In my “Roleplaying Products You Didn’t Know You Were Missing” series, I talked extensively about prose novels as a way to expand your intellectual property (IP) brand and support your tabletop roleplaying game (here, here, and here). One of properties that I suggested would benefit from a novel is MÖRK BORG. Coincidentally, the “first officially-sanctioned MÖRK BORG [novella],” Whispers of the Dead Saint, is crowdfunding on Kickstarter through Sunday, November 6 2022. As such, I review the campaign and spoke to the author, John Baltisberger, about how this project came together.
Written by the Kaiju Poet, John Baltisberger, the novella, Whispers of the Dead Saint, features a cover by Johan Nohr and forward by Pelle Nilsson, both of the creators of behind MÖRK BORG. The book’s author describes himself as a “prolific and award-winning horror writer and MÖRK BORG fanatic.” He’s no stranger to MÖRK BORG as he’s written RPG zines on the subject, Morkkabeans: 1:1 and 7 Aboard the Schackel, and worked on more.
UPDATE 2022-11-04 from John Baltsiberger: “One correction I didn’t write 7-aboard, Zac Goins did, I did work on SVMP though.”
As for this novella, the campaign shares a fantastic looking hardcover with 150ish pages (20,000 words) of story, as well as the stats for the monster and the class feature in the narrative. What’s the plot? Dödz Bringare, undead killer, is forced to search for a noble’s dead wife. As he investigates, he hears the whispers of the dead saint guiding him in the face of cultists, zombies, and the wrath of the Blood Countess. This reads like a dark tale set in the world of MÖRK BORG, perfect as an RPG adventure or the plot for this novella.
HOW DID THIS NOVELLA COME TOGETHER?
Novels set in RPG worlds and mythology used to be a major component of game publishing. However, they’ve shrunk from major to more of a novelty. New books such as Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s Dragons of Deceit: Dragonlance Destinies sparked news on multiple websites and traditional publications as interest in the resurrection of this universe is high. Since these types of books are unusual, I asked John Baltisberger how this project came to be.
“I grew up on novels based on RPGs, Ravenloft and Dragonlance were my jam, so I’ve always enjoyed novelizations of game worlds that I could experience. As soon as I discovered MÖRK BORG, I knew I wanted to craft in that space. I started with designing some adventures, working with other creators like Tommy on SVMP and a few others, and really trying to join the creator community before I launched my own project, Morkkabeans 1.1.
I approached [Johan] Nohr about the flexibility of the third-party license and asked if it could be used to write novels, and once I got the affirmative on that, I basically started right away, writing it was the easy part, I’ve written over a dozen books, and grimdark fantasy is my safe space, but it was also important to me to include as many other creators and community members as possible.
So Johan Nohr did the cover, Pelle Nilsson is doing the forward, Christian Eichorn and Zac Goins blurbed about it, and Simone Tammetta is doing interior art. I also plan on taking the project further, this is just the first novella in the series, I have been working with other creators and will be creating novelizations of Christian Eichorn’s adventures, starting with the Bone Heart Crusade. I’ll also be branching out and writing something with Brian Collin for Vast Grimm, as well as trying to put together some bigger game supplement material.
My goal in doing this is to have fun and create something cool, but also to gain enough momentum that I can just write cool TTRPG-based novellas all day. It’s an absolute blast.”
ART & FORMAT
Given the visual style that the MÖRK BORG books employee, this publication is set to shine among the other entries. This book is spec’d out with cover art by Johan Nohr and interior pieces by Simone Tammetta. While MÖRK BORG is known for its innovative layout and rule communication, it isn’t always the easiest style and design to read. When I wrote about making a MÖRK BORG novel, I suggested The Book of Nod as a roadmap for the look of the novel. In contrast to my thoughts, Whispers of the Dead Saint is aiming for a more traditional approach as discussed in the campaign’s FAQ:
“Will the text of the novel by standard format or ‘Art-Punk’
While we plan on making this a beautiful book with art and cool stuff, we promise the text of the novel will be standard novel format and font so that you can enjoy reading the actual story!”
The audiobook version of this novella is slated to be read by John Wayne Communale. Mr. Communale has a resume that includes reading for Abhorrent Siren, Jungles of Habbiel, and Max Booth’s Maggot’s Screaming. Many of John Baltisberger’s audiobooks are read by John Wayne Communale, though not all such as Blood & Mud. This project is an excellent opportunity for these two creators to work together again.
KICKSTARTER
Kaiju Poet is working with Bite- Sized Gaming on this Kickstarter campaign. This project is crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Not an unexpected move, but what is unexpected is the category its listed in. Categories help to define what a project is and this one would fit neatly into Publishing: Fiction since it’s a piece of prose. However, it contains some gaming elements, so the campaign organizer opted for a different categorization, Games: Tabletop Games. This decision puts the project in front of its core audience, gamers.
While writing this article (2022-10-26, the day the campaign launched) there are 139 active campaigns under Publishing: Fiction. Of that 139, 16 of the campaigns (12%) have greater totals than Whispers of the Dead Saint (at $4,716 at the time of this writing). By comparison, there are 153 tabletop RPG campaigns on Kickstarter, with 76 (50%) bring in more than this novel. In other words, there’s a greater pool of money coming via crowdfunding for tabletop games than for fiction. If you’re writing a novel, it has RPG content, and you want to achieve the maximum amount of exposure, it behooves you to choose tabletop game for their greater funding history. In the case of a MÖRK BORG product, the tabletop games section has a built-in audience.
As a measure of success, I’m curious what per word rate John Baltisberger hopes to see from this project. I didn’t ask because then I’d want to print the answer. Instead, let me speculate. The campaign started with a $500 funding goal, which would not have paid the author anything approaching their worth. But, in the first day it exceeded $4,700, which gives more room to pay a per word rate. There’s a percentage to Kickstarter, another amount goes to the artists and foreword, the recording of the audiobook, and a chunk goes to printing and fulfillment, but even with that, there’s likely to be an economic upside on John’s 20,000 words. That’s key, making money writing is important if RPG tie-in novels are going to make a comeback.
SHOULD YOU BACK THIS CAMPAIGN?
If you want MÖRK BORG stories told through prose, this sounds like a winner. John Baltisberger is a MÖRK BORG fan, gamer, and designer, so his writing is likely to tap into the essence of doom metal fantasy and deliver a satisfying tale. Whispers of the Dead Saint comes with all of the right accessories: An illustrated hardcover novella with a ribbon, an audiobook, and original gaming content.
While this book exists for established fans, it offers a gateway to the IP and game for new fans. That’s key, tapping into and expanding the fanbase. I hope this represents another step in the return of novels as an integral component of tabletop roleplaying games.
BACKER REWARDS
How is this campaign reaching its goals? If you’re interested in backing this campaign, here’s what you get. Each of these includes some stretch goals such as the aforementioned audiobook. These backer tiers are what fans are pledging for so let’s review them.
- $3 gets you the ebook and the audiobook. This is an amazing value.
- $20 plus shipping and handling (S/H) gets you the ebook, the audiobook, and the hardcover.
- $40 plus S/H gets you the ebook, the audiobook, and an autographed copy of the hardcover and the Madness Heart Games patch.
- $150 plus S/H gets you all of the $40 pledge plus you get to name a hero. Getting to immortalize a character is a cool option.
- $300 plus S/H gets you all of the $40 pledge plus you get to name a recurring villain. Adding a villain to the mix is another fun opportunity.
Whispers of the Dead Saint – A MÖRK BORG NOVEL by Kaiju Poet (John Baltisberger) and published by Madness Heart Games, an imprint of Madness Heart Press
End Date: Sun, November 6 2022 6:05 PM EST.
“The first officially-sanctioned MÖRK BORG novel! With cover by Johan Nohr and forward by Pelle Nilsson.”
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, and Amazon.
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