Surviving Strangehollow is a 5E+ setting and supplement coming to Kickstarter in early 2024. Numerous A-list fantasy authors and designers have come together to bring the beautiful and intricate watercolors of Emily Hare to life as an immersive addition to 5E+. The campaign will feature a high-quality print book, pdf, custom dice, and several other art-centric pieces. For fans of Emily's work, there will also be several never-before-seen pieces of art added to the Strangehollow universe!
What's in the Book?
Standard Edition Hardcover
Sample Spread
Limited Edition Hardcover
Meet the Design Team
Emily Hare is an independent artist and illustrator based in the UK. She grew up in a haunted house on top of a hill, next to an ancient neolithic barrow called 'The Fairy's Toote' which has a history of strange happenings. She grew up reading fairytales and falling in love with the illustrations in the books, so it is not surprising that folklore and fairytales are a big influence on her work. Emily paints almost exclusively in watercolour which usually involves whimsical, strange and sometimes humorous creatures and characters.
Shawn Merwin is a full-time RPG freelance writer, designer, editor, and producer. His early published credits for Wizards of the Coast include Designer in the WotC book Dungeon Delve and the co-Designer (with Bruce Cordell) on Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress. He also co-designed Halls of Undermountain with Matt Sernett. For 5e, he was credited as a co-Lead Designer for the D&D Acquisitions Incorporated hardcover, as well as a Designer for Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.
Shawn also regularly worked on 5e projects for Kobold Press, Alligator Alley Entertainment, and other publishers in the D&D arena. In 2021, he became Executive Lead Designer for Ghostfire Gaming and oversaw the design on Grim Hollow: The Player's Guide, Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire, and Arora: Age of Desolation. He is a co-host on the Eldritch Lorecast podcast and stream.
Outside of D&D, Shawn also contributed to projects as diverse as Star Trek Adventures and the Dracula Dossier. He also designs and edits projects for Encoded Designs, which include such products for many different game systems. Shawn has written game-design articles for D&D Beyond, and he hosts a weekly podcast called Mastering Dungeons. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has taught creative writing at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. He also teaches a course on Writing for RPGs at Fredonia State University.
Shawn also regularly worked on 5e projects for Kobold Press, Alligator Alley Entertainment, and other publishers in the D&D arena. In 2021, he became Executive Lead Designer for Ghostfire Gaming and oversaw the design on Grim Hollow: The Player's Guide, Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire, and Arora: Age of Desolation. He is a co-host on the Eldritch Lorecast podcast and stream.
Outside of D&D, Shawn also contributed to projects as diverse as Star Trek Adventures and the Dracula Dossier. He also designs and edits projects for Encoded Designs, which include such products for many different game systems. Shawn has written game-design articles for D&D Beyond, and he hosts a weekly podcast called Mastering Dungeons. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has taught creative writing at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. He also teaches a course on Writing for RPGs at Fredonia State University.
ED GREENWOOD is a Canadian writer, game designer, actor, scriptwriter, and librarian best known for creating the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting. Ed’s 450-plus books have sold over 60 million copies worldwide in over 40 languages.
Ed also created or co-created Stormtalons, Mornmist, and dozens of other settings, and worked in Amber, Oz, and Middle Earth. He has scripted comic books for three companies and is likely the only Canadian to have appeared as himself in the panels of comic books from three other publishers. Ed has been elected to the Academy of Adventure Gaming Art & Design Hall of Fame and the Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction Hall of Fame and won multiple ENnie, Origins, and other awards. He has a Patreon, a YouTube channel, and “Greenwood’s Grotto” on Discord.
I am a Black speculative fiction and game writer and a Provost’s Early Career Fellow in the English Department at UT-Austin. I primarily write about worlds that don’t yet (quite) exist – visions of the almost future, sideways glimpses into magic realms, quick trips into the land of the horrifyingly possible. I am also fascinated by people who embody one of my favorite Sondheim lyrics: nice is different than good.
On the gaming and interactive side of things, I build worlds, develop lore, and write adventures for tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) across systems. My recent credits include contributions to the Nebula Award finalist Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel (D&D), including an adventure and a new location created as an homage/love letter to the Black experience in the US South, Pathfinder: Lost Omens Travel Guide, which takes readers on an in-depth exploration of the world of Golarion through the eyes of in-world NPCs, and Hunter: The Reckoning, which places players in a world full of supernatural threats that they have only recently become aware of and decided to fight back against. I’ve also been part of the script writing team for several seasons of the long-form audio narrative exergame Zombies, Run!, and created/coded two interactive fiction pieces.
Dael Kingsmill is a creator and storyteller who can’t help but push her vague and evocative approach to game design and narrative genre wherever she goes. As co-host of The Eldritch Lorecast, she discusses design philosophy and the latest TTRPG news on a weekly basis, and she can be found on YouTube (MonarchsFactory) talking literature and mythology along with plenty of other geek-niche subjects.
Forty-six-year-old husband, father, producer, author, designer, and painter; if it has anything to do with the gaming industry, Bryan has made it his goal to try his hand at it. He has been a gamer for thirty-plus years, an industry professional for over two decades, with over two million published words across numerous companies and brands: Iron Kingdoms, Babylon 5, Conan, Starship Troopers, Pacific Rim, Total Recall, Power Rangers, Transformers, and more. Currently the Producer/Developer of Sci-Fi games at Evil Genius Games, Bryan calls himself “the professional nerd”, and firmly stands by his motto – leave every room at least a little happier than when you got there.
A 22-year veteran in the Tabletop Games Industry, Elisa Teague has worked on over 100 published card and board games including Kingdom Hearts Talisman, Betrayal at House on the Hill: Widow's Walk, and her best-selling party trivia game, Geek Out!
She has also written for various RPGs including Dungeons & Dragons, where she is known for the puzzle chapter in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and being the lead writer and designer for the G.I. JOE, Transformers, Power Rangers, and My Little Pony Roleplaying Games, and the Wardlings 5e Core Setting Book, as well as developed, edited, and produced RPG books for the fifth edition Vampire: the Masquerade and Hunter: the Reckoning lines. Additionally, she has written for the Marvel Multiverse RPG Cataclysm of Kang adventure book, the Gloomhaven RPG, Kids on Bikes, the Imarian Nights 5e adventure book, the upcoming Welcome to Night Vale RPG, and many more.
Known for lore and worldbuilding, social intrigue, deep mystery plots, and puzzles in her RPG writing, Elisa loves to focus on in-world realism within fantasy settings to draw players into an environment that feels authentic where stories, choices, and consequences matter.
James Haeck is a game designer born in Seattle, Washington. They've led and contributed to include fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons adventures and sourcebooks like Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Pirates of the Aetherial Expanse, and Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep; sourcebooks like Tal'Dorei Reborn and Grim Hollow: The Valikan Clans. Their work has been published by studios like Wizards of the Coast, Darrington Press, Ghostfire Gaming, Kobold Press, MCDM, and Green Ronin Publishing.
James has also worked as the lead writer for D&D Beyond, creating hundreds of one-shot encounters, New Player Guides, and guides to squeezing every last bit of roleplaying potential out of monsters from mind flayers to devils. Now, they continue designing games independently using the fifth edition system and others, while also creating video essays about tabletop game design on their YouTube channel: @jamesjhaeck.
Dan is a tabletop roleplaying game designer specializing in Dungeons and Dragons 5e. He's written for a swath of publishers such as Kobold Press, Rogue Genius Games, Legendary Games, and Rite Publishing, and most recently worked on the D&D design team at Wizards of the Coast.
Mikey is one of the founders of Accidental Cyclops and has been a gamer his whole life. His day job is in technology, where he's had jobs in every part of the software development process - testing, coding, project management, product management, and leadership. He brings process expertise and cat-herding to the team to make sure that everybody stays on track.
Jason has been writing and designing RPGs for three decades, though admittedly mostly for use by his table-top and LARP friends. He broke into the TTRPG publishing space with recent work on The Real Thing RPG (find it in our store!) and its sequels, based on and in partnership with Faith No More (yeah, the band). He is one-half of the game design company Accidental Cyclops, for which Surviving Strangehollow is our first foray into mass-market TTRPG gaming.
Outside of his gaming life, Jason is a serial entrepreneur in the creative and technology industries. He is presently the CEO of Boundless (buildboundless.com) and is a founder of Boardable (boardable.com). He has three children who often tolerate his presence, and a wonderful wife who has been tolerating him even longer!
What is Strangehollow?
Strangehollow is a vast and ancient wilderness. It encompasses dense forests, dreary marshes, craggy hills and mountains, and hundreds of miles of coastline. The wilderness is inhabited by numerous magical creatures, many of which are unique to Strangehollow. Some may be familiar to explorers, adventurers, and tale-tellers, at least in name, but even those tropes are likely to have their own surprises.
Veteran explorers and minstrels tell stories of the cursed monsters that thrive in forests and swamps of the hollow. Many such creatures are wily and clever, using the inherent dangers of Strangehollow to their advantage. Some are truly mighty, capable of felling any mortal who offends them with but a flick of their talons or tails. Some creatures are so malicious that they take the time to toy with humanoid prey before devouring it. Anyone who lives within a hundred miles of the vast wilderness knows someone who knows someone who went missing in Strangehollow. And while most of the stories of man-eating creatures are merely fiction, the handful that are true are enough to keep the wise and the meek away.
The land is wholly untamed, and outsiders visit rarely and at immense risk to their lives. Most travelers brave enough to venture into the hollow make it only a few days before retreating or disappearing. Those who tell of going deeper are either truly legendary or exemplary liars. There are tales of powerful mage-folk or shamans who call Strangehollow’s depths home, but these are certainly exceptions if they exist at all.
Travelers in the hollow are as likely to run afoul of physical and environmental hazards as they are to be mauled or eaten. The landscape seems to twist and shift in ways that make wayfinding nearly impossible. Flora grows rapidly, empowered by the strange magic of the place. Rivers and canyons make certain routes impassable, while bogs and swamps threaten the weak with poisons and diseases. Perhaps the most menacing natural defense of Strangehollow is the mists. These banks of dense fog move willy-nilly through the landscape, enveloping the unwary. Such mists have been known to peel flesh from bones, rot wood and metal, or cause hallucinations, among other things.
Needless to say, such a place is a magnet for the brave and the foolish. Strangehollow has many rare and unique resources in abundance, from the skins of strange creatures to the extracts of rare plants. The wood of certain trees is prized by artisans, as are the fruits and flowers that don’t grow anywhere else. Often, would-be heroes defy reason and chase after loved ones who have been lost in Strangehollow, or at the behest of others who have lost kin to it. On rare occasions, the adventurous travel into Strangehollow because they are called to do so. Something in this wilderness summons them to claim power or wealth, or something less tangible.
Explore Strangehollow
Get the Art that Started it All!
Strangehollow began as a book focused on the mystical creatures and monsters that inhabit an enchanted forest. It has expanded over the years to include more than 100 creatures and pieces of artwork in three books.
You can purchase copies of Strangehollow, Secrets of Strangehollow, and Seas of Strangehollow at Emily Hare’s website.
Get The Books
