A downloadable micro-setting toolkit

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THERE’S A BIT OF THE SPOKEN VERSE, it comes rushing like a memory of words you’ve never spoken, when you find yourself humming and hawing on the long and lonesome road, far from home; dreary and bleary, with a heavy heart that keeps you going further than you should. 

It says: “Dim the old campfire light and sink into slow slumber, let the torch smoke climb towards the blue-black sky and the stars twinkling like fireflies in deep, dirty love. Let the memories of gloom fall into the river that climbs across the land like a stumble-drunk child, leading always and only into the blissful waters found under the moon. 

Lay down your sleepy head, and all your burdens. You’re lost, but the music is calling to your soul and it tells you that down here by this old river you’ll never again study war or feel that need to climb a mountain tall. This is a place of comfort you’ll find, do a service to kit and cat in kind, and all will be well, and all will be swell, once Catland makes you mine.”

Now, the who that is Catland making you theirs is not known to most; those who get out of that place where they hide blades in their beans and hunger in their smiles don’t rightly know who is the who. Maybe it’s Catland speaking in the third person, maybe it's something fouler, maybe its the river, maybe it's the moon, maybe it's the cold comfort of thinking you could ever belong to Catland who is the who you should know. 

Who's to say?

But now that you're here; you gotta get out of this place...

WHAT IS THIS?
This is the Catlands Jazzband Gazeteer; a micro-setting within the Dreaming Autumnal Wilds. The cats here, inbetwixt their nine lives, felt lonely. They stole jazz, in concept; and it has begun doing strange things to the mortal souls they've drawn in. It is a preview, in a sense, to a much larger setting of nostalgic hooks and wayward wanderers; inspired by the likes of Big Fish, Over the Garden Wall, Nightmare Before Christmas, O, Brothere Where Art Thou, and other misremembered tales of yore and youth spent in rural living. 

WHAT IS INSIDE?
A little over 70+ pages of tools and setting for a Cat-infested sprawl within a oneirous realm. Ample strangers, local color, and character generating tables. Catlands is a pit stop in the weird; a realm to escape once inside, all generated for Troika; with illustrations by Lulu Van Hoagland & Evlyn Moreau.

LEGALESE
The Catlands Jazzband Gazetter is an independent production by the Goatman’s Goblet and is not affiliated with the Melsonian Arts Council.

CONTENT WARNINGS
This product contains references to drowning, implications of suicide, depression, indentured servitude, class struggles, and while such things are meant to exist within a sense of gallows’ humor and the absurdity of a cat-ruled society, they may still be disconcerting and unpleasant to some. Tailor this setting as you wish; these are but tools.

Purchase

Buy Now$7.50 USD or more

In order to download this micro-setting toolkit you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $7.50 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Catlands+Errata.pdf 11 MB
CatlandsPrinterFriendly.pdf 11 MB

Download demo

Download
Catlands Map - Illustrated by Evlyn Moreau 2 MB
Download
Dreaming Autumnal Wilds Setting Map - Illustrated by Anna Aphelion 7 MB

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

Thanks for creating such an whimsical setting and releasing a printer-friendly version of it! It looks like some of the bulleted lists on page 35 of the printer-friendly version might have been misformatted.

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Brian Yaksha's "The Catlands Jazzband Gazeteer" is a setting book, intended specifically for Troika! but hey, its mostly tables about things and people and happenings. So you can use it for basically anything.

So you see the cover and it's got some cute cat pictures, most of the art is cute. This is gonna be cute and light hearted right? HAHA.

No. Catland not someplace you want to be; it's someplace you want to escape while you still have your human facilities. It feels like home, in as much as a soggy place can feel like my home which is all places to be from, and pass through, but not places to live lest you allow the place to truly work on you and change you to fit it, oh yes the desert may seem lovely but.....

Ahem, where was I....Oh yes.

Or not. You could become cattish, which not as good as being a cat. But probably better than not being any kind of cat.

Honestly, I want to go to Catland. I want to go there and see the cattish and the cats. I want to go there and look into the eyes of the cats so sure and smug of their superiority so that they might feel some inkling of how no matter what their station in the Catlands, they are a cat, a kitty cat.

But to visit the Catlands to become susceptible to the wiles and whims of these cats.

But who knows.

Every time I read this book, I see what may be different parts of Catland, or may be entirely different Catlands.

All of this being written, the book tells you want it's for, in as much as anything can be anything, and especially in as much as a cat be meant for anything. And to me it is very clear that Brian has known a great many cats.

Finally, and as much as this may pain our dear author, it is probably the most Ghibli inspired game thing I've ever read.

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Thanks mate, its glad to hear you dig it.  I've known many a good cat, though I was always a dog person; which I think is what made cats all the more enchanting. They're turning cogs up in their head, and while an old dog may wear the face of its favorite thing for many years (snoozing, walking, swimming; that smile they do when you offer it up) a cat makes you read its eyes. 

There's certainly a Ghibli quality, I used to babysit kids when I was in HS and they'd watch The Cat Returns until it lost all meaning; and so there's some well of experience; nostalgia coupled with this imagery coupled with uncertainty; which definitely plays a factor into the idea of the Catlands. 

I truly appreciate this kind post and your reading of the material. 

Hey! My print copy is still on the way from Spear Witch, but I noticed that I received only the PDF of the booklet (which already has the errata fixed). How can I get access to the map files too?

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Hey, I just put the Maps up as something that can be freely downloaded here. Let me know if you're unable to grab them.

- Brian

(+1)

Got them, thanks! :D

(1 edit)

Hey, great gazetter here. Just one question about the softcover I received. On page 29, it seems like the last table has been copied from another table above. What is the right content for this table ?

(+1)

Hey, I was informed of this as it is a layout error; its meant to be:

Page 29 - Entries wrong.
Should be: 1-2. Bridgetownie 3. Riverbanker 4. Bridgetopper 5-6. Underbridger.

I actually just got the fixed PDF and will be putting it up right now.

OH Thanks. I wonder if, as for all the other RPG, we can receive the PDF when we bought the book. As there are the maps that are pretty interesting and usefull too.

(+1)

I was under the impression that the PDF was sent alongside it via SpearWitch. Let me know where you've bought it elsewhere and I'll try to remedy this and/or send me an email/receipt at brianrichmondwriter@gmail.com and I'll send you the PDF right away. 

Thanks !! Problem solved :D

(+1)

This is an extremely awesome setting. I'd love to be able to print it! Any chance you could make a version without the black and blue backgrounds? They look gorgeous, but I can't print them.

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I'll see what can be done!

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Oh that's awesome! Thank you! Sorry for the inconvenience, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

(+1)

Any update on this? I adore the concept here and would also be interested in a printable PDF.

Yep, about to upload it. 

(+1)

I'm perhaps a little biased, but the two maps are a real treat. Cat buildings!

Also excellent wordsmithing, as with all of Brian's stuff