A Strange Long Trip

The Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City is a tabletop role-playing game book, half setting, half adventure, and half epic trip; inspired by psychedelic heavy metal, the Dying Earth genre, and classic Oregon Trail games. It leads a group of ‘heroes’ into the depths of a vast and mythic steppe filled with the detritus of time and space and fuzzy riffs.

The UVG is the work of the designer, artist, and writer Luka Rejec and was made possible through the generous support of hundreds of discerning fans at the Stratometaship patreon. Luka's previous work includes illustrating Chris Kutalik's acid fantasy Misty Isles of the Eld, co-writing What Ho Frog Demonswith the Hydra Coöperative, and writing, art, and design on the already-sold-out adventure of witch-hunting: Witchburner.

In partnership with Exalted Funeral Press, the goal of this kickstarter is to finally give the UVG the hardback full-color print run this celebration of metal psychedelia deserves. The writing and art are all done, the editing and final layout are currently in progress. The estimated date of delivery is late August 2019.

The UVG is for referees and players who want to run a months’ long science fantasy Marco Polo-style voyage across a weird, old world.

The UVG is for any gamer who wants to mine it for inspiration, adventuring locations, odd characters, maps, items, and random encounters.

The UVG is an art book knitting together Luka's illustrations and maps and writing.

The UVG is loud, heavy music, and grinding, tectonic sci-fi given flesh as a rule-light old-school 'R' or what have you continent-spanning rpg adventure.

Overclocking the UVG

We've seen many kickstarters sunk by over-ambitious stretch goals, that's why we're keeping ours on a tight leash: none of these stretch goals involve any new writing or content. It's all about applying the extra funding to improve design, add some cool accessories, and make the game easier to run.

$20,000 — Accordion Map

The UVG has a 140-centimeter (55-inch) long map. Well, if we hit $20k we'll spruce it up, prep it for print, and get it turned into an folded accordion map where you can track your adventures as they unfold.

$25,000 — Dice Set

We'll design a polyhedral dice set just for the UVG, so you too can burn your gaming eyes on some deep retina-searing purple dice.

$40,000 — The Game Master Screen

Our editors are compiling the most relevant tables, rules, and information in the UVG anyway, but it's a rough thing. If we hit $40k, we're going to lay out the whole thing, whip Luka to make a 4:1 landscape artwork for the screen, and commission a fancy limited-edition screen to complement this kickstarter edition.

$60,000 — Hahahaha