The World Between

A Gothic Fantasy
by Jack W. Shear
The game will take place in a setting known as
The World Between. The World Between is
the mortal realm, eternally trapped between the
unknowable sublime divinity of the World
Above and the infernal machinations of the
World Below. The setting is largely based off
the conventions of Gothic literature and realworld geography, but it will all be given a twist
toward the fantastic and grotesque.
Unresolved anachronisms abound, just as it
does in Gothic fiction; some areas resemble an
eighteenth-century burlesque on the Middle
Ages, some are more akin to the Victorian fin
de sicle, while others are Orientalist or purely
wondrous.
We're going to follow authors such as Horace
Walpole, Edgar Allan Poe, and Matthew Lewis
into an imagined Gothic past of medieval
irrationality, unreason, and superstition. You
can expect your character to encounter
madness, ghosts, violence, terror and horror,
long-buried secrets that can no longer be
repressed, decrepit manor houses and castles,
etc.
Suitable characters for this campaign include swaggering duelists and berserk warriors, monster hunters
and questing knights, highwaymen and murderous street thieves, militant inquisitors and mysterious
pagans, or occultists and mesmerists in search of arcane knowledge. Most fantasy gaming concepts can
fit into this world with a slight figuring toward the strange and unusual.

Inspirations
Fiction: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto; Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland; Edgar Allan Poe,
The Cask of Amontillado; Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan; Vernon Lee, Dionea; Oscar Wilde,
The Picture of Dorian Gray; Rudyard Kipling, The Mark of the Beast; Alan Moore, The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell; Kim Newman, Anno Dracula.
Film & Television: Sleepy Hollow; Black Sunday; Brotherhood of the Wolf; Black Death; The Wicker
Man; Nosferatu (both versions); Sweeney Todd; The Woman in Black; The Prestige; Deadwood;
Carnivale; Dark Shadows; Vampire Hunter D, Ripper Street.
Misc.: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds; Ravenloft; Siouxsie & the Banshees; Bauhaus; Murder by Death;
Thinguma*jigSaw; Warhammer FRP; The Parlor Trick; Harry Clarke; Marissa Nadler; Witch Hunter;
Devil Doll; Aubrey Beardsley; Rippers; Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows; Castlevania.

Character Generation & House Rules

Background:

Pick your land of origin from the

list in the section that follows. Next, roll (or pick) a
background on the Character Background Table
that details what your character did before
becoming an adventurer. This has no mechanical
benefit, but can influence the kinds of common
knowledge your character possesses.

Weapons and Armor: Any class can use any

Our rules for the campaign come from the

Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion
books, with a few modifications as outlined below.

Races:

Human only. The usual fantasy races are

strange, alien, and often monstrous.

weapon and wear any armor. However, some class

abilities (such as magic-user spell-casting and thief
abilities) are penalized or prohibited in certain types
of armor. A magic-user or illusionist needs one
hand free to cast spells. Hand axes cost 3 gp, clubs
cost 1 gp, 10 light quarrels cost 10 gp, war hammers
can be used one-handed, morningstars do 1d8
damage.

Attack & Damage Modifiers: A roll of 20 is

always a hit; a roll of 1 is always a miss.

Strength modifiers affect to-hit and damage rolls

with melee weapons. Dexterity modifiers affect toarrange to taste for ability scores.
hit and damage rolls with ranged weapons. Thrown
weapons can apply Strength modifiers instead of
Classes: See the Character Class House Rules
Dexterity modifiers. Light, one-handed melee
section for the available classes and their associated weapons that do 1d6 damage or less can apply
house rules.
Dexterity modifiers instead of Strength modifiers.

Ability Scores: Roll 4d6/drop lowest six times,

Hit Points: All characters get maximum Hit Points Languages:

st
at 1 level, but roll for them at every level
thereafter.

Instead of a list of languages your

character knows at the start of play, they have a
chance to recognize any language they encounter
equal to 1+ their Intelligence modifier. If you roll
that number or less on a d6, your character
understands that language.

Firearms Table
Weapon

Damage

Reload

Range

Weight

Cost

Pistol

1d8

1 round

15/30/45

3 lb.

350 gp

Musket

1d12

1 round

70/130/390

14 lb.

850 gp

Arquebus

1d8

1 round

40/80/240

11 lb.

300 gp

Blunderbuss

1d10

1 round

20/40/60

4 lb.

350 gp

1 lb.

100 gp

Shot & Powder (10 shots)

must be used two-handed

Character Class House Rules

Cleric
Changes: 1d8 Hit Points per level. A cleric can
only use Turn Undead three times per day, but it
now affects all unholy creatures. Clerics gain
bonus spells for high Wisdom as per the AEC.

Druid
Changes: 1d8 Hit Points per level. Druids gain
bonus spells for high Wisdom as per the AEC.

Fighter
Changes: 1d10 Hit Points per level. Fighters have
these class abilities not covered in the rule books
At 1st level: A fighter gets a +1 to all attack rolls
and +2 to damage with all weapons. Fighters get
two melee attacks on all odd rounds of combat (first
round, third round, etc.). Upon reaching 7th level:
A fighter can attack twice per round in melee.
Upon reaching 13th level: a fighter gets three melee
attacks on odd rounds and two melee attacks on
even rounds.

Paladin
Changes: 1d10 Hit Points per level. In this
campaign the paladin's moral code will be a bit
more flexible than usual; after all, evil must be
rooted out at all costs! See the cleric entry for
changes to the Turn Undead ability.

Ranger
Changes: 1d8 Hit Points per level, starts with 2d8
Hit points at 1st level. Instead of gaining a bonus
against goblinoids, a ranger gets to choose an
enemy type that they receive their combat bonuses
against from the following groups: undead, dragons,
were-creatures, demons (includes devils),
automatons (golems and constructs), outsiders
(Cthulhoid entities), creatures of chaos (owlbears,
manticores, harpies, etc.) or fey (goblins, elves,
hags, and the like). Upon reaching 3rd level: A
ranger can move silently, hide in shadows, and find

and remove traps as a thief of two levels lower than

their current level as a ranger; however, these
abilities can only be used in wilderness
environments such as forests, mountains, deserts,
etc. Feel free to substitute the paladin's healing
powers for the ranger's spell progression, if you
want.

Magic-user
Changes: 1d6 Hit Points per level. Magic-users
gain bonus spells for high Intelligence; use the
cleric's bonus spell chart but substitute Intelligence
to determine the number of bonus spells. Magicusers fight as per the cleric's attack chart.

Illusionist
Changes: 1d6 Hit Points per level. Illusionists gain
bonus spells for high Charisma; use the cleric's
bonus spell chart but substitute Charisma to
determine the number of bonus spells. Illusionists
fight as per the cleric's attack chart.

Thief
Changes: 1d8 Hit Points per level. Use the Hear
Noise column on the thief ability chart to determine
the base chance of success for all thief abilities
rather than their usual percentage chance. In
addition to the usual thief abilities, thieves may roll
to notice structural and architectural details, repair
and sabotage devices, and find camouflage in the
wild.

Assassin
Changes: 1d8 Hit Points per level. See changes to
thief abilities in the thief house rules above.
(Assassins still have these abilities as a thief of two
levels lower.)

Nota bene: Ignore all ability score requires for

character classes. All classes use the fighter's
saving throw chart.

Lands of the World Between

Caligari - Decadent empire riddled with crime, drugs, and cabaret halls.

Ruled by Empress Christiana

the Scarlet. Capital city: Caligari City. (Gothic Fantasy Weimar Germany)
Frostreave - Grim frozen northern land with berserk warriors and snow witches. Ruled by Katrina
Rimeheart (The Masked Queen of Iron and Ice). Capital city: Muskav. (Gothic Fantasy medieval
Scandinavia and Russia.)
The Ghael Isles - An island chain that is home to cannibals, voodoo, and swamp witches. Ruled by
plantation masters. Capital city: Fontinelle. (Gothic Fantasy Haiti and New Orleans.)
Harrowfaust - Vampire families battling penanggalan families amidst a Gothic backdrop of
superstitious peasants and occult mysticism. ruled by Maximilian von Karlok (an ancient
vampire lord). Capital city: Vallach. (Gothic Fantasy medieval Transylvania.)
The Iron Principalities - Petty kingdoms constantly at war, with scheming political dynasties and
mercenary kings. (Gothic Fantasy Renaissance Italy.)
The Island of Jade Mysteries - Isolated realm of holy shrines, warrior clan warfare, ceaseless
bureaucracy, and an immortal queen. Ruled by the Eternal Princess, Maida I. Capital City:
Taishina. (Gothic Fantasy medieval Japan.)
The Islands of Unparalleled Liberty - Lawless pirate islands where rum is cheap and life is even
cheaper. Ruled by the Pirate Countess Isolda Tarmapp. Capital city: Shanta. (Gothic Fantasy
Pirates of the Caribbean.)
Midian - A degenerate family feuding for control of a fractured kingdom amidst a backdrop of traveling
carnivals, fanatical inquisitors, and duelists looking to prove their skill. Ruled in the east by
Prince Medrose II and ruled in the west by Princess Avengelina. Capital cities: Caballeros (in the
east) and Picaros (in the west). (Gothic Fantasy medieval Spain.)
Mord-Stavian - Death-obsessed desert kingdom ruled by clockwork despots serving an undead
sorcerer-king. Ruled by a lich-king called The Necropolitan. Capital city: Decarus. (Gothic
Fantasy ancient Egypt.)
Relmeenos - Warrior cults contest with each other in a land of city-states where proving individual merit
is a spiritual path unto itself. (Gothic Fantasy classical Greece with bits of Imperial Rome.)
The Ruinous Scar - A destroyed kingdom home to vast wastelands and labyrinthine ruins.
Scarabae - A cultured kingdom of knightly virtue haunted by the spirits of a past age. Ruled by Liza VI
(The Sun Queen). Capital city: Averonga. (Gothic Fantasy France that mixes Arthurian legend
with the Reign of Terror.)
The Scavenger Lands - Nomadic barbarian tribes struggling to survive in post-apocalyptic badlands.
Ruled by tribal warlords. (Gothic Fantasy Orientalism.)
The Shae Isles - Fey-touched realm of storytellers and pagan cults that follows the logic of warped
fairy tales. Ruled by clan chieftains. (Gothic Fantasy ancient Ireland and Scotland.)
Ulverland - A dreary land of rain, despair, and stoic warriors; morbidity, tradition, and reliance on
magic as the ideals of a moribund culture. Ruled by Barthon I (The Glorious King) and his
Council of High Wizardry. Capital city: Lowedon. (Gothic Fantasy medieval England.)

Religion in the World Between

The dominant religion in the World Between is the Church of the Lady of the
White Way. In ages long past, the Church managed to convert many people
of the World and largely eradicate the pagan religions that existed before
its spread. However, despite its dominance, heretical sects and cults devoted
to pagan deities and the Ladys demonic foes (the Church sees little
distinction between them) still persist and are occasionally the targets of the
Churchs crusades and inquisitions.
The Lady of the White Way revered by the Church is a fierce, but nurturing,
warrior-mother goddess, something akin to a cross between Mother Mary and
Joan dArc. The Church also accords near demigod status to a number of saintsparticularly those who
were martyred. The structure of the Church is much like that of the Catholic Church of our own medieval
past, save for the fact that it preaches the gospel of a feminine divinity rather than a male god. Due to the
Church of the Ladys matriarchal traditions, women are able to attain rank and power within its hierarchy.
The Church of the Lady has two separate and independent orthodoxies: the Western Tradition and the
Eastern Tradition. The Western Tradition holds sway over Caligari, Midian, the Iron Principalities,
Scarabae, the Shae Isles, and Ulverland; its spiritual head is Pope Sixteus IV, who oversees the Church of
the Western Tradition from the Grand Cathedral in Scarabae. The Eastern Tradition predominates in
Harrowfaust, Relmeenos and Frostreave; its spiritual leader is Pope Lorenza II, who oversees the Church
of the Eastern Tradition from her palace in Muskav. The differences between the Western and Eastern
Traditions are mostly matters of accepted ritual, liturgy, and governance.
There are persistent problems plaguing the Western Church. Scarabae is home to a heretical sect that
gives equal reverence to a male counterpart to the Lady; this deity is referred to as the Lord of
Illumination and the sect is known as the Cult of the Illuminated. In Ulverland there is a growing
movement toward establishing an Ulverlandian Tradition independent from the oversight of Scarabaes
pope. The Church in the Shae Isles still wages spiritual war against pagan beliefs for the hearts and minds
of the people. The Eastern Tradition has its problems as well; in Harrowfaust there are few clerics
invested with divine powerit is believed that the proximity of so many unholy undead creatures may
vie with the Ladys dominion. Also, approximately half the barbaric tribes in the wild-lands of Frostreave
have been converted to worship of the Lady; the remainder still worship their pagan gods of war, winter,
and death. The Church in Relmeenos is particularly decadent.
The Ghael Isles has a unique religion that conflates the Western Tradition with the worship of spirits
native to the Isles. This religion is viewed as suspect by most within the Church of the Lady, but has not
yet been formally declared heretical. Although missionaries from the Western Tradition have managed to
gain a foothold in the Island of Jade Mysteries, due to its isolation the primary forms of spirituality there
are ancestor worship and the appeasement of various nature spirits. Similarly, though some tribes within
the Scavenger Lands have been converted to the Eastern Tradition, most tribes still practice shamanism
and the worship of primal World Spirits.
The Eastern Tradition is a small, and brutally oppressed, minority within Mord-Stavian. The main
religion in that accursed desert land is the worship of a thousand death-gods; these gods are regarded as
demons by the Church of the Lady. The deities worshiped in Mord-Stavian include beings such as The
Flayed Maiden (goddess of muscle, bone, and gristle), the Dismembered One (god of crippling injury and
disease), and the Carrion Marquis (god of war and rot).

Character Background Table

01 Actor
02 Alchemist
03 Alienist
04 Animal Trainer
05 Artisan
06 Artist
07 Astrologer
08 Author
09 Bandit
10 Beggar
11 Bodyguard
12 Bounty Hunter
13 Bravo
14 Burglar
15 Cabaret Performer
16 Cavalier
17 Charlatan
18 Bureaucrat
19 Circus Performer
20 Coachman or
Coachwoman
21 Consulting Detective
22 Courtier
23 Dandy
24 Woodsman or
Woodswoman
25 Duelist
26 Inventor
27 Explorer
28 Farmer
29 Fence
30 Ferryman or
Ferrywoman
31 Fisherman
32 Forger
33 Fortune Teller
34 Monk or Nun
35 Frontiersman or
Frontierswoman

36 Gambler
37 Game Warden
38 Grave Digger
39 Herbalist
40 Hermit
41 Highwayman or
Highwaywoman
42 Tainted (roll d6)
1 Sea-blooded
2 Demon-blooded
3 Witch-warped
4 Fey Changeling
5 Dhampir
6 Vat Spawn
43 Hunter
44 Exorcist
45 Engineer
46 Knight
47 Laborer
48 Lawyer
49 Merchant
50 Mesmerist
51 Miner
52 Money Lender
53 Musician
54 Mystic
55 Noble
56 Foundling
57 Outrider
58 Peddler
59 Pickpocket
60 Pirate
61 Pit Fighter
62 Plague Doctor
63 Preacher
64 Priest
65 Prisoner
66 Procurer
67 Proprietor
68 Prostitute

69 Rag Picker
70 Wildling
71 Rat Catcher
72 Resurrectionist
73 Revolutionary
74 Sailor
75 Scholar
76 Scout
77 Scribe
78 Sellsword
79 Servant
80 Sewer Jack
81 Flagellant
82 Smuggler
83 Soldier
84 Spiritualist
85 Spy
86 Squire
87 Chirurgeon
88 Stage Magician
89 Thug
90 Tomb Raider
91 Trapper
92 Tutor
93 Vagabond
94 Vampire Hunter
95 Scavenger
96 Watchman or
Watchwoman
97 Wiccaman or
Wiccawoman
98 Witch Hunter
99 Wizard's Apprentice
100 Wolf's Head

All art throughout by Lee

Brown Coye. The World
Between Map is by Kristy and
Andrew Shields.