Officially licensed Evil Dead 2 Roleplaying Game Kickstarter!

IAmWillGibson said:
I agree, I'm a big fan of the tone we're aiming at on these. Its great to see how the art and words are all getting nestled together during the layout phase.

It's been a nutty few weeks being very deep in the editing and re-editing, but I'm psyched to see the end of March approach, if only to stop me from endlessly fussing with the order of words.
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Wait, so you're someone who has been working on this?
 
IAmWillGibson said:
I am, yeah.
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Please tell us how this all came about. How did Lynnvander decide on doing an ED2 RPG? Was it just because they had the license from the board game and wanted to do something else with the IP, or did it start as something else and turn into ED2... what's the full scoop?
 
I'm not a core staff guy, although I've been in the Lynnvander atmosphere for a couple of years now. From my perspective (which may be inaccurate) they had the ED2 license because of the boardgame. I had helped with boardgame playtesting for the past few years, having gotten into the company around the original boardgame... ahem, situation. I even designed an ED2 card game I pitched to them, but, well, it didn't go very far.

Anyways, jump ahead to early pandy and there had been a shift from boardgames to rpgs "culturally" at the office (Lynnvander also has a boardgame cafe locally, so that's my main location for this). I remember mentioning half joking that they should make ED2 into an RPG book, although I am not taking credit for the concept. In any case, a few months later I got a message from Tom (Lynnvander head) asking if I wanted to help with a project, 'cause he knew I was the Evil Dead guy.

And then a lot of time passed and there was a good bit of spinning and flipping who was doing what and when (it's a very small core staff so things get shuffled easily), but we're finally at the end.

I'm really, really excited to get this book out finally. I'm really proud of it, and I hope the fans like it.
 
Hurley said:
I'd love to hear more about this, how it would have looked like – if you can talk about it, of course.
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I don't see why I can't. It's firmly homemade fan content at this point. When I get a minute, I'll see what the files look like and post them in a new thread if they're decent. I haven't looked at them in a while, and I forget if I was gonna make an updated edition or not...
 
IAmWillGibson said:
Anyways, jump ahead to early pandy and there had been a shift from boardgames to rpgs "culturally" at the office (Lynnvander also has a boardgame cafe locally, so that's my main location for this). I remember mentioning half joking that they should make ED2 into an RPG book, although I am not taking credit for the concept. In any case, a few months later I got a message from Tom (Lynnvander head) asking if I wanted to help with a project, 'cause he knew I was the Evil Dead guy.
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It certainly sounds like you planted the seed for it. Were you already aware of the Army of Darkness RPG at the time, and did it eventually serve as a template for what you guys wanted to do with Evil Dead 2, or did you completely avoid it?
 
MCT28 said:
It certainly sounds like you planted the seed for it. Were you already aware of the Army of Darkness RPG at the time, and did it eventually serve as a template for what you guys wanted to do with Evil Dead 2, or did you completely avoid it?
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I was definitely aware of it. I remember trying to track it down about 10 years ago but never got a copy.
 
IAmWillGibson said:
I was definitely aware of it. I remember trying to track it down about 10 years ago but never got a copy.
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Yeah, the physical copies are hard to find, but the official PDF is still for sale online, which is how I got it. As someone who is not into RPGs, the AOD one is basically my only point of reference.
 
MCT28 said:
Yeah, the physical copies are hard to find, but the official PDF is still for sale online, which is how I got it. As someone who is not into RPGs, the AOD one is basically my only point of reference.
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I have the PDF kicking around, but I'm honestly avoiding reading it for the time being. I never tried that system although I hear it's pretty good for what it does.

The ED2 book is going to be very different, though.
 
IAmWillGibson said:
I have the PDF kicking around, but I'm honestly avoiding reading it for the time being. I never tried that system although I hear it's pretty good for what it does.
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I've never played it, but I enjoy it for all the world-building it does. Literally everything is tied together to form it's own little continuity that starts with the creation of the Necronomicon in 5000 BC and goes all the way to the final defeat of the Kandarian Demon in 2093, with all the short stories and pre-made character biographies filling in gaps. Even if you don't play it, it's still a fun read.
 
That was certainly a drive behind this one too, having it be fun to read. It's definitely firmly a D&D book, with all the requisite rules and stuff you need for it to work as such, but in and around all that we crammed a bunch of narrative. There's some backstory we got to play with, a central story that more or less plays out how I would have done an Evil Dead movie if I were allowed to make one, and then the adventures too.
 
IAmWillGibson said:
That was certainly a drive behind this one too, having it be fun to read. It's definitely firmly a D&D book, with all the requisite rules and stuff you need for it to work as such, but in and around all that we crammed a bunch of narrative. There's some backstory we got to play with, a central story that more or less plays out how I would have done an Evil Dead movie if I were allowed to make one, and then the adventures too.
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Now were you given free rein for whatever in terms of adding to the mythos, or did StudioCanal step in and say "no don't do that"? Because the AOD RPG did a lot of stuff like the aforementioned Necronomicon creation story, but also gave origins for the Kandarian Demon, the Deadites, Kandarian Dagger, and Dark Ones (despite those last two not even being in AOD at any capacity).
 
IAmWillGibson said:
Haven't been told no to anything yet, although we're still not at final approvals.
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I mean, from what I've heard, they're pretty chill about everything... provided you don't want to show Ash be born out of a cow.
 
IAmWillGibson said:
Gotta roll a natural 20 for that to happen.
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Like I said, I don't know if it's against the rules to resurrect a dead player, but throwing in a line about resurrection via cow birth would be a fun little nod that only the hardest of the hardcore ED expanded media enthusiasts would know the story behind.
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Update #16: End of March Update
April is here, which means it is time for a proper update on where things stand with the Evil Dead 2 5.5e book.

The good news is that the writing and editing are complete. The book is fully prepared and moving into its final layout stage.

The only thing holding us back is approval from the licensor. Until we receive the green light, we are unable to move forward with the final steps. We hope this won't take too long and we'll be sure to let you know once we've got the go-ahead to finish up!
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There are also brief descriptions of the adventures in the book:
Dread By Dawn
Shemp to Level 1
Survive the night in the legendary cabin in the woods.

Night of the Evil Dead
Shemp to Level 4
Uncover the source of the shadow over Campbell's Cove.

The Witch of November
Level 5 to 10
Attempt to rewrite history aboard the doomed Edmund Fitzgerald.

Betrayal at Helsford House
Level 11 to 16
What starts as a simple ritual soon becomes a voyage through the belly of the beast.
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Included in the post is a map of downtown Campbell's Cove, featuring some of Tom Sullivan's "Bullscrit" text and a road leading to Elk Grove...

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That's the map of the town as found on the placemat of a local restaurant, circa 1982. I'm happy to see the easter eggs being found so quickly. Hopefully you'll have fun with the book as a whole!
 
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