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Leaves of Chiaroscuro: Exploration & Intrigue in a Strange & Wondrous RenaissanceClick to magnify

Leaves of Chiaroscuro: Exploration & Intrigue in a Strange & Wondrous Renaissance

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Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood
as light to darkness.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Note: both a hi-res and smaller low-res PDF will be provided to the purchaser.

Welcome to the alternate reality world of Asiyah. Here, even the most fantastic promises of the Renaissance have blossomed into realities. 

Dragons soar alongside Da Vinci’s flying machines, while wizards weave illusions as intricate as any of Machiavelli’s machinations. Yet, under all this wonder rot grows and spreads; horrors lurk amongst not only the ancient ruins but amongst mankind and within the human heart. Noble houses and factions feud, reactionaries threaten to destroy all that has been built in this grand age.

The Medici's of the Renaissance

Contained within these pages is

  • A setting focused on an alternate reality Italy in the world of Asiyah.
  • Details on several Italian cities, from the Floating city of Venice to Florence the City of Invention.
  • Information on the strange realms of the Great Beyond, from The Faery to Sitra Ahra. Details on enchanted places where those other realms impinge upon Asiyah.
  • 6 player character species* 
  • Player-character friendly rules for dragons in the Fate RPG system.
  • A wealth of new stunts, special materials, weapons and optional rules.
  • An improvisational magic system.
  • A guide to The Red City of Bologna, complete with a wealth of NPCs, detailed locations, a full adventure, and more.

*Player species include:

  • Humans, the elder race who now dominate the world.
  • Lacerta, the shapeshifting scions of the dragon gods.
  • Nephilim, born of forbidden unions between humans and the angelic grigori. Long ago the nephilim had an empire, remembered today commonly as Atlantis.
  • Apeiron, children of the four elements and four humours, born of an alchemical experiment.
  • Cambion: Cursed half-demon children of the Qliphoth.
  • Therion, chimerical beings blessed by Echnidna (the Minotaur of legend was a therion).
Lacerta Dragon

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Reviews (1)
Discussions (7)
Customer avatar
Emanuele R March 26, 2017 2:20 pm UTC
I just read through the preview to decide whether to buy this or not but…

There's no TOC in the preview, and of the 15 pages we have:
1 page for the cover.
1 page of introduction ("this is a Fate Core based game, an you'll need some friends and Fate dice". Oh, really?)
1 page of setting introduction ("RPGs are about exploration. Renaissance too. Therefore Renaissance is the perfect setting for RPGs." Mmh, if you say so.)
1 page of, er…, another setting introduction? So generic that it could be applied to almost any setting with no modifications at all, just substitute "Asiyah" with your world's name.
2 pages of lexicon.
5 pages of alternate timeline. This is not bad per se but, seriously, 1/3rd of the entire preview!
1 page about Venice. With a photo of modern Florence. WHAT?! Come on! At least pick the right city! (And if you want to use a photo, please photoshop away the modern details.)
1 page with a huge picture...See more
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Customer avatar
Megan B March 26, 2017 7:34 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I've posted a review on Youtube above, so, there's a 3rd party's opinion and more information on it.

There's only so much that can be shown and explained in a tiny preview file of a 366 page book. I'll work on getting the ToC up, but, I've seen people complain about preview files mainly being ToC on other products.

The image on the Venice page is a photo I actually took while I was personally in Venice, it isn't Florence.
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Customer avatar
Emanuele R March 27, 2017 9:14 am UTC
I see that you updated the preview with a ToC, excellent. And the content is much better now.

But no, that photo is definitely Florence. It's a view of Ponte Vecchio. Google it!
Reply
Customer avatar
Megan B March 27, 2017 3:16 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
fair enough I concede may have mixed up photo labels in the many years after it was taken, so will look it up.
Customer avatar
Pierre S January 24, 2017 10:15 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Just a thought to everyone. If you like Leaves of Chiaroscuro you might also like Evocraft RPG, which has over 450 pages (digest-sized) of material. Evocraft has a simple rules system (based on d6 dice-pools) but it is mainly concerned with world-generation. It gives you some guidelines and profuse roll-tables to generate geography, flora and fauna, historical events and culture for 5 possible eras: Primitive, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern and Post-Holocaust. The procedures are loose and very free-form. It allows the possibility of 3 layers of spirit-dimensions, magic, and fantasy races. Notes are given on how to include influences of past Eras into the new Era and the kinds of turmoil in going from one Era to another. 3 kinds of character-sheets and many kinds of record-sheets are included in the .pdf set.

The reason I think this may be useful is that you can develop DIFFERENT Renaissance-type settings (which the game calls Era 3) with details that can blend well with the Leaves of Chiaroscuro...See more
Customer avatar
Michael S December 16, 2016 6:37 pm UTC
Will you be making available a POD version?
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Customer avatar
Megan B December 17, 2016 3:08 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Absolutely, and I have what I hope will be the final print proof on its way. I just have to take a very careful look at it to make sure any problems of note do not make it into print. My hope is that I can have it available some time next month, but it could be a bit longer depending on my satisfaction with the proof.
Customer avatar
Megan B August 21, 2016 7:43 am UTC
PUBLISHER
I was not happy with the watermarked version of the files. I've gotten rid of those tweaked somethings and replaced them with no watermark version. Much nicer I think.
Customer avatar
Megan B August 18, 2016 9:20 am UTC
PUBLISHER
As I'm still getting used to the file upload system there may be some weirdness because of some mistakes that I made earlier.
The correct files should have been named:
Leaves_Of_Chiaroscuro_Fate_817b.pdf
and Leaves_Of_Chiaroscuro_Fate_Low_Res_817b.pdf

However, it looks like at least for some purchasers they may be showing up as 2 sets of files named
(Leaves_Of_Chiaroscuro_Fate_Low_Res_8_17.pdf)
(Leaves_Of_Chiaroscuro_Fate_8_17.pdf)

in this case the top two should be the right ones.
If there's any question of if you have the right ones go to page 65, the crosslink there should now be right and should go to page 314 if you have the right file.

Sorry for any confusion.
Customer avatar
Megan B August 17, 2016 8:34 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Just updated to make sure one more playtester got credited, and a few other extremely tiny tweaks to the files.
Customer avatar
Pierre S August 17, 2016 4:57 am UTC
PURCHASER
I assume the Fate Core rules are not incorporate but must be read separately?
Also the Quick and Full Previews don't seem to work. They are blank when I try them on a Google Chrome browser.
Reply
Customer avatar
Megan B August 17, 2016 7:57 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes, you have to have them separately, I tried my best to not have too much repetition between this product and Fate Core so it would be mostly new material.
I've found that DriveThruRPG Quick and Full Previews often won't work for me either, or that I have to try different browsers before they will work. All I can do on my end is offer to send you a preview PDF if you would like. You should be able to get ahold of me via email by clicking "contact publisher" in the sidebar on the right of this page.
Reply
Customer avatar
Pierre S August 18, 2016 3:08 pm UTC
PURCHASER
No worries, it was easier for me to switch to Internet Explorer browser. There is something that Google Chrome no longer supports (Java?) which may be the issue.
By the way, the book is a far-out setting though players may need a smidgeon of historical interest to appreciate it. The effort to put out a long-form Fate Core setting is highly appreciated. Well done! Now to go around mugging old ladies until I collect $10...
Reply
Customer avatar
Megan B August 20, 2016 2:20 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Well, I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.
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Product Information
Silver seller
Rule System(s)
Pages
366
File Size:
108.39 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
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File Last Updated:
December 08, 2016
This title was added to our catalog on August 15, 2016.
Publisher
Bennett-Burks Design
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