Out of the Ashes, OpenQuest and Groundedness

I'm gushing a lot about the beautiful weirdness of Troika!, but I also have a soft spot for a very different type of fantasy, something that feels more grounded and familiar, something about relatively ordinary, good-natured characters doing the right thing. It probably comes from the fantasy I read as a child: LeGuin's Earthsea, Lloyd Alexander's Taran and, maybe most importantly, Ronja Robbers Daughter by Astrid Lindgren. (I've just read the latter to my daughter and was suprised how many of the themes and monsters I'm using when designing scenarios can be traced back to it.)

So Out of the Ashes by Paul Mitchener, which is being kickstarted at the moment, pushes a lot of buttons for me - even if it presents itself as a little more high-fantasy, the whole banding together to protect our small community concept speaks to me on that particular level, as does the fact that it is not an EDO setting. Of course, the cover and illustrations by Jon Hodgson also help to get me excited for this ... and the system, which builds on Mitchener's Liminal (which I'm not familiar with, but people seem to love it) looks nice and simple as well. So I say, check it out and support it - the kickstarter page is not terribly flashy, and you'll need to read a little to get a feel for the thing, but I think it's worth the effort. This campaign could do with a little more support!

Apart from that, I'm also pretty hyped about the third edition of Newt Newports OpenQuest, which has already been succesfully funded and will be out soon. No, scratch that - I'm not hyped, I'm looking forward to it in a very relaxed, confident way. OQ is just that simple D100 system that I can imagine putting on the table for all my grounded-and-familiar needs. Also, for the first time, it looks as if there's going to be a lot of support for it (with a lot of Hodgson covers!).