City of the Black Rose: A Horror Campaign Setting with Cinematic Depth

City of the Black Rose is a gothic horror RPG campaign setting now live on Kickstarter, built for D&D 5E, Daggerheart, and other tabletop roleplaying games. If you’re into smoky intrigue, dark comedy, morally grey heroes, and cinematic storytelling, this one’s for you.

Crafted by the award-winning team at Roll & Play Press and inspired by the audio drama by 3 Black Halflings, this campaign setting takes everything you love about noir and horror and wraps it in a rich, immersive game world. And with exclusive collector’s rewards available only through crowdfunding, this is your chance to grab something truly unique.

A Dark City Built for Drama

Welcome to Mavros, a sprawling, tiered metropolis where crime, corruption, arcane power, and strange horrors intertwine. Think Sin City meets The Great Gatsby with a splash of Nosferatu. This isn’t your standard fantasy town. It’s a living, breathing world built for gritty detective stories, occult conspiracies, and powerful emotional arcs.

Whether your players are down-and-out investigators, glamorous nobles with dark secrets, or gangland enforcers running from their past, Mavros has the characters and plot hooks to bring them into the fold.

Designed to Fit Any System

You don’t need to stick to just one system. While City of the Black Rose includes tailored content for D&D 5E and Daggerheart, it’s system-neutral at heart. That means you can easily adapt it to your own homebrew ruleset or any fantasy RPG engine you love.

The book provides everything: pre-generated characters, backstory generators, rich lore, and encounter cards that spark immediate play. There’s even a one-shot intro adventure ready to go the moment your group opens the book.

More Than Just a Book

This Kickstarter campaign isn’t just offering a rulebook. It’s delivering a full experience. This limited-edition collector’s box is a true showpiece. Wrapped in leather-effect paper, lined in velvet, and built with reinforced metal corners, it holds:

• The campaign book

• Double-sided, hand-drawn battle maps

• Custom smoky dice

• Encounter cards

• In-world posters and stickers

• Secret compartments with hidden goodies

Each box is individually numbered, making it a must-have for collectors. And if you're running in-person sessions, the tactile quality of the maps, dice, and extras turns every game into an unforgettable event.

Immersive Tools and Accessories

You also get tools to deepen immersion. There are full-color handouts, like wanted posters and church bulletins. Beautiful enamel pins. Gritty side quest cards. NPC trackers. Tokens to measure hope, fear, and stress. Every component is designed to bring your table deeper into the world of City of the Black Rose.

And for fans of physical gaming setups, the oversized, dry-erase battle maps by Venatus Maps are a dream. You’ll be fighting off gangsters in the Hive Pit and plotting heists in the smoke-choked Slizz District before you know it.

A Cast of Voices You Know

This campaign world has already lived two lives—as a beloved podcast and as years of home games—and now it comes to your table with the support of a wildly talented team.

Voice acting legends like Brennan Lee Mulligan, Krystina Arielle, Candace the Magnificent, and Abubakar Salim have all helped breathe life into Mavros. The flavor, the tension, the humor—it all oozes from every page of the campaign book.

Even if you’ve never heard the City of the Black Rose podcast, you’ll feel the creative energy behind it. The writing is tight, the lore is rich, and the narrative potential is through the roof.

Made by Proven Crowdfunders

Roll & Play Press has a strong track record. Since 2020, they’ve run ten successful crowdfunding campaigns, shipped thousands of books, and won multiple ENNIE and UKGE awards. This isn’t their first rodeo. They’ve built in buffers for writing, production, shipping, and communication.

And yes, their campaigns deliver. Backers can expect clear updates and smooth fulfillment—even for deluxe boxes like this one.

Collector’s Items You’ll Actually Use

Some collectors' editions are pretty but impractical. Not this one. Every single item inside the Mavros Investigator’s Case is game-ready. Use the dice, maps, pins, and cards in your campaign. Hand out the stickers and posters as mementos. Store your dossiers and handouts in the padded case and make every session feel like an event.

Plus, if you pledge for a physical reward tier now, you also get a free Dice Bag, while supplies last.

Why Back City of the Black Rose on Kickstarter?

Because this campaign is exactly what crowdfunding was made for. A wildly creative team is bringing a fully realized vision to life. They’re giving you early access, exclusive content, and a chance to be part of something memorable.

You won’t find this deluxe box or first-edition print anywhere else.

And more than that, City of the Black Rose is a world you’ll want to explore again and again. It’s rich, cinematic, and full of surprises. One of the most compelling RPG campaigns of the year.