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Special Early Access: Fungi of the Far Realms

by Melsonian Arts Council

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The Wise Man of the Moor and the Wizard's Stool

What is Fungi of the Far Realms?

Fungi of the Far Realms is a system-neutral illustrated guide to fictional mushrooms, both magical and mundane. Inspired by the rambling naturists of past centuries, the book is packed with over 200 characterful fungi accompanied by traditionally made watercolour paintings. The book is a dense and easily used gaming artefact you can either draw from while creating your games or hand to players as an in-universe book to be found by their characters!

From the regal Agaric Rex to the sinister Woodsmans Baby, every entry explores the history and usage of the fungus along with characterful notes on its habitat, appearance, flavour and aroma. All with large watercolour paintings throughout.

We present to you a unique selection of imaginary fungi, ready-made for inclusion in your favourite fantasy role-playing games or simply read for the mycological joy of it. All neatly organised and lavishly illustrated for you and your players' pleasure.

Front and back cover

What Are You Funding?

With this crowdfunding campaign, we are making three things:

The Book

Firstly and most importantly, we are printing an exceedingly pleasing book with buckram covers, sewn binding, and beautiful hand painted mushrooms throughout. Because of the materials and size, these kinds of books are hard to keep in print and are by their nature limited. The more people who support this project, though, the more we'll print!

A full-colour, hard cover book (210mm x 210mm) with 250+ pages of speculative mycology, and tabletop role-playing material.

230+ watercolour paintings of fungi and their mycologists

220 fungi, illustrated and explained in idiosyncratic style

Brief chapter exploring how you can implement magical fungus in your games

Table of random effects of hallucinogenic mushrooms

A guide to fungal infections and poisoning

An excellent index to warm your academic heart

220 Flash Cards

The Flash Cards

Secondly, we're printing fungi flash cards. This deck of 220 kinds of fungus will have the painting on one side and the text on the other. Perfect for drawing from at random and shouting THIS IS THE MUSHROOM YOU SEE... do you eat it?

220 poker sized cards in a box

Offset printed (not print on demand!)

Contains almost the full text of the book in one handy (and huge) deck of cards

Perfect for seamlessly introducing fungi into your campaigns

The Foundry Module

Thirdly and lastly, a Foundry Virtual Tabletop module! Our friends at Hod Publishing are making a complete system agnostic Foundry module to accompany this book. With it, you can add these random mushrooms to your ongoing campaigns and access them with the click of a button. Includes the full text and artwork of the book, as macros for random mushrooms.

Little Mr. Music and Lonely Dragon Knight

Purple Gastrolith and Quebling Cathedral

Who Is This For?

For everyone! It is compatible with every tabletop RPG system, aids in campaign preparation, can be used by the players directly, and is an independently awesome reference manual for writers of all sorts.

For Players

Fungi of the Far Realms is perfect as an in-world item to give to your druids, healers, alchemists and hunters. Applicable to all fantasy settings, the book assumes nothing about your world and contains no references to place beyond the general terrain, allowing this book to be incorporated straight off the page with no work from the GM.

For GMs

Fungi of the Far Realms is an indispensable resource for games masters everywhere looking to include some depth to their campaigns. Along with a huge selection of mushrooms you can use to add flavour to your adventures, it contains suggestions for potions, poisons, recipes, and plot hooks throughout.

For World Builders

Fungi of the Far Realms is an excellent well of ideas for world builders and writers. The selection of mushrooms varies from the mundane to the mythological and everywhere in between, enabling you to find a mushroom for any narrative occasion.

The Rewards

The PDF Tier includes:

Fungi of the Far Realms (digital only)

Fungi of the Far Realms cover poster (digital only)

Fungi reference cards (digital only)

The Virtual Tabletop Tier includes:

Fungi of the Far Realms (digital only)

Fungi of the Far Realms cover poster (digital only)

Fungi flash cards (digital only)

Fungi of the Far Realms Foundary VTT module, including all the images and text, with macros to get random mushrooms, so you don't have to choose your own!

The Book Tier includes:

Fungi of the Far Realms as a 210mm x 210mm, 250-page hard cover book, on beautiful paper and with two ribbon bookmarks (physical & digital)

Fungi of the Far Realms cover poster (physical & digital)

Fungi flash cards (digital only)

The Book & Virtual Tabletop Tier includes:

Fungi of the Far Realms as a 210mm x 210mm, 250-page hard cover book, on beautiful paper and with two ribbon bookmarks (physical & digital)

Fungi of the Far Realms cover poster (physical & digital)

Fungi flash cards (digital only)

Fungi of the Far Realms Foundary VTT module, including all the images and text, with macros to get random mushrooms, so you don't have to choose your own!

The Cards Tier includes:

Fungi of the Far Realms as a 210mm x 210mm, 250-page hard cover book, on beautiful paper and with two ribbon bookmarks (physical & digital)

Fungi of the Far Realms cover poster (physical & digital)

Fungi flash cards (physical & digital)

The Deluxe Tier includes:

Fungi of the Far Realms as a 210mm x 210mm, 250-page hard cover book, on beautiful paper and with two ribbon bookmarks (physical & digital)

Fungi of the Far Realms cover poster (physical & digital)

Fungi reference cards (physical & digital)

Fungi of the Far Realms Foundry module, including all the images and text, with macros to get random mushrooms, so you don't have to choose your own!

The book, open

The Creators

Written by Alex R. Clements.

Illustrated and designed by Shuyi Zhang.

Published by The Melsonian Arts Council.

Foundry module made by Hod Publishing

What's changed?

This is the second edition of this marvellous book, originally published in 2019 and long out of print. Additions include Shuyi Zhang returning with ten new paintings, and Alex Clements has re-written some entries to accommodate the latest in E. Q. Winterdarden scholarship. Additionally, the new edition will be perfectly square, with an all new layout making the best use of the art and writing to create an even more glorious object for your shelf and table.

Reviews of the previous editions

'I love the singular focus and commitment to an idea that Fungi of the Far Realms offers. It raises eyebrows and confuses people. It looks and feels like an esoteric book you find at an estate sale or in the nether reaches of a second-hand book store, where you pick it up and wonder why it even exists. But beyond novelty, there is solid usability here. It’s one of the most unique RPG tomes I own, and I treasure it for that.'
- There Will Be Games

'A perfect book I will cherish for all my living years.'
'This is about the most brilliant supplement for TTRPGs that I have ever seen.'
- Goodreads reader reviews

"This thing is amazing, both as a book and as an object. From a functional perspective the amount of content it can inject into your games is frankly astounding, and its gorgeous production makes it a joy just to read and use. "
- Pixeldie