Seventy-three years ago, something in the bones of the world moved.
Cities went under the sea. The Source — the magic of the Concord age —
became expensive, in coin and in Disturbance. Spells
that worked yesterday do not always work today.
The Pale Road is a two-player card game set in the
same world as the novel of the same name — the first book of the
Eryndal fantasy series. Pick a faction. Sit down opposite a friend.
Play in twenty minutes.
The cards are scenes, lines, and moments from the book — rendered as
mechanics. The signature mechanic, the Disturbance Track,
is the novel's central conceit: every spell has a cost the world will
eventually collect on. Push to twelve and you lose. Don't push, and
the opponent wins on life. Two ways to win. Two clocks racing.
Four factions
Each faction plays differently. Not balanced to be identical — characterful, with deliberate asymmetries.
Hegemony
Big creatures, removal. Race against your own Reckoning. Not yet an empire. They intend to be.
Freeholds
Multi-race synergy. Slow start, devastating mid-game. We have all done this before.
Undermount
Defensive walls. Stoneblood pays in life. What is below the world remains below the world.
Drev
Quiet Permission. Stay at 0 Disturbance. The faction nobody watches.
Campaign closes. BackerKit pledge manager opens. Vendor production begins.
March 2027
Backers receive boxes. Collector signing party. Direct sale opens for non-backers.
Q2 2027
Crossroads v2 expansion — free 3–4 player mode for backers.
Why a card game from a novel?
I write fantasy novels. The Pale Road is the first book of a
longer series — Eryndal — and the world is more than I can fit into
prose alone. The card game lets the world do something the
novel can't: ask the reader to make the choice the novel asks its
characters to make.
Push to win. Hold to survive. Every spell has a cost.
You don't need to have read the novel to play. You don't need to play
the game to read the novel. But the cards are the same world, and the
choices on the table are the choices on the page.
