Tine Fieldling’s Folkloric TTRPG, The Hazelands, Hits Kickstarter!

Plenty of folks within the tabletop community will be aware of the work of Tine Fieldling. She makes brilliant, whimsical Fantasy creations and one of her longest running projects has been The Hazelands, a setting for the adventures you undertake on the tabletop. Well, The Hazelands is now on Kickstarter, so you can dive in and use it alongside D&D or other games if you like!

The Hazelands // Tine Fieldling

The Hazelands is a world, as Tine Fieldling puts it...

"...where frogs can be kings and where a teapot might hold a grudge. The wind carries gossip. The rivers keep secrets. And if you sit still long enough, you will surely be dropped in the middle of a legendary quest"

The book that you can get as part of the Kickstarter campaign builds on that and allows you to inhabit this whimsical world. Rather than your standard dungeon-delving experiences where you become murderous hobbos, The Hazelands rewards wit over brute force and you'll find yourself in a world of silly kings, dancing fickle fae creatures and more. It all ties in nicely to 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons mechanically but it could be adapted for other roleplaying games and even miniature skirmish games.

Book Interior // The Hazelands

This new book for The Hazelands builds on the currently available digital PDF (which you can find HERE) and presents it in a new way with a gorgeous new tome packed with artwork, expanded content and more. As Tine Fieldling put it, "The book is designed like a 13th-century nun would if she had a computer".

Inside the book, you'll find more lore about the world, mechanics for travelling, curses, flipping coins to add more chaos to games and a tips section for playing with young adventurers. There are also six new species: Faerie, Hazelands Elf, Gnome, Hobgoblin, Kinsfolk and Troll (one- and two-headed) alongside six new subclasses. You'll also get twelve new backgrounds, thirteen new spells, thirty-two new friends and foes, fifteen random roller tables, twenty magic items and more.

Book Interior // The Hazelands

For example, there is a silly one-shot adventure where you help a King find his lost keys. There is also a full magical campaign for levels two through to seven where you need to find three odd ingredients for a witch that are spread all around The Hazelands. You can find a full breakdown of the contents of the book on Kickstarter.

You'll also note that the book looks gorgeous and features additional illustrations by Ems Verhaert, Zuzana Čupová, Jarne D. and Max FitzGerald.

The Hazeland Miniatures

As well as the actual book, The Hazelands campaign offers twenty-two unique miniatures to represent your characters and "enemies" in STL format for you to print off at home.

Player Character Miniatures // The Hazelands

The miniatures are just as whimsical as the book, with six player characters covering the species and subclasses from the book alongside a pigeon familiar. There are also miniatures for Sir Pimbulus, Frog Knight, Hobgoblin Guards, Gnomelings, Mandrakes and even some larger creatures.

Hobgoblin Guards // The Hazelands

Gnomelings // The Hazelands

Some of the bigger creatures, including the Home Ogre, Hogwings and even the Giant Woodwose. I think you can tell that this game is whimsy cranked all the way up to eleven just by looking at the illustrations and the initial figure designs. I love it.

RossydoesDrawings Concepts // The Hazelands

There is also a kitbash set so you can make your own Marginalian Monsters and Hazelands-style miniatures and much more coming through Stretch Goals. There is a particularly awesome Stretch Goal in the works which brings the talented Johnny Fraser Allen into the team. Check out his Troll Bridge.

Troll Bridge // The Hazelands

I was looking at this campaign and I couldn't help but smile. There's a lot of grimdark out there in the world of wargaming and tabletop hobby in general and sometimes you just need something a bit odd, weird and whimsical to draw you in and show off what the other side looks like. I am sold.

The Hazelands Pledges

When it comes to pledging, there are numerous options but I'll show off the lowest option and the high end of the campaign.

Digital Scribe Pledge // The Hazelands

Digital Scribe is a basic digital tier and includes the PDF as well as the tidbits like character sheets, DM cheat sheet, character cards and more. You can then add on specific miniature sets if you like here. If you want just the basic physical tier and the book, you go for the Illuminator pledge.

At the other end of the scale, you have The Storyteller.

Storyteller Pledge // The Hazelands

The Storyteller Pledge comes with the hardcover book, snail mail pack, pilgrim badges, Hazelands map, all of the miniatures and a handmade illuminated later. You also get the PDF and the tidits that we mentioned. A solid option for someone who wants to fully immerse themselves in The Hazelands.

If you want to find out more, watch out for an Actual Play of The Hazelands coming to YouTube in October and more on Tine Fieldling's YouTube channel!

What do you make of The Hazelands?