A Trip Down Memory Lane With Almsford: DayLITE

Saga Mackenzie designed this map using a map of my hometown Orford from 1840 as a base!

Today folks, we dropped our first official setting to accompany our d12 DayLITE System: Almsford. This originally started as a 5e-based project, but that quickly evolved once Wizards did their big oopsie and showed us their whole ass. Almsford also started as a simple homage to my hometown of Orford, NH - a town of about 1200 people sitting smack-dab in central-western NH right on the Connecticut River. Most folks know us because of Hanover (home to Dartmouth College, which is twenty minutes south) or because they drive through us to get to the White Mountains and places like Lincoln and Conway and such. But Almsford grew into something more as I brought new team members on, and I really have to credit Jen Forth, our artist, with that. The cover was the first piece of art we had done, which you can see below, and all I asked was for something evoking an old tourism poster from the 30s or 40s someone might see inviting you to go to Loon Mountain or Jay Peak. And boy did Jen deliver. 

From there, Devin and Cayde and Kat made this thing bloom with so much more life, as we added Appalachian and eldritch themes to this. Now, a big part is that we have to acknowledge that what we are telling is only a sliver and layer of the New England/Appalachian experience. There are other stories from these regions of the United States as well, from indigenous peoples' and POC as well, so I highly encourage you to check out projects like Old Gods of Appalachia and Coyote and Crow to give you other facets of these regions of the U.S. But, we did our best to bring together a small-town feel through the game. It's just a singular valley with seven towns - you could make it as big or as small as you want it to be. It is meant to be able to simply be a canvas for your adventures!

This piece from Jen Forth used a photograph by a local photographer in Orford of our famous Ridge Homes as a base.

The Almsford Order are in a way a little inspired by the Freemasons and...kind of the town selectboard in a way.

Being that this is DayLITE, we provide the SRD with this book, meaning you have all the tools to build and create content for Almsford if you don't see something you want! Missing a career you might have wanted added? Well you can go ahead and in ten minutes easily structure something to work for you! So, click the cover above, and you can go check out Almsford for yourself!