HOW STRANGE ARE YOU?

1. When you reach for your weapon to defend yourself, what is it?

A blade forged of black mercurite etched with burning runes that evoke one of the sins of the imprisoned god Lotan.

A Beretta 9mm.

A brief thought, which mentally activates the biopod on my forearm from which I can emit a caustic spray.

Is your secret allegiance with Ruk, Earth, or Ardeyn? Find out what recursion or prime world best matches your personality by taking our How Strange Are You? Quiz.... see more

Lots of people declaring allegiance to one of these three factions will allow us to reach special Kickstarter stretch goals, as described below: If we reach 2500 allies of Earth, we will add an extra full-color illustration by lead artist Matt Stawicki in that section of the book, and all backers will receive the art as a desktop wallpaper. Further, all allies of Earth will be able to vote on the contents of the illustration. If we reach 2500 allies of Ardeyn, we will add an extra full-color illustration by lead artist Matt Stawicki in that section of the book, and all backers will receive the art as a desktop wallpaper. Further, all allies of Ardeyn will be able to vote on the contents of the illustration. If we reach 2500 allies of Ruk, we will add an extra full-color illustration by lead artist Matt Stawicki in that section of the book, and all backers will receive the art as a desktop wallpaper. Further, all allies of Ruk will be able to vote on the contents of the illustration. If you pledge to The Strange Kickstarter at a level with either The Real Deal Package or the All the Print see less

2. A terrible foe lunges out of the darkness at you. What do you do?

Activate my living carapace graft to cover my head and extrude spikes on my forearms.

Cast a glamour to render myself unseen and silent.

Run for cover, and give Dave a call on my cell between breaths; he’s waiting around the corner in our van, and he won’t ever let me down.

3. When you look at your surroundings, what do you see?

I open my eclipse-eye wide enough to ignore the darkness, and see a flesh-mod factory the size of a city as it crashes through the spar jungle, running on a thousand segmented legs before a pursuing glial storm.

Through the wireless cam I installed atop the Seattle Space Needle, I dial the magnification of the mil-spec lens up to the maximum using the optical range finder as a guide, and focus on the silver yacht putting into the port from Fujian.

From the ramparts of mighty Hazzurrium, I see the surviving Seventh Sentinel, which stands a couple thousand feet tall, its head literally scraping the clouds, and its mineral armor eroded but still strong.

4. When you want to learn something you don't know, what do you do?

I collect a sample, bring it back to my lab, and begin running an array of genetic and chemical tests. Science, even when it gets weird, has never let me down.

I brave umber wolves to petition the Court of Sleep for access to a dead soul who took the secret I require to its grave.

I uncoil my umbilical and plug it into the soil. The All Song thunders in my brain, and from it I extract meaning.

5. When you want to go somewhere, how do you travel?

I suck air into the translucent sack on my back, creating a rigid airfoil glider that allows me to effortlessly soar over a spar jungle.

I answer a riddle, and a traveling dlamma agrees to bear me on its back to the Borderlands of the Strange.

I tap my com and issue an order. In less than a minute, a stealth helicopter lowers down a nylon ladder, extracting me from the top of the collapsing skyscraper.