This is it, the Scarred Lands, as a setting, is over. At least, it is for now. There'll be a developer chat this coming Monday.

The rumor mill has been grinding away, but this time it has been pretty close to the mark: Strange Lands: Lost Tribes of the Scarred Lands (on sale 11/29) is the final product in Sword & Sorcery Studios’ Scarred Lands setting. The highly competitive and highly fragmented d20 marketplace leaves us little choice but to do this, but we don’t act without a heavy heart. Scarn has been a very good world to us and to its fans. Thankfully, Strange Lands gives the setting the kind of send-off it deserves: a meaty book full of settings rife for adventure, magics and wonders waiting to be found, and a cavalcade of deadly monsters to slay.

The following three essays, excerpts from developers Joseph D. Carriker, Jr. and Ari Marmell and from managing editor Andrew Bates have more to say on this bittersweet book.

You can also join Joseph and Ari on Monday, November 1 at 7 PM Eastern for an online chat about this much-loved line.

These have been three years of wonder.

The amazing book you hold contains contributions from some of the most amazing authors, artists and creators ever to grace the Scarred Lands line. This book is packed with cool ideas, interesting places, terrors and wonders. But it is also more than that.

It is also the final book in the Scarred Lands line.

We had wonderful plans and places yet to take you, but all things must end. So, rather than see it trickle away, rather than spend these final releases on bits of minutiae like regions or organizations or a million other details, we figured we should flesh out the remaining portions of the world and put it into your hands.

This book contains the final three continents of the Scarred Lands, my friends. Given the amount of information to cover, we didn’t have the space to put in all the wonderful details that our authors gave us — you should have seen my agony trying to figure out what to leave out! Nonetheless, we’ve given you a beautifully crafted set of thumbnails, ready for you to apply your own interests, strengths and campaign needs.

I have had the privilege to be around since the first Relics & Rituals, though I was just one name among many others who managed to contribute to that first, fateful Open Call. I love this setting dearly and have poured my heart and soul into it for three years now. It has become home to some of my most beloved ideas, and I will hold my years as a Scarred Lands writer and developer as some of my best work as an author, long after I have moved on.

But more than that, this setting has become home to so many of your ideas — the setting was grown on your imaginations, watered in your games and made strong through your efforts. None of us could have done this without each and every one of you, whether you were one of our frequent authors and Open Call contributors, one of the great idea people on our forums, or one the folks running a Scarred Lands game ‘cause you like your fantasy a little grittier.

So thank you. Each of you. You have made it possible to build such an amazing setting. You have made these three years of wonder possible.

Thank you, and last one out, get the lights.

—Joseph D. Carriker, Jr.
Scarred Lands Developer
Sword & Sorcery Studios

***

All Good Things

All good things must come to an end. There’s a time and a place for everything. Life goes on. God never closes a door without opening a window.

The hell with the lot of ’em. Platitudes suck. They’re also often true, though. Such as this one: It’s never easy to say goodbye.

I haven’t been with the Scarred Lands as long as Joe, or as long as many of you have. In my time here, though, I’ve been privileged not merely to explore the world but to help shape it. I’ve seen it grow and expand into one of the best d20 campaign settings on the market. I’ve had a lot of great experiences with the Scarred Lands, personal and professional. I’ve made some really good friends because of it.

But this is a different world, and a different time, than when Stewart and Steve Wieck first saw the potential in the d20 System license and decided to grab onto it with both hands. The market has changed and Sword & Sorcery has changed. It’s time for Sword & Sorcery to devote its attention to other projects, and other settings.

The Scarred Lands aren’t going away without a proper farewell, though. Strange Lands: Lost Tribes of the Scarred Lands is crammed from cover to cover with information useful to almost any sort of campaign, whether set in the Scarred Lands or in some other world. We’ve examined the peoples of the world not yet covered in other releases, from the hardy desert-dwellers of Asherak to those who serve the great wyrms in the Dragon Lands to the fiercely determined survivors of Fenrilik’s icy wastes. In each and every case, we present to you new races, new magics, new character options and new monstrous challenges for them to face. We’ve provided more cultural and historical information for Scarn as well, information that answers a few lingering questions — and, as always, asks a few new ones.

Because, you see, there’s another platitude worth bringing up here: There are no true endings. This is the final official chapter of the Scarred Lands for now, but we all hope to come here again some day. Even if not, the Scarred Lands will never be gone, because all of you will carry it on every time you break out the dice. When you do, Strange Lands is a fine tool to work with. We may not be bringing it to you under the happiest of circumstances as the last book of the current line, but it’s still a book we’re proud to offer.

So for now, watch out for serpents, keep an eye on the Calastian border, and be sure to take plenty of water if you’re going in search of the Seraphic Engine. On behalf of all of us, I look forward to seeing you in Sword & Sorcery’s next world — and, someday, to visiting you all again in this one.

—Ari “Mouseferatu” Marmell
Scarred Lands Writer, Developer and Fan

***

A Few Words

I’m not much of one for prefaces and other explanatory notes; I prefer to let the work speak for itself. The conclusion of a game line — especially one as rich as Scarred Lands — warrants a few words, though.

Since the Open Game License first gave third-party publishers the chance to create their own game material based on the d20 System, Sword & Sorcery has created numerous products. The Scarred Lands line was our opportunity for a gritty and diverse take on fantasy. Fans responded, and we like to think that the setting also influenced what other third-party publishers produced.

The d20/OGL market has always been competitive, though, and many product lines and publishers throughout the industry have felt the pinch of a fragmenting consumer base (to mix a metaphor) in the past year. Scarred Lands has taken some hits, too. It’s retained a core following, but sales in the current d20 market just aren’t at a feasible level. There are too many other books (many of ’em quite good) competing for the fans’ attention.

There’s still stuff we want to do with the setting — from exploring further areas of the current Scarred Lands to venturing into different eras of Scarn’s turbulent history (and future). We could string out a handful of additional sourcebooks, but it wouldn’t do justice to the Scarred Lands and it wouldn’t be fair to the fans. So rather than let the setting wither on the vine, we decided that it was best to wrap up the current incarnation with one last solid release — a release packed with great content and hitting the high points that we hadn’t quite gotten to yet.

As Joseph said, this is the last book for Scarred Lands. As Ari said, it’s the last book for now. We have every intent of returning to Scarn. Exactly when and in what fashion are questions that will be answered in the future.

In the meantime, we give you Strange Lands, a book filled with some of the most imaginative and exciting ideas that the Scarred Lands has ever offered up. It’s great for a Scarred Lands campaign, it’s great for any d20 System game — heck, it’s just plain great.

We hope you enjoy it, and thanks for your support over the past three years!

Regards,

—Andrew Bates
Managing Editor
Sword & Sorcery Studios

My thanks to everyone who made the Scarred Lands possible.