Carved in Stone (GDR)

Carved in Stone is a project showcasing the rich and complicated landscape of 7th century Scotland. Its primary goal is to create an illustration-rich visual system-neutral setting guide. This book will act as a primer on the Pictish people, allowing you to truly play as Picts in ancient Scotland. It will be an ideal book for Storytellers. Roleplaying gamers looking to add authentic late-antiquity themes to their games, and explore Scotland through adventures with friends. Learners. Readers of all ages can learn something new and exciting about their own past from this book, whether at home or in a classroom. Historians. Carved in Stone will platform new voices in academic spaces, helping broaden the discussion of the past in comparison to today. We have the support of key experts across four different sectors (arts, archaeology, education and heritage) to create a vibrantly beautiful book exploring the past. If you think this sounds more like a fantasy epic than a history lesson, you’ll also understand why we’re so keen to make this book! A group of abstracted Picts; one watches with their dog, some tell stories, while others listen with rapt attention, and apprentices learn how to stitch tales into their tapestries. Why do we need this? The problems the Picts faced in 680 CE are analogous to those we face today. By better educating ourselves about the past, we help everyone become more critical of their futures. Some themes we want to highlight include: Finding Identity - navigating a whole raft of new ideas, technologies and peoples, and the cultural melting pot of beliefs and languages they formed. Political Strife - dealing with changing political realities as power centres shifted, working with and against your neighbours to survive. Wild Environments- finding ways to live sustainably while dependent on the landscape, battered by inhospitable seasons. From the very start of this project, we wanted to create work that presented information in a vibrant, exciting and accessible way. Every spread of this visual encyclopedia is designed with a ‘zooming’ scale of information, with reading comprehension increasing as you move from image to header, to subject digests and then finally large bodies of text. Any reader can learn something about the Picts from this book. You're giving it away? Yup, you read that right! History isn’t owned by any one person, but by all of us. So, after a period of early access, we’ll be digitally releasing Carved in Stone under a Creative Commons license. This means that anyone will be able to access this project for free and use and remix this project in any way they like. We anticipate that it’ll help spread new research about the Picts into: Games and Roleplaying, inspiring new creative stories about the past Educational Settings, such as for use in schools or clubs. When you back this Kickstarter, you’re helping platform new voices and new conversations about the past. As a backer, you'll get early access and behind the scenes information, as well as awesome merchandise and unique experiences to thank you for your support. We plan to sell printed editions and related merchandise, as well as create VTT adaptations. Profits from these sales will allow us to continue making work, and fund similar projects.