In this social-competitive TTRPG, mages gather in an isolated manor to research the occult, have scandalous trysts, form alliances, and destroy themselves in pursuit of their deepest desires. Flavor notes: Good Society, The Locked Tomb, Baru Cormorant.
Mooncroft Manor is a social-competitive game about mages gathering in an isolated manor to destroy themselves against the bulwark of their own desires. As a mage, you'll struggle with and against your fellow players: forming alliances, stealing away for intimate moments, conducting heart-pounding duels, and researching the depths of the occult.
You do this because you want something, and the Manor will give it to you—if only you prove yourself ambitious, ruthless, or compassionate enough to seize it.
The Rhythm of Play
You portray a mage. You've been invited to an exclusive gathering at the heart of the continent, alongside a coterie of other mages, to research your Thesis—an occult theory that will change your life and perhaps the entire world.
Play is broken down into seasons, charting the passing months and years. During the first half of the season, you take inventory of your Desires, hear (and create) the latest crop of Rumors, and write missives to other guests of the manor. This lays the foundation for the second half of the season, in which you Explore the manor and encounter guests as they conduct their research, investigate occult happenings, or set their own machinations into motion.
Exploring and interacting generates Ideas, which you spend to further your Thesis. But great works have equally steep risks. Every stage of your Thesis builds the stakes—introducing threats to your research, setting other guests against you, and tempting you to become ever colder and more ruthless to achieve your ends. Who will you become—what will you give up—on the path to greatness?
Narrative-Driven Rules
Mooncroft Manor is a dance of simple narrative-driven rules that focus on the characters above all else. Characters in Mooncroft Manor are:
Simple. Characters are made up of their past Experiences, the things they Desire, and the Methods they use to achieve them—no numbers, tables, or equations needed.
Rich. During character creation, players are guided through open-ended prompts to help them flesh out who arrives at the manor. Their Experiences, Desires, and Methods arise naturally from this rich backstory.
Flexible. Characters are constantly changing during play. Desires and Experiences are replaced as the mage makes sacrifices and pushes their limits to complete their Thesis—sometimes willingly, sometimes by outside forces.
The six Methods mages rely on to solve problems. Choosing two forms the cornerstone of a mage's personality.
A Gamemaster's Toolbox
On the other side of the table, the game master—or the House—portrays the other guests and the manor itself. The game provides ample guidance and tools for the House to quickly generate NPCs and create interesting and dramatic moments: Duels with life-threatening stakes, Curses that render mages vulnerable to their rival socialites, Rituals to tip the scales of power in the manor, and more.
Mooncroft Manor is a 100+ page book with a dark psychedelic style and over a dozen original illustrations by our dedicated artist, Katrine Atlas. With 6' by 9' dimensions, each page is perfect for reading on tablets and each two-page spread fits beautifully on a computer screen.
"Alchemy," one of six Thesis options that appear in the book.
"Necromancy," one of six Thesis options that appear in the book.
Digital Only
The book is a digital-only release, and there are several reasons for that:
Cost. Between tariffs, shipping, and printing, printed books are more volatile in cost than ever. A campaign that depends on printing books can easily skyrocket in price with no warning—but with a digital release, our costs are stable and predictable.
Style. The kind of layout in the book—dark pages with white text—would normally be quite tricky and expensive to print, so we'd shy away from it. But since it's digital-only, we can give you some truly awesome eye candy without worrying about bleeding ink all over your pages.
Backer Friendly. In previous campaigns, we've relied on print-on-demand services to get print copies to our backers, which means backing the campaign and then paying a second time to actually have the book printed and shipped. To put it simply, that feels bad. With a digital book, there's one payment, instant delivery to our backers, and much faster troubleshooting if things are lost in transit.
E. R. F. Jordan (she/her)is a professional RPG designer and editor. After seven years of writing material for other people's games, she's escaped containment and started writing games of her own. As one half of Compass Publishing House, she was the lead designer on our prior projects, Eidol: the Endless Dungeon and Monster Souls. As a freelancer, she's worked on books like Grim Hollow: Valikan Clans by Ghostfire Gaming and How to GM Romance by Metal Weave Games. She plans to keep working on games until she disappears under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind cryptic clues to discover her final cursed masterpiece.
Illustrator
Katrine Atlas (she/her)is a professional illustrator whose work appears in several recent Compass Publishing House releases, like Bloodthirsty and As Above, So Below. This is her crowdfunding debut. Her strong sense for colors and drama have defined the visual style of Mooncroft Manor, elevating the text from a barebones document to a captivating work of art.
The full text of the game has already been written as of this campaign going live, and is being playtested to refine the experience. The most time-consuming task left is working with Katie to create a half-dozen more stunning illustrations to beautify the book.
Our target release date is June 1st—just a few months after the conclusion of the campaign. This gives us time to implement some tweaks from playtesting, finish beautifying the book, and get it into your hands.
Fulfillment
As with previous campaigns, we're sending the book to backers using DriveThruRPG, where it will be listed for sale after the campaign. Claiming PDFs through DriveThruRPG is quick and simple: you receive an email from us, follow the link in that email to claim your copy, and download it via your DriveThruRPG account. (If you don't have an account, the link will prompt you to make one to claim your reward.)
