Summerland Revised and Expanded Edition

by Greg Saunders

…a supermarket. Huge tree trunks thrust up from the ground, shattering the floor and tearing down the suspended ceiling and structure beyond, allowing sunlight to penetrate. The aisles are choked with dirt and toppled goods, broken glass bottle half buried in the loamy dirt on the floor, their insides long since picked cleaned of any food. You recognise the frozen section, shattered glass and wrecked freezer doors revealing where the smell of meat once attracted visitors to plunder. There, ahead is the tinned goods aisle, your goal. Rounding the corner you confront a man sitting on the floor, clasping a tin in his hands. His clothes are dirty, ragged and torn. He is so filthy that soil seems to have penetrated his skin - his fingers are cracked and black as he mimics opening the can he holds with a broken stick. He turns to look at you with yellowed, feral eyes as you back away, turn and run back to the others. The noise of scattered tins tells you he's following...

Welcome to Summerland, a role-playing game of desolation and redemption beneath the Sea of Leaves. The time is now. The world has changed. The Event brought the Sea of Leaves into our world, an immense forest that choked cities and drowned civilisation overnight. From the trees came the Call, a lure to the weak that decimated the population. In the aftermath only pockets of humanity remain, resisting the woods' siren song. In the endless forests lurk the Lost – whose wills were drowned by the Call – and the Wild, who have forgotten they were ever human.

You are one of a select few who can resist the Call. A Drifter, hardened to the lure of the woods by the scars of the past, you cannot let go. Your torment shields you, but drives your isolation. More than anything you crave welcome in a community, but can never be truly accepted without leaving behind your past. To do that, you must confront and defeat the demons that haunt you. What will you risk for redemption? Some paper, pens, friends and a handful of six-sided dice are required to play Summerland, this Kindle edition has been expanded with new rules explanations, and contains the supplement 'Fallen Leaves'. This version contains no art.

Genres: Role Playing Games

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Kristofer · Rating 3 out of 5]

the setting is incredible and there's a lot of good stuff there. the implementation of D6 feels like it could have done with a few rounds of polishing.

[Kate Bullock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clever and easy system. A fantastic world. I liked the lack of guidance on what to do with the world, rather than try to force the GM and players into certain tropes. One of my favourite games to run.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a "traditional" book, it's a "rulebook" for a tabletop RPG.
Being a fan of the d6 system (from the old Star Wars games), I think this has taken that system, and added some details and flavor to it in a way that improves it. I understand that the system here isn't new, but borrowed from elsewhere, and that the changes could have come from other books, but I'm not familiar with those books.
I like that the setting isn't entirely written, so the GM can decide the "why" of things as they choose. Even better is that the book helps define different styles of running the game, between choices like "horror", "adventure", and "survival". This helps it fit different groups and even gave me ideas for having different sessions having a bit of a different feel between them. Yeah, maybe the overall feel might be adventure, but for this story-arc, I can dig into some horror.
Reading through this really has me inspired and looking for a way to run at least a few sessions of it.
Well written. Well ordered (easy to find things). Interesting art.

[Arlian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a very interesting idea for an RPG. I am totally fascinated by the idea of trauma being a shield that protects you from harmful magic. However, even though I read the revised and expanded edition, it's still woefully underdeveloped. It's also a shame this book doesn't have more of a following, as there are no modules available for purchase or anything. I will post more after I have played a few games, to explain how the game play feels and any helpful hints, etc that I might come up with.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting RPG, though not really my favourite type of setting for fiction or for roleplaying - I'm not a fan of end-of-the-world no-hope worlds yet the gamification of trauma resolution does make it sound like a fun roleplaying experience. Good balance of setting and character info, though I'm not sure it need to spend so much time explaining what roleplaying is.