Following on Courts of the Shadow Fey, its second adventure compatible with the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game, Open Design is announcing a new D&D project launching immediately: the Lost City project. Leading the project is former Wizards of the Coast designer Logan Bonner, lead designer on Arcane Power and author of the fan-favorite adventures The Slaying Stone and P1: King of the Trollhaunt Warrens.
The project will follow Open Design’s long-standing patronage model, in which you participate in a product’s creation from the earliest planning stages through publication. With Bonner’s guidance, patrons of the Lost City project will be invited to write three major sections of the anthology, and will decide details about the city such as its locale, history, and the adversaries players will face.
From Outline to Print Publication
Patrons of The Lost City adventure will collaborate with Bonner to create a Paragon-level sandbox adventure with a broad range of player options. The Lost City will feature ancient threats and secrets, and multiple factions for players to ally themselves with – or against.
The Lost City project will begin with a choice of three settings for the ruins:
• Kadralhu, City Beneath the Sands, a place of shifting dunes and layers of lost civilizations.
• Beldestan, the Pillars of the Sky, offers a single step from a dusty shrine to the highest vault of the heavens, the resting place of an ancient godling imprisoned long ago.
• Jotunheim, the Flying City, a flying city of the cloud giants now fallen into neglect, but capable of appearing anywhere in a campaign world with a cargo of adventure – and colossal dangers.
Patrons will choose one of these as their foundation, and will build on it through a process of pitching, critique, playtest, and refinement toward publication. Patrons will also create new monsters, treasures, and hazards under Logan Bonner’s direction and development.
The resulting sandbox-style adventure will be set in Wolfgang Baur’s campaign world of Midgard, and optimized for easy adaptation to any setting.
Becoming a Patron
You can become a patron of the Lost City right here at the Kobold Store. You will receive a welcome email and directions to the private forums where design takes place within 48 hours.
About Logan Bonner
Logan Bonner has worked on 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons since before its release, initially at Wizards of the Coast and now as a freelancer. His contributions to the game include the new version of the bard, divine domains, the swordmage class, and familiars. He served as lead designer on Arcane Power, and his work appears in Player’s Handbook, Adventurer’s Vault 2, Monster Vault, and the primary books for the Forgotten Realms and Dark Sun settings. His adventure credits include The Slaying Stone  and P1: King of the Trollhaunt Warrens.
You can follow Logan on Twitter or on his blog. You can join his design group for The Lost City here at the Kobold Store.
After completion, will this product be available as print and PDF sales throught the KQ store to non-patrons?
Yes, the adventure part of this book will be available at the KQ Store to non-patrons.
A few elements (such as an artist’s sketchbook, design templates, and other senior-patron perks) will not be available except to patrons.
Wow, I am looking forward to this!
It’s already attracting some great talent, and I think the first round of pitches will be extremely competitive.
Exciting is hardly the word I would choose. I hope when I sign up I can find the lost city. Would be a bummer to become a patron and not find the “secret patron meeting place.”
;-)
Has this project reached 100% goal?
You should see a note about the secret meeting place pretty soon.
We’re somewhere around 30% of goal after 2 days. Which I’d call pretty darn quick!
Quote from the offer: “In addition, you have the choice to pick up the final print edition at the print cost (typically about $6 to $10).”
Why is this only available for the Senior Patrons? If I join as a patron, I get the PDF and would have to pay again MSRP for the print edition? Please give the normal patrons at least a serious discount for the print edition. Thx in advance.
“Why is this only available for the Senior Patrons? If I join as a patron, I get the PDF and would have to pay again MSRP for the print edition? Please give the normal patrons at least a serious discount for the print edition. Thx in advance.”
That’s odd. In previous Open Designs, all patrons have been able to buy the print edition from Lulu at cost. Wolfgang, is this a change?
My first Patronage!
/me so excited.
Quick send me the secret squirrel link!