Stonetop


No one knows how the Stone got there, or what the runes cut into its surface might mean. Few even remember how the village sprang up around it. When storms roll up and the Stone pulls lightning from the sky, outsiders cringe and cower. But us? We barely even notice.

We live here, see. This village, Stonetop—it’s our home. It’s not a glamorous place. Far from it. But we look out for each other. We might not always get along, but we’re a community. Everyone contributes. Everyone shares.

And right now, as the first wildflowers bloom in the Flats and the trees bud in the Great Wood, trouble is a-brewing. The world itself is darkening, like the sky before a late-summer storm. Everyone can feel it. Folks are getting scared.

You and me? We’re the ones folk look to when they’re scared. Like it or not, we’re the brave ones. The clever ones. And yeah, sure, the strange ones, too.

These are good people, here in Stonetop. Our kith and our kin.

If we don’t step up to protect them, who will?


Stonetop is a hearth fantasy tabletop roleplaying game set in an iron age that never was. Player characters are the local heroes of a small, isolated village in a mysterious world full of giant-sized ruins, spirits of the wild, fae, and the Things Below. The game plays out over seasons, years, or even decades, and the village itself gets its own shared character sheet with stats and improvements to unlock.

You aren't wandering mercenaries in search of fortune and glory. Rather, you're exceptional people going on adventures to protect your family and neighbors, or to seize some opportunity to improve your home town's fortunes. Character creation ties the PCs to the village and the NPCs, and adventures are bookended with scenes where we see what the PCs are fighting for, and the struggles they're dealing with at home, and how their adventures—their successes and their failures—are shaping the lives of the people they love.

If you enjoy the aesthetic of Beyond the Wall and the mechanics of games like Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, or Monster of the Week, then this might be a game for you. 

The game is written and designed by me, Jeremy Strandberg, with art by the astounding Lucie Arnoux and layout, art direction, and publishing by Jason Lutes of Lampblack & Brimstone. You can purchase Stonetop from our distributor, Plus One Experience. 

You can find the free playkit here, which includes:
    • The Setting overview
    • Moves & gear sheets
    • Playbooks for PCs, the GM, and the steading of Stonetop itself
    • Arcana printouts  
Join us at the Stonetop Discord. 


Stonetop features...

  • A rich and well-realized world of gritty Iron Age fantasy adventure, providing enough detail to ground play while leaving plenty of room for the players and GM to make the setting their own.

  • 9 distinct types of player-character, each with their own reasons to look out for their community and seek adventure beyond its walls.

  • Rules for improving the village itself across the seasons and over the course of years.

  • Rules for overland travel that capture the excitement of setting out into the unknown and the relief of returning home after a long time away.

  • Hand-drawn maps depicting the village of Stonetop itself, its immediate surroundings, and the extent of the known world.

  • An extensive setting almanac covering important regions, points of interest, neighboring settlements, creatures of the wild, and eerie remnants of past civilizations.

  • Dozens of unique magic items, each with special rules for unlocking its mysteries, powers, and dangers.

  • Extensive guidelines, advice, and examples for the GM, including step-by-step processes for collaborative customization of the village, adventure creation, and shaping a campaign.

 ~~~~

“I had a chance to play this with a small group, including one person who usually didn't enjoy RPGs. We only played one session, and he still talks to me about how special it was to him. I would play it again in a heartbeat.”
—William H., Vox Arcana Podcast
~~~~

The game itself is two digest-format books (5.5" x 8.5", or roughly A5), each ~600 pages. 



This book covers the rules of the game and the GM procedures. It's chock full of examples, advice, and procedures to help you create content. I wrote this book with newer GMs in mind, but also as a resource that even experienced GMs can return to over and over again to find something new. 

~~~~
"Book I, Stonetop, has... probably the best fantasy PbtA GMing advice out there. Jeremy made his name writing his Spouting Lore blog, and he has been a key figure in the Dungeon World / fantasy PbtA community for a decade or so. That advice is worth the price by itself."

 —J. Alan Henning, Troy Press, "Stonetop is a State-of-the-Art Fantasy Role-Playing Game"   

~~~~

Contents include:
  1. Welcome to Stonetop: an overview of the game, expectations, an overview of the setting and playbooks, and why play

  2. Getting Started: a robust, formal procedure for session 0, designed to get everyone on the same page and help create PCs who are deeply tied to the village of Stonetop

  3. Playing the Game: a player-facing chapter that explains not just the rules, but also things like "the conversation" and "fictional positioning." See here for a preview. 

  4. Playbooks & Inserts:  the PCs of Stonetop and the steading playbook for the village itself.

  5. Running the Game: the core chapter for the GM. Click here for an art-free preview. 

  6. Player Moves: a detailed breakdown on each of the main player moves. 

  7. Harm & Healing: in which we discuss hit points, damage, debilities, problematic wounds, and how players recover from them. 

  8. First Adventure: a structure and process for your game's starting adventure, something that draws your PCs out into the wider world. 

  9. Threats: a way to prepare and track ongoing sources of trouble

  10. Expeditions: rules, procedures, and guidance for handling travel (an important part of the game)

  11. Sites: guidelines on creating interesting, exciting places to explore, places that tell stories and that present players with meaningful decisions

  12. Dangers: hazards, monsters, and running fights

  13. Discoveries: clues, encounters, opportunities, artifacts, and arcana... how to create them and use them in your games

  14. NPCs & Followers: guidance on creating and portraying non-player characters, and rules for those who follow the PC's lead

  15. Homefront: guidance, structure, and advice for making the time before, after, and between adventures matter.

  16. Writing Moves & Love Letters: a step by step procedure for conceptualizing and writing new player facing moves.  

  17. The Game Ongoing: Advice for how to wrap up a session and prep for the next one, sticky situations you might encounter over time, and how to bring your game to a satisfying conclusion




This book is the setting guide for Stonetop. It describes the PC's home village and the region it sits in, called the World's End. It’s a gazetteer of the places, peoples, and powers that make up or shape the region. It's written to be a resource, not a bible. It asserts many truths about the setting, but it also poses many questions for you and your group to answer during play.


Here's a (mostly) art-free preview of the Great Wood and Green Lords entries from Book II.
 
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"I love the setting, from the ancient ruins and wild places haunted by fae, spirits, and much stranger things (hypnotic baboon-headed snakes!) to the magic that demands sacrifice and promises terrible consequences. Every setting detail is richly evocative and meant to be played, not just read, with countless hooks, prompts, blanks, and questions that have spurred my creativity and my players’ enthusiastic collaboration." 
—Matt Wetherbee, playtester
~~~~

Want to know more?

Media Coverage, Reviews, and Discussion:



Actual play recordings and write-ups:

  • The official Blinding Light Annotated AP series, heavily annotated to demonstrate rules, structure, and principles of the game.   

  • PTFO: Stonetop, an ongoing AP fiction series by SGH, featuring fictionalized write-ups of his solo playthrough of Stonetop. 

  • Crônicas de Stonetop, a Brazilian group's ongoing actual play series with some pretty great visual design. (Caveat emptor... I have not watched this, nor do I speak Portuguese.) 

  • Stonetop AP, by Alastair Dagan and company, 11 sessions of actual play by a group unrelated to the project. (Caveat emptor... I have not watched much of this.)

  • Stonetop session write-ups at boardgamegeek.com. Currently has 43 sessions of Chris Thompson's "beta" campaign (2021-2022).
      
  • A Darkening Sky, a four-session actual play recording that I ran for the Gauntlet Gaming Community back in 2020. Unedited and kind of a wild ride.  

  • GauntletCon 2018, a three-session actual play recording that I ran for the Gauntlet Gaming Community back in 2018.Unedited, but a nice tight example of play. 

I'll try to update this page with additional media and APs as I become aware of them. If you know of something I've missed, let me know in the comments or email me at jack_blackfoot at yahoo.


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