The world of Beyond the Woods emerges from the mists like a forgotten Irish legend, its shadows stretching across your gaming table with the weight of ancient curses and untold stories. This groundbreaking 5e campaign setting—from the award-winning designer behind Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound—has already made history, exploding past its Kickstarter goal with $234,016 pledged. That is over 10x the original goal set by Ireland-based developers, Old Oak Games. It was fully funded within the first 84 minutes of its campaign.

A World Where Survival Is the First Spell You Cast

The leaves are falling and beckoning you on a brand-new adventure! Tír Nascath is no gentle faerie tale. Inspired by the bleak beauty of Irish folklore and the ruthless immersion of Elden Ring, this hexcrawl survival horror setting forces players to leave the relative safety of Céad Darach—the last bastion of civilization—and venture into lands where even the air feels alive with malice. The Sluagh, a spectral legion of soul-hungry dead, haunt every forest path and crumbling ruin, while lesser-known horrors like the keening Bean Sí or blood-drinking Avartach lurk in the bracken.

Survival here demands more than sharp steel. A reimagined inventory system (reminiscent of Resident Evil‘s tense resource management) forces brutal choices. Do you carry extra rations, or that ancient grimoire? Will you sacrifice your last healing potion to make room for the silvered arrows needed to pierce a Púca’s hide? Resource dice track hunger and exhaustion, while the absence of darkvision means every torch extinguished could be your last.

Character Creation as Storytelling

Beyond the Woods replaces generic race/class options with a narrative lifepath system steeped in Celtic tradition. Choose from one of five new Lineages. You might be the shape-changing Púca, who brings both good and ill luck to your companions. Perhaps you’re an ethereal Aos Sí, one of the faerie folk from beyond the mountain. You could also be a fearsome Baloran, cursed with the blood of the legendary fomorian Balor. Or one of the stalwart Daoine, who endure against all odds. Tragically, you could even be a forsaken Changeling, a fae creature who was switched with a human at birth. Roll to see how your experiences influence your abilities and lead you to your true calling.

These lineages intertwine with six revolutionary classes. Channellers trade HP for blood magic, their spells powered by self-inflicted wounds; Seanchaí can literally rewrite reality through their stories and songs; Draoí shamans manipulate magic through nature, unbound by scrolls or spell slots; Hunters are the stealthy survivalists of the woods, specialized in slaying beasts; Warriors face the horrors of Tír Nascath head-on, the first-line of defense against the darkness; and Mages bring to bear their ever-expanding grimoire, filled with spells long forgotten or forbidden by civilized society. While they may be familiar, similar to some D&D classical classes, these were each meticulously designed specifically for Beyond the Woods out of Irish lore.

Exploration as Epiphany

The heart of Beyond the Woods beats in its open-world exploration. The included physical hex map—adorned with stickers to mark hard-won triumphs and mourn fallen allies—transforms into a living chronicle of your campaign. Seasons don’t just change the scenery; they rewrite the rules of engagement. Winter’s grip might freeze rivers into treacherous pathways, revealing half-buried dolmens pulsing with forgotten magic, while summer droughts crack the earth open to expose mass graves that stir when the moon rises. Time itself is also a predator here. That abandoned village offering shelter at high noon becomes a writhing nest of Sluagh by midnight, their ghostly wails echoing through roofless halls.

There are three launch adventures included with the initial books. Players might uncover a monastery where the very walls weep memories of martyred monks, their anguish manifesting as psychic traps. Then, they might traverse a sentient forest that rearranges its roots and thickets to ensnare intruders. Or they might encounter Sliabhán, a ghost ship stranded miles inland by some long-dead tidal wave, its salt-rotted hold whispering with the voices of drowned sailors who beg to be “remembered.” With stretch goals unlocking four additional nightmare-fueled locales—including contributions from legendary designers like Gareth Hanrahan—each discovery peels back another layer of Tír Nascath’s cursed history, ensuring no two campaigns ever walk the same path twice.

The Road Ahead

The 929% overfunding didn’t just unlock stretch goals. It validated a hunger for settings that marry mechanical innovation with cultural authenticity. By rooting mechanics in Irish folklore (like the Púca’s luck-bending shapeshifting or the Sluagh’s “harvest” attacks that permanently drain character levels), Beyond the Woods offers something rarer than gold in RPGs: a system where theme and rules are inseparable. The campaign may be over, but you can still Late Pledge for available rewards.

With a 2025 release planned, Beyond the Woods promises to redefine dark fantasy RPGs. Its success proves that players crave worlds where every ruleset—from encumbrance to spellcasting—serves the story. As the Kickstarter page warns: “You can flee the Sluagh, but never outrun them.” Neither, it seems, can the gaming industry outrun this tidal wave of Celtic darkness.