Terry Maranda is no stranger to the world of tabletop roleplaying games. Over the years, he has contributed his artistic talent to companies like Modiphius Entertainment, White Wolf Publishing, and Kobold Press, and worked as an art director for projects as prominent as Blizzard’s Diablo 4. He has also directed the D&D mobile game “Warriors of Waterdeep.” After countless projects building worlds for others, Terry felt it was time to create something entirely his own. Thus, Sol’Kesh was born—a culmination of three years of writing, illustrating, and collaborating with 3D artists to create an expansive world without humanity, filled with imaginative creatures designed for TTRPG players.
Sol’Kesh is on Kickstarter now. Created by Terry Maranda, the project explores a land without humanity—a primal, speculative evolution setting. We had a chat with Terry to discuss his inspirations, the unique challenges of transitioning from working on established brands to creating his own, and how the community has played a vital role in shaping Sol’Kesh.
The Journey Behind Sol’Kesh
The inspiration behind Sol’Kesh stems from Terry’s lifelong passion for sketching and world-building. Terry explains:
“I’ve always been sketching—it’s something I do to relax and unwind, and for years it was just that. Even as I sketch, there’s always a seed of worldbuilding growing in the back of my mind. Thinking of the village a character might live in, or the alien landscape a creature could roam, and over the years I drew maps, wrote out histories and created peoples, but always fell into the trap of trying to explore the whole world too quickly and losing motivation as an exciting new world idea took over.
I realized that the problem I was having, and that many creators have, is that I was trying to establish a world before it had any substance, trying to answer questions that nobody was asking. So instead I started a small, with a river. Sol’Kesh originally was just a basic fantasy land with tribal people and creatures, and was honestly nothing too special.”
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 played a major role in reshaping Sol’Kesh. During the height of “death tolls and the fear of not knowing when it would stop”, Terry found new inspiration in stories of animals reclaiming spaces. He describes this feeling: “This gave me a peaceful feeling that life doesn’t end with us, that we’re not as pivotal as we make ourselves out to be.” This realization led to a significant shift—Terry decided to build a world without humanity, focused entirely on beasts and nature. The concept evolved into an ecosystem inspired by speculative evolution, imagining how creatures might develop 82 million years into the future without human presence.
Speculative Evolution Meets TTRPG
Blending speculative evolution with tabletop roleplaying games was less of a deliberate decision and more of a natural progression.
“Originally I was drawn to speculative evolution because of the way it can generate its own world-building. By considering the creature’s design as the product of the natural world, you’re forced to consider why an animal is built as it is, and through making choices on its design, it begins to reveal ecological voids in the world around it.
For example, the leg design of a horse implies an existence of running on open plains, this would then have an impact on the type of plant life that can fill such an open space, and the surrounding predators that must keep pace and hunt it. This method of establishing a living breathing world began to align with something I always loved in the old out-of-print Monster Ecologies from Dragon Magazine, and something I felt lacking in most mainstream TTRPG bestiaries.”
While the art within most bestiaries are spectacular, the depth in their descriptions/rules never delved deeply enough into how they live or why they’re designed as they are for me. I started to feel I could fill my own niche there, do more than just creature art, I could get these creatures into the hands of other world builders by giving them statblocks, let them feel like they could either add them into their own campaigns, or use the island of Sol’Kesh for discover a new unexplored wild.
Building Momentum From Scratch
Transitioning from working on established brands like D&D and Diablo to creating Sol’Kesh from scratch came with unique challenges.
“The reason many gaming studios pay for the rights to a brand to build a game from is because the audience, the reputation, the world building, is already established and the game has an almost guaranteed player base on day one. I would say the largest challenge in building my own, was building that momentum of interest. Getting people invested and feeling like they can have a part to play in it.
I worked with a creative director that once said “The first rule of world building is that nobody cares about your world.”’ and that really resonates with me when I see people on reddit lore-dump pages of text of their ideas. While many of them are really well thought out and unique, I’m just not going to sit down and read all that unless I know the person.”
To overcome this, Terry focused on starting small and gradually gathering interest by sharing his work in increments.
“It took a lot of luck and constant daily incremental progress to get there and juggling both a full-time job and this passion project has been a real challenge, but despite the lack of sleep, it’s always been worth it.”
Lessons from Sol’Kesh: World-Building and RPG Design
Working on Sol’Kesh has taught Terry a lot about the art of world-building and RPG design.
“Working on Sol’Kesh has completely changed how I perceive the difference between writing a story and writing tools for someone else to tell a story, and what it takes to find that balance to make a compelling sandbox setting. I could have created a book that details the island and creatures within, much like the World of Kong book from Weta (which I highly recommend for those interested in speculative evolution) but instead, with the tools of TTRPGs I saw so much more value in letting others explore the world through their own narrative storytelling and gameplay.”
Terry also shared how he learned the intricacies of RPG rules writing and 5e monster stat design.
“Originally I had worked and paid several designers to help with the creature rule writing, but after 2 years I’ve learnt how to do it on my own, and it’s just so much fun that way,”
Community Influence
The Sol’Kesh community has played an important role in the project’s development. Terry was surprised by the passionate response from speculative evolution enthusiasts, noting how their feedback directly influenced the creation of some creatures.
“It’s one thing to design a monster, but it’s wholly another to look at some animal today and brainstorm about what pressures could force an animal to gain the ability to fly, spit venom, or generate electricity. There are many spec evo social media groups that do just this and getting stuck in these discussions have led to quite a few of the creatures within my bestiary.
One wonderful example happened on my own Sol’Kesh server, which ended up leading to the creation of the Farplains’ apex predator (which happens to be the cover art of the Journal book). It was only through talking about how wild a hummingbird could potentially get through evolution, and eventually turned into a massive swarm that strips the plains of meat during their mating season.
That hummingbird is just one of many creatures that are based on the ideas of these types of chats and I can’t thank the spec evo community enough for that. I honestly have a pile of saved brainstorming sessions, and I’ve cherry picked creature ideas from them many, many times.”
Fan Favorites and Future Plans
The project gained significant traction on social media, with some creatures becoming fan favorites.
“While it was the gomitoad that got my own project popular enough with the algorithm gods and led to the decision to create a Patreon. The one creature I can safely say has become a fan favorite since the launch of the Kickstarter is the gurubara, also another product of fun brainstorming conversations on discord.
This rodent was the idea that the chill and easy-going capybara is already near evolutionary perfection today, and in the far future of Sol’Kesh’s 82 million year setting, does it only just grow a beard to reach its true peak.”
Looking forward, Terry does have plans for expanding Sol’Kesh. He says, “I’d like to start exploring other parts of the planet in another microcosm fashion, and I have an idea for a much more exotic and unique environment to do so.” He remains cautious about not getting distracted from completing the initial project, though, and is keeping these ideas on hold for now even if he’s ” itching to get sketching them out.”
Sol’Kesh is on Kickstarter Until December 5th
Terry is particularly enthusiastic about one of the unique rewards that was unlocked during the Kickstarter campaign.
“The Kickstarter recently unlocked through stretch goals to do statblocks for juvenile forms of the creatures, and while I’ve drawn only two of them so far, I’d love to do more. There’s an upcoming stretch goal that will also give them miniatures, so I’m just excited to do a bunch of cute versions of the beasts that players can breed, raise, and adventure with. And with them I can’t wait to see what Worldshaper, the 3D modeler I’ve partnered with will do with them. “
Ending the interview Terry emphasizes the importance of small, incremental progress and the passion to keep going every day. Terry encourages aspiring creators:
“No world building project starts big, no story is immediately deep. For those who want to tell their own story, just start writing, sketching, coding, whatever you do, in small steps. It takes time and luck to pick up momentum, but what’s important is to keep at it.”
Sol’Kesh is a comprehensive tabletop RPG project that brings a speculative evolution-themed world to life. Divided into three main components—a Bestiary, an Art and Story Journal, and a set of 3D-printable miniatures—Sol’Kesh offers a unique exploration of what life might look like on a future Earth shaped by evolution long after humanity’s extinction.
Currently live on Kickstarter, Sol’Kesh represents the culmination of years of passion and independent work, inviting backers to support a project built around both creativity and community. The campaign ends on December 5.
A free STL creature pack for Sol’Kesh is available on DrivethruRPG, and the Tabletop Gaming News exclusive Esslinter STL package is available here.
Source: Tabletop Gaming News
