Beyond Dread Portals is an exciting roleplaying game of world-hopping fantasy by Paul Mitchener (author of Liminal). The easy-to-learn rules are built from a core loosely based on the world’s first fantasy roleplaying game, tailored to fit the setting.

It’s in its final five days of funding.

• Beyond Dread Portals is on Kickstarter now.

Backers have already funded extra content. Adventures, NPCs, and background information. Here are the highlights of what the campaign has achieved.

• All backers will receive an extra introductory adventure, Fort on the Edgelands. A mini sandbox that takes a classic adventure from the 1980s and reimagines it through Beyond Dread Portals baroque fantasy take on D20. In the final five days, more stretch goals are up for grabs!
• Also, during the campaign, the Signed and sent version of the book has been upgraded from a POD copy to a properly printed version with sewn pages, better-quality paper and a ribbon.
• We have achieved several community goals through backer numbers, such as the Traveller’s Guide to Polydrones, a mini-supplement combining new monsters, game lore, and adventure ideas.
• VTT support has been added via Role VTT (playrole.com).

But quick, it’s coming to the end of Kickstarter in five days.

• Beyond Dread Portals is on Kickstarter now.

Over the weekend, I took this introductory adventure out for a spin at Manchester’s premier Old School convention run by the Grognard Files Podcast.

Grogmeet 2023 in full flow

I had a full table of four players, one of whom Chris (hello 🙂 ) was a backer.

After going through the pre-generated characters, which are included in the main rulebook, and using them to explain the setting and the system, we grabbed coffee and got stuck into it.  The game unfolded in three acts.

Act 1 was a gentle stroll around the City of Ys. From the grand Guildhall of the League of Explorers, where there characters, who the players already knew each other, found out that a special treasure hunting license was being issued to go to Erebus, which is normally closed. All they had to do was navigate the ever-shifting streets of Ys and make their way to the Ruby Court.  The crimson-clad Judge Vinter gave them the license, which gave them superior treasure rights. 5% taxation upon return to Ys rather than the usual 20%. The players then choose which of the two available Patrons they wanted to back their expedition. This gave them the promise of more rewards, plus a mission to pressure. The liberation of the Fort’s Garrison, who were trapped on Erebus.

Act 2, stepping through the Dread Portal, the characters emerge into the courtyard of Lion Fort. They spent most of this act getting a sense of where they were and what factions were present in the fort. The most important one was the Agent of the Autrach, a skeleton in a gibbet who sinisterly waved hello when the characters arrived. This strange creature is also the gatekeeper of the portal, which is now shut until the characters fulfil their mission and can kill with its mind!  After finding out who was who in the fort. they quickly made friends with the Garrison commander, and a plan was forged to kill the Agent, open the Portal and return to Ys with the Garrison.

em>Act 3 was a quick raid into the nearby Mushroom Caves and executing the plan to free the Garrison and get home. While the other acts had leaned heavily into roleplaying with all the fantastical NPCs they met, with the occasional skill test, this act was all about action. Sneaking past the ruined colony and its undead farmers, ambushing the goblins in the entrance cave – which escalated into a quick combat. Then, seizing the magic Spear of Dawn from the Goblin’s leader and using it to set the fungus-based creature on fire. Rushing back to the fort, sneaking up on the Agent, thrusting the burning Spear of Dawn, a potent anti-undead weapon, into its bones killing it. Finally, the group’s wizard opened the portal, and back to Ys, where they squared it all with Judge Vinder.

Phew. And this is only one way through the adventure, which is a mini-sandbox.  I’m highly happy with its initial outing and overjoyed to find when I got home that it has been funded and will be available to backers as a stretch goal.

Beyond Dread Portals is in its final week over at Kickstarter and is available to back until Sunday 19th November.

• Back Beyond Dread Portals on Kickstarter.

In this update on the Beyond Dread Portals Kickstarter, I look at how the D20 system that the game uses varies from Standard D20 and answer why we didn’t use OpenQuest.

• A look a the Game System behind Beyond Dread Portals

I’ve had the pleasure of being interviewed by Chris “Dirk the Dice” Hart of the Grognard Files about Beyond Dread Portals (currently on Kickstarter).

• Down Dread Portals on the Grognard Files

Beyond Dread Portals is ticking along constantly through the mid-campaign doldrums.

If you were holding off backing because the Signed and Sent version was POD, we’ve now enough backers so that the book will be a properly printed book with sewn pages, higher quality paper and a ribbon.

Since we are bearing in on the 2nd Stretch goal, the adventure The Fort on the Edgelands, and it is Sunday, my traditional time to write DnD adventures going back to the 80s, I’ve posted a big update about that adventure, which I’m running next Saturday at Grogmeet (places still available).

• Onwards to the Fort on the Edgelands.