Haven's Heir | The Hidden Isle's First Campaign + New rules
A campaign of linked adventures for The Hidden Isle, our magical-renaissance TTRPG powered by Tarot.
Step into a world of enchantment, uproot conspiracy, and protect your safe haven from gods and despots!
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Haven's Heir | The Hidden Isle's First Campaign + New rules · 1,174 following
Not only did we get new artists for this campaign, we also managed to secure additional writers and designers to work on the Haven’s Heir campaign book and the Dioscorian Library. Perhaps the most prominent among them, and the first we want to introduce, is the amazing Chris S. Sims, a well-known veteran from Wizards of the Coast.
Chris S. Sims is a writer, designer, editor, and human... being. He has created material for the last four editions of D&D, two editions of Pathfinder, Starfinder 1e, indie RPGs and games, films, video games, and more. See his original games at chrisssims.itch.io, and find his credits and lots of other stuff at chrisssims.com. Or pay his social media presence a visit at https://bsky.app/profile/chrisssims.bsky.social.
We look forward to his contributions as editor and writer!
Introducing artists: Charlie 'Newt' Borovský + 🗺️NEW WORLD MAP!🗺️
Esteemed Agents,
While we thunder down the road towards the campaign, we would like to introduce another one of our amazing artists. They are not new to the Sefirot circus but have already contributed to our “Forever Hold Your Peace” zine. Without further delay, meet the amazing Newt!
Czech artist, roleplayer and Slavic folklore enthusiast Charlie 'Newt' Borovský has been freelancing in the world of TTRPGs for almost a decade now, growing to be an all-rounder in fantasy illustration.
Their past clients include Critical Role, MCDM, Avantris, Hit Point Press, Crow&Crown and now, of course, the Sefirot team.
It was a marvelous process to get together and talk about the world that Dioscoria is set in and then pair it with Newt to make this beautiful art piece. Here's some insight from Newt: For the border, we actually expanded on my designs that didn't end up being used for the crowdfunding page tables, combining all three of them here. There was some discussion about having the spheres which show the different realms at first, but we ended up including them. I also suggested having a sort of symbol for each of the secret islands, since we wanted to spotlight them despite their small size on the map itself. My main two inspirations were a mix of other maps from the 1500s and the sailing themes of Haven's Heir. The sea creatures were probably my favourite to draw, closely followed by the ladies in the border, but I always revel in detailed lineart, so the whole piece was a pleasure to do!
Don’t forget that we have a megaton of entertainment read for you via our socials and on Discord. Feel free to let us know your thoughts about the world map in the comments!
We are not quite done yet introducing our new artists! This week’s focus goes to a very special talent that is new to our lineup but will make a great deal of contributions to our campaign and supplement books!
Riotbones is a queer Filipino illustrator and comic artist with a passion for all things haunting, dark, and tender—anything that celebrates the euphoria and devastation of the human condition. Specializing in horror and fantasy, they’ve worked for magazines, video games, books, and TTRPGS, having collaborated with clients such as Dark Horse Comics and Dover Publications. Their debut graphic novel Strange Cases, a gothic horror-legal drama set in an alternate universe 19th-century colonial Philippines, will be published by Andrews McMeel on October 13 this year.
Today, we shall take a close look at some of the new rules our campaign will bring.
Haven’s Heir will not just feature an extensive campaign book but also the Dioscorian Library, a tome featuring new rules, classes and other juicy add-ons to our existing core rules. And one of these new rules will be the Familiar system!
Familiars are creatures who accompany the Hand on their adventures: a guide sent by otherworldly forces to assist them. They could be an animal like a cat, bat, spider or dog; a mythical creature like a hellhound or winged snake; or something more supernatural like a spirit or animated statuette. The choice is yours!
A familiar is attached to the entire Hand, rather than to an individual Agent. Familiars are not trivial to acquire: some of your Agents must appeal to a deity, who will then send the familiar. For example:
In the dead of night, the Hand sleeping in their quarters in the council tower, the shutters are blown open and the familiar is perched on the windowsill.
The Hand search the wild places of Dioscoria for a suitable familiar. They discover it seated comfortably within a ring of mushrooms.
The familiar emerges from a reflecting pool in one of the city’s temples as the Hand are praying for the help of a deity.
Each familiar has traits (eg. kind, mischievous, loyal), an ability (eg. telepathy, dream-walker, shape-shifter), and a natural talent (eg. climbing, spinning webs, sharp vision).
Familiars are mostly controlled by the Agents, and can help during missions. They can take harm (but never die), and gain xp to improve their stats.
The familiar rules are currently in the testing stage, so all this may change – but if you’d like to try out a familiar at your table, and tell us how it went (which would be super useful!), just head to our discord and ask an admin for the “playtester” role!
Now, do you like familiars? I mean, who doesn’t! Below you can vote which one is your favourite so far! But beware: there are even more cute (and fierce) familiars on the way!
That’s it for now! Thank you for signing up and feel free to also reserve for a mere €5 to receive a free pin and sticker sheet once you back the campaign.
A ton of fun and banter also await you via our socials and on Discord, if you seek more entertainment.
Another week has passed, and in about 2 months' time, all shall be live! Isn’t that exciting?
For this week’s update, we would like to introduce you to our new cover artist, Loren Hontanilla.
The Haven's Heir campaign book cover in all its glory.
Loren joined us on the recommendation of the Sefirot and Hidden Isle artists and art directors, Eliot Baum and Viv Tanner. They hail from Valencia, Spain, and have contributed to the likes of Critical Role, Bioware, and Studio Agate. For Haven’s Heir, they have not only created the marvelous cover of the campaign book but will also create the cover for the Dioscorian Library, which will include a plethora of new rules and rule changes, additional character classes, and awesome familiars.
Preliminary sketches for the Haven's Heir Cover
Here’s what Loren had to say about their work on the cover:
"Working on this cover has been a challenging and incredible experience from beginning to end. From figuring out the composition, shapes and colors to make it feel completely alive and full of Dioscoria with the help of the team has been a complete delight. I knew from the beginning that I wanted this illustration to be a powerful strike of wild magic and an invitation for every player to join this wave of spirits into the adventure!"
If you are curious and want to see more of this gifted artist, feel free to check out their various online outlets: https://solelleart.carrd.co/
And that’s it for now! Thank you for signing up, and if you haven’t done so yet, feel free to also reserve for a mere €5 to receive a free pin and sticker sheet once you back the campaign.
More fun and banter await you via our socials and on Discord.
We are, once again, delighted to have you on board for this adventure. Thank you for signing up, and if you haven’t done so yet, feel free to also reserve for a mere €5 to receive a FREE pin and sticker sheet once you back the campaign.
Over the next week, we’ll gradually reveal many details regarding this campaign, from our talented artists to our crafty writers to the actual storyline to the many new features and classes we will bring to the Hidden Isle system. But today, we want to take a moment to look back with you to 2019, when this all started, and ask ourselves: How did we end up here?🤔
How it started...
Let’s run through this in the shortest way possible. Once upon a time there was a frustrated digital games designer known as Georg Hobmeier that worked on a solitary Tarot card game. He was introduced to the artists Eliot Baum and Viv Tanner, and together they embarked on an adventure known as the board game Sefirot. After their art went viral, Georg’s company Causa Creations picked up the project and provided production and funding. A Kickstarter campaign was made in the spring of 2021, which went very well, resulting in the production of Sefirot and a Tarot deck with 82 cards. Since the cards were based on the lore of a mythical island known as Dioscoria, creating a follow-up project that somehow expanded on the story seemed like a logical next step.
Entering the scene were James Patton, who already worked on this project as an editor, together with his collaborator Daniel Adams. Expanding on the initial lore and the Blades in the Dark system, they cooked up a Tarot-based TTRPG system known as The Hidden Isle! In the fall of 2023, a Kickstarter campaign was launched, and once again, it went rather well.
More campaigns followed: two zine campaigns in 2024 and 2025, an update to Sefirot known as Silver Seals in 2024, and an update to the Sefirot Tarot deck in early 2026 under the moniker Gilded Legacy. It should be noted that none of these projects would be possible without the talented producers working on this, Zsombor Svab, Chris Knapp, Julia Gruber, Ben Wahl, and Tea Peregi.
How it's going!
And this is how we arrive now here in July 2026. Many battles have been fought. The best may still be ahead of us. Taking course on Haven’s Heir. Coming to Backerkit in September 2026. 🌟
