Games like Korvu

FIVE DAYS ON FOOT, WESTWARDS Wooden posts line the road. Carved with feline forms: snarling tigers, sulking tabbies. You feel them staring. + In Kraching, woodworking is revered. The surrounding forests are full of haunted timber, longing to be carved into masks and figurines; they want to see the world. In Kraching, cats are revered. Scions of the god Auw, they are welcomed as equal members of an…

"Upper Heleng" is a rules-less, 40-page adventure setting inspired by forest taboos and Bateq egalitarianism. The game takes place in a mystical forest where time doesn't flow and the seasons are considered gods. The setting includes unique creatures, characters, and detailed black-and-white art, as well as a die-drop map pullout and name generator that doubles as an NPC generator. Explore the wonders of Upper Heleng, but beware the leeches that take more than just blood.

"Mr-Kr-Gr" is a rules-less adventure setting inspired by Southeast Asian culture and mythology, focusing on riverine life and crocodiles. The game is set in a world where crocodiles reign and forbid the building of stone structures, and explorers seek treasure in overgrown, haunted cities. The 44-page gazetteer includes detailed black-and-white art, character profiles, and random generators for NPCs, encounters, and magic crocodiles.

THREE DAYS, UP A SWITCH-BACKING TRACK Silk strips on a teak gateway. Drifting gauzily with the wind. Inwards, at first. Then out. In again. And out. The breeze keeps shifting. Breathing. + In every fold of Dog Mountain there is a village, green with terraced rice. The farmers smile at you. They always harvest bumper crops. They all look a little thin, though. A little wan. And there are no animals…

MAYBE FOUR DAYS, ON FAIR WINDS The ship’s navigator collapses. Her seizing limbs beat staccato on the deck. The captain points at her and says: “That’s how you know we’re near.” + In Stray Virassa, locals are outnumbered ten-to-one by immigrants: sailors from distant Mu -- drowned, dead. Spectral.   This is the Fourteenth Hell of Mu-folk tradition, the one reserved for those lost at sea. But life …

THREE DAYS, ISLAND-HOPPING EASTWARDS Laundry lines stretch out past the mangrove trees. They flap like sails over the water: skeins of yarn, sheets of cloth, dyed this morning. + In these islands, spoken language marks you as a foreigner. The monitor-folk do not speak, and did not make words. Merchants who travel here negotiate with sign and gesture. They come to buy textiles of exquisite craft. N…

THREE DAYS, IN CLOSE FOREST Crashing through the brush, a man carries thrice his weight in stacked cargo -- “Excuse!” he snorts, waving you aside -- he overtakes you. + There is no way to cross the mountains, except through Ngelalangka. On market days every species of trader may be found, here. What do you need? Magic wines that bestow enlightenment? Hats that shield you from more than the sun? A …

The toyol: an imp created from a dead fetus, a consummate thief. The penanggalan: a vampire whose head and entrails leave its body, to fly about in the night. The hantu tetek, who smothers victims between its massive breasts. "Hantu" -- of Malaysian popular lore -- is typically translated as "ghost", though this isn't quite right; "spirit" or "monster" are better. Hantu are feared, often malevolen…

A Uniquely Japanese Tabletop Role-Playing Game Experience, now in English! Almost a decade ago, Japanese artist and game designer Junichi Inoue sat down to create what was, in his own words, a uniquely and unmistakably "Hyper Asian" Japanese world: a world of magic and technology, of samurai and Taoist sorcery, of powerful mecha and cultured geisha. The world was named Tenra, and the game was nam…

There came a time when the Old Gods died! The wild died with the weary! The magnificent perished, locked in battle with the unforgivable! It was the last day for them! An ancient era passed in a Great Disaster! Now, well over three thousand years later, the tales of the Old Gods are little more than myths in the Inner Systems. But in the Outward Space of the Fourth Galaxy, on many dingy frontier p…