Horse Shark Games is the Double-Nought Spymaster-Warlord of the Purple Planet Horde! Returning backers of River of Lies will also now receive a sticker with their Kith Warrior or higher pledge.
Venturing across the Purple Planet, The Ghost River of Varnasu appears! You wonder if the legendary deluge will truly grant everlasting life or is it just a - River of Lies - a 3rd level adventure designed for The Purple Planet setting by Goodman Games.
Sages claim that traveling the Ghost River of Varnasu was a sacred rite for the proud and long gone inhabitants of the Purple Planet. Its pilgrims were the old, infirm, dishonored, or ashamed who believed that the tribulations of mortal life would be assuaged by the holy journey. To "go with the river" was to transition into amaranthine honor and life.Â
The Ghost River of Varnasu is now but a legend among the great houses. It appears only during torrential lightning storms, and never in the same place. A coursing river, crashing with whitecaps, appears where previously there was none, rushing uphill from the wastes to the Ancestor Peaks, where it races up the high crags and into the sky.
Kith that have seen the river report seeing slain comrades awash in the current, calling for the living to join them. If any have dared to enter the waters, none returned to tell the tale.
Lo! A great zephyr from the storm-wracked sky grabs you and flings you into the crashing waters. The water swiftly moves towards the Ancestor Peaks. As you struggle against the mighty rapids, you wonder if the legendary deluge will truly grant everlasting life or is it just a – River of Lies!?
The Ghost River of Varnasu Lays Claim to a Kith (image by Doug Kovacs)
River of Lies is a 3rd level adventure designed for use with the Purple Planet setting by Goodman Games. The Purple Planet is rich with inspiration from the Appendix N authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard, space operas like Lensman and Flash Gordon, and 2nd edition D&D's post-apocalyptic sci-fantasy setting, Dark Sun.
River of Lies utilizes the Purple Planet's Ghost River of Varnasu and the Ancestor Peaks to present a dangerous meeting with house of Thero’Agarst, leaders of a lost religious cult of the Ascended Masters. Literary inspirations include The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Death's Master by Tannith Lee, and The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe.
Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) is a sword & sorcery role-playing game published by Goodman Games. Mechanically, DCC is based on the world’s most popular RPG, but the rules have been reforged—streamlined in some places, expanded in others, and injected with a wild and exciting imagination throughout. The fantastical imagery and fast play-style are designed to invoke the classic fantasy and science-fiction adventures tales of old. You’ll find the influences of Leiber, Moorcock, Howard, Vance, Brackett, and more throughout Dungeon Crawl Classics. Find out more about Dungeon Crawl Classics at www.Goodman-Games.com.
Tome of Adventure, vol. 4: The Purple Planet is a massive hardcover collects all of the original (and out of print) Peril on the Purple Planet material in addition to a host of extras — including a brand new Purple Planet adventure, Chessmen of the Purple Planet! Death worms, lost crypts, strange aliens, foul fungi, ancient technology — Purple Planet transforms your Dungeon Crawl Classics experience into an unforgettable sword-and-planet saga, DCC-style!
Drop-In Encounter! For each Purple Planet project backed, you’ll receive one bonus Drop-In Encounter. There are 8 different encounters, 1 from each crowdfunding campaign, so to receive all the encounters you need to back all the projects!Â
The Last Mushroom of Ishgar’Ols is mini-encounter that can be used while playing River of Lies or used in the mushroom jungles of the Purple Planet. The Drop-In Encounter will be printed up on a sheet of glossy sturdy card stock and will be packaged with the adventure. The Last Mushroom of Ishgar’Ols is a Backerkit campaign exclusive and will only be available to backers of the River of Lies project.
Hark! Take heed! The Warlords of the Purple Planet have gathered their kith into one strong and united army of reavers. The Purple Planet Horde conquers or falls -- together!Â
If all the Purple Planet Horde crowdfunding campaigns end in success, each backer of those projects will receive bonus content focused on providing an interpretation on the Runes of the Purple Planet.
Generation upon untold generation have interacted with the runes. Their origins conflict from tribe to tribe or group to group. Enigma, discord, and sometimes enlightenment spring from them. Political significance and suzerainty are sometimes accorded them. The Runes of the Purple Planet possess a myriad of stories from the multitudes of prophets, storytellers, charlatans, priests, and scientists who have attempted to divine the secrets of the Purple Planet’s signature technology.
The Rune Interpretations will only be unlocked if all the Purple Planet Horde campaigns successfully fund.
Each Rune Interpretation will tell a story (its authenticity unknown) of the sigils origin and/or meaning within the confines of a single page which will be included with each publisher's fulfilled project.
Backers of each of the associated 3PP Purple Planet Horde campaigns will get a set of interpretations for each project they back.
If all the Purple Planet Horde crowdfunding campaigns end in success, all backers of this project will receive a copy of The Prophesy of the Weirldling Sun a piece of runic lore (whether true or false is impossible to determine) foretelling the collapse of the august society of the Masters of the Purple Planet and how it will be saved!Â
$700: A free Drop-In Encounter is a project exclusive and will be printed up on a sheet of glossy sturdy card stock and will be packaged with the adventure. What secrets will be uncovered in The Last Mushroom of Ishgar’Ols?
$6560: We have one additional stretch goal for this project. If we surpass my previous best crowdfunding project for an adventure module, then Donn Stroud will write up a second Drop-In Encounter! Whatever Donn comes up with (it'll be weird) will be printed up on a sheet of glossy sturdy card stock and will be packaged with the adventure. Follow the action and cheer us on in the Community tab.Â
All Purple Planet Horde Campaigns Fund: If all the Purple Planet Horde crowdfunding campaigns end in success, all backers of this project will receive a copy of The Prophesy of the Weirldling Sun.
All shipping fees will be chargedseparately, AFTER the campaign, during pledge management. The prices below are estimates. Actual shipping prices will be determined after production is finished and we're gearing up to send out the books. Also, if you add-on additional physicalcopies of the adventure or other Horse Shark Games books to your order, your shipping cost may increase.
Estimated shipping costs (for asingle book, separate shipping - see FAQs about consolidated shipping):
Author of Angels, Daemons & Beings Between, Volume 2: Elfland Edition and Fae Hard! from Shinobi 27 Games
Author and publisher of The House of the Red Doors, a duet adventure for DCC RPG and Troika!
Author and publisher of Enchiridion of the Computarchs and Scionsof the Computarchs limited series of patron AIs -- DCC and MCC supplements
Co-author of The Lesser Key to the Celestial Legion from Psychoda Press
Author of Fae Harder!: FAERROR OF THE STRATOSFIEND from Orbital Intelligence, LLC
Contributor to Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, Goodman Games Yearbook #8, Under the Salvage Pits (MCC RPG rulebook, 4th printing), Dungeon Denizens, The Forgotten Rites of the Moldering Dead, and more
Artists
Stefan Poag Stefan lives and works in Michigan with his significant other (Annie). His illustration work has appeared in the Dungeon Crawl Classics core book and many, many DCC RPG modules from Goodman Games. He can be found at https://stefanpoag.com and tweets @sbpoag.
Doug Kovacs
If there’s one artist who has helped define “the DCC experience”, it’s Doug. His cover art for the Dungeon Crawl Classics core book and many adventure modules have helped set a tone of adventure, mystery, and the fantastic that reaches throughout the line. And his black-and-white art inside the DCC core book and its many adventures have defined the game’s look—not to mention his awesome maps. You can find him at dougkovacs.com.
Congrats, you reached the bottom! While you are here I'd like to talk about Netcrawl RPG, a project coming out later this year. I've been working on it for two years over at Patreon. If you join the patreon as a financially supporting member and you live in the USA, you can pledge at the Horse Shark Patron reward tier and get free shipping on your copy of River of Lies.
Netcrawl RPG - Coming Soon from Horse Shark Games
You are coherent data traveling at the speed of light, a digital avatar searching for computerized information.Â
There is something hidden in the virtual realms, and you shall hack it.
Netcrawl RPG is a TTRPG about adventuring inside a computer system. Everyone goes in, seconds pass in the meatspace as players spend hours conquering a cyber-dungeon - together.Â
![River of Lies [DCC RPG's Purple Planet]](https://bk-prod.imgix.net/active_storage/backerkit_production/blob/wbxjmu5gq5eoe3zkotkez53emvre?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&lossless=true&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&w=1024)
