Lords of the Backstairs is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game where you are a noble in control of a small fiefdom from which you rise through the feudal hierarchy by gaining more fiefdoms through diplomacy, trade, marriage, and war.
This not a simple map-painting game. It features an in-depth combat system that mixes real-world strategy with fantasy shenanigans. Want to build manoeuvrable battlefield formations? You can do that! Want to fling a hundred soldiers across the map in random directions with a tornado spell? You can do that! LOTB is based in the world of Orilon, the same setting as Hector Valerious. Elements of exploration, lore, battlefield strategy, city building, character creation, and turn-based combat are incorporated simply and playfully in a game where roleplaying ties everything together.
Political map of the world of Orilon c. 1370 AO
What You Can Expect
This is a TTRPG inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Warhammer, Triangle Agency, Cypher System, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Paranoia. The core Lords of the Backstairs rulebook will be published in-paper and online. To play, you only need the book, paper, a set of polyhedral dice, and 3-6 players!
A video game version is also in development! I am working with a group of game devs to first make a free-to-use online character sheet manager. If this goes well, we plan on turning the TTRPG into a full video game for single player and multi-player! This is a project that will likely take years, so don’t expect a video game anytime soon. But if all goes well, the online character sheet creator may be available along with the book’s release!
Current Status
LOTB was originally an add-on to Dungeons & Dragons that turned one-on-one D&D combat into army-versus-army battles. I am now developing this system into a full TTRPG.
If you are interested in learning more, getting regular updates, and being a beta tester, you can join the Orilon Discord server and grab the LOTB tag.