This week’s TTRPG crowdfunding sampler includes campaigns ending between August 8 to 14. For this article, I review a new, standalone steampunk detective version of 5e, a Mörk Borg adventure by movie directors, several offerings from Backerkit’s Moonbeam collection, a co-promotion centered on TTRPG pamphlets, and more. If you’re going to Gen Con this week, I hope to sling some dice with you.
Iron Kingdoms: Strangelight Workshop (5e) from Steamforged Games
Veilgrave, Mörk Borg, by the creators of The Spine of Night from Severed Books
Maps from The World of Chaldea from Gen Con TV
The Anywhere Door—a community hub from Monte Cook Games from Monte Cook Games
Dice Pool from Evil Hat Productions
5 Acts: The King in Yellow RPG from Jason Bowers
High Level Adventures: Five Exciting Adventures for D&D 5E from EN Publishing
Perilous Pamphlet Pack from Philip Reed Games
The Fantasy Grind, Fantasy Adventures for OSE and 5E from Crumbling Keep
CY_OPERA from Headcheese Productions
FLAMES & FLAILS: THE FIERY FORGE – An OSR Adventure Pamphlet from Egg Embry Publishing
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, and Amazon.
Iron Kingdoms: Strangelight Workshop (5e) from Steamforged Games
- END DATE: Fri, August 9 2024 4:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £154 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of two hardcovers plus handbook, files, cloth map, GM screen, dice, bag, cards, stamp, miniatures, and more
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This is a standalone 5e game set in Iron Kingdoms. A steampunk world plus occult investigation requires a revised version of 5e, one tailored for solving mysteries. Steamforged Games stepped up with a variant ruleset that lets you combine 5e and detective work. At the same time, they retained the 5e combat elements. If you’re a fan of Iron Kingdoms, this offers a new style of gameplay as you search for clues in an effort to keep the peace.
Veilgrave, Mörk Borg, by the creators of The Spine of Night from Severed Books
- END DATE: Tue, August 13 2024 10:57 AM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Mörk Borg
- PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $35 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? From the minds behind the 2021 animated film The Spine of Night, comes a new adventure. The minds behind that cult masterpiece, co-directors and co-authors Morgan King and Philip Gelatt, join interior artist and publisher Justin Sirois as well as cover artist Mark Riddick for Veilgrave. Designed for Mörk Borg, this adventure involves drugs and “fiending skeleton warriors.” To repay a debt, you head into the forest to collect a popular drug. The gang that controls it will not give it up without gratuitous violence. If you’ve seen The Spine of Night, the contents and system feel exactly like the kind of tabletop adventure these creators would run. This 80-page adventure can be played as a one-shot or across multiple session. If you need monsters, doom, and psychedelics, this adventure awaits.
Maps from The World of Chaldea from Gen Con TV
- END DATE: Aug 9, 2024 at 1:00pm EDT.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
- COLLECTION: “Moonbeam is a new live streaming and community platform”
- SYSTEM(S): System neutral
- PROJECT TYPE: RPG maps
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $100 for multiple digital maps
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Peter Adkison of Wizards of the Coast fame and the owner of Gen Con is giving a detail look into his fantasy world, Chaldea. First developed during Adkison’s high school days, he’s mapped this world over the course of decades. These commissioned maps have been used in a variety of adventures from his gaming table at home, work, GEN CON, Origins Game Fair, Gary Con, and Gamehole Con. This Backerkit campaign provides full-color maps from the world, the setting of his weekly Actoroke campaign, streaming on GEN CON TV. If you’re going to Gen Con this week, you know that after the show is over, it can feel like a long wait until the next con. This Backerkit campaign is worth backing so, when you get home, you’ll get a little piece of Gen Con to embrace during the other 51 weeks of the year.
The Anywhere Door—a community hub from Monte Cook Games from Monte Cook Games
- END DATE: Aug 9, 2024 at 1:00pm EDT.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
- COLLECTION: “Moonbeam is a new live streaming and community platform”
- PROJECT TYPE: RPG community hub
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $10 for early access to The Anywhere Door
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Do want a repository of videos for all things Monte Cook Games? Advice on Numenera, playthroughs of Stealing Stories for the Devil, unboxings of Invisible Sun, and more can be found in this curated collection. In addition, this will be a moderated community so you don’t have to worry about spam and online attacks. This campaign raises funds for paid moderators, creator grants to produce new streams, and other community engagement. If you want to find or create Monte Cook Games streams, this Backerkit campaign offers you a place to gather.
Dice Pool from Evil Hat Productions
- END DATE: Aug 9, 2024 at 1:00pm EDT.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
- COLLECTION: “Moonbeam is a new live streaming and community platform”
- SYSTEM(S): Various
- PROJECT TYPE: RPG streams
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $10 for the access to the streams
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? From Evil Hat comes a stream featuring GM advice to improve your Blades in the Dark, Monster of the Week, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and Fate games. If you want guidance on these games, these livestreams are available exclusively to backers via Moonbeam throughout 2024. If you play, or want to play, Blades in the Dark, Monster of the Week, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, or Fate, this project may provide the advice you need to make your games shine. Check out the Backerkit page for more details.
5 Acts: The King in Yellow RPG from Jason Bowers
- END DATE: Fri, August 9 2024 8:54 AM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): “Resistance Toolbox by Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor”
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $50 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Inspired by Robert W. Chambers' The King In Yellow (1895), you play as unreliable narrators who believe they are cosmic royalty. You’re searching for the yellow sign. Probably. But you can’t be sure if you or the other characters are real, sane, can be trusted, or all of the above. If the idea of a game where anything is possible while possibly lying intrigues you, check out the campaign page for a free playtest preview.
High Level Adventures: Five Exciting Adventures for D&D 5E from EN Publishing
- END DATE: Thu, August 8 2024 6:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragon Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £10 for the PDF version of the book plus VTT and token bundle
- DISCLAIMER: EN World is a subsidiary of EN Publishing
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Let’s combine some elements and see what we get: 10th to 16th level characters plus short adventures. This 63-page book features five 5e adventures, all for powerful characters. These adventures are varied so here’s a blurb about each. The Book of Endless Life requires opening. As a GM, I’m eager to see if the first 45 minutes of this adventure is my players debating about what trip this is and how best to get one of the NPCs to spring it. Sold. Next up, ask yourself if you need high-level kobold traps? Try out Kobold Cache. Giant gladiators with portals in their chests can be found in The Titan Gates. A tale of dragon revenge most verdant in The Green Dragon's Revenge. Need a solution for a TPK? Look no further than Searching the River Styx. If you need some high level options, this campaign is worth a look.
Perilous Pamphlet Pack from Philip Reed Games
- END DATE: Thu, August 1 2024 5:00 PM EDT.
- COLLECTION: Powered by Perilous Pamphlets/Pamphlet Palooza
- SYSTEM(S): Mörk Borg and Old-School Essentials
- PROJECT TYPE: TTRPG pamphlet peripheral
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $25 + S/H for the PDF and print version of the box and three pamphlets
- DISCLAIMER: This project includes a pamphlet adventure by the author of this column, Egg Embry
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? For me, the most important crowdfunding campaign on this week’s list is the project that inspired Powered by Perilous Pamphlets/ Pamphlet Palooza, Philip Reed’s Perilous Pamphlet Pack. I have stacks of pamphlet/ brochure RPGs sitting around the lab. I use them as bookmarks, as staggered steps for miniatures, as packing material for those boxed sets where the box is just a bit too big, and, you know, just sitting everywhere unorganized. In stacks. When Phil announced these boxes, they went to the top of my must have list because I need to get my pamphlets in order. Designed to hold 20ish card stock 8.5" x 11" tri-fold pamphlets, this box has random tables printed on the inside and out to help with plot hooks and common fantasy RPG moments. As a bonus, Phil provides two pamphlet adventures with the box, Strange and Sorcerous Stones and Six Trolls and Seven Evil Spells. Both involve work for wizards. Since Phil was providing adventures, that led to me signing up to write and draw an Old-School Essentials one-pager to be included with Phil’s box. Then Phil, Crumbling Keep, and Headcheese started talking about co-promotion: Powered by Perilous Pamphlets/ Pamphlet Palooza. If you have pamphlets floating around your gaming table, do yourself a favor and get Philip Reed’s Perilous Pamphlet Pack to wrangle all of them into a single location.
The Fantasy Grind, Fantasy Adventures for OSE and 5E from Crumbling Keep
- END DATE: Wed, July 31 2024 10:00 PM EDT.
- COLLECTION: Powered by Perilous Pamphlets/Pamphlet Palooza
- SYSTEM(S): Old-School Essentials and Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: TTRPG pamphlets
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $35 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the five pamphlets
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This is a land of hex crawls presented as five oversized 12-panel, 11” by 17” pamphlets. Each an environment for use with Old-School Essentials and 5e titled War Orcs, Dark Dwarves, Desert Dogs, Death Empire, and The Shadow Master. These pamphlets have maps, tables, rules for troop movements, mad dwarves, gnoll worshippers, and undead emperors. This is a variety of options for anyone in need of an easy-to-use hex crawl.
CY_OPERA from Headcheese Productions
- END DATE: Wed, August 7 2024 1:00 PM EDT.
- COLLECTION: Powered by Perilous Pamphlets/Pamphlet Palooza
- SYSTEM(S): CY_BORG
- PROJECT TYPE: TTRPG pamphlet
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: CA$7 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the pamphlet
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? The corporations own your organs, which means they can charge by the heartbeat. CY_OPERA was inspired by Repo! the Genetic Opera, a cyberpunk opera and movie in which surgery is fashion and NuFlesh owns everything inside of your flesh. In this type of world, not paying by the inhalation of breath is an act of rebellion. This pamphlet gives you the setting details, the family that fights for control over NuFlesh, and adventure hooks. If you’re a fan of CY_BORG, this pamphlet adds a new type of corpo to push back against, the kind that can put a lien on your spine.
FLAMES & FLAILS: THE FIERY FORGE – An OSR Adventure Pamphlet from Egg Embry Publishing
- END DATE: Thu, August 1 2024 11:00 PM EDT.
- COLLECTION: Powered by Perilous Pamphlets/Pamphlet Palooza
- SYSTEM(S): Old-School Essentials
- PROJECT TYPE: TTRPG pamphlet
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $5 with free shipping in the US for the PDF and print versions of the adventure plus a VTT-ready battlemap
- DISCLAIMER: This project is published by the author of this column, Egg Embry
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? I love pamphlets and one-page adventures. Flames & Flails is my Old-School Essentials one-shot setting where the magic is fire, your foes bring the heat, and characters get burned. In the first one-page adventure, The Fiery Forge - F0001, you’ve tracked a burner to their forge, a pit attended by fire mages eager to ignite their inner pyromajik. In the second pamphlet, The Maze of Flames - F0002, The Flame promised the Bird Burner wings in exchange for a big enough sacrifice. Stop the Bird Burner and his Flame Moths before they light up the valley and everyone in it.
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, and Amazon.
Nice Work Egg!
