The Steel Road ~ weapons out of Africa, Europa, India, and more

Sjambok from Africa   Art by: Zachary Viola
From: The Steel Road

My first published rpg source book.  I like the sound of that!

It's not as easy as one might think. Picking weapons, looking for weapons that haven't been used before, and building descriptions for both the mundane version and the enchanted version is a good bit of work.  I have to say, I'm enjoying it!

As you may have noticed from past posts, we've put together a few weapons from each area we're touching on.  It's not meant to be a comprehensive list of all weapons from each area.  Instead, each weapon is native, historically speaking, to the region or continent in question.  The Sjambok above, is native to Africa. Its a painful device still in use this day.  Used like a whip and capable of inflicting horrible pain as well as injuring the target, the Sjambok sees use in modern day for crowd/riot-control.  A terrifying weapon, particularly if you have ever been on the receiving end!

The Talwar, from India
Art by: Zachary Viola

India has a long, rich history and has seen remarkable weapon development throughout the ages. The Talwar is a fantastic weapon, and is iconic for far eastern, and exotic locations.  Wherever spices may have flowed in the ancient world, so to the Talwar would be known as a weapon to be respected.

A weapon well suited for broad flourishes and quick slashes, the Talwar is light enough to be used by the common foot soldier yet heavy enough to cleave through bone.

The Tanto from Japan
Art by: Zachary Viola

From the earliest development we intended to cover weapons that had not been seen in rpg source books.  Japan has seen a great deal of weaponry from it's history covered in other books, so we focused on weapons that we hadn't seen, or that were iconic and deserving of attention (particularly if I felt the weapon deserved more attention).  The chisel tipped tanto was one of the first weapons I knew we wanted to include. Too often this fantastic feat of weapon engineering has been given short shrift as "equivalent to a dagger" when in truth daggers vary tremendously, and few are as remarkable.

With its chiseled tip the tanto is excellent at punching through armor, while it's keen edge can cut through tough hide and hard muscle with surprising ease.  The tanto requires exacting skill to forge, and is a valuable weapon in close quarters.

*****

Zachary spend a great deal of time on the sketchbook style for these weapons.  Each is illustrated to give you a genuine depiction of the authentic weapon, and then the enchanted "legendary" versions were embellished for thematic effect reflecting their special powers.  Intriguing, isn't it?

The Steel Road will be released in both a 5th edition and Pathfinder compatible versions.  Art and production will be funded through a KickStarter campaign, which will launch after fulfillment of Comet over Echo Rock (Tarot Adventures, Book Two).

For the KickStarter we'll be offering a really special backer reward level for the first 72 hours of the campaign.  Backers will be able to get PDF and a print on demand code (a code that lets you pay only the printing cost and shipping cost for a copy... this is facilitated through drivethrurpg.com) for only $8!  Even better though, all backer rewards with print on demand codes are eligible for the stretch goals we currently have formulated. {So once we launch, come out soon to support this book and get your copy at the lowest backer level I can offer!}

I'm hoping to reach a thousand backers for this campaign, or more.  That's a HUGE goal to reach, so I hope you'll come out when the campaign launches and support this great book, and help spread the word! So please share this with other gamers to help build the momentum we're looking for to reach our goals! Keep your eyes open, and watch here for more art to be teased and more information on this exciting resource.

As always, thank you for coming along with me on my adventure into game design, self-publishing, and writing.  I hope to see you next time.


(Coming to KickStarter soon!)

All art provided by : Zachary Viola
Each illustration is copyright (c) Zachary Viola