Announcing Shrines: Sites of Reverence & Power

Kickstarting soon!

Sign up to be notified on launch

Shrines: Sites of Reverence & Power is a forthcoming riso-printed worldbuilding zine for exploring sacred architecture and devotional practice in analog adventure games.

Contents:

  • 12 illustrated spreads of micro-fiction and system-agnostic gameplay hooks, each offering a distinct and evocative site for game masters to embed in their worlds.

    Players can…

    • Project their minds over cloud and kingdom from the Pagoda of Kiran the Eye

    • Attain sainthood by returning lost treasure-scrolls to the Shrine of the Hidden Word

    • Climb the megafauna Orm the Inexorable to meet historical figures in the Arbor of Time

    • More!

  • Procedural tools for generating shrines, rituals, visitors, and atmospheric detail.

  • Critical theory on real-world shrines and their functional use in games.

Sample spread:

Product Specs:

  • Risolve Studio of Lancaster, PA will riso-print Shrines as a 28-page, 11x7” zine on saddle-stiched Springhill Vellum 67lb stock (details may slightly change).

    • The base version will include two colors of ink (the stock itself acting as a third), but the Kickstarter campaign will likely include stretch goals that add a third ink and/or other improvements.

Risolve Studio in Lancaster, PA

Creators:

  • Writing by James Pianka, a systems and narrative designer in the game industry (Magic: the Gathering, State of Decay 2) with fieldwork and publication history in Buddhist philosophy.

  • Art and layout by Conner Fawcett, an illustrator, costume designer, and sculptor working in tabletop roleplaying games (Wanderhome, Lancer, World Ending Game) and adjacent media.

  • Cultural consultation by Khenpo Pema Wangdak, a Tibetan Buddhist scholar of the Sakya school and founder of the Vikramaśila Foundation; and Jeremy McMahan, a museum educator (Guggenheim Museum, Rubin Museum of Art) and scholar of Himalayan religious history.