Other Realms: The Price of Power +BNM zIssue 12 Fae Winter

THE PRICE OF POWER

An Other Realms Sourcebook for D&D 5E / 5.5E

Boons, Banes, Bargains, Contracts & Curses Across the Realms

What Would You Give for the Power to Change Your Fate?

A Fae Queen offers you the power to save someone you love...but asks for something you won't miss until it's gone.

A Fiend promises immortality. The contract is perfectly clear, every condition carefully explained. All you have to do is sign.

A Divine being grants a blessing you never expected.

An Elemental sovereign offers you a fragment of primordial power...or perhaps you were foolish enough to steal it.

Would you accept? Would you negotiate? Would you dare to refuse?

Welcome to The Price of Power, a new digital TTRPG sourcebook designed to help Game Masters create supernatural bargains, magical contracts, blessings, curses, and extraordinary gifts that become meaningful parts of their campaigns.

While developed with D&D 5E/5.5E compatibility in mind, the underlying systems and concepts are designed to be adaptable to virtually any tabletop roleplaying game. Whether you're running D&D, Pathfinder, or your own homebrew system, The Price of Power provides a framework for making supernatural influence, agreements, and their consequences an integral part of your storytelling.

We're exploring four Other Realms, eight ways supernatural power changes hands, and a consistent framework for deciding what a supernatural being can grant, what it might cost, and what happens afterward.

Make the deal. Gain the power. Live with the consequences.

And remember...not every gift comes with a price.

What Exactly Is The Price of Power?

At its heart, this book is about The Deal.

The promise made beneath an ancient oak. The infernal contract signed in blood. The blessing granted by a grateful deity. The obligation inherited from an ancestor who died three hundred years ago.

What happens when a mortal accepts supernatural power? Who has the authority to grant it? What does the giver actually want? And what happens after the agreement is made...particularly when someone decides not to honor it?

The Price of Power gives GMs tools to answer those questions at the gaming table. Rather than treating every blessing as another bonus or every curse as another penalty, we're developing a common way to describe the source of a supernatural influence, how it works, and how it can change a character's story.

This is an important foundation for our expanding Other Realms cosmology, connecting the Fae Realms with Fiendish, Divine, and Elemental influences. But you don't need to play in our setting to use it. If your campaign includes Fey bargains, infernal contracts, Divine blessings, Elemental pacts, or supernatural curses, this book is intended for you.

What's Inside the Book?

The Price of Power is planned as an approximately 100-page digital sourcebook for D&D 5E/5.5E, featuring:

• Boons, Banes & Curses: Supernatural gifts, restrictions, transformations, and punishments inspired by the four Other Realms.
• Bargains, Contracts, Oaths & Covenants: Guidance for promises, conditions, debts, obligations, and the consequences of breaking an agreement.
• Eight Ways Power Changes Hands: From gifts and rewards to theft, inheritance, judgment, devotion, and exposure.
• The Currencies of Power: Names, memories, secrets, years of life, emotions, promises, and other things immortals might value more than gold.
• A Seven-Element Framework: A consistent way to create and manage supernatural influences without rebuilding the rules every time someone makes a deal.
• Power Tiers & Granting Authority: A system in development to help GMs judge what different supernatural beings can reasonably bestow.
• Adventure Opportunities: Ideas for turning supernatural relationships into memorable encounters, character arcs, and entire campaigns.

A Bargain Is More Than a Bonus on a Character Sheet

Imagine a dying adventurer offered the strength to survive one impossible battle. The Fae sovereign who grants that strength doesn't demand gold, a soul, or a single year of life.

She asks only for a promise: When I call for you, you will come.

The adventurer survives. The party celebrates. Months pass, and the promise becomes a distant memory...until the summons arrives in the middle of an entirely different adventure.

Now the party has a choice. Honor the promise? Negotiate? Defy the sovereign? Find another way to resolve the obligation?

That's the sort of situation we want The Price of Power to help GMs create.

Example Concept: The Last Favor of the Thorn Queen

The following is an illustrative example of the framework, not a finalized game-ready entry or confirmed piece of setting canon. Mechanical effects will be established during development.

Seven elements. One understandable supernatural relationship. And potentially several adventures that would never have existed without it.

Four Other Realms...Four Different Ways to Grant Power

Not every supernatural being wants the same thing. A promise that matters to a Fae Lord may mean nothing to a Fiend, while a Divine power or Elemental sovereign may not think in terms of payment at all.

The Fae Realms: Whimsy, Promises & Ancient Obligations

Our Fae Realms explore two opposing expressions of supernatural existence.

Annwyn, the Wild Dominions, draws upon Celtic, Gaelic, Brittonic, and Highland traditions. It is a realm of natural Chaos, emotion, passion, ancient customs, and unpredictable Fae bargains. A promise spoken beneath the stars may carry more weight than a signed document, and an apparently harmless favor may create an obligation lasting generations.

Ordus Prax, the Grand Accord, is its lawful counterpart, inspired by Greco-Roman mythology and civilization. Here, authority, contracts, formal obligations, and established procedures shape supernatural society. Agreements may be recorded, witnessed, interpreted, and enforced under laws far older than the mortals subject to them.

Neither Law nor Chaos is inherently Good or Evil. A Fae Lady may reward a mortal for an act of kindness without demanding anything in return. Another might ask for a true name, a memory, or a service yet to be named.

In the Fae Realms, understanding the rules of a bargain may be just as important as understanding its magic.

The Fiendish Realm: Ambition, Temptation & Contracts

Fiends understand mortal ambition. Wealth, revenge, knowledge, influence, immortality...they know what people want, and they're often perfectly willing to offer it.

But why?

A Fiend may demand immediate payment, a favor decades from now, or an obligation that extends far beyond the mortal's lifetime. Its contract might be filled with clever conditions...or it might be entirely straightforward.

The most dangerous contract isn't always the one hiding a trick. Sometimes it's the one that gives you exactly what you asked for.

We want Fiendish agreements to be more than a familiar exchange of power for a soul. The giver's motivations, the mortal's choices, and the consequences of the agreement should all matter.

The Divine Realm: Blessings, Devotion & Judgment

Not every supernatural relationship begins with temptation.

Divine influence may arise through compassion, faith, devotion, sacred vows, service, or judgment. A blessing might be freely granted to someone who never expected recognition, while a covenant might create responsibilities lasting a lifetime.

And sometimes the recipient has no idea why they've attracted Divine attention in the first place.

A blessing can change a life just as profoundly as a curse.

The Elemental Realms: Primordial Power & Transformation

Air, Earth, Fire, and Water represent forces older than mortal civilization.

Their power might be offered by an Elemental sovereign, acquired through a pact, stolen from a primordial being, or absorbed through dangerous exposure to otherworldly energies.

What does a living mountain value? What might a sovereign of Fire ask of a mortal? And what happens when someone begins carrying a fragment of primordial power within them?

Some powers don't simply change what you can do...they change what you are.

Eight Ways Supernatural Power Changes Hands

Here's something important...not every supernatural ability comes from making a bargain.

We've established eight ways mortals may acquire supernatural influence:

1. Gifts: Power freely given, without necessarily expecting anything in return.
2. Bargains: Power exchanged for something valued by another party.
3. Rewards: Power bestowed in recognition of actions, accomplishments, or service.
4. Theft: Power taken without the rightful owner's permission.
5. Inheritance: Blessings, curses, debts, and obligations passed between generations.
6. Judgment: Power, restrictions, or punishment imposed by supernatural authority.
7. Worship & Devotion: Influence arising from faith, rituals, service, and ongoing relationships.
8. Contagion & Exposure: Supernatural changes acquired through contact with otherworldly forces.

And these can overlap.

Imagine a character who inherits an ancient Fae obligation, steals the power needed to escape it, and subsequently earns the attention of a Divine authority. What began as a single family secret could become an entire campaign.

That's the opportunity we want to give GMs.

The Currencies of Power...What Does an Immortal Really Want?

Gold is useful, of course. But what does an immortal creature need with a pouch of coins?

Perhaps it wants your happiest memory. Your true name. Seven years of your life. A secret you've never told another living soul. Or a promise your descendants will have to honor long after you're gone.

Different supernatural beings value different things, and those desires should tell us something about who they are.

The Price of Power will explore these unusual currencies, the motivations behind them, and how they can turn an ordinary exchange into a relationship that matters.

A Consistent Framework for GMs

I've always enjoyed giving players choices that come back to matter later. What I don't enjoy is having to invent an entirely new rules structure every time a character makes a promise to something powerful.

That's why we're building every game-ready supernatural influence around seven questions:

The goal is a framework that can be applied to a generous blessing, an inherited curse, a Fiendish contract, or an Elemental transformation without pretending they're all the same thing.

Power Tiers & Granting Authority

There's another question worth asking: Why should a minor woodland spirit be able to grant the same power as an ancient Fae sovereign?

It shouldn't necessarily be able to.

We're developing guidance for Power Tiers and Granting Authority, considering factors such as Challenge Rating, supernatural authority, realm, capabilities, and access to greater powers. This is intended to help GMs judge what different entities can reasonably offer and keep supernatural exchanges believable and balanced.

These detailed mechanics are still in development; we'll share more as the system takes shape.

Not Every Gift Is a Trap!

I want to emphasize this because it's central to how I think supernatural power should work in a game.

The Price of Power is NOT designed to punish players for accepting gifts.

Yes, a Fae Lord might manipulate a mortal. A Fiend might demand a terrible sacrifice. An ancient being might enforce an obligation in a way no one anticipated.

But a Fae Lady might also grant a blessing because someone showed kindness to one of her subjects. A Divine power might reward years of faithful service. An Elemental sovereign might honor a mortal who saved its life.

And sometimes...that's it.

No secret betrayal. No inevitable curse. No clever trick waiting to destroy the character three sessions later.

If every gift is secretly a trap, players eventually stop accepting them. And where's the fun in that?

I want players to weigh their decisions because the world feels alive, not because they've learned to assume the GM is always trying to catch them out.

The Price of Power is about supernatural relationships, not merely supernatural punishment.

Built for Your Campaign...Not Just Ours

If you've been following our books, you'll recognize Annwyn and Ordus Prax as two major pieces of a much larger cosmology. This sourcebook begins connecting those established Fae Realms with the Fiendish, Divine, and Elemental powers that surround the Mortal Realms.

But you don't need to know our setting to use these ideas.

• Game Masters can use the book to develop supernatural bargains, blessings, curses, patrons, recurring NPC relationships, and adventure hooks.
• Players can explore characters shaped by strange gifts, inherited debts, supernatural transformations, and ancient obligations.
• Worldbuilders can establish what powerful beings value, what they can grant, and how their relationships with mortals work.
• And Fae Realms supporters will see an important foundation for the wider Other Realms mythology we've been building.

But Power Doesn't Always Come From a Bargain...

Throughout The Price of Power, we've explored the many ways mortals acquire supernatural abilities...through bargains, blessings, ancient obligations, and even powers taken without permission.

But there's another source of magic that we've been exploring for years.

Nature itself.

Not every extraordinary power comes from a Fae sovereign, a Fiendish contract, or the blessing of a deity. Sometimes, that power is waiting to be discovered in the roots of an ancient tree, the petals of a rare flower, or the remains of a creature that has learned to survive where nothing else can.

And that brings us to our continuing exploration of Annwyn's seasonal domains...

The Book of Natural Magic, Issue 012: Fae Realms: Winter.

The Winter of Annwyn

Winter is coming to Annwyn...but not every Winter brings snow.

In the Fae Realms, Winter is more than ice, frozen rivers, and snow-covered forests. It is the season of survival, scarcity, preservation, and the refusal to surrender. It is nature at its most unforgiving, when life must adapt, endure, or perish.

And across Annwyn, Winter takes many forms.

In the northern reaches, ancient forests disappear beneath snow and glacial valleys hold secrets frozen for centuries. Elsewhere, relentless rains flood entire jungles, turning familiar landscapes into treacherous waterways. In sun-scorched wastelands, the absence of water can be just as deadly as the bitterest cold.

Different environments...but the same struggle to survive.

Welcome to Issue 012 of The Book of Natural Magic: The Winter of Annwyn!

Continuing our exploration of Annwyn's seasonal domains, this issue introduces new natural magic inspired by Winter's many faces, including:

New Magical Ingredients: Discover strange plants, minerals, and other natural resources that flourish in the harshest environments, each offering unique possibilities for harvesting and magical crafting.

Potions & Wondrous Items: Turn Winter's rare ingredients into magical creations inspired by preservation, endurance, transformation, and survival.

New Fae Creatures: Encounter unusual beings adapted to Winter's unforgiving conditions, from the frozen wilderness to flooded forests and arid wastelands.

For Game Masters, these ingredients and creatures offer new encounters, discoveries, and reasons for adventurers to explore some of Annwyn's most dangerous environments. For players, they provide new opportunities to harvest the natural world and turn its secrets into magical creations.

And as always, we're drawing inspiration from the mythology, folklore, and natural magic that have helped shape the Fae Realms.

Winter does not always mean the end. Sometimes, it is simply what refuses to end.

Discover the magic of Winter with The Book of Natural Magic, Issue 012, available as part of this Kickstarter!

Stretch Goals

Every New Milestone Unlocks More Power!

The Other Realms have more secrets to reveal...

As The Price of Power reaches new funding milestones, we'll expand the sourcebook with additional supernatural bargains, unusual currencies, powerful patrons, and extraordinary consequences. We'll also introduce new discoveries to The Book of Natural Magic, Issue 012: The Winter of Annwyn.

All unlocked content will be added directly to the appropriate finished book, at no additional cost to backers receiving that title.

$750 | Winter's Hidden Bounty

Unlock: 5 Additional Ingredients, Magic Items, or Creatures

Winter hides its secrets in frozen forests, flooded jungles, and sun-scorched wastelands. Unlock five additional discoveries for The Book of Natural Magic, Issue 012, expanding its collection of magical ingredients, wondrous items, and unusual Fae creatures.

$1,500 | The Forbidden Bargains

Unlock: 12 Extraordinary Supernatural Bargains

Some agreements can change the course of history. Unlock twelve extraordinary bargains, three from each of the four Other Realms, offering powerful gifts, transformations, and supernatural interventions with equally extraordinary possibilities and obligations.

$2,000 | The Currencies of Power

Unlock: 20 Supernatural Currencies

What does an immortal being truly value? A mortal's name? Their happiest memory? Their ability to dream? Unlock twenty unusual supernatural currencies, each exploring what different entities desire and what surrendering such treasures might mean.

$2,500 | The Powers Behind the Promises

Unlock: 4 Fully Developed Supernatural Patrons

Meet four powerful supernatural entities, one from each Other Realm. Each includes their personality, motivations, granting authority, preferred bargains, signature powers, and adventure hooks. Potential allies, adversaries, benefactors, or recurring figures in your campaigns.

$3,000 | Winter's Last Secrets

Proposed Unlock: 5 Additional Winter Discoveries

Return to Annwyn's Winter Domain with five more magical ingredients, wondrous items, or unusual creatures for The Book of Natural Magic, Issue 012.

Combined with our first stretch goal, this would bring the total to 10 additional Winter entries!

$4,000 | The Price Comes Due

Unlock: 20 Supernatural Consequences

Every agreement has consequences...but they aren't always what you expect. Unlock twenty supernatural curses, transformations, punishments, and other repercussions, complete with game-ready mechanics, triggering conditions, and possible resolutions.

Breaking a bargain doesn't always end the story. Sometimes it's only the beginning.

How Far Will the Other Realms Reach?

Unlocking every stretch goal would add 56 supernatural entries and features to The Price of Power, including four fully developed patrons, plus 10 additional discoveries for The Winter of Annwyn.

The Other Realms are watching...and they're always willing to make an offer.

The Price of Power

The our projects are written specifically as a digital D&D 5E/5.5E sourcebook, but can often work with any game system with minor adjustments to fit the system.  We expect that the Price of Power should finish around 100-150 pages and our normal zine issues are generally right around the 39-45 page range.

The Complete Fae Realms Collection

For those discovering our work for the first time, we're also preparing a Complete Fae Realms Collection reward, bringing together the books that explore Annwyn, Ordus Prax, and the wider setting.

Annwyn draws on Celtic, Gaelic, Brittonic, and Highland mythology, embracing the natural Chaos of emotion, passion, and change. Ordus Prax draws on Greco-Roman traditions, expressing the opposing philosophy of Law through civilization, authority, and structure.

Two realms. Two philosophies. One extraordinary collection.

From the Team Behind the Fae Realms

For those of you who've supported our previous Kickstarters...thank you. You've helped us explore the Courts of Annwyn, the civilization of Ordus Prax, and the people and creatures who inhabit these extraordinary places.

Through Making Crit Up, we've developed and delivered books including Annwyn Unveiled, Ordus Prax Revealed, Twinhaven, and the Ordus Prax Bestiary, among others.

The Price of Power builds on that work, but approaches the Other Realms from a new direction. Instead of asking only what lives in these places, we're asking how their powers reach into mortal lives...and what happens when mortals reach back.

How It Works

Backing our Kickstarter is as simple as stepping into a faerie ring (but with far fewer riddles):

1. Pledge your support – Sign up for as little as $5 and choose the books or bundles that fit your table.

2. Spread the word – Share the campaign with your friends, gaming groups, and local adventurers. The more support we gather, the more stretch goals we unlock!

3. Get your rewards – Once the campaign ends, you’ll receive your digital books via DriveThruRPG, ready to download and play.

4. Dive into the Realms – Use the Annwyn Unveiled sourcebook, the Book of Natural Magic, and all our supplements to expand your worlds with myth, mystery, and magic.

5. Tell your tale – Share your adventures, leave a review, and help others discover the Fae Realms!

About MakingCritUp

MakingCritUp exists to build worlds that players remember.

Not because they were easy.
Not because they were safe.
But because they meant something.

We create tabletop content where choices carry weight, consequences linger, and surviving the session feels earned. We love mythic fantasy, strange magic, and sweeping stories, but we believe that triumph only matters when there is real risk beneath it. A blade’s edge between success and failure sharpens every victory.

That doesn’t mean we chase grim darkness for its own sake. We laugh. We joke. We run games year-round and enjoy every minute of it. But when the dice hit the table, the world responds honestly. Danger feels dangerous. Magic feels powerful. And the story belongs to the players who live through it.

MakingCritUp was born from a long-running habit of building worlds instead of using someone else’s canon. We’ve always used familiar systems as foundations, then twisted them into something personal. Something shaped by mythology, folklore, history, and the lived experience of decades behind the screen. That approach lets new players feel grounded, while still discovering a world that grows around their choices.

For years, these worlds lived only at our tables.

With encouragement from friends, family, and players, we finally began to codify them. What started as personal campaigns has grown into thousands of pages of published material, from the wild chaos of the Fae Realms to the creeping certainty of civilization, law, and control.

MakingCritUp exists to publish the ideas that rarely survive large studio pipelines. The strange ones. The risky ones. The long-form ones. The projects that take time, trust, and a community willing to explore them.

If our work makes your world harsher, stranger, more immersive, or more memorable, then we’ve done our job.

Help Us Bring The Price of Power to Life!

Friends, I've been running games for nearly four decades, and some of the moments that have stayed with me the longest weren't about defeating a monster or finding another magical sword.

They were about the choices players made.

The promise they probably shouldn't have given. The bargain they thought they understood. The unexpected kindness of a creature they were certain was their enemy.

Those decisions can echo through a campaign for years...and that's what I want this book to help create.

The Price of Power is our attempt to give those moments a foundation, with tools for creating supernatural gifts, bargains, contracts, curses, and the relationships that grow from them.

If you enjoy Fey folklore, infernal contracts, Divine blessings, Elemental magic, mythology, and character choices that truly matter, we'd love to have you join us as a backer. Take a look at the rewards, choose the one that fits your table, and help us bring this new sourcebook to life.

Every power has a story. Every agreement has a purpose. Every choice has consequences.

And sometimes...the most important part of a bargain is what happens after everyone shakes hands.

Welcome to The Price of Power!

DM Dan & the MakingCritUP Team