RPG CROWDFUNDING NEWS – Tome of Intangible Treasures 2, Knights of the Dinner Table, and more

This week’s TTRPG crowdfunding sampler considers campaigns that close between April 28 to May 7. There are blurbs discussing the latest monster harvesting 5e supplement, the longest-running RPG comic book series, a city that wants to eat you, a plane of negative energy, a free version of 5e, and more.

Tome of Intangible Treasures 2 - A Hunter's Guide to Rituals from Lone Colossus Games

• END DATE: May 1, 2025 at 4:00pm EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2014 and 2024)
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $25 for the PDF version of the book plus VTT assets
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This book features 100 new monsters, and they are the best kind of monsters: The ones you kill, harvest, and enchant your characters with the components. The strongest trend in third-party 5e supplements seems to be monster harvesting, taking the remains of monsters to gain boons and charms. This book offers 300 boons and charms to gain via monster butchery. This is compatible with 5e as well as the crafting and harvesting systems found in Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting, so you can use this book in different ways. If you’re a fan of detailed minis (there are several available), monster hunting and slaughter, this Backerkit campaign is worth a review.

Knights of the Dinner Table: CODEX OF MANY TALES from Kenzer and Company

• END DATE: Mon, April 28 2025 11:00 AM EDT.
• PROJECT TYPE: Comic book
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $100 + S/H for the hard cover version of the book
• DISCLAIMER: I freelance for Kenzer and Company on Knights of the Dinner Table, but on issues decades after the comics in this reprint
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? In case you missed out on their first run in the mid-1990s, Jolly Blackburn is reprinting the first 25 issues of Knights of the Dinner Table in a handsome, hardback tome. This groundbreaking series lampoons tabletop roleplayers, telling the hilarious truths of the d20 crowd. This isn’t just 600 pages of comics featuring B.A., Bob, Dave, Sara, and Brian fighting gazebos and bringing fireballs online, the book pulls back the curtain adding “creator commentary, behind-the-scenes insights and exclusive extras.” If you want to laugh with the players as they play their game, to see the best of player-versus-GM combat, and be surprised at how much you identify with B.A. when he is GMing these chuckleheads, this book is a must have!

Bitter Chalice: a map-based Soulslike TTRPG from The World Anvil Publishing

• END DATE: Tue, April 29 2025 1:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): An original system
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: €115 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the box and books and more
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? You exist in a fallen city overrun with despair and desperation, one that you can’t escape, but you can take dangerous jobs to improve your lot. Giving the city-campaign a new meaning, this world is dark and deadly. Presented in a boxed set that includes the core book, Bitter Chalice (210+ pages), the companion book, Dirge of the Dust King (120+ pages), and the starter campaign, Escape the Mud Fields (60+ pages), you’ll get an original system and setting powered by insatiable hunger. If you’re a fan of Hollow Knight, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Elden Ring, this campaign may speak to you.

Broadsword Guide to the Negative Energy Plane from DMDave Publishing

• END DATE: May 6, 2025 at 1:00pm EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $25 for five PDFs
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This 190-page book details the “most horrible and anti-life place in all existence.” Based on lore from 2e, this book describes the Negative Energy Plane, a world so deadly that the adventure in the book starts the characters at 11th level and runs through 16th level. The new monsters in this book restore older D&D monster powers such as level drain. Designed to offer 5e content with an AD&D 2e look, the Backerkit campaign five books including the core hardcover and four softcover supplements. If you want a plane that will challenge your 5e characters, this may fit the bill.

Free5e: A Free Open-Source Dungeons and Dragons Alternative from Wyrmworks Publishing

• END DATE: Thu, May 1 2025 10:16 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2014 and 2024)
• PROJECT TYPE:
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $
• AI STATEMENT: “This project will have no AI content.”
• DISCLAIMER: PJ Coffey is a co-host of Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Want the Creative Commons versions of the three core 5e rulebooks as PDF and print-on-demand versions? The idea is to make clean, cheap, fully-compatible versions of the 5e rulebooks for fans looking for the rules, but don’t want to spend a lot of money. Available as dyslexia-friendly PDFs, ePubs, digital braille (BRF), audio, markdown, plain text with CSV tables, and docx versions, you’ll get the option you want and the ability to use it how you choose. The best part? The PDFs are available for free at DriveThruRPG. If you want 5e done in an inclusive way for fans interested in different digital formats, this campaign is worth a review.

Lemurian Chronicles, volume 1 from Ludospherik

• END DATE: Wed, April 30 2025 12:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Mythic+ edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: €50 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book, GM screen, and map
• AI STATEMENT: “Zero percent of this Lemurian Chronicles supplement has been created using AI generated content.”
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Designed for Barbarians of Lemuria, this setting is a post-apocalyptic sword-and-sorcery world set thousands of years into the future. This sourcebook is 136 pages of background information, five saga adventures, a detailed region to play in including a local calendar featuring festivals and celebrations. In addition, there’s a GM screen and map. This 2d6 engine keeps the game rules lite. If you’re a fan of Barbarians of Lemuria, this sourcebook is for your next campaign.

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[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Negative Energy Plane book looks interesting. I think this is the first time I've seen "2E vibe" advertised so aggressively and with the idea that 2E was somehow a particularly deadly version of the game.

I imagine this is due to when the authors started playing, but when I think deadly older eras, I think OD&D or 1E, not anything from 2E. (Although, yes, Return to the Tomb of Horrors was published near the end of 2E.)

 

[Zil]

The Negative Energy Plane book looks interesting. I think this is the first time I've seen "2E vibe" advertised so aggressively and with the idea that 2E was somehow a particularly deadly version of the game.

I imagine this is due to when the authors started playing, but when I think deadly older eras, I think OD&D or 1E, not anything from 2E. (Although, yes, Return to the Tomb of Horrors was published near the end of 2E.)

Perhaps using the Combat & Tactics critical hit rules from late 2E?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Perhaps using the Combat & Tactics critical hit rules from late 2E?

Or maybe inspired by the Inner Planes sourcebook for Planescape, which definitely made the Negative Material Plane seem like a place to not visit.

 

[bmfrosty]

I love that someone is doing a nicer open source version of 5e, even if I will never use it. I hope that they use LaTeX or CSS for Paged Media or something that's more github friendly than what Gonnerman did with Basic Fantasy.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Bitter Chalice looks great and something new focusing so much on one city. Lemurian Chronicles is great; a new sword and sorcery setting using tested rules sounds solid.

 

[Lalato]

Here are the 5e Campaign Setting and Adventure Path crowdfunding campaigns I'm keeping an eye on right now.

Closed and Funded:

• Twilight Requiem: Relics of the Black Flame

Closed:

Open and Funded:

• Transform & Roll Out (1 week)
• Scepter of the Lightbringer (2 weeks)
• Nomora (2 weeks)
• The Kingdom of Keshanar (3 weeks)
• Zaman's Guide to the End Times (3 weeks)
• The Gunslinger's Guide to Rexfald (3 weeks)
• Broadsword Guide to the Negative Energy Plane (3 weeks)

Open:

• Noctis (3 weeks, 4%)
• Vydal City (3 weeks, 50%)
• Fen's Guide to Myriad Realms (3 weeks, 87%)
• Treasure in the Badlands (4 weeks, 90%)

 

[aramis erak]

Bitter Chalice looks sweet... but Free League's got my budget for the month (and next) for Alien 2nd ed...

 

[VicsHacienda]

The Negative Energy Plane book looks interesting. I think this is the first time I've seen "2E vibe" advertised so aggressively and with the idea that 2E was somehow a particularly deadly version of the game.

I imagine this is due to when the authors started playing, but when I think deadly older eras, I think OD&D or 1E, not anything from 2E. (Although, yes, Return to the Tomb of Horrors was published near the end of 2E.)

I remember players hating level loss; it felt like a real loss. 5e has done away with such things as "not fun" so I think that the "vibe" is more about the game being not as nice to players.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I remember players hating level loss; it felt like a real loss. 5e has done away with such things as "not fun" so I think that the "vibe" is more about the game being not as nice to players.

No, I get that. I just don't think of that as a 2E thing, but as a 1E or OD&D thing. That's why I suspect 2E is when the authors first encountered D&D and imprinted on it.