This week’s article includes RPG crowdfunding projects ending between July 8th through the 23rd. This sampling of what’s available is pulled from campaigns on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and GameFound.
Epic Encounters: Local Legends from SFG: Steamforged Games Ltd
Wasteland Sagas from The Polyhedral Knights
Bard RPG from Scriv the Bard
By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization from Autarch
Abyss of Hallucinations Vol. 2 - A MÖRK BORG Setting from Max Moon
Overworld 3: The Adventure Continues from Bloat Games
RPGnet Membership Drive -- 2022 Edition!
Plant Girl Game from Sly Robot Games
Epic Encounters: Local Legends from SFG: Steamforged Games Ltd
- END DATE: Fri, July 8 2022 1:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: RPG sourcebooks and accessories
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £131 + S/H for the Tavern book, NPC book, "Pub Crawl" adventure book, 10 tavern maps, 60 NPC cards, 10 tavern game rules cards, 10 tavern game sheets, 38 miniatures, encounter booklet with 10 battle maps, dice, GM screen, and more
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? For Free RPG Day 2022, SFG provided the very cool Epic Encounters: Chasm of the Duergar Cult, a great example of their 5e design philosophy. Mixing promotions, they’re bringing that sensibility from Free RPG Day to this Kickstarter as they load you up with multiple taverns, adventures, and miniatures to populate the encounters. This isn’t just another book of taverns, this is everything you need to make taverns epic. As the starting point of so many adventures, this book builds on that trope. Expect well considered monsters for well considered encounters that open the door to great adventures. If you’re interested in a project that lives up to the name “Epic Encounters,” then check out the campaign page for more details. But hurry, this quickstarter ends on Friday.
Wasteland Sagas from The Polyhedral Knights
- END DATE: Thu, July 21 2022 10:02 AM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): An original system
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook and sourcebooks
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $41 for the PDF and print versions of the three books (US only)
- ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: “Tithi Luadthong’s Famous Stock Cover & Its Five RPGs”
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This is a medium crunch approach to surviving the downfall of civilization packed with an original system and plenty of support. Inspired by post-apocalypse fare such as Gamma World and Fallout, this TTRPG gives you the rules to experience a world that plunged into a new dark age about 50 years ago. The campaign brings three books to your gaming table: Wasteland Sagas rulebook, the NPC Book, and The Wastelanders Guidebook, all giving the GM and players enough content to take on the post-apocalypse. If you’re looking for recently departed society and the quick reversion of humanity to barbarism, all at an amazing price point ($41 for three books in PDF and print), this campaign is worth exploring.
Bard RPG from Scriv the Bard
- END DATE: Thu, July 21 2022 7:03 AM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): System neutral
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $20 + S/H for the PDF and softcover version
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This all-ages, genre agnostic RPG offers some interesting gaming options. Powered by archetypes as its primary class system, this RPG has an Archetype Quiz to guide you to your correct character. Each archetype comes with key themes that serve as inspiration as well as options to unlock, which provides extra powers. Since this isn’t tied to a specific genre or setting, this toolkit allows the GM complete license to tell the story they want to. The book is offered with e-reader features, a dyslexia-friendly font, safety tools, and more to make this a family inclusive experience. If you have an all-ages story that doesn’t fit into a specific preexisting world, this RPG may be the right rule set to tell your tale.
By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization from Autarch
- END DATE: Thu, July 21 2022 12:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Adventurer Conqueror King System™ (ACKS™) and other OSRs
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $49 + $5 S/H in the US for the PDF and hardcover
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? 200 pages of OSR rules, lore, and adventures for dwarven characters, kingdoms, and campaigns, it’s a lot of inspiration to add to your campaign. Despite being written with ACKS in mind, this book is designed by a realistic group of gamers that understand the OSR market is varied. As such, the book includes guidance on how to do rule conversions to other OSRs. This is a book for fans of all things dwarven. Specifically, for GMs that want to give their dwarves greater depth of culture and history. If you’re an OSR fan looking for dwarven support, this book may be for you.
Abyss of Hallucinations Vol. 2 - A MÖRK BORG Setting from Max Moon
- END DATE: Thu, July 21 2022 10:00 AM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): MÖRK BORG
- PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $35 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the zine and the zine box
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Inspired by Aleister Crowley's Book of Lies, Volume 2 of this series is planned as over 40 pages of MÖRK BORG enemies, locations, occult treasures, a corpse plundering table, an inn where everyone is welcome, but no one may enter, and other riddles of gameplay. Presented as an RPG zine with a white and gold iridescent ink on pink cardstock cover, this project stands out. When combined with the zine box to hold all of the current and planned volumes, this is a particular project that will speak to fans of beautifully presented RPGs, Crowley’s book, and MÖRK BORG. As an added incentive for new fans that missed Volume 1, the zine is available to backers of this campaign via Backerkit.
Overworld 3: The Adventure Continues from Bloat Games
- END DATE: Tue, July 12 2022 12:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, SURVIVE THIS!!, and system neutral
- PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $12 gets you the PDFs of the zine for all three system options plus the PDF for Overworld 3: Weapons of Lore & Legend 2
- DISCLAIMER: I have been published by Bloat Games, but I am not a part of this project
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Are you a fan of The Legend of Zelda 8-bit era video games? Want an unofficial adaptation of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for 5e or SURVIVE THIS!!? Then this is the campaign you should check out. Expect an RPG zine with over 40 pages of rules, enemies, and more to recreate that beloved video game. As an added bonus, this campaign includes Weapons of Lore & Legend 2, a system neutral write up of all of the items from this unofficial adaptation of The Legend of Zelda. At $12 for the PDFs, you get all of the systems and lore you could ask for. If you’re a Zelda fan, this may be worth checking out.
RPGnet Membership Drive -- 2022 Edition!
- END DATE: Sat, July 23 2022
- PROJECT TYPE: RPG Website Support
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $30 for 7 PDFs and supporting RPGnet’s operations
- CROWDFUNDING ON: IndieGoGo
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Since 2013, RPGnet, one of the better known tabletop RPG websites, runs an annual crowdfunding, often for specific development to be done on the website. This year, they’re raising funds to offset the general costs of maintaining a website of their size. In exchange for your support, they’re offering membership which allows you to turn off the site’s ads and read their columns early. In addition, several publishers are offering some products to sweeten the deal: Pelgrane Press (The Dracula Dossier Director's Guidebook), Fantasy Heartbreaker (Beautiful Anomalies), Third Kingdom Games (The Domain of Deepwater), Tibbius (The Boring Hack), and Rogue Games (Colonial Gothic: Atlas, Embrace 5th Edition, and The Stew 5th Edition). If you’re a fan of RPGnet, or looking for a good deal on some RPG content, this campaign may be worth checking out.
Plant Girl Game from Sly Robot Games
- END DATE: 7/20/2022, 8:00:00 PM
- SYSTEM(S): An original system
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $20 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the game
- CROWDFUNDING ON: GameFound
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This one wins for originality. You play as “a family of adventurous plant children.” Your community and family is under ecological threat so you’re banning together to save your land. In this game, a kindhearted witch grew you and the rest of your flower children family in her garden. I am getting vibes of the Cabbage Patch Kids. In North Georgia, there’s an attraction, BabyLand General Hospital, where the Cabbage Patch Kids are “grown.” There’s a “field” of cabbage baby heads and every so often one is “born” via pulling the doll from the patch. (That reads way more Vegan Metal than it is in reality.) When I read about the core of this game, that’s the mythology I went to. [To be clear, this game is not connected to Cabbage Patch Kids in any way.] In gameplay reminiscent of Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark, you choose a playbook based on different genus of succulents. Dice rolls are d6 plus stat against a static chart, but this one adds “success with advantage” for high rolls. If the idea of playing as a grown family fighting for the environment appeals to you, check out the campaign page for a link to their free preview.
