Backwoods Cartography

An umappable,  absurdist fantasy setting for your tabletop roleplaying games.

“The Backwoods get like this every few decades, all tangled and rushmustled and fussfuddled. Folk are constantly trying to map the place out, you see? But the more it gets mapped out, the more it ceases to be itself. 

Naturally, the woods respond to these attempts by getting gradually more incomprehensible. Poke enough, and all that’s left is the parts you can’t write about, or sketch, or describe any which way at all. The parts that are too terrible to name.”

Backwoods Cartography Vol. 1 is a system-neutral setting to use in your RPG games. Vol.1 features over 50 pages of events, bestiary entries, boons and catastrophe tables, and more! Inspired by the writing of Douglas Adams, Lewis Carol, and Terry Pratchett, and the storytelling mechanics of Kingdom Death: Monster and Fighting Fantasy. 

Words and game design by Nic Reuben. Layout and visual design by Ewan Wilson (@ewanwilson4).

• 68 pages total
• Almost 20,000 words of descriptive fiction
• 44 story events, numbered for randomisation in the ever-shifting Backwoods
• Bestiary with 15 tales of the Backwood's more dangerous flora and fauna
• Randomised weather table (featuring crabs!)
• Table of 20 boons and 20 catastrophes for rewarding your players or making their lives endlessly difficult
• 10 unique states of being lost and confused
• Edited public domain images (Unsplash.com), featuring mushrooms, moss, ancient tree-bark, and twisty roots

Special thanks to my mum’s two cats, her beautiful, wild garden, and the beautiful, wild things it attracts. After a long time spent living without either cats or much of a garden, the time I spent surrounded by these things resulted in the Backwoods. Also, I had a daydream about a cat wizard riding a skeletal snake once, and made a note to use it at some point. The most special of special thanks to you, reader, for taking an interest.

Say Hello: backwoodscartographer@gmail.com