Todd Stashwick (Star Trek: Picard, 12 Monkeys) and David Nett (Starter Kit, Night of the Zombie King) have launched the first major project for their company, ProgCore Fantasy. ProgCore Fantasy: Dark Age of Theer is a multimedia, multi-sensory guide to injecting your tabletop roleplaying games with the excitement and energy they felt when they first picked up graph paper and dice.
ProgCore Fantasy: Dark Age of Theer offers a sprawling multimedia fantasy experience: a system agnostic RPG Sourcebook with D&D 5e Conversion, a documentary style Actual Play, an original Prog Rock Soundtrack, an Animated Short, an Audiobook, a Custom Scented Candle, and more.
“We wanted to thrill the senses,” said co-creator Todd Stashwick, “with a book you can feel, art that delights the eye, animation to watch and hear, music to listen, a candle to smell.” Even for those who do not play TTRPGs, ProgCore Fantasy: Dark Age of Theer is bursting with stories, art, music, and animation to inspire any fantasy lover.
The ProgCore Fantasy style is grounded in the intimate fantasy of the 70s and 80s: movies like Rankin & Bass’s The Hobbit, Dragonslayer, Legend, and Ladyhawke; books by authors like Tolkien, LeGuin, Zelazny, and Leiber; the music of bands like Yes, Styx, King Crimson, Queen, and Rush; the art of great scifi and fantasy artists such as the Hildebrandts, Michael Whelan, Alicia Austin, Erol Otus, Roger Dean, and Bob Eggleton.
ProgCore Fantasy: Dark Age of Theer is system-agnostic: it does not ask you to learn a new game, only that you agree to pursue the “Three Pillars” of ProgCore Fantasy: Wonder, Mystery, and Danger. “It’s a style of play, an agreement between players and GMs to center certain elements of story,” said co-creator David Nett. “It’s not about learning a new game, it’s about how you feel when you play the games you love.”
In order to tackle this sprawling multimedia endeavor, Todd and David have teamed-up with their friends for every aspect of the project. Their collaborators and projects include include:
Documentary Style Actual Play
- DM: David Nett
- Players: Todd Stashwick, Felicia Day, Marc Bernardin, Anjali Bhimani, Yuri Lowenthal, Dr. Drea Letamendi
- Director: Brian Ward
System Agnostic Sourcebook
- Game Design: David Nett, Todd Stashwick, Sam DeLeve
- Story: Todd Stashwick, David Nett, Anjali Bhimani, Jasmine Bhullar, Cecil Castellucci, Brea Grant, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Terry Matalas, Marc Bernardin, Christopher Monfette, Charity Stashwick, Elisa Teague, Wil Wheaton
- Art: Phillip Boutte, Jr., Zelda Devon, Bob Eggleton, Julia Maddalina, Maia Igni, Eliot Sirota, Oscar Stashwick
ProgCore Soundtrack
Animated Short:
- Writers: Todd Stashwick, David Nett
- Director: Sean Bishop
- Animator: Oscar Stashwick
- Concepts & Backgrounds: Bob Eggleton
Custom Scented Candle:
The ProgCore Fantasy: Dark Age of Theer Kickstarter launched Tuesday, June 25 at ProgCoreFantasy.com.
Images via Progcore Fantasy
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