’ when you are creating a campaign and integrating the answers that apply to that specific campaign with your adventuring, exploring the consequences in your plotlines. The theory is that this not only confers uniqueness on the campaign but a cohesiveness that binds the events within the campaign together into a larger whole. The opening paragraph of the article explains the reasons for that connection; it reads,
What exactly is the soul? No, I’m not getting all existential and metaphysical on you, I’m asking the question objectively and literally. You see, one of my D&D campaigns has this question of the nature of the soul as one of its key themes. More, it states that the answer is different for each race, and that this is the fundamental distinction between Elves and Humans and Dwarves and the other sentient species that inhabit the game world.
It is into that context that I interpret what’s been provided about the undying Kemet in Tanares, whose very existence poses some of those “Big Questions” – and whose nature may very well hint at some answers within this particular game setting.
Classes
Classes in Tanares come in three varieties of content. There are simplified introductory classes, there are new classes, and there are new sub-classes.
- Cleric – Chaos Domain
- Monk – Way of the Kinetic Fist
- Wizard – School of Lost Magic
- Dragonblade of Kelorth, the White Dragon
- Madwalker – Trail of the Augury
- Redeemer – Shepherd
- Barbarian – Path of the Savage Hunter
- Bard – College of Life
- Rogue – Trapmaster
- Fighter – Death Knight
- Druid – Circle of Bloom
- Monk – Way of the Animals
- Rogue – Ninja
Simplified Classes
There are four of these: A simplified Wizard (the Mage), a simplified Barbarian (the Juggernaut), a simplified Rogue (the Scoundrel), and a simplified Cleric (the Shaman). Three of these have figurines in the “Mystical Pack”, the Juggernaut has a figurine in the “Villains Pack”.
In the first and last of these, the complexities that have predominantly been stripped away are those relating to magic – the choosing, learning, and preparing of spells, to be more precise. In the case of the Juggernaut, it’s the limits of the Barbarians’ Rage ability, which is presented in an always-on condition. It’s not entirely clear what the simplification is for the Rogue class, but it seems likely that their class abilities are not as constrained.
Game balance suggests that these simplified classes should be weaker than their full-on versions, but that isn’t made clear.
New Classes
There are four new races in the Player’s Guide, described as being “hard to master” with “multiple customization options”.
The implication is that these are challenging for players, with options that can be hard to pick between.
This is an important factor; quite often, as characters advance in levels in 3.x, there was a convergence of capabilities that made all really high-level clerics look alike, for example. I once described this as “hewing toward an archetype,” and that description remains as good as any other.
I once thought that the best solution was for each prestige class to forbid certain other paths while completing one would open certain other doors – but never had the time to actually map out the necessary pathways, let alone to implement them within a campaign.
That might still be the best answer; but it appears that it’s no longer the only one – if the Tanares design team have done as good a job as it’s claimed they have. The promise is “classes and races that are truly unique, with fun, interesting, original features like nothing you’ve ever seen, while NOT being overpowered in comparison with what is already out there”. That’s a big promise to live up to, but if they have pulled it off, analysis of the new classes could signpost an alternative to that rather constraining technique.
The Dragonblade
This class uses combos (of what?), tactics, and power from a dragon spirit. It requires ‘constant good positioning’ and ‘well-chosen abilities’ to ‘unleash incredible powers and combos’ (there’s that word again!).
In fencing, a ‘combo’ is sometimes used to describe a deliberate string of maneuvers that are designed to expose the enemy to a more significant strike; most of these aren’t designed to actually damage the opponent, just to reposition his blade and any shield so that they aren’t where they need to be in order to stop the real attack.
That’s a level of realism that is always glossed over in D&D and related games, where the principle is that each attack roll represents just such a string of maneuvers without trying to distinguish one from another. If, in this class, the designers have found a way to restore some of that color, that makes it extremely interesting to all GMs and game designers.
The Madwalker
The blurb offered for this class reads, “Madwalkers tread the thin line that separates the realms of dreams and nightmares, the physical plane from the supernatural planes, risking their sanity and bodies in exchange for extraordinary powers” – Great Shades Of Cthulhu! Powers from Aberrations What next?
Both the illustrated representatives of this class have glowing eyes, suggesting that this class is a specific for the Kemet race. But the description provided barely even hints in that direction. It might well be that this is something that anyone can learn from the Kemet, providing the conceptual link that seems necessary.
The Elementalist
Philosophers who derive power from choices, elements, and manipulation of spells, this class offers more than 100 new spells. The class is able to manipulate the range, shape, power, and elemental foundations of these spells.
It isn’t clear from the description whether or not each class member must specialize in a single element or if they are all open for use at the same time. The only hint is that the artwork for the Elementalist that is using water has an embossing of some sort on several pieces of his armor that definitely looks representative of Water, which is hardly conclusive.
This class (quite naturally) reminds one of the mythos of The Last Airbender. How closely the resemblance runs would be a point of interest I can see it being useful, either way.
The Redeemer
This class explores the contradictory nature of the basic cleric in a more explicit way than anything I’ve seen before. They “hurt and heal,” “curse and bless,” “sacrifice and redeem”. A “plethora of off-combat tricks and powers, alongside a flexible variety of combat abilities” – but they don’t cast spells.
They purportedly gain their powers from contrasts, people, and the energy present in valuables. So that makes them a little more rogue-like in a number of respects.
For some reason, it also makes me think of the basic structure of a battery, in which two different materials (usually two metals, like Zinc and Copper) yield electricity when combined in the right medium and the right way. Which might be completely irrelevant, or it might be directly relevant to the inspiration behind this class.
Sub-classes
New sub-classes for each of the classes within the game are promised, both new and pre-existing. Rather than go into details (there are so many of them), I thought I’d simply list the ones that have been revealed to date (some more intriguing than others):
When you examine the illustrations that accompany these in the Kickstarter, you’ll find that some of them are doing double-duty, also representing the new classes described earlier. It’s perhaps more surprising that this isn’t the case more often!
The Figurines & Minis
Hoo-boy, are there a lot of these (and that’s not even counting the ones unlocked as Stretch Goals)!

Background by Mike. Click on any of the images from this review to go to the Kickstarter campaign page.
You might recognize the figure above – it’s a slightly larger representation of the Pegasus that I used to illustrate the ‘sneak preview’ last time. I wasn’t going to present it here again (though I had allowed for the possibility) until I realized how much more detail you could see in the feathers of the wings in this slightly larger size.
Some of the sculpture is absolutely exquisite, there’s no other word for it. Rather than go into absolutely everything, I thought that I’d instead restrict myself to just three facets of this substantial part of the offering.
Dragons? You Want Dragons?
Dragons are the most iconic creatures in D&D. Hands down, no question. The Dragons Collection depicts the “Avatar Dragons” of Tanares, supposedly the most powerful examples of their respective types in existence.
There is Kelorth, the White Dragon;
Zarumag, the Black Dragon; Azymor, the Red Dragon; Thyra, the Blue Dragon; and Vradok, the Undead Dragon.
The “Arena” box adds a lovely Green Dragon to the collection.
And there’s a standalone Gold Dragon.
And the “Penumbral Pack” adds the Penumbral Dragon. Which brings me to…
Creatures Of The Penumbral Plane
In the “Penumbral Pack”, you will also get “Pain”, “Anger”, “Greed” and “Envy”, all villains from the Tanares Adventures. The pack also comes with storage space for the 4 species miniatures that come in the Characters Pack (described earlier). In particular, I like the fact that the wings of the Cirrus are detachable for the lower character levels.
Another nice touch that may escape a casual review is that the miniatures are 3D representations of the character art – which therefore serves as a painting guide. The Elementalist figure is the same person, in the same pose (complete with the lightning display) as that used below).
I really wanted to feature the Penumbral Dragon figure because it looks so impressive on the Kickstarter page, but shrinking it to fit Campaign Mastery’s page limits cost it the all-important menace, blurring too many of the details. The only solution was to shrink it still further, and put the whole figure side-by-side with a cropped excerpt. It’s still not as impressive as the figure shown in the Kickstarter, though.
I also want to highlight some other especially attractive figures (in terms of use outside Tanares), all from the Madness Box: The Knight Of The Undead, Chimera, Lich, Imperial Demon, and Titan figures are all excellent.
Even if you already have figures for some of these, the ability to field a second one of visibly distinct nature, can only be useful!
You want them Painted?
Some people are great at painting their own figures.
For the rest of us, we either buy pre-painted or go monochrome – or persuade others to do the painting for us.
The miniatures packs in Tanares come in two varieties: unpainted and painted. And that means that its’ worth showcasing just what that means.
If you look back to just after my introduction, you can see a monochrome version of the Gold Dragon (which also gives an indication of its height).
Immediaetly above this text is a closeup of the painted Dragon for comparison purposes!
Except that there is no comparison. Plonk the monochrome version down in front of your PCs and they’ll go “Okay, that’s big”. Place the painted version down instead and the reaction would be “Okay, that’s impressive.”
The Adventures
I know, it seems like I’ve already covered this. Well, I haven’t. Not completely, anyway. That’s because there have been a number of additional adventures and adventure paths unlocked as stretch goals.
Some of these are intended for GM-less play (but should be adaptable for GM-driven play!). Others are add-ons to the adventure book that expand it further, while still others are standalone smaller adventures or adventure materials.
Additional locations and adventure hooks for different provinces, for example. Additional monsters for the campaign sourcebook. A PDF Adventure, “The Hunt for Azymore”. A new campaign arc for Epic Level missions in the Time Twist campaign arc.
I just wanted to call out that there WERE these additions!
The Funding Success Story
Why? Because that brings me to the Funding Success Story.
I’ve already pointed out that it took just 2 1/2 hours for Tanares to achieve its (rather modest) initial target. As you would expect, given that, it’s gone on to smash target after target. I’ll get to the Stretch Goals that go with that success in a moment; first, let’s just appreciate the total.
Unfortunately, in a bid to be helpful to me as a customer, Kickstarter have converted the currency to AUD. So I can say that the campaign has raised between US$1,689,000 (because that unlocked the 2nd last stretch goal) and US$1,699,000 (which will unlock the last stretch goal). That against an initial target of just US$50k.
It’s worth noting that the materials have (mostly) already been written, designed or sculpted (as appropriate) – the money is for production costs.
The Stretch Goals Achieved (So Far)
By my count, there have been no less than 82 stretch goals unlocked on the way to the current total. There have been extra minis (lots of them!) and extra creatures and magic items and adventures and sub-classes and expansions.
Far too many of them for me to list individually, to be honest (though that was what I originally intended to do – I ran out of time)!
A Limited Opportunity
This review has just scratched the surface. But one thing that I have to point out is that a number of the items up for grabs are designated Kickstarter Exclusives.
Back the project now, in other words, or miss out.
It’s not just that anything beyond the Kickstarter won’t be offered at the same discounted price; that’s a fairly widely accepted and expected business model these days.
But here’s the kicker: as I write this you have just THREE DAYS to pledge. And that will drop to two any time now.
Tiers Of Interest
The next point to be noted is that There is no “I want it all” pledge level. You can come close, but you will need to bolster even the top-level pledge with add-ons to get there.
The minimum-level entry is to get a $5 credit toward add-ons for US$5.
You can get one of the three sourcebooks in digital format for US$25. Or a Hardcover copy of the book plus the digital copy for $50. But you may want to add the Battlemats.
But the minimum basic pledge that I think will interest readers is the $69 All Digital Books and Files (which includes some that I haven’t mentioned). But you may still want the battle-mats.
The $129 Essential RPG Kit gets you all three hardcovers, plus a slipcase, DM’s Screen, and the main poster map. It also includes the Classes Miniatures Pack. All the other miniatures have to be added on, plus the arena pack, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
The $179 Minis & Cards gets you most of the Minis and Boardgame expansions, but none of the Campaign Sourcebooks, which have to be added on – and you won’t get the Extra books that I mentioned earlier. And you need to add the Madness Box, Dragon Collection, Tanares Adventures (solo play), Battlemats, Deluxe Slipcase, Mystical Pack and Gold Dragon. And any Hardcover books. And upgrade everything if you want the minis to be painted.
The RPG Superkit costs US$249 is the top of the tree from an RPG point of view. That gets you all the books in Digital format, the Essential Kit pledge listed above, and the Minis and Cards pledge listed above – that comes close to being “I want everything”. You still have to add the Madness Box, Arena, Dragon Collection, Solo Adventures, Deluxe Slipcase, Dungeon Battlemats, Mystical Pack, and Gold Dragon.
If you start with the Superkit, and make the additions mentioned above, it will cost about US$710. And that’s without the upgrades to get the minis painted, another US$186.
That’s a LOT of money. But you get a LOT for your money.
If you can afford it, buy it all. Most won’t be able to do so.
To help with your planning, assuming you have to compromise, list exactly what you can afford to do without and what minis are absolutely essential. Armed with that information, find a section of the Kickstarter labeled “Pledge Breakdown” (it’s about 1/4 of the way down). Select the Pledge tier that you want – I recommend either the Essential Kit or the Superkit just to get those extra books – then start adding on the extras you have to have.
My bare-bones “not-quite-everything collection” would be the Essential Kit + Villain Pack + Penumbral Pack + Madness Box + Dragon Collection + Maps + Gold Dragon – which totals US$413. That slices almost half the cost out of the bundle but keeps the stuff that I really want – though I would dearly love to add the extra for painting the minis. That would cost me an additional US$186, undoing two thirds of what I saved by being frugal.
Tanares is one of those rare cases where no matter how much you can (realistically) invest, you will be rewarded for it.
But don’t tale my word for it – listen to the 8,266 people who have pledged AU$2,330,559 (and counting – but only for Three More Days)!
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September 28th, 2021 at 7:45 am
The preview of the guide includes a decent excerpt for the Dragonblade and Madwalker classes.
The Dragonblade is an Int-based fighter that has a sort-of companion/field effect, and can combo their special abilities for greater effect. Basically, their abilities are categorized into damage, movement, and defense. If they alter the type of ability each turn, then they increase the effects of the third. It looks like an interesting system with room for a lot of strategic gaming, and the ability options look diverse enough that you can go full-ham berserker, shielder, team support, or crowd/terrain control.
The Madwalker looks like a Rogue with body horror abilities, and uncontrolled transformations. They have an Insanity meter (increased by using body horror abilities) that turns them into a Penumbral creature (based on level) that they control, sort of like a rage. Upside is, it looks like you can calculate your Insanity additions easily enough that you can strategically hit the cap and transform. Afterwards, they get hit with an exhaustion effect until they have a long rest. Personally, I think the system could work well for lycanthropes as well, forcing them to transform into their were-form with some strategic control of when they do based on their actions.
It also has previews for the Courage Domain, Lost Magic Wizard, and Taii’maku race.
September 28th, 2021 at 12:39 pm
Thanks for the clarifications, Svafa!