Chronicles from the North PART 7

Welcome back to Chronicles from the North. This week, we’re taking a slightly different approach—we’ll be diving into the physical components of Northern Wind, giving you a detailed look at what’s inside the Core Box, what it all does, and how it all comes together!

MINIATURES

Let’s start with the centerpiece of the entire experience: the miniatures!
The Core Box includes 15 miniatures, hand-crafted from the revolutionary Unicool hard plastic. Read more about it here. In a a gist, there are 4 Heroes, 6 Undead, and 5 Oni, including the exclusive Chiyohime sculpt.

This Core Box can then be expanded by stretch goals, which add another 3 Oni miniatures plus the Nekomata, Komainu, and Kogetsu models—creating a rich gallery of characters right out of the box.

If you added the Goblin Expansion, you’ll get an additional 7 models, including Chanra, who can either join your party as a hero or terrorize it as a vicious enemy!

Then there’s the Riftspawn Expansion, featuring the largest model we’ve ever made (and by a wide margin, we might add). This towering foe is sure to become the centerpiece of any collection.

And last but not least, we have the three narrative expansion models: The Amazon and The Guildsworn—both integral to the story and included either as free stretch goals or optional add-ons—and Tomoe, a hero from across the barrier, traveling in from the world of Sankokushin by Axis Mundi.

Phew—that’s already a hefty pile of exquisite plastic to add to your inevitable pile of shame! 😉

MAIN PRINTED COMPONENTS

Tiles

Next up: Tiles! All of them are double-sided, each side uniquely illustrated!
The game includes 3 large boss room tiles and 31 regular tiles, featuring one of three distinct environments:

Snow-covered mountain paths, strewn with the remains of shrines and pilgrimage routes (the most common type).
Ruined shrine/temple/mansion interiors, featuring tatami rooms, corridors, and more.
Caves and burial grounds, with a darker, more foreboding tone.

This variety gives you the tools to build diverse and immersive fields throughout your campaign.

We also include three Secret Location cards, which function more like mini-tiles than actual cards. These tarot-sized, double-sided pieces represent unique locales that are introduced during Events—used to attach special side-objectives or change the flow of your next Quest.

Cards

Where to even begin? There are a lot of cards in the Northern Wind Core Box.

Each Hero has 5 profile cards—one for Levels I and II, and three different Level III profiles (Light and Dark included). Most Hostile types also have 2 profile cards (barring a few unique bosses) and 2 behavior cards—ensuring that each encounter remains unpredictable and unique, even before you factor in Quest-specific mechanics.

There are 37 Event cards, which include a wide range of storytelling or effects—from changing your path up the mountain to introducing sudden side missions and alternate objectives.

Then we have 32 Chaos cards, a rotating deck of scenario modifiers that change depending on your location and the current point in the Day & Night Cycle—these keep the Quests themselves dynamic.

You’ll also get 28 Synergy cards and 65 Upgrade cards, giving you ample character-building options and letting your party evolve in wildly different ways depending on your choices.

That’s a lot of cards—but every single one plays a role in making your journey a one-of-a-kind experience.

You can find an article on each card type here.

Tokens and Other Punchboard Components

We weren’t sure where to file these, so here’s a catch-all category.
There are over 200 tokens—we genuinely lost count. These represent everything from States to Fates, to environmental effects. They’re sorted by shape and color to make organizing them as easy as possible.

You’ll also find the Moon Dial, a beautifully illustrated board for tracking your journey progression.

To enhance immersion, we’ve included two 3D cardboard scenery pieces—a Torii gate and a red maple tree—as well as 8 standees for important characters that might appear depending on your playstyle or expansions you’ve chosen (including the Amazon, Guildsworn, Yakshas, and Pariah). These give everyone access to those characters, even if you didn’t back with miniatures.

OTHER COMPONENTS

Almost done—we promise!

You’ll receive a campaign map poster, perfect for charting your journey up Mt. Byodo.
The A5-sized rulebook will teach you how to play and answer your questions mid-game, while the Quick Reference booklet keeps essential rules close at hand.

For spellcasters, there’s a dedicated Spellbook to track your magical arsenal!

There are five envelopes included to help you save your game: one for each hero’s cards and tokens, plus one for your collected Fate tokens.

And finally, our pride and joy: the Quest Log. This behemoth of a book started as a modest A5 80–100-page concept and evolved into a stunning 160-page letter-sized spiral-bound tome. It includes:

33 unique Quests, complete with lots of Lore.
33 different Campaign endings,
30+ pages of secrets,
and plenty of space at the end to document your campaign for posterity.

It’s not just a book—it’s your journey.

And, of course, you’ll get four D20 dice. But you also have the chance to get yourself faction specific ones which feature faction symbols like the Oni and Goblin dice.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Yes, this was a long article, but it barely scratches the surface of Northern Wind. We haven’t even touched most of the expansions or additional add-ons!

We’re beyond excited to get this game into your hands. Every piece, card, and miniature has been crafted with care—and none of it would be possible without your support. Thank you for helping bring Northern Wind to life. Now get ready to carve your path up the mountain!