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Northern Crown is a alternate fantasy history of the colonization of North America. There’s magic, quasi-magical natural philosophy, strange creatures and wondrous civilizations to meet and it’s generally an accessible, fun though not necessarily light combination of early American history with the tropes of Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve written a bit more about Northern Crown previously.
The unfortunate part about Northern Crown is it hit the market after the d20 wave crested and began to roll back. It’d been in publishing development for a long time — and had been a freely available thing on the early web prior to that — so when it finally got to the market, all anybody saw was another d20 fantasy campaign world with the usual smattering of additional classes and new magic items. Northern Crown never got a fair shake.
The creator, Doug Anderson, is focusing on an introductory role-playing game for younger players called Dungeonteller these days, and some very cool isometric printable dungeon tile packs. He seems to have pretty much moved on from Northern Crown. Back in January, Atlas Games announced Battlefield Press planned to compile the setting material, adapt it to the Pathfinder rules and expand the game world to include the continent of Southern Cross. Battlefield’s own web site is silent on the project so far, but in the run-up to GenCon, I asked someone I think was associated with Battlefield via Twitter — certainly, he was publicizing a panel the company planned to hold at the convention — and the reply was the Northern Crown project was still a go, so far as I knew. I wish I could dig up the conversation, but my Google fu is failing me at the moment.
So here’s hoping Battlefield Press sees this project through. And if not, honestly, it can run pretty well in Pathfinder without much more work.
Held Action 
That sounds like a setting with possibility. Does it need to be its own game?
I don’t actually have a game I want to see a new edition for, except maybe a decent Star Trek RPG. I didn’t particularly enjoy the GURPS Star Trek game I played in a couple Carnages ago.
It doesn’t need to be its own game, no. I think an adaptation to Pathfinder would raise Pathfinder‘s visibility, though. It’s pretty singular among d20 settings in offering a fantastic rendering of colonial America.
Have you heard of Colonial Gothic? http://www.rogue-games.net/games/Colonial-Gothic/ and also http://atomicarray.com/colonial-gothic-aa001
Heard of, but not investigated deeply. I got the impression it was darker than I was looking for at the time. Have you read it?
Thanks for the mention,Tyler. I haven’t heard anything about the Battlefield Press reboot of Northern Crown since it was announced and I have no idea when it will see the light of day. I’m perfectly happy to have it remain a cult favorite!
I’d just like a few more folks to join the movement, you know? 😉
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The Pathfinder Kickstarter went live the other day.
Well shoot, I’m in!
(By “in,” I mean, of course, I will give the creator’s track record a thorough going-over before deciding if I want to contribute. As the highest pledge tier is $30, it feels like a low-risk decision.)