The following is an interview with Fen Inkwright and the Crow & Crown team regarding the upcoming Kickstarter campaign launch for the TTRPG rulebook, Aquarium. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with the creative team about the premise of the D&D-based ruleback, the backer rewards that will be available through the campaign, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the upcoming Kickstarter campaign launch for your TTRPG rulebook, Aquarium, through Crow & Crown! For those who may be unfamiliar, what can you share with us about the premise for this new D&D-based rulebook?
Crown & Crow: Thank you! Aquarium introduces new options, narratives, adventures, and rules to encourage gamers to explore the natural world, particularly freshwater biomes. It’s heavily inspired by real-world folklore and history, and is packed with aquatic magic, fishing mechanics, water monsters, environmental hazards, and thematic adventures tailored to wetter environments such as mythical wells, sacred springs, waterfalls, boglands, and more.
BD: What do you feel defines a Crow & Crown title, and what most intrigued you about the concept for Aquarium?
C&C: Crow & Crown was founded by Fen Inkwright, a folklorist, who wanted to take her research and combine it with her other passion – gaming. As a result, we always put history and stories at the heart of what we do; our ‘big books’ always contain a glossary mentioning where each of the stories and concepts that we explore come from.
We’ve been planning a series of books that explore different environmental biomes for a while now, and since everyone in the Crow & Crown team grew up on the water – either on chalk streams, or the Irish coast, or near to Cornish waterfalls – it felt right that our next one should be all about freshwater. Rivers and lakes and even the ditches at the sides of roads are so full of life – they’re characters in their own right, and we couldn’t resist the urge to really highlight their potential in really fleshing out the world a campaign is set in.
BD: How would you describe the shared creative process for bringing this rulebook to life on the page?
C&C: All of our books start out in what we call ‘the Master Document’ – containing snippets of research, ideas, and stories for at least 30 future books written in it. Whenever we come across something new in our research, or hear a new idea or find a new item in a museum that sparks some inspiration, it gets sorted into the Master for future use.
Then, when we’re ready to start something new, we have a look at which one of those books has the most notes in it! We usually end up with a list of 3 or so that are full enough to be developed further, and we run these by our fans at conventions and on our social media accounts to see which ones catch the most attention. It’s great fun to drop hints at what might be coming next, and then have a finished product to show off at the next year’s events for those who helped guide us before.
During production, we work with a team of amazing artists who take our ideas throughout the writing process and bring them to life. Sometimes the art they create inspires even further ideas, and working with them to bring the visuals to a book is one of our favourite parts of the process.
We also have a team of play testers on hand who are ready to really push our ideas to the limits – we know how so many players are ‘out of the box’ thinkers, so they really help us consider things from every angle! Most of our play testing sessions start with the question: ‘Do you want shenanigans tonight?’
The answer: always choose shenanigans. It may double the length of the session, but finding ways to break a new scenario or subclass really helps us create a solid product – and sympathise with the DMs with similar players!
Our brilliant proofreader, too, keeps us humble – every writer thinks that they’re amazing until an actual professional comes in and lectures them about their semi-colon usage.
We may be a small team, but that’s what makes the final products so great – we love each other and our products in equal amounts, and are all dedicated to making truly wonderful books.
BD: In light of the upcoming crowdfunding campaign, are there any particular backer rewards that you would like to highlight for our readers?
C&C: One of our favourite parts about crowdfunding at this point of a publication is actually involving our fans in the book’s content. With earlier campaigns we’ve offered tiers where players could nominate a favourite plant to be turned into a matching item set, or could tell us about their D&D character or even a real life person who we wrote into the book’s location, and devised a set of magic items for.
In Aquarium we’ve collaborated with one of our artists to make a tier where backers can have their character drawn landing the fishing catch of their dreams – which we’ll then print in the book in the Master Hall of Anglers! It’s a really fun way to expand on the worlds that we’re writing, and gives our backers a way to take part in what we’re making in a way that’s only available at this stage of production.
BD: Why do you feel that crowdfunding has been such a valuable resource to ensuring the success of today’s TTRPG book publishers and creators?
C&C: It’s no secret that the world is getting more and more expensive, and as more talented creators enter the community the dream of becoming the next Gary Gygax feels less achievable than before. Crowdfunding brings a valuable resource to small creators – the funding that they need to pay for their own time, for printing and shipping, for seeding the next project after. It also provides a visibility that people who might not have the time, budget, or skills for marketing couldn’t otherwise achieve – it lets the audience shape the final product – and it connects creators with both old and new fans. It’s a space where passion projects and small teams like Crow & Crown can create projects that might not otherwise get support from the traditional publishing world – and honestly, we’re so grateful for that! We began as a company 15 years ago and have been publishing for 5 of those years, and we couldn’t have done any of it without the support, passion, and enthusiasm of our community of fans – as proven by every successful Kickstarter that we’ve run so far. So we’ve got high hopes for Aquarium!
BD: Are there any other Crow & Crown projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
C&C: Honestly, just picking one is like choosing a favourite child! (We all have one… but we shouldn’t really admit it in public…!)
If you’re reading this and Aquarium sounds like your jam, we’d recommend checking out Herbarium, which is Aquarium’s spiritual predecessor – it’s full of the same dark and twisty folkloric content, but with a wider focus on other outdoor environments, such as scrublands, woodlands, and fields. It also includes a ton of wonderful folkloric creatures from all over the world, such as the Filipino Tikbalang and the Germanic Feldgeister.
We also write premade adventures, like Bloodwood – a murder mystery-slash-scavenger hunt – and The Pub Crawl, a lighthearted comedy where your adventuring party is trapped inside of a travelling tavern. We’re actually launching a followup to The Pub Crawl later this year – so it’s the perfect time to check it out!
BD: Lastly, what would you like to tell readers who want to learn more about the Aquarium campaign and your other work?
C&C: It goes without saying that we’d love to see you as a part of our Kickstarter journey! You can find it, and more information about Aquarium, here.
If you’re intrigued by Aquarium or any of our other books you can also check out our online store at www.crowandcrown.store, or follow our social media accounts – we operate as @CrowCrownStudio on both Instagram and Bluesky.
Thank you to everyone who’s supported us so far – we can’t wait to hear about your campaigns!
